Advertisement
Published: November 8th 2016
Edit Blog Post
#Week 8
This week has been incredibly busy on the ranch since there was a big event coming up on the weekend. Before the event everything on the ranch has to be ready, and we normally start about two days before. A lot has to happen, everything has to be cleaned up around the big barns, all the arena’s and jumps have to be made ready, all the stuff laying around has to be put away and all the inside barn stalls have to be completely clean and cleared. When we were still eight or more people, this was an easy job, but with just two or three of us, it is quite a tough job and will take whole days. But in the end, it is all worth it.
The ranch organized a clinic with sports psychologist Daniel Steward who has also been working with the Olympic US equistrian team. The clinic was lasting for two days. On Saturday we started off with three groups of people riding. All of the groups were doing the same exercises but all on different levels. Now the first day was all about building a lot of self confidence. The riders would
have to design their own course with the jumps that were set up in the jumping arena and they would have to complete their course in a set time. But not only this. Every rider in the clinic would get 30 faults they were allowed to make, so whenever they were jumping their courses and make mistakes, either on time or riding, faults would be taken from the 30 you were allowed to make. The moment you hit the zero, you had to do 50 sit-ups in the middle of the arena. And of course, Daniel would make sure that everybody had to do their sit-ups at least once! Unfortunately I am on a budget and not able to join the riding part of the clinic, but luckily this clinic was not only about riding, but also psychologie and rider fitness. Right after the riding part finished, everyone came together in the jumping arena and we did a really awesome rider-bootcamp for twenty minutes. Trust me, those were some long twenty minutes.. the bootcamp was especially designed for equistrians. Daniel Stewart was explaining how we have to make ourselves fit in a way we can also use in our sports,
because why would we go to the gym and do some running or rowing exercises if we don’t even use that in horseriding? This bootcamp was all about staying fit and using positions we also use in jumping and dressage. We did our own special equistrian versions of squats and burpies. Somehow, I was not able to get the burpie thing right..
After the bootcamp we all went to the house to have some dinner together and have a sports psychologie seminar. Mr. Stewart was telling stories about how riders could motivate themselves, boost confidence and gave some really useful tips and tricks on how to get rid of tension during riding or in shows. I am so glad that I got to be a part of this part of the clinic, because all he was saying was so absolutely true, and I could really use this myself!
The second day of the clinic was again riding for the groups that also rode on the first day, but this time they were having a little competition on who could jump the most points for their team! Again, the losing team had to do sit-ups, what a workout! After
the riding park we had a book signing and people could buy his own designed baseball caps. For me and the other workers, back to work!
But now a miracle happened.. Rain in Southern California! The people who live here have been praying for rain for a long time now but come on.. if I wanted rain and cold I could have just stayed home. Whenever there is rain on the ranch it is very important for us to bring all the things that cannot get wet inside, and make sure all the horses are okay. Normally, mucking out the stalls early in the morning is not my favorite job, but it’s not really bad. But not that it’s raining it is not really helping to lighten my mood.
But the rainy days are not all bad.. there are a few very positive things about the rain! For example the fact that me and the other workaways don’t have to water our menourpile, or the fact that there won’t be any dust for a day or maybe even two days. And of course when someone comes with the great idea to take a break from work, and all
cuddle up in front of the tv to watch the best animated horse movie ever! For the people who don’t know what movie I’m talking about, it is called Spirit. A nice bowl of warm salted popcorn and a blanket over my cold feet made the rainy day just a little bit better.
Not only have I seen an animated horse movie this week, but Crystal also took Sara, Lara, Kiersti and I to see a documentary in a really cute old cinema in a town nearby. I have to be honest, I’m not really a person for documentary’s because I often find them too long and not interesting enough (sorry). But this one was something different, this was about a subject that really caught my eye and interested me. This documentary was called Harry and Snowman. The documentary was about Harry DeLeyer, a man who was an immigrant from Holland who left during the second world war, who came to America to build his life over there with his family and his great passion for horses. Now I could make this a really long story and tell you about the whole documentary, but I’m not going to do that. To make a really long and interesting story short, it was about a man with a passion for horses who saved a horse called Snowman from the slaughter truck and became a showjumping legend! My eyes were hooked on the screen for the full two hours, though the only thing that made me twitch a little bit was the main characters Dutch accent while speaking English, I could just not help myself and I am only human.
The rest of the week has mainly been about doing a lot of work on the ranch and having a great lunch at the chinese place in Temecula. I love the ranch, even though the work has been quite a lot in the last week.. But something in me is really starting to miss home now.. Just the little things like having bread with hagelslag, or playing games with my family. But I have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the last weeks I have left in this incredible country, and to keep meeting the most interesting people and seeing the most breathtaking places.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog!
Love, Anouk
Advertisement
Tot: 0.125s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0365s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb