I Swear I Don't Need Meds

But I'm all over the place with this blog. I seem to have run out of steam with the "Maddie and Me" story. It's still all up here (pointing at my head), but it's not ready to be shared yet. Except for little pieces of exciting news here and there. (Spoiler alert! There's one down below!)

I don't think I need to necessarily change the name of the blog just yet either because I am still trying to be fit and healthy. I started running again! I have a coach this time. A friend of mine ran track for Santa Clara University and has kindly offered to kick my ass. I'm so grateful! She's got me on some interval torture training program. It does seem to help to be accountable. If I don't brag about my runs for a few days, I'll invariably get a text message: "Are you running today?"

I'm also carb-cycling to try to slim down a bit. I don't like to eat a ton of carbs because of the way they make me feel, but the thought of "no carbs ever" is just depressing. With carb-cycling I don't have to count calories, it's just assumed that I have a low calorie day followed by a higher calorie one. I can still enjoy some good carbs every other day while eating healthy salads and protein shakes on the other ones! It's a win-win.

So that's that. I'm down a few pounds, but what else is new? I'm not holding my breath or buying a bikini just yet.

On the horse front....the person who was giving me lessons "let me go" as a student, for lack of a better term. Seriously, I think it was just a case of two different people with two distinct areas of interest and expertise (although there is no expertise coming from this camp, I can tell you!). I had a feeling that this was very timely and after thinking it over for a few hours, I realized that I was, in fact, ready to get focused on my goals and get more specialized instruction on the discipline I was trying to study. It was time to seek out a mentor who would be willing to share some Vaquero knowledge. I was excited! Now, I just had to wait for a sign!

There is a saying: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear". In true serendipitous fashion, I only had to wait a day or two.

A friend of mine (the Farrier I mentioned in a previous post) had loaned me a book written by Bill Dorrance called "True Horsemanship Through Feel". The Dorrance brothers are very well known and respected horsemen in many circles, in particular the Vaquero/Buckaroo circles. The most well-known names coming from the Dorrance lineage are probably Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman, but there are many others who were close to the Dorrance brothers and were lucky enough to learn from them.

One rainy day as I sat by the fire with my coffee, I grabbed the book and starting flipping through it. Not really committed to doing any "heavy reading" that day, I decided to read  through the "Acknowledgements" (which is weird, I usually skip those and dive right into a book). The 2nd name listed on the acknowledgements page seemed to literally jump out at me; "Ray Berta". Ray Berta! Of course!! A year or so ago, Ray had been recommended to me as one I could possibly get some help from. I didn't have a horse trailer at the time, but I opted to ride one of his student's horses in one of his monthly clinics. It was ok. I definitely liked Ray, but when you don't have your own horse at a clinic and you're a beginner, it's a little hard to remember and then apply what you've learned to your own horse once you go home and are left "unsupervised". It was a little overwhelming.

But NOW...I have a trailer.

I contacted Ray and asked if he might be interested in helping us. I brought Maddie to Carmel Valley a few weeks ago and met with him and a small group of his students. He spent some time with my horse and seemed pretty pleased. We've got our work cut out for us, but I believe he's the one to help us along. Our first private lesson is this Friday!