It Takes A Village

Competing at the upper levels truly does take a village. Yeah, yeah, the cliche to end all cliches, but I'm in continuous awe of my good fortune in amassing such a fabulous team.

This weekend I hosted one of our tri-annually-or-so saddle fitting events with my sponsors and dear friends at Advanced Saddle Fit. Colleen, her mighty assistant Janet, and a krebillion saddles come down to visit us from their home base in New Hampshire for a few days, fitting my clients and other interested parties with new saddles, and keeping an eye on my horses' equipment. As a professional, of course I can ride in just about anything and make it works, but on my own horses I certainly have my preferences for how I'd like a saddle to feel. Balancing that with the even-more-important element of fitting my horses brilliantly is no small task, and Colleen has such a gift for walking that line. As they've developed, all my horses have changed shape - some mildly, some dramatically - and Colleen has been a part of every stage, making sure that my tack is always reliable, always appropriate, and always in good repair.

In addition to our marvelous routine care veterinarian, Dr. Lynn Johnson, we are visited regularly by Dr. Tim Casey, a DVM who "grew up" on the track, and whose practice now specializes in accupuncture and chiropractic care. I am, of course, a big believer in Modern Western Medicine, and what I love about Dr. Casey is that he is not a new age nutter - when the horse needs his hocks done, we do his hocks, but the chiro and accupuncture treatments have done tons for my horses and clients. Dr. Casey believes in prevention of problems, which is aces with me! He's caught a couple of Major Problems in client horses almost before I knew they were there, and he's stellar with helping my young and developing horses from the wear and tear that getting strong and fit inevitably causes. Plus, as a track vet, if it's gone wrong, he's seen it!

My farrier, Don Maley, basically speaks horse, and is a whip for a wonderful Rappahannock County hunt. He breeds ponies, and his precocious little monster of a daughter is a heckofa good little rider. Since Donny started doing my horses, I've lost exactly 0 shoes, and he's come up with some very creative solutions to some client horses' foot issues. I'm so blessed as to have good footed horses, but they're universally better now. Plus, Don's a stitch - we love Farrier Days!

I've been feeding Purina Mills feeds forever, and just when I think things can't get better, they whip out something new to impress me. And I just love my friends at Uckele Nutrition, whose supplements are reasonably priced, palatable, and - most importantly - EFFECTIVE!

And of course it goes without saying that I'd be a Lost Soul Indeed without the regular help I get from Scott Hassler, Pam Goodrich and (hopefully regularly!) Lendon Gray. While they are, of course, brilliant teachers and clinicians, all three are incredibly patient with my hyperventillating phone calls (like, for example, when I think I may have left Cleo's right canter half-halt up at Lendon's, and ohmygod I need it back!) and hypothetical questions over the phone ("So, in the half-steps, do I want to encourage Midge to stay on the spot but allow him to be all weird and Dutch and out behind, or send him forward to try and get the hind legs but blur the line between trot and piffle?" "How about neither?" "Ok!")

I'm so lucky to have such a great team!