Behind Infinity

Faithful, and even not-so-faithful, readers of BehindInfinity noticed that it was down from Sunday to late Wednesday.
My website is hosted for free by Ambitious Lemon, a generous host with a funny name. The server is fast, free, and up…..most of the time. Apparently there was a server upgrade on Sunday that went Really Drastically Wrong, and that’s why I’ve been websiteless for 4 days.

Seriously, if you think YOU were sad without BehindInfinity in your life, think of how sad it was for me. (I’ll give you a hint: it was really very sad.)

But we’re back now. And that makes me happy.

This picture is kind of goofy. I look a little too happy and Jezebelle looks very much unimpressed. It was a very successful show day. We placed in 4 out of our 5 classes–
English Pleasure Jr. Horse: 1st! yay. (medal in my hand)
Arab Native costume: 4th
Saddleseat Pleasure: 4th
Saddleseat Championship: 7th
We should have done much better in Saddleseat Pleasure, but Jezebelle was having a “this is dumb and I don’t want to work anymore” moment and went through the class all dopey and strung out and missed a canter lead. No amount of squeezing, clucking, kissing, or kicking was convincing enough for her. So after the class, Jen and I took her out back to have a little “discussion”. This “discussion” mostly involved Jen on the ground brandishing a whip as I rode a few passes (utilizing my own whip as well). Thusly motivated, Her Royal Laziness finally tucked her little bottom underneath herself and started trotting out pretty as you please with a surprising amount of lift in front (but was still grumpy about it). And that’s how we went on to place a respectable 7th of 15 in the championship.

Star is always very happy to see us when we get home. She comes to the fence and neighs until Jezzie is off the trailer and back in the paddock, and then follows Jezzie around. I was hoping to get Star in the show ring yet this season, but lack of time and money kind of prevented that. Now that Jezzie is really coming into her own, I anticipate being able to spend the fall and winter working out the kinks with Star and have her ready to go next spring. I can’t wait.

She is such a lovely girl. (Took this photo last night.) I love that sweepy trot.

Max and I are spending a lot of quality time together these days. I can’t believe he’s two already. This picture is from a couple of weeks back (thanks, Mom.) It was one of his first times wearing a bridle–I worked him in it just so that he could get used to the feel of the bit in his mouth. He took it like a champ, as if he had been bridled every day of his life. Good little dude. He also wears a saddle and I’ve sat on him once. We need to work now on “giving to pressure” (i.e. I pull, you give, I nudge, squeeze, or kick, you move away from the source of the nudging/squeezing/kicking) and make sure he’s rock-solid with “whoa”, and then he’ll be ready to begin riding. Exciting stuff.

Show dates for the rest of the season:
August 2: Holland Western Saddle Club (tentative)
August 9: Kenowa Saddle-ites @ Hudsonville fairgrounds (also tentative)
August 23: EWHA Annu

This is my week in photographs.
(and words too, because I like words too much to post without them. But if you really want you can skip the words and just look at the pretty pictures.)

I took a day off this week and went on a midweek holiday to the beach. The womens and childrens of the old FNBS group (it doesn’t matter what the letters stand for, it just means “a bunch of people who are like extended family to me”) were camping at Holland State Park all week, and in the evenings the Dads and Older Childrens came out to party. It was good times.

five is a very exciting age to be.

the waves were pretty amazing…4 feet sometimes.

I spent wednesday playing in the waves and baking myself in sunshine. I love the lake.

I also finished a book, knit a scarf, and spent some time by the campfire with the little brother. (pictured here.)

kid brother had a bath in the sink of Aunt Melinda’s “palace” of an RV.

this the redneck portion of my family, riding back from the beach in the back of my truck. (was not my idea.)

ice cream at the general store is a tradition.

Meanwhile, back in the city…(I took this Thursday morning on my way in to work.)

The reality of the situation is that I’m a grownup now and have a job and my very own bills to pay. This meant that I couldn’t actually take off and spend all week at the lake with my family, and spent some nights home alone. I don’t know how I felt about that. It was kind of lonely and peaceful all at once. I slept with a kitchen knife in my hand. I also did some kickawesome cooking. It involved boiling pasta (I have mad pasta boiling skills), sauteeing some fresh garden zucchini, and pouring in canned sauce. When paired with my favorite white wine, it was absolutely delish. I told Suzanne I felt like with all of this fending for myself, I was having a taste of her living-alone life. She responded, “Haha…a taste of my life…with sauteeing….Oh Brittany, how little you know of my life…”
What I mean to say is, I love Suzanne. And sauteed zucchini. But mostly Suzanne.

When I got home from work yesterday, Farmer Corky was cutting our wheat field. Here you can see the rows of wheat straw left behind. The heads have already been cut off, and the chaff (husk) is all over the ground. (I should have gotten a picture of that but didn’t.) It’s like, a living demonstration of Psalm 1:4. Since moving to Farmland I’ve gained a much deeper appreciation for a lot of the agricultural references and illustrations of the Bible. As I tend to my animals and observe the neighborhood flocks and herds, “The Lord is my Shepherd” grows richer and dearer. As I watch the farmers do their thing, all of the parables involving crops and plants and sowers become more real. It’s pretty neat.

I snapped a bunch of photos for the church website. (The current ‘Welcome’ splash on there is from Corky’s last wheat crop, several years ago when we had just purchased the land. Since then we’ve had corn and soybeans.) You can never have too many wheat photos, I’m convinced. Here are a few of my favorites.

I think wheat is pretty. I think crops in general are pretty.

“Ow, Bree.” he gasped. “I’m so sore. All over. I can hardly move.”
“Good morning, small one,” said Bree. “i was afraid you might feel a bit stiff. It can’t be the falls. You didn’t have more than a dozen or so, and it was nice springy turf that must have been a pleasure to fall on. And the only on ethat might have been nasty was broken by that gorse bush. No: It’s the riding itself that comes hard at first.”
-Shasta & Bree, from The Horse & His Boy by C.S. Lewis, ch. 2

We arrived at the show this morning with plenty of time to spare (always nice) and had a lovely warm-up ride. Jezzie was in a sweet, quiet mood today.

But then it began to rain. And it rained and it rained and it rained. Jezzie was thrilled, as you can see here.

But it stopped right before it was time to get dressed for our first class, English Pleasure Jr. Horse (for horses 5 and under.) And we had the best ride that we’ve ever had inside of a show ring. Jezzie was consistent and mannerly, like every ideal English Pleasure horse should be. Not to mention she’s a great mover.

And we won the class…1st out of 6. Our very first blue ribbon. Finally, it was our day. And it felt great. According to Rachael who was watching the class, it was a very hard class to place–all of the horses were pretty good. Maybe she was just saying that to make me feel better about myself. Whatevs. I like it anyway.

We had three more classes after that. The stakes class (that means “if you win you get money”) had over 20 horses so it’s no surprise we didn’t place. But we did get a 2nd place in English Pleasure 20-39, out of a field of 14. That was like, a bonus prize.

My groom hanging out with my horse between classes

At the end.

After all this I just can’t wait for next week, when we’ll be back on our “home turf” (at least, it feels that way to me) at the Hudsonville fairgrounds for the last Arab show of the season.