Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Joyfully Mundane


Lauren over at She Moved To Texas recently did an anonymous survey that basically asked commenters/bloggers to 'tell it like it is'. One of the anonymous comments was something along the lines of "most of your blogs bore me to TEARS." That statement caught me a little offguard, I'll admit. After all, SO MUCH of what we do as horse people is just that, totally boring and mundane. We feed, and water, and muck, and groom, and then we do it all again the next day, and the next day, and the next day. We do it every day, the same thing, over and over, and that's the way we like it.

Wouldn't it be fun if EVERY DAY we could write about some amazing breakthrough we had? Some incredible award we won? Some breathtaking thing we experienced? That sure would make for an interesting read. But that is not the reality of life with horses, or for that matter, the reality of anything that is worth working for. If we could just hop up on any random horse and go jump around a huge course and win a big check, wouldn't that be great? But that gets pretty old pretty fast. Our daily horse life in reality is filled with the mundane, the boring little details, the nitty gritty same old same old. Every day, we put the best feed that we can into our horses. Every day, we care for them to the best of our ability. Every day, we try to be good riders and good caretakers, and do our best to improve little by little. Some days, we regress. Some days, we drive away from the barn in tears, because we had such a bad ride and we feel like we'll never get better. Some days we're soaking wet from the rain, or lathered in sweat from the heat, but we're still out there, doing the same thing, over and over again. We keep on trying, and trying, and trying. 

And if we're lucky, one day we'll be at a show, or at a ride, or a clinic, or somewhere that is important to us. And we'll do well. We'll even do great! We'll leave that ring with huge smiles on our faces, a tremendous feeling of pride welling in our chests, because we know exactly how many hours it took to get to that point. We know how hard we worked, and how much it took. And all of those hours - hours full of the mundane, and the boring, and the same-old-same-old - will culminate into one grand and glorious experience. It isn't just the final outcome (ribbons, awards, praise, etc) that makes us so hungry to keep on plugging along on the same path. It is the entire journey in its whole. There is no sweeter victory than one that is hard-fought for. Then, and only then, can we write those posts that are truly 'reader worthy'.

But it takes a lot of boring, boring, boring posts to get to that point.

That's why I blog. I'm not here to put up ads, and do giveaways, and spin great and magnificent unbelievable tales. I'm here to tell a story. I'm here to tell MY story, and all of the facets of it. I'm here to chronicle that journey, even if all I do in a week is trot down the same road, and work on the same bending exercise, and do the same set of obstacles until they are perfect. That is pretty boring stuff to read about, but that is what we do every day, and every week, and every month. We have short-term and long-term goals, oh yes! But they don't come true in one day. We chip away at them, little by little, over and over. I'm not here to sugarcoat, or gloss things over. This story is raw and uncut, and I share the good parts as well as the bad. There are of course some omissions, certain things I don't blog about on principle - we all have our rules about that. This blog is about O, and P, and the things we do together. It's our story, and chronicling it is important to me. It may not always be interesting, but it is always real. And it is always, always, important to me.



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 Speaking of All Things Mundane And Boring, check out my SUPER AMAZINGLY SHINY CLEAN HARNESS. I spent my Wednesday evening watching Harry Potter, drinking tea, hanging out with Mo, and carefully cleaning and polishing my harness. BOOM! Boring stuff. But polishing your harness to a gleaming shine is one of those little details that is important, one of those habits you have to instill in yourself if you want to be serious in the show ring. You have to take care of your leather, no matter what discipline you do, and it becomes even more critical with a harness - if anything breaks on a harness while you are under way, you are so very screwed.

After a few hours (geez who knew this sport involved SO MUCH DANG LEATHER?), I had a very sparkly harness. I dabbed a bit of brass cleaner on a few choice spots to see if they'd shine up nicely, and they shined up mostly ok. I don't think my harness, which is a very old and very lovely Smuckers, has ever really had a seriously good cleaning and oiling. It was looking a bit dry and sad, even though I clean it regularly at the barn. All of that leather comes in contact with all of that sweaty horse, so it just gets dirtier and dried out that much faster. 









Alas, I made the sad discovery today that there is no proper way to properly wrap a driving bridle. (Even that linked bridle isn't wrapped just the way I like it. Because I really am that anal about things like that, even though half the bridles in my trailer are haphazardly tossed up on their hooks uncleaned and untidy.) The saddle and blinkers on my bridle have patent leather and are just awesome. I also washed my harness pads, earbonnet, leg boots and bells, just because why not. I'll need to do it all again before our show, but it was worth it to see just how nice the leather looks with a good cleaning and polish.



 I also converted all the patterns from the upcoming show into images, so you can see them! I officially sent in my entry as well, so it is going to become a real thing. Ahhh!







I'm so excited!!!!!



19 comments:

  1. I felt bad for that commenter, I'm not sure why they keep reading them then? I only read blogs I find interesting. If I find a blog is consistently boring me, for whatever reasons.. I just stop reading it! I really do find a lot of the 'mundane' stuff interesting, like you said, it's a part of the journey and that's important.

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  2. Totally agree with the "boring" comment. After being diagnosed with breast cancer 2 year ago I decided boring was good. :)

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  3. See, a couple years ago, I consciously started moving in the other direction. Most of my day to day stuff is (was, back when I had a waist and goals) trot-trot-trot, fight about how fast we're going to trot, back that toe up a lot and take those heels down - just really repetitive stuff. So I switched to concentrating on stories, because I want to be a better storyteller. I did the monthly recaps to "keep it real," but I'm only really interested in writing it all down if something happens.

    I really enjoy the day-to-day blogs I read, and I'm not saying everybody should skip writing about the mundane - but I can see where the "boring blogs" commenter is coming from.

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  4. It's all my fault! 4 months of blogging about boring stall rest and sedated tack walking! Lol! I only lost one reader during that time, maybe it was that commenter! I love this posts (& ask your other ones too). I just consider my blog as my diary that I just happen to give others access too.

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  5. Oooooo, look at all that pretty leather! You're a pro at polishing tack. And those patterns look really fun :) Good luck at the show!

    I saw Lauren's post, and honestly wasn't a fan. I'm well aware that the horse world is filled with drama, but I try VERY hard to stay out of it, as well as staying away from people that bring it on themselves. I felt like the post about "what would you say if you could say it" did nothing but invite the pettyness and snarky comments that is notoriously part of our sport. I know she did it anonymously, but still. I think as bloggers, we should do our best to support each other and our equine adventures, not tear each other down by "anonymously" responding with negative comments, mostly about what we don't like about each other's blogs...if you don't like a blog, don't read it. The world of horses is not rainbows and lollipops every day (although I'm sure some of us wish it was haha) but personally, I really enjoy knowing that my fellow bloggers will offer their support and advice after I have a bad lesson or something. For me, that post was no bueno.

    /rant.

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    1. I wish you would have written this on my blog instead of someone else's, especially if you're not trying to stir up drama. For me, variety is the spice of like and I like to try new things on my little corner of cyber space. To each their own.

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  6. I never stopped to think about how much leather driving involves o.O sweet mercy. Yours looks awesome!

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  7. well said. thanks so much for writing this post - i couldn't agree with you more and felt pretty much the same when i read that comment.

    also - your blog is definitely NOT boring - and i'm super excited to see how your first show goes!!!

    harness looks great too - i cleaned one once when i was on the IHSA and it, uh, took a while for sure

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  8. I was just surprised how many comments were about other bloggers...my mind never went there when she original poised the question. Everyone is boring to someone...who cares really...just move along.

    Is this a driving show??? How exciting!!!

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  9. I lost 5 or 6 followers when I was in my grad school intensive when I wasn't doing much riding. I gained about a million followers (exaggeration) when my horse was diagnosed with terrible navicular and I had to put him down. I also gained about a million comments and views. Drama creates traffic, and in today's society that's what most people want. MOST. Just look at popular tv shows and celeb worship and what have yous.

    The people who stick around through the drama and the mundane are probably the people worth being friends with. Through thick and thin right. It's why a comment about boringness doesn't bother me. I'm pretty boring but I'm doing just ok.

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  10. A lot of people were pretty offended by that comment, which I feel personally responsible for since I posted it. At the end of the day, we blog for ourselves no matter how that manifests itself.

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    1. I think it was a really interesting experiment! and definitely not your fault, it was just that person's odd opinion. It just goes to show how being behind the anonymous shield of a computer makes people think that they have the right to say anything they want, no matter whether it will be hurtful or not. The internet is a weird place!

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  11. Such a shiney harness! It sure cleaned up nice!! Also, what fun patterns for the show!! I can't wait to hear all about it :D

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  12. I saw the boring comment and wondered why someone bothered to write it. The whole point of blogging (imho) is to connect with like-minded individuals. Yeah, it's a lot of the mundane, but so is life. I like to find the beautiful in the mundane and appreciate the little moments. So if you're bored... maybe get a different hobby? Reading blogs might not be for you (whoever you are). It also never occurred to me to snark on other bloggers. I'm a grown up. If I have a problem with them, I would talk to them instead of hope a random anonymous post gets published by a third party. Weird.

    Anywho. Cleaning a whole harness sounds both cathartic and overwhelming. I do love the smell of leather and that is a shit ton of it. The show sounds super exciting. Any chance of Mo coming along as official photog?

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  13. Silly people, I love reading the "boring" posts, helps me realise that my horse life is just like everyone else's. I have also been leather cleaning, isn't it great when you are done. I am seriously green over your harness. I have a really good zilco set but man, I want show harness...not going to happen. I am also stealing those training patterns....wow, I'm going to gave fun driving those. D

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  14. Ps I like your blog so much I have decided to start my own almostacanter.blogspot.com.au :)

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  15. I agree with everything you said about that boring comment (I never saw that post, been AWOL for a while). They don't have to read it if it's boring! Your blog is definitely not boring. I love it!!

    The harness looks great! Good job. I can't wait to read about the show. It's all so exciting!

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  16. I learn so much from the "everyday" posts you all write. They will never be boring to me- reading everyone's blogs about their lives with their equine partners is like reading both an on-going book of short stories and a real world textbook. I may not love every post nor agree with every bit of advice, but to someone who doesn't own a horse (but very much hopes to someday) the details you all share are priceless and I can't get enough!

    Good luck at your show!

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  17. Patterns! And harness close ups! I appreciate this post mucho! Haha

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