Back from DC

My long series of work related travel has come to an end, at last.

The final trip was in DC, a place I go usually just once a year.

But lately, in the last 6 months I've been there 3 times. Which is just a reflection of how intense things are at work.

Sometimes, on my twitter feed, is a glimpse of it.


Anyway, DC is an amazing series of contradictions. Where the glory of patriotism meets a cynicism so deep it burns the soul. Where the ernest confront the disbelief and disconnection. Sometimes the good win. Most times they don't so much lose as they are stymied. But the good ones don't give up.

The mustangs even came to DC, I met a group of song writers who were fighting for royalties, and our group - as sincere and passionate as anyone - pressing their case for what we believe in.

New Sculptures in DC. Woman and Dolphin and Basketball.
Yeah. That's what I thought too.

But there are also amazing restaurants. Probably because few people are eating on their own tab, the prices are high. Lobbyists are wooing staffers (the powers behind the thrones), special interests are in town trying to make a difference for what they care about.

The food here is so rich, that you will be
one of these plus size ladies in one week.

And after a long day, we eat. If you go, here are 3 places you must eat, even if you go back and have nothing but mac and cheese for 6 months.


Zatinya - Mediterranin food in a beautiful setting - turkish, greek, lebonese. A first stop, to be sure.

Oceanaire - Pricey, but so incredible that you barely notice, even when you're as frugal as I am. (Okay, I noticed. But it was worth it)

Filomena - In Georgetown and make sure you have dessert.

Look! It's a lobbyist! Many mouths, and more than a little confusing.
Yet flashy.

I will be back in June, but it's more of a colleague meeting. I'm not looking forward to it, but mostly because I just want to stay home and ride my horse.

(Which I did, this weekend. More on that tomorrow.)

On the runway

Today I'll be on the runway - starting in Austin, landing in El Paso. I'll just be gone for a day doing a taping and a day of seeing what's happened to my home town.

I grew up in El Paso and during high school moved to my grandmother's cotton farm. That's where I finally got my first horse.

I knew nothing about horses, had never ridden anything but a pony on a line, but I'd run full speed on that horse like you not believe. I have a great photo my father took back then, I'll post it later this week.

I'm going to take advantage of having to do this trip and will spend most of today traveling old roads and finding out how they've changed. My new novel is based in El Paso, and I have been away too long to be able to put you there.

I particularly need to see how downtown has changed.

Anyway, this trip meant that I had a very short runway with Cibolo.

Cibolo, reviewing his runway work.

I wanted to work again on our canter. I want to get that take off right. I don't want to trot 3/4 of the way down the runway and canter 5 steps. I mean you'll never get into the sky with that technique...

Ironically a friend at the stables is having a problem at the canter too.

This is Kelly and Davy. They recently added this red roan, Amigo, to their family (having rid themselves of a completely insane, bucking, quarterhorse).

Amigo (formerly Chili) was a trail horse for the longest time. Amigo refuses to canter. Even on a lunge line.

So Kelly brought out her spurs to try. Amigo found them irritating, but still would not canter. My experience with trail mounts is that the operators never canter those horses - not at all. They want them nice and quiet for the city riders.

I imagine after years and years they have little muscle development for cantering. You notice she also uses a tie down - Amigo is often pulling against it.

Any suggestions? I thought she'd have to get him cantering on a lunge line first, but I'm fairly sure she's pushed him pretty hard. She not hesitant about pushing...

Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare for take off...

Here is Cibolo's runway. We trot up and down this road before and after our rides lately. And earlier in the week we worked on cantering.

This time we did much better, but the take off is still slow.

But no head tossing this time. He always puts his ears back when going into the canter, not pinning, but almost as if he's between a pin and a simple turn back. So I'm not sure if he's still giving some resistance or he's listening. I'm going to have someone else look at it and help me read it right.

Most of the time I think he's checking to see if I'm serious. Once I show him that I'm consistent, that I do mean it every time, I hope that will help more than the canter.

We road the trails alone and I really am starting to enjoy our time alone. I need to push past the next boundry - riding past the very familiar trails to the ones a little further out. Slowly, but surely...

The runway home.

See you all in a few days. Stay safe and ride a horse for me. :)

Now that my trailering problems are... Okay, I'm a little nervous to say they are RESOLVED. Let's just say I think I have the tools to solve things and my horse does seem to be a much improved loader.

So now I'm dreaming of traveling. Of course I work full time, have two wonderful children who are not yet horse addicted, and have all these other pesky responsibilities.

Details.

Anywhoo... Back to dreaming....

I won't be able to make the trip I'd hoped to to Mark Rashid's clinic in Sante Fe (but I'll be looking for another excuse to get over there!), because we are headed to Disney World the next week (yes, taking the kids out of school for a theme park. bad mommy. Any tips? lol)

But I want to go somewhere far, far away. Or maybe at least two days away... Maybe in November... So I was excited to find this site. Bed and Barn! How fun is that?

I want to learn more about long hauling so here are my questions:

1. When do you need to take a break with a horse? I mean, I get out and stop for meals, if you're in a safe location should you take your horse out anywhere along the way or not?

2. Where do you like to stay? Have you stayed in a bed and barn?

3. What's the furthest you've gone with your horse (Lytha, you definitely win this one! LOL).

4. What's your tip for the intrepid horse traveler?

5. And, for fun, if you owned a Horse Motel, what would you call it