Sunday, August 3, 2008

RWD: Riding With Distractions



Here you may contemplate the tastefully decorated front yard of the property across the street from our outdoor arena. It belongs to a mother and two middle-aged sons who have come home to roost with mom and have brought along their collection of half torn-down vehicles. The young lads are pursuing career training in Recreational Noise-Making, with welders, blowtorches, steel hammers, enormous drills, and other important career props.

Today their mom joined in the fracas, deciding to do a little RV practice-driving on the front lawn.



For forty minutes she backed around & heaved forward without leaving her own driveway, keeping up a constant barrage of screams for directions at her welding and hammering offspring; she backed it into a tree branch SKREEEEK CRACK, she turned it laboriously around and managed to hit the front stoop somehow WHAM, and this all went on for the entire duration of my little dressage practice ride on Montana. Maybe she read some article about "take a vacation without leaving your home!" and kind of put her own spin on it.

It then became necessary to move some cars which lack various crucial parts like exhaust systems and hoods, so that she could maneuver her little toy into and out of their parking spots. Yes, the inmates were having a lovely Sunday morning.

RWD or Riding With Distractions is always great training for the horse and rider, that is if they can manage to concentrate at all! I didn't do too well. Partly, I am fascinated by these people, whose lives really do seem to revolve around car projects that never progress, not one iota, in fact the cars get more discombobulated by the month. And the strange cacophony of noises keeps me guessing: What on earth??!! But we did get some work done.

Here's my big orange baby having a cool drink after his hot muggy noisy work session:



And notice who is standing there with an accusing stare:



No Johnnie it is not your day; storm clouds were rolling up in the western sky by then, and within an hour it was dark as night. Then the most refreshing sky-cracking thunderstorm cooled off the world and drove the recreational noise-makers indoors (what do they do inside? I wonder); I love a good storm.

9 comments:

Dressage Nomad said...

Wow, they sound like winners! Kind of like the group of people at a table behind ours at brunch this morning, wearing baggy jeans and basketball jerseys. I'm glad you did get some good work done though!

Anonymous said...

haha...that must have been one of those "what on earth are they doing?" moments when she first started to move the RV around...and I love the RWD abbreviation. I am totally going to use that!

Colt said...

I was starting to think that I was the only one suffering from RWD. I just had multiple families with multiple primered cars up on cinder blocks get evicted from the house across the street. Now new neighbors have moved in and I'm not looking forward to whatever their activities may be. It seems that anytime new neighbors move in, they spend a minimum of two years remodeling the house. Then they move out and the next ones move in, and they remodel the house for another two years. People used to move to rural communities for peace and quiet. I guess I'm a dying breed now.

cdncowgirl said...

Hey FL, I left you something on my blog. Its on the Sat. Aug. 2nd post. Enjoy!! :)

Flying Lily said...

Jester: I wouldn't exactly call it good work - kind of busy work in little chunks with absent-mindedness in between LOL. Love your breakfast neighbors - nothing like plumber's crack with your morning coffee!! :)

OTB: These people make WTF?? a worthwhile abbreviation.

Colt: Around here we have something called "Crackhouse Renovation", where a group of marginal people move in and start taking things apart: garage door, window frames, appliances...broken things appear on the lawn, and pretty soon the little sign appears on the door 'eviction'... Hope your new neighbors are not this type!!

CDNCG: Goin to look!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

ROFLMAO-I am the neighbor everyone watches to see what is going to show up next...you never know what vehicles are going to show up...trailers...motorcycles...horses. LOL-People drive by really slow just to see what is going on today.

Grey Horse Matters said...

This group sounds like a bunch of 'winners'. Maybe a miracle will happen and all their tires will go flat and their tools will be taken away. They sound like they shouldn't be allowed to have anything sharp anyway. Glad you got to ride even if it was RWD's.

sue said...

"RWD" I will have to share that with my instructor... I am the one that says " woulnd't this be a good time to stop" and she says, "oh no... it's a good time to begin!!!" she is all about "riding in real life" as she calls it.... course I believe in the same idea with dog training, so why would I conside any less for my horse!!!!

Flying Lily said...

Greyhorse: The winners do sleep in after Mommy goes to work, so at least on weekdays I get to ride with some peace. Agree with you completely about sharp tools and these dim bulbs...

Photogchic: thanks! Johnnie is the love of my life. He was 15.1 when I bought him at the age of 3 and a nice size for a trail horse I thought. After his first MN winter, he was 15.2 and after his SECOND MN winter he was a solid taped 16 hh. He just kept growing. His cannon bones are like elephant legs. I love his drafty quality with his gaitedness. Perfect, perfect.

Sue: Yes the benefits of as you say 'real life training' are real. Some days though, I would settle for artificial quietude! This dressage stuff really kicks my a$$ in the concentration department.