HUMBLE humble humble...... humble.....

Watching one of the political programs last week, this guy tells the story of ; Two guys are about to be attacked by a bear. Once guy is throwing on his shoes. The other guy says "Why are you putting on your shoes? You can't outrun a bear!!" He says "I'm not trying to outrun the bear, I am trying to outrun you!!"

My Farrier/friend, Lane Penry FINALLY talked me into taking my Tankus to his stable. He offered to pick him up with his horse trailer and let him stay over night so I could ride him for two days in an indoor arena. That was two weeks ago. ...... He is still there. WE have been in training. The trainer is Kim Beckman. She is an equine trainer that is truest to her craft. She will feed and care for her horses before herself. I have never seen such a large group of happier horses. All have incredible characters. So not only do I have Tankus there, but I took my mom's Appy gelding there to be, as I call it, "defragged". I will leave it at that. He has been there less than a week so far and already is a better, happier horse.

So now I am learning a whole new way of riding. All I have ever known is how to go up back in the woods and stay on, which, give me credit I am damn good at. But now we have to apply control, me AND Tankus. And now, I am teaching myself new ways of resistance training, based on the stress of my muscles being used.

We are learning the English style in the arena. Kim is getting us set up to apply jumping (we are looking to do a fox hunt in the fall). Just as Tankus (Tankopotomus is the name he has aquired at the stable) is learning to use the muscles in his body, I am doing the same. The saddle is small. The position of the feet are heels down, toes out and up. The stirrups are short. I have to keep my calves (leg) against his body at all times (applying isometrics). When he is trotting, I am posting. In fitness terms, you could call them mini sissy squats (isokinetics). I know I am in proper position when the vastis medialis is burning like hell. My torso, the majority of the time is in the contraction position of a pully row.

At the gym, I modified my wide stance Smith Machine squats. I have taken two inch thick weight plates, posititioned them under the balls of my feet, creating a deeper range of movement. Then, a close stance squat to put stress on the vastis lateralis, along with leg extensions with the focus on the vastis lateralis, to be sure the vastis medialis does not overpower the thigh, which would eventually induce knee problems.

I will discuss more excersises I am working with in future blogs.

Now........gotta throw this in here ... my grrrrlfriend Shannon has come to the stable for lessons! I got Shannon to take lessons from Kim and it is awesome having her there. She has had two lessons so far and HOPEFULLY, she will get the hang of it enough that she can come ride with me up in the woods some day.........I can imagine it now, me, Shannon, Kim, my mum, and lots of wine in the saddle bags! If there is anyone local here that wants to try a hand at a lesson, she is $45.00 for an hour lesson. That is with one of her awesome horses, saddled and ready to go. Her contact info is Horseshoe Lane Stables & KB Performance Horses, 425-876-4912, kmbckmn@aol.com. The stable is in my town, Snohomish.

I have already started the suits for this year. It is a sad day now with my favorite federation, NPC/IFBB, adding this ridiculous category called "Bikini". For decades this federation has been about dedication, discipline, diet, hard training. And now, all you have to do is be young, or have young thin skin with big ass fake titties. Even the way they are to present themselves on stage has no standard. Just walk on stage like a bar bitch and you are gooood. So at this point, I might have to pass at making suits of this standard. And besides, any swimwear or sex store has those boy short suits that the judges are enjoying. I don't make these. Okay, I have TWO girls I am making them for, but that is only because they paid and switched category's. THEN, no more.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, this is enough babble for now. I am compelled to end this blawg with a few of Kahlil Gibran's genius words. My literary idol....

"Man's value is in the few things he creates and not in the many possessions he amasses."

"We fear death, yet we long for slumber and beautiful dreams."

"Philosophy began when man ate the produce of the earth and suffered indigestion."

"I never met a conceited man whom I did not find inwardly embarrassed."

"Courage, which is the sixth sense, finds the shortest way to triumph."

AaaaaMEN!