With his owner on holiday for the summer, I've commandeered the ride on Tres, the wonderful PRE stallion that I trained to Grand Prix. Horses don't forget their educations, of course, but his new owner is just beginning her dressage career, and so for the last year Tres' job has been to care for Donna and teach her about connection, impulsion and balance. 

In nine weeks, I've taken students to six horse shows, held two open houses, taught a clinic, hosted two clinics, and run a ten mile road race. I've got five horse/rider combinations trying for the Festival of Champions and/or the NAJYRC, and another group trying for the Young and Developing Horse Championships, in addition to our typical cadre of folks after the USDF Regional Championships, their USDF rider medals, and some who are just showing for fun.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week in the United States. (This week also contains National Hoagie Day, National Tourism Day and Lost Sock Memorial Day, but that's neither here nor there.)

Because I am a glutton for punishment, er, Serious Professional Athlete, I signed up for a 10-mile race with my best friend. Unfortunately, getting runs in post-Florida has been a challenge, between weather, long teaching days and busy horse show weekends. But at a recent VADA/Nova show at Morven Park (where, it should be said, all my students rode brilliantly and won everything), we were blessed with a late start on Saturday, which left me with a few hours to get one of my last long training runs in before this weekend's race.

A while back I took a few lessons from a trainer who, when he was on, was ON. Those lessons were fantastic, just the right amount of butt kicking, and inspiring as all get-out. I came away from those lessons with great exercises to work on, and a sense of the path that laid before me.

But when he wasn't on, he was Uncle Fluffy. And Uncle Fluffy sucked.