Eventing Guest Writers: August 2010 Archives

It simply amazes me how the same month can feel like an eternity and an instant at the same time.  I cannot believe I am already sitting at home (dreading the onslaught of school in roughly 1 week) after spending 31 days living, breathing, eating, and sleeping everything eventing in West Grove, PA. (The breathing part is unfortunate at night when the smell of local mushroom farms is overpowering...) 

I found it very easy to lose track of the date during my stay as a working student. Every new day at TPF felt like my first day, yet at the same time I felt as if I had also been there forever. I would say it takes the full first two weeks to settle in and get the hang of things. Also - the weeks are a bit 'backwards' in the sense that they are not your typical week having Monday through Friday with a laid back weekend. Rather, Friday takes Monday's place as the long, drawn out first day of the week with show preparations taking place (clipping, bathing, braiding, packing etc.) and Monday steps in for Friday without the stress of competition, horses having the day off, etc. TGIM, anyone? 

While mucking stalls, grooming horses, and dragging hoses to water troughs are just some of the daily chores... mane pulling, clipping, and packing the trailer fall under the category of 'frequent but not daily' chores. Only one chore stands out in my mind that merely had to be completed once in my time at TPF... bagging and storing all the horse blankets that returned from being washed! A fairly quiet afternoon while most of the action was taking place at a show, someone arrived with an entire SUV filled with clean bundles of winter wear. The blankets are separated by owner, secured in oversize trash bags, and carried up to the loft for storage. Nothing too difficult - I was just impressed by the sheer number of horse blankets stacked up along the aisle-way! 

Another memory that quickly comes to mind is the time when someone arrived at the barn to conduct the 2010 US census. You are so immersed in the world that is TPF, you forget about the 'outsiders' who have no clue. (What is the owner's name? Phillip who? How do you spell that?) It was a bit of a tricky situation as there are many people who live in apartments scattered around the property (attached to the indoor, above the barns, etc..)but there is no proper house, as it is after all a business. It boggled her mind when she learned that people from all over the world, not just the country, come to this farm for the experience.  Needless to say, True Prospect Farm can cross 'outsmarting the US census' off its to-do list.  

On another note, I am thrilled with the progress my horse and I made in our brief summer with Boyd. I could not have hoped for a more productive 31 days. A year ago, when I mailed in an entry fee for a clinic with Boyd Martin, I would never have imagined myself as a working student this summer. I suppose two lessons and a cross country school can be life changing after all! It was very hard for me to leave the farm after spending my month there, and I am already working to arrange a working student position somewhere for 2011. Now it is up to me to keep up the hard work with my riding throughout my school year, and keep building on the progress I made this summer. I am looking forward to how this work will translate into scores at my next show, and I can not thank everyone involved enough for making my fabulous summer happen!!

So I was left horseless with very little money to spend on another horse. I went to see some problem horses who had the right breeding and were cheap but had an issue like a mean buck in them. None of these really appealed to me and so I was debating going to Ascot horse sales and buying an ex racer.

Then my mother (who is horsey) went to a dinner party with an old family friend and after quaffing a few alcoholic beverages went out and looked at the friends new horses and told her that I was looking for a new horse. The next day my mother told me to ring the friend and tell her if I was interested in having the horse that she had looked at. I asked my mom for details but all she could remember was that he had a nice head. My mother said to go and see the horse but I trusted our friend and so I said I would have him. This was 4 weeks ago and the horse known as the ginger giraffe is still with me and I rather like him!

Well it's been a hell of a two weeks.  I am officially done being an investment banker, which feels really odd.  My last week of work absolutely flew by.  I had meetings in Philly and New Jersey as well as my farewell dinner, which made the time go by very quickly.  I will really miss my coworkers who have become almost like family after two years of spending nearly 80 hours a week together, but I won't lie, the feeling of stepping out of those elevators for the last time as an employee was pretty incredible.  Also, I have learned so much in the last two years, not only in terms of financial analysis and the ins and outs of the process involved in selling a company, but also skills that are critical to anyone running any type of business. 

First of all, in dealing with hundreds of companies in the last two years, I have developed an appreciation of what an exceptionally run business looks like versus a very poorly run one.  Believe it or not, the differences are not always as straightforward as one would think.  You can have an exceptional handle on your books, but if you do not have an astute awareness of potential risks facing your company, it really will not do you much good.  Similarly, you could have the most incredibly marketing engine in place, but if you can't understand how to build a profitable cost structure, you will have a well known and recognized entity that doesn't have a dollar to its name.  This is also all assuming you have a product or service that people are actually interested in buying.  Finding a balance to each of these challenges is much more easily said than done, but hopefully having seen some business plans and strategies in effect will help me put a successful business model in place myself.

My experience as a banker has also taught me that the client always comes first, and when I say always I mean ALWAYS.  The example which most clearly stands out to me is when my horse, Benjamin James, arrived from New Zealand.  He arrived on a Tuesday, and I had a late client meeting that night so could not go out to see him.  The next night, I asked for specific permission to leave early, at 7:00 pm, so that I could go out and see my horse that had just flown halfway around the world.  About 45 minutes into my hour long drive, I got a phone call from the VP on the deal saying that we had an emergency and I needed to be in the office ASAP.  I explained the situation, so I got to the barn, gave BJ one quick pat while I was on a call, and then went to sit on the phone and computer for the next four hours so I could help work out the issues we were having.  As Gerald and Clare went to bed that night around 11pm, I gave them a wave as I sat on what was turning into a three hour conference call.  After two years of that kind of responsiveness being the expectation, it is pretty much second-nature at this point. 

Now that I am done, I keep going to grab my blackberry, or what I grew to fondly regard as my "leash", and it's not there! Honestly though, since being done, things have been just as crazy as ever.  I drove a huge UHaul truck out to Illinois, have moved in, and the place is really starting to look pretty great.  I have been out there working every day, the latest was giving each and every stall an intense cleaning and scrubbing out over a dozen plastic stall hay feeders.  They were pretty disgusting, but are all cleaned, sanitized, and sparkling now!  For the week and a half left that I have at home, I am hoping to get the indoor dragged and in good working order, finish getting the place cleaned up, and pull together some ideas for cross country jumps and where I would want them located on the land.  I went out in the truck with my dad to look at the land again.  It was pretty funny, because my dad doesn't even like to go near horses, but he was showing me spots in the tree line and hills where he thought it would be great to put jumps, an area where he thought a dressage ring would look nice, and a spot where the stadium jumps should go!  

I have a ton of work to do before I get back to Virginia, and my return seems to be creeping up on me quicker and quicker.  My plan for the three months I am there staying with Gerald and Clare is to pretty much to put myself through eventing boot camp!  I will be riding my horses as well as helping to get the staff horses fit every day.  Once hunting starts, I will be helping to groom and take care of the staff horses as well.  I have also scheduled lessons with Leslie Law and also am going to continue going to my dressage instructor Mary Ann.  Also, I need to get fit.  Sitting in front of a computer for 16 hours a day and being able to expense take out dinners every night doesn't result in peak athletic performance.  My goal by the end of the three months is to qualify again and compete at Prelim with BJ, move Bam up to Training, and be able to run a 6:30 minute mile and to run five miles at an eight minute pace.  Hopefully by the end of this fall, my horses and I will be in great shape and we can use the winter to continue tuning up our flatwork and stadium and then attack the spring eventing season.  I have already found a working student position with Holly Hudspeth, who I just saw is also an EN guest writer, and I am absolutely thrilled about the opportunity. 

Well, I have to get out to the barn.  My brother offered to help me pick up rocks from the indoor and I'm going to jump at the opportunity for free labor before it expires!  We are heading out now with his dog Milo who is quickly becoming the farm mascot, he's the one in the picture.