Preparation--the key to living in the moment!

Cathy and Jess talk this morning about preparation.  Preparing correctly helps you live in the moment, knowing that you are ready—   Jess is taking her boat, The Relation Ship back to Canada at the end of June.  She has made sure the boat was “summerized”—the wheel bearings done on her trailer, and the brakes looked at.  Her truck just was serviced.   They keep lists of things that need to be done.  Cathy is preparing to put out jumps for the MidSouth Horse Trial.  She has driven over the land to see the best placement, she has measured the arena for the show jumping.  We all have to “think ahead”, do what needs to be done, and that helps us live in the moment, in peace to enjoy it!

Theme song and host introduction. Jess and Cathy welcome listeners to There You Are, introduce themselves, and share what the show is about and who it's for.

Theme song and closing words from Jess and Cathy, including a call to action to share the episode, leave a review, and tune in next week.

Cathy is a professional at training and teaching the sport of Three Day Eventing. Her website is: 

https://www.cwevent.com

Jess is a licenced clinical social worker.  She see's clients in her office in the back of the house here at the farm.   

Her website is:

https://www.jessicabollinger.com

Transcript

Jess and Cathy 1:38

Hey, Cathy. There you are, Jess. Yeah. And here we are on Monday. Another Monday morning. Monday morning. 6:30-ish. Yeah. And we have a delightful guest upstairs, and I just heard a little footstep. My niece, my brother's daughter, Beezie, is here. She's 10 years old, and she's here for her pony camp week. Exactly. She's come every year for the last how many years? Four years or so. Four years, yeah. And just, it's so fun. We... I love the delightful delightful perspective of this smart little- Yeah intelligent- Really smart, yeah. Really smart, and just insightful, and a beautiful little person. I love that. I love being around her. Yeah. Be- before she came we've borrowed ponies from people 'cause we haven't really had a pony here for her to ride. And she's a little person, and she needs something that's close to the ground. You can have a horse that's really quiet, but if they're really tall, it can be a little intimidating. So we have quiet horses here for her to ride, but it's better off that she has a pony to ride. So she has the one-eyed wonder. Martha Johnson loans him. This is the second year. His real name is Hopscotch, but he only has one eye, and I call him the one-eyed wonder- 'cause he's just perfect. He's perfect, and he's a large pony. Yeah. So he's probably- He's got 14.2 measure horses in hands, like four inches equals a hand, so he's 14 hands. Two inches. Yep. Yeah. And Beezie got here yesterday, and she had her first little ride on him. And she started off exactly where she was last year. Which is really pretty fun. Yeah. It's so fun. Yeah. It's great. Just posting along. Yeah. And I had the idea to put her in the dressage arena because it, it contains the pony a little bit. If she's in the large arena, the cover, then she has to steer a little more and right now she just needs to concentrate on going forward and- there you are. Come on over. We're doing our podcast. So you kinda gotta be a little bit quiet, okay? All right, But say hello to everybody. Hello. Yeah. Here she is. Well- Beautiful Beezie bed head hair. Love it. Sweet. So you put Beezie in the dressage arena. Yeah, so then she followed you around on Speedy, and then you left and and she did a great job of just keeping the pony trotting, and then we did some changes of direction, and she was able to follow the letters that are in the dressage ring to give her a point to ride to. So it was a brilliant idea on my part to put her in there. Yeah. I heard- and let her be a little more independent. I heard you say, "Okay, now go B to Z or whatever." B to X. Yeah. Exactly. And then she said, "Okay." She was able to find the letter B- and find the next letter, P, and ride to that point. And so it was really fun. And she's posting along with her hands independent- guiding the horse. Yep. Yeah. I love that. Whereas last year she was holding on a lot, yeah. Yeah. So it was really good. Yeah. Okay. So canter will be next. Canter will be next. Yeah. I think we'll do a couple days of trotting and riding independently, and then we'll have a look at the canter. So canter will be tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I think so. Yeah. And I think she could have a lesson really early tomorrow. On Wednesday morning before we go to Louisville. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay. She's got a little side excursion going on here. I know. She's been invited to a party at Ken- Kentucky Kingdom, so I'm gonna be taking her and getting her to Louisville by about 9:30. Okay. So maybe 7:00 AM lesson on- Get her up Wednesday morning and she- Get her going she's got a big smile, nodding her head. Yeah I was thinking about preparation, Cathy. I'm gonna leave for, in two weeks today on my- Exactly trip back up the Rideau Canal, and I have my boat looked at. I've had it summarized. It's ready to go. The batteries are up. How do you summarize a boat? Let me- let me summarize the summarization. I'm like, I can't get my head around that. Let me summarize summarization of the summarize. Batteries are charged up. Okay. I got my, my water system all flushed out, all ready to go. It's stored. I've been storing it in the, a rock quarry. Exactly. So it's been in like in a cave at Highbridge Springs Rock Quarry. It, they have a storage facility there. And so nothing really froze but it's it all had that stuff in there to- keep your water from freezing. Sure. So all that's all flushed out. And they checked my bilge. My bilge is working automatically and blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's, if it got any water in it, it would be flushed out. They checked the fluid in my trailer the brake fluid and all that. So- Yeah that was summarized by CT Marine. Okay. They're a fabulous place out near, out past Nicholasville. Then you had my truck taken in- Yep to get worked on. Yep. And I got it back $2,800 later- 'cause it had some, it had a lot of stuff done to it. Important stuff. It had this loud squeak, and that was my emergency brake box. Lee says, "Did you use your... Is that important to you?" I think it probably is. Might be, yeah. You gotta stop that boat on a hill, and you wanna be able to use the emergency brake. Exactly. Yeah, and if something's squeaking, I gotta make sure that it's not- If something's squeaking, something's not right it's not my horse trailer or my boat trailer. Yeah. So sometimes- Sometimes the brakes will lock up a little bit, and if you back up it'll release them, especially on a horse trailer. I've ha- had that happen. You wait a minute, something's not right, and you just put it in reverse and back up and that releases everything, and then you're good to go. But I tried that when I took your truck, when I drove it to take it in. I'm like, "I'm hearing a squeak." And then after a while it went away. But still, I'm all about- fixing something before it gets really bad. I know, and I love this truck. It's a 2019, and Cathy bought it for me for my birthday. And I just, I have to tell her every day how much I love my dog, I love my truck. I'm grateful. Yeah, so then on Saturday the guy came, Robert Selly, and he comes around to the farm, and he checks the bearings on the horse trailers. Yeah, he re-packs the wheels and bearings- on all the horse trailers- Yeah all the trailers that we own, and a lot of the people here that have trailers at the farm use him. And he just drives up with... He's got a little two-horse trailer that he's pulling around now- with all of his equipment in it. And he just jacks the Jacks it up and takes the tire off and packs the wheels and- Yeah checks the bearings and- Yeah, he did your utility trailer and- Yep stuff like that. Yep. And my camper. You do not, you don't want your wheel bearings locking up. No. No. Bad. Yeah. So he did the boat on Saturday, and he texts me back and says "Your h- your brake hydro pump's not working right." So he's gonna get a new one of those and order that and have it in next week. Okay. So it, it wasn't... He says, "So your brakes really es- essentially weren't working. They weren't getting enough brake fluid back there to make 'em work." Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not good either. So I'll be hauling my boat all the way to Ontario and back, and it's important to know that my brakes are working. Sure. Yep. Yeah. So I love having everything ready to go and having, my tire pressure checked- Exactly and all that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, yeah we do the same thing with the if my camper's been sitting for a while or a horse trailer's been sitting for a while- and it's gotta go on a long trip, I hook it up and take it into S&S Tire- and have them check everything out. 'Cause the worst, you're gonna have flat tires or you're gonna have something go wrong, but you can at least be prepared ahead of time- and go over your list and make sure that you've done everything possible- to take away any chance of that happening. And then just, then there's just karma, and you have- Yeah no control over that. When you have a dual axle trailer, these are folks that, that might not know, we have a ramp that and Cathy had one built that'll raise. So you pull forward or you back up depending on which of the two tires is flat. If you have a flat, yeah. If you have a flat. Yeah. And you pull up on that, and that, first you loosen, you loosen- Your nuts, yeah the nuts, and then you pull up on that, and then you can easily, you don't have to use a jack. Yeah, 'cause you can't hardly jack up a horse trailer. These ramps are great and you, it's a buy a 12, 6 by or 8 by 12 piece of wood and cut it, and it's just, it's gradual. It's got a little piece that the tire'll catch on, and then just little steps up and, and then you just gotta y- hopefully you're not by yourself and someone- can yell, "Stop," when you're at the top of it to raise that axle up high enough to get the... you can get the tire up high enough to get it off, but if a flat, but you don't realize you might have to go another two inches to get the spare on there, yeah. Yeah. So anyway being prepared- and preparing- that we have those, we have that, those ramps in the back of our truck. We have our that four-way. Yeah, but a lot of times you we... Now you gave me an impact wrench and, Yeah and that's just, that's the bee's knees of removing those lug nuts because they use that thing at the tire store, bzz bzz, and it puts those- Oh, yeah lug nuts on so tight. Yeah, you owe me that. Yeah. You owe it for me when I take this trip. Exactly. Make sure you got a good charger on that thing. Okay, so that leads me to a student of mine had a flat tire on her way, I'm not sure where, to a competition or something or a lesson here, and had a flat tire. And she said, "Note to self, make sure that the battery's charged up for your impact," 'cause she couldn't- she got two or three- or four of them off, and there were two that just would not let go and and she didn't have her... The battery wasn't charged on her impact wrench, yeah. Yeah. And I do make notes of that. I have a little notes- list. I make notes all the time on my phone in the notes application, and any time I think of something when I'm going somewhere, I just go to that note and either check it off or I make a new note "Don't forget your sunglasses," or c- "Take the truck in" or whatever to make sure that, Yeah that I dot the I's and cross the T's before I head out. Yeah. I have my list here for Rideau Canal. I know. You sent it to me. And I've checked and double-checked. And I have tire impact wrench and ramp on- Yeah the top of it. Yep. Yeah. And I just thought this morning, propane tank, so I'm gonna write that down 'cause I'm gonna go ahead and get that filled back up. For your, For my stove. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And also, I'm writing on here Tyler's, Tick paperwork tick, tick meds. Oh. I got his, I got his- Oh, his paperwork? paperwork right down here. Yeah. I wanna give him his, give him their heartworm stuff- and their tick stuff- before, before I leave. Yeah. So preparation, and this takes me back to something I tell my clients. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and see couples, families, and individuals. And I tell people that and I think this relates to preparation is when we're little and we're growing up, we're dependent on our caregivers to keep us safe to make sure there's food in the refrigerator- to get us clothes and takes to school and stuff. We're dependent on that. Exactly. But adult trust is this, that we can trust ourselves to do what we need to do if something happens or if someone's untrustworthy. We don't have to fear it. Ah, okay. Okay? Yeah. So I'm in my office and the boat's parked out in the par- in the, on the driveway. And I say, for instance, this boat out there, I've got everything I need to do for a tire change. So I've got everything there. I can trust that I can do a tire change. Okay? But I'm not gonna worry each mile that I'm gonna have a flat tire. So they don't have to worry about certain things in their life because they can trust themselves- to do what they need to- I need to work on that. They can trust themselves to do what they need to do- Yeah if something happens or if someone's untrustworthy. Yeah. Yeah, they don't have to live in fear. I need to work on that whole flat tire thing. I've towed too many miles with one, that one big six horse trailer I had. When I first got it, it only had two axles and it was blowing tires all the time, and it was just like, "Oh, my God," I lived in fear, like you said, every mile I drive to see to hopefully I wasn't gonna have a blowout. And then the manufacturer took it back and added a third axle because this is an interesting story. Back in the '70s when they reduced the speed limit to 55 everywhere, now it's back up, but in the '70s they reduced the speed limit to 55, and when they manufactured tires, they had wire in the sidewalls. When the speed limit reduced to 55, whoever was manufacturing tires said the tires aren't gonna get that much friction or-" Heat. heat." "And so we'll stop putting-" wire in the sidewalls. And so that- Then the speed limit goes back to 70. And then the speed limit went back to 70, and when I talked to them, they were great. They said, "Those tires are rated to go 55 miles an hour, instead of- 70 miles an hour." So they took the trailer back and put a third axle on it, and then it was a whole lot- Yeah a whole lot nicer. A whole lot less weight. It was distributed better. Distributed. I had a whole lot less flat tires, 'cause I was able to- Yeah, and we also put nitrogen in our tires because nitrogen fluctuates less than air. Exactly. And we have nitrogen in our tires. Yep. And that's been less flat tires, too. For sure, yeah. Yeah, and you just got new tires in your, On the camper on your camper. Yeah. On your toy hauler. Yep. Just okay, tire flat. Yeah. All new tires. These were the tires- the guy that cha- that came on the thing helped me changed it. I have a, I belong to a company called Trail Guard, and they're out of Oklahoma City. So this is a commercial for Trail Guard because they are amazing. They are amazing. And it's like a AAA for for horse trailers, but the, but when I say AAA you can if I have a need to tow the MG in or Jess has a problem with her car, I can use them because they're part of my family, to fix something. With, use Trail Guard. Yeah. And they're really fast, and they I don't think I've waited more than an hour for them to come, and they're used to changing horse trailers, big rigs. They, you call the number and they go, "Are your horses and you in a safe place?" It's just kinda cool. That is sweet. It's awesome. Yep. Yeah. Before that you didn't ha- we didn't really have anything. No. And you always had AAA for your MG because the MG stands for might go. Exactly. And you'd have, you'd be calling AAA to, to haul you. Yeah, exactly. To tow you, whatever. Yep. Yeah. So preparation. Yeah. Yeah. And so like before Beezy came, we redid a bathroom upstairs. I said, "It needs to be done by this date 'cause I got my niece coming." Exactly. And they did it. Yep. Amazing. Good people. And you have a course build that you're- Yep getting ready to do because in two weeks Yes, in two weeks is- the competition. Yeah. And so I was out at the horse park Kentucky Horse Park just going over my maps and assigning fences and preparing for my builder who's gonna start today pulling out jumps from the... They're all stored in one location at the horse park, and he's gonna start pulling them out and maybe staging them near where all the, where the course is gonna go. And then I'll meet him. I'm gonna check in with him today, but our main big set's probably gonna be Friday where- he's gonna have all the jumps out, and then all we have to do is set them down where I want them to be, and then they have to go around and, level and stake and decorate, things like that, so the... So Friday you'll be setting them all out. And then the competition itself is not that weekend, it's the following weekend. Exactly, yep. Got it. Because there's a lot that y- you can't just set a jump on the ground. You've gotta... We stake them. We use form stakes and stake them s- to the ground so that if a horse runs into it a little bit, it's not gonna move- or tip over. Yeah. Cert- yeah, certain jumps have to have different types of stakes if they're top-heavy or something like that. And then decorating them all, putting some flowers on, and flagging and numbering. So there's a lot that goes on as after I've finished setting all the jumps. And then the other thing I c- completed yesterday was I'm the show jumping course designer, and that is gonna be in the Alltech Arena. And I got sent a schematic of the measurements of it, but it didn't fit the way I designed a course in there, did it for a friend who needed to have it actually on a computer. And when I did it, it didn't work really when they, when someone else went to set it. So yesterday I drove over to the horse park, and I got out of my truck and I walked and was able to get in the Alltech Arena. I was worried if they weren't using it, that it might be all shut up. But I saw a friend that I know out there, and he said, "Oh yeah, go on in there." So I just walked it and measured it all off, and then I came back to my computer and redid the size of the arena- Of the Alltech Arena on, the Alltech Arena on my computer. And then when I, then I was able to adjust all the jumps, and then I emailed that to the organizer so she can get that to the guy that is gonna be bringing the jumps. 'Cause I can't, if I design the course, I've gotta tell someone h- what material I need. I need enough for a- when I do a little thing, it says, "You need 28 standards and 45 poles" and, you know- things like that, yeah. So w- kinda what do you need to do to think ahead? Exactly, yep. Get the right pony for Beezie. Exact- yep. Get her bathroom done. Yep. Get your, get my trailer or my truck and trailer ready to go. Get my courses ready to go. Get your courses ready to go. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then we surround ourselves with people, with the helpers that make it all happen. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. The crew that did this bathroom, just such a gift. Robert Sallee that does the brakes and bearings- such a gift. Exactly. Our guys here at the farm, such a gift. Yeah. And it's all the people that we have to help us. Yep, exactly. Makes it all work. Yeah. But- But but, you know- y- you have to take, we have to take the responsibility to be able to think ahead and prepare so that those people are able to help us get it done. Does that make sense? W- y- if- Yeah, I gave Robert Sallee a heads up "This is when I'm leaving." So he made sure he came in plenty of time. Exactly. And then he sees this other thing that needs to be done, and he still has plenty of time to do it. Yeah, I called him when Nikki was going to Florida, I think, and she took my trailer or whatever. I was like, "Wait, w- I know I'm on your list and I know you're coming-" and you're gonna contact me, but I'm worried that the trailer... I don't want it to have been not serviced before it goes to Florida in January." She takes that 700-mile one-way trip. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Just to make sure things are- the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted- Yeah as I always say. Yeah. Yeah, and it all c- then it all comes down to being able to live in the moment and be present to the moment. And it lets you do that. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause I don't have to fear. Because you've prepared. Don't have to fear. Exactly. Yeah, I've got everything I need. Yep. Yep, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're thinking ahead about Beezy's week, and we got things set and ways to do it. Yep. Yeah. So it's all good. It's all good. So anything else you wanna say about being prepared? Oh, we're excited. We're prepared to have rain if we need rain. We're... exactly. Yeah. We really need rain. Yeah, and we've been watering some trees this week. Yeah. You're always 10 days away from a drought. There you go, and we're 10 days away. We're about to have a drought. Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause it hasn't rained. Yeah, so if it, we could get a lot of rain, and then if it hasn't rained in 10 days it's a drought condition, starts... Yeah, exactly. Hopefully we get some rain today, and Beezie. We can get wet. D- we don't mind getting wet, nope. And having fun. Exactly. It's okay. Yep. 'Cause the grass needs the rain, and the trees need the rain, and the, the- I think the horses would like it too. And Beezie's saying the horses might like it too. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. We take their fly sheets off when it's gonna rain if they're gonna, they don't need their fly sheets. The horses, some will, some of them will wear fly sheets to keep the flies off of them, and it keeps the horses that live out all the time, it keeps the sun off them a little bit so their coats stay nice and they don't look all bleached out. But, but if it's gonna rain, then we don't put them on because then that fly sheet holds that moisture, and then you're messing with the natural system of the horse, and it holds that moisture on their skin, and then they can get- Might get that fungus and stuff like that fungus, or we call it rain rot, 'cause that's what, really what happens. The rain- Yeah is held onto their skin. Yeah. It's just kinda scabby, nasty stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So y'all, I think that, I believe this is maybe our 12th or 13th podcast. Wow. We like doing this. We love doing it. Be sure that you press the button to follow, and then you'll get, an update. Oh, every Monday we do a new podcast. Yep. Yeah. And make sure in the comments or contact us about anything that you want us to talk about, 'cause we just kinda sit here and have a nice chat on Monday morning. Yeah. Love it. So we love you. Thanks a lot for joining us, and we'll s- we'll talk to you next week. All right. Have a great week, everybody. Peace and love. Bye.