Well, it would seem another weekend has come and gone, and I must say, I feel like my time here in Sterling is quickly slipping away from me. This upcoming weekend will be the final weekend here and then I will be headed to Minnesota with the team to spend some time there. Due to an overlap in the schedules, we had to send most of the team up to Minneapolis already so they could get set up and be there for opening weekend while a few of us stay here and finish out Sterling. Dave and Jesse are staying to joust, Ryan will be coming in for the weekend to joust, and Silas will be marshalling. It will be reminiscent of Texas, and I am very eager to have the guys back together for a weekend!
The weekend went very well with Maggie, although I was a bit nervous to ride. Not due to anything horse related, however I stupidly was running on uneven ground and tripped and sprained my ankle quite badly on Friday. I still got up and rode that day, although it required me to mount on the right side and ride without the use of my stirrups (which actually ended up being a good exercise!). Maggie took good care of me and we ended up having a short, but successful ride. Thankfully my ankle didn’t bother me too much over the weekend, I just made sure to keep it wrapped, ice it on my breaks, and made sure to take lots of ibuprofen.
As far as Miss Maggie is concerned, I am more and more impressed with her talent as I get to spend time working with her. We’ve been working on her cadence and getting her to slow down and realize that she doesn’t need to speed thorough everything and that it’s actually easier to take things slowly and in a calm manner. Kelly put it in the simplest terms for us, “Try and do things in slow motion. Get her to go as slow and unrushed as she can”, which really made me pay more attention to the speed and rhythm at which we do things. By the end of the week, we were able to do passes in the lyst with her head dropped down and relaxed at a nice, slow trot. Her departures are getting better too, and instead of wanting to rush into things, she’s starting to slow down some.
She did well during the show as well, and except for a few moments of panic, she is starting to get more and more comfortable in a show setting. They had put up a center lyst rope for the weekend to keep Marcus running strait, and oh my goodness, you would have thought there was a horse eating snake in the middle of the lyst. Let’s just say Maggie had a couple special moments realizing that the rope in the middle wasn’t going to hurt her or jump out and scare her. She once again was able to make her passes without too much fuss, and I can notice improvement every show. She’s definitely still a work in progress, but I see how far she’s come in the last 2 months and it makes me very happy!
Standing so quietly! And I’m so excited! Over what, I don’t exactly know…
We’ve been preparing for the final weekend here, and since Ryan hasn’t arrived yet, I’ve been filling in for him during practices. Since the rest of the team is in Minnesota, we’ve only got Abe, Tara, and Marcus here for jousting horses, and Millie stayed to be our marshal horse. I got up on Marcus today in half my armor and all of his armor, as did Jesse and Dave, so we could run through the show. I do enjoy riding Marcus, and even though he’s a well trained jousting horse, he still has his issues that need to be worked though. I was able to apply a lot of what I’ve been working on with Maggie to Marcus, and we ended up having a good ride together. Tomorrow I’m riding with my helm, and I’m ever so excited to lose most of my vision and ability to breathe… All part of the jousting process unfortunately!
Preparing for the final weekend at Sterling Renaissance Festival! Yey Marcus, such a good old man!
Time for a fun story! Monday was spent packing the two trailers that were headed to MN, and as part of the packing process, we had to pack up feed. As we are moving hay, we discover that a giant colony of big, fluffy bumblebees had made their nest in one of the pallets that the hay was on. So as we’re moving this hay, all these angry bees start coming up and swarming us. People were either panicking and running away from the bees, or trying to remain calm and unnoticed. I was calm… until one flew in my hair and stung my hand. Then I panicked and started running and doing the “flee the bee” dance. It was quite comical to see everyone running around flailing at little fluffy bees, even if they did sting us!
We leave in a week to head to Minneapolis, and even though I am very excited to get somewhere new, I will also miss Sterling a lot. However, once we get to Minnesota, I should hopefully be able to joust there, and that makes me very excited! I will make sure to keep everyone updated on my travels, and will most definitely post at least once more before the wheels hit the road!
Much love to you all!
Lady of the Knight 
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