It’s been a busy, strenuous and, on occasion, slightly overwhelming fall so far for me.  How about you?

If you’re answering in the affirmative, I have help for you, courtesy of my niece Samantha.  If you’ve been a long-time reader of my blog, you may remember her advice in Piece of toast.

She’s back, with more practical advice, which she emailed me the other day:

“Think nice thoughts like these nice thoughts,” she told me:

Ponies eating

Ponies trotting

Ponies cantering

Ponies walking

Ponies tolting (Icelandics!)

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As if there weren’t enough reasons to love Johnny Depp, there’s now another. He’s a true horseman.

On the set of The Lone Ranger (in which Johnny will star as Tonto), he suffered an accident on horseback, and was dragged for 25 yards.  Did he blame the horse?  Far from it.  In fact, he thanked the horse for saving his life.  As he said,

“I’m lucky to be here.  I’ve done a number of films on horseback and I’ve taken a couple of spills but this was a violent one.  I had a good relationship with the horse, which was named Scout, and when I look at the tape I can see that Scout saved my life…in the end he jumped over me and clipped me with his back legs.”

Not everyone would say that a horse saved his life after being dragged for 25 yards.  But then, not everyone is a horseman.

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The Dressage Foundation’s Century Club just welcomed its 100th member. How perfect is that?

For those unfamiliar with the Century Club, it honors horse-and-rider pairs competing at dressage, who have a combined age of 100 years.

Of course, if you do the math, the burden of achievement does fall on the human, but it gives you something to aspire to (yes, you have another thing to aspire to).

You can cheat, of course, by buying an older horse.  And for horses — especially older schoolmasters or mistresses — how perfect is that?

If that’s not in your plan, but you still want to make it to the Century Club ranks and you’re not too green yourself, have you considered an an eleven-to-fourteen-year-old horse…or a ten-year track veteran?  Given how tough track life is and how far young horses are pushed these days, if you find a horse fitting those criteria that’s sound of mind and body, there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to be a wonderful comrade for a long time.  If you’re bargain-hunting, the prices go way down as you go further out the bell curve (schoolmasters notwithstanding) and dare I say it — how perfect is that?

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A few days ago, Forbes published “How to Compete and Win in Business – Lessons from the World’s Greatest Athlete.”

I had to check it out…not because I’m interested in competing and winning in business, but because I’m inspired most by those who have achieved something extraordinary.

And who better to inspire than Bryan Clay, who won Olympic gold in 2008 in the decathlon, achieving the title “The World’s Greatest Athlete?”  If you are competing and you want greater success (even if your only competitor is yourself), here’s his advice (and mine):

1.  “It’s all about the process.” According to the article in Forbes, Bryan Clay’s focus is not in being excellent; his focus is in striving.  In other words, it’s not how well you do, it’s how hard you try to do well.

2.  “Execute.”  In other words, doing is more important than thinking about doing.  Baba Ram Dass said, “Be Here Now.”  Nike said, “Just do it.”  Same idea.  Anyone who’s ever overthought while horse training knows that feel is more important than whatever is going on in your mind.  You just have to ride and be present in the moment.

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The Spring 2012 issue of the Baldwin Echoes — the alumnae magazine of The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania — arrived in yesterday’s mail.

I’m glad I don’t have to wear those blue tunics and bloomers anymore.  But I did love Baldwin — an all girls’ school that taught me to believe that anything was possible in my life.  Inspiration is still the name of the game at Baldwin, according to the school’s mission statement, a portion of which follows:

“The Baldwin School…develops talented girls into confident young women with vision, global understanding, and the competency to make significant and enduring contributions to the world…forming women capable of leading their generation while living balanced lives.”

Even though I’m no longer a young woman, I still think all of that is within reach — even the balanced life part.  If I’m delusional, so be it.  Because this marvelous mission statement also says that “Baldwin aspires to cultivate in its students the desire to remain learners throughout their lives, the compassion to extend themselves to others, and the strength of character to act on their beliefs.”  (Note that there is no requirement that the beliefs be rational.)

More interesting to you, I’m sure, than the mission statement of my alma mater is the fact that one of my fellow Baldwin alums — Helen Runeyon Hills of the Class of ’46 — recently wrote a book called Still Riding at 80. Delusional?  Not according to Helen, who is herself still riding at the age of 80.

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