It’s nice to have Connections….

It’s no coincidence, the spring weather appeared and the blog posts disappeared!  Break’s over now and I’m back with enthusiasm!  Much of my enthusiasm has been influenced by two, yes two! awards bestowed upon me by my blogging friend, Bree Nicole at Cavalli Connections.  I couldn’t be more pleased with my awards, The Beautiful Blogger award, and The Classical Riding Awareness Award, an honor that Bree will be granting to one blogger every few months that she feels demonstrates compassion for horses, a thirst for equine kowledge and dedication to the classical principles of training and riding.  I hope I can live up to these admirable standards.  I certainly aspire to.

When I began Tango Dressage Blog in December ’09 I’m not sure I even knew what a blog was.  It seemed like a good way to overcome anxieties about writing, a problem I have sufferred from since childhood.  I didn’t realize that I would grow to enjoy the process and the people associated with it.   I have come to believe that the blog format will bring about a sense of honesty and sincerity in journalism.  The blogs I enjoy are not only as informative and well written as any magazine articles I read, they are generally less wordy, and less biased by advertisers (since there usually are none!).

If you haven’t already, please check out Bree’s blog, Cavalli Connections and the others I have listed on the right margin of this page under Blogroll.  They are all excellent blogs written by people that are so passionate about horses they are willing to put the evidence up for the world to read.  You may even want to start one of your own.  As a condition of my Beautiful Blogger award I must pick some beautiful blogs to bestow the award upon.  I don’t think this will be a problem, there are so many I have grown to love.  There will be a post listing them shortly.

Before I sign off to rest up for the horse show tomorrow I want to thank Bree once again for her kind words and thoughtful consideration.  I greatly admire her writing and passion for horses and consider her recognition of my blog a real honor.

Check in tomorrow for some horse show blogging!

And the Winner is…..

It’s always exciting when I receive feedback from readers of the blog.  Today’s comments brought an extra-special surprise….. An Award!!!!  Yes, a fellow blogger, The Literary Horse, has bestowed upon me the coveted “Beautiful Blogger Award”!!  I’m very flattered as her blog is brilliant!  If you haven’t already started following her blog it is linked under my blogroll on every post.  Why she is doing her blog for free when I would gladly buy her writings if they were published is beyond me, but I’ll take it while I can!   There are fifteen other recipients of the award listed on her site, some of them I have read previously and some I have just found today but will be following from now on.

The award comes with two stipulations.  I must list seven things my readers may not know about me (hmmm..scary!)  and I must choose fifteen blogs in which to bestow the award.  The seven things I can manage.  The fifteen blogs will be a little trickier, as I have only been blogging a couple of months and haven’t had time to build a large base of other blogs to follow.  In order to provide the links I will post the links of the other recipients, as I have previewed them all tonight and they are all great.  As a matter of fact they are so good I am afraid I will lose my readers to them, but I greedily want to post my award so I will do it, and add one that I like as well!

OK.  Seven things nobody knows (or not many people anyway!)

1.  I have a tattoo of my late Malamute, Samson’s, paw print and name on my leg.

2.  I went to bartending school, but never tended bar.

3.  My Mom washes my show clothes and mails them back to me because she gets them the whitest.

4.  I don’t own a television- hence the blog!

5.  I still think I’m a teenager, but my license says I’m 42.

6.  I once hiked 300 miles on the Appalachian Trail.

7.  I tilt my head at a ridiculous angle when I teach and can’t stop no matter how hard I try!  (What’s the deal with trainers and head tilting?)

The Literary Horse’s Beautiful Blogger Award Recipients:

• Barb Wire
• Behind the Bit
• Camera Obscura
• Confessions of a Struggling Dressage Rider
• Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
• Equine Ink
• From the Horse’s Back
• Girl on a Mountain with a Chicken
• Global Horse Culture
• Grey Horse Matters
• Half Pass’ Blog
• Halt Near X
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
• Rock and Racehorses (photography of Sara K Andrew)
• Sprinkler Bandit
• Tucker the Wunderkind

In addition to Jane’s blog I would add Retired Racehorse as a recipient.  Natalie is a frequent blogger with a great site heralding the Thoroughbred.  Her posts and her comments on other’s posts are always insightful and funny.  I will post more recipients as I commit to reading more blogs.

Sincere thanks to Jane at The Literary Horse for reading and acknowledging my blog and congratulations to the other award recipients!  I consider myself in fine company.   I encourage everyone to check out the links to the other award winners that Jane honored.  There is a lot of pertinent information and positive energy being exchanged on these forums.  If you are so inclined you may want to start a blog of your own.  Everyone’s point of view is important and you never know, you might even win an award!!!