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Meika Decher

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About Meika Decher

Eventing Background

USEA Rider Profile Click to view profile
Area 7
Highest Level Competed CCI5
Farm Name Polestar Farm

Latest Articles Written

Burnout

By on Feb 23, 2020 10:15 am -

Work-life balance, or lack thereof, is a tricky subject for anyone involved in the horse industry and scale always seems to be tipping towards the side that ends with potential burnout. Is this fierce work ethic and drive to hustle more prevalent among the eventing community? Meika Decher, an FEI level event rider who owns and operates Polestar Farm in Lake Stevens, Washington alongside her husband Mark Salser, pondered this in a recent blog post that she kindly agreed to share on EN. You can read more from Meika on her blog here. 

Photo courtesy of Meika Decher.

When is ‘working hard’ too much? Doesn’t working hard produce results? And if I work hard for something, doesn’t it mean that I have earned it? Good things come to those who have blood, sweat and tears invested in it?

I don’t think I can answer any but the first of those questions. And I can strongly say, without reservations, that there is such a thing as working too hard.  I know this because I am currently doing just that.

Personally, I am struggling with that life-work balance, my body hurts, and I am a little sad. Thank goodness, I can say that I am terribly pleased with how my own training horses are going, I have managed to successfully rise above my personal issues and keep my love of the horse strong. I think we all can vouch that the black hole of personal issues sucks the rest of our life down, past the event horizon, resulting in negativity everywhere. I feel very lucky to have escaped that. Maybe it’s my new found wisdom as a 50-year-old person, but I feel quite centered about how I am riding and training my horses!

But I have a larger question about how there is a culture in eventing, or maybe horse trainers in general, that keeps us working too hard. For sure, in eventing, the working student culture baptizes us at an early age to work hard for your education. Getting up at 3 am to get to a competition is a rite of passage that all event riders do. It was asked of me, when I was a working student, to get up at 2 AM to get ready for said 3 AM departure.  And I thought nothing of it. In fact, I think that a Quaker work ethic is seared into every cell in my body, which is a good thing. And I come from solid Quaker stock, so I’m highly susceptible to the harder-faster-stronger type of approach to life.

However, I am feeling like I need a break from my own exhausting ways. For the first time in 16 years, I have found myself without a working student for a few months, and it is crystalizing a thought in me that perhaps I need a major course correction, or suffer the consequences.

I started wondering if other sports have a different culture than eventers, and don’t suffer this same problem of work fatigue? I actually don’t have to think very hard on the answer to this…. It’s YES. Other sports, like hunter/jumper, definitely have a dramatically different work culture. A friend of mine has a barn about the same size as mine (~28 horses) and she employs six full time workers. SIX!!!!!! Holy hell, I would get fat and be bored if I had that many people buzzing around the barn, disinfecting the lead ropes.  Then again … I might also have a hobby in conjunction to riding that brought balance to my life.

Regardless, I think that the overworked professional horse trainer, is ubiquitous to all disciplines. Burnout from the needs of the barn is real. Being requested every 10 minutes to address some important issue, day in and day out, takes it toll on you. What I’m being forced to figure out is how to emerge from this potential burnout unscathed and thriving.

I just wrote “potential burnout” because privately I know I am strong enough to emerge through this winter just fine. I have a constitution that is fundamentally positive. I will be sore and tired for a little bit more, but in the end, I actually wouldn’t trade it for a beehive of workers rearranging the rocks in the driveway.

Now, onto dreaming about life-work balance …

Photo courtesy of Meika Decher.

Photo courtesy of Meika Decher.

Truck Drivin’ Momma! (Or, What to Do About That CDL??)

By on May 22, 2018 2:00 pm -

Washington State eventer Meika Decher recently went through the process of obtaining a Class B Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and kindly agreed to share her experience with EN. Read more from Meika at the Polestar Farm blog. 

Photo courtesy of Meika Decher.

Last December I and every other horse trailer driver felt completely behind the curveball. The deadline for new licensing requirements came and went, and recreational horse haulers were suddenly realizing that they had not paid close enough attention to the new rules. There were a flurry of meetings to get the horse community informed of the new details of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) and licensing, and I can attest that there was also a flurry of confusion and disinformation. (Enforcement of the ELD mandate has since been delayed until Sept. 30, 2018 — read the latest here.)

I realized that regardless of what the ELD rules were or may become, I was facing the stark fact that I drive a large semi named Vanna, and it was only a matter of time when I would be pulled over by a grumpy cop and all kinds of trouble would happen. My van is an International 4600, a box truck; she hauls six horses and has living quarters and most importantly, she has air brakes.  She weighs 30,000 pounds. For the last five years, she has been registered as an RV to get past the requirements for a Class B license. However, the truth is that Vanna looks like a commercial van and I do actually charge people to haul their horses, so I am indeed commercial by every stretch of the definition. The airbrakes are a grey area, but likely to cause suspicion for any grumpy cop.

I not really a rule abider but since the law changes are inevitable, I might as well get it done and avoid the hassle in the future. So I started the process of getting my Class B Commercial Drivers License. This blog is to educate others on the process, because it did feel confusing at the time for me, I wanted to help others with a little clarity on what I did to get my CDL.

Class B: This is a box truck, a non-jointed truck like you would see delivering packages to your door. This requires a six-day class for training.

Class A: This is any truck and trailer combination, such as your F-350 and your three-horse LQ trailer, with a combination weight of over 26,000 lbs.  This requires a MONTH long class for training, and it’s specifically designed for commercial haulers, anyone who charges anything to haul horses. **Cue the pitchforks and torches, because soccer-moms hauling big horse trailers are not commercial usually.

What I did:

Step 1. Go to the DOL and pick up the free Commercial Truckers Guide. Read this and memorize it! Everything you need to know about the written test is in this guide.

Once you feel you have highlighted every possible important sentence, then go online and start mock testing. There are plenty of tests available to help you feel prepared. (See Washington States’ CDL testing information page.)

 

Step 2. Go to the DOL and take your written test. This costs $35 in Washington per test. It took me three tries to pass … (don’t laugh!!) First time, I actually had no idea that I needed to learn the Air Brake part so I was laughably unprepared. Second time, I actually knew the subject but I didn’t take the test well because I didn’t utilize the options well.

HINT: When you take the test and you don’t like a question, press the “SKIP” button. You get a new question! You can avoid the questions you don’t like and accumulate answers to the questions that you do know. It’s that easy.

Once you pass the written test, you have 180 days to complete the rest of the process, so don’t put it off too long.

 

Step 3. Go to a licensed DOL/CDL Medical Testing Facility and get your physical. This is not just at any clinic, it is particular to the DOL certificate. You need to verify all medications you are taking, as they test everything that might be pertinent to you driving a truck safely: vision, hearing loss, blood pressure, seizures, etc. I can’t remember specifically, but I think it cost just over $130 for the certificate. You should leave the office with a few copies of the exam, as well as a wallet-sized, laminated copy of the exam. Keep a copy in the truck as well as in your wallet. You will need them for your testing and to show at any inspection station. You need a new exam every two years.

 

Step 4.  Take the Medical Certificate to the DOL and you can now get your permit and are legal to drive Intrastate, but not Interstate.

 

Step 5. Find a third party truck driving school and sign up for the license class that you need. There are several schools in our area– I chose Check Ride Driver Training Services in Woodinville.  The Class B school is one week long, which is a complete 40-hour work week. This is NOT a class that you can do your regular day job at all. You will be fully committed to attending school to accumulate the hours of training that are required before you can take the driving test.

The class cost me $2,600, and they provide the truck, practice trucks and they also set up all the testing times for you. They have the schedule already set for how you put in the required hours for class training, driving and backing training and they help you practice for the Pre-Trip Inspection (this is definitely NOT a trivial matter).

 

Step 6. Go get a pee test. This is testing for drugs, and you must be clean in order to pass. The school sent me to a facility and had the paperwork all ready for me, all I had to do was the pee part.

 

Step 7. Memorize the Pre Trip verbatim! Practice as much as possible and learn exactly what to say. And then pay the state for the test. This is $250 and it gives you two tries to pass the test. If you need a third try you will need to pay for another $250, so its motivation to pass it the first time!

 

Step 8. Celebrate that you are done and never need to do that again.

 

Weigh Stations: Now that you have your CDL, you now must pull into Weigh Stations. Sometimes you just pass through, and other times you are told to pull over and bring all the documents inside. When you are pulled over, they will inspect your truck for safety issues. For every clean inspection you get, you get a rating on your record that improves your odds of not being inspected again. It’s like a report card that follows you around.

 

Tonnage: Because you are commercial, you will now pay your regular license fee for the truck, but also a tonnage fee. Tonnage is the amount of weight you expect to be hauling, so your truck weight plus six horses and gear, in my case.  I will estimate this, and err on the heavier side, but that number is what the weigh stations are measuring. Are you overloaded (and underpaying the state for taxes) or are you legal, is what they want to know. (See Washington States’s Commercial Vehicle Services page.)

I hope that this information was helpful. There aren’t many box trucks out there like mine — there are more on the east coast — but the argument that horse show moms with GVW over 26,000# are going to need to get a Class A license is completely ridiculous. I think that the state is doing a good thing to require heavy vehicles to get a more comprehensive education about their trucks. But it seems that there should be a new category for recreational horse haulers that doesn’t require a month long course to get their Class A.

I know a few people in that situation who are going to get the Class B and hope that it’s good enough. I can’t vouch either way on that, but at least it’s something.

 

Pride Cometh Before the Fall

By on Aug 29, 2017 10:44 am -

“When you can appreciate just how precious a horse is, then maybe you can value a ribbon less.” Photo by Leslie Wylie.

After watching cross country at an event last Saturday, I asked the TD if I could make a citizen’s yellow card? She said no, which is probably very smart on behalf of USEF to not allow such a thing. It would be a disaster if any ole Jill Schmill could go up to another rider, flip a card and say “You terrify me.” (But, come on, wouldn’t that be satisfying sometimes?!)

The TD then asked me what I saw and here is the report I gave her:

I was sitting up there in the shade with my students watching the Junior Preliminary 911 division and I saw enough to make my blood pressure boil. I saw a rider literally two wheel around a corner to a bank with the horse going about 550mpm. Not surprisingly, she missed at the bank because her corner was sickeningly fast and her poor horse had no idea what hit him.

Three falls later … the final bone in my craw was a different girl, who did the same freewheeling around the corner to the bank and made about 20 people gasp with fright. Shockingly, she survived that horrific display of how to effectively ride a bank and later in the course came to a downhill approach to a corner still going way too fast. Her lack of balance and excessive speed resulted in her horse leaving a leg and she splayed across the grass with her exploded vest, gasping for air while the horse happily cantered away.

I got to her quickly and helped her unbuckle her vest so she could breathe better. Horse is just fine, rider walks off the course just fine and probably thinks “My crappy luck!!!!” as she walks back to the barn. Ha! Better luck next time, chicka.

OK, so by now you can tell that I am still upset. That last little paragraph might be a tad bit passive aggressive. And here is why:

The last girl did nicely come up to me and thank me for helping her with her vest the following morning. Of course I was happy to do it, and told her I was so grateful that she and her horse were fine. But, I am a teacher and I cannot pass up this opportunity to ask a junior rider to reflect upon why she ended up face first in the dirt.

The long and short of this conversation is that this junior rider told me that she knew the time was hard to make and that is why she was going fast. She knew that she was unbalanced and too fast the entire way around the course, and yet she was totally unapologetic about the fact that she was trying to get home inside the time. When I told her that if she was my student I would take away her watch and demand that she ride the course WELL, not for a ribbon, she literally rolled her eyes at me.

AND THAT, ladies and gentleman, is why I am so pissed.

It’s one thing to know that you are riding dangerously and to say that you really need to get better control of your horse and you will work on it in the future. And it is a totally different thing to know that you are riding dangerously and admit that you really don’t care because you were going for TIME. I am happy to say that I did not murder this teenager right then and there, as her mother was also in attendance and she might not appreciate my teaching methods. Maybe her trainer is the one telling them to go for time? Probably. Or maybe it is all the other teenagers in the group who are egging each other on to get ribbons? Probably. But this is a serious problem that needs to be outed.

Pride cometh before the fall. That is such an apropos quote for this instance. I would not be so upset if it were not for the lack of humility that her speed was the cause of the fall … and that the excessive speed is bad. She clearly understood that she was going to fast — she told me so. But she did not feel responsible for causing her horse to hit the jump.

Here is a little bedtime story:

One of the most amazing displays of horsemanship that I have seen with my own eyes is the change that Laine Ashker has made since her fall with Frodo Baggins at Rolex in 2008. These days, her riding catches my breath because it is SO good. She went back to the drawing board with her coaches and worked very very very hard to repair some holes in her cross country attitude and position. The results are astounding. She is now a virtual model of how to ride effectively cross country over modern courses. She is fluid, harmonious, fast and effective. She is smart and appreciative, and above all she is humble.

It is your responsibility to deliver your horse safely from the startbox to the finish line. Only you are up there having a conversation with your best friend. Your coach is not up there with you, your parents are somewhere else and your friends are at the mall trying on new shoes. You are the only one up there listening to the breathing and the gallop. And only you can value what that horse means to you. When you can appreciate just how precious a horse is, then maybe you can value a ribbon less.

Read more from Meika at the Polestar Farm blog.