Woweee it’s been a busy few days around here, folks — hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend (or extra long weekend if you took extra days off work like I did lol).
hand walking + grazing around the show grounds before dressage
We’re deep into event preparations for my local riding club’s big annual recognized event, so it’s been basically all hands on deck for the past week — and still with more to come! The club only hosts two events at this venue, a recognized horse trial and then a starter trial on back to back weekends, and the rest of the year the venue is used for other events like timber and steeplechase races etc.
So all the jumps get piled up in a back hayfield for the intervening months, making for a big job when it’s time to pull them all out and get them set onto the various xc tracks.
“filling the tank” before dressage. and thus we conclude my relevant pictures from the day, SORRY!
I managed to sneak away for a day this weekend, tho, to go ride in a horse show of my own, yay! Just another super low key local starter event at Buckworth. I’d actually never ridden there myself, but have been before with friends.
well i took pics of all the xc jumps too, but i opted to scratch so eh, oh well
I was hoping the low key casual nature of the event would be a good fit for Doozy’s first full event of the year, but in retrospect that might not have been the wisest choice.
proof that i did in fact ride the horse around the show, tho!
The event is run by the local pony club, which is super cool and all that, but it means that everything is geared toward… well. Ponies and kids lol. The warm up area was a thronging mass of parents, grandparents, small children in wagons or strollers, and fat ponies milling around — literally right up against the dressage courts too. As in, I legit had to dodge a tot-filled wagon just to enter at A.
more random pictures — the little exercises i set up to prepare
Doozy quite naturally found the scene a bit over stimulating. I’d done my best to help her familiarize with the atmosphere by arriving a couple hours early to hand walk her up and down all the lanes, and back and forth from the trailer to the dressage area a couple times — since she seems to appreciate coming and going from a new space before actually getting into the work.
oooh and photographic representation of what i’ve really been up to this past week. settin fences, y’all!
And honestly our warm up was… Eh. Not as good as the pre-meltdown warm up at Thornridge the week before (in a quiet indoor on nice footing), but not as bad as the post-meltdown, uh, everything else at Thornridge. I stuck to my guns about getting both legs on and touching right away (much to Doozy’s dismay), and not letting the shoulders pop out every which way.
got to hang out with the builder’s pup too while pulling the flat bed <3
It took some serious persistence in waiting the mare out, but suddenly she seemed to settle onto the aids just in time for us to circle the ring for our test. Well. “Circle the ring” isn’t quite the right way to say it, since the entire ‘A’ end of the court was mobbed with spectators (and aforementioned tots in wagons).
Nbd, tho, I just rode past the judge, gave the scribe my number and test name, and then waited for the bell while circling off to the side.
played with the common vision simulator app while choosing fence paints too
Doozy actually squeezed past all the hubbub at A without much fuss, and I *finally* remembered to halt for my entrance in Intro C. Yay me! I’m so tired of being immediately rung out of tests bc I either forget the halt for Intro C, or forget the weird broken center line for Starter.
EXCEPT. Womp womp, my dumbass misread my division split — Intro Rider C — as the assigned dressage test, and the judge just thought I was confirming my division instead of my test when I said Intro C. So… yea. Immediately rung out again, bc we were supposed to be doing the Starter test.
this venue is so freakin beautiful tho
Ugh. Super annoying. And the judge didn’t think it was appropriate* for her to refresh me on the test — despite having a test sheet literally in hand. So I left the ring again to pull the test up on my phone (which was thankfully in my pocket — technically against the rules). Ugh.
And naturally Doozy was *not thrilled* about all this, and was a bit less polite about dodging the tots again at A on our way back in a second time… Which. Idk. IMO the type of world where you let spectators and small children crowd the literal edges of the dressage ring sure seems to me like the type of world where a judge can remind an errant rider of the test pattern. I mean, if it’s allowable at Kentucky, amirite???? But what do I know LOL.
(*Funny enough, instead of telling me the test herself, she suggested I get a reader — which actually IS explicitly against the rules in eventing. Moderately annoying when folks in positions of power don’t know the rules yet are inflexible with riders…)
aaaaand more random pics lol, this time from our most recent ride in which doozy acted like the perfect princess i know she can be <3
Anyway. We got it done, but Doozy was… well. She is who she is lol, it was tense and tight and all the normal things for us. I don’t know the scores or comments bc I never picked the test up, but we can all pretty much imagine what all was said.
I will say that I was proud of keeping my legs on throughout the ride — from hip to heel, Doozy’s preferred thunder-coat style of riding — and kept my focus on keeping Doozy straight(ish) through her shoulders.
pictured: nonchalant (aka not bolting) about the poles
I had hoped for better, tbh, but maybe I just need to be a bit more patient. Regardless, after finishing dressage, we rode over to the show jump area just to get in and familiarize a bit. And then eventually it was our turn to jump too!
is it just me or is she getting beeeefy??
The wheels definitely fell a bit off the bus, tho, not gonna lie. Doozy felt straight up frantic and overwhelmed, and all the work we’ve been doing in our lessons around patience and keeping things boring went straight out the window. After our first few warm up jumps I honestly decided that maybe it wasn’t going to be worth it to jump at all.
i don’t need perfection, i just want to have fun at the shows, mare. c’mon now
But, eh, again it was a pretty relaxed event (dressage judges aside lol!), and they were just taking riders as they came. So I opted to just take Doozy over to stand in the shade under some trees and chill out a bit while a few other ponies took their turns and moved on.
i do love it when she’s easy tho
Eventually when the area was quiet, we went back to warming up a bit, and Doozy seemed a bit more rideable, so we went ahead and did the little show jump course (in the helmet cam video above).
Another note about this event maybe not being the wisest choice in retrospect: it was a fine little jumper course for kids and ponies, but was not super duper well suited for big striding green thoroughbreds. The turns were all a little funny, especially a weird super tight downhill U-Turn from fence 3 to 4 (which we predictably missed* entirely and had to circle).
(*Interestingly, tho, I don’t think they “charged” me for the circle in the scoring. Not that final scores mattered lol, but it’s a nice decision when the turns are a bit wonky!)
at least she’s pretty <3
My intentions with this event were probably in the right place, but realistically we might be better off riding at more established facilities with more traditionally designed (and measured) jump tracks.
As it was, tho, Doozy actually got around the course mostly fine. All the sharp turns meant I really had to sit her down in all the corners, but I was able to let her roll around in canter and she found most of the jumps fairly well aside from a choppy missed distance at 2.
not getting sent to the dog food factory yet lol
I did decide to skip the xc, tho. Maybe that was the cowardly choice, or maybe I could have just gone around one fence at a time like we were schooling. Which, realistically, is all this really was, after all.
But. Eh. Doozy wasn’t really in what I’d consider a “learning” frame of mind, and I am not convinced that there’s a lot of value in schooling her when she has that kind of frantic fragile feeling. Maybe the smartest decision of all would have been to just go schooling in the first place, instead of signing up for the event. Live and learn LOL.
As it is, we went out and did some things and had a time lol. Doozy’s behavior was vastly improved from Thornridge, but still not even close the quality and relaxation we can get at home or in lessons (as evidenced by her being a perfect friggin princess in our very next ride after this show — source of the pics above).
Which, eh, is maybe to be expected after so much time away from activities. Perspective is apparently everything with this mare. And patience, lol. And maybe a little persistence too ;)
How on earth is it already Memorial Day Weekend?? Time is flying, guys. Wow. In the past, we’ve often spent this long holiday weekend competing at Loch Moy’s starter trial… And a few barn mates are actually going.
I went in a different direction this year tho — we’re heading east instead to a super low key chill event close to where my mom lives. Should be a good pipe opener for Doozy (and me, let’s be real), so stay tuned for more. In the meantime, let’s enjoy a nice little foto finish to the week!
y’all know me, if i don’t get these pictures posted they’ll just overrun my poor clogged up iphone lol
and plus, who doesn’t love some photographic proof that doozy CAN be sane and sensible??
wellll….. ok haha. she isn’t ALWAYS sane and sensible at home either… her expression might say “I’m Innocent! Innocent Horses Don’t NEED to be Tied to the Post of Patience in Rope Halters!” but. ahem. innocent she is not.
ms thing was the victim of a fairly dramatic cross tie catastrophe, which included hitting the ceiling, falling on her butt, sadly wandering out onto the grass — dragging BOTH cross ties — then stepping on said crossties, which naturally popped up and smacked her right in the butt again, at which point mare Left The Premises (leaving 4” deep hoof prints in her wake….). #drama
but ya know…. shenanigans aside lol… she’s been more nice than naughty, including getting out into the hay fields with friends!
we’ve had some unbelievably gorgeous evenings — and the hay is growing like mad!
everybody wants to be out too, makes for fun company!
pictured: a view that does not suck
we’ve had so much rain lately too that the outdoor ring is too soggy for riding, but how can you spend an evening like this inside the dusty indoor??
much fun was had by all
and ya know… even on days when we ARE stuck inside to get our rides done, there’s still always the chance for little walkies around the paddock pathways to cool down
oooh and a couple more from Thornridge lol… here we are, chatting with the next generation
when suddenly, Doozy notices her FRIEND OMG lol… sigh…
no rest for the weary, bc it’s right back out again to our new local 5* coach’s family farm for lessons!
it’s kinda a bummer to ship out for lessons to a farm with such incredible facilities, only to be stuck inside bc of the rain… but c’est la vie — the remedial trotting lessons are worth it!
and doozy continues to be happy with her farm life — with her little group of pony mares reunited into one large pasture again — PLUS her favorite trail buddy introduced into the neighboring group! much love <3
and so it goes, amirite? we’re looking forward to the long weekend around here — hope you all are too!
So! With the mare settling into what seems like consistent soundness over the last ~3 weeks,* we decided to test the waters with a fun low-key outing to our most favoritest summer CT series!
(*Maybe it’s the Equioxx kicking in? Or the changes from the shoeing? Regardless, I’ll take it!)
d’aww, somebody is excited for breakfast <3
And boy oh boy, it was a day!!
Let’s start with the good: We did it, yay! The mare pulled through when it counted (sorta!), in what were, ahem, undeniably tricky conditions.
The bad: those conditions, oof. It rained about 2” overnight and everything was completely water logged, including the grass jumping rings.
The ugly: A whole contingent of barn mates entered the show too — which is awesome! — including 3 of Doozy’s current or former field mates. Doozy straight up melted down, and threw ALL her toys out the pram when she realized her friends were there. Which, natch, was just as we went up center line for dressage. She also never quite recovered from the shock and was legitimately a nightmare for the rest of the day. Fun!
being her sensible + polite self at the trailer, pre-meltdown
All these weeks months I’ve been stressing over her soundness and avowing that she’s such a cool horse, the horse that I want, the horse I’d do anything to keep sound! And whoops, here we are and she’s sound and I’m like, ‘wow ok maybe she kinda sucks* sometimes tho’ lololol….
(*Don’t worry, guys, I still love** her even if she was a straight up violent psychopath.)
((**I reserve the right to change my mind at any time tho!))
staring *directly* at the camera bc it was attached to OMG FRIEND
But ya know. In the grand scheme of things, it was always going to be a hard day. Bc Doozy is… not the super easiest horse, at least for me and my skills. But of all the days, of all the places to sorta get out there and shake the rust off — however rusty we may be — this was basically ideal.
I love this venue, the vibes are so positive and chill. Doozy has been here plenty for lessons plus a couple CTs last year. And sure, it’s kinda embarrassing to be among so many familiar faces like, “Yea I’ve had this horse for almost two years now and she’s still totally crazy and maybe kinda occasionally dangerous…!” But eh. Who cares, right?
hard to tell but the ring was pretty mucky after 2” of rain overnight
We know from last fall that Doozy can settle down and behave herself, we just kinda gotta work through the process again. I had really hoped to just keep the momentum going through the winter — with our Sharon White clinic, some eventing derbies at Loch Moy, a few other clinics or jumper / dressage schooling shows, and then bam! right back at it in March.
But ya know. Obviously none of that happened. And instead most of winter and spring have passed by quietly, with just a few little outings to show for it. C’est la vie!
why yes, it IS another picture of us walking around lol
Our most recent little outings, tho — lessons with the new local 5* trainer — have been paying dividends. We’ve mostly been working on what blogger Which_Chick referred to as “remedial trotting,” staying almost entirely on 20m circles and working on the finer points of shoulder control and micro-yielding in and out. And it’s working!
For our dressage warm up at this CT, I really focused on holding myself accountable and riding as if this test was the most important part of the day. As opposed to my normal habit of sorta shrugging off our suckery by dismissing the dressage bc “we’re here to jump!” No no, for Doozy, the flat work needs to be front and center, always.
ridiculous critter
The warm up wasn’t perfect, tho. Doozy definitely felt more tense than she’s been at home lately (like for instance, in that video y’all watched a couple weeks ago). And then of course she saw her friends on the way from the indoor to the show ring and… yea lol. All bets were off.
I’m still proud-ish-sorta of how I rode, tho. Like, sure, I did slip more into survival mode than I’d intended. But eh it’s going to take a lot of practice to keep riding strongly and intentionally even when the mare gets so fragile and tight.
The parts that went well, tho? Go figure, it’s the stuff we’ve been working on in the remedial trotting lessons! Sure, I kinda lose her shoulders toward the gate in our first trotting circle, but it’s not terrible, and not so bad that she was able to slip into canter. By and large, most of our circles stayed mostly on the tracks I intended (vs kinda just whipping the mare around the figure), and even our final center line turn was fine!
click to see full size
The transitions were fairly prompt too! This is the BN-B test, which calls for canter in the corner going into the short end, with right lead coming up first. Especially with Doozy’s BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD standing off in the distance from that corner, and given that the end of the ring is demarcated only by small little white poles, I had what felt like realistic concerns about unplanned ring exits.
But no, Doozy was fine! Stayed on the lines I rode her, stepped into canter when I asked, and actually the down transitions were more or less in the right spots too. So. Ya know. Cool, we executed the pattern. The relaxation and steadiness are absolutely worlds away from what I know they can be, obviously, but eh. For now I’ll take it.
we are both slightly surprised to have gotten to this point
And anyway, all hell broke loose basically immediately anyway. Doozy’s friend wandered off after we saluted at X, and the meltdown began in proper. Doozy screamed and skittered sideways like a crab and threatened to rear the whole walk back to the trailers.
We had a super short gap to jumping, so my plan was to pause at the trailer to change bridles, then get back on and go straight down to jump. The changing bridles thing… proved to be a mistake anyway, tho. I’ve been riding Doozy more in the hackamore lately and she’s been so quiet and steady and wonderful in it — including with the little bit of jumping we’ve been doing. But… In retrospect, I probably should have predicted that it’d be the wrong answer for when Doozy is in full blown tension mode, behind the leg with a tightly retracted neck. It wasn’t the end of the world, but the nathe would have been better I think.
she jumped the first 3 fences with basically just her front end, and kinda either bunny hopped or stepped over with the hind end, oops
Tho. Lol. Bridle choice was pretty far from front of mind for…. uhhhh, about the next hour lol. Bc Doozy was, again, not to put too fine a point on this, completely psychotic by now.
It was clear that I wouldn’t be able to get on again at the trailer after changing bridles, so instead I hand walked her down to the jumping area. With her screaming and dancing, and at one point rearing up and threatening to strike. I don’t **truly** believe she wanted to hurt me at any point, but she definitely was UNHAPPY with me being in charge. And plus. Whether she “means it” or not doesn’t really matter when the behavior is that dangerous. Sigh.
she got better as we went
The next hour kinda unfolded in much this way. We got into the warm up area, close enough to the other horses for Doozy to get distracted enough to rage eat some grass (but still far enough away to hopefully be as minimally disruptive as a screaming horse can be).
Eventually I was able to climb aboard, and we loitered around the in gate watching the BN class go. I tried to get Doozy over to the warm up zone but the footing there was completely torn to shit, and Doozy’s agitation about going back to the trailers seemed stronger over there. So, eh, we stuck around the show ring while they reset the course to 2’3, and finally in a moment of quiet, with no other horses immediately around, I asked if I could just take her in to the ring.
finished strong, good mare!
It was funny, too, bc Doozy took a giant deep breath once inside the ring. Almost as if the ‘limbo’ of being out in the open loading zone was more stressful for her than being inside the contained ring where we do our work. Which… I honestly kinda expected the opposite from her, but hey, we’ll take it!
So… I picked up the trot and just jumped the course. Our first three fences were pretty squirrelly, with the mare kinda pogo-ing over them, all front end and no hind push. Which I’m attributing to the hackamore not really giving her the freedom she needed when we’re both riding so tight.
the last four fences were the best
Plus Doozy was maybe a little surprised to be jumping, and was possibly weighing her options at fence 2 and then definitely at fence 3 — a funny little off camber turn downhill past the in-gate. We made it over them, tho, and then over 4, which happened to be in the boggiest portion of the ring. Bc again, reminder, the footing was totally water logged.
It’s easy to watch the footage and think I should’ve let her go more forward. And, ya know, maybe I should have. But… with the footing being that unstable and the distances in that triple line animated above being a bit unforgiving… Idk, the last thing I wanted was to slide into a fence.
As it was, the last 4 jumps were set up to be a really nice confidence building finish. I think if the ground was better, it would have ridden 3-3, maybe 4-3. And I actually wondered for a moment if Doozy would do the 3 on the way out. But she fit in the 4, and then was her perfectly locked on self to the final end jump. Yay, good mare, you did it!
this was literally the easiest part of our day LOL, siiiiiiiigh
It’s so funny to me how the “hard” part of the day (the actual jumping test) is actually the easiest for Doozy. Like, I just knew that as soon as I could get her mind on jumping, she’d forget about her BEST FRIENDS OMG and focus. And that’s exactly what she did!
Well. Briefly, lol. Bc then she was a nutter going back up the hill toward the trailers, and a complete spastic pest at the trailer for getting untacked and sponged off. Tho luckily at this point one of her friends was parked nearby and just chilling, so I took Doozy and her feed pan full of forage over to that trailer to just calm down and rage eat for a bit before going home.
sweet* mare <3 (*pre-meltdown)
So ya know. It was a day lol. And we did the things, yay! And the training is sorta working, double yay! It’s just… all the everything else… that needs work. My hope is that repetition and exposure will do the trick. And in the meantime we’ll keep the actual ridden parts easy and accessible enough so that we can get around even in full blown meltdown mode.
Tho, uh, hopefully our next outing will involve fewer of Doozy’s BEST FRIENDS OMG so she can maybe focus a little better lol.
Longtime readers will already be super familiar with my penchant for volunteering at horse trials around Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. And also my somewhat cynical view that the current model of volunteer reliance in our sport is unsustainable without further investment and support from the USEA.
they ordered perfect weather for this show!
I’m worried about the coming year too — given everything else that’s going on in the world. It’s already an expensive and demanding sport. Finding the spare time (and gas money) for a day of jump judging may feel increasingly unrealistic for many folks who might otherwise be inclined.
this unique venue’s xc course basically cascades down a giant hillside, complete with ruins natch
It’s possible my pessimism is a direct result of this weekend’s experience, too: one of Area II’s most iconic venues (and home to an absolutely fantastic Fall 4* International), Plantation Field, was so hard up for volunteers this weekend that they risked not being able to run at all — with organizers forced to make personal phone calls right up to the day before the event soliciting prospective volunteers for even half a day’s time.
Chris Talley’s MBF Firebrand looks like how doozy imagines herself
These events can not run without volunteers. There are not enough paid stewards and members of the ground jury to facilitate horses through the phases (especially in a timely manner when individual riders may be competing multiple horses), and safely oversee the cross country event.
Sure, a single jump judge can often manage multiple fences (especially at a venue like Plantation, with its expansive hillside profile)… But combinations with accuracy questions or narrow faces, like corners and wedges etc, often need the judge positioned strategically to observe the horse passing clearly through the flags, and be close enough to put those flags back in place when they are inevitably knocked down throughout the day.
intermediate trakehner rode great all day, as shown here by Caitlin Reamy & El Patrone
Other fences, like frangible and MIM style jumps, similarly need the jump judge to be close enough to actually inspect the device any time the jump may have had a hard knock.
Obviously, tho, the absolute most fundamental job of the jump judge is to be the warm body with eyes on the rider and radio in hand in the event of an accident. It is unimaginable that something catastrophic could happen at a recognized event and go undetected for lack of sufficient jump judge coverage.
and local legend Sally Cousins with Truly Wiley
Whether or not you feel like the USEA should do more in facilitating and incentivizing the volunteer pipeline (as I do) rather than relying on each individual organizer and venue to cultivate their own volunteer pools… Anybody who participates in the sport and appreciates the relatively low costs for membership and entry fees (compared to say, typical rated h/j stuff) might worry about venue owners shifting away from eventing if running horse trials feels increasingly complicated, risky and expensive.
and Canadian team rider, Lisa Marie Fergusson on Raytheoin Quality Imp! (all you Welsh Cob lovers out there should look up her longtime partner Honor Me!)
And, of course, there are more specifics related to this particular case, too. You might remember a giant controversy a few years ago when, in the wake of the George Floyd murder and the Black Lives Matter movement’s ascendency in national consciousness, Eventing Nation took a moral stand against Plantation Field bc of connotations with the name.
My understanding is that things got heated and personal behind the scenes, and of course social media was aflame with strong feelings.
next up — a MIM table on the prelim course! these frangible devices require a jump judge to be positioned close enough to do regular checks throughout the division in case of hard knocks
Not gonna lie, tho, guys — it always felt a bit like misplaced anger to me. Especially when you consider the same publication, Eventing Nation, has since done significant sponsorship work with Morven Park — another incredible iconic local venue down in, uh, Leesburg, that… actually does include owning and housing slaves as part of its history as a plantation.
Not trying to cast aspersions on Morven Park here, either, guys. It’s a lovely place that I’d go to way more often if it weren’t on the other side of DC from me.
Lee Maher’s HTF Charming Cooley wasn’t touching it tho!
But rather, my point is that this publication — with whatever influence it has — took a very public stand against a venue whose historic use of the word “plantation” relates to tree farming, and continues refusing to this very day to name or cover the event itself. Instead it’s listed as the “Unionville Event” (for the venue’s location) and otherwise basically ignored.
another local (adopted) legend, Australian rider Ryan Wood with Cooley Maestro
Which… Fine. Every publisher is allowed their own standards. From the most modest bloggers (like me!) to national legacy print media, we all get to choose what we cover, how, and why.
i could only stay thru modified, so my last assignment was this crazy roller coaster, ridden here by Tiffany Wandy & CV Outlaw
But I was recently rereading Originals by Adam Grant, and he introduces a topic of “horizontal hostility” that really reminded me of this exact scenario. His case study was on Lucy Stone and her role in the women’s suffrage movement — and the rivalry that broke out between her and other suffragists at the time. A rivalry that risked fracturing the entire movement.
According to Grant, “horizontal hostility” arises in group dynamics, and is reflective of the small differences that drive apart otherwise aligned groups. A typical dynamic includes the differences between purists and more moderates. Issues with the “true believers” and folks who might be more peripheral. Another example he shared was the frequent friction between vegans and vegetarians, with vegans often spurning vegetarians as not being “true” supporters of the cause.
Elle Stephenson & Treasury Stock made it look easy too
That passage immediately reminded me of countless other instances where I could think of people who might otherwise appreciate the same things, like the same sport, share the same values, instead find themselves at odds bc of disagreements on the details.
There seem to be countless ‘tribes’ among equestrianism, too, right? Shod vs barefoot, bits vs bitless, stalls vs turnout… and that’s before you even get to the particulars of any given sport.
it was Conrad Alexander and Just My Style, tho, who won the class
And I guess I’m not really necessarily trying to get into all that, or pick the scab on a sensitive and nuanced issue in our society — at a time when ‘nuance’ and ‘sensitivity’ themselves seem to have been completely discarded by the powers that be.
Except to say that… Listening to the book’s segment on “horizontal hostility” got me thinking about all the times in my life where conflict, friction or controversy has arisen between friends, groups or similar associations in ultimately devastating and counter productive ways. Whether for me personally, or for issues I care about.
I honestly don’t even really know if there’s any relationship at all between that and Plantation’s severe volunteer shortage this weekend, either. It’s probably a fluke. Or one of those random convergences of many small issues (for example, changes in key operational roles within the venue in the last year leading to gaps in coverage, etc).
Or ya know. Maybe it’s just Mother’s Day weekend and people are busy. Who knows, right?
all in a day’s work!
It got me thinking, tho. And so here I am writing about those thoughts.
So. Eh. If nothing else, there are pretty pictures and some cool video clips of amazing horses and riders doing their thang. Or this could be the reminder you needed to remember to sign up for a volunteer shift at your favorite venue sometime soon.
Or, maybe, it’s a reminder to myself — for any of us, really — in this weird strange and ominous era, to be more thoughtful in looking beyond purity tests among those who would otherwise be friendly and/or aligned with our vision for the world we want to be a part of. To focus on the values we share, the areas that bring us together, and our common goals.
