Data entry

Yes, I did actually ride my horse today, but that isn't what's on my mind. Could be that I'm blotting out that horrible four beat thing we were calling a canter in my lesson tonight . . .

But more to the point, I'm still thinking about the amount of data I'm collecting. I had no idea how many entries there were in 2010. None. And as I collect them all and put them in a spreadsheet, I have to touch each one to get the data cleaned up. I haven't even made it to Chatt Hills yet! I keep plugging away at it (I'm about half way through Area 3) since I think it's something worth doing. It would be terrible if everyone got up in arms about a petition over something that was, in the end, a non-issue. So far the most horses I've seen at one horse trial with one rider is twelve. I can't even imagine handling that, even if it's over two days and you have an army of grooms. That's a lot of rides!

I can barely handle getting the princess ready for her lesson. Mud season is in full swing and she's taking full advantage. She was just covered in mud today when I pulled her out. Of course she was, because I was running late. I swear they have some sort of traffic radio being piped out to them.

Traffic is slow on 495 northbound, keeping riders from showing up with adequate groom time. We recommend all horses with riders coming from the south and lesson times around rush hour to go get as much mud on them as possible. And next is sports, with an update on the scores from the stupid trotting around in circles phase from the Fork.

It's time to get back to the data entry grind, even if I'm going a bit cross eyed from it. Areas 1,2, and 3 are a large chunk of the trials, so I'm feeling somewhat accomplished that I've made it this far. Hopefully I'll have this part of the project done by the end of the weekend so I can get to the fun part.