Idle Hands

It appears that my shoulder still hates me, so time off will be had. I don't know quite what I did to it. After our rather raucous ride around Valinor I had a sore neck and if I turned a certain way I could feel it pull through my left shoulder. I thought 'tight muscles, possible pinched nerve' and carried on. It's about 10 days (and two horse shows) later and I'm now treating myself like a horse with a mild lameness and some heat and swelling. Ice, handwalk, some bute, stall rest. Well, Advil instead of bute and staying away from the barn instead of stall rest, but it's the same general idea.

This means a lot of time to sit around and read the internet. Never a good idea. I've been following discussions on whether or not stupid people should own horses and some on how to fix the problems with America's eventing system. I was less than kind on the discussion about the 'I didn't know' excuse. If you're going to go out and buy a horse, buy a damn book and learn that they need their feet done and how to put on a halter. There's no excuse for that nonsense when handling a thousand pound animal. 'I want one because they're pretty' is not enough cause to buy a horse.

As to the future of eventing? What a tangle. Our culture calls for teenagers to get out there and win right NOW, so we end up with young riders buying packers that take care of them and moving up the ranks. Does this produce our future Olympians? Nope, but what is a trainer to do? Tell them that they need to put in some time on difficult horses and learn to not win? It's frustrating for a kid to keep losing because they don't have the 'made' horse. I know from my current project that it can be frustrating to put in so much work and go to a show and get trounced. I'm proud of her, and there's a sense of accomplishment that comes from riding my own work, but who doesn't want to go in and win ribbons?

I don't have a solution, since the culture is increasingly that everyone has to win. If you're not winning ribbons, you shouldn't be playing. And if mommy and daddy have to buy a fancy packer to make that happen, then so be it. The kids with less money riding horses they have to work with are squeezed out, and trainers make more money on kids that campaign, anyway. Until the base culture changes, no decisions made by the USEA or the USEF will make any difference. People want results and they want them NOW. Thanks, Google.

Time to grab some frozen peas for my icing. Typing out a rant clearly is not the best way to rest my shoulder.

Dorkzilla and the Princess

What a weekend. I'm typing this in a less than vertical position because sitting upright is just not worth the effort.
The princess shared my opinion today when I showed up at her stall to put on her shipping boots yet again. Yesterday was our first sanctioned dressage show. We managed to put in a better than expected showing, getting a 60.8% and a 63.2% in our two Training dressage tests. I was just hoping for not eliminated!



You can also see Fiona's boyfriend, whom I've dubbed Dorkzilla for reasons unknown but it sticks. Fiona got a 2nd and a 4th, which is pretty spiffy for being the only Thoroughbred that we saw on the results. Everyone else seemed to have a Warmblood or a Friesian. I was very proud of her, and that's our best dressage in awhile. No airs above the ground!

But today was our two-phase and a different story. I arrived at the barn exhausted, and Fiona looked just about as bushed. We had a serious dressage school Thursday, a jumping lesson Friday, a gallop on Saturday, a dressage show Sunday, and then the two-phase today. It looks like she ran out of gas after the dressage show. Add to that the fact my left shoulder has been bothering me since Valinor and has now decided to just start cutting out on me.

We got a 45.7 in dressage and pulled two rails. We were flat jumping and I actually had to tap her on the shoulder in stadium to make sure she powered up enough to take on an oxer. We had no business being at the show, but no harm done. I did very little warm up and she went right home after her stadium. She'll have time off this week, since our next competition isn't until Oct. 1.

It's been a long three weeks with lots of showing, but she muscled through and has learned a lot. I definitely think she's ready to tackle Novice. This week we'll both take time off and recover some of that drive.

Thelwell Ponies

Well, the tablet is still dead, but that won't keep me from subjecting people to my doodles.

This would be inspired by the princess and her best friend Ruby out on the trails. I've been having this same fight since I was five years old, and I'm still getting dragged toward the food. The conclusion:

We have the tallest Thelwell ponies ever seen. We're so proud.

Fashion Trends (aka I am clearly not cool)

Can someone explain fashion to me? Please?!

I've noticed a trend at shows lately. Maybe someone can explain it to me, because I just don't get it. It appears to be one of those trends that's oriented toward people too young to drink but old enough to think about boys almost as much as horses.

Neon colored sports bras under white show shirts.

I spotted this the first time with a teen at my barn. I thought it was an oopsie moment when she walked over with her neon pink bra shining through her white, cotton show shirt. It lit the whole thing up like a neon sign. Of course her show jacket is going on over top so no harm done and I just gave her some friendly harassment over it.

Another teenager with our barn had a neon blue sports bra on under her white shirt at our last show, and I stared at that. Then I saw more girls sporting this look while walking the stadium course. While I make a point of having a white or other very light color bra on under my white shirt, there seems to be a new trend toward having the brightest color bra available on under your show shirt.

Am I losing my mind, or is this an actual fashion statement like those god awful thongs with the rhinestones hanging out of everyone's pants a couple years ago? I mean, I'd hate to be unfashionable. If I need to get a lighter show shirt and a bright royal blue bra to match my show colors, I'll get right on that.

I don't get fashion.

Shout Outs

Another sanctioned event is in the books, and I have a couple messages for those involved:

To Tropical Storm Irene: Thank you for holding off until we were off of cross country. It was plenty slippery enough on the grass with just the light, intermittent showers and I appreciate not having any downpours to add more difficulty to the terrain.

To the jump judge at fence #5: Laughter is good for you, and I'm glad we were able to give you a good belly laugh when my mare saw something off to the right and ran off the track and up the side of that construction site like it was a bank on a motocross course before completing the turn and taking #5 nicely.

To the jump judge at fence #12 and #13: Sorry about dropping the F-bomb between fences, the approach to #13 was a bit out of control and I saw my life flash before my eyes. But fortunately the princess has a healthy dose of self preservation, backed off, and we didn't get to see just how athletic she can be.

To the princess: I'm very sorry about turning into an alien in dressage when you started to key up thinking we were going on cross country. Also, thank you for the amazing runs in stadium and cross country. You were very grown up with balanced roll backs on a slippery stadium round and rocking around a cross country course with a lot of terrain. Glad you had a good time, and I think that's your last Beginner Novice. It would be a nice change if you actually noticed the freaking jumps.

We managed to squeak out an 8th place ribbon and get home before the weather got icky. Next up on her agenda is a week of dressage camp in preparation for next week's dressage show, and also to get us started fixing her dressage scores. She keeps going double clear, but at this level, there really isn't a lot of movement for the leaders after dressage. But considering her clear stadium (there were a lot of rails due to terrain and slippery grass) and rocking cross country? I think her future as an eventer is looking golden.

Hurricanes and Heat Cycles

Sometimes you just stare at a situation and think 'this cannot end well'. My next event is starting to get that feel to it.

Fiona all braided up for Valinor

First there's this hurricane coming up the coast. While people are still debating on how bad it's going to be by the time it hits New England, I'm really not big on riding cross country in a tropical storm, much less a weak hurricane. Due to a very rare Northeastern tropical system, our show got moved to Saturday. We're still riding with 50% chance of rain all day, but at least it's not 100% chance of rain with tropical storm winds. Small favors.

Then I went to ride the princess today only to find that she was cranky, sore, and just not in the mood to talk to me. Someone's in heat big time. She was spooky, distracted, and did not want to lift her back. Do they make Pamprin for mares? I wanted to give her bute, chocolate, and a hot bath, but that just didn't seem practical. She did get a bubble bath and about 45 minutes of hand grazing after she was braided up. Close enough. She has my sympathy, there's usually a day or two out of the month where I sure don't want to work, but if I have to work through it so does she.

Another 3:30am wake up call, a three hour drive, and what will probably be a very wet show. Sometimes I think my hobby is silly.

Moving up

Sure, sure, we moved up. We completed our Novice schooling debut with our usual gusto. Fiona managed to stick to her dressage score and nabbed a pretty yellow ribbon. We had a lovely gallop and I got to yell to a photographer, "My steering is sketchy, look out!" But everyone is used to my princess being a super star. That's old news.

What's really interesting is our new schooling technique, which is basically don't. Avoid warmup as much as possible. I think it's just me, since I get flustered in a crowded warm up. This time we tried a fifteen minute school to get her working, then tucking her back on the trailer for about half an hour to chill out. Then we just walked over to dressage and headed in with no warm up. It worked great, she didn't even get a chance to get wound up. I don't think she noticed the dressage until we were halfway through and we were given a 40.8. We're very close to that sub-forty score I've been trying to get!

Of course storms blew in while we were wrapping things up with our elementary riders. Being a very organized show team, we had the trailer all loaded so that when the last two came trotting over from stadium, we were able to strip their horses and throw them on the trailer.

Eventers are a fun crowd. Something about the sport just calls in fun people. We had tack off almost as fast as the riders touched the ground, trying to get everyone loaded as the thunder started to boom. Stripping horses is an art form and the team is just darn good at it. The horses didn't get a rain drop on them. The equipment, on the other hand, got some rough handling. I apologize to the teenager that was still in the dressing room when we started hurling stray equipment in and bellowing for her to get a move on. I'm sure it was quite alarming to have the door yanked open and spare shipping boots chucked in her general direction.

I indulged in a nice bottle of wine to celebrate. My girl is getting so grown up. I even joked with my trainer about how we can manage moving her to training. I sure won't be the one in the saddle for it.

I don't think my trainer thinks it's a joke.