A Fall Update

I feel like I haven't updated our season in forever. I am just going to go back and fill in the spots. We have been to many events this summer and early fall and are about to culminate our year at the biggest one for us, the CCI 1* at Midsouth Team Challenge Horse Trials. The year started out a bit rough but has shown me again why I do what I do.

Lets go back to Cobblestone HT. What an amazing venue. Its in Michigan, about 5 hours from Midway and it could not be a more ideal place to have a run. The course was amazing. The organizers and owners had gone to great lengths to water the course (in a drought) using help from the people who neighbor their property and tons of volunteers. They aerated and groomed the course so much that the footing could not have been more ideal. I was SO glad I had skipped Champagne Run where the going was hard as a rock. Mira had an OK dressage test (more blonde moments..and NO not bc of the rider). Her xc was foot perfect over a course that ate a lot of people, including the top people in our division and despite my less than stellar riding a clear show jump. We ended up third and had another qualifying ride under our belt. Catherine also competed that weekend in the Beg Nov championships and while Ransom was once again foot perfect the dressage judge had a "dislike pony with adult rider" bias which kept them out of the ribbons, however she did win the Cobblestone Breast Cancer Awareness "Pink Out" award for xc day. Needless to say I was tired and kinda went a bit crazy in decorating her pony....

Next was the Area 8 Prelim Championships at Ky Classic HT. Mira was back to her old self in dressage and decided to put in a nice test earning us a 35 score. She was clean and had the second fastest xc time on a course that ended up riding tougher than anything I had seen in a while..including double corners..the bane of my existence. In show jump I had a stupid rider error to cause us to drop one rail, but in the end we finished 2nd at the Area 8 Prelim Champs so I was ecstatic! And to top it all off my family was there and got to see most of it which meant the world to me.

Mira at the Area 8 Champs!

After Classic it was a run down to the American Eventing Championship's for Catherine and the wonder pony to compete in the Beginner Novice Amateur Division. The pony could not have been more perfect and while they both did their best they ended up in the upper third of a huge division and had a great run. We were both kind of disappointed in the xc for BN. It wasn't the much of a championship course, but that meant Catherine didn't get too nervous and ended up winning a tie she was in for being closer to the optimum time.

And finally a couple of weeks ago was Flying Cross HT. I have never competed at the venue, just schooled, but it was a good run. We had our best dressage to date, scoring us a 31 and putting us in 2nd place. I had an ugly rider error in show jump (i.e. Mandy quit riding and hoped for the best) which caused us to obliterate one fence (wish I could stop flubbing up in SJ) and then because I didn't need the run to qualify we just hoped around the xc with some time penalties to finish 6th. It was a good last run before the 1*.

So now that I've updated the world on our goings on we have to do our final preparations for the big weekend. I have a TON going on this month. Let's see...

October 6th Horse Cleanup day at the College for the riding teams
October 13th The Missouri Tough Mudder! Woohoo finally!!!
October18-21 is the CCI1*!!!!
October 26/27 IHSA Hunt Seat Show in Louisville
November 3/4 IDA Dressage Show at Otterbein
November 10 IDA Dressage Show at Findlay
November 17/18 IHSA show at Morehead

So as you can see I don't have a weekend off for a while. It doesn't bother me because it'll keep me busy, but if anyone needs me, don't try to check in until Thanksgiving...literally.

More updates to come in the days up to the 1*!

signing off
~Mandy

RIP Old Friend

Yesterday was a tough day. I got the news that my first horse had passed away due to old age and I felt awful that I haven’t seen him in about a year.  His name was Whatchamacallit (boy did I think I was funny when I named him that) aka Duncan and he was retired at Masterson Station Park having been a lesson horse there for many years.  I still hold on to nothing but good memories of him from my childhood and will miss him mightily.

I was 13 when I came across Duncan. He came to Masterson to be in the lesson program and I decided I had to have him. He was a tall chestnut with high white socks behind and a big stripe down his face. He had to have been some sort of TB/Saddlebred/QH/Heinz 57 mutt, but he was beautiful.  He had been a track pony for a lady who sent him to Masterson and when I spoke to her she told me I could have him for $1,300. Nobody knew exactly how old he was because he was a cribber, and the vet told me she thought he could be anywhere from 12-14, but he looked great, so I just assumed he was younger.  I approached my Mom about buying him. There was no way she could afford it and thankfully she told me no (though at the time I hated her).  I talked to his owner again and she said I could make payments. So it took me two years of odd jobs and hard work, but in the end he was mine. To this day I have him and my Mom to thank for the huge lesson in perseverance and responsibility. 

That horse took me to many 4-H shows and took me to my first horse trials.  He wasn’t the best jumper and lord knows I was scrappy but I really had no idea what I was doing, but that horse taught me so much. He was a teacher and a friend.  Most everyone knows my Mom and I butted heads a lot, so Duncan was my refuge. He was a safe conveyance. He never said no, but always made sure I was safe. There are countless times when he should have dumped me and left me for the wolves. There was a time when Annie and I were too lazy to walk the trash the half mile to the road so we tied the trash bags (insert WTF here) across our horses’ backs to take them. Naturally they spooked, and dumped us and the bags, but Duncan didn’t run away. He just looked at me with that “hey dummy what were you thinking” look. There was the time we dressed our horses up like reindeer to ride in the Christmas parade downtown and the time at the 4-H state show when my Mom and I got into an ugly fight and I galloped off on him at the Louisville Fairgrounds. My Dad used to hold Duncan's lead sitting in a lawn chair and he would just stand there and sleep.  He was my saving grace as a child.

Duncan and I at the Christmas parade with 4-H

 In the end college came along and he was getting older ( or so I thought). I couldn’t really afford to keep him and knew he would be safe if he was at Masterson with Georgia (one of the people I most look up to). There he stayed for another eleven years (yes I said 11). In that time he learned to lay down with kids when they rode him so he didn’t have to work, he would stand for the endless number of kids to climb on and off of him. He taught my nieces to ride. He grew old and just kept on being the saint he was from my youthful years.

This morning I got a phone call from my good friend, Georgia, who has run the Masterson program for as long as I can remember. She said Duncan was down in the field this morning and didn’t want to get up. It was his time to go. We guessed he was around 35 years old. He could not have had a better life thanks to Georgia. I am incredibly grateful to her for taking such good care of him. So now that I have reflected on how amazing my first horse was and regretting that I had not seen him in about a year I must say goodbye. Rest In Peace Duncan. You were a friend, teacher, kind hearted soul and you started me on the path that has led me to make horses my lifestyle, and I will never forget you. 

Until next time

~Mandy

NAJYRC Volunteering

So I had the privilege of volunteering at Young Riders this past weekend. It was an amazing experience. If any of you ever have the time, volunteering is both fun and rewarding. It gives back to this amazing sport we all love, for without the volunteers none of us would be able to compete. In my previous jobs volunteering just wasn't possible. If I went to a show it was to work as a groom and if I didn't go to a show it was because my previous jobs had me working weekends. I am now in a situation that allows me to be a somewhat normal human being so volunteering is more attainable. I also have this twisted idea that I might try to get certified <-- is that the correct word? as a MSEDA judge with the ultimate goal being to someday get my "r" in Eventing Dressage. I know crazy right? And since I want to do this, many hours are needed scribing and volunteering.  So onward with last weekend.

As we all know my last experience with scribing was an eye opener. I took it for granted that all of my horses and students went in the show ring looking their best and doing their best. There are a lot of people who just don't care. Well this time was different. It was a championship. It was an FEI level event. It was much more polished. I was super excited when I got assigned to the President of the Ground Jury at C, Annabelle Scrimgeour. First, she had an amazing British accent (I love accents) and second she was the head judge so I knew I was going to learn a ton. For those of you who don't know, in FEI level events there are three judges instead of just one. Its intimidating as a rider, but it gives you a much better view of how your test rode because you get three opinions (sitting at different points in the arena) instead of one. We all know dressage is quite subjective so it gives you a chance to see how you are really doing. I also discovered that scribing in a large arena is TONS easier. You have more time to write and to watch whats going on because theres more room! Novel concept isn't it? I loved how Annabelle was not destructive in her comments, yet when she felt strongly about a movement she made sure to explain her scores. I was able to ask her questions and understand what she was looking for and the best part was I was able to keep up with her AND my scores would have been pretty similar on more than 80% of the tests. (better yet were her british terms, "rather big circle" "muddled lengthening") I was stoked because she's an "S" judge and I was able to see so many things. Yay, I'm not completely useless in what I see!

I must say I was super impressed with the riding ability and the presentation of the horses and riders. Its nice to know that some of the up and coming riders can clean up and take care of their horses for shows.

And then on to Saturday where I "Area Stewarded" for the first time. It was also a good learning experience and EXTREMELY intimidating. I have ridden at the upper levels and at the FEI level. I know the rules, but wow when your put on the spot and asked to be in charge in that situation it is intense! For the day I was assigned the jumps back by the "hollow" they use at Rolex. For the 2* the riders had to jump off the huge drop at the root cellar and go to a skinny brush and then jump a log in the hollow followed by a skinny before they headed for a long gallop to a trakehner. It was pretty well ridden. We only had one fall that was because the horse slipped and fell on the landing side of the skinny brush (horse and rider were ok, just frustrated) and a hairy moment at the log going into the hollow for one rider where her horse went to take off, saw the drop and lost momentum in the air, leaving a leg at the fence, but keeping a cool head his rider rode on through and finished successfully in one of the top spots for the 2*. The 1* had to do the double bounce step down at the hollow and while we were concerned it might ride tough, for those who chose to do it instead of the option there, it rode well. We only saw one rider look straight at the ground and almost end up there. Her coach was standing near and said, " well her instructions were to trot and look up, she cantered and looked down- glad we got that on video" It was interesting to hear the different Chefs, Coaches, friends, and family members accounts of what their team was supposed to do.

All in all it was a well run, well ridden event. I was more impressed than I thought I would be. I had an excellent experience and I give tons of credit to the smooth running to people like Mary Fike and Bev Henson  who were in charge of varying parts of the Eventing portion of the NAJYRC. They are incredible people in our area and we take them for granted. Oh, and thanks to Janice Holmes as well for helping me understand where I was supposed to be. Otherwise I'd probably still be asking exactly what I had to do to be an area steward? And were they sure they wanted ME to be doing that job? I really could just jump judge.... lol.

So I encourage more volunteers and make sure to say thank you to those out there. They really are the backbone of our sport. 

Off to Cobblestone this weekend and will have a full report!

Signing off~
Mandy

The Importance of Grooms

You know I never got to properly thank my many amazing helpers/grooms/moms with food/friends at Midsouth Horse Trials the other weekend, so I thought I'd say thank you and remind everyone just how important grooms (unsuspecting friends) are in the horse show world. I also thought I'd share what it means to be a groom. If you didn't understand before you will now, and maybe you will rethink trying it out because it looks like your dream job.
When most people think of grooms they think of poor immigrants working ungodly hours lunging horses and cleaning stalls at the big hunter shows.What they don't think of are poor riders who want lessons or to compete at the upper levels so they commit their life to being paid less than minimum wage, eating Peanut Butter sandwiches, and moving home to live with their parents so that they can afford to compete at the top of their sport. Wait, didn't I say that being a groom was a barrel of monkeys? If you believed the first paragraph then your more gullible than a kid who believes a man who tells you "there's candy in the van with no windows". Here's what a day in the life of your average event groom looks like:

5:30AM Get up, don't shower because your just gonna get covered in slobber/tack soap/bath soap/ turpentine/furacin/surpass or any other number of crud at the barn, eat a granola bar (2nd cheapest thing next to PB&J), and rush out the door, wait go back and put some pants on, then rush out the door to the barn (or in my case the 20min drive to the barn)

6:13AM grab the first horse on the list and do a record time groom and tack up for the trainers first ride at 6:30AM- wait until 7:45AM for trainer to show up (ok this only counts for the trainer who puts too much on their plate...which incidentally is most of them)

11AM- have tacked/untacked/bathed/wrapped/walked in, out, up the hill, down the mountain/set fences/changed bits/ on no less than 8 horses....take a deep breath

11:15AM...run like a chicken-with-head-cut-off out to field for that last horse the trainer was asked to ride..she wants to be on in ten min...horse is on the other side of the 80acre field and thinks its funny to trot away from you

11:33AM your 8min late and your getting yelled at...why did you forget that darn 9th horse-that you weren't told about, but you should know about because of E.S.P?

12PM ok lunch time...PB &J (or Ramen if you aren't sick of those little packets yet)

12:15PM why are you sitting like a bump on a log, you need to have cleaned all 9 bridles by now, and iced 4 of the horses as well as washed ALL of the dirty saddle pads...oh and theres a horse coming in for the trainer to try at 1, have the correct tack out (so call the owner and see what you need)

1:05PM Ach, the person bringing the horse is late...carry all of needed tack to the parking lot and wait for the trailer to roll in, then hastily wait while the owner coo's at Sir Snortsalot and begs him to unload..for 20 min...set tack on wheel well of trailer and show owner how to unload horse...horse knocks tack on ground...run into the barn for a wet towel...run back to trainer tacking up Snort (aka Rearing Dragon of Death) who barks at you for leaving the tack too close to the horse while getting him ready...

2PM Snort has fought with trainer so much he's staying for a month of training...go set up a stall and pray he doesn't eat you alive because you get to help try to break his nasty habits over the next month (and your the assigned guinea pig to school him cross-country for the first time because he might try to re-enact a scene from Godzilla and your the "young-un")

ooops back up from 1:05-1:59 call the feed store and change feed for one horse, call two sponsors because your about to be out of product (and schmooze about how much you like Ed's Fish Oil even though secretly its caused you to not get asked out on a date recently because you smell like it and when you go to a bar smelling like an oil dredge people usually scatter), call an owner to remind them their tax-deductible contribution to the "Team" is due, call the farrier because you have horses competing this weekend and they need new shoes, call the trainers friend to pick up their kid from school because the trainer added three more lessons this afternoon and they can't go get said child...or wait- nope the neighbor can't go..you have to...

3-5:30PM feed, re-set feed, Oh! Don't forget to pick up trainers kid (beg said kid to not scream like a pterodactyl in your car), check any needed meds...clean the 4 bridles you still haven't gotten to, order hay/shavings for the traveling weekend, take a lesson on your own horse (beg forgiveness from said horse for ignoring him because the "string" comes first) drag Sir Dragon-Snorts-Death to his new field and hope he doesn't kill the boarders horses...uhoh he thinks he's a stallion..catch him and put in private paddock...call owner and inform her the board will be a little higher because Sir Flower is special and needs his own space

5:30-7 set fences for students in lessons, go back up to the barn and clean the three stalls that the barn staff didn't get to, grab trainers helmet so she can get on a students horse, go again beg forgiveness from your own horse (read-LOTS OF TREATS), then when told your done for the day...run to your car like your pants are on fire and drive home...wait turn around there's still laundry in the dryer that needs to be folded...then run home...eat another PB &J sandwich

8PM crash and burn because tomorrow the day has to start earlier, we just aren't able to get everything done in the hours worked.

Now what this doesn't include is the horse shows (lets not even go there for those hours) or the other strange things that pop up in a day. It also doesn't include trot/gallop set days because those are even worse. I just don't think people understand what a hard life being a groom is. On the other side of things though, there is nothing more rewarding when one of your charges jumps a clean round, or gets an admirable look or comment from  a passerby..better from the trainers trainer... and the epitome is when your horse gets a best-conditioned/turned-out award or wins their class..you become a proud Mama and all that hard work pays off. There is also nothing better than getting to compete your own horse and noticing the improvement you have with them because Sir Snortsfire taught you stickabilitiy.

SO, because I have been there and I know what its like to be a groom I vowed to never treat my grooms badly and sometimes all it takes is a simple "thank you." So THANK YOU Courtney, Hannah, Catherine, Catherine's Mom, Julie, and Elisa. I know we wouldn't have gotten through that weekend without your help. Now onward and upward to Cobblestone HT...lets see what shenanigans get Shamrock Eventing in Michigan

signing off~
Mandy

Midsouth PC HT Craziness

I encountered another first this weekend. It was the first time I have ever competed more than two horses at once and I can now say I have a newfound respect for anyone who competes more than two horses at one event. It was a crazy weekend and it ended up being educational for all involved. I had four students riding, competed my mare, and competed two friends green horses.

Friday there were only two dressage rides. Mira went first and since her behavior is about as mercurial as the famous Christian Grey she had a not so stellar test. We went from an amazing 33.5 at Indiana HT to a 44.3 at this show. While it put us in second to last, it was still a qualifying score and I am well aware she (and I) are capable of doing much better than that. Next went Elisa and her mare Marley, who have been riding with me for a little over a month and are showing steady improvement. They also achieved a qualifying score, but we all know Marley is a much better jumping bean than DQ, so all is well.

Saturday was the crazy day. There were 4 XC rides, 5 dressage rides, and 3 show jump rounds in all. My day was set to be wild. I made the mistake of drinking one of those 5-hr energy drinks in the morning before we got to the Horse Park and because of that little bottle of stimulant I was shaking like a kid who has had too much sugar and walked into an amusement park. Mira was foot perfect on cross-country and we were up on the clock until about fence 14 when I slowed her a bit, knowing we would be pretty good on time and still a little apprehensive to push because of our still mysterious metabolic holdups. Elisa and Marley got around their first prelim clean and looking excellent, much more controlled than in the past. Then we went into some dressage rides. Chelsea was a bit nervous, so Weber fed off of her. They had some hairy moments in dressage warm-up (Weber felt there needed to be some jumps out there), but went in and put in a pretty good dressage test. Following them were Kandace and my wonder horse Cameron at their first recognized event. As always Cameron put in a very steady test. That horse is so amazing. I was so blessed to have had him as long as I did. It was then my turn again on a green sale horse, Ted (Return to Sender) who walked all the way from Egypt (where the trailers were parked) to the dressage like a champ (even when some kid on a bicycle tried to mow us down). He was a little worried in warm-up but once in the dressage ring decided he was a big kid and actually put in a really steady test. Following Ted I ran (ok on a golf cart courtesy of my awesome older sister) out to cross country to warm-up Chelsea. She was again pretty nervous (having not competed since last summer) but worked very hard on keeping calm. She and Web had some sticky moments on cross country and ended up calling it a day about ¾ of the way around the course, not because of elimination, but so that she could teach Web the lesson of patience with his rider. I then ran back to dressage in time to see Catherine and her wonder pony put in a test worthy of admiration. (I am so proud of her and that pony, mostly because of the confidence he has given her) And again back out to cross country (can you say running like a chicken with its head cut off?) to help Kandace and Cameron get going. Cameron was his usual goofball self in the start box, shaking his head and demanding to start like someone lit a fire under his bum, but went out and showed Kandace just why I loved him so much. Then it was back to dressage for me to ride, Julie Congleton's awesome little mare, Lola. Julie had a crazy busy week judging at the Midsouth Pony Club Rally so when she asked me if I would ride Lola I was honored. Lola is a dressage machine, so showing off in the dressage ring was right up her alley. And then before the day was through Ted, Lola, and Ransom pony all had to show jump. Each went in the ring like old hands and jumped double clean. I was so proud of everyone Saturday, but went home and was in bed by 8pm.

                                                   photo courtesy of Perry Photographic :)

Sunday was the last of the early days. I was supposed to be the second horse in the show jump ring, but when another rider scratched I was up first. I was exhausted and Mira had on her wings, so we would have jumped clean if I had been allowed to sleep for 6 more hours. I quit riding at fence 9A on a very winding course so we had one rail, but at least I know it was my fault. As always Marley was perfect and jumped brilliantly for Elisa. We finished 9^th and 12^th respectively in a large Preliminary division. Cameron and Kandace jumped into 7^th place in their large Novice division. Then Ted ran cross country like he had been doing it for years, and Lola jumped around the same (putting Julie in tears because the “fiesta table” didn’t cause us any problems) and with the pony bringing up the rear and finishing in stellar fashion. Lola finished 6^thand Ted finished 8^th in their large BN division, and the pony finished a stellar 5^th in his division of over 25 rides!

All in all it was an incredible weekend for Shamrock Eventing although I was so exhausted Sunday I slept for almost 13 hours between Sunday afternoon and Monday. We look forward to Cobblestone HT coming up in July. Mira is well on the track to do the CCI 1 Star at the fall Midsouth HT, hopefully Ted will sell soon, and the rest of the crowd is excited about the upcoming shows. Oh! And not to forget, the pony will be competing at the Area championships at Cobblestone. Wish us all luck in training!

TTFN~
Mandy

Well it seems I haven't written in awhile. I feel I need to just clear the air. I should in all sensibility write about Indiana Horse Trials and how much of an interesting weekend it was, but I want to write about understanding the pain of entering an event (of any kind) and not actually getting to compete. There is nothing worse and sometimes people can be critical about you, your horse, your training (all kinds), the events you enter (on foot, wheels, or horse), the food you eat, and any other number of "getting there" techniques. In the end it either works or it doesn't, but when circumstances are beyond your control its just that much worse.

I have dealt with getting to an event and not getting to compete. it happened to me more than once with Cameron. The two worst were at Poplar at the CIC 2 star where I made a bad decision in that I chose to use a double bridle in dressage, against advice from my trainer and ended up having a disastrous unqualifying test. At the time Cameron had already been around the intermediate course there, so it wasn't worth wasting his legs just to jump around when my score put us far down on the leaderboard and it wasn't a qualifying score. Then there were the two times I entered Richland, the first time at Advanced, when I had a horrible trailer accident and didn't get to go. The second was at the CIC 3 star when I had entered and because Cam had jumped around Millbrook and came up lame afterwords we had to scratch. All of those times I lost large sums of money, caused untold stress and heartache to myself and my team, and managed to lick my wounds and keep on kicking.

As you all know I learned about the Tough Mudder event last fall when I saw some fellow eventers do on in Virginia. I was hooked. We all know I am somewhat of an adrenaline junky (skydiving and eventing just aren't enough) and am always looking for new more challenging activities. Along with a couple of friends I entered the Tough Mudder the was set for March 18th in Attica, Indiana. I was stoked. It was October 2011 so we had plenty of time to train for this grueling obstacle course event. Well, as we all know in late February the TMHQ sent an email that the safety officials felt March in Indiana was too cold, so they chose to move the event to June. We stayed with our Sunday time (June 17th) and while we were disappointed we figured the weather would be better and we had even more time to train.

Well we went this past weekend. We set out with a team of 6, "Asses from the Bluegrass" to do our first Tough Mudder. The trip to Indiana was uneventful. We had a good dinner and went to bed later than we should have because we were so excited. I was exhausted so when Olivia woke me at 12:30AM I was super confused. She said we had all just received an email stating that the Sunday TM was canceled. After about 15 minutes of serious contemplation (arguing) and internet research on our cell phones we found out because they had, had bad storms Saturday afternoon that they were canceling Sunday. Naturally we were all distraught and couldn't believe this was happening. We drove 5+ hours, got a hotel, ate dinner out, had t-shirts made, took time off work, and planned on having a kickass time at this thing the next morning and now because of some rain we were unable. AND unlike horse shows there was no phone number to call and no one to talk to, to ask if they could just start a little later. The next morning we drove up to the site and to our sad surprise there was not a bit of standing water near the start/finish.

                     This is just past the start/finish area...HUGE puddle (<--Insert sarcasm here)

 I understand there is a safety issue with getting emergency personnel to the back of the course, but like I said, if they had just started later...

        And this one is the monkey bars...its about 100 feet before the first picture..no mud in sight....

 The other difference is at least they gave us a free entry to another of their events. Sadly though I am not sure if I will be able to attend one this year due to conflicts on all of the other weekends. I think I will be on a mission to try to make the Missouri one work. It is fall break weekend after all.

So now I have a little inkling as to how it feels to be all of those people that wanted to run Badminton this year. My little adventure doesn't compare in the slightest to the money that those people spent (flying themselves and their horses to England, living expenses, etc) but I do understand the heartache. You prepare for these things and think there is no way weather can get in the way, but sadly because of all of the climate changes we have had, the weather ends up being the most deciding factor in many adrenaline fused activities. Personally, I say bring on the tough weather, it just makes it that much more of an achievement when you finish. That and the devastation that this weekend caused is extremely hard on a person as neurotic as I am :(

And yes it is called a Tough MUDDER....so naturally more rain would make it better right? Guess not....

signing off~
Mandy

Cross-Country Schooling!

Schooling cross-country. Another phrase that can bring dread to some people, to others it brings excitement and promise of an adrenaline rush. The Kentucky Horse Park Foundation generously puts on schooling days at the Park throughout the summer which provide the Eventing crowd a chance to jump fences on the famous course. Yesterday was the first one of the season and naturally it became somewhat of a clusterf**k as usual(which was not necessarily because of the astronomical number of people there or the craziness of riders and horses careening EVERYWHERE). If you haven’t been around me that much then you don’t know my middle name should be either klutz or clusterf**k.  SO since everyone loves stories here goes.

The plan: take Ransom/Catherine G, Marley/Elisa, Ted/Maggie,  and Junood/myself (with Sara/Everest out to hack) to meet Skip/Catherine D  and Eveen/Keebler (dubbed our fun Irish friends) out to school some lower level stuff in the evening on Wednesday. I knew Elisa was my only Preliminary person so she would get to school some big stuff while we did the little stuff. We were supposed to meet at the KHP between 5:30/6PM.  And since I am a bit neurotic about time (and everything else) I wanted to leave the farm as soon as everyone got there, so I got home early and brought Ransom and Ted in.

 That's Marley and Elisa on the right :)

The actual happening: Maggie had to fit a saddle to Ted since she is looking at him as a potential horse to buy (shameless plug here- Ted is for sale, 16.2hh TB gelding- FANTASTIC jumper, tons of potential and cheap!) so she wanted to take him schooling with us. Well, she had to change her air vest cord from one saddle to the other..we are now ten minutes behind. Me being the impatient person I am I decide to go load Ransom and Ted while she is doing this. Meanwhile Elisa pulls her rig around behind Catherine’s and tries to load Marley. Tries is the operative word here. Marley said she wasn’t keen on getting on the trailer today, so sorry it sucks to be us.  It ended up taking much prodding and Marley finally walked on ( in all fairness it was a Brenderup and according to Elisa they don’t even sell those trailers in the US anymore...I could say something snarky here, but well I like Elisa and the trailer actually wasn’t as much of a death trap as I thought those trailers were…must be the reason they didn’t make it in the US..) We are now 25 minutes behind.

Next we head to the park. I told Sara  (Junoods owner) to go in the campground entrance because as we all know that’s the way to go to the schooling area start. She called me while we were driving and said that way was closed. We decide to re-route to the main entrance. I then tell Catherine to over the dam bridge (the one we walk over for Rolex) because that way is faster too. She gets up there and it is also closed off because of the hunter show that is going on. We have to re-route a 3^rd time now (and were 40 minutes behind. Catherine and Eveen have been waiting for us for over an hour now but their Irish and good natured so they were willing to wait) and come upon the state vet. I always hate meeting the state vet. Most of them don’t know anything about horses, all they do is check the dates on your paperwork. God forbid they hire a horse person to do this, that would be beyond the State of Kentucky’s thought process.  We get through and head on up to the schooling area (on the other end of the park). I get a phone call from Catherine as we go to park (she wasn’t right behind us… her coggins on Ted has expired and she forgot to check it. They won’t let her through.  

Now we are in open panic mode (with me telling Elisa every five seconds, "wouldn't it be funny if?"- she was not amused...she asked why it would be funny, I said because its better than saying, "I'll be *!^%@^. pissed off if..")<-- another aside here..people get really frustrated with my neurosis..I know I say things like, "house on fire" and "wouldn't it be funny if" among other things..its what makes me who I am. :)

We  are an hour and a half behind and we now have to take Elisa’s rig back to the front of the park to pick up the pony so that Catherine can school. Maggie has volunteered to take Ted home. Catherine is upset and feels really bad, but we get everything moved (with the state vet dude staring at us the whole time) and finally head back up to the schooling area (did I mention it was at the other end of the park?).

 RANSOM! Adorable pony!

In the end we finally get on and go schooling. We picked up a new person who came with our Irish friends, Miriam and her adorable shire cross, Baby. Elisa had a brilliant school with Marley (sometimes all it takes is a bit change) and Ransom pony jumped brilliantly, even over some training level questions (Catherine really NEEDED that). Eveen and Miriam jumped some stuff I think they would never had tried if I hadn’t been there and we corrected some habits of Catherine D and Skip so their schooling went from a bit frantic at first to absolutely lovely by the end. Junood was out for his first cross-country school and bless him it was a MADHOUSE out there! I think everyone and their brothers’ mother came out to school! He handled it extremely well and other than a severe dislike for the ditch (we have to work on that more, I am not keen on camel jumping) ß don’t ask me how I know what a camel looks like when it jumps, he ended up being extremely brave and jumping everything else, including the banks and running through the water. In the end he had settled mightily and I got a text from Sarah later that evening that for the first time ever he was not stressed on the trailer ride home…maybe we need to stress him with hundreds of horses galloping around more often.

 Junood (Rolex here he comes!)

So now you know how our clusterf**k of a school went. I am extremely proud of the whole group. We had such a positive outing. I look forward to what it means for us for the summer.  For now safe travels and good luck to all.

Signing off~

Mandy 

Horse Show Attire

This past weekend most of you know I scribed at the Spring Bay HT. It was tons of fun and I’ll talk about that in another post. What I want to talk about today is something else. We all know when we go to horse shows we should be turned out properly right? Some of us (me) never did Pony Club but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what proper show attire is and better yet, some of the people I saw were riding for bigger name trainers in the area and were even more poorly turned out than the ignorant crowd. My main “rant” about this is something I was told many times by many different trainers/mentors/friends/parents- “ a well turned out horse and rider adds confidence.” It’s also courteous to the judge, the volunteers, your trainer, any owner you might be riding for, heaven forbid a potential sponsor, college recruiter, organizers, and yourself. I have to say I was slightly appalled at some of what I saw this weekend. Let’s have a rundown of proper as opposed to improper.

Let’s start with the helmet. As we all know approved helmets are now required and as most of you know I am a HUGE helmet advocate. Its amazing how one little piece of equipment can mean life and death, but better yet it’s EASY to wear. Most people have gone to a velvet or similar type helmet, and as long as it’s black and fits you properly, great, wear it. Even helmet covers are ok, as long as they fit and are black. It didn’t happen in my ring, but seriously, you would go in a ring with not only an old dirty helmet cover on and think people wouldn’t notice? Not only that but when the judge says something to you about it, be nice, take the critique and FIX IT. Don’t come back in the SAME ring three more times with the same helmet! Eventers are nice! BORROW! 

And what about the hair? I can’t say I am a huge fan of those gaudy show-bows, but at least your hair is neatly put away in them. When your hair is flying out the sides of your helmet like Pegasus wings- don’t you think your horse might be a bit embarrassed? Seriously- the horses are here for us and ol Flash does not like it when you’re trying to help him around the ring with your hair just a-flappin in the breeze. Either put it in the helmet (although Charles Owen says no ponytails up in helmets) or better yet WEAR A HAIRNET and if that still doesn’t help…get hairspray…it’s only one day and it washes out.

Now on to clothing. A black or navy blue coat is appropriate, and it should be long enough to cover your seat, but not so long it’s a dress and not so short it looks like a sweatshirt. And if your shoes are too small you wouldn’t wear them…same goes for the coat. A stock tie is absolutely necessary, and while even I used to have the dreaded “pre-tie” at least it was clean and pressed, not dirty yellow and wrinkled (oh yeah…saw a bunch of those). On to gloves. I don’t know what trainer in their right mind would send their kids into the arena in white gloves. In case it was confusing- white gloves show EVERY movement of your hands. If you aren’t Anky Van Grunsven don’t wear them. Even when I ran around a 2* and advanced and wore tails even I didn’t wear them.. I don’t want the judge noticing if I have an attack of the “it” hands. 

Your breeches can be white or tan, but if they are white…keep them clean…seriously, no putting on hoof polish, baby oil, petting your horse, cleaning tack, etc. while they are on…if you rub your hand on your pants..we all know. And finally your tallboots. Just clean em- that’s all. Don’t come in the ring looking like you have been wallowing in a mud pit with the pigs (that is unless its pouring rain and your slogging around in the mud just desperatly trying not to drown).

And NOW your horse. If it has white, BATHE IT. If it has been wallowing with you in the mud then BATHE IT. There is little worse than trotting around the arena on a dirty horse. If it’s too cold then hot towel and again eventers are generally an amiable crowd…if somewhere in your schooling no one taught you to hot towel, someone will show you. Let’s move on to braiding. If your bad at it DON'T DO IT. Ask a friend, pay someone, ask that friendly person in the next stall, but if you come down to the ring with your horse looking like he stuck his mane in a blender and you put rubber bands around it that is just as disrespectful as going without braids and if that’s what they look like then not braiding is a better choice. Finally, CLEAN YOUR TACK. It’s THAT simple.  Grab a sponge and some dishwashing soap (if you are like me and living on a shoestring budget). It works fine. And finally your saddle pad. At least buy a $10 white saddle pad and then ONLY use it for shows. It’s even worse when you have a LOGO from a prominent farm/company/ or trainer and your saddle pad is dirty it reflects poorly on that person who is on the saddle pad as well.

It’s simple. If you look good and your horse looks good, then it’s proven that you will ride better. You make a better impression and it’s respectable to everyone involved. I know for a fact that I don’t want to stand out negatively,the easiest way to avoid that is simply to dress nicely.

Ok my rant is over. I just don't like anyone to disrespect the people who are out there painstakingly puttion on a show for us. These people spend countless hours out there so we can have a good learning experience. The lease we can do is dress nicely and be properly turned out.

signing off

~Mandy

A little about the Weekend and a tribute to Will

Words cannot express the pain of loss, of any kind of loss. People can tell you it will be ok, everything will be alright but when you experience a loss of someone you care about you just can’t agree with them. I lost my mother eleven years ago and to this day I think of her every day. I experience a dull pain whenever I think of the hole in my life where she isn’t and I thought that was the worst pain I could ever feel.  I think this past weekend I felt a kind of pain that rivals that to a degree that I never imagined possible.

What should have been a good first event of the season this past weekend at the Ark HT in Monroe, NC turned into a bittersweet, long, slightly surreal weekend. The trip down and setup was smooth, albeit the last 25 miles of the drive are hell on wheels because there is a light every 200 yards and Charlotte traffic is awful.And don't even get me started on the trip home (what was supposed to be 7.5 hours became 12 because of a horrible accident on I-75 which caused us to sit at a standstill on the interstate for 2 hours) Since the Ark is a one day, we knew it would be tight and we had a plan.

Saturday ran smoothly to start. Mira went first and put in a nice dressage test (in a downpour), but then the sun came out and so did Mira’s  “jackrabbit shoes.” She had wings on her feet that day and nothing was gonna make her touch a rail or a cross country fence. She finished in perfect time and we won our PT division. Kellie Driscoll took her own Remington who was foot perfect in dressage. It was during her warm-up for showjump that I heard something no one wants to hear at an event. There was a “hold” on cross country. You always fear that announcement. It means one of a few things and none of them are ever good, but as always you hope it was no one you knew and you pray everything is ok for all involved. I didn’t dream it would affect us because you only hear about that stuff happening to other people- not to the people you are directly associated with.

Kellie had an excellent show jump round and headed out slowly to cross country because the “hold” was still in effect. I told her I would run back to the barn to grab us some water and be back in a few, she had plenty of time (as an aside here since this isn't the main purpose of the post, Kellie did end up having a great run, as did Catherine and her pony Ransom who had an excellent first horse trail).

There is nothing in this world worse than walking around the corner of your barn aisle and seeing people standing at your group of stalls talking and just knowing something isn’t right. There is nothing to describe that feeling you get when you know it was a friend you were showing with for the weekend that was affected in that “hold” and  no way to express the pain you feel when you find out the horse that you have been around for years isn’t coming back to that stall.

Now, let me tell you a little about Willpower aka “Will”. When KC was selling him I wanted that horse so bad. He was such a nice animal. He had the cutest ears, floppy like the nicest dressage horse from the minute the rider got on him. He was quirky. He loved to jump and like little Mira put his heart into every fence. I have never seen a braver/bolder cross country machine either. We will never forget Will standing in the barn aisle ground-tied patiently waiting on Maggie to come back to him or the flames she clipped on his rump every winter.  Let’s also not forget seeing Maggie in the barn aisle late on those winter evenings blow drying Wills coat (yes I said blow-drying..with a hair dryer) because he would sweat and she didn’t want to risk putting him out wet.  He had a heart of gold and would let even the rankest beginner go for a trail ride on his back or teach an up-down lesson. Will earned nicknames like “Willard” “William” and “The Pirate”- so named by my niece, Maddie when she saw Maggie leading him to his field one day last summer with that ridiculous pirate fly mask from Rolex on.

Will was a good soul and as I said on facebook the other day, horses, like dogs show us unconditional love. Any animal that can repeatedly jump fences at a gallop when asked, or dance around a dressage arena, and keep his toes up over rails that fall even when they are exhausted goes to heaven. All dogs do, I truly believe horses like Will do too.

Will is in heaven Maggie, he died doing what he loved for the person he loved the most. He will be watching over you and your future horses giving you the "willpower" to fly around with wings on your feet.

RIP Willpower. Hang in there Maggie!

Signing off

~Mandy

Positive Show Nerves

Show Nerves.

Just that phrase inspires memories in all of us. It makes me think of the startbox on the biggest advanced course I ever ran, or starting into the dressage ring at an FEI test, or jumping around in front of the huge crowd at Stuart Horse Trials. There is nothing like it. It’s those butterflies you get when they start the countdown. It’s that flip-flop flapjack feeling you get when you walk a big course for the first time and it’s the queasy sensation you get when you’re about to do your jog on Sunday morning. I just wanted to talk about this because my students of late seem to have the same problems that I used to (yea right they are still there, but WAY less intense). There is nothing worse than coming out of that show ring and beating yourself up. It drags on your psyche and makes you believe in yourself less. What’s more is it starts to take its toll on your riding ability.

Someone once told me that I needed to be more positive. I needed to let the past go. I am the first one to tell you that unfortunately that isn’t possible. When something goes haywire (you lost your stock-tie, you forgot a movement in your test, you missed a jump/had a rail/had a stop, had a fight with your best friend, forgot to eat breakfast) those show nerves from the past rear their ugly head.

Now people can tell you to “think positive” and “let the past go” but it’s always easier said than done. When your staring down that big brightly colored oxer with the fish leaping off its wings your thinking, “my god I’m gonna die when Quit Bucking sees this he’s gonna show the spectators why he has this name” instead of “how cool is that fence, I hope they get my picture on Amelia Earhart over it!” The trick is you, that’s right YOU have to believe the second phrase. It took me a LOOOONNNNG time to understand that, but now I do, and I am happier for it.

How, you ask have I been able to change from the rider in college who bit people’s heads off (sorry Liz, Sarah, Jenn, etc.) when they tried to help my train wreck dressage to the rider who can go in the ring now and smile/giggle when my horse says,” hell no I won’t perform that canter transition today.” ???

It’s not fair is it? I’m not going to say it was easy or that I  just woke up one day and I was all Zen or something. It has everything to do with the people in my life and TIME. It took my trainers being positive but not mean and degrading. It took the great Amy Tryon telling me that a sports psychologist told her she needed to learn to take all of that nervous energy and learn to channel it into positive energy (which must have worked because she took Poggio to the WEG at Aachen and finished 3^rd) It took doing 87983982 shows and realizing that nine times out of ten there is not a single person really paying attention when you flub up.  Unless you are on a remarkable horse (I used to say grey, but these days there are so many of them I don’t) who decided to perform the good ol’ spin-n-dump (see earlier posts) in dressage then no one is going to remember you tomorrow. You are rider number??? on a bay horse in one of the seven dressage rings that went Friday or was it Saturday?<-- an aside here, if your name is Phillip Dutton or Karen O’Connor I am sorry but this doesn’t count….

What I am trying to say in this post is just this... Positivity gets you farther than you think (even from a skeptic like me).  You have to remember that hardly anyone is watching (usually just the people you truly care about) and that there is ALWAYS a next time. You go in the ring and do what you can with what you have.  HAVE FUN. That is why we ride horses isn’t it? I think that got lost somewhere along the way as well. And above all find SOMETHING positive about EVERY ride. It doesn’t mean you always have to end on a positive note. It just means, if that snotty pony jumped ONE fence today when he usually doesn’t even do that then you have  accomplished something. Did you stay in the ring for your dressage test event though your horse was doing pirouettes in a walk/trot test? Yes? OK, then we have a positive. Did you get around that 1* course even though you had two runouts at that damn corner because you are sure corners eat people so your horse thinks so too? Well, you got around, so next time you can do it again and on  time number 13498348 when your amazing advanced horse says, “its ok mom, we’ve jumped these before,  its ok just hold on”  you will walk away from the toughest course of your life knowing you have been blessed to have learned that one day things will get easier. It just takes time and positive thinking. A little of that and learning to channel those show nerves into good energy J

Signing off

~Mandy

Camping and other sorts of things

Today we got our group together for our first outing of the year. Mira and crew (meaning- Pony/Rem/and Willard ) will be heading to The Spring Horse Trials at the Ark in about a month and now that I have rejoined USEA (have yet to upgrade her to FULL and rejoin USEF but hey who doesn't love broke eventers who procrastinate) I can send my entry off and get EXCITED! I mean who doesn't get excited to start their season? Who do you know that goes, "ugh, here we go again? I gotta train to go jump some big solid dangerous potentially life threatening fences and I just don't wanna do it." If you do know someone who says that please recommend they take up Knitting. SERIOUSLY? I am PUMPED! I just don't know how you couldn't be?

So to start I have been really working hard on Mira's canter transitions and despite her chagrin we are progressing. Slowly. And we have been practicing being slower over fences (if you know my mare she is a good jumper...she jumps like a firecracker smacked her in the rump right before takeoff ) and for myself to be quieter in the tack (although some of the girls on my team from school have watched me jump and are amazed at how quiet I am...I totally have them snowed lol) all to make us look as if we are "floating on a cloud" at the apex of the jump. Who am I kidding? I'm just trying to stay on most days.

And if the weather holds we are going to school some cross-country this weekend. I know I'll be riding a hot tamale but I as I tell my students there is not a word to describe that feeling of jumping a big table when your horse stretches his body to get to the other side. If there ever was a "though shalt fly without wings" moment that would be it. Adrenaline aside, it's the closest thing to flying without wings. It's times like that, that make me marvel at why more people don't try our sport. I mean who wouldn't want to run at breakneck speed at a solid obstacle on a 1000+lb animal who may or may not listen when you ask them to stop. Its my kinda fun.

Now lets add the element of camping in there. In the past on our awesome horse trial camping escapades we have been trapped in trucks because we were missing pieces to the tent, stuck in terrible thunderstorms holding down the tent corners, setting up on rocks not realizing we have done so and waking up feeling as if someone has punched us over and over in the back and sides, and freaking out because we were convinced something was outside the tent and going to get us. We have decided despite these shortcomings that it wasn't "that bad"  to camp again. What this means is sometime in the next three weeks I have to FIND the damn tent, set it up to make sure the pieces are all there, and then figure out if I can get it taken down again (which usually involves a lot of cursing and band aids from trapping fingers in varying parts of the tent). Then we have to get to said event early enough that we are not phishshlapping eachother in the dark while we have way too many "cooks in the kitchen" setting the thing...in the dark...at 9pm

So if your out and about and end up at the Ark look for Shamrock Eventing. Miss Airheart and I will be running Prelim/Training. Maggie Hitron and Willpower (a Shamrock Eventing Adoptee) will be either doing the P/T or Preliminary, Kellie Driscoll and Remmington will be doing the Training/Novice and finally the cutest pony in the world Long Run's Ransom and Catherine Germer will be doing his first recognized HT at Beginner Novice (shameless plug here- Ransom is for sale and there is not a cuter/sweeter/ more perfect pony in the world).

signing off
~Mandy

Comparisons

Alright, I need to rant. If I hear one more person say, "eventing dressage isn't "real" dressage" or "eventing dressage isn't the same as dressage dressage" I may just have to go crazy. I have heard those phrases from no less than ten to twelve different people in the last week or so. Lets clarify some things before I go nuts.

The Art of Dressage is a complete harmony of horse and rider. It is the basic schooling of EVERY kind of horse and rider and should welcome horses of any size, shape, breed, and age.

Dressage by definition is a noun. It is the training of a horse to carry out a series of precise controlled movements in response to minimum signals from the rider. It is an event where the horse and rider are judged on the elegance, precision, and discipline of the horses movements. Its basic fundamental purpose is to develop, through progressive training methods, a horses natural athletic ability and willingness to perform.

 To the untrained eye dressage resembles dancing, especially when performed by a highly trained horse and rider. The rider communicates through subtle motions and shifts of weight which should be almost imperceptible to the observer. It is with these subtle motions that the horse should float across the arena in a harmony all of their own.

Dressage is not meant to be exclusive to the warmbloods and Europeans of the world. It is meant to be used as a systematic training process for ALL equine disciplines; from gymkana, and barrel racing,  all the way up to the top show jumping horses. The basic frame of the horse always being the same with the poll at the highest point and the horses face approaching vertical with most of the horses weight on the haunches allowing elevation of the forehand.

So why my rant you ask? I get tired of people saying Event horses and riders don't know how to do dressage. In this day in age, since the changes made to eventing (no more long format at the upper levels and shorter more technical cross country courses) you have to have a horse who is good at dressage. If your horse is the one cantering sideways down the center line (if they ever even made it TO the centerline) or is snorting at every letter, or is the one seen doing pirouettes and trotting backwards in a Novice level test, then you will not be in the top of the pack when it comes to scoring. At the lower levels a good score in dressage means EVERYTHING. People don't pull rails at Novice (and most of the time either they get around cross country or they don't- theres nothing in-between) so a well schooled dressage horse does better. At the upper levels the same is ringing more and more true, and if you want to make that three-stride-corner-to-corner-bending-line-through-the-trees-down-the-hill-o-death you had best teach your horse some colleciton and elevation or your not going to be one of the pairs on that coveted short list for the Olympics.

So what you ask IS the difference..
Scoring.
Wow, you say? That's it?
Yes.
 And not scoring in the way Weltensternmeisternostro (the Intermediare Dressage horse) got an 8 on his piaffe while Bottle Rocket (Advanced Level Event horse) got a 6 on his 10 meter trot circle.
Its simply in the way the scores are calculated. In Dressage competitions its a percentage, while in Eventing its a penalty. In Dressage you want the percentage to be higher, while in Eventing you want the penalty to be lower. The result both want to have HIGH scores on the test, but the calculations at the END are different.
That's it.
Or well that's the way it should be.

As long as their are people out there who believe Eventers can't do dressage there will always be a discrepancy. And as for me I've put my theory to the test as I know many other eventers are doing these days. I took Cam to a dressage show a few years back and rode against the other fourth level horses. My little Advanced Event Horse up against Weltensternmeistronostro (I love this name BTW) and we finished 2nd. So, the next time someone tells me my Dressage Trainer doesn't know what "real" dressage is I am going to show them the results of a few of the Dressage shows in Florida and show them just how many horses in the top 10 are Eventers by nature. I'll bet there are more than you think.

Ok, happy cold February week everyone. I don't know about you but I can't wait for spring

Signing off
~Mandy

That Good Ol' Spin N Dump

So I noticed my good friend and mentor Georgia was posting about an old friend at Masterson the other day named Cody. I read her facebook status and remembered what fun my little sister, Annie and I had when we worked out there as kids and then I remembered about a time when Annie decided Cody was the only horse she would ride. As with all of my stories this one involves me and my little sister in our usual quarrels.

For those of you who don't know Cody he's a mustang. His "mustangedness" is what makes him so cool. When Dakota akaCody came to us at Masterson he was this cute little black mustang with the classic freezebrand up the neck and a kind eye, but was terrified of his own shadow. He is coal black and has a little white star and stripe going down his face. He has been a staple of the Masterson Station Equine Program for years on end now.

Annie instantly loved Cody when he came. He was short like her and a bit timid (read scared of his own shadow) and he wanted to please. At the time (though I guess still) I was a bit wild when I rode and decided to get us both into beacoup amounts of trouble. We would go ride in the lessons and help teach lessons and sometimes we would take Cody and Duncan (my old horse) out on trail rides around the park. My favorite thing to do to poor Annie was to be walking along and all of a sudden scream, "gallop!!!" and take off. Inevitably Cody would spook, Annie would fall off and then Cody would do one of two things. He would either run as fast as he could away like someone stung him in the rump with a hot iron, tail over his head and snorting all the way or he would stand there and stare at her with a wild eyed look trying to figure out if he should run, but really wanting to be close to the human he loved. I would come trotting back laughing like a hyena to make sure she was okay and usually get screamed at. It was always, " That’s not fair! I'm going home! I HATE it when you do that!", to which I would reply that I was just trying to get her to race, why couldn't she just get him to gallop when I did!

Next was water crossing. Cody wanted us to know he was never meant to be a wild horse roaming the plains, he really did like his little drylot (being a mustang he felt the need to gorge himself at any chance in the event of imminent bad weather...in July...in Kentucky...damn frost might be here tomorrow and Cody knew frost meant no grass) where there was accessible drinking water and he could see the coyotes/wolves/bears/snakes that might approach from any direction. Cody did not feel any need to cross water, no matter what might be chasing or leaving him. He was the best spin and bolter I have ever met, however Annie was the polar opposite to Cody. He spun and she fell off, there was no “sticky” in her style.
 
Even better was on the way home at the end of the day we were always lazy and tired. No one wanted to dismount to open and shut the gate into the yard. Duncan was the quiet, easy to maneuver horse so I always volunteered to do the gate (that and I knew the following outcome every time and my evil nature made me want to see it over and over). Now Cody was no stranger to my ways and anticipated the gate every time. Duncan and I would push the gate open and then go to the other side. Cody and Annie would come through and at juuust the right time I’d swing the gate…It would touch Cody’s rump and he would scoot through at Mach 3000 inevitably unseating Annie who would 9 out of 10 times “say hello to the dirt.” He would then trot on up the little hill and stand himself by his gate patiently waiting to be turned out- tack and all.
I wish I could say this got old, but it never did. Cody was as reliable for a spook as I am to be on time to work. And to this day I still think Cody in his old age would probably remember our rides and might still give Annie a run for her money.
All in all every single “grounding” I got for my little escapades was totally worth it. It never failed to make one of us laugh (and sometimes both) and it taught us a valuable lesson…Cody’s spook at two things…things that move aaannnd things that don’t.
Signing off~
Mandy

Tornado!!!...or not....

So I feel that I haven’t beaten a dead horse enough. I am bored and I feel I must expound on the happenings of my last week. Did you know that wind shear/straight line winds can develop into a tornado? I didn’t. Did you know that the same straight line winds can ignore a house but tear up a barn and vice versa…when said house and barn are within about 15 feet of one another? I didn’t. Did you know that your roommate could miss the whole thing while sitting in the house that is so close to the barn? I didn’t. This was Tuesday January 17^th, 2012…the luckiest friggin day of my life to this point.

To start I was still at work…teaching practice to two students. It’s January and there was a thunderstorm which for Kentucky is HIGHLY usual ßbet you thought I’d say unusual didn’t ya? Nope, it’s Kentucky and strange weather happens here all the time. Still I don’t think I have experienced a thunderstorm in January for as long as I can remember (sadly that’s only a few years- I blame the several concussions I have had in my life..I think my brains are a little scrambled, especially in the memory department). I had told both of the students if the horses got rambunctious to just dismount and we would see if it passed over. Right about the time it started easing up my boss comes into the arena. She wanted to tell me some things, but her phone rang so she answered it. Amidst my teaching I hear her yelling into her phone, “WHAT? A Tornado? Just now? AT JULIES?”  I spun around so fast I almost fell. It was a student who works for Julie telling her that she wasn’t going to make practice because she was helping clean up from what they thought was a tornado at the farm where I live and my horses live.  Needless to say practice ended while I made a phone call to my roommate to see if everything was ok. When I called Kerry said yes everything was ok and asked why? I told her about my boss’s phone call and Kerry flipped out.  She said, “that’s why the house shook so hard and all of the pictures fell off the walls!” I then called Julie to check on her and got the whole story.

She had just pulled in to the farm from grabbing lunch and was sitting in her car eating and waiting out the storm (its Kentucky these things pass fast) when the wind picked up and she watched the barn roof pass her car and hit the electric line that goes into the barn on the way by. It also hit a limb on the nearby tree dropping a branch on her trucks window, smashing it and then picked up the front end of one of the trailers and rotated it a couple feet. The electric line started sparking so Julie called….411…nerves will do that to you and somehow a 9 turns into a 4 when you are watching your livelihood fall apart and the animals you love be in danger. Bless the lady on the other end for calling the fire department for Julie. The most amazing part was the Scott Co Fire Departments response time…6 minutes…we live in the far boonies in Scott Co and they were wicked fast. It was amazing. The turned off the electric line and put out the fire before it got worse. In the meantime Julie and Arizona Hillary turned out all of the terrified horses in the barn. And poor Kerry never even heard the Fire trucks coming down our driveway, sirens blaring…

I decided to leave work for the day and go help with cleanup/moral support. When I got home I was floored to see what had happened. That sheet metal roof weighed hundreds of pounds (I know because we moved some later) and some of it ended up all the way down the road in the farm owner’s yard! There was a small group already doing debris cleanup so Kerry (who came out of the house finally) and I climbed in the rafters of the barn to tarp over the exposed stalls to keep them dry until the roof got replaced. It took us over 3 hours, but we got it done. It was great Tough Mudder training…hanging on for dear life in those rafters and hammering nails at odd angles with nothing to balance with, then swinging like a monkey to the next place. Later we moved some of the roof, I was grateful that I happened to be wearing glasses that day the metal that I was carrying whipped back and smacked me in the face. I have an awesome bruise on my nose as a result.

Somehow in all of this I managed not to fall out of the rafters yet get slapped by sheet metal…the day is not complete until you get slapped by sheet metal. Oh, and you get filmed by the local news channel (Channel 27 woot woot!)- and naturally he chose to film nice butt shots of Kerry and me in the rafters…

This is how we found out on Wednesday that we got lucky. The National Weather Service came out to assess the damage and said it was straight line winds that hit us…and then went a half mile away and became an EF-1 Tornado that flattened another barn (no horses inside).  If that had been a tornado when it hit us, this whole story could be very sad. As it is, the electric company fixed the barn electricity the next day, there is an awesome Amish contracting group that has already done some barn work for Heronwood that will be fixing the roof today (Thursday) and hauling away all of the other debris, and the insurance company fixed the windshield of Julies truck for free.  All that was lost in our house was a couple of picture frames and the little “turny vent thingy” from the roof over my roommate’s bathroom (which incidentally is probably REALLY bad…for reasons I am sure you can guess).

It could have been much worse. No animals or people were harmed and everything is fixable. I hope to never encounter a situation like this again in my lifetime... So, now that I have told and retold this little tale it’s time to move on….

Signing off~

Mandy

Spring Eventing Schedule

Alright gang, everyone has asked for my guess as to where Mira and I will be competing this year. The following is my “wish list” calendar. These are the events that I really hope to attend this year. If all goes well Mira will hopefully go to her first FEI event in the late summer, early fall.

February  4^th and 5^th Poplar Place (PT )…really wanna go, can’t find anyone else to go, have a TON of memberships to renew so probably not going L

I also have the IDA team/Dressage team at school competing in between here, as well as training for the Tough Mudder and competing at the TM, so this event probably won't happen...

March 30^th -April 1^st  FENCE HT (PT) Ok, Maggie wants to go here, so I have at least one other person to go… and it’s a good starting out event. If I wait for this I can get all of the IDA stuff done for the college and the Tough Mudder will be over. This is looking like the best plan…

April 20^th- 22^nd River Glen HT (P) I love this event, especially in the spring and it will be a good first Prelim, and its an easy drive J

May 4^th- 6^th Poplar Place HT (P) This is major tentative…again gotta find people to go with me to this one!

May 18^th- 20^th Greater Dayton HT (P) I had so much fun at this event last summer, so I am excited to go back this spring and again it’s an easy drive

May 26^th-27^th Maydaze HT (P) This one is tentative…I would rather run the previous two and avoid this one…its all the extra fees you have to pay, plus we have run the horse park SO many times…

June 1^st-3^rd Indiana Eventing Association HT (P) I love this event too and its an easy drive.. I think there will be people who will want to go here with me too J

And hopefully if all goes well at these I can run the CCI 1* in June

June 21^st-24^th  Fox River Valley HT/FEI (CCI 1*) This is the plan, but if I don’t run it here I will have to wait until August or September…but money may be a factor as well so August is more realistic.

If not the above then,

June 23^rd-24^th Midsouth PC HT (P) This event was good to us last year, gotta defend our good placement J

This is as far as I have gotten right now. I’ll keep everyone posted as to the rest of the season. I know I shouldn’t rush it, and well I can’t afford to so this is probably as close to definite as I’ll get at the moment.  In between all of these things there are little jumper shows and dressage shows I will attend as well as any events not mentioned with students even if I am not competing. Let me know if anyone has any questions or if you want to go to any of these events with us. The more the merrier!

signing off

~Mandy