scary morning, scary night, and other things

So today I am just going to vent a little. I have a story but I need to vent a little first. I woke up this morning to the one thing every person fears, the smell of something burning. I live in a tiny little house, so naturally that sent me into instant panic mode. I immediately checked everywhere to try to figure out where that hot iron smell was coming from...Kerry's room.. convinced that she had left a flat iron plugged in and it had been sitting for over a day, I searched to no avail. Turns out it was the heating unit in the house. I turned it off and called Julie (who is a worrier like me) and she said to call Jon (the general farm maintenance go-to guy and lawnmower loaner and baker and foaling person for a huge expensive TB farm...see he does it all) who came over at the crack-o-dawn ( he just got off nightwatch) and told me it was the fan not kicking on, so the heating system was overheating. He short term fixed it, but I still turned it off before I came to work. My animals will be fine in a cooling house for a couple of hours while we wait for someone to fix this.

This comes in lieu of seeing that huge explosion in Estill County last night...so very glad no one was hurt, so naturally I was on pins and needles this morning...

Which incidentally sent me into thinking the end of the world was here.....it is 2012 ya know...the Mayans may be right...although we do have until December so I will be doing a ton of things this year that I have always wanted to do to get them in before something bad happens.... carpe diem right?

This also makes me think back to my younger days and another story about my little sister and I. At the time we were living in a house much too large for us. My older sisters had gone to college and my sister and I were still pretty little. Young enough that this particular day we were in the back yard running around on stick horses and setting up jumps with chairs and broomsticks/mops/anything that was long enough and light enough we could make a jump out of it. We heard Mom in the house hollering about something smelling like it was burning. Naturally ( at least in our logic) we ran IN the house to check it out. In our hasty logic we thought we could help. Inside it definitely smelled like something was burning, but in that big old cluttered musty victorian house it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. We searched everywhere and it was getting worse and there was smoke. Now we were all panicked. Instead of calling the fire department just yet, we (mom) insisted she would find it. Finally I think the fear kicked in (all of her antiques might go up in flames) she called 911 and Annie and I in excitement were gallavanting through the house from back door to front door again and again (this has to be where the adrenaline junkie in me started) thinking we would see it if we galloped through the house from back to front, ran around outside for a minute and did it again.

In the end the firefighters found it. It was behind a couch in the living room. A brass candle had fallen off a table and landed on a table lamp cord and caught it on fire (who knew that brass candlesticks would do that, but they will...if you let it sit on the cord of an antique lamp it will cause just enough friction to start a fire.. something about the metals, I'm not a chemist). The reason it didn't go up like a haybarn was because the carpet (this ugly puke green 80's fab thing) was flame retardent so it was smoldering...however by the time the firefighters got there the wall had started to burn. They put it out and cut back the carpet to make sure the floor underneath hadn't caught and that was that.

This little situation scared the living pee out of us. At first it had been fun and games and then when you see the black wall of the room and the torn carpet it becaomes a reality. Its scary and caused both Annie and I some nightmares for awhile. The firefighters said that ugly carpet was lucky (although we had to tear it out after that) and if we had waited any longer to call it could have been much worse. I think that statement is what incited my panic this morning. If you wait too long it could end much worse. You can replace belongings, but you can't replace the ones you love...in my case my two dogs, and my other roomates cats and dog. I would be devastated if I had ignored that this morning and something bad had happened.

And what the heck was my mother thinking letting us galavant around like that. I know what she was thinking...someone left a curling iron on and she was going to find it and unplug it....

Have a good one everyone, stay safe in the cold. Soon I'll have my spring plans for Mira and I. I'll let everyone know. I am hoping for a good year at Prelim culminating in a 1*, so we will see.

signing off

~Mandy





I know its been awhile but I hadn't thought of a new story that was appropriate for the time of year. I have also just been doing a TON of conditioning with Mira, so nothing really new there, accept that she wants everyone to know transitions and canter poles are no fun and neither are placing rails at almost every fence right now. She would like to gallop really fast and jump really big and screw all the finer stuff..at least she isn't in heat right now.

Ok, so the story of the day. I thought I'd go way back to when Jenn and I had the idea to try a new event in the Carolinas. It was to be our first of the spring and with the smarts (read WTF) that we had we thought we would start out at Prelim for the season instead of running one Training and then moving up. We decided The Horse Trials at the Ark would be our event of choice. It was early in the spring it couldn't possibly be THAT hard. When we decided to go we invited other friends to go to, so Jenn, Lauren, Katrina, and I set out on what turned out to be a VERY interesting trip.

The trip down was smooth, and when we arrived at the Ark we got quite a shock. Animals of every shape and size greeted us as we entered the grounds. All I could think at the time was please oh please don't let there be cows ( to Cameron cows were smelly, oddly sized, horse eating monsters)..... little did I know at fence 5 on cross country you had to jump down a bank directly at a buffalo pen. Thankfully on the day of xc they moved the buffalo. Cameron was brilliant although I was terrified (so scared that I actually called my Dad and asked him to please take care of my dog if I died, which he handled REALLY well in spite of how he really felt- when I called him after I finished ecstatic that it went well he told me he was happy for me, but to NEVER call and say that to him again) because I had to be the 1st horse on course that day. It was my first event of the spring, only my 2nd or 3rd prelim ever and I had to go out of the box 1st...yes I was scared pantsless....
In the end everyone had a pretty good weekend, and Cameron finished 2nd which I was over the moon about, it was the trip home that was interesting.

Katrina and Lauren got finished and loaded before Jenn and I were ready to go. They wanted to get on home, so said they were going to go ahead and leave. We didn't think much of it at the time. We also knew in all of the stops we make that we would probably meet up, and at the time Nextel's walkie talkie  cell phone feature was cool so most of us had it and thought we would communicate that way. Jenn and I got on the road about an hour after the other girls.....

We had been on the road for  a while and we get a "beep" from Katrina, she said," hey guys where are you? We are only about an hour or so from Lexington." Jenn and I were flabbergasted. There was no way they had driven that fast... we didn't know what to say, so we talked for a minute trying to figure out how fast they had gone, and how they were now 3 hours ahead of us...I mean we aren't slow so how fast were they? Naturally it took us so long to answer that we got another "beep"... " seriously guys where are you, were gonna stop for gas and thought if you were close we would wait..." Well now we had to answer...argument ensued over who was gonna answer that phone. Finally because Jenn was driving we decided (she made me) that I would answer. " Um, so, we aren't even to Beckley/Bluefield yet...where are you all?" Immediately, " were only an hour from Lexington, how did you all get so far behind? We thought you left an hour after us?" Now Jenn and I know they did something wrong...and it dawns on us that they went East on I-64 at Beckley/Bluefield in Virginia instead of West.... there is a Lexington, Virginia and its much closer to Beckley/Bluefield than Lexington, Kentucky....Now we REALLY don't want to answer...so cautiously I say,  " Um Katrina, which way did you all go on I-64 when you got to the Beckley/Bluefield split?"...... SUPER LONG PAUSE..... she said, "East why"....OH NO... I couldn't answer. If they were that close to Lexington, VA they had gone now 3 hours the WRONG direction.... Now it was a big fight. Neither of us wanted to tell them they were going the wrong way, but we had to tell them soon. It was already 7PM and we all had work or school the next day.

"Um Katrina...you do know Lexington, Ky is West on I-64.. if you went East your almost at Lexington VIRGINIA..." my voice shook so hard because I knew what was going to happen next... " WHAT OH MY GOD THERE IS NO WAY>>>WE DID NOT GO THE WRONG WAY>> OH MY GOD!!!" radio silence....

What ensued was a lot of cursing and Jenn and I trying to console them and tell them we were sure this late that the VA horse center would let them stay overnight and then try to drive home in the morning, which didn't happen unfortunately because they both had to get home. What was originally a 7hour trip took them almost 13 hours to get home. I felt really bad at the time, still do. That was one of the harder phone (walkie talkie) conversations I have had with friends.

We can all look back and have a chuckle about it now. We still joke and all ask eachother if we are sure we know the way home before we leave horse shows.... you never know...you might end up going south instead of north...and this time of year I would be ok with that...

If I don't write again until after Christmas, everyone please had a safe and happy holiday. Make sure and remind your family and friends (and animals) how much they mean to you, you never know when you might need them

signing off ~
Mandy

Foxhunting

This past Saturday I had the privilege of getting to go Foxhunting as a guest at the Woodford Hounds Blessing. It was amazing. I haven't hunted since I went years ago with Alston Kerr and Iroquois Hounds. I have also never ridden around Shaker Village on horseback. What an experience that was. The Blessing was amazing and the hunting we experienced after was fun.

I must say that the more I do it the more I love braiding. I am fairly decent at it and when a horse looks good, the braids just complement the picture.

Details Braids

Now on to what the Hunt entails. Its much similar to a horse show. You have to be up at 4:30AM so you can make sure your horse hasn't decided to become a creature from the mud lagoon overnight. If they have a bath should follow. The bath is for the horse...to be followed by you because when you are finished you will no longer be clean because all of the mud from your rhinoceros (read horse) will be transferred to you. If you have escaped sharing in the bath then its time to braid. With Detail who is an impatient as Nascar drivers waiting for the green flag (at least I hope that's the one) you also need a twitch. A twitch for those of you who don't know is a piece of rope attached as a loop to a stick. We put it on the horses lip below the nose and twist. It doesn't hurt the horse, it releases endorphins and allows them to relax (however if they are a 17hh broodmare about to be checked for pregnancy it is merely a bat to swing around and smack the handler with). It only takes about 30 minutes to braid if you get good at it, but can take up to four hours if your horse becomes a fire breathing dragon and tries in vain to eat you alive.

Then theres the trailer ride. Did I mention I live in Midway/Georgetown...Shaker Village is somewhere out in east Egypt Harrodsburg up some of the most narrow, winding, vertigo inducing roads that a horse trailer should not be traversing just to go gallop with some friends. It is amazing once you get there though, even though the actual trailer parking area is another three miles out in the middle of nowhere (I heard banjos).  You then tack up your horses and everyone hacks back down that three miles to the Village for the blessing. It is an impressive sight seeing all of those horses going down the road. The pictures just don't do it justice. For little Detail who had never hunted it was very confusing, but he followed along because all of his new found buddies were headed in the same direction....he really is a herd horse. If the others went and jumped off a cliff he would follow (that's a tribute to all the parents out there who like mine used to ask that of their kids---“If Billy jumps off a bridge would you do it too??”).

After packing almost 100 horses into a small area at the center of the village they brought in the hounds. I was impressed when one errant pretty little hound trotted right up and touched noses with D. I was only slightly worried that he was telling Detail how he was going to help him rid him of his rider somewhere later on the trail by jumping out in some marlin-like fashion from the woods. The actual Blessing was short, sweet and to the point. I think they knew that putting so many humans, horses, and hounds in one place for that amount of time was just screaming for the great stampede to happen.

They then separated us out into 1^st Flight (the jumpers), 2^nd flight (the non-jumpers) and 3^rd flight (anyone too terrified to gallop like a herd of elephants and small children). Somewhere in the separating we got put in 2^nd flight because we had never been out with the hunt and we were guests so due to Hunting etiquette we weren’t allowed to go with 1^st Flight. I’ll admit at first I was a bit miffed because I know I would be fine riding with those guys, but then I slowed down and thought about it (I know slowing down and thinking is a novel idea coming from me..) and realized I didn’t know the etiquette to ride in 1^st flight, I didn’t know the countryside, and my friend who asked me to come along has a horse who isn't ready to jump.

It still ended up being a boatload of fun. I love galloping cross country (especially with jumps-BIG ONES) but it is also tons of fun to go galloping across country with friends, although the chatting is slim to none because like skydiving when you try to talk the words get torn from your mouth before you can think them. I was disappointed to not see our quarry and to only sometimes see the hounds (though you can hear them the whole time) but come to find out, its rare for anyone to see the quarry.

At the end of the day, poor Detail had been subjected to long gallops, losing both of his front shoes (it was SO boggy because of all of the rain we have had), and having to stand in a line in the woods like a trail horse while we waited for the hounds to get something running. And my partner in crime, Sara lost her camera….on 4,000 acres. We were sad when we found out because she had just gotten the thing, but somehow (and it was shocking because it was 4,000 acres) someone found it and brought it back (I don’t know whats more shocking, someone finding it…or someone returning it).  

We did hunt a couple of coyotes, but no fox on Saturday. I blame the beautiful weather, but won’t complain because rain would have been miserable. It was a fantastic experience that I hope to get to repeat sometime, although without the thought of Sara losing her camera, and only as long as the weather cooperates. I am a fair weather rider ya know…. Even if I do event….

signing off~ Mandy

High Performance lists

Since most of the rest of the small community that is US eventing is weighing in on the Winter Training Lists, I think I should too.

Back when Cam was running Advanced I thought we had a real chance to do big things. He was running so well I was convinced that we would have been to the 2011 Rolex. Alas, as we all know it wasn't meant to be. Horses are heartbreakers, they give us the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I was also convinced since he and I had run so many Advanced Horse trials that we might be able to get on the Developing Rider List. That is what we all want isn't it? We want to be noticed. We want someone to say, hey good job, look how far you and your partner have come.

The truth of the matter is, those lists are as cliquey as any high school prep group. Its more about who you know and who knows you than what you have done or how promising you know your horse is. Some really good riders got overlooked because they are like Cam and I. They aren't known by the greater eventing community and they don't have the money and the sponsors to run with the big dogs. Its the truth and its tough, but thats life. We all wish eventing wasn't as political as a lot of other sports, but it is.

I think those riders should know that no matter what those lists say it doesn't mean that they can't be the best. It doesn't mean that they don't have a shot at getting to the top of the sport. It just means that when they do get there it will mean that much more in the end. There is nothing better than being able to show all the doubters and nonbelievers that they are wrong. I truly feel it makes the achievement mean that much more.

So good luck to those of you who didn't make the lists. Stick with it. You will get your day :)

rain and

Alright Chelsea, just for you I am blogging. I don't have much accept a couple of different short stories. This is what happens inside my head when I am bored. I can guarantee that none of these stories have ANY relevance to eachother, this is just whats coming to mind. Random thoughts....

At the show this weekend I was reminded how much I like announcing. I had a lot of fun. However, when you get tired you do get tongue-tied. When trying to announce 3rd place at one point it came out "thirty place" and another time what was supposed to be someone's name came out as a sneeze...
Then later I told my sister I think I want to go be a radio DJ and she actually laughed at me. I was serious. I like announcing and I feel like Im pretty decent at it. It requires me to enunciate...and when forced I really can avoid mumbling....

Since its rainy I'm thinking about summer and mowing lawns. This past summer was the first time in ten years I have had to mow a lawn- my lawn- and I really don't mind. Well, one day I made the mistake of offering to help Julie mow the laneways between the paddocks. I was supposed to be using the "zero turn" riding lawnmower. Julie's instructions were " if you panic, it panics with you because its so sensitive." She should have said, "go slowly dumbass because if you try to turn too fast you will hit the fence." I started out fine. I was boppin along mowing and then I had to go around a cross country fence, well I got to close to the four plank fence and when I tried to turn around I pulled too hard on the right toggle and spun the damn thing around and got trapped between the jump and the fence. I wasn't sure what to do, but every time I even slightly moved the whole thing moved. After about 40 minutes of desperatly trying to gently work my way out of there without taking out fence or the mower and being so fried that to this day I don't think I will ever be able to mow with a riding mower again...

And finally all I can think about because of this weather is the fact the our awesome Tough Mudder team now has 5 whole members! We still need a better team name though so if anyone thinks of anything please let me know... and yesterday at lunch I got to tell about my awesome skydiving adventure again which is always fun. The whole staff here has labeled me as crazy which I think is about right. I like to jump large solid fences on a 1300lb animal running at 35mph, I get a rush jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, and now I am voluntarily signed up to run a military obstacle course that includes jumping into a dumpster filled with icewater- in March- in Indiana- so you know its gonna be cold.

Thats really all I got right now. Its raining, so my brain is foggy. I have nothing to do, and I can't write on demand Chelsea...so there.... However reading about Adelaide makes me miss eventing. I wish the weather was better so riding was easy, that and there was an event to go to that is close because then I would have a goal. Its a lot easier to ride when you have a goal.. I also still wish I could go to Florida for the winter....I miss that... A lot....

signing off~ Mandy

Respect the Show Organizers

Its amazing the things we do that teach us respect for other peoples jobs. I define myself as a Professional Equestrian. I know what I need to do to enter horse shows, get my horses ready, and work out all of the small details that go into getting myself, my students and my horses ready for shows. I have been a volunteer and know what its like to be an outrider, a jump judge, ring crew, and a scribe. And I have been a spectator, watching all of the goings on at horse shows. Until this fall I have never been on the organizing/secretary side of things and what I have learned has given me a new-found respect for the people who take on the daunting task of making these horse shows possible.

As some of you know part of my job is secretarial in nature. I never knew how hard, yet also rewarding this could be. It requires a lot of remedial tasks such as copying, re-typing, and organizing but it also requires me to know how to answer all kinds of questions at the drop of a hat. For those of you who know me (now becoming a favorite phrase of mine) this can be a total nightmare. I am a stresser/worrywort by nature (see earlier posts) so I try to get these things done in a timely manner and sometimes they take over my life. This particular time its getting the program ready for the upcoming IHSA show at the College. DO YOU KNOW HOW DIFFICULT THAT IS!!!!

Here's whats involved. Begging all of the coaches to get their entries in on time. Organizing how many classes you will have, how many people in each class, who goes in what class, changing classes, answering questions, finding extra horses, sending the program to my laptop from my desktop so I can work on this ugly thing at home, making sure all the riders back numbers are correct, biting all of my finger and toenails off <---eeeewww not, as if I could reach my toenails...ugh,  find clipart to fill in the blank spots on pages, make sure all of the advertisements are where they are supposed to be, changing people in classes again, changing class order so the horses arent overworked, answering emails, pulling my hair out (much easier than getting a haircut- cheaper too), sending copies to the College's coach so she can make sure everything is correct, arranging for printing of the program, making last minute changes, getting irritated at a Coach who forgot to put a rider in the program, and take a deep breath because for better or worse its printed and while it looks pretty on the outside just know that the inside is going to get written all over. And finally doing a happy dance beacuse I don't have to do this again until next fall.

So while everyone has anxiously awaited another story, this has been my life. Now all of you see why I am so neurotic. I come by it honestly.

At the show I will be responsible for collecting money ( I know- who in their right mind would let me do that?) handing out packets, announcing (ba hahahaha), and helping with program changes and points. I do love this. I really do. Having done this though I think I could be a show secretary. I have even more respect now than I used to for them. I used to wonder why everyone had to be so snarky or in a bad mood or why they had to make it so hard for me or my students to switch horses/levels/riders/days etc. If you could see the mountain of paperwork involved in organizing a show you would understand too.

My advice is this. If you ever have to deal with a show secretary in any capacity say Thank You. They deserve it. Be gracious and polite when making crazy requests and if they can't be filled, don't bite the secretary's head off. They are just following the rules or guidlines they have been given with the organization their show falls under. If they do their best to help you out and bend over backwards so you can show 6 horses in 10 different classes all running within one day take a second to be grateful they are out there to do their job, because if they weren't I cannot imagine how we could all compete these animals we love.

Intercollegiate Dressage Blunders

So this weekend as most of you know, we went to our first Intercollegiate Dressage Competition. I must say it was a ton of fun and the Team did well despite my nerves, their nerves, a shady truck, monkeys, cumberbunds, and hotel pools with TONS of children swimming. I shouldn't forget brand new tall boots in the sauna, and fun dinner conversations. The following is an account of the weekend happenings and an explanation of what the hell IDA is....

The good news is on the way up there the trip was uneventful. We got our hotel rooms and proceeded to go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse where Jenn found an alien peanut and dinner was pretty good. We found out when we went back to the hotel that there was an indoor pool, sauna, and hot tub...all of which were explained in great detail by a 7yr old whose parents let him ride on the elevator alone ( and naturally I was the one trapped on said elevator with the chattering 7yr old).

                                                         Alien Peanut
Saturday proved a good first day for us. We drew four pretty cool horses and the judge was "R" rated (for you non horsey people an "R" judge is a high rated judge which is good). Our Training Level 1 rider even finished 1st in her division which was awesome. The best part of the day though was when my Upper Training rider was gettting ready. I told her I would help her with her hair and her stock tie (why is it no one knows how to tie those? If Jenn hadn't taught me years ago I'd be clueless too!) as soon as she was ready. I was watching a rider in a test in the arena (Otterbein has BEAUTIFUL brand new facilities) when Kellie said, "ok I'm ready!" I turned around to her holding up a white cumberbund. I said, "why do you have a white cumberbund?" although I had an idea of the answer. She said,"it's my stock tie." I told her no it isn't its a cumberbund...aaannd a bowtie that fell on the floor, amongst much laughing. I asked her why she had those, they are for men's tuxedo's. She told me she had bought it from a pile of "stock ties" that were on a table at the CKRH tack sale the other week. I asked her if she had ever even looked? She swore they told her it was one. Amongst much mirth that followed including her asking how to wear said cumberbund we finally got her dressed and she finished 3rd for the day. Our team finished a technical 5th for the day out of 9 teams but only Findlay and Otterbein beat us- just with two teams each...so to me we finished 3rd.

The only other thing that happened was when my winning rider was getting dressed she was bragging to the team about how her boots were brand new- so new we found out that she couldn't bend her legs... For those of you that know me, I was a little peeved that she hadn't warned me prior to the show so she could break them in, so in my irritation I told her she had to go to the sauna Sat night and sit in there with them for 20min to break them in. She took me literally. I went to check on her to make sure she wasn't dying and she was holding her boots in the sauna....oh well...what can ya do... ( I ended up making her put them on  and it helped a little)

I was proud of myself for actually running saturday night after the show. Tough Mudder be damned I will finish my training.

Sunday was not a great day. We drew cute horses, but they were difficult and the judge was unrated. I had one rider error (nerves) and one get crucified unjustly. Courtney finished 2nd (it was the boots in the sauna) and my walk/trotter got hosed (she is insanely tall and both days drew small quarter horses) and she is a true walk/trotter where some of the schools obviously used kids that were not such.

The ride home was mostly uneventful other than one of the girls looking over and seeing a monkey in a car next to us. We proceeded to speed up to stare at the monkey and when the owner (who was on the phone) saw us she sped off.

Overall it was a great learning experience. I have a good team. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we look forward to going to our next show. Hopefully the luck of the draw will be on our side and my team will kick butt.

Thats all for now, though here are some pics of the team...

The first is our Upper training Rider and I in warmup, the second is Courtney winning her class...with her stiff boots

and finally, my walk/trot rider at her first show ever. She's 6'2"...he's barely 15hh....

signing off~ Mandy