Giving Thanks

Growing up in a British/Australian family, Thanksgiving was never a holiday that had a lot of meaning behind it.  And yes, being in America, I learned all about the pilgrims and everything we should be thankful for,  and we ate our turkey and then skipped out to the stores for Black Friday shopping.  In September, I officially became an American citizen, and as such, I suppose I feel I should now place some more emphasis on what I am thankful for, and the privelage of living in this country and embracing the roots of this holiday.

So what am I thankful for?  Anybody can go through and list a variety of things, both real and intangible that we are all thankful for.  But what are those important things in your life that you are so thankful for that would change your existence if you didn’t have them?  What do you have, that nobody else has, that makes you so grateful to have that in your life?

First, I am thankful for my mother.  She is nobody else’s mother so there is nobody else that could understand why I am so thankful for her.  (Yes, I know, we are all thankful for our mothers, but seriously, if you’ve met my mother, you know she is one of a kind!)  She has continually supported and enabled me to do what I do and has not once ever told me not to try.  Who wouldn’t be thankful to have that in their lives?

Tilly – Best. Cat. Ever.

Secondly, I am thankful for Tilly.  A lot of people will say that their dog is their best friend, but I am a cat person through and through and Tilly will be irreplaceable in my heart.  For half of my life she has been there, she has listened to my problems and kept all of my secrets.  Without her, my house will be empty, and I dread the day that she passes, but at 15 years old, today I am thankful that I still have her with me and that she is happy and healthy.

 

 

Jupiter. Teddy bear cuteness.

 

Next, obviously, I am thankful for my horse.  Jupiter – the love of my life.  He makes me smile every day and can brighten my mood simply by being there.  He makes me a better rider and he reminds me constantly why I chose to pursue horses as a career and why I carry on through the rough days as well as the good.  He makes it worth it.

 

 

 

Finally, I am thankful for my best friend.  Megan is my other half, the yin to my yang, my sounding board when I need it and the hand holding me up when I’m falling off of a cliff.  Even though there is  a huge distance between us, she is the one that is always closest to me.

I am thankful for these things because they are nobody elses.  Because they are parts of my life that make it MY life, and for that, I am thankful.

Eventing Magic

After running a couple of competitions in June, we decided to take a break during the hot summer and waited until September  to head out competing again.  The wait paid off because when we pulled out of the driveway to head to Seneca Valley this weekend the temperature was a chilly 45 degrees!  But this time of year, if it starts out like that, you know it’s going to warm up to a perfect and comfortable non-humid kind of day.

I was riding two horses in the Beginner Novice, but we had two horses starting early in the novice, so we left at the crack of dawn.  I had plenty of time when we arrived to get my horses braided and ready and then I decided to head out and walk my cross country course.  It was still rather chilly with lots of dew on the grass but the sun was rising on a beautiful day.  The course started out right by the trailer parking and I hadn’t bothered to pick up a course map as typically, at beginner novice, you can usually figure out where the next fence is by looking around just a little bit.  I walked the first two fences, then made a big sweeping curve to the left to the third fence.  Approaching the third fence, I noticed the mist getting a little thick in the early morning light.  I stepped around the third fence and

I know those aren’t on the BN course – where is my next fence?

walked five feet or so up a small incline and out into the field and looked up to see which direction fence four was.  And this is where I got completely stranded.  It seemed as if, in mere moments, the fog had moved in so fast, the mist was so thick that I could hardly see five feet in front of me.  I could see the sun glowing ahead of me, but as I looked around I just saw a grey eery layer of fog burying the entire showgrounds.  I could hear trucks and trailers pulling in, but could vaguely make out the voices of people in the distance.  It was still quite early, so hardly anybody was out walking the course, but if they were out there I couldn’t see them.  It was as if the rest of the world had disappeared.  I didn’t have any kind of chance at finding my next fence!

Go eventing. Enough said.

I knew where the showjump arena was set up so rather than wander around the cross country course, I crawled through the fog towards the show jump and walked the course there, where I knew it would be a little easier to follow the course design.  But even in the show jump arena, you could barely see from one end of the ring to the other.  The jumps were coated in dew drops, dripping in the mist, waiting for the daylight to open up so that a horse and rider could come and jump them.  I made my way around the showjump and the fog still hung heavily in the air.  At this point I was entranced by the fog and still feeling like the only person on the planet I walked back through the fog towards cross country, stumbling across my fence 4 as I went.  I waited there another few minutes as the fog began to lift just enough that my view of the horizon opened a little and I could make out the flow of the course and walk in the general direction of my next fence.  The more I walked, the more the fog cleared at ground level, but in the distance it still hung around creating a beautiful mixture of mist and sun.  It was mesmerizing.  By the time I came around the last couple of fences and ended the course back at the trailer parking, the fog had completely disappeared and the sun was shining brightly.

It was, perhaps, one of the most magical and entrancing course walks I have ever done.  First of all, I LOVE fog, it is an amazing weather phenomenon, and second of all, I love eventing, and the mystical nature of the fog enveloping the cross country fences in the field where I walked around feeling completely isolated just gave me that sense of how you feel on course, one with the horse, one with the sport, as if everything else going on in the world is just a distant occurence on the other side of the veil.  The rest of the event didn’t even matter.  That course walk just totally made my day.

On the Mend

It has been four weeks since Jupiter’s injury and we are slowly making some healing progress!  Sutures came out after 2 weeks and then there was another two weeks of continued stall rest and bandaging as the wound was still quite open and needed more time to heal and close up.  Finally, at four weeks, Dr Bowman checked the knee and said it would be ok to stop bandaging and start hand walking!  We will do three weeks of hand walking, then another re-check and start riding and re-habbing.

Jupiter has been handling everything like a real trooper.  I have been grazing him every day, trying to do at least 45-60 minutes to keep him happy.  He has been very focused on eating grass and has not been spooky or reactive, which is nice when dealing with horses on stall rest!  For his first hand-walking session he was fabulously behaved, though I will be making it a point of hand walking during the early morning or late evening when there is very minimal activity and few distractions.  I’m trying to make every effort to keep the whole re-hab process very positive!

This whole ordeal has been quite an experience.  Although my horse has a great prognosis and will be as good as new by the time everything is healed, it was still a very critical emergency and could have gone downhill very fast without the proper treatment.  I can’t say enough good things about the team at Piedmont Equine Clinic – my regular vet Dr. Bowman and Dr. Dukti, who took excellent care of Jupiter while he was in the clinic for 9 days!

When I bought Jupiter earlier this year I decided to insure him with Equisure.  This turned out to be one of my better decisions, and they have been equally as wonderful to work with regarding the insurance claim and coverage of Jupiter’s vet bills.  The treatment was extensive and costly and it was very comforting to know that the insurance would help with most of the bills and I was able to provide Jupiter with all of the care he needed.

Initial injury – June 12

July 3

July 10

 

Small Setbacks

Athletes are typically all too familiar with plans being adjusted due to injuries and mishaps. Horses are no different! Since I made the effort of filling out an entry form for Jupiter to attend his first schooling dressage show, and have not yet mailed it off, then by rule of Murphy’s Law, it was inevitable that he come in this morning crippled lame with a gaping leg wound.

At least it was one of those wounds where you know you have to call the vet. It was pretty ugly, I definitely predicted sutures. Hoping thats all it was going to be, I put in a call to the vet, bandaged the wound and waited for the professional to take a look. Sedated and prepared for sutures, we unbandaged the leg and with one little palpation managed to get joint fluid to ooze out of the wound. Cringe. Re-bandage immediately. Put a call into the equine insurance company and load up on the trailer to head to Piedmont Equine Clinic for immediate treatment. Lovely.

Upon arrival and basic vitals checked, and with more sedation on board, first order of business was to determine the suspected joint involvement of the wound. Needles are inserted into the different joints and saline is injected – if the saline makes its way through to the wound, then there is definitive joint involvement. It was determined that Jupiter’s wound affected two different joints in his knee. At this point, I had a choice between one somewhat expensive treatment, (standing up, basic joint lavage) and one very expensive treatment. (laying down under general anesthesia and full arthroscopic lavage of the joints) After discussing with the insurance company and the vets, we opted to do the less expensive treatment as we felt that the wound had been found early and appeared fairly clean and would respond to the basic lavage well.

So before proceeding with the joint lavages, we had to radiograph the knee and make sure that Jupiter hadn’t managed to chip any bones or do any damage, especially as we are a little unclear of exactly how he managed to injure himself. The xrays appeared alright, thankfully, and so we continued with nerve blocks, blocking a whole ring at the top of his knee so that he wouldn’t feel the lavage procedure as much. At this point we administered sedation round 3 as he was waking up a little bit and was not a fan of the multiple pricks he was getting for the block. He also got a catheter inserted and started a second round of IV antibiotics.

And then we began the joint lavage. Jupiter had to stand on three legs with his hurt knee flexed while two needles were inserted on either side of the joint. Saline solution was pushed into one needle, through the joint and out the other needle to clear out any bacteria or infection that may have gotten inside the joint from the wound. This took a little while and Jupiter was fairly patient and tolerant about it all. After the first joint was done, we gave him a break to stand on all fours again before starting on the second joint. By this time Jupiter was getting sick of all the poking and prodding, was uncomfortable and really didn’t want to stand on three legs for such an extended period of time. Despite the sedation he was getting fussy, but was a real trooper as we made it through 3/4 of the fluid to get pushed through until we called it quits for Jupiter’s sanity!

With the joints adequately flushed, now began the suturing process. A little more block to numb the area and out comes the needle and thread. You’d think by this point I could handle any gross stuff, but anyone who knows me knows that I don’t do well with lots of blood. So while the wound was being debrided and blood was spurting out the side of his knee, I’m not going to lie, I got a little squeamish! But the vet clamped them off quickly and as long as I ignored the fresh red blood on the floor and down the side of my horse’s leg then it was all ok. And totally rewarding to look at the gaping wound that was no longer there after it had been so nicely sutured closed! Two final pokes from needles – with the wound sutured up, Jupiter now needed antibiotics injected directly into the joint, so promising the poor pony that it was nearly over he had two final pricks for the day and then they set to the task of bandaging the leg. And it was quite a bandage, let me tell you! A layer of sheet cotton from hoof to elbow, followed by a brown gauze layer, then another layer of cotton, another layer of brown gauze, a third layer of cotton, a third layer of brown gauze, a layer of vet wrap and finally secured with elastikon. With that all done up, we now promised Jupiter some rest in his hospital room if he could just get himself there. The smart boy that he is, it only took him one step to figure out how to swing his leg out to the side and around and he hobbled his way to his room where he immediately asked for some hay and water. Once he was adequately tucked in and everything taken care of, I wanted to leave him be and let him rest as I knew he’d just been through hours and hours of stress and trauma! He was in good hands at the clinic so I headed home, and will take him mints and carrots tomorrow!

Jupiter will stay at the clinic for at least 8 days. Although he won’t need an other joint flush, he will need continued treatment of the wound and joints in a sterile environment. He will be on stall rest for 3 weeks followed by another 3 weeks of stall rest with handwalking. He should make a full recovery and be sound but it was certainly an injury that required a lot of immediate treatment.

Checking off the Bucket List

I don’t have a particularly long list of things on my bucket list, but there are certainly things I want to see or do at least once, so that I can say I’ve had the experience! So, ever since I moved to Virginia and realized that I was within close driving distance to Pimlico Racetrack, and since the Preakness Stakes always falls on the weekend right around my birthday, I have said countless times that I wanted to go to the Preakness for my birthday, and see one of the Triple Crown races in person! And so, this year was the year! The adventure was planned with my friend Maggie, who’s birthday is a day before mine, so together we decided to celebrate the aging process by heading to Baltimore.

Being horse-poor people, we purchased in advance the cheap general admission tickets, figuring we would at least be at the track and would get to see the race, though we didn’t buy any of the reserved assigned seating. Not sure of the parking situation, we left early to make sure we got in to the tracks parking lot before it filled up by noon. My trusty GPS “Simon” got us to the Pimlico racetrack area, at which point the traffic started gridlocking and we crawled along, looking out for the right signs, as we needed the #4 parking lot. (The cheap one for poor people at $45 for the day!) As we worked our way through, we noticed homeowners around the area standing on the curb with cardboard signs. “Parking $20” they said, and we saw cars parked on driveways and front yards. We figured it looked a little sketchy, and who would trust their car to be parked in some person’s backyard in a questionable part of downtown Baltimore? Best to find the tracks parking lot, we confirmed! Of course it was the furthest one away, and we crawled along, following the traffic around a turn. With the parking lot in sight, I crept forward trying to find a sign to indicate that this was indeed where I needed to turn in. Police officers were directing traffic, and as I pulled closer, he waved with his hands to motion me forward and past. I iandvertenly assumed he was sending me on to the next gate since the car ahead of me had gone the same way (I had not purchased parking in advance and didnt have any kind of ticket displayed) and followed on. We promptly knew something was amiss, however, when suddenly there was no traffic ahead of us and the car behind us promptly turned right into the lot. Slightly panicked, we realized we had just been steered clear of our parking destination and shuddered at the thought of driving around the block again, crawling through the traffic. With traffic still heavy, there was certainly no way to stop and decide what to do, so we proceeded forward, turned at a light, wondering now how we were going to get back to the #4 lot and now a little angered that the officer directing traffic had just waved us on when obviously we were waiting in traffic to get to the lot! We turned the corner and I saw one of the sketchy parking lot people standing with a sign, on a corner lot of grass that had 8 or 9 cars parked there. It didn’t look too bad, so we thought, what the heck, let’s go for it. I turned in to what I thought was the lot, but what actually happened to be the house before, and we then proceeded to follow the gentleman and his sign down the driveway and around the turn to the back of the brick house to an alley way type parking area behind the house where a couple broken down cars were parked. Oh dear. We couldn’t exactly turn around and say ‘no thanks!’ so we got out and gathered up our belongings, and tried not to look too nervous as we handed the man $20 and he told us to “lock it up good!”

Back out on the main road, we then had to figure out where to go to get to the racetrack entrance. We followed the heavy flow of foot traffic and made it back towards the parking lot entrance we should have turned in to. We walked across the huge parking lot and found a massive line of people, all waiting to get into the Infest party, where we were NOT headed. We by-passed the line and followed the perimeter of the track, figuring we’d find the grandstand at some point. A left turn after about a half mile of walking, another half mile of walking, and finally we found the grandstand entrance, at which point we realized we had just walked the entire perimeter of the racetrack, and if we’d just gone down the road where we had parked we would have ended up at this place much sooner! But we were there, and we passed through security and were free to go into the Pimlico Grandstand!
We had plenty of time to look around and explore, and of course the first thing we wanted to do was go outside and see the expanse of racetrack. However, the security at each door going outside quickly informed us that our cheap general admission tickets did NOT allow us to go outside. Um, really?? So, like prisoners, we were stuck inside the grandstand, looking at the track through tinted windows and watching races on the betting screens inside. Well, at least we were still there! After we’d walked around and explored everything, we found an area where security was lacking and we were able to sneak outside for a bit and worked our way up to the rail to watch a turf race. But the crowds were filling and we needed lunch and restrooms and so had to go back inside and lost our freedom of being outside!

Our plan of attack for the actual race was to find a spot along the windows, right by the saddling area and finish line. We could see the horses on the track and could see the rest of the race play out on the big jumbo tron outside. We couldn’t hear a word of the announcers, but we were there, and we anxiously waiting while the horses saddled out in the turf track and went past us in the post parade. The Derby winner Orb, was heavily favored to win, with hopes of taking the Triple Crown, but I had watched races all day and seen lots of front runners coming away to win, and was worried about Orb’s late closing style. The horses broke from the gate and ran past us for the first time with Oxbow (my Derby pick!) in the lead, and when they came around the second time Oxbow remained in the lead to win, with poor Orb never really coming through.  A little disappointed, and tired from our big adventure, Maggie and I quickly skipped out of the grandstand to find our way back to our car in its sketchy little parking lot. We got back there to find the car considerably blocked in, however the gentleman there was positive we could maneuver my little Beetle in between cars by making a series of 50 point turns! I was very doubtful but started to give it a try, and when I was about to assure him that it was NOT going to work a few other people showed up to pull away, giving us a clear way out. Phew! In order to avoid the heavy traffic getting home, we made all of the turns away from the traffic, drove in no particular direction, and then relied on the GPS to get us back to the main highway, and we made it home in excellent time!

You certainly can’t say it wasn’t an adventure!

Happy Birthday Secretariat (aka An Event To Remember)

What an unbelievable opportunity!!  I feel so privelaged to have been able to attend Secretariat’s Birthday Party and Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of his Triple Crown win.  The party took place at The Meadow Farm in Doswell, VA where Secretariat was born and raised.  For a long time I have been a fan of horse racing, a fan of the thoroughbred mostly, as I am always amazed at their ability and skills that they can show on the racetrack and then additionally in their careers post-racing.  I obviously never got to see Secretariat, but he is a legend to anyone that knows thoroughbreds, and so being able to take part in the activities this weekend was just awesome.

Jineen and I drove down Friday afternoon, fighting our way through traffic, having near melt downs as we soon began running out of time to get to the hotel, get changed and ready for our “Business Attire” required attendance of the Winners Circle Reception at the Meadow mansion.  This was an exclusive part of the weekend with very limited attendance, hence the reason we had purchased our tickets way back in the beginning of February!  Miraculously we arrived right on time, looking pretty darn professional and business-like and while waiting in line outside to go in, got to see Penny Chenery, Ron Turcotte and Charlie Davis arrive for the evening.  We proceeded to spend the next two hours amongst a small group of people, having the opportunity to meet each of these individuals one-on-one.  We first met Penny, then said hello to the amazing Ron Turcotte, and then worked our way over to Charlie Davis, Secretariat’s main exercise rider.  He was starting a story about Big Red, and we listened to him intently as he lovingly talked about Secretariat’s personality, his desire to run, and you could just tell in the way Charlie talked that he knew the horse, inside and out, and had had a very special bond with him.  Of course, as a rider myself, I could really appreciate the sentiment and you could see in Charlie’s eyes and expression how much he loved talking about his time with Big Red.  What an honor to be able to listen to him talk from a foot away!

After having a slice of Secretariat’s birthday cake, we left the mansion and headed across to the pavilion where we had bought limited tickets for a special showing of the Disney movie ‘Secretariat’, and we picked out some seats out front and then browsed the memorabilia and made some special purchases.  We then got to sit down with a group of probably a hundred people, including Penny, Ron and Charlie, and watch this exceptional movie.  I have to say, this was an amazing experience that could never be replicated.  We weren’t in a movie theatre with a giant screen, we’ve all seen the movie and know how it ends, but the energy in that pavilion, full of fans that have so much appreciation for that big chestnut horse, was just overwhelming at times.  It was like being there at the races, rooting him on during the plays of his races, and seeing Penny’s reactions during scenes that you know had to have brought back such wonderful memories.  After the movie (and a ton of wild applause and cheers), there was a short panel discussion, where the three members of the team discussed and relived some of Secretariat’s races.  Ron Turcotte talked about how it felt to ride Big Red, and how he was “just learning to run when he was retired”.  Penny talked about some of the differences from the movie and what had actually happened in real life, and some of the culture of being an owner at the racetrack and how the politics worked.  It was truly surreal, but unfortunately after a long evening of festivities, most of us were pretty exhausted and the evening had to come to an end.

After a quick late night dinner, Jineen and I then went back to the hotel room and stayed up half the night going through Jineen’s scrapbook of Secretariat’s wins and we looked up videos on YouTube of the big red horse.  It was just such an amazing feeling to be there at this birthplace, where he had grown up and was given the opportunity to become such a legend of racing.  After a little bit of sleep and a quick breakfast, we headed back to The Meadow for the day’s celebration that was geared more towards the general public.  They had a great turn-out and it was quite crowded, and both of us were so happy to have had our special opportunity the night before to meet these people on a more personal basis because the grounds were absolutely packed today!  We waited in painfully long lines to get some autographs that we had not been able to get the evening before.  We then spent the afternoon walking around the farm, trying to envision its glory days functioning as a working racehorse farm.  It was a little hard to imagine, because so much of it has been commercialized and renovated, but we pieced things together, walked through the barns and tried to see how things used to be and how they were now.  We walked to the south part of the property and looked at the foaling shed, where precisely 43 years ago, that amazing chestnut colt had been born.  Before leaving for the day, we drove up the road a mile where it had been rumored the night before that you could visit the gravesite of Secretariat’s dam, Somethingroyal.  Sure enough, a short drive up to Something Royal Farm and we stopped at the gravestone to pay tribute to the wonderful broodmare.   I guess I just can’t even describe how awesome it was to be there and have just a hint of the feeling of the impact Secretariat made on horse people everywhere.

An Astrological Insight

One random day last year sometime in late summer, I was walking out to the front field to collect a horse to ride.  The front field is where we keep the live-out horses and the young racehorses that are enjoying some down time after leaving the track and before going to work in their new career.  As I was walking out to get a gelding I was supposed to

“Run For Canada” 3 year old TB gelding – August 2012

ride that day, I looked up over the hill and saw a young racehorse grazing, his coat glinting in the sun.  He had been hanging out in the field for a couple of months and was supposed to spend several months on “field rest” as he had been a bit hitchy after coming off the racetrack, and rather than spend a lot of diagnostics figuring out what was wrong with him, he was getting some down time to see if he came right on his own.  I hadn’t really paid much attention to him, until something came over me that day when I looked up at him.  I saw him, smiled, and said to myself “I’m supposed to buy that horse.”  Never mind that he was gimpy, and only 3 years old and scrawny and thin looking and I had a hunch that once a few months went by and if he came sound and Phyllis started putting some work into him then I knew I would never be able to afford him.  So rather than wait for that to happen, I told Phyllis right away that I intended on buying him.  I wasn’t sure when I’d have the money as I already had two horses I was responsible for and needed a 3rd horse like any of us need a bullet in our heads, but hey, there was just something about him.

So no worries, he wasn’t going to be doing anything other than stand in the field for a while, so all I could do was gaze at him adoringly whenever I was collecting other horses in that field.  Finally, later in the fall, enough time had passed that Phyllis suggested I should at least see if he was sound before I continued on insisting that I was buying him.  I brought him down to the barn and round penned him, saw that he looked reasonably sound and told Phyllis that yes, I would still be buying this horse.  She then suggested maybe I should ride him and make sure I like him first. Well, ok…. so I saddled him in the round pen and hopped on.  We trotted off and immediately that feeling came over me again and I said to myself once more, “I’m supposed to buy this horse.”  I ride a lot of horses, and have owned a lot of horses, but it had been a while since I had felt so emotionally connected to a horse.

And so began the course of the next few months throughout the winter.  I started to ride him in my free time, if I ended up not liking him than at least Phyllis would get some schooling on the little guy.  Of course, I already knew that wasn’t going to happen.  There was just something about him, the way he interacted with me and I knew he had to be mine.  Of course, I still had no way to pay for him, and Phyllis hadn’t given me any idea how much he would cost.  It wasn’t going to matter at this point though – no matter how much Phyllis was asking for him, I knew I would have to find a way to pay it because he HAD to be mine.

So I continued to hold out for one of my other horses to sell so that I would have a way to pay for my special horse.  I was afraid if I took too long my chance at buying him might be lost!  But, as luck would have it, my young horse Joey found an amazing new home with a great person.  I was sad to see him go, as I had been very much looking forward to taking him out competing this season, but I am a big believer in karma, fate and destiny, and Joey had started down his new path.  Which, on the bright side, enabled me to finally make my purchase.  Just as I had said I would that random day last summer, I bought the horse I knew I was supposed to have.  On Valentine’s Day, of course. 🙂

Jupiter – February 2013

I had come up with a name for him a while ago, way before I even knew for sure that I would get him.  Although really, I knew all along that ultimately he would be mine.  We were meant to be.  End of story.  My special horses I’ve had in the past have had astrological related names, so I was browsing through horoscopes and astrology readings.  It didn’t take long to know that “Jupiter” was the perfect name for him.

“In astrology, Jupiter is like a beacon in your birth chart, guiding you to become your most outrageously realized Self. It’s the planetary essence that generates potential for expanding beyond your sense of who you are. Jupiter guides you to your big dreams, those that seem nearly impossible to achieve. This planet shows up in your life as a pull toward your aspirations, through an inner drive, sense of destiny, serendipity, helpful friends, lucky breaks, and fateful events. Sometimes Jupiter calls you out to take risks, and the result in doing that is a faith that life is unfolding as it should.”

Now that he is bought and paid for and absolutely mine, then yes, life IS unfolding as it should.  Everything happens for a reason, or so I believe, and I’m sure Jupiter had a very good reason for finding me. 🙂

Invest in the Journey, Not the Destination

I had to borrow the title of this blog post from Phyllis.  It is so true, and so applicable.  Because five years ago I began a journey.  A journey that I have no idea when it will end or where it will take me, but it was a beginning of things I never would have imagined.  Five years ago, on November 7, 2007, I began my interview to be a working student for Phyllis Dawson at Windchase.

Rewind a few months, if you will, to July of 2007, when an unfortunate incident with a horse and a wall left me with severed tendons on my left arm and a partially paralyzed hand.  I had a great hand surgeon and he said with surgery he could repair the tendons and I should gain 90% function back.  I, of course, was freaking out and already thinking of how I was going to tie the reins into my useless hand and still get around a cross country course.  (Never mind the fact that pre-surgery I couldn’t do such simple things as put my hair in a pony tail… I truly admire anyone with such disabilities because for a short while there I experienced some terrible frustrations!)   Anyway, long story short, my amazing surgeon repaired the damage and although I had several months of recovery and rehab, I slowly gained mobility back in my hand and probably had better results than expected, as my hand now appears virtually normal.  However, having faced the possibility of not being able to ride as I was accustomed and then having lots of down time to think about what to do with my life, I came to the cruel reality that I could NOT live without my horses.  There was certainly more than one person who suggested that this was an excellent opportunity to pursue other interests and choose a new career path, as I would be done with college after the fall semester.

Well, after making it clear that I was sticking with the ponies, and after finding that my surgery was a success and my injury would not affect my riding, then my mother suggested that if I was indeed going to make a career out of this, then I had better take steps to make sure I had a successful one.  And so the idea of spending time as a working student arose.  At the time, I was riding with Kate Christensen at WinDancer Farms, and she suggested I look into Phyllis Dawson’s program at Windchase, where she had spent time as a working student.  After reading through Phyllis’s website I just knew that this was the place for me.  I communicated with Phyllis about setting up my interview and pulled together some money for the flight out to Virginia.

I flew out the evening of November 6.  My first dilemma was how to get from the airport to Windchase on a very tight budget. (I’m not kidding when I say I used all the spare change I could to make this trip happen!)  My mother, ever resourceful, did some networking and figured out the appropriate bus routes I would need to take and worked out that I could make it to the town of Purcellville for $1.50 (considerably cheaper than a $60 taxi or renting a car for the week!).  From there, Phyllis said she could send one of her current working students to pick me up from the side of the road on Main Street.

And so that’s how I ended up, the morning of November 7th, out in the barn amongst the other working students, slightly terrified of walking into the tack room to meet Phyllis for the first time.  I wanted the opportunity so badly, but what if I made a bad impression?  Just because I wanted it certainly didn’t mean that Phyllis would want me!  I was just some average rider from Colorado, what if I didn’t have suitable skills to be a competent working student at Windchase?  I mean, she’s an Olympian for crying out loud, would she really have the time or interest in teaching me?

Thus I spent the next three days cleaning stalls and tack, turning horses in and out and completely immersing myself in the working student life and just praying that I was doing everything right and well enough to impress Phyllis.  I had a dressage lesson the first day and felt so angry with myself when I couldn’t get the half halt that Phyllis wanted.  But her instruction and insistence on getting it right only further motivated me to keep working at it, even if it didn’t happen right away.  On the second day, I was lucky enough to get to join a cross country lesson in which I rode Pi, an upper level horse.  Of course, as I rode around like a nervous fool and had him running out at logs on the ground, I figured I had blown my chances at being accepted for the position.  I had so proudly told Phyllis that I had gone training level on my horse, and here she was telling me I was riding no better than a beginner novice rider.  Well, fair enough!  But I was doing what I knew, and so obviously needed more instruction if this whole career in horses thing was going to work out.

On the third day of my interview, Phyllis sat down with me and to my relief, she offered me a working student position to start in February.  I could barely contain my excitement!  I don’t know what I would have done if this hadn’t worked out, because after spending three days at Windchase I knew this HAD to be the right place for me.  I enjoyed my lessons with Phyllis, I loved talking to Jineen about my horse back home and I admired Melissa for her hard work and getting to where she was.

Little did I know that five years later, here I sit, STILL at Windchase and loving every day of it.  Phyllis and Jineen are like family to me and I am so grateful for the opportunities they have given me in this journey.  I still have days where I feel like I’m just that “beginner novice rider” and I have other days I feel like I’m completely confident in my abilities and skills.  It’s still a work in progress, I still have things to learn, but oh what I’ve learned in the last five years.  Initially I had intended to “go and be a working student” and learn a little bit more so that I could go home and ride, train and sell horses for a living.  But I have gotten so much more out of this – I have those skills, but I have a different appreciation of the journey I am on to attain those skills and the path my life is taking is certainly different than I expected.

I don’t know where my path will take me.  I don’t have a five year plan, or a ten year plan.  I have a ‘now’ plan, and I’m enjoying the trials and tribulations of each day.  It’s been an amazing five years, I can’t wait to see what happens in the next five!

Some Days You Just Can’t Catch A Break

I was on such a high after Middleburg last week!  My horse had jumped around the training course like a champ.  Now we have been prepping for Area 2 Championships this weekend, I took some dressage lessons and picked apart some of the issues I’d had and although I wasn’t going to miraculously turn Logan into a winning dressage horse, I knew we’d have a better test to start us off right.  I wasn’t going in with the expectations of winning or even placing well – this is not my season to be competitive with my horse, this is a season to gain mileage and I wanted Logan to have another good run at training.

I walked the cross country course on Friday night.  Now yes, I understand it’s a championships, and I know it shouldn’t be a cake walk, but holy smokes!  I felt like I was moving my horse up to preliminary with some of the questions!  This was not the training level type course I remember from years past, it seemed a lot tougher, and a lot more technical!  Offset coops, log-three stride jump into the water then turn and jump a log out of the water, a ABC element of narrow to narrow log, bending line to narrow brush, an angled half coffin, up-bank to narrow and a huge table followed by a monster of a trakehner.  Even if Logan got around this course with a stop here or there I would still be proud of him, because it was quite the course!  It looked like fun, and I felt confident that I knew and could ride each and every question, but I knew it would be asking a lot.

I had a good solid dressage warm up, definitely felt it was going in the right direction, and although I couldn’t quite take it all with me into the dressage ring, it wasn’t too bad at all and I was pleased with the differences in my test from last week.  Last week where he was more inconsistent in the contact and not through, this week I had him pushed up into my hand and although a bit heavy at times and still some moments of resistance, it felt better balanced and correct.  I went for it in my lengthenings and was able to bring him right back, and overall felt it was an acceptable test for where we are in our work.  That’s the thing with dressage – sometimes you can do your very best that day and it may not win the division, but I think as long as you are bringing your own personal best into the ring, then how can you not win? (metaphorically, at least!)  Logan scored a 36.something, leaving him somewhere in the middle of the pack, which was fine by me because, as I said, I didn’t come here to be competitive.

The #9 A-B-C combination

I was a little apprehensive about riding the cross country before the showjump.  I know that sounds funny, since up until four years ago I had never done anything but that, but I think everybody these days has become far more accustomed to the updated format and prefers it, and Logan actually has never known any different.  I didn’t feel like this affected our performance at all, but it definitely made me anxious about the warm-up, knowing I hadn’t had a showjump round to get us forward thinking and in front of the leg.  Needless to say, my warm-up was a bit iffy, and my nerves were rattled a bit at the prospect of going out on the big course, but I knew I just needed to get out there and gallop.  And sure enough, once we got out of the start and got rolling, things started to smooth out.  Logan was very brave, and although we had a hairy fence here or there where maybe we got a little longer spot than I would have liked, or maybe the line wasn’t quite what I had intended, all the jumps were still good and we never had any moments that I felt took any confidence away from Logan.  Which was probably a good thing, since he was quite frazzled and galloping around a little wide-eyed!  He was being very brave and game to do it, just a little bewildered by all of the questions being asked.  He was foot perfect through the water combination, picked his way through the narrow log combination, had a genuine “I don’t understand” stop at the half-coffin, where I had a good canter and line in, but he just didn’t understand the angled ditch.  Came around again and he jumped it fine, then carried on in the same brave fashion.  We were having

Logan jumps the big brush fence. Photo by GRC Photography.

some good moments and I was very proud of him for trying so hard.  We came around to the third to last fence – a huge daunting trakehner, I collected him but kept my leg pushing because I knew it was an impressive fence and he would need some assurance coming down to it.  I saw my spot – a slight forward move up spot but certainly not a lengthening one, we got to the base, we went to leave the ground, and then Logan saw the ditch underneath the rail and just had a moments hesitation as he came off the ground.  Had I come in with less power I think he would have stopped, but I had enough engagement and momentum that he was already jumping but had a very awkward fence, caught a leg and we both landed in a heap on the other side.  For a moment, I thought we might both go down, but Logan scrambled and stayed on his feet, then for a fraction of a second I thought I might be able to keep myself in the tack, but the awkward landing had tossed me far off to the right and pretty soon the ground was far closer than I would have liked and Logan was galloping off to the next fence and then realized I was no longer with him!  Poor boy, he was so brave and tried hard to jump the scary fence, and it was just one of those jumps that doesn’t end up like you’d planned!

So that was the end of our day of competition!  Three fences from home, so at least I got most of the course out of it, but we wouldn’t be finishing and going on to showjumping!  Of course, I also twisted my ankle somewhere amidst the landing and falling to the ground and couldn’t walk anyway and spent the rest of the afternoon stuck in a chair by my trailer overlooking the showjumping course that I didn’t get to ride.  And it looked like it was riding pretty tough, so after all that I actually wasn’t too disappointed about it!  So no big deal, I was perfectly accepting of the fact that we’d had a green fence and it didn’t end well, and I was still very proud of my horse for trying his hardest over a tough course.  And if that’s how my day had ended I would have been just fine.

Except for the part where we were driving home (we being Phyllis and I, since I couldn’t drive because of my ankle) and 2 miles from home my truck decides to stop changing gears, blows out huge puffs of smoke and limps to the side of the road, at which point it would go no further.  Leave it to good old Big Blue to break down at the most inconvenient of times!  Fortunately we were close to home and were able to get another trailer out quickly to switch the horses and get them home safely, then we proceeded to wait 3 hours for a tow truck to come and take Big Blue away (ultimately to the junk yard quite possibly… if my transmission has seized up I can’t imagine it’s of any value to try and fix it on a 16 year old truck!) and then we got another truck to tow the trailer the remaining 2 miles home.  At this point I was in pain, hobbling around on crutches, with no truck, a questionable trailer (yeah, there was smoke coming from the trailer tires too…) and it was dark and cold and I was quite ready for the day to end.

And that, my friends, is an exceptional day in the life of an eventer.  Oh yes, there are those glorious days where you go to the event, ride around, have fun, nothing goes wrong, but these days – these character building days are what makes us eventers quite possibly the weirdest people out there, because all this crap can happen to us in one day and we STILL go back out there the next weekend to do it all again.  I know I am not alone in my experiences of yesterday, as it happens to all of us, and I am grateful things were not any worse than they were.  So here’s to all my eventing friends that can sympathize and relate to my story!

Middleburg Horse Trials

Finally!  Finally, after four and a half years of competing in Area 2, I managed to fit the Middleburg Horse Trials into my schedule.  For some reason it has just never panned out, but this year it worked out that I had not one, but two entries in the training division there.

I rode both on Sunday, and although the morning started a bit chilly, the sun came out and it warmed up to absolutely perfect and sublime eventing weather.  A slight breeze, a warm but not too hot sun and perfect footing on the cross country course.  I can see why people go to Middleburg – I don’t think it’s for the dressage warm-up in a field a short hack away from the rings, or for the awkwardly placed show jump course along the side of the pathway.  I’m pretty sure it’s for the picture perfect cross country course on the beautiful steeplechase course.  The expanse of green grass littered with cross country jumps was absolutely beautiful!

Logan was the first to go this time, and our dressage was not completely up to par, but not horrific either.  It probably didn’t help that they started running the preliminary horses on cross country right as I trotted down the center line, but Logan wasn’t really misbehaved at all, and overall I would just describe him as “slightly inattentive”.  Whatever; I have certainly come to realize that dressage tests are typically a “work in progress” at all times!  I had a quick change and hopped on Tulla and had a test of similar stellar qualities – not our best but not our worst.  Both horses scored a 37 so I guess I am at least consistent!

A short break and it was time to tackle the jumping with Logan.  Logan isn’t usually the first to go – whenever I compete him with other horses (i.e. Tulla!) then he is usually the second horse to go, which is nice because Tulla is a little bit more seasoned and gives me a good ride and a feel for the course and builds my confidence a bit.  I’m not accustomed to taking Logan out as the lead horse, and he hasn’t competed since July so I was feeling slightly apprehensive about the big training level course!  But Logan was absolutely a rock

Logan showjumps clear at Middleburg. Photo by Phyllis Dawson.

star and had a solid good show jumping round with no rails, although maybe a hairy moment coming into the last combination. (You cannot argue that I was not riding ‘forward’ to the fences, lol!)  Having such a good showjump really made me feel good about going out on the cross country and once I got out there and felt Logan really click in and take me to the fences, boy did we have a great time!  The course was very gallopy with big solid fences and most of our fences were smooth and right on, and the ones that weren’t, I give credit to Logan for making the right decisions.  (I’m glad my horse has learned that when I see the long distance I don’t necessarily mean he should jump from it, even if I think he should!)  We had a few time penalties because I made some wide turns and was a bit over-cautious with my transitions and approaches to the fences, but I couldn’t have been happier with the horse I felt underneath me that was just attacking the fences confidently!  We started the long hack back to the trailer and picked up a vet assistant that had chosen us for drug testing.  I found this rather entertaining, seeing as he was picked out at Loch Moy in July for drug testing and although they say it is completely random, I’m wondering if they are really just seeking him out to test for his super special unicorn qualities.  But I bet they’ll never admit it.

A very quick tack change and I headed out on Tulla, who started off a bit keen and strong in the show jump warm up.  We smoothed it out a bit and had a good showjump round, although he just barely tapped out 2 rails, perhaps a product of the over zealousness a bit but hey, he’s an animal, not a robot and that is one challenge of this sport – my partner isn’t always going to act or respond the way I expect him to so sometimes the ride has to be adjusted.  But he was a good boy, jumping big and bold, which is the feeling I like heading out to cross country!  It took us a few fences to get our rhythm going, well actually I’ll admit the first half of the course was a little just off the mark and when we had a bit of a miss and ended up landing off the downhill rails in a heap and rumbling down on the forehand then we decided to put it together that final notch and then the rest of the course rode like a dream!  (Remind me to do that before the first fence next time, eh?)  Again, a few time penalties for Tulla (it was a long open course on a draft horse, he gave it a good solid effort!) but clear over the jumps and a good result for another training level event.

I was really thrilled with the performances of both horses, and although neither one was in the ribbons, I feel like they really stepped it up and had good goes and I felt like I did some good riding out there, which, at the end of the day, makes me happy!  Now time to get Logan ready for the Area 2 championships at Morven Park this coming weekend.  No biggie that it will be only his 3rd training level event – we’re crazy like that, so bring it on Morven! 🙂