Jock Paget wins! Photo Credit Nico Morgan Photography

Happy Monday, EN!  What an amazing weekend of Eventing across the globe! I spent the weekend playing Event-mom for my BFF at her horse’s first outing alternating between groom-duties and practicing my best cell-service yoga-poses so that I could keep up with all of the action at Burghley as well as Copper Meadows and Aspen Farms where I had friends and family competing. I’ve discovered that applying hoof-polish with your left hand, brush pressed to hoof, with your phone in your right hand can sometimes bring you up to two bars of signal from one.  Amazing!

Weekend Results:

Copper Meadows HT

Aspen Farms HT

The Maryland HT at Loch Moy Farm

King Oak Farm Fall HT

Five Points HT

Bucks County Horse Park HT

Camelot HT 

Events Opening this Week:

Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Georgia, A-3) Heritage Park H.T. (Kansas, A-4) Waredaca H.T. and Classic Training 3 Day Event (Maryland, A-2) Holly Hill Fall H.T.(Louisiana, A-5)

Monday News:

Jock Paget and Clifton Promise were triumphant at Burghley.  Jock had a very good chance of capturing both first and second place, but withdrew Clifton Lush due to a banged fetlock.  With Clifton Lush out, Andrew Nicholson moved up to second and third places on Avebury and Nereo.  [Burghley Wrap-Up]

Alex Postolowsky had an exceptional first 4* outing at Burghley.  In addition to Alex winning the HSBC FEI Classics training bursary, her mount “Ginger” won the best-kept horse prize.  This netted Alex’s groom Dave Burton a sizeable check and an outfit from Mountain Horse.  [More from H&H]

On the West Coast, Jordan Linstedt took the top spot in the Tin Men Supply Advanced at Aspen farms.  Thunderstorms and wet weather prior to the weekend had some worried, but it turned out to be a very lovely weekend.  The Advanced division was especially demanding.  Only four riders had no jumping penalties in the Cross Country phase and all riders picked up time-faults.  The Stadium phase proved to be challenging as well with no clear rounds.  Also, a special shout-out to my Aunt Merry who’s young horse, Ajax, finished second in the Novice Horse division with Terrie Hook aboard.  [XC Photos From Aspen]

Also on the West Coast, Kristi Nunnink and R-Star captured the win at Copper Meadows.  Jolie Wentworth placed second, Gina Miles third.  Hawley Bennett-Awad had been sitting in first, but is reported as having had a fall at fence 11.  Videos posted by Hawley on Facebook show Gin & Juice going well on cross-country.  We’ll share additional details as they become available.  [Photos from Copper Meadows]

A recovery fund for Amy Barrington has been established.  Amy suffered a serious brain injury following a fall on Wednesday, September 4th.  From the Facebook page chronicling her progress, Greg reports that the sedation drugs keeping her in a medically induced coma have been cut off meaning that Amy will now be allowed to wake up when she is ready to do so.  [Initial EN report]  [Amy Barrington Recovery on Facebook] [YouCaring Medical Fundraiser Page]

Want to win a Deluxe Cross Country No-Slip Saddle Pad from Success Equestrian? Enter the “How Do You Spell Success?” Contest! Click here to view last year’s entries for a little inspiration, and click here to view all the contest entry details. The deadline has been extended to Wednesday, Sept. 11! [Success Equestrian]

Are you a strong writer/editor who loves eventing? In anticipation of some big changes coming to EN this fall, we’re looking to add a new member to our team. So dust off your writing samples and apply by Friday, Sept. 13. Bonus points for applications that include chinchilla poems. [Write for EN]

Jock Paget and Clifton Promise hoping to have a similar experience at Burghley today!

What a jam-packed weekend!  There is so much to see, do and keep up with that I hardly know if I’m coming or going.  I’m here at Camelot for their final horse trials of the season, friends and family are competing at Aspen up in Yelm, WA, and then of course, there’s Burghley over the pond.  I hope your weekend has been filled with all sorts of fun and adventure.  Check in tomorrow for a recap of the weekend’s events!

Burghley Links: [Official Burghley Website]  [Entry List] [Watch FREE Burghley TV] [Live Scores & Ride Times] [Schedule]

Events This Weekend

Copper Meadows HT: [Website] [Ride Times/Live Scores]

Aspen Farms HT: [Website] [Ride Times/Live Scores]

The Maryland HT at Loch Moy Farm: [Website] [Entry Status]

King Oak Farm Fall HT: [Website] [Ride Times/Live Scores]

Five Points HT: [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Bucks County Horse Park HT: [Website] [Entry Status]

Camelot HT [Website] [Ride Times/Live Scores]

Bucks County Horse Park HT [Website] [Ride Times]

Dreamcrest HT [Website]

Links:

Amy Barrington Recovery Fund

USEF Accepting Nominations for Life Time Achievement Award and Pegasus Medal of Honor

Scientific Study Confirms What Horse People Already Knew About Training

Texas College Student Dies From Horse Fall

WNV Reported In Horses Nationwide

Vermont Horse with EEE Euthanized

Tweets Of The Week From HorseNation

ERS-Eventing.com provides riders with an interactive online portal that showcases product information, demonstrations, tutorials and reviews from fellow competitors and top international riders.

We’ve all been there. You’ve been having solid rides. You managed to get the time off of work. You sent your entries in and your ride times are posted. You show up at the barn, haul your gear out to the cross ties, and go sauntering out to the pasture to grab your horse and you hit the wall. Maybe it’s a sprung shoe and a missing chunk of hoof. Maybe it’s a leg that’s just puffy enough that it has you worried. Maybe it’s an allergic reaction. Whatever it is — it takes the wind right out of your sails, and suddenly your plans appear to be for naught.

When I watched my mare come strolling across the pasture Tuesday in the hopes of collecting cookies from me, I noticed that she had some dried blood on her left front. She seemed to be walking normally, so I forced myself not to panic. When she closed the distance between the two of us, I stuffed a few cookies in her face and began checking out the situation. My eyes found the source: a small gash on the inside of her leg, just below where her leg meets her body.

I brought her in and cleaned the wound. After a good scrub, it was determined that it was fairly superficial and that panic would not be necessary. Still, it was in an awkward enough spot that it was all but guaranteed to swell and probably not fair to ask her to work hard until it had healed a bit. A long walk, maybe some light flatwork? Sure, not a problem. However, a serious effort over a fence could cause it to pop open, and then there’s all kinds of yuck going on, and that’s not anything anyone wants to have happen. Great. We had a plan, you know.

Stephanie and I were all set to haul out this afternoon. We were feeling confident heading up to Camelot for her horse Owen’s first outing and my last trip around Beginner Novice before buckling down and pushing to get a couple of Novice runs in before winter. We had placed bets on who would get the worse dressage score. Her horse is admittedly very green and an unknown quantity in a show environment. However, my mare’s natural tendency to be hot and excitable paired with a track record of scores in the 40s makes it a fools bet, but like I told Stephanie — if she really wants to give me a dollar, I’d be happy to take it.

I won’t lie; I’m a bit bummed because realistically, unless something magical happens, I won’t be showing this weekend. Not all is lost though, and it could absolutely be far worse. I’ll still be hauling my mare up to be Owen’s security buddy. She’s an old hand when it comes to traveling and quite familiar with Camelot. I will still get to camp out, act foolish and go on a trail ride. I will get to snap pictures for Stephanie and share in the excitement of a first time out with a new horse. I will still be ready for Novice before winter hits. Yes, we had a plan. Time to pack, hook up on the trailer and get on the road. The plan is still a go.

Go Team DF. Go Flexibility. Go Eventing.

Boyd Martin doesn’t always ride at Advanced level.

One of the hardest things for me to adjust to in all of Eventing has been the way in which the divisions are organized.  You have a few options all at the same level and it can get a bit overwhelming.  Sometimes you don’t even know which section you’ll actually be in until the ride times are posted.  You fill out your entry form, scribble down “Novice, please!” and then send off your entry.  When the event secretary gets it, they somehow piece through all of the entries and determine what splits will exist in each division and who goes in what section. Sure there’s some sort of token democratic process that I’m glossing over as well since you’re supposed to order your preferences for your section.  So you just sort of end up where they put you.

Even more mind-bending is that sometimes, even when you’re bombing around the low-levels you’ll have someone from the big-leagues show up in your division.  The first time I saw it as a spectator, my poor little brain was working over-time to figure out how in the daylights someone who had been to Rolex and other 2- and 3-star riders were doing Training level.  I am certain there was steam coming out of my ears.  It simply did not compute.

In Hunter/Jumper land the divisions are endlessly broken down by age, fence-height and amateur versus professional status.  There are cross-entry restrictions out the wazoo in the interest of keeping things fair organized.  The sheer number of classes is astounding.  Very generally speaking, at a Hunter/Jumper show the amateurs tend to show in amateur classes and certain other divisions are viewed as something that really only the pros ride in – either to school a horse or prep it for a client.  Of course there’s the whole issue of people riding as amateurs when they are not – but that’s another discussion for another time.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the shock of sharing a division with a big name.  I understand the process of bringing along a horse and that it does require that big names rock around the lower levels from time to time but it’s still so alien to me.  I suspect when I start actively caring about Dressage and sucking less at it, the odd occasion when I pull a decent score that somehow tops the 3* prospect I’ll come to appreciate it a bit more.  Until that day though, you can expect to see my eyes bug out of my head when I end up in an Open section along side the big names and their up-and-comers.

Go Team DF. Go Class Splits. Go Eventing.

A few days ago Stephanie and I were doing trot-sets lollygagging around the track at Dragonfire.  We were discussing our plans for Camelot this coming weekend and the remainder of the season when she paused abruptly.  Shock and utter disbelief crept in to her voice.

“…ohmygod.  Erin.  We’ll be showing in the SENIOR division.  Erin. No. Seriously.  We are ADULT AMATEURS.”

I kept as serious of a face as I was able to manage.

“Yes. We are adult amateurs.  Showing in the Senior division.”

And then we both absolutely lost it.  We probably spent a good five minutes laughing at the absurdity of the situation.  Admittedly, I almost fell off from laughing so hard and that caused a secondary laughing jag and a fit of the giggles that continued on for quite a while.

As a teenager in Hunter/Jumper land of the late 90’s “aging out” was both something to be excited about and something to dread. There was an undercurrent of pressure to have a successful “junior-career”.  You had a very finite amount of time to go hard and chase points before you were not eligible for any of the significant medals.  I remember watching friends be not-so-secretly thrilled as it came time for some of the stronger competitors in their divisions to age out.  On the flip side, I felt a twinge of jealousy when they did.  For me there was an interesting sense of approaching freedom from that pressure.  I also remember being particularly excited that I would be able to wear my lovely (and useless) hunt cap.  It had no chin strap (or protective qualities) and I was going to look SO COOL.  (Oh how times have changed, eh?)

In all honesty, there is a unique experience in checking the box for the Senior division for the first time. From the expression on her face, I know that the realization hit Stephanie in the exact same way it hit me when I went to my first show as an adult.  It was a strange moment that had a feeling of liberation, loss and this weird sense of somehow “getting away with something” — kind of like when I was 19 and ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri and the bartender missed the virgin part or somehow I managed to get in to a club without being carded.

Seeing Stephanie experience that moment has rekindled some of my own amusement at being in the Senior divisions.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to hit the early-bird special down at the diner.  If I hurry I should be back just in time for the Murder She Wrote marathon on TBS.  Oh, and get off my lawn.

Go Team DF. Go Senior Division.  Go Eventing.

Camelot Equestrian Park is located just outside of Chico, Calif., in Butte Valley and hosts a number of equestrian activities during the year, including three unrated events. The facilities at Camelot are always improving, and the atmosphere is very relaxed. I have never considered myself much of a “camper,” but I always look forward to camping out at Camelot, where there are hot showers, flushing toilets, plenty of shade trees and friendly folks.

This year’s series of events is coming to a close this coming weekend and should bring some strong numbers. The 2013 series has been sponsored by Devoucoux and Max Gerdes. Sept. 7 and 8 will be the final chance for riders to add points to their current tallies and maybe walk away with the series grand prize — a Devoucoux saddle. Currently, Jessie Koenig and Oliver are at the top of the leaderboard with 155 points. Amy Nelms and Clancy sit in a close second with 145 points. Susan Garmier and Sonic are third with 120 points.

Eventing Nation is sending some love Camelot’s way by sponsoring two of the divisions at the final event of the season. I will be there with my mare, Akira Beijing, and would love it if you came by and said hello! We’ll be easy to find; we are always the entry with the fastest time in the dressage phase. Keep an eye on Eventing Nation for some updates from Camelot and details about the weekend’s winners!

Links: [Camelot Equestrian Park] [Series High Point Leaderboard]

The Dala Horse

The European Eventing Championships in Malmô, Sweden are coming to a close in just a few short hours.  You can catch the action over at FEI TV if you happen to be an east-coast early riser or a west-coast night-owl.  Show Jumping is scheduled to start at 4:55 AM Eastern, 1:55 AM Pacific.  Leader Michael Jung heads in to the Show Jumping round with a 28.6, followed by William Fox-Pitt with a 36.6.  With how amazing his XC was on Saturday, I don’t think he’s going to need those two rails.  As a side note, when I was in college, I had a crush on a tremendously handsome Swede.  In fact, so much of a crush, that I took a year of Swedish classes.  Most of it has faded, but I have retained several phrases of varying usefulness.  I will share these with you now.

“Jag älskar ol.” = I love beer.

“Din häst är fet.” = Your horse is fat.

“Det kostar hur mycket?” = It costs how much?

“Jag kommer att köpa häst.” = I will buy the horse.

I wonder what that says about me that the only Swedish I can remember is related to spending money, horses and beer.  Hmm.  On to the links!

European Championships Links: [Malmö Eventing Website] [Live Scores] [FEI TV] [Malmo XC Course Walk]

Events This Weekend:

KY Classique HT: [Website] [Ride Times]

Town Hill Farm Horse Trials: [Website] [Ride Times] [Entry Status]

Steepleview Labor Day Horse Trials: [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Fall HT:[Website] [Entry Status/Times] [Live Scores]

Corona Del Sol HT: [Entry Status/Times] [Live Scores]

Chattahoochee Hills HT:[Website] [Entry Status] [Live Scores]

Stanton Farms HT: [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Champlain Valley Horse Trials [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Silverwood Farm Fall HT: [Website] [Entry Status]

Moqui Meadows 1 Day HT [Live Scores]

Queeny Park Mini Horse Trial [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Want to win a Deluxe Cross Country No-Slip Saddle Pad from Success Equestrian? Enter the “How Do You Spell Success?” Contest! Click here to view last year’s entries for a little inspiration, and click here to view all the contest entry details. Entries are due Wednesday, Sept. 2! [Success Equestrian]

Links

A Losing Horse – And A Faithful Trainer

Horse and Rider Enter State of Co-Being

Woman Gets Jail Time In Horse Deaths

Team DF after an awesome day!

One of the greatest things about Northern California is that it there is a wide variety of horse-things to get involved with.  We have some great Events, two active Hunts and much more.  In the Sacramento area there is a very active local-level H/J circuit.  Just about every weekend from February thru November you can get out and get a few trips around the Jumper ring.  A good portion of the shows run multiple rings and are hosted at barns that also host A-Rated Hunter/Jumper shows so you get the busy “show experience” for your green horses and riders without the ridiculous prices of rated Hunter/Jumper shows.

Last weekend Team Dragonfire loaded up and hit the SAHJA Championship Tie-Breaker Show at Leone Equestrians.  Jenny and Earl brought along some of the younger horses in training while Mia, Hailey and Taylor brought their horses (and pony) along to get in to get some extra milage in the SJ ring and to take a shot at winning some cash in the Ride and Drive.  Taylor is getting ready for her first BN and Hailey is about to join Mia in Novice, after her recent move-up at Woodside.  My mare stayed home, but I came along as moral support, occasional photographer and Taylor’s driver for the Ride and Drive.

With the exception of a minor boot-zipper issue when we arrived, it was smooth sailing.  While I jammed back to Dragonfire to pick up a spare pair of tall-boots for Earl, Team DF got things rolling in the warm-up ring.  I arrived in time to watch Taylor put in a very solid trip.  Jenny’s young horse Jake went well, as did Earl’s ride Nick and Hailey on her horse Skip.  Mia rode later in the day and put in some very polished rounds.  Shelby and Morgan had also come to the show, so it was excellent to see some of the extended Dragonfire crew.  We had some time to lounge about in the shade between rounds.  The weather was great and the ring ran relatively quickly for a Hunter/Jumper show.  Honestly, the only thing that I could complain about is that the hamburger I snagged at the concession stand was dry and overpriced.

In the early afternoon, we made a quick trip home to drop off the horses who were finished for the day and to pick up Jen’s 3* horse Billy, so that she could cruise around the 3’9” class just before the Ride and Drive.  Billy went like a rockstar and was a pleasure to watch. After that it was time for the very serious business of the Ride and Drive.

For those of you that are not familiar with a Ride and Drive event, it can be run in a few different ways.  Typically you have a rider who jumps a course of fences who then dismounts and runs over to a vehicle to drive it through a pre-determined pattern.  Sometimes it is done as a tag-team event, with a separate driver and a baton hand-off or some other type of required interaction to change phases.  The fastest combined time wins.  Usually these are big-time classes with the winners taking home cars and massive amounts of money.  In this case, the fences were 2’6”, the vehicle for the drive portion was a mini-quad, and cash prizes for the top three teams.

2'6" is pretty big when you're wee!

After a quick walk of the course, the competition got underway.  The dream was to have Team DF sweep the top three spots and take home ALL of the money, but competition was very fierce!  I drove for Taylor, Morgan rode Shelby’s horse while Shelby drove, and Earl drove for Mia.  Taylor and I were up first for Team DF.  Taylor had an impressive go – especially considering that the course was easily the largest she’d jumped in competition and how many rollbacks were involved.  She had one unfortunate drive-by on a fence and I think I knocked a ball off of one of the cones, but it was seriously amazing.  The mini-quad was pretty quick and I found myself laughing as I zipped across the ring and between my sets of cones.

Taylor and Erin’s Ride And Drive

Shelby and Morgan had a very solid trip with no faults and a good combined time.  They finished fourth.  Mia and Earl were the last from Team DF to go as well as the last to go in the competition.  The level of noise we made was absolutely unreal – all of the expected hooting and hollering, paired with a Gagnam Style inspired cheer.  At the end of the day, Earl and Mia snagged a portion of the cash – finishing second out of fourteen entries.

Mia and Earl’s Ride And Drive

Even though it was a long one, the day could not have been better.  It was interesting to me as someone coming from a Hunter/Jumper background to try and see the show from Hailey and Mia’s perspective as they’ve always been Eventers.  Some of the rounds that looked like a committed track and forward-but-not-overly-aggressive pace to me, were a bit different than what they were used to seeing.  Taylor put in quality rides over the biggest courses she’s done to date showed that she’s absolutely ready for her move-up to BN.  I won’t lie – it was a bit like visiting my home town after many years away.  You stop in, see the local sights, smile at some memories and get out of town before it gets too comfortable.  I find myself energized and very much looking forward to my own next outing.

Go Team DF. Go Yellow Mini-Quads. Go Eventing.

It's vaguely corner shaped. It counts.

In our lesson last week I jumped my first (very small) corner.  Granted, it probably shouldn’t count as a real corner because it was made of poles and standards and a barrel, but I’m going to count it for now until I find one in the wild that is just my size (read: tiny, with good footing and great lighting for an awesome photo).  I was a bit surprised that I wasn’t all that anxious about it.  I’ve jumped fans, triple bars and hogbacks in the ring before, so I suspect that any anxiety was kept in check from that past experience.  Also, my horse is super game, honest and keen, which doesn’t hurt.

As we were putting our horses and gear away for the night, I got to thinking about what it is about certain types of fence that causes me to take issue with them.  For example, I still have a lingering distrust of down-banks, but I can suck it up and throw myself off of one without having to psych myself up every single time.  On the other hand I’ve never worried too much about oxers.  I find them easier to ride to simply because there’s “more” fence there.  Gradually, I came to the conclusion that the fences that I feel sketchy about are fences that can’t easily be simulated in the arena.

With this realization, I think I’ve inadvertently addressed at least part of my worry about another type of fence that historically has troubled me – the trakehner.  I can deal with logs propped up with blocks with no problem, it’s when there’s a proper ditch dug underneath it that I begin to question the necessity of jumping that specific fence.  I have a very vivid memory of the one event I rode in as a teenager, and the trip we took to school cross-country the day before the course closed.  The short version of the story is that it was suggested that I jump a very large log, suspended over an abyss of death and I declined, very loudly in the colorful language of youth.

In thinking about some of the ways I have seen ditches and trakehner simulated in the ring, I could hear my seventeen year old self working through that moment “…so maybe I spazzed out about nothing.  A lot of them really just look like…  beefed up liverpools, right? It probably won’t ride the same, but maybe you don’t have to worry about those quite as much as you have been.”

There was something freeing in my little series of “duh” moments – perhaps adult sensibility and logic winning over my internal teenager’s hubris.  Granted, I don’t have to worry about a real corner or any major trakehners out on course for a good long while, but there’s a satisfaction in practicing the technique well before I’d ever need it and recognizing the boogie man lurking in the closet as nothing more than an awkward lump of clothing.  Sometimes it’s one little victory that turns the tide.

Go Team DF. Go Corners. Go Eventing.

In addition to today being  the final day of the CCI2* Test Event at Haras du Pin, it is also Bad Poetry Day and Mail Order Catalog Day!  So sprawl out on the floor with those catalogs as well as your favorite pen and spend some quality time circling exactly what you need.  I finished mine earlier this morning and left this heartfelt note for my husband on it:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You never know what to get me
So here — I’ll just show you.

Events This Weekend:

Colorado Horse Park One Day HT: [Website] [Entry Status] [Times]

The Event at Santa Fe: [Website] [Entry Status] [Times]

Waredaca Farm HT: [Website] [Entry Status]

Great Vista HT: [Website]

Erie Hunt and Saddle Club HT:  [Website] [Entry Status] [Times]

Huntington Farm HT:  [Website]

Your Sunday News:

USEF National Eventing Championships Announced

WEG 2014 Endurance Test Ride a Success

British Young Rider Team Selected for Europeans

U.S. Thoroughbred Foal Births at 45-Year Low

Eastern Equine Encephalitis Confirmed in Maryland

Saratoga Warhorse Foundation, OTTBs Help Veterans

Statue of Sgt. Reckless Unveiled at Marine Corps Museum

An older video, but a good ‘un none the less. 

ERS-Eventing.com provides riders with an interactive online portal that showcases product information, demonstrations, tutorials and reviews from fellow competitors and top international riders.

My mother normally prevented such fashion faux pas.

Moving to a new discipline after a life time in another means that you spend a lot of time refreshing and updating your existing skill set and re-training your eye to assess and appreciate the nuances and differences. I’ve grown to love skull caps and full-seats, but I’m struggling to let go of the past when it comes to braids.

I grew up back in the day of the AHSA, Navajo pads, white rubber reins, Ulster boots and clincher browbands. My amazing Aunt Merry was (and still is!) my Fairy Godmother and intrepid guide when it came to all things Equine. She made sure that I had horses that were safe, sane and appropriate for my level. She made sure I was appropriately attired, that my mother was well educated as to what we needed to look for in a trainer and that my father (her brother) was at least somewhat prepared for what this whole adventure would cost.

I was lucky in that I wasn’t thrust in to an A-Circuit barn straight out of the gate as I was able to learn some skills that many of my friends never did — how to wrap, how to pull a mane, etc– and some degree of independence. However, one of the things I was never able to master was braiding. I wasn’t just bad at braiding, it was a cataclysmic failure of epic proportions. My best braid-jobs were train-wrecks that took hours to accomplish. The worst took even longer and looked like mutant mushroom growths sprouting from my poor saintly pony’s neck.

Fortunately, between the ages of 8 and 12, I was primarily going to unrated, one-day shows where braiding was not required. When I went to the occasional rated show it was a time to splurge and so we paid for a professional to work their magic. It came out much better.

My equitation may have been lacking and my sleeves too short, but those are some FANCY braids!

I remember visiting my Aunt in Washington one summer and demanding she show me the arcane sorcery behind proper braiding. I was embarrassed by my ghetto fabulous rubber band braids and wanted to learn the technique behind putting in a million perfect little braids. I had a braiding kit, with a pulling comb, a three-pronged comb and these other strange tools that seemed completely unrelated to the task at hand. From these tools, I surmised that in addition to yarn there must be some sort of dark magic involved.

I watched attentively while she knocked out three perfect little braids in a matter of minutes. The yarn was woven in with the braid, knotted around the end, pulled up through the top of the braid with one of the weird tools, then the yarn did some sort of wrap-around voodoo knot-move that turned it in to a pretty little braid flush with the horse’s neck. It looked easy enough. I tried my hand at it and none of my braids came out looking anything like braids should look. They were twisted, uneven and lumpy with stray hairs popping out all over the place. I made a sour face and my aunt made a conciliatory statement along the lines of “You’ve got the steps down, but it takes practice. You’ll get it eventually!”

After that summer I would find myself periodically finding the urge to practice braiding, but always ended up discouraged. After we moved to Pebble Beach I was exclusively doing rated shows and paying the braider $65 each night that my horse needed to be re-braided added up quickly. I had wanted to be able to braid well before I went off to college because I figured that I could come home with a few hundred bucks for a few early mornings of work but I just couldn’t get my hands to function properly. When I moved on from the Hunters and Equitation to the Jumper ring I essentially forgot about braiding and accepted the notion that if I ever needed my horse braided, I’d just pay a braider.

The odd and most frustrating thing is that I was able to demonstrate the steps to other people who were magically able to braid. Even through my mangled braids and poor technique, they were able to see the proper process and able to actually turn out a nice set of braids. It was embarrassing. When I transitioned over to Eventing I limped along with some still fairly horrible braids of both rubber band and yarn varieties. I spent an eternity on them and tore them out after Dressage as quickly as I could.

You're really going to make me go out in public with these?

Two summers ago, I went to a rated Morgan show with my mare Jing. I fretted a bit about the braiding, but Jen reassured me that I could get away with rubber band braids or pay someone if it really came down to it. I practiced a few times with both rubber bands and yarn and had resolved to just pay for them to be done. I did an In-Hand class on Friday and my rubber band braids came out reasonably. I didn’t like them, but they weren’t as heinous as previous attempts had been. I did not show again until Saturday afternoon, so I resolved that I would really take my time to do some proper Hunter braids the next morning. If they were as terrible as I expected, I could do the adequate-but-not-gorgeous rubber band braids again. I showed up at six in the morning and got to work. Somehow, that day it all came together. After twenty-something years of sporadic braiding practice, I turned out a passable set of hunter braids. Yes, they were large and a little chunky, but they were straight and did not look like mutant mushroom growths.

Passable Braids - and it only took me 20 years to figure out how!

I was so very proud of myself and best of all it wasn’t just a one-off. I was able to turn out a decent set of braids the next day as well. After a few more sets, my technique improved and I was able to make them smaller and tighter. It took me forever, but I was able to crank out a bunch of tiny little braids that felt ring-worthy. It felt good – I could finally call myself someone who dabbles in the arcane mysteries of braiding.

I’ve always admired well done Dressage braids in that sense that they look nice on other people’s horses. My eye and mind has been so accustomed to the ideal of a billion tiny, perfect braids that it’s a hard adjustment to accept that I can get away with eleven button braids. I love to sleep in, so they’ve always been tempting. I practiced the other morning and turned out some passable rubber banded, button braids in about thirty or forty minutes.

You can put a mane in to less than 30 braids?

Same rubber band technique! Now 90 percent less embarrassing!

Even though I was able to get the poof on a few, I still found myself making a face and feeling like I needed more of them. I’ve got some waxed thread on order and hope that will make my feelings about button braids change. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to love them the way I love hunter braids, but I am sure that the extra time to sleep in on a busy morning will eventually win the day. Maybe this time it won’t take me two decades to sort out the technique.

Go Team DF. Go Braiding. Go Eventing.

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August has often called up a sense of panic and impending doom for me. It is most certainly a hold over from childhood and the threat of returning to school in the fall. August is the Sunday of a long three-day weekend — a time to reflect and get your head right for the coming fall or to quietly bemoan the fact you’ve wasted THE ENTIRE SUMMER and to cram in as much last-minute fun as possible.

When Stephanie and I were teenagers, summer consisted of hitting the barn by 8:30 or 9 a.m., getting our horses worked, then heading off to pick up lunch at either the deli or our favorite Chinese restaurant and heading to her house to watch “Days of Our Lives.” We’d usually wander back to the barn and go for a trail ride in the afternoon or catch a ride on one of the school horses, maybe clean tack if we were feeling particularly well behaved.

This loop was on endless repeat from the day school let out until it was back in session, altered only by horse shows. Measurable progress came easily because we were spending so much time in the tack without anything else to worry or care about. August was always the watershed moment of the season. Some years I could reflect upon my successes over the show season and smile. Others years I knew that I had just another show or two left to qualify for whatever silly thing I was chasing and just a few short weeks to really dedicate myself to solidifying whatever skill I was invested in before I was ensnared with the drudgery of school.

For the first time in a very long time, that feeling of an unfinished quest came rolling to the surface again — right as everyone got home from Rebecca Farm. In looking back at the year to date, I really haven’t done much. It was a cold, dark and somewhat wet winter in Northern California, so I spent a lot of time wrapped in a quarter sheet, listening to audio books while my mare Jing and I strolled about in the moonlight. Work was intense, so I spent the winter enjoying the barn as a quiet place to avoid thinking and somewhere that I could exist in the present moment.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I put a lot of thought to the notion that I don’t have to live my life as though I’m on fire. I often view myself as this 17 year old who suddenly woke up one day and discovered she was 30-something with a proper job at a proper company and all of those other adult responsibilities. The notion that I am a “real adult” scares the hell out of me — more than any down bank ever could, but we’re all supposed to grow up some time, aren’t we?

Spring came and I continued to mostly goof off and just enjoy my barn time. I brought Jing back in to very light work right about when Team DF was starting to hit the early season events. I watched the young riders improve by massive leaps and bounds and the green horses grow more and more confident with each outing.

I admit there were moments of frustration when it felt like everyone was off having a grand time without me, but that was the gentle push I needed to start thinking about getting back on track and to set reasonable goals for myself without abandoning the serenity I’d found in the winter.

Needing to put some sort of accomplishment on the books — a “win” of sorts — I taught Jing how to give high-fives. (This is easily the best decision I’ve ever made and further proof of that whole teenager-stuck-in-an-adult’s body thing.) Spring gave way to summer, and I started doing more. This happened roughly at the same time Stephanie moved to town and brought her horse to Dragonfire.

Doing more is a bit of a misnomer; it really just means we’ve been out cross-country schooling, and I catch a lesson when Team DF isn’t off at a show. Most afternoons have been dedicated to goofing off — playing at dressage, maybe bouncing over a little course or flinging myself off of a deadly down bank — and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

However, now that it’s August, I’m looking back at the lessons I tried to teach myself in winter about stillness, about simply enjoying the journey and the peace of the barn and all of that other la-dee-dah and find myself starting to feel the clock start ticking down. I won’t say that was wasted time because it wasn’t; I needed that then, but I could have kicked it back in to gear a bit earlier. I haven’t been out to a show this season, and I should probably get started on that seeing as I need four successful outings at Novice to hit the Novice Three-Days next year.

Cramming in four outings in the first six months of the year isn’t unreasonable, but that leaves less room for error than I’d like. If I can get one or even two done before Thanksgiving, I’ll have a bit more breathing room. I know that sooner than I expect it will be dark at 5 p.m. and it will be back to winter gloom. I have precious little daylight, and I need to use it. The 17-year-old me has come roaring to the surface again; summer isn’t over just yet. Time to kick on.

Go Team DF. Go August. Go Eventing.

Megan Kepferle and Alissa Genovese participate in Howdaa's yoga class at The Fork in April. Photo by Samantha Clark.

It goes without saying that hunter/jumper culture is very different from eventer culture. It is more than just the atmosphere of wine and cheese plates versus brewskis and burgers. There are some things that take some getting accustomed to when you’ve spent most of your life in another discipline.

One of the things that has been on my mind after reading Megan Kepferle’s article in Chronicle of the Horse is the eventer’s focus on the rider as an athlete versus the hunter/jumper focus on being thin and making a pretty picture. The fitness level needed by an eventer, even at the lower and middle levels, is different from what a hunter/jumper rider needs.

The Hunter ring is built around an aesthetic ideal and judged by subjective standards, which is arguably a large part of where this focus on thin rather than fit comes from. I’ve fallen in to that mental trap myself. I couldn’t begin to tally up the number of times I’ve said, “I need to lose weight so I can ride better,” when what I actually meant was, “I want to look better in my hunt coat and on my horse.”

When I am besieged by insomnia and find myself up late at night, I read all manner of horsey message boards. It’s an interesting difference that the hunter/jumper crowd’s threads about this sort of thing often are about diet tips, how to drop X number of pounds super fast and even on occasion joking about “the Equitation Diet” (aka anorexia or bulimia).

In contrast, I see more eventers talking about fitness and overall well-being — how to strengthen the core for better half-halts or suggested cross-training routines. That’s not to say that all hunter/jumper riders are of this diet-crazed, weight and image obsessed mindset, or that all eventers are super fit gym-rats. It’s simply to say that’s what seems to have the most “volume” in those communities.

Additionally, a few weekends ago I was attempting to dig up a schedule for the West Coast training sessions with David O’Connor and caught myself at the High Performance Eventing page. On the High Performance Eventing page, you can find some links about sports psychology, healthy eating, meal plans for training and competition days, some suggested exercises and a document about rider mass and it’s impact on performance.

“Great! Awesome!” I found myself thinking. “This is something that should probably be pushed at all riders, not just the upper-level folks. We can all use a good reminder and it’s nice to have something in hand when friends and family suggest that riding isn’t a sport!” I then wandered over to the High Performance Dressage and Show Jumping pages and was surprised that these same resources were not linked on either of these pages, even though these pages are intended for the elite in their respective disciplines.

Is this significant? Does it suggest that the USEF has bought in to fit-for-some, thin-for-others or perhaps some deeper notion of eventer-as-the-one-true-athlete and all other equestrians as mere passengers? In the grand scheme of things, probably not — just some links missed by overworked IT employees. I still wonder though.

Admittedly, I have a lot to do in order to get as fit as I should be. My mind is finally starting to move in to a space that is about health and fitness rather than body image — and that feels good. It means living more mindfully, paying attention to what I do with my time and what I fuel my body with. I need to think and act as an athlete. I may never fit in to a pair of 28” breeches again, but I can get myself fit enough to say thank you to the Pony Clubber collecting pinneys at the finish line, rather than waving, smiling and wheezing incoherently.

Go Team DF. Go Fitness. Go Eventing.

Photo via BadEventer

Life has a funny way of happening when you make plans. This past weekend I had planned on getting out of town and heading up to Camelot Equestrian Park. Everyone from Dragonfire would be on the road to Rebecca, so a great time to go camping. I missed the Horse Trials they hosted the previous weekend due to lack of transportation, but had managed to arrange a hauling situation for this most recent one. The plan was to haul up on Friday to meet some old friends of mine,  Sarah and Elizabeth, at Camelot. We intended to stay through the weekend giving us plenty of time to goof off on the cross country course Saturday and the option of catching a few of the early morning Jumper classes at their Hunter/Jumper show before heading home Sunday.

Of course then Stephanie’s boyfriend pointed out that there was going to be an obscene heatwave, my husband decided he wanted to go out of town and and Sarah’s truck exploded in to a ball of fiery better-not-haul-horses-with-that. A superstitious and transportation-less bunch, we called the whole thing off. It was probably a smart choice.

Thursday night,  I found myself fretting over what to do with my weekend.  Admittedly, I was disappointed. Camelot is one of my favorite places to go – we always camp out, talk trash and have an outstanding time. I needed to go – it would be the best place to avoid the constant reminders of the fun being had in Montana. Sadly, this weekend there would be no trip to Pony Tracks, no splashing in the water jump, no 5AM Feed-Me whinnies and worst of all no opportunity to create memories that would have the potential to become the kind of story that starts with “Hey, remember that time at Camelot when….”

Stephanie and I made alternate plans – hit the track on Friday, gamble and daydream about taking home some prospects. We’d get our show fix in by sneaking off to the Pony Club Benefit on the 27^th at Twin Palms, transportation willing. These plans were good alternate plans, but something was still missing. I found myself agonizing over what more could be done with the weekend and somehow found myself coming up with probably the most absurd idea I’ve ever come up with.

I sent Stephanie the following text message:

This is why I'm not allowed to text after 11pm

This is proof that we are teenagers stuck in 30 year-old bodies. Writing George Morris a letter to ask him what his helmet cover would look like if he were to take up Eventing is clearly not the kind of thing that sensible adults do. Sensible adults ask deeper questions that have meaningful answers.  My question is admittedly somewhat juvenile and borders on asinine.  This is evidenced by the response that my other friend Kalli gave me when I floated the same idea at her.

Note - Kali rides Dressage

In all seriousness though, I am curious.  I do honestly want to know.  Even if it earns me a right hook from GM, I’m going to do it.  Who am I kidding?  Especially if it earns me a right hook from GM.  In fact, I think I’m going to write a whole bunch of well known non-Eventing professionals and ask them too. The skull-cap and helmet cover is one of those visual identifiers for Eventers and getting it just right is one of those small joys of Eventing. Everyone who’s watched a horse race has idly daydreamed about what their silks would look like. The question is, how many of them will be willing to share? Even if not many of them write back, I’m still hopeful and curious.

Deep down I hope that in a few years, we’ll be sitting around a campfire and someone will pipe up with “Hey, remember that time when we were auditing that clinic and after Erin introduced herself, George Morris was like ‘Are you the one that wrote me the stupid letter about helmet covers?’…”

Go Team DF. Go Curiosity. Go Eventing.