We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists on Wednesday, and now we’re bringing you their awesome entries from Round 1 here on Bloggers Row. I will be posting all 10 entries over the next few days, so be sure to check them out and leave your feedback in the comments.

All entries will be reprinted without editing for fairness’ sake. Thanks again for your support and readership, EN! We are so thrilled to have such quality entries this year.

Entrant: Amanda Schmidt

Entry:

Call me Amanda. Not Mandy. I suppose you can call me an adult amateur – that’s how old and broke I am. I prefer to refer to myself as a lifer – sounds more gritty and glamorous. I’ve been at this horsey nonsense for two decades now, admittedly on and off, through better and worse. No, I don’t have much to show for it ­ not in the way of fame, mileage, certifications, or bragging rights. Sometimes life doesn’t give two flying figs about your big dreams or your passion, and merrily sends you down agonizing detours. If one’s ability to hang tough for one second longer, to hold out when holding out seems completely futile, determined rank in this field – baby, I’d have gone pro long ago.

So I’ve been at this a little while now, and consequently meet with the dare to justify the horse life in general and this sport in particular on plenty of occasions. Some days, throwing one’s fists in the air and howling, “Go horses! Go eventing!” comes easy enough. Other days ­ if feeling brave enough to follow the philosophical rabbit hole waaaay down ­ becoming uneasy comes easy enough.

Choosing horses guarantees you the gamut of human emotional range – that I can answer for sure. The great “why?” remains hazy: why do this to ourselves and to these animals? Some days, I see nothing in it but pure ego­stroking, and adrenaline junkies just looking for a fix via the unworldly power and heart of a horse – a horse which, dare I say, we often take for granted.

If I’m raising your hackles, good. I think we all need checked on a regular basis, if we want to call ourselves responsible and want to profess that we love these horses. I’ve checked myself so hard that I spent a couple of years not riding, a couple of years quite close to washing my hands of this business. If you’re reading this, I’ll just assume that you understand how devastating that might have been. I’ll also assume that you can understand why I might do it; I’ll assume that you, too, would accept any pain if it meant sparing your horse.

To keep a long story short, I eventually came to rest in, “It’s not what we do, so much as how we do it.”Am I simply justifying something I’m not brave enough to let go of, by disguising my inability to do so in a pretty philosophical phrase? Maybe. Maybe I’ll come to that yet. We come to a lot of grief with these animals, in this sport. But the grief I’d know, the loss I’d experience without them, seems far worse.

Without this insanity, my life might have been spent mostly indoors in a safe, climate ­controlled bubble, to not risk my chronic poor health. I might be just another sad story of someone who knows summer only by the air­conditioner, autumn only by the costumed kids on the doorstep. I can say with no uncertainty I would have grown up frail, isolated, and limited – if I’d managed to reach adulthood at all. Without this insanity, I quite possibly might have chosen a different razor’s edge, rather than pull on my boots and square my shoulders one more day.

In the end, I believe we do this because of an inner desire to know, to grow, to not settle for less than evolving into our full human potential. The horse waits and
patiently waits for us to decide to want that – the greatest teacher we could find stands ready for willing students. Anything I know about life as it really is, I learned on the back of a horse…or in absolute ruins at the feet of a horse, or in caring for a horse who could offer me “nothing” in return. I doubt I could have learned it elsewhere, and I believe the real insanity would be never going there, never stepping onto this path at all.

John Reuter and Breeze.

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists on Wednesday, and now we’re bringing you their awesome entries from Round 1 here on Bloggers Row. I will be posting all 10 entries over the next few days, so be sure to check them out and leave your feedback in the comments.

All entries will be reprinted without editing for fairness’ sake. Thanks again for your support and readership, EN! We are so thrilled to have such quality entries this year.

Entrant: John Reuter, 62

Bio:I am a college professor and father of two pony club alums (both now adult women). I spent countless hours and more dollars than I would care to admit on horsey events for my two daughters. After they moved out and left me with a barn full of tack and a couple old ponies I decided it was my turn to take up riding. I did my first horse trials last summer in the trot a trail division and finally purchased a horse all for myself. I plan to become an “eventer” this summer and do several one-day trials. Watch out for me on the Pacific Northwest eventing scene this summer with my shire sporthorse mare, Breeze.

Character Defining Qualities: I am a bit of a nervous rider since it would really hurt to fall off my 16.3 horse.

Embarrassing Tidbits: I actually don’t have any idea what my horse is thinking. Since she is a “princess” mare, that is going to be a problem.

Entry:

After twenty plus years of being a truck driver, trailer parker, pony club dad and casual rider, I decided I wanted to be an enventer. Last summer, I entered my first one-day event on a trusted family horse that had done it all. My daughter and trainer helped me get ready for all of the phases. I wasn’t so much looking for the insanity in the middle as just a great day outdoors with my horse, doing what horses do.

I entered a local one-day event at a level was called something like “grasshopper” or ”log-stepper-overer”, I forget which.

Both my dressage test and the cross-country phases went fine, but it was the stadium jumping that really defined who I was as a horseman and competitor. By “defined” I mean, set me apart from all the others. There were a few younger women riding fresh OTTB and they were very professional. Then there was me, a 60-something year old man on a small horse (15 h) that was still the biggest and then there was – dramatic pause – the “pony horde”. All of my real competitors were about six. When we walked the stadium course, several girls next to me were cantering their make believe ponies through the course and one even said, “I think I’ll take that jump next because it looks pretty.” I went clean on the stadium and was hoping to have moved up a notch or too at my first competition.

It’s not that I didn’t want to beat those little girls in their pink helmets and matching saddle pads, but I was trying to get a ribbon. We put the horse away and waited a bit while they posted the results. After a beer and a break, I went over to the officials’ tent and checked on my standing. I was given a rainbow-colored participation ribbon. It seems I wasn’t competing after all.

Even without the thrill of beating anyone, I was hooked. I kept training over the summer and was planning on another event in a class that might require some actually jumping and where I would expect a final score. But nature and horses intervened. The trusted family horse had to retire and I had to start looking for a new horse just for myself. This coming season I am training to ride my 16:3 Sport Shire with enormous hooves. As I gallantly clear 12” coops and splash through optional water, you will hear Breeze’s hoof beats and see an old guy having a great time.

Lynn Symansky and Donner. Photo by Laura Millerick.

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists on Wednesday, and now we’re bringing you their awesome entries from Round 1 here on Bloggers Row. I will be posting all 10 entries over the next few days, so be sure to check them out and leave your feedback in the comments.

All entries will be reprinted without editing for fairness’ sake. Thanks again for your support and readership, EN! We are so thrilled to have such quality entries this year.

Entrant: Laura Millerick

Bio: I started riding in Virginia at 8 years old and found eventing after joining the Difficult Run Pony Club when I was 11. Now, I’m a 27 year old Support Engineer for Microsoft by day and an amateur eventer by….every other minute of the day.

Entry: Top 5 Horses I Would Go To Jail To Ride Once

Everyone has their list of horses they have on their list that they just would so much love to ride once. Well, I’m maybe one step of insanity further, and I have my list of horses I’d go to jail to ride once. Well not really, but I might as well think of it that way since the only way I’d ever have the opportunity is if I broke into their farm in the middle of the night. I mean, let’s be honest, riding a gold-medal-winning horse? It just ain’t gonna happen. But hey, if I polish up my breaking and entering skills, I might get close enough to pet one someday! After all, as it sayson the TV that I don’t have time to watch, apparently orange is the new black or something.

1) La Biosthetique-Sam

Duh. I mean, this one goes without saying. Simultaneous World, European and Olympic champion. He and Michael Jung made their international debut in the 2009 Europeans at Fontainebleau where they won individual bronze when Sam was just 9 years old. Then it was individual gold at the WEGs, then individual gold at the 2011 Europeans, and team and individual gold at the 2012 Olympics. Who wouldn’t give a week in jail just to experience what riding this horse feels like?!

2) Donner

When I was younger, I used to watch the deer in my backyard walk up to the 4 foot fences around my paddocks and casually spring over them, wondering what it would feel like to ride it when it jumped like that. Lynn Symansky is fortunate enough to have her own jumping deer in her OTTB Donner, and he’s probably as close as any of us would get to riding a deer. Watching him beast around the cross country at Rolex and Pau last year was more than enough to earn him a place on this list.

3) Borough Pennyz

Have you seen this mare jump? Seriously, have you? She is literally built of springs. She finished 11th individually with Vittoria Panizzon as a 9 year old, and he is the cutest, most awesome gray mare ever. She seems determined to bruise her chin with her knees over every jump, and I would give myself maybe two jumps before getting jumped off her back, but the resulting bruises to my pride and butt would be totally worth it.

4) Opposition Buzz

Who hasn’t dreamed of riding an amazing black horse? Now how about an amazing black horse that jumps freakishly well and eats cross country for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Buzz’s record speaks for itself, and similarly to Borough Pennyz, I’m not sure how long I’d manage to stay on over jumps, but I reckon I would have the biggest grin for every second (even the ones where I’m hurtling towards the ground).

5) Shamwari 4

I watched “Shammie” at the Olympics in 2012 with everyone else, but when I first saw the video of his first dressage with Boyd, it was embarrassingly difficult to not start drooling. He floats. He literally floats across the ground. Add with that being an amazing jumper, and it’s difficult to think of reasons why he wouldn’t merit a potential felony record.

I suppose I wouldn’t really go to jail to ride these horses, since then I’d be completely without riding and my dog and I can’t really live without either of those things. But when much is said and done, these horses are all on the top of my perfect world wishlist. So who tops your list of criminal-record-worthy horses?