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: Jessica Kerschbaumer

Bio: I am a 31 year old who was born and raised in a very isolated part of northern Alberta. I grew up galloping bareback through the bush on my pony, scaring the pants off my mother, and jumping whatever inappropriate jumps we could build around the farm (photos that would make George Morris, and everyone else, cringe!).  Once I grew up and moved away, I got my first real taste of eventing, drank the kool aid, and it’s all been downhill from there.  Having had sort of a unconventional childhood with horses, I am now making up for lost time, working almost every spare hour at my barn around my 9-5 job, riding and learning as much as I possibly can.  I currently compete at the preliminary level with upper level goals, which by the looks of things are going to require me to clone myself and stowaway to Calfornia next spring, and lead a double life!  I think EN would benefit greatly from adding a Canadian to the mix, as I bring a great knowledge of beer, toques, and how us crazy, hardcore eventers tough out the brutal Alberta winters to come out swinging when our season starts up every June.  (Yes, I said JUNE!)

Entry:

As we gather on Eventing Nation to discuss and celebrate this amazing discipline we love, we are constantly reminded of what a wild roller coaster of a ride this sport can be.  Successes and heartbreak.  Days everything goes right, and probably more often the days when you are definitely the bug, not the windshield.

Thanks to all the rain we had one summer a few years ago, most of our largest pasture had turned into a massive swamp.  At the time I had a resale project, a laid back OTTB gelding who I was shaping into an eventer.  Obi was every bit the gentleman, although I had discovered he needed a bit of extra convincing where water was involved.

I headed out in the very early morning light to bring Obi in for a ride.  The horses were on the far side of the pasture, across the lovely large swamp, and were having none of the whistling, calling, or grain bucket rattling I was doing to lure them over.  Finally I resigned myself to walking very far around the outside of the pasture to avoid the swamp and get to the horses.

I easily caught Obi and was formulating a plan for getting both him and myself back to the only gate.  Unfortunately riding him looked to be my only option, since I had no other way to exit, and wading through a whole pile of water and mud that early in the morning was not very appealing!  I fashioned the lead rope into reins and found a large rock to mount from.

Making our way across the pasture, the other horses neatly fell into line behind us, and Obi was leading the way right through that huge swamp like the super star eventing horse he was destined to be!  I was smiling to myself and celebrating this little victory in my head, visions of success and ribbons momentarily distracting me from the task at hand.  Out of nowhere, something spooked the horses, and the entire herd took off at a dead gallop.  I immediately started hauling on the lead rope I had crudely fashioned into reins, and Obi protested by speeding up and demonstrating his best dolphin impression.  As he rocked and rolled beneath me, I quickly weighed my options, and decided that I definitely did not want to be bucked off at full speed.  I reluctantly gave him his head.

So there we were, careening across the pasture, and I notice we are heading straight towards some very low trees that bordered the pasture.  I immediately had a horrific flashback to my childhood, of being wiped backwards off my pony by a giant branch, which was not something I wished to relive!  The other horses beelined directly into the bush, and thankfully Obi gently turned and galloped along the tree line, a safe distance from any low hanging branches.

The trees thinned, and the horses continued to fly along.  Wide eyed and heart pounding, I held my breath as the horses galloped the length of the pasture.  They finally slowed near one corner, bucking, prancing, tossing heads, feeling pretty proud of their little adventure.

I had emergency dismounted and opted out of the last bit of the ride as soon as we’d reached a more appropriate speed to vault off at as the horses geared down before stopping.  I gave myself a few minutes to collect my wits and calm my racing heart, and then laughed out loud as I couldn’t believe I’d survived what had just happened.

I retrieved Obi, who was immediately back to his laid back, gentlemanly self, and promised myself that next time I would just skip the riding idea and do some swamp whacking instead.  And then I headed to the barn to change my underwear!

Pushing 30, I was definitely getting too old for wild bareback pasture rides, and would never purposely choose that as my morning adventure!  But we are infected with this passion that is eventing, along for this wild ride we call life, and we learn how to take whatever comes your way, both the good and the bad, and make the best of it.

And as we all know, you have to be at least a little bit crazy to love this amazing sport!  No matter what happens, we find a way to ride it out the storm and keep on coming back for more.  For me, my wild ride that day was just par for the course!

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists yesterday, 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: @RolexHusband

Bio: Live in Christiansburg Virginia and started @RolexHusband in an attempt to pass the time during dressage while we attend Rolex.  This has inspired me to see what more I can evolve this into and Eventing Nation may be a HUGE part of that because you guys are awesome. I have been married to my wonderful bride for 11 years this June.  When we first started dating; I had no idea about the horses. WOW, was I in for a shocker.  However, I decided early on that if I was going to be able to spend time with my wife, then I should take a vested interest in horses.  I am president of our local USEA affiliate (horse people need help managing things), put on horse shows and clinics, and in general am very in touch with what is going on in the Eventing community.  I have my opinions and often share with an unfiltered perspective.  I believe that I can bring a totally different perspective and angle to your site but will present an educated approach.

Entry: The “EveryMan’s Guide to being a successful “Horse Husband”

Gentlemen! So you met that special someone and she loves to ride horses and does this thing called Eventing. Congratulations! Horse women (as I am sure you have found) are intelligent, athletic, competitive, attractive and a little neurotic (this adds to the appeal)! If you are thinking this is turning into a long term deal; there are several principles that you will want to understand and embrace. Let’s talk about a few…

#1. Something will ALWAYS COST MORE MONEY. Whether she is looking for the latest piece of tack (There is always a “latest and greatest”), shopping for supplements, or needing the vet to come out (If you ever hear: “I think we need his hocks injected”… look out buddy… I will explain this in another post); it will ALWAYS cost more money. I almost needed a second mortgage when I found out how much the horse’s supplements were a month! Now, I have reached inner peace with the acceptance of this principle.

#2 Your friends will not understand this “Eventing”……and that is okay. You can try to explain to your buddies at work all of your newfound knowledge but above over exaggerating the amount of beer you will consume during a show weekend or agreeing how hot horse girls are; you only need to focus on these 2 things:

• #1. “Yeah it’s what they show on TV a lot during the Olympics”. Don’t underestimate this. Your friend’s wife doesn’t do anything that cool. When they ask if your wife or girlfriend will ever go to the Olympics; just play it cool and make a joke about all the stuff costing you money from principle #1.
• #2 “It is like a triathlon for horses and they jump these really big jumps the size of a truck”. People understand triathlons and jumping trucks. Now, it doesn’t matter if your significant other is only going Green at a local horse show because your friend will not have the attention span for you to explain things like “Green” or “Beginner Novice”. If your buddy asks if your wife races horses, smack him in the face because he is a moron.

#3 Get a Camera….and don’t skimp here. YOU EARNED THIS BIG GUY. Horse women love photos of themselves jumping around on their horse. Cameras are fun to play around with. Also, you can be at a local horse show and be the most popular dude there if you snap a few practice shots of other horse women and give them photos. You are a HERO. I have also been known to use the “I am sorry babe, I can’t hold your horse while you braid or untack him because I have my expensive camera in hand”

#4 Don’t dress like a tool. Just don’t. You are at a horse show, not a frat party or Ralph Lauren event. The nice white shirt, aviator glasses, and boat shoes are not appropriate. Horses poop; you will step in it. They also rub their heads on you and will break the glasses and muddy your new white polo. You may be reading this and say: “Naw, Bro…that’s not me” Well it is. So stop.

Keep all of these in mind and you are well on the way of being a “supportive horse husband”. Also, one day…you CAN BUY A BOAT WITH NO OBJECTION! Only catch: you won’t have time to use it!

Cheers!

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists yesterday, 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: Lynn Marie Garvin, 25

Bio: Lynn Marie is an accomplished obsessor of clean water troughs and pristinely swept aisle ways. She regularly lurks at dressage warmups and on cross country courses taking photographs of complete strangers and then slinking back to her car as if nothing creepy at all has occurred. She has imaginative competitive upper level eventing daydreams in her car when that song by Bastille comes on the radio, but don’t think for a minute she isn’t regularly reality checked by her OTTB mare when she actually gets on to ride.
Accolades: Can blow bubbles with world champions but prefers to keep it casual to not intimidate the amateurs. Known to wear a cape. Preferred gait is skipping because it’s faster than walking and kind of like jogging’s fabulous gay brother that everyone admires for his fashion sense and self confidence.

Entry: $995

She was a terrible racehorse. In eight lifetime starts, the chestnut filly named Castle Cat made $995 and never placed higher than 4th. In her last race on November 9th, 2012 at Laurel Park, she was dead last, several furlongs behind the pack, proving at last that she was not motivated to win races.

The first time I saw Castle Cat was through the great and powerful combined forces of boredom at work and the internet. She was listed as free to a good home through a thoroughbred rescue called TPR, and there was no mystery why. She was a chestnut mare. She was so over at the knees that I could’ve set a beer on her right leg and used her as a side table. She looked more like a weedy coming three year old than a four year old and was so tucked up and angular that she would have been mistaken for a red furry wasp if she was small enough to fit in a hive.

I was irrationally obsessed with her. I sent the link to her profile to a couple of trusted horse friends. I stalked the TPR facebook page. I did the unthinkable: I contacted her foster and said I wanted to come see her.

This was a poor choice because I was a 23, living in a shoebox room in central DC, newly employed as an entry level legal assistant and saddled with a moderate amount of college loan debt. I had spent the last ten or so years of my life pretending to like school while working at eventing and dressage barns for amazing people in NJ and WV and for a short, incredible time, FL. I was hopelessly in love with a sport that I had very little true riding experience in. My horsey friends told me not to do it, she was lame, she had unfixable conformation flaws, she was a red mare for heaven’s sake.

Did any of this stop me? Of course not.

Approximately a month later I led Castle Cat off a stock trailer and was given her Jockey Club papers. My very first horse, something I had been waiting for what seemed like my whole conscious life.

I had her on a week trial but it was a done deal that first day when I rushed her into a stall and threw a secondhand blanket on top of what was a woefully inadequate cooler. The hour long stock trailer ride in early March weather had her shivering so much I half expected her little eyeballs to pop right out of her head.

I’ve spent my whole horsey life experience as a barn hand, more or less. I am hard wired to take close and intimate care of every animal I am responsible for. There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking away from a stall freshly cleaned and bedded, two scrubbed and filled water buckets, and a hay rack crammed full of hay, a happy little filly all tucked in for the night. I love that, I always have, and always will.

The first day of my life as a horse owner was more exciting than I ever could have imagined. After riding her and not getting bucked off, after pulling her mane, brushing and currying and picking up her feet and poking and prodding, all of which she tolerated without taking a swing at me, I sat in my car for a second and waited for the bolt of lightning to hit, because no day could ever be so perfect.

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists yesterday, 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: Maggie Deatrick, 28

Bio: Area V eventer, transplanted to Middleburg, recently transplanted again to Philadelphia

Character Defining Qualities:

Prone to a degree of stubbornness that results in everyone around me rolling their eyes, which of course results in me digging my heels in even harder.

Mild obsessive-compulsive habits that cause me to have all of my possessions organized with boxes inside boxes inside boxes.

A tendency to be highly amused at children’s cartoons.

Embarrassing Tidbits:

I’ve fallen off only twice in competition, but both falls occurred at water complexes. Both incidents are immortalized in photo, video, or both. #ihatewetpants #nowIhavetooilallmytack

Not all too long ago, I somehow managed to scores in the nineties at an FEI event. Not a dressage show, an event. #isthatarecord #nocarrotsforyou

Entry: “The Second Horse Itch”

At some point in every rider’s life, the eye starts to stray. Maybe a horse is on rest, and the lack of riding is slowly driving them mad. Perhaps the horse is getting older, or isn’t quite tackling the course the way they should. Other times, the rider simply misses having a baby horse.

At this time, many riders are struck with what I call the Second Horse Itch.

The Second Horse Itch starts as just a little tickle. It may manifest at a show, when you see a particularly nice mover float across the ground in dressage. It may start at your barn, when a barn-mate buys a new one and excitement spreads around. It can even start in your daydreams, as you imagine racing across the hills of Rolex.

That tickle grows slowly. You might begin searching Sporthorse Nation for horses over $50k, finding an upper level school-master who can take you to the woods of Fair Hill and the sands of Galway. With your new partner, you head to England to compete with William and Mary, and the Netherlands to tangle with Michael Jung and the indomitable Sam. You ride down centerline at the Rio Olympics, having just performed the test of a lifetime.

Reality brings you back from the landscapes of Europe and places you firmly on solid ground. That four star packer is out of reach, financially.

But maybe you can afford a baby. It doesn’t hurt to look, right?

You toy with the idea of importing a phenomenal young prospect, watching video after video of Irish horses free jumping. A few catch your eye, and you fantasize about pulling a fancy young horse off the trailer, freshly arrived from Ireland, with a moniker to match. You imagine hacking the youngster through the countryside, teaching him to be brave and strong. The two of you spend a lifetime going easily up the levels.

Then you look at the cost of a plane ticket for a horse.

On to square three. The Second Horse Itch needs attention, and at this point you can’t help but scratch it.

You think of buying a young warmblood from a breeder in America, progeny from Brandenburg’s Windstar or Salute the Truth. You drool over Riverman offspring and covet those sired by A Fine Romance. But the bottom line looms.

Inevitably, your mouse drags you to CANTER, where you peruse the ranks of young OTTBs. Not all of them are to your liking, or even many, but finding the diamond in the rough is part of the fun. At this point, the Second Horse Itch is a constant, nagging thought.

You find a thoroughbred to fit your criteria, who looks perfect on paper and in photos. You even have his purchase price in your savings account. The Second Horse Itch urges you to the phone, ready to call the trainer.

Then you look at your bank account. Work out your finances. Realize that the expensive part of owning horses is not the purchase price, but the upkeep. Know in your heart that even if you have the money, you don’t really have the time. Sadly, you put the phone down.

But you come back to that photo of the OTTB daily. You both dread and can’t wait for him to be sold. Finally, the ad goes away, indicating he is no longer available. You think you’re free of the longing.

But you’re not. There’s always another school-master, another import, another fancy youngster, another OTTB.

The Second Horse Itch never truly goes away.

We announced the 10 Blogger Contest finalists yesterday, 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: Dagmar Caramello, 24

Bio: I’ve been riding since I was five years old and have focused on eventing as my primary equestrian sport of choice since then. I’ve also spent the past three years breezing horses at the Bowie and Laurel racetracks. Right now I am working with my Oldenburg mare who came out of the jumpers 4 years ago with her mind completely blown. She’s super fancy, equally crazy, and I love her for that. I’ve had to (re)start her from the ground up and, fingers crossed, she will move up to Prelim later this year.