The Final Round Blogger Contest entries are in–and in a twist of seminal intrigue, we’re offering you the opportunity to weigh in on each article before we declare a victor.
Their Final Round Assignment: Two basic requirements for every post on Eventing Nation: words and visuals. You’ve proven you’re capable of the words bit; now we need to know you’ve got an eye for aesthetics. Your Final Round eventing-related article, themed “Insanity in the Middle,” must be at least 200 words (there’s no word limit) and visually enhanced–the more creatively, the better–with at least one photo you’ve taken, or diagram you’ve created, or video you’ve shot, etc. We stress that access to expensive camera equipment is unnecessary; see Wylie’s FEI pictograms for proof that imagination, at least in the context of this assignment, will be your most invaluable asset. Words and visuals will be judged 50/50 on the same basis as previous entries (Interesting, Funny, Informative, Creative).
Here’s Emily Daignault’s final installment (for Emily’s previous entries, see Round 1, Round 2). To read the previously posted final installments of Yvette Seger click here, and Lauren Nethery click here. Stay tuned for the final entry from Jenni Autry. Entries are presented unedited for fairness’ sake. Thanks for your hard work, Emily, and thanks as always for reading, Eventing Nation. Please leave feedback in the comments section.
___________
Bio: Hi my name is Emily and I would like to be an EN blogger. Why? Because after 10 concussions, numerous broken bones, of course stitches, I feel that sitting behind a computer and pontificating on the active Eventing lives of others will lead me to riches beyond my wildest dreams! (Or it would be a sizeable difference in my bank account balance without frequent doctor and ER visits!) You see long before EN there was another website with the ground breaking idea to follow the upper levels of Eventing and put up live streaming audio and video event reports and give internet savvy folks the most up to the moment news as it happened. And I was the Eventing Correspondent! Sadly however it was 2001 and the average internet connection was 56k over a phone line. You know that old dial up sound of “Whirr, blip blip, bong.” AOL says “You’ve got mail!” and life was good. Except that it wasn’t. Only about 10,000 people across the US could hear and see our reports. This was great in its own way was great because the little “oops” moments of life didn’t make it very far. Like at Rolex, when I asked Ian Stark on camera did he think being British gave him an advantage on Mike E-S’s course as there are so many of them in the UK…and in mid-sentence he stopped me and said “I’m Scottish dear.” Ooo yea, journalism rule # 1, know your subject.
Entry: I won’t lie, this challenge had me good and stumped. I have sweated on this one for days. Why? Well not because I was overflowing with ideas. No instead I had a massive case of writers block. “Insanity in the middle” what the heck does that even mean? So many possible scenarios ran through my mind as I tried to think of not only what I believed it meant, but what others took it to convey also. At first I thought of the wild moments of air bags deploying, horses falling and spectators fainting into the arms of William Fox-Pitt. And even though that last one made me grin, I felt that was too negative of a run of things. Soon my mind was overflowing with all the possible things that could be considered “Insane” about Eventing. The early mornings, the riding in all variations of weather, putting studs in during a typhoon and so many others. And though all are indeed insane parts of our sport I thought this would be too minimal.
The insanity in Eventing runs through all of us from our icons and heroes down the youngest Tadpole eventers out there. And while we all start by watching the big names, eventually we discover the USEA and begin to learn where to start. By finding our own start box, we can set off on the course our own event careers. We learn to watch our heroes at the big events, but we take the lessons and tidbits of skills we can see home to our own mounts.
Looking around in the warm up areas we see kindred spirits of all ages and types. Horses and humans are transformed into “Eventers” once the pinny is tied on tight. Everyone understands the butterflies that work to free themselves from our stomach, and everyone has felt the rush as they crossed the finish line clear for the first time. We all need to learn. The wise teach the novice, be it horse or rider. The seasons change and eventually you too can find your way to buying an OTTB and teaching them to thrive on this insanity as we all do. The insanity isn’t easy to covey because it’s really passion in disguise.
The passion for Eventing has been within me for decades now and I hope my video takes a moment of time to look back at some great memories. So I guess that I haven’t found an answer to what exactly “Insanity in the middle” is exactly, and I don’t think any one person can say for all of us what the definition entails. But know this my friends, any group of people who chooses to strap an air bag on themselves to go running around the countryside on the backs of former racehorses aiming for solid obstacles, and who asks their best friend “Is this shirt TOOO pink for Cross Country?” Well you can be sure that we are all a little insane.
