Ever have “one of those days”? Of course you do. You’re an eventer.
The day the wheel comes off the truck while you are hauling to a lesson. (My friend Cindi.)
The day the horse trailer tire shreds on the interstate, and you can’t find the Trailer Aid jack thingie, but you’ve got a bale of hay, and run your trailer’s good wheel up on $30-worth of second-cutting alfalfa flakes so you can get the spare on. (Cheryl.)
The day your newly-set show jumping course gets completely obliterated by heavy rain and straight-line winds. (Me.)
Then, you go on social media and you are heartened by the amazing and fun things like Al Rayne’s creative pool platform (using a cross country jump. Yes. Only Al. I’m waiting for Boyd to copy this. It’s in his wheelhouse.)
Watching a good friend KILL it at Devon’s eventing showcase with a 5th place finish (go, Jules!) after you had to REALLY convince her to enter the competition a month ago by repeating, $50,000, $50,000, $50,000 about a hundred times ’til she relented.
Watching the Jack Russell Terrorists kill a snake in the arena where you have to RIDE. Um, we hacked in the field instead until I got fuel for the tractor so I could drag the bloody parts out. Somehow jumping an oxer and landing in snake blood didn’t make me wild with enthusiasm. Worried a tad about juju there…
Watching Young Riders post really fun and uplifting reports on their events, almost always crediting their horse for their success, and blaming themselves if they had failures. (But of course we know there really isn’t any failures in eventing. Just education.)
So a mid-season update isn’t about what you won. It’s about what your friends are doing, what disasters you overcame and surmounted, and laughing at the funny stuff, because none of us get out of this alive, anyhow.
There is a limited amount of time to get to the Promised Land (wherever and whatever that is for you). For some, it’s a clean round at Beginner Novice (Stephanie). For some, it’s slaying the Advanced dragon; others just want to see one of their horses on a team or competing on the world stage, and are willing to wait. (A really long time – Melissa.)
Photo by Melissa Stubenberg.
The beautiful days are really beautiful and fun and make you so forget all the crappy ones.
So, while we journey through the 12-hour days of light, and riding time is easy to get and yet still seems to have to be scheduled in, we all still just want to get to a lesson without drama on the side of the road. I’m with you, sister.
Go eventing!
