Month: April 2015

By the time most of you read this Henry and I will be on the road, on our way to Greenwood for our second HT of the season. It’s a 3-4 hour drive (or so the map says, I’ve never been) but he’s got a full hay net, I’ve got cheddar popcorn, and that’s really all that either of us require. We had one last dressage lesson last night, in which we played with rein back-to-canter for the first time. Hens thought that was great fun. He was much less enthusiastic about the subsequent canter-halt idea.

He also got to test out his fluffy new dressage girth, which he seemed equally unappreciative of.

Since he was in such a great mood I decided to give him a bath.

I asked him what he thought about that too, so I could tell his readers, but he just flapped his lips and ignored me.

On Wednesday I made the mistake of going back through a couple years of video from Greenwood to get an idea of the XC course and found that they have not one but TWO down banks. For someone on a horse who hates them, and considering we picked up a stop last fall at one, I am not excited. Now I’m dreading it a little and really hoping we can get it done. I chatted with Jumping Trainer about it and we devised a strategy, and more importantly – a mindset. We’re goin down for real. GDFR.

I’ll be playing this song on repeat all weekend until Henry is like “Holy crap, FINE, I get it, I’ll jump down, just please god turn off the Flo Rida!!!”. Seems like a totally legit riding and training method to me. Whatever works.

Plus I got a new poo cart, and I feel like it’s impossible to have a bad weekend when you’ve got a new poo cart.

This is a subject I’ve been considering writing about for a long time, but never could seem to quite organize my thoughts well enough. Take a look around horse shows these days and an overwhelming majority of what you see is very thin girls on very fat horses. I never could figure out why the “ideal” rider shape was rail thin with mile long legs, and the “ideal” horse shape was fat as a tick.

When I saw this blog post on Horse Nation yesterday, I thought the author really had some great points. The line “Who made me believe that the most beautiful part of me is my negative space?” is pretty poignant. I was lucky enough to show in the jumpers as a junior so I didn’t feel the same pressure that I know the equitation and hunter girls felt in regards to being thin, but I think that learning to love our bodies as they are – thin or not – is something that every woman struggles with at some point. I will never be rail thin and I’ve never really felt the compulsion to be, but I know exactly what the author is talking about regarding body shaming, and she’s right.

It also bothered me a couple weeks ago when this article about Selena Gomez’s recent weight gain was popping up all over facebook. I’m pretty disappointed that we, as a culture, would call that fat. Why do we think that skeleton thin and bony is what looks good? It’s not strong. It’s not healthy. Why aren’t strong and healthy our paramount goals, regardless of what size it comes in? I’d be pretty thrilled if I could ride as well as any of these ladies:

And yet to hear people talk about it from the horse perspective (in the hunter ring at least), there is no such thing as too fat. Obese hunter after obese hunter plods around the ring these days, usually looking tired and winded by the end of an 8-10 fence course. A fit horse is seen as a negative thing in the hunter world, because a fit horse is hard to make tired, and a tired horse is a quiet horse. How did this sport get so far from it’s roots of foxhunting, where a fit, healthy, athletic creature was required and a tired horse was dangerous? Of course there is the saying that fat and chrome can hide a multitude of conformation “sins”, especially to the less educated eye, so I suppose that has a lot to do with it.

I can’t really speak to any of the other horse sports outside of h/j and eventing because I haven’t participated in them enough to understand what their outlook is or where their prejudices lie. It has been a gradual process, and still one that I have to consciously make, to get my eye re-tuned to being ok with seeing a hint of rib on my horse. Or in the case of the truly fit event horse – seeing lots of ribs. For some reason we get programmed to think that a horse in good shape is a horse who has a liberal coating of fat, and yet we see a rider with a little bit of fluff, or even just a lot of muscle, and immediately assume they’re lazy and out of shape. We think truly fat ponies are adorable (“give them cookies!”) and average sized people are repulsive (“put the fork down, fattie”, which I have actually heard from another spectator sitting ringside at a hunter show). Why? What makes us programmed that way?

In reality, a horse that is healthy is one that is fit, well cared for, and well conditioned for his job. His bones and tendons are strong, his muscles are toned, he can easily carry himself and his rider around and do his job without becoming excessively labored, and he has the stamina to perform the tasks we set in front of them. An obese, un-fit horse is none of those things… he is more prone to injury and more prone to sourness. On the same token, a rider that is healthy is one that is strong enough to help the horse rather than hinder it, strong enough to keep a proper position, and has the stamina to not “peter out” by end and leave the horse to do it’s job on it’s own. We are both athletes, we need to have the same expectations of each other. Weak and unfit is not okay, whether it’s too thin or too fat. The size of your breeches is just a number, and seeing a couple ribs on a horse doesn’t mean it isn’t in top condition. We both need to be healthy and strong, for each other, and at the end of the day that’s what really matters.

I have a lot of sympathy for the photographers and videographers that try to make a living shooting horse shows. I know there’s a lot of overhead, the equipment costs are astronomical, and it seems like everyone and their brother owns a decent DSLR these days. I try to support our local photographers and videographers as much as possible. Even if there isn’t media that I head- over-heels love, I’ll try to at least buy something.

The photographer and videographer for the event this coming weekend both offer pre-order packages, which I was pretty excited about, thinking I could save some money that way. Then I opened the emails and did some math, and to pre-order photos and video would cost $250. That’s more than my entry fee was.

I’d love to support them, I really would, but at that point I’m priced out of the market. Now I just have to hope that they actually manage to get some media of me, that it’s decent, and then see if I can pony up the money after the fact for whatever sliver of it I can afford. Usually one digital image costs me $50 which means that I really can only justify buying one, maybe two if I’m feeling particularly rich that day and if they happened to get some pictures of me (since I’m not a pre-order I’m not priority, so sometimes there’s nothing). But like I said, I understand their struggle, so I generally just grumble a little then buy something anyway if it’s halfway decent. That bums me out not only because I’m possibly missing out on pictures and video, which I love, but it also means that I may or may not actually end up giving them any money at all. Then we both lose.

I kinda miss the one photographer from the local h/j shows that charged a low fee of $15 per digital file for a small facebook quality photo. It certainly wasn’t suitable for anything else, but that’s all I need them for so I’m happy. I could buy several of those, and always did. Sadly, I’ve never seen anyone else offer an option like that.

 

 

 

 

Despite all this, I don’t really know what the answer is. Their struggles are real and I understand that, but so are mine. In a sport that is already so expensive, it’s just not feasible for me, and probably for most people, to spend more on media than they do on entry fees. I’m convinced there’s got to be a middle ground. I want to help them out and feed their business but at these prices it sadly becomes impossible.

Since apparently Texas has decided to emulate Seattle this spring and turn our arenas into lakes, I haven’t ridden my horse since last Thursday. That’s not generally such a big deal, Henry does fine just sitting around. It is, however, much less ideal when you’re leaving for your biggest event to date in a few days. And you’re going alone. No barnmates, no trainer. To a place myself and my horse have never been. Did I mention my division is totally stacked with very experienced and nice horse/rider combinations? Someone somewhere is laughing at me for thinking this was a good idea, and now probably all of you are as well. It’s ok, I’m laughing at me too.

Also because I’m in the lowest of lowly smurfs division, my ride times are all late. I’m ok with that on Saturday but it’s going to suck on Sunday when after XC I have to drive 210 miles home, drop off the horse and the trailer and my stuff, then take the rental truck back to the south side of town. We’re going to choose to look at this as an ADVENTURE! Because what other choice is there? And it’ll be fun anyway. Hopefully.

Since I haven’t been able to ride, I’ve delved knee deep into my first Charles de Kunffy book “Training Strategies for Dressage Riders”. There’s a lot of information crammed in there. If you’re the kind of person who loves philosophy and extreme detail, this is the book for you. I’m finding it very informative, but it’s definitely not light reading. I’m about halfway through and have two typed pages of quotes, plus there’s a a few sections that really are worthy of being quoted in their entirely. Especially the pages on punishment, gadgetry (particularly draw reins and tie-downs) and the horse as a partner. There’s an entire chapter on insubordination of the horse to the rider that I feel like should be required reading for anyone who gets on a horse.  Other things though – there’s so much detail and intricacy that my brain can’t deal with it for more than 15 minutes at a time. I have to read a little, then give it time to sink in, then read more. There’s lots of cool charts and tables though.

Hopefully today we can at least go for a road hack, then we’ll see what the rest of the week brings.

My main thoughts from spending a cumulative 9 million hours glued to my live feed over the last 4 days:

1) I’m really discouraged by Karen O’Connor saying she prefers a top hat. Really really discouraged. I was also discouraged by her during the Carolina feed a while back when she said she preferred having the show jumping before the XC. That’s not eventing. And even if you do like the look of a top hat better, you probably shouldn’t say that when you’re a big time role model.

2) I did however agree with her preference for a smaller horse. I too think that 15.3-16.1h is ideal.

3) Michael Jung is probably the most impressive rider I’ve ever seen. He is world class in all three phases. I learned a lot just from watching him. The way he uses his body and seat, not his hands, is second to none. His balance is impeccable.

4) WFP is an alien. There’s no other explanation for him. He’s too tall, he’s too balanced, his neck is too long, he’s too elegant, and he rides too well. Definitely alien.

5) Listen up here, Charles Owen! The custom AYR8 is SO COOL, how come there’s no custom skull cap? Imagine if you had 12-15 colors of shell to choose from for the Pro II helmet, and then 12-15 colors to choose from for the cover. I would buy that. Every eventer would buy that. You can’t argue with me here because you know it’s true. Also matching custom Roeckl’s. I would buy those too. Hire me, let’s make beautiful things together.

6) It’s interesting to look at who is wearing an air vest and who isn’t. Very few Americans without, very few foreigners with.

7) Before I die, I shall own a Connemara cross.

8) My dream horse is fischerRocana x Mighty Anakonda (the Mighty Magic stallion that MJ acquired last fall).  Can we make that happen, Team MJ?

9) Wearing head to toe white for XC is really ballsy. Really really ballsy.

10) I hate the new frangible pin penalty rule. The way it played out here wasn’t right and it must be fixed.

11) I still believe in Bells! Better luck next time, Jimmie, you’re a class act.

12) Watching these riders and listening to them talk about their horses gave me a real sense of pride about my sport. The level of appreciation and care for the horse is like nothing I’ve ever seen or experienced in any other sport that I’ve been involved in. So much pony love and gratitude, even when things didn’t go their way, makes my little heart go pitter patter. We might be a bit whacky and sometimes rough around the edges, but the level of horsemanship is second to none.