Month: August 2016

My mom passed away one year ago today.

I’ve never lost anyone that close to me before, and coping with it has been, well, weird. Sometimes I forget she’s even gone, usually when I find myself having the urge to call or text her about certain things before remembering she’s not there. Reality hits hard every time. Like during breeding season – my first reaction to every ultrasound was to send a picture to my mom. She would have been super excited about another baby horse.

Flagstaff was also one of her favorite places, and while we were there I thought about her a lot. There’s no doubt she would have thought that was one of the coolest trips ever, except for maybe the 10 days of camping part.

At her funeral we handed out CD’s with Love Shack on it… that CD lives in my CD player in my truck. If I find myself thinking of her and need a pick-me-up, I play it. Two button pushes and there she is, personified in a song. Works every time.

And yes, I still put a purple rubber band in one of Henry’s braids on show jumping day, in honor of her. Ok, she would probably prefer head-to-toe purple and lime green, but she’s gonna have to settle for a purple braid. I think she’d be ok with that compromise.

I’m in the middle of a 10 day barnsitting stint, and while barnsitting is absolutely my favorite way to make a some extra cash to add to my budget, regular work hours plus barnsitting duties make it difficult for me to have time to ride Henry. Instead of giving him another week off, since he just came back from vacation, I decided to send him down to Trainer for the week.

This actually worked out pretty well (for once) since apparently it’s suddenly monsoon season in Texas. It’s been raining like crazy, which has turned our pastures to mud pits and our arena into a lake. Trainer’s place is a couple hours away, on really nice sandy soil, so even with tons of water it stays rideable. If Henry was at home he’d just be standing in his stall anyway, so – perfect timing.

He’s been a bit frustrating on the flat lately (not bad, just really “lit”) so I’m not gonna lie, this is a little fun for me. Yesterday I took the day off from work (how do I still have 19 vacation days left???), packed his bridles and his food/supplements, loaded him up, and drove him down to Trainer’s.

I kind of understand how parents feel now when they drop kids off at camp. On one hand you love them and miss them as soon as you start to pull out, but on the other hand you just can’t seem to press down on that accelerator fast enough.

The first update, from yesterday’s ride, was pretty entertaining – “I didn’t die today, but… it was touch and go for a few minutes.”. 30 degree drop in temperature plus a very fit Henry… yep, this is gonna be a fantastic week. Mostly for me, since all I have to do is write the check. Money well spent.

I dunno how closely any of you have been following the Olympic updates on social media, but two sources have really stood out to me over the past week. Mostly because they really aren’t afraid to say what they think, and I’m always 110% behind that.

The Horse Magazine

THM is an Australian based publication that has been posting real time updates from Rio on their facebook page plus end-of-day wrap posts on their website. With such gems as:

Yes, Rebecca, it is better to watch a not so talented horse ridden beautifully than a brilliant horse ridden by a terrorist.

Just a wonderful test from Spencer Wilton – the new style of British dressage, soft, rhythmic, beautiful. But the toads in the judges boxes know they have to keep the big marks for later in the day.

Just accepted very lame Japanese horse, oh well, it’s a long way from his heart.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice home just 3.2 but the US only has two riders left in the field (er, both of them Australians).

Yeah I am sure the Dutch spin doctors will come up with a story, but the truth is an old gelding, with his best a long long time ago, should never have been brought here. Now they are in a right pickle of their own making.

… how do you not love it? Agree with them or not, it’s pretty refreshing to see a journalist tied to a major publication that isn’t afraid to put forth a REAL and HONEST opinion. Plus they used the phrase “in a right pickle”.

 

The Sort of OK Show About Horses

Sorry Buck, I love you, but Kyle is the real star of this masterpiece. For those who haven’t seen it – before and after a lot of major events, Buck and Kyle do a little “show” where they talk about what they think is going to happen, who they think will do well, then what actually happened, and their impressions of such.

In a world where most high profile pro riders are SO afraid to say what they really think, I absolutely love seeing Kyle be completely candid. He never hesitates to really lay it all out there, even if it’s critical of a horse, a rider, or a program. He’s not mean about it, but he’s honest. His assessment of what happened with the US team on XC was exactly spot on with what I was thinking too (commentary on the US team starts around the 26:19 minute mark, which I’ve linked to above). Thank you Kyle for having the cojones to say what you’re really thinking!

 

I’m officially at the point where I don’t even remember my own birthday until the day before. All the sudden today – BAM – I’m 33.

This morning my dad posted this picture on facebook, which might be the best thing I’ve ever seen, mostly because that’s still my default facial expression.

And then my brother and sister-in-law memed it…

So… best birthday present ever. Still laughing.

Some days I still don’t feel like I should be trusted with adult responsibilities, yet I’ve been an “adult” for a long time now. It’s been a weird journey, probably not what I would have pictured, but I have no complaints about where I’m at or how I got here.

I’ve worked at the same place for almost 12 years (holy. crap.) and I don’t hate my job. I’d rather have a job in the horse industry somehow (sales? marketing? product development? no idea), but maybe someday the perfect thing will come along.

Henry was supposed to be a short term resale, and we all see how that worked out. He’s my shining star and has made life a lot more interesting and fun and rewarding. That horse isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

 

As far as what the next 33 will bring… who knows. I don’t have much of a plan, so I’ll just follow the swing of things and see where it all ends up. Hopefully there will be a lot more ups, inevitably several downs, and I’m sure plenty of surprises along the way. With horses staying firmly at the center of my world, naturally.

I do know one thing – today I get CAKE!

Move over, Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos… the best Olympic feud so far has been between a Deadspin blogger and the equestrian community.

Most of you might have seen this on facebook. In one day something like 8 of my friends shared it in some version, all basically flipping Patrick the blogger a big middle finger. Basically he said that equestrian sports were dumb, the horse does all the work, it’s abusive to animals, super aristocratic, etc etc. The same things we’ve all heard a million times by now. When I first read it, I had the same reaction that most people did. What an ignorant ass, I said, huffing and puffing and muttering all kinds of profanities as I slammed my way around the kitchen, making dinner. But once my defensiveness and pride settled down (and I burned the shit out of my finger), I starting thinking about it. And thinking about it. And thinking about it. Then I found myself replying to Patrick’s follow-up post. I know, shocking…

This might be one of the dumbest “feuds” I’ve seen, and I spend a lot of time on the internet, so that’s saying a lot. If you don’t like a sport, don’t watch it. Pretty simple. Change the channel. Click on a different live feed. Perhaps table tennis or golf would be more up your alley? Writing an entire blog post bashing one particular sport in such spectacularly inelegant fashion is an obvious attempt for attention, and congratulations, it worked.

To the horse people (of which I am one): I understand the knee jerk reaction to this guy. His original blog post was full of a lot of ignorance and came off quite rude. I get it, riding is my passion too, and it’s natural to want to defend something that you love so much. But once you get all those expletives out of your system (and they’re therapeutic, I know), we owe it to ourselves and our sport to step back and look at what this guy is really saying. It’s not really about whether he’s right or wrong (obviously he’s wrong).

Peel back a few layers of pure prickishness, dumbassery, pompousness, and blatant ignorance, and his opinion is not that different from the public majority. It’s a fact that our sport is always one of the lowest rated, and it’s no secret that the IOC is considering dropping the Equestrian events altogether. They’re expensive to put on, they garner a lot of criticism, and they don’t bring much back to the table. So what our new friend Patrick has to say, infuriating as it may be, is actually REALLY IMPORTANT if we as a community want to keep our sport in the Olympics.

Our sport is very intricate – it’s one of skill, not one of brawn. It’s easy for anyone to turn on swimming or running or gymnastics and be entertained by it. It takes zero brain power or education to understand it. Their events are pretty short and the objective is obvious. Ours isn’t that obvious at all to the layman (except for maybe showjumping), and really the only people that are going to understand what the hell is going on are fellow equestrians. 

When equestrian events were originally included in the modern Olympic games it was by way of polo, “grand prix jumping”, high jump, and long jump. Almost like a horse version of track and field. Dressage came in a little bit later (originally the dressage horses had to jump a few fences, too!), along with eventing (long format, anyone?), and a more recognizable version of showjumping. Almost everything then was military-based, which made sense in those days and fit in with the overall vision of the games. It was truly a sporting competition. But now the Olympics has morphed into a ratings show; an advertising push painted with a stroke of patriotism. The IOC doesn’t care all that much about the sports themselves, their big job is to increase ratings and sponsorship.

So if we really want to stay in the Games, instead of getting pissed at Patrick we should listen to what he has to say and ask ourselves: what can we do – presentation wise, broadcasting wise, scheduling wise, education wise, etc – to make our sport easier for the layman to understand (because obviously most of them are clueless as hell, just like him) and more interesting to watch? Or, if we actually care more about the bigger issues of the sport itself (rider safety, horse welfare, etc) rather than the ratings war that the Olympics has become, why do we want to stay in anyway? Are the Olympic Games really the pinnacle of our sport anymore? Do we want the desires of the IOC to dictate the choices we make and the direction that our sport takes? Maybe so… but maybe not. Either way, Patrick’s incredibly ignorant blog post provides plenty of food for thought.