YAY, it’s horse show weekend! Well not quite, there are a couple more days left to make it through, but we’re close enough. Despite doing the little derby last month it feels like we haven’t really shown in forever. Technically we’ve only left the start box for XC once since last July, and that was in February. I’m definitely suffering from withdrawals. So while I’m slightly concerned that I might die (that’s just my general feeling at Training at the moment, surely that’ll go away eventually right?) the excitement considerably outweighs that. For the past two weeks I’ve been gathering up all my stuff, making some updates, and getting a few things fixed that I’ve been putting off.
First I had to find and dig out my fancy suspender ice boots. Henry is not a fan of ice, I tried to get him to stand in a muck tub once like other horses do and I was fairly certain he was going to murder me and stuff my corpse in it instead. He still hates the boots but was significantly less violent about them, so they’re the winners. If we’re running T XC on hard-ish ground in the heat, I’m going to wrangle him into these things whether he likes it or not, so dorky suspender boots are packed and ready to go. I also tossed in one of his leftover Flair strips from last summer, because it’s going to be hot as a MFer out there and more oxygen is never a bad thing.
Then I decided to finally get around to dressing up the pinny that I bought last fall. I got an inexpensive navy one with the intention of putting some yellow on it to personalize it a bit (because I’m too cheap to pay $65+ for a custom pinny that I’m at least 50% likely to lose or destroy, but hey they look cool). Of course I forgot all about it, and the other venue we’ve been to this year has their own pinnys so I haven’t needed it. Now is finally the time to bust it out, so I ran by Hobby Lobby, spent a whopping $1.80, added a little bit of personalization, and BAM. Ok, so it looks better from like 10′ feet away, but it works and my total time invested was like 15 minutes.
In the process of digging out all of my electronics, I remembered that both of my most important things were “broken”. My watch battery died last year at Coconino and I’ve kept forgetting to replace it. I’ve run XC watchless so far this year on purpose, but now I’m ready to add it back in to the fray. Apparently my old model OT watch doesn’t take the same battery as new one, because the one I ordered online didn’t fit. A quick trip to Batteries Plus, one very helpful older gentleman, 5 minutes, and $4 later, I have a functioning watch again. Why does it always take me months to accomplish the most minor of errands?
The other major electronic is of course the Cambox. Last summer I started having issues with charging it… seemed like the charging cable either had a short in it or wasn’t making a good connection. It would really only charge if I sat there and held the cable. While we were at Rolex, Hillary and I ran into the Cambox rep and talked to her, and she provided an email address to contact. They were very helpful, we talked through the problem, they agreed that it sounded like the cable, and I had a new one in my hands within a few days. Problem solved, it’s charging like a champ now. Now I just have to remember to actually turn it on when I get in the startbox (easier said than done).
I’m slowly gathering all my other stuff together, but mostly I’m just ready to hit the road. Win, lose, or draw I’m so excited to finally feel like we’re “back at it” and in the swing of things again with full HT’s and different venues! There’s just something kinda fun about horse show prep, am I right?
breedrideevent.com 