Last week when I made my bi-weekly trek down to the mailbox to check the mail (sorry mailman, I’m lazy), I was surprised to find a big envelope from USEA in there. Not having a clue what it could be, I excitedly ripped it open and found this inside:
  A Certificate of Achievement! I have been so wrapped up in AEC all year that I totally forgot about all the cool little awards USEA does. Of particular interest to the lower level competitor (like me) they have:

The USEA Medal program for BN-Prelim

The Blue Ribbon Award program for all levels, BN through Advanced

The Certificate of Horse and Rider Achievement program for BN only

Hate on USEA if you want, but they do a good job of making the lower level rider feel included and encouraged. I certainly never got anything similar from USHJA, a world where it feels like you really don’t exist until you’re competing in a nationally rated division. I sure don’t see them mailing out certificates to 2’6″ riders, which is really too bad when you think about it… the grassroots levels are, after all, a huge source of funding. Over 75% of USEA members compete at Training level or below, according to USEA themselves. 75% at the lower levels!!! I know it’s the same at h/j shows and I have to assume it’s true for dressage as well.

IMO it’s a huge mistake to treat the grassroots level riders like second rate citizens. We are the majority, and we represent a lot of income. Some people don’t have aspirations of ever riding beyond the lower levels, whether it’s due to lack of time, lack of funds, or just plain lack of desire. That doesn’t mean they aren’t contributing to (and loving the hell out of) their sport. And it doesn’t mean they matter any less. Quite the contrary… the grassroots competitors are what keep all of these sports alive.

So I filled out the application for Henry’s silver medal award for BN (which I didn’t even realize we’d qualified for until Bobby mentioned it) and decided to also make it a personal goal to get his silver medal for N this year too. Then I decided to send USEA a thank you email. It’s easy to complain, to point fingers, to find fault, and to list a million things that your governing body is doing wrong. But if we’re going to point out the wrong, it only seems fair to also recognize the right.

Cheesy as it may be to some, I’m trying to find a good place to put Henry’s first little award. Sure, it’s just a piece of paper in a pretty blue folder, and it’s just for Beginner Novice, but in a way it represents a pretty big milestone and I’m grateful to have it. Hopefully it’s just the beginning of more great things to come with this little brown horse of mine.

Do you think it’s important for your governing body to recognize the grassroots competitors? How good of a job do you think they do? What things are they doing right? What things are they doing wrong? Do you feel like you’re given good opportunities for awards and recognition?

 

 

 

It’s finally opening day for the American Eventing Championships/Adult Team Championships. That means we’re only 6 weeks out from the event – time to wrap up the planning and get everything finalized.

Filling out the entry form and getting it in the mail was pretty fun, I’m not gonna lie. I told the mail lady what it was and she blessed it, so if that’s not a way to guarantee success I dunno what is. I’m not feeling nervous at all, but rather I feel genuinely excited and also super grateful. There has been so much generosity from so many people, helping get our team set up with sweet gear. I have no doubt that Team Always be a Unicorn (or TABU for short) will be the most badass, well-attired, and most fun team there. The pile of stuff that has accumulated in one of our spare guest rooms is astronomically awesome, and this is only about half of it.

We had so many awesome sponsors step up and offer us swag. Big thanks to Riding Warehouse, Uncle Jimmy’s, Mango Bay, Gypsy Tails, and Straight Shot Metal Smashing. I can’t wait to see it all come together, especially on cross country day when we can let our inner unicorns loose.

I also had a couple readers that were so generous to send us things to help accent our unicorniness, including a crapload of Skittles (ie Unicorn food) and some pretty sweet rainbow unicorn coozies (eventers drink? what?).

I’m honestly more excited for the Team Championship than I am for the individual. No matter what happens, it’s going to be a blast, and I’m eternally grateful to everyone that has contributed – not just tangible items but also support. Support means a lot. Thanks for being willing to get a little crazy and go along with the ridiculous unicorn theme.

It’s possible that I might have gone slightly off the deep end with unicorn paraphernalia. We’ve got bracelets, speakers, hair elastics, shirts, banners, masks, headbands, sunglasses, you name it. It’s just so hard to keep myself under control, I gave up a while ago. So as a thank you to everyone, I’ll be posting info for a contest later this week for a prize pack of cool and semi-random unicorn stuff, plus a few things from our sponsors. Stay tuned.

The weekend started out with a bang. On Friday night I met Karen and our friend Stacy for happy hour at an awesome Mexican restaurant, where I stuffed my face with queso and brownie. On my way to happy hour I had stopped at Dover (it’s in the same shopping center) to pick up some dewormer and accidentally bought another jump pad. I just don’t know how this keeps happening. Well that’s a lie. It was navy, it had an awesome shape, cool features, and it was cheap. Yeah I know I’m looking for a dressage pad, not a yet another jump pad. I have a problem, leave me alone.

Saturday morning I was up and at em bright and early for a dressage lesson. And by bright and early I mean I was at the barn at 5:45 to groom Henry, pack my stuff in Bobby’s trailer, and haul the boys over to Dressage Trainer’s place for the first two lesson spots of the day.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a dressage lesson (a month? more? this summer is starting to run together) so I wasn’t sure how “on it” we’d be but Henry was pretty good. He has been VERY stretchy lately, which is nothing short a miracle on a horse who, a mere 4 months ago, wouldn’t give you a single step of stretchy anything. The king of the fake braced frame is finally starting to seek the contact and come down into it. Not all the time, but a lot more. He still has trouble with the shoulder in, more to the left than the right, but that’s getting better too.

It seems like the progress with dressage is so slow, but it’s nice to hear Dressage Trainer say that Henry looks markedly better every time he sees him. Dressage is difficult for him (and me)… he’s naturally a tense tight horse, built downhill, not a great mover, and not blessed with particularly talented rider, but we’re making baby steps. It’s gonna take a while but as long as he keeps improving a little bit at a time then we’ll call it success. There is a little video below, which I’m mostly just posting because thanks to Bobby you will never be able to un-see the last 20 seconds. I’m sorry, Internet. I’m so, so sorry.

On Saturday night we had a family get-together at my parents house to celebrate all our August birthdays. My mom, my brother, and myself all have birthdays within a couple weeks of each other so it just becomes easier to do one little party. I loaded the dogs up for their “adventure” – my parents have a big backyard – and had a little family time. We had a smorgasbord of Indian food, Chinese food, and pizza, plus a pretty awesome strawberry cake.

On Sunday I had planned on doing a small gymnastics school but Henry was not feeling it. He wasn’t bad, but my nice stretchy relaxed horse that I’ve had for the past couple weeks was gone and he was super tight, super tense, and way over-reactive to leg. No idea what that was about, but it took me almost half an hour to get any kind of stretching down into the contact. I hopped through the gymnastic a couple times and called it a day.

I’m trying to think that it’s just a coincidence he acted like that on his second day of being off the MagRestore. I’m also trying to think it’s just a coincidence that the super stretchiness started when I first put him on the MagRestore a couple weeks ago. We’ll see how he feels today. We might be going back to the magnesium permanently.

Let’s round out a big ‘ol week of boring with something 99% not horsey! I swear I have a dressage lesson tomorrow and things will go back to Henry on Monday. Until then…

Most of us work for a living, some of us in way swankier places than others. I am curious for a pictorial tour of your office or cubicle. 

I don’t have a cubicle but I’m not sure that mine qualifies as an office either. It’s more of a room. Or a closet. A sad closet with no windows. Welcome to the RMA lab.

It looks like a huge mess of crap. Mostly because it’s a huge mess of crap. I swear there’s a very specific order to it, but if you don’t know the system we have going on here then there’s no point in trying to convince you it’s not a mess. On the left (or behind me, when I’m at my computer) are all the returns and repairs waiting for quotes to be sent out, or waiting for the quotes to be approved by the customer so we can repair their equipment. Then my white board, full of more things that would take forever to explain, and then my space at/above my desk which is mostly markers and cereal and water bottles. There’s a couple horse pictures in there.

The view from my chair toward the door reveals more and more shelves and boxes and equipment. I won’t even bother trying to explain. Yes it’s claustrophobic. On the other side of my shelves is where the repair and evaluation technician sits.

All the important things like a big box of markers, peanut butter, a Painted Pony, a ribbon from some horse show at some point, a koozie, my computer, my phone, etc are on my desk. Oh hey, bonus Jezebel picture on the wall under my tools.  Also my nameplate reveals that I’ve worked here forever (or since 2005. same thing.).

There’s not a lot of personal stuff in my space, just because a) I’m not into decorating b) this is a coffin, not an office. I do have this lovely sign that a coworker made for me though. It’s good to have a reputation.

And this fortune I taped to my shelf, because it seemed appropriate. This is how I decorate, folks.

Sadly, that’s it. I think I win “saddest office space” so far. Give a sister a skylight or something, at least!

When I was watching American Pharaoh make history yet again in the Haskell on Sunday, I got the feeling that I was watching what is likely to be the best racehorse of our generation. Our Secretariat. Our “Tremendous Machine”. He’s poetic and beautiful to watch, and the love and appreciation that the people around AP have for him is palpable. That said, I’m still not sure if he’ll ever overtake Zenyatta as my sentimental favorite. I got into an actual debate with myself and Zenyatta won out. (Remember how I said I love the solitude of barn sitting? These are the kinds of pressing issues that I apparently spend a lot of time thinking about when the only time I speak to other human beings is at work. Woot, hermitism!)

Then, of course, because my mind is ever-wandering, I expanded beyond racing and into showjumping and eventing.

Joe Fargis has always been my favorite jumper rider. I saw him ride Edgar at a Grand Prix while I was working on the East Coast and he left such an impression on me in just that one day. He was so tactful, so soft, so quiet, and yet totally effective. Edgar was a little spooky at the tents when he first came into the ring, and Joe just quietly walked him past, patted him, whispered some words of comfort, smiled, picked up his reins, and proceeded to give everyone a riding lesson.

My favorite jumper would probably have to be Rhythmical. He was little, he was spicy, and he was fierce. I remember watching all the Grand Prix classes on ESPN in the late 90’s and just waiting for Rhythmical’s turn in the jump off… you always knew you were in for a wild ride. He always gave 100% and was so fun to watch. Plus how could you not love his rags to riches story?

My favorite event rider for many years now has been Buck Davidson. He has always impressed me with his compassion and genuine love for his horses, and how appreciative he’s always appeared. Considering he was born into this life it wouldn’t been really easy for him to take it all for granted. It seems like a lot of upper level riders don’t always feel much attachment to their mounts, but you can tell how much Buck loves his crew… especially Reggie. I also admire the fact that Buck was not blessed with the tall, thin physique of so many other top riders – yet he rides every bit as beautifully as they do. He’s an inspiration to us “commoners” in that way. You don’t have to fit the George Morris mold of physical perfection to ride well.

Speaking of Reggie aka Ballynoe Castle RM- he gets my favorite eventer spot too. How could you NOT love Reggie? He’s wise beyond his years, super consistent, mega talented, and obviously has a great brain. I want one of those. I think we ALL want one of those.

I haven’t watched enough dressage or other disciplines to even begin to pick favorites there.. I’ll have to get to work.

Who do you love?