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.

USEF Network live streaming from Rolex is both the best thing ever and the worst thing ever. I pulled it up yesterday fully intending on leaving it in the background with the sound down low and only pop it to the front when someone came in that I really wanted to watch. That ended up happening more than half the time. My newfound “You will not defeat me” attitude toward dressage has suddenly made me feel like I’ve spent forever in the desert, finally found water, and now I can’t possibly soak up enough. Yesterday when I changed lanes in my car I actually thought to myself that the hind end was trailing. Great, now I’m leg yielding my car. Obviously dressage makes people crazy.

But, since I’m so obsessed with Rolex right now, I’m basically useless for anything else. I’ll sum up my week for you in a series of pictures:

I’ve now Scotchgarded every white thing I own. The square pads came out great so the breeches and Ogilvy got sprayed too. Scotchgard is life.

I got Henry’s ribbon from Pine Hill. I took this picture of it and then promptly left it at the barn and forgot about it. Sorry satin lovers. Hey, it’s white, maybe I should Scotchgard it! (kidding. mostly)

Henry did a lot of thinking about his new dressage-heavy life. He says it needz moar jumps.

And that’s about it, because the Rolex live feed is gonna start soon and I’ve got obsessions to feed. I’ll leave you with the knowledge of several sales happening right now:

PS of Sweden – 15% off saddle pads and polos this weekend

Riding Warehouse – 15% off through today with code FLASH15

O’Shaughnessey – 15% off with code OS5K

Personally Preppy – 20% off with code YAYFOR20K

Swanky Saddle – first 50 orders get 25% off with code SWANKY25

Gray & Co. Designs – Free Stuff Friday, all orders placed today receive a free gift

Divoza – 20% off all breeches, or 15Euro off all orders over 75Euro

Because nothing says Rolex like buying a whole bunch of stuff.

All along in our dressage adventures I’ve always felt that the majority of Henry’s shortcomings are a reflection of my own. And in a way – they are. Of course they are. But he did come with plenty of baggage himself, and I’ve tried like hell along the way to do what I’ve felt is best for him and his brain and his future, to the best of my ability. Lately in particular I’ve felt like there are a couple things that Henry has been juuuuuuust on the edge of grasping, but I’m not quite educated enough to really help him make that last little step. I asked Dressage Trainer to ride him this week so I could watch and see how he handled certain things, and so Henry could be helped a little bit more. This is a first for us, so I really wasn’t sure how it would go. On one hand you’re like “maybe this’ll be the magic bullet” but then you’re like “Oh crap, that would mean I really do suck.”. And then if you’re like me you curl up in fetal position and chant “Dressage is too hard” over and over again. But back to the trainer ride…

So Trainer hopped aboard and got to warming up. Henry did pretty much the exact same things for him as he does for me. First thought “Oh thank god, I’m not totally retarded”. Second thought “Well this means we still have a ways to go”. Henry isn’t bad. He’s never ever bad. But he’s tense, he’s an overachiever, he’s very sensitive, and he comes undone pretty easily if he feels trapped or confused. He’s very simple to ride, but he requires a lot of tact and precision. The mental baggage from his past shows through a lot in the tension. It was awesome to watch this happen with Trainer so that I could see what he did to work through it, and be able to see the exact moments of change in Henry. Feeling it is one thing, seeing it is yet another level of education.

Of course Trainer said he liked him and he was a talented horse and he thought I’d done a good job getting him to this point, etc, which were nice things to hear. It’s easy to get so bogged down in progress that you forget where you started and how far you’ve come. A year ago this horse was in a hackamore because a bit sent him straight nose-to-chest and made him very nervous. I have to give him a lot of credit for that, and need to do a better job of keeping our journey in mind. He tries hard, his canter is lovely, and he has definite moments of brilliance.

Trainer got more true shoulder in and shoulder fore work than I am able to get – I can tell I’m doing too much with my reins there. He also got better trot-canter transitions than I do. I suspected those two faults had a lot to do with me and I think this confirms it. Something else to work on. Otherwise I think, and Trainer seemed to agree, that we’re on the right track but he’s just gonna take time. We’ve got to get him to relax more and connect better and really give his back and his ribcage – he’s still protecting himself and hesitant, and who can really blame him. He’ll get there one step at a time. It’s a lot harder to undo and redo than it would have been to start from scratch in the first place.

I do however feel more confident that I’m doing the right things, and that eventually I will have a pretty nice horse when we get through all that. For now I’m happy with where we’re at and know that we’ve just gotta keep chipping away. Trainer ride: success!