AEC Countdown

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“Even if you get knocked down, pick yourself and keep trying to be the best you can be despite the odds.”
Joe Fargis

“Follow your dreams even if they seem impossible.”
Mary King

Saturday’s repost [BTE: Planning], reminded me how much I want to ride in the Nutrena USEA Eventing Championships someday. (Reliving the post could have been depressing, but I quickly shook off the dark cloud.) (Ha!) To inspire the troops, I have created a blog feature that counts down to the start date of the 2015 competition: AEC.

I’m not strong enough to put the countdown on the sidebar where I will see the numbers every day. Instead, I have tucked the link up at the top right corner of the screen – or the dropdown menu on a phone – where I will visit it from time to time. A gentle reminder rather than a regular smack in the face.

We don’t make it this year? I’ll restart the counter for 2016. Never say never.

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For Your Amusement
Check out the photo series by Shannon Brinkman of a save when a rider loses her bridle midcourse.

Update. Feature removed in one of my periodic site overhauls.

Dueling Disciplines

How different are hunt seat and saddle seat? Last week, I blamed my poor performance at the show on the vast gap between the two styles [Show Report]. Now, I’m wondering.

The photo I mentioned, Doug Shiflet’s 112-008-PA15, isn’t as bad as I thought (not pictured, need to click over). A little forwardness with the torso is acceptable for saddle seat. The rot sets in at the level of my bra strap.

Let’s go to the visuals:

Doug Shiflet Photography
Doug Shiflet Photography

Here I am attempting to line up for the ribbon presentation in the Showmanship class. I am slumping and looking down at Trump.

Doug Shiflet Photography
Doug Shiflet Photography

A moment later, all three of us have snapped to attention and are smiling at the photographer. The only difference in my position is my shoulders.

Outside of the equitation ring, round shoulders would not matter by themselves. Anyone in the horse world has seen brilliant trainers who sit like a sack of potatoes. In my case, the position fault is a symptom of a larger problem. When I drop my shoulders, I set off a cascade of errors. My shoulders go. My head follows. My hands loosen. My reins get flabby. This horse drops his shoulder. I am not in position to request a fix. Thinking that work is over for the day, the horse flops along on his forehand. I flop about in the saddle. While entertaining, this frame is not effective for any activity other than galloping along the trail.

I still blame the leg lessons, but not for reasons previously stated. It’s not hunt seat per se. Rounded shoulders aren’t ideal there either. However, in concentrating on my leg position, I forget all about the top half. At this point, the upper body position is my rate-limiting factor.

In post-show lessons, I have obsessively focused on holding my upper arms/shoulders back and centered over my seat. I visualized a position that would make it easier for the horse to mobilize his shoulder. Both Alvin and Bingo responded beautifully. I could see how elevating the front of the horse could power an extended trot or smooth out a sharp turn in a jump-off. It also didn’t look too bad as saddle seat.

In riding two disciples, I go back and forth. Clearly the two riding styles form a Venn diagram. The question is how much overlap? Last week it was Never The Twain Shall Meet. This week, Riding is Riding.

If you ride in two disciplines, how do they compliment/contrast?

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: Feed

At the beginning of the year, we raised Milton’s rations significantly [Miseries: Feed Me!]. He improved. For a while. Then stalled. His attitude was more pleasant, but still grumpy, “He’s never going to be a ray of sunshine, but he’s less vile-tempered.” He disliked being groomed. I was annoyed with him. Our blacksmith thought he looked skinny. There was nothing major or specific, just a collection of minor irritants. In short, he wasn’t thriving. We needed a change. My in-house nutrition advisor decided to try switching feed.

Milton had been on the same highly-digestible senior feed that Rodney has been on for years. We were given to understand that Milton was relatively uncomplicated, feed-wise. We figured as long as he was getting adequate nutrition, he would be okay. Milton certainly isn’t the festival of digestive issues that Rodney has been [Zeno’s Horse Training]. Still, a new feed is an easy change for us. One of the benefits of having horses at home. We went back to a name-brand, 10% sweet feed that Mathilda always ate and that Previous Horse ate for years before he went senior.

(Mathilda did not do senior feed, thank you very much. She was even picky about where her sweet feed came from. Seriously, in the winter, her national brand food had to come from store X rather than store Y or she wouldn’t eat it. No one at either store could tell us why there was a difference. But I digress.)

Voila, happy horse!

Milton no longer greets the world with default, ill-tempered unpleasantness. His ears are up more often than not. He is less pissy about being groomed. Blacksmith thinks he looks good. Even Rodney has noticed. The horses are more likely to be found grazing closer together. Rodney still moves away from Milton, but no longer leaps like a startled bunny when Milton looks in his direction. (A 17-hand horse leaping like a s.b. is quite a sight. But I digress again.)

More food having a positive effect I can understand. Calories is calories. Digestibility, I can also get behind. Different food having such a big mental effect? Not so much.

As for the rest, yes, yes. Believe me, there is nothing you can say on the subject of Milton about which I am not already berating myself.

Feed changes, your experience?
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Gratuitous Cat Photo

Percy
Percy

Mardi Gras Parades, A Guest Post

A friend from my three-dimensional life, Michelle Duplichien, makes an annual pilgrimage to Mississippi &/or Louisiana for Mardi Gras. This year, she was kind enough to take pictures of the horses she saw there. Welcome, Michelle.

It was February 17th and very, very, very, cold.

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There were two riding groups in this particular series of parades. I only caught the back of the New Orleans Cowboys (just the one pic of the group with burgundy jackets).

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Most of the horse photos were of the Urban Cowboys.

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The location was Metairie, Louisiana on Veterans Blvd. Here’s a map of the route for visual simplicity.

Parades have names and most of the time it is based on the krewe that organizes the parade. On this particular day three parades rolled on the same route consecutively. The parades were Argus, Elks Krewe of Jeffersonians, and then Jefferson Trucks (a parade of floats pulled by semi-trailer trucks). I’m fairly certain the Urban Cowboys were part of Argus.

Most groups try to do multiple parades. That goes for both walking groups and floats independent of a parade krewe. Usually walkers in a traditional float parade represent some organization whether it be amateur or professional. Besides traditional floats a parade can have marching bands (a good parade has multiple), dance studio groups, bands, and baton twirling groups. I can’t forget these guys, The Mobile Mystics [scroll down for photo]. They pass out paper flowers to ladies for the price of a kiss on the cheek. The previous list is not exhaustive of all that can be seen in a parade as each parade is unique. There are also parades like this one listed under the January 6th banner on Mardi Gras Parade Schedule.com.

The minions were on a float in the same parade.

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Horse groups are not called floats. Think of floats as a mobile object meant to pull a group of people.

The parade style varies from location to location. The parades I experienced in Mississippi were very simple compared to those I saw in Metairie. The New Orleans parades are the most epic of all. To put it in to perspective, Mississippi parades had simple decorated, rolling “boxes” as floats compared to the elaborately decorated, seemingly sculpted New Orleans floats.

The following pictures are from the beginning of a parade in Gulfport, Mississippi. All parades begin with law enforcement vehicles with loud sirens usually followed by the organizing krewe’s banner and then military members carrying flags.​

Repost, BTE 9 of 9: Forward Planning

Continuing to repost the entries from my previous monthly blogs Back To Eventing and Back To Riding. This was originally posted on the USEA website Thu, 2011-06-09, archived here. Illustration by Jean Abernethy.

Not only my last Back To Eventing column but my last assignment of any kind for the USCTA/USEA. I wrote for their magazine for many years, under both names and several editors [Summary]. By the time the column was canceled, the magazine had a new, young editor who was bringing in her people to do their thing. Oh well, shift happens. I picked up my typewriter in my arthritic paws and tottered off into the sunset.

April finished art revised 2 j

Back To Eventing: Forward Planning
(A series on – slowly, slowly – renewing one rider’s eventing career)

“Even if you get knocked down, pick yourself and keep trying to be the best you can be despite the odds.” Joe Fargis

“Follow your dreams even if they seem impossible.” Mary King
from How Good Riders Get Good by Denny Emerson [Trafalgar 2011]

As of April 1st – 161 days to the American Evening Championships 2011

The Clinic
I’ve done something very stupid, very brave, or very both. I’ve signed Rodney and me up for a Jimmy Wofford clinic in October at Foxwood Farms. I have signed up for an eventing clinic with a horse I can’t ride who has never jumped a cross-country fence. I figure that in the next six months, we will have made:

A) No progress. My fancy new horse will have turned into a 1400-lb pasture ornament. In which case, I will be fit company for neither man nor beast.

B) Little progress. Riding, but not enough to participate. In which case, I will audit the clinic and chug Maalox out of frustration.

C) Great progress in the wrong direction. We will have evented several times, and he will have let it be known that he would rather be a Show Jumper, thank you very much. In which case, he better have decided to be a darned good one.

Or, theoretically possible,

D) Great progress. We will have evented several times, forming the start of a wonderful eventing career of which the clinic will be an educational and entertaining step. In which case, hubby will have sprained his jaw from saying I told you so.

The Event
In a similar spirit of optimism, hubby and I checked out cross-country day at a local event. One or two of the Novice fences elicited eyebrow elevation. However, Beginner Novice is mostly variations on the theme of log. Add a ditch with no depth, terrain, and a trot through water and we’re good to go. This doesn’t preclude a bilateral meltdown when we come out of the start box, but at least the concept is feasible.

Back when Novice was called Pretraining, I dimly recall attending my first event on a green horse without a clue between us. We’d done zero formal cross-country practice before showing up on the day. On the other hand, I was boarding at a 1000-acre farm. We were on the trail more often than in the ring: galloping through mud, jumping pasture fencing, and doing all manner of other things we should not have been doing. I promise not to turn into a nostalgic curmudgeon constantly yapping about how it was back in the day. If you were there, you know; if you weren’t, you don’t care. I bring up the past to illustrate that I will need to deliberately recreate that background by shipping to trail rides, riding in hunter shows, visiting other barns, and jumping lots and lots of cross-country schooling to prepare for my first event this time around.

Back in the present, one highlight of the day was meeting the titular heroine of The Chronicles of the $700 Pony & The Further Adventures of the $700 Pony [Half Halt, 2006 & 2008] written by Ellen Broadhurst and illustrated by Patricia Naegeli. When reading, ya gotta wonder how much an author embellishes for effect. I can report that Pony-in-real-life has just as much attitude and just as much beautiful tail. Pony’s adventures continue in a blog by her new rider, Marisa Goode. Broadhurst now blogs about her family’s life abroad.

One low point of the day was the horsemanship. At the risk of reranting, after cross-country – GET OFF YOUR HORSE. To the riders who did, thank you. To the ones who rode back to the barn on hot and sweaty horses, who do you think just did all the work out there!?!
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To access back columns in the USEA archives, check out Rodney’s Facebook page: Rodney aka Perpetual Motion.

(Repost ends. Back to current comments below)
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I wrote about the Wofford clinic later that year: Weekend with Wofford.
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The Further Adventures of the $700 Pony is available on Amazon as an ebook.
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The Goode & Broadhurst blogs are defunct. As is my Perpetual Motion Facebook page.
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Rodney’s Saga repost locations
BTE 1 of 9: How I Won the Training Level AEC
BTE 2 of 9: The Cast Assembles
BTE 3 of 9: The AEC, a Realization in Five Phases
BTE 4 of 9: New Horse Blues
BTE 5 of 9: Buying the Horse is Only the Beginning
BTE 6 of 9: Back To Square One
BTE 7 of 9: Getting to Know You
BTE 8 of 9: Spring Fitness
Or
List of all nine direct USEA links