A Small Hop Forward

Rodney trotted quietly over a jump! Yay!

It was a tiny cavaletti cavaletto, he was on a leadline & he was hopped up on painkillers. But still, this the quietest he has ever dealt with the idea of jumping for us. Please note, I am NOT in any way advocating showing Rodney or any horse on pain meds. We did this as a diagnostic procedure only, similar to blocking the nerves to a foot & trotting the horse in hand to see where the injury is located. This was an anxiety block.

Backstory:
Rodney came up Saturday morning with a mildly puffy eye. The vet recommended a shot of Banamine rather than a topical. The barn medical staff took the opportunity to see if reducing the body’s inflammation changed Rodney’s reaction to a very, very small jump. It did. He came close to the classic hop & plop. He gave the exercise as much respect as it deserved – very little.

This is means two things:
A) His fussing after a jump has a physical, and therefore treatable, cause.

B) We are most likely dealing with a muscle issue rather than a system flaw since it can be blocked with such a low dose.

This is a Good Thing.

And now the philosophical question. When Rodney has a melt-down of any size [Aftermath], I fall into an immediate tailspin. I think such productive thoughts as ‘Sadness! Despair! This is hopeless. I’m hopeless. He will never amount to anything.’ When he goes well, I do not think, ‘Success! Victory! He’s wonderful. I’m wonderful. We are going to Rolex.’ Instead, I hem and haw, ‘Well, it was just one jump. He wasn’t that good. We still have to figure out what is bothering him …’ and so on.

Why are we – at least I – so quick to believe the worst and to dismiss the good?

BTW, his eye is fine. Probably got a piece of bedding lodged when he lay down.
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Gratuitous Cat pic
Ghost Feb 09 14

Future Planning

This post is by way of a time capsule to compare how I feel now with what transpires in 1, 2, 5 years.

Through 2015
The final 2013-2014 Winter Tournament show was a week ago. The banquet is this weekend. My prediction is that I have one more Winter Tournament in me. I plan to show this season and next in Academy walk-trot-canter. Not as many shows as last year, but a goodly number. Go to Nationals at least once for WTC, perhaps twice depending on the results over the summer. Two years of cantering classes will make three years of Academy total. If I’m not riding a horse of my own – TB jumper, ASB eventer, whatever – by the end of that, I’m taking up Tiddlywinks.

Not really, but it will be time for major change. The natural evolution would be to move out of Academy into performance classes. While suit classes would be a hoot, I don’t see myself making the fulltime commitment to saddleseat that would be necessary [Suiting Up].

At some point, one must stop hitting one’s head and admit that the wall has won.

Through 2014
Along those lines, I don’t know where the blog would have been without saddleseat and the shows to write about. This year, I can compare & contrast with last year. But that’s it. If I’m not doing something new/different/exciting – see above – by the end of this year, the blog will run out of steam. If my life looks exactly the same at this time next year, I will certainly enjoy my third (if all goes as planned) year in Academy, but I don’t see the narrative potential.

This is not a prelude to a hysterical meltdown over the blog, although I am certainly capable of those [Where, Baack]. It’s more about diminishing material. If I don’t add new data to the system, three years of daily blogging will have sucked dry everything I have to say on the subject.

At some point, I will run out of archive photos to fall back on [Happy Halloween]. If I have a new face, or an old face pulls his socks up and does something new, then by all means, I will blather away.

In Sum
Many things can happen between now and then, both good and bad. However, given an extrapolation of the current starting conditions, this is how I envision the future arranging itself.

We shall see.
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Gratuitous Cat Picture
R&R Jan 07 14

Pasture Astronomy

Another winter storm & cabin fever have leached me of all inspiration. Counting down to daylight savings time (March 9, 22 days) and Spring (March 20, 33 days). Given the celestial nature of these thoughts, here is sunset & moonrise Thursday evening from the pasture and backyard.

sun feb 13 14

moon Feb 13 14

Since walking a Bassett Hound lends itself neither to artistry nor to contemplation, I had swapped my camera for my cell and was listening to Audible (The Androids’s Dream by John Scalzi [Tor 2006], narrated by Wil Wheaton, chapter 1). Took these with the camera app. Not bad for a cell phone camera.

Spring countdowns
Timeanddate.com – Countdown till Spring 2014
mycountdown.org – Spring

Duration calculators
Timeanddate.com – Date to Date Calc
daycalc.appspot.com

The Spring countdowns do not match. Go figure. Despite the digital toys, I double-checked the numbers old-school by plonking my finger along a paper calendar.

Poll Results

Survey says:
poll results b

The people have spoken. Unanimously. It’s okay for me to wander about, narratively speaking. [For those who missed last week, I posted on a completely non-equine topic, Seven Life Lessons Learned From Candy Crush, and then asked for opinions on doing so, Off Topic: Yay or Nay?]

I received two further pieces of advice:

+Go with Off Topic posts but not too often. Given the 3-month time-lag between posts over on my Off Topic blog, this should not be a problem.

+Keep the Off Topic posts but add an explanatory paragraph. Done. The Candy Crush post has been updated. A similar intro will be included with other OT posts.

Thanks.
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Gratuitous Cat Pic

Brother from another mother.
Brother from another mother.

Show Tweets: Winter Tournament 3, Leeds AL

Last year, I showed late in the afternoon. This year, I rode first thing in the morning. I was finished within an hour of the show starting. Therefore, my stress level during the lunch break was way different.

This should have been attached:
H'more rings crop
Not a stellar picture, but the tweet would have made more sense.