Horse Show Today: NeGCHA 2014

Show today. New show for me, so no pictures from last year.

After winning or losing with no coherent (to me) reason for the first half of this season, I thought about slowing down the mad dash to compete until I could do something other than come in last. Why invest time & money if I’m just going to screw up the next time I trot into a show ring? Yes, I am a joy and a delight to be around when I don’t win. Anyway, I decided to go ahead with this one because

A) I had already paid & have a guest coming.

B) I come uncorked at shows but not at lessons. Therefore, fixing whatever infects my brain in the show ring has to be done at shows.

C) Learning finesse will help in any disciple. A rider is not penalized for flapping like a chicken in a jump-off. OTOH, all that extra motion doesn’t help the horse. At best, it is a waste of effort, At worst it is an indication of ineffective riding. Legendary riders such as Beezie Patton Madden, Michael Matz, and William Fox-Pitt are quiet and classic over seriously gnarly fences & courses.

&

D) !!!HORSE SHOW!!!

So, even if I lose, I’m here to learn. That’s my story.

Rodney’s Week: Pool, Pen, & TENS

Minus
Saddle Time, or not
We have offered to return the saddle that the saddle fitter left on loan [Finding One That Fits]. If I’m just going to sit on him, a bareback pad works fine and carries less baggage. No reason to drag out the whole suit of armor until he can 1) trot quietly on the lunge or in hand without it being a miracle and b) walk around the pasture without cookies as bribe/distraction.

Progress, yes. Rapid progress, no.
Glacial progress, yes. Progress given any non-frustrating definition of the term, no.

Plus
Pool
After watching this video of a horse rolling in a wading pool, we bought Rodney one of his own. I thought he would dive right in. After all, he accepted the mattress without hesitating:

mattress before

Most exercises take us longer to set up than for him to conquer [Weekend]. If we are not prompt with the summer baths, he will splash himself in the water trough. The pool should have appealed to his brave and aquaphilic nature.

On seeing the pool in the field, he came over at liberty to check it out, but declined to leap in. On day two, he walked through, albeit quickly and at the end of a halter. On day three, he walked through slowly enough that I could stop him with his front feet immersed. So, not bravely, bold Sir Robin but not bravely running away either.

Round Pen
We built a redneck round pen to use in lieu of lunging. Rodney went right in and started walking pleasantly in a circle. Trotted better too. This was not his first round pen.

TENS
Now that transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is available over-the-counter, my medical advisor thought it might work on jacked-up horse backs. Rodney loves it. The counter gets as high as 50 (out of 65) on scar tissue but a gentle 10 on otherwise healthy butt muscle. Either way, happy pony.

TENS
CVS.com

10 Reasons to Get Paid to Write

Last weekend was the annual seminar for American Horse Publications. I’ve gone in the past [AHP 0,1,2]. Not this year. Too many horse shows to justify the time away :). Not enough magazine work to justify the expense :(.

One of my goals for 2014 was to get more paying work [7th Day]. I’ve approached it with the same intensity that I have used for horse hunting – a general willingness to be open to anything that falls into my lap. This has worked as well as you would expect.

On the other hand, my magazine career was never white hot in my best years. I probably could have used the profits to keep the cats in kibble. I never came anywhere close to supporting myself, or even paying my share to support the household.

So why bother? Why not write Off Topic posts to entertain myself? I came up with ten reasons:

Writing for equine magazines does not generate much money. However, some beats none. Paychecks of all sizes spend just fine.

There is an undeniable element of ego. Try these two sentences: I write for The New Yorker. I write for a blog read by a handful of lovely folks. Which gets more respect?

The most fun I ever had during an interview was with a bug control dude for an article on mosquitoes. Just one of many ideas of which I never would have thought. Or if I did think, never would have pursued on my own.

Here’s another exercise: Please let me trail about taking notes on your every move so I can write an article for Horses R Us. Please let me trail about taking notes on your every move because I’m insatiably curious. Which one is going to give me access?

The downside of being good on a deadline is being bad without one.

When I first started posting on my own [Back To Riding], I felt the lack of an editor, the way a trapeze artist feels the lack of a net. Whose gonna catch me if I do something stupid?

Good text becomes a great article with good page design and real photographs.

A bigger audience. Less of the shouting-down-the-well feeling.

Text can go wandering on the Internet. My favorite illicit reuse of an article was as a post in a forum wherein the entire article was posted as if I was a member for the forum supporting a particular point of view. I did not have to mount my own defense. I emailed the editor & pointed her at them. Problem solved.

Writing for one’s self has a long and noble tradition. Journalism for one’s self feels aimless.

Glaring Omission

Upon trolling the archives for the Sam post [Text Art: SMM], I discovered that in some show reports I omit explicit mention of the horse involved. The name usually comes up in the conversation, but by then I have mentioned the show, the class, and the ribbon. The horse should come before all of these.

It is not from lack of concern about the horse, rather the opposite. My equine partner is such an obvious fact to me that I forget to mention it.

Partly, the classes are equitation. Even showmanship is how the rider presents the horse. Therefore, when reviewing the classes in my head, I’m thinking of all the equitation moves I made, or failed to make.

Finally, the Stepping Stone Farm lesson horses are such veterans that they mainly truck around doing their jobs. They become reliable platforms for the rider to make a hero or a zero out of herself. The squeaky wheel gets the write-up.

I am grateful to all the horses who consent to carry me and to the owners who allow me to ride their horses. I never forget this for a moment. I just forget to write about it.

Julie Wamble, Alvin, Rachel Wamble, me. Photo by Mariah Bouchet
Julie Wamble, Alvin, Rachel Wamble, me.
Photo by Mariah Bouchet

Show Report: ETSA Midsummer Classic, White Pine, TN “Fortunately, there are folks in the world less possessive than I.”

Antibiotics as Mood Elevator

This post is off topic but not Off Topic.

I have bad days. Everyone does. Then, I have a few in a row. Bleh. Then, the universe is rude to me and I am prostrate. I wallow. I nap during the day and have insomnia at night. I know I’m ungracious and ungrateful and oversensitive. Knowing this does not help me be less so. I am lethargic to the point of paralysis. I collapse into sobbing fits and surf for information on depression.

At about this point, I discover that I have a low-grade infection in my head. For a while it was the Tooth That Would Not Die [Hi There, Regular Programming]. For the last three summers, it’s been swimmer’s ear [Midwestern Mounts]. You would think by now I would recognize the signs. But no. The decline is gradual and perspective is the first casualty.

There is no pain until a) it flairs into Technicolor life and I spend the holidays screaming (this has happened twice), or b) I take the meds and notice the mild but chronic pain by its absence. Once the infection is gone, the world is no more inclined to bend to my will, but I am more inclined to cope.

Despite ancient Greek philosophy inherited by Western culture, I wonder if the mind/body dichotomy exists at all. Ill-health makes us cranky. Placebos have powerful effects.

Which is by way of apology to anyone who has had to interact with me recently.

Onwards!

(Stray thought. The phrase “western culture” is Atlantocentric, isn’t it? The world is round. The Far East is equally the Far West. Also, the idea of a country being “Far” carries its own assumptions. After a while, it become impossible to speak. Don’t get me started on the fig leaf that is BCE. But I digress.)