Watching The Tevis

I spent the day digitially following The Tevis Cup, formally called the Western States Trail Ride. I have never done an endurance ride, nor do I know anyone in this year’s Tevis. It’s just one of those iconic names in the horse world.

The horses were mostly Arabs and Arab crosses, as you would expect. However, other breeds did represent: Mustang, Tennessee Walking Horse, FresianX, Missouri Fox Trotter, Quarter Horse, Kentucky Mountain, grade, Rocky Mountain, Paint, Standardbred, and & a mule. Those of you who saw my Twitter feed know that I followed the progress of the Thoroughbred (36 miles), the Paint/Saddlebred (55 miles) and the Appaloosa. The Thoroughbred was the second tallest horse at 16.2 hands. The tallest was an Arab, at 16.3 hands. The smallest a 13.2 hand Arab/Welsh Paint. Most of the entries hovering around 15 hands. Entries

You can tell a lot from a list of names and times. For example, the cut-off for the Robinson Flat check-point was noon. At 11:30 am local time, 99 riders had checked in. I could almost hear 61 riders scurrying as fast as they felt able, while peeking repeated at their watches.

You could also sense the updaters typing madly. Internet info included: current placings, ride times in and out of checkpoints, a pulled rider list with reason and current location of the horse, and a Facebook page with photos and comments. The Facebook page had around 2000 people “talking about this.” I believe that was just people who were commenting and did not count lurkers such as myself. Imagine the number of people repeated checking the standings. It wasn’t perfect. Safari routinely crashed or needed several attempts to find the page. Still, I generally got where I wanted to go in less than, say, 30 seconds. Amazing what is out there.

Even more amazing when you consider the process employed at the race. Somewhere on the site – which I can’t find just now – it explains their system of manually writing rider numbers as they enter a checkpoint, relaying those numbers through ham radio, and finally getting the data to web volunteers. It all seems very low-tech, I assume due to the remote location and the mountains blocking cell signals. I also wonder how they, or any other once-a-year event, balances a website that has normal traffic most of the time but goes ballistic for the duration. Any web geniuses out there care to explain? I’m thinking “the cloud” is involved?

I’ve always thought endurance would be fun if I ever decided I didn’t want to jump anymore. Arabs have personalities that may be even more, um, interesting than Thoroughbreds. From what little I know, endurance riders must have strong horsemanship and an obsessive attention to detail. Sound like anyone? OTOH, I’m not a big camper nor outdoors person, so the attraction may be more in theory than in reality. See photos here. Eeeep.

Perhaps I could volunteer. I know squat about endurance, but I speak both horse and volunteer. I would be open to a necessary but low-status job such as crowd control. I actually quite good at being perky & polite & informative for the duration of the activity. To balance all that outgoing cheer, afterwards I need to go be cranky for an equivalent length of time and am likely to chew a hole in any person unfortunate enough to spend the evening in my vicinity. But that is not the organizer’s concern.

On a sad note, condolences to Kelly Williams whose horse Diamond Rule L (Reb) was involved in a fatal fall. Snaps to the Tevis people for reporting it right away. No matter what one feels about the legitimacy of an activity that results in a death, nothing comes close to how terrible the rider feels right now.

Props also to the Sweep Riders Of the Sierras,

“Our responsibility during these events is to “sweep the trail,” that is, to follow the last few runners or riders and assure that no one is lost or injured.”

As of 10:30 pm my time, the lead rider had passed 85 miles. The other 104 were strung out along the trail back to mile 64. I don’t stay up this late, much less ride that long. I’m going to bed.

For more information.
For more information.

Would you, if you had the right horse?

Noodling with Rodney

What a wonderful horse. Hubby bought a handful of 5′ plastic “noodles” often used as pool flotations [Wiki]. Ours are a rainbow of neon colors for eventual use in ground exercises, for example, asking him to walk through an arch with noodles.

(picture noodles in place of black material)
(picture dangling noodles in place of black material)

The plan for the day was to bring the noodles into the field, catch Rodney, put on the Halter of Doom, bring him over, see how he felt about them. Never got to the halter. As soon as I dropped the pile in the field, up went the ears, and over he came to check the novel things out. Sniff this one. Sniff that one. Oh, look there’s more. Graze.

Initially, he wasn’t thrilled to have them moving toward him, but he expressed reservation more than hysteria. Within 10 minutes, I was comfortably tapping him all over with a noodle. I even rested one on his back. Fortunately, it didn’t fall off. I wasn’t ready to test the system that far. Mind you, this was al fresco. He could have run off at any point. I can think of a lot of horses who would have.

What an inexplicable horse. Leather halter? Eeek. Shiny, weird, plastic, scary things? Meh.

Feline Aside

GPK Zazzle 1
One of our cats is recovering from an ear infection. (Yes, it’s going around. No, cat drops don’t hurt humans. I digress.) He is better but still wobbly, too wobbly to jump to the top of the fridge where the free-choice dry cat food lives. (Fear not – everyone gets an cat-appropriate dollop of canned food at night check. No one starves around here. End of second digression.) Instead, he gets a chance to eat dry food on the floor behind closed doors. He won’t eat it. OTOH, he will eat the dry food if he is lifted up to where the big cats eat.

It’s the same food!!

For The Look Of It

While I was looking for ASB sport horses, a young lady from the barn was trying out horses for her future saddleseat equitation mount. Let’s call her Princess C. Her Royal Highness had far more success in finding candidates than I did [Midwest]. Since I would not be buying the horse, riding the horse, nor training the horse, I had no stake in the decision. That left me free to speculate. All that follows is idle thoughts inside my own head. I have never ridden upper-level equitation nor known anyone who did. Since when did a lack of experience stop the horse world from pontificating?

Princess C. is a beautiful rider. She wins her equitation class more often than not. Such is her aura that judges have been known to overlook errors that might derail a less stylish rider. IMHO. However, current shopping was for horses that would win at the finals. Equitation finals are tough. The classes are filled with beautiful riders used to winning all their classes. One needs a way to stand out.

The Mismatch – A few days before, I had seen Princess C on Willie. Pretty rider. Pro horse. The effect was eye-jarringly wrong. Neither horse nor rider made any mistakes. The effect was simply unharmonious. Like potato chips and ice cream. Separately, yum. Together, please no.

The Good Soldier – One of the horses HRH tried was a well-trained, good-looking soul. They could have trotted from the try-out ring into the show ring and won any class in the region. In the finals crowd, they would have been fine. That’s it. Just fine.

The Sports Car – The most expensive horse she tried would have been a terrible equitation ride. He was sharp and full of flash. He drew the eye. Unfortunately, he drew the eye to the horse. I have no clear memory of how Princess C looked on him.

The Holy Sh&t Horse – I took one look at these two and thought -deleted-. It was an awesome combination. Sure they were both tall and attractive and well-matched. But there was more to it. HSH was young and need guidance. I could sense the potential for strong teamwork, for – dare I say it – the start of a beautiful friendship. Sure, equitation is all about form, but what judge could resist a happy kid on a happy pony?

The take-home message was not so much about the specific horses but how much the picture could change for the same rider on different horses.

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New Off Topic post: Pros & Cons

Decisions, Decisions

For my next show, I have been given the choice between Alvin [photo] and Lola [photo]. My other friends – Sam [video], Casey [video], Willie [photo] & Trump [photo] – will not be attending. Both horses are fun. Both horses would do well in the show ring. Because of the class schedule, Lola would be a more convenient choice. However, Instructor assures me that a quick tack change for Alvin would be no big deal. I was stumped.

So, I defaulted to my standard response these days, “I’ll make a blog post out of it.’ As I considered how to describe the two horses, I realized that the main difference was that I had shown Lola [Report] but never Alvin.

You lot are an adventuresome crowd. The last time I asked for help choosing which horse to show [Reply Hazy], you told me to go for the fireworks. Or so I thought. Upon later examination, the responses to that post were 50/50. I was conflating those comments with the comments to a post in which I wondered which classes to pick [Greed]. In that one, you unanimously told me to go for the gusto. Still, the overall trend is encouragement to try new things. Therefore, I imagined your response and picked Alvin.

All of which may change up to and on the day. We are talking about horses after all.

They say you can tell what answer you desire by who you ask for advice. So, thanks for the advice, even if it was in absentia.

Midwestern Mounts

Horse shopping trip last week. The first two horses were in Kentucky, but close enough to the border that the land was hot, flat, and Midwest-inspired. The second stop was in Indiana.

Potential Horse #10: Chestnut, 4 year old, ASB gelding. Big, sturdy, sweet. A fabulous hunter for ASB Hunter Under Saddle. As with most breed shows, saddleseat hunter or western is won by standard Saddlebreds wearing english or western tack: knee action, elevated heads, contained paces. I have seen a few horses who clearly do straight-up hunter/jumper enter the ASB classes. They don’t get the time of day. So, no cross-over for this dude. Did not ride.

Potential Horse #10.5: Black, 3 yo ASB gelding. Cute look. Nice potential for resale. You can always market a black horse. Didn’t go farther than his stall. I’m not looking for a project. I already have 17 hands worth of project.

Potential Horse #11: Chestnut, 7 yo, ASB mare. This one already did sport horse activities. Had even attained elevation over a few logs. Not so typey that she would have gotten immediately laughed out of a dressage ring. Quadra-tracked around the corners with ease. Square with her knees over a jumplet. Compact but rode big. Yes, I actually got on a horse. Mostly because we had come so far. I even jumped. Or more accurately pointed while mare zipped over/through a pair of lathes propped on buckets.

Despite all of the above, she did not hitch a ride home. First off, I rode for sh$t. That’s never a good feeling. But that had less bearing on my decision than you might think. When I tried Previous Horse, his gaits were walk, jig, and buck. How you ride on the day is important. How you will ride in the future is vital. This mare would be perfect for someone who wanted a fun, reliable ride around lower-level events. When we came out of in corner and headed down the long side, I had no problem envisioning a cross-country course unrolling in front of us. She would be fabulous … for someone who wanted a hot, responsive, controlled explosion of a ride. That’s not me. (Not I?) Sure, I could ride her, or eventually learn to, but hers is not a personality that would be a good match with mine for the next 20 years.

Potential Horse #11.5: There was supposedly another horse, who might have had hunter/jumper potential. By that point I was too hot, sick, and mired in despair to ask.

I was hot because it was over 90 and the indoor rings of both barns were built to withstand Midwest winters. In the summer, they could double as saunas. I was carsick from all the driving. I was in despair over my usual hopeless stew of horse hunt anxieties. In this particular variation, I began to wonder if there was any intersection between the set of horses I was able to ride and the set of horses I had an interest in owning.

Pluses: All the horses we saw came as represented. This is more unusual that it should be. They all looked as if they would be suitable for some job, if not mine. Ditto. Plus, both barns were run by trainers with whom my instructor had long-standing relationships. Everyone had an interested in maintaining good trading partnerships for the future.

Spotted crossing into Alabama.
Spotted crossing into Alabama.
Minuses: The previous week, I had a case of swimmer’s ear. A nasty little infection that hurts all out of proportion to the severity. Simple to fix. Get the right drops. Over and done. Or so I thought. I am not the hardiest of travelers. I wasn’t surprised to be a little carsick after spending the majority of two days in a car. I was surprised to be a lot carsick. Apparently my inner ear was still irritated enough with me that it fought back with a vengeance. No mess, but much whimpering.

Being that sick for that long colors the entire experience. Just writing about it makes my head a bit swimmy. I’m considering never buying a horse and taking up Tiddly-Winks.

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On a lighter note:
I have started Tweeting again, see sidebar. Hubby is following, using the handle @Mathilda_minion. Yup.
Signed,
Mathilda’s Assistant Minion