eventing

Okay, another day off for B and Belle (and Volare, who is happily retired and fat as a sausage)--crappy weather, and lots of work deadlines. I'm never sure how I should prepare for a dressage competition. Practice the tests? Train hard and then taper off? For eventing, it was always pretty easy--jump a few jumps a couple of days before, school the dressage test, throw in a rest day and then ramp it up again. Wondering how other people prepare for competition, both mentally and physically (human and equine). I'm learning my tests (who knew You Tube could actually be useful other than as a substitute for mindless TV? That dang left hip is pretty irritating right now. Totally locked and sore. Maybe because I sit at my desk with my legs crossed. This can't be good for me. I've started to use my Swopper chair (which is a bouncy stool, really) to practice various hip exercises that may help the problem I'm having. So, basically I'm asking my Swopper to pick up the left lead canter whenever I think I'm feeling crunched up and sore. It seems to be helping, at least in the office. We'll see if that translates to the saddle. Which brings me to...Eckhart Meyners. Don't know if you've seen the ads in the horse magazine for the Balimo chair-it is essentially a swopper, only it's not padded and probably swivels more in the seat. Meyners invented it, and he is a is a German sports physiologist who has taken a special interest in the movement required to ride effectively, even though he isn't a rider himself. You can read about one of his symposiums here, as well as a couple of interesting exercises, here.

Every time I come back to the site I find someone new! Today it was Prince and Patches from Illinois, and Kaley4 who joined our little and growing group. I notice there are some members out there who haven't yet posted--I'd love to read your stories and see your photos and videos. We've got a diverse and interesting group started, with members in Austria and the Southwest US and Russia and the UK. I'm hoping our community continues to grow, so send yourhorsesports on to your horse friends and riding buddies.

You know, when I left a boarding stable and moved my horse (Volare, the one-eared wonder) home, I worried I'd miss the social life of the barn aisle. After all, for us horse-types, often that's our only source of friends (at least it was for me). But in time I realized that horse friends can come from anywhere--down the street, up the valley, and across the world. I made some new horse friends in Europe last time I went over--it's all because, while our passports are different colors, our passions are the same.

Down the street from my modest barn is a farm that breeds reiners. Across the street from him is a hunter/jumper establishment. Next door to her is a guy who buys and sells the occasional racehorse. Next door to him is the backyard Appaloosa breeder. And so forth. We all like each other, and we all talk horse over the fence. We share the same help and when Larry's horse died from West Nile a few years ago, he called everyone in the neighborhood to tell them to get their horse vaccinated.

We're a neighborhood of horse lovers.

On a large scale, why can't we all get along, like we do in my small community? As a former event rider, I've taken serious lessons with dressage coaches and hunter jumper trainers. But never the twain shall meet. The snobbery we each carry in our separate disciplines does nothing for the horse industry as a whole, and frankly I'm sick of it. Are endurance riders any less serious than dressage queens, even though the two are fashionably disparate? Would I want to ride 100 miles in my leather full seat breeches? No way. I have great respect for endurance folks. Nor do I think hunter riders are any less serious riders than dressage queens, even though some think their trainers do all the work (common misconception). After all, it's tough to get an exact twelve foot stride and meet every fence cleanly and gracefully. Over the years, I've gained respect for all the disciplines (even roping. I once tried it. I roped my head and fell off my horse). Fox hunters have their rituals, but fundamentally they have to be able to ride, red coat or not. We all have to learn to be good horse people.