Interruption...

It's not always rainbows and sunshine and unicorns and kittens...

...it should always be kittens...

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I can't find an appropriate place to spill it.

I just got home from the highest week of my life!

...And, somehow, I feel like a failure...

I will continue to recap the adventure of a lifetime, but only after I put down this counterintuitive state of being...

Little things keep nagging me until they have consumed me...

Like the fact that the Fancy Pony remains lean... I wish I could make her plump.  But she takes 3 days to eat a meal...




The phrase "work on consistent connection" continues to plague my dressage tests.  Making me feel like a failure as a rider...  Why is this so hard for me to accomplish?

While I was out of town, our own dog (a chocolate lab of advancing years) suddenly killed 4 of our chickens in the space of an hour.  Has she gone senile?  In the fading light, did she suddenly think they were interlopers that didn't belong in the yard?  I'll never have those answers...

I had made plans to hunt the Fancy Pony this season!  It's going to be grand!!
So, why can't I make an actual hunt until November?  How did these other things get on my calendar??  Why can't I seem to keep these things prioritized?

My house feels like it has been turned upside down.  I can't seem to keep my stuff organized.  Horse stuff... Sewing stuff... What in the world is going on with my laundry??

Is this just a reaction to being gone for over a week?


My husband says for moments of intense happiness that I experience, it is only a matter of time before I succumb to moments of equally intense despair.  Is that all this is?  Just a figment of my mind that has nothing to do with reality?




There was a discussion about the Intro Jumper class that I had entered.

What I thought I was entering (the way it was set up at the time I entered online) was Novice Jumper (running at 2'9"ish?) and was a recognized class.

It turns out that a decision was made to run the class instead as Intro Jumper and at 2'3"ish.  Instead of fasted time, it was run at optimum time (which actually might be harder!).  It was not recognized for anything.  Many opinions that I read on the discussion (which, of course, took place in a Facebook group) seemed to think very little of this class.  It's merely a training height and should be used as such.  It shouldn't count for anything.  Does that mean any accomplishment in this class should be discounted?  Why do I care, either way?

I didn't feel ready to enter a speed jumper class at 3'3", so this was my next best thing.  It turns out the heights were all  lowered in the rest of the jumping classes, too.  Should I have adjusted my entry accordingly?  Why didn't I get the email referenced that explained this change?  Why didn't I find the discussion until it was all over?  Why do I feel betrayed?

Basically, I'm just a jumbled mess of emotion right now, and there doesn't seem to be any logical reasoning behind it.

To top it all off, I had a crappy Monday morning which is going to cost me money I really didn't want to spend on something that I thought was already taken care of.  More feelings of failure...  Ugh!

Arabian Sport Horse Nationals 2015 - Day 1: Training Level Dressage

Whisper arrived at the show grounds with a huge lump of knotted muscles on both sides of her neck...
Ugh!!
Can we do a long haul to a show without **something**?


A friend offered some reiki (sp?) and massage, which seemed to help!


Monday was a "settle in" day where we unloaded everything from the trailer and moved into the tack and dressing room stalls.  Those stalls would remain organized chaos for the remainder of the week...  In spite of our best intentions...


Reality hadn't sunk in, yet...

Tuesday, we rode our first dressage test, first thing in the morning, then had all day to school the jumps in the jumper ring.  It was looking like madness in that area, so I decided to wait until everyone was headed into their Sport Horse Under Saddle classes to school at the last minute.  It turned out to be a great plan for me.  We didn't need much schooling.  The Fancy Pony didn't look at anything except this big, airy oxer (which must have been set at something like 3'3" based on what we jumped the rest of the week), but once she got a good look at it, she happily hopped on over it without any more hesitation!

Note to self: start walking around and sizing up the jumps before mounting up - your eye has changed and the bigger jumps don't look huge anymore...

Poor pony...

I thought we'd had a really nice dressage test, but when we finally got our tests (the next morning) it was obvious the judges were not impressed with our performance.

I'm finally putting my finger on the block in my dressage. When Whisper *offers* to come through, I feel like we can do amazing things!  We have established "submission", but I'm still struggling with this consistent contact.  I don't have a way to get her to 'give me her back' if she isn't offering it.

On one test, the judge kept saying she was above the bit, then, on my stretchy trot circle, wrote "this is where you should be for the rest of your test."  YIKES!

I'm sure the knotted neck muscles didn't help...

We tried to make is an early night so that we could meet the braider at stupid-dark-thirty...  For the first time in my life, I was paying for braids, and I wanted to glean any and all tricks that I could!!

Another Episode Of: Jacq Is Completely Losing It!

Arabian Sport Horse Nationals.
It's real for me.
It's becoming more real every day!




I vacillate between giddy and nauseous...




I have never attended a competition of this caliber...


(I apologize for the lack of media - I can't seem to get the photos inserted today - blame it on the work computer...)










The list of things that need done seems to be getting longer as time gets shorter...


Whisper needs trimmed...
I need to pick up hay...
I need to purchase grain and pick up mats...
Trailer still needs packed...
Groceries need purchased and food prepared...




At times, I'm completely paralyzed by the list of things that need my attention!
What am I going to forget?
What if it's something I *really* need?


How can I possibly be leaving for the East Coast in 2 DAYS?????

Tally Ho!

What do you do when preparing for the biggest competition of your life to date?
Throw everything out the window and go for a hunting lesson!

The Fort Leavenworth Hunt Club offers “8 Easy Lessons” as an introduction to foxhunting.  I have dreamed of riding with the hunt since I read the book “Cinnabar the One o’ Clock Fox” in my youth.  I don’t know how many times I’ve read the book, but my copy was well worn before I lost track of it…

My first lesson started out feeling much like a drill team practice.  It was all about proper spacing.  I need to see the hocks of the horse in front of me between my horse’s ears.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  What they didn’t say is “If you can see the horse’s heels in front of you, you are getting left behind!”
The second part of the lesson was “TROT all the things!”  Always trot.  Long trot, short trot, middle trot…  Trot!  Trotting will conserve your horse over the course of a day of hunting.  We practiced trotting in line.  We practiced trotting over jumps in a line.  We practiced trotting around trees in a line.

OK, everyone else practiced it at the trot…  Whisper decided, “This is just dumb!” and proceeded to play the game at the world’s slowest canter! Rather than get left behind, I finally just let her canter.  I figure, on the hunt, she’ll figure out how to trot when she gets tired….  *IF* she gets tired…

Because, if I learned nothing else, I learned that the most important thing on the hunt is not to get left behind!!

We did the tree exercises 2x2...  then 3x3...  Oh, how fun!!
Tandem jumping was involved, as well!  The Fancy Pony didn't think that was anything new...

All in all, it was a great time, and I can't wait to go back!  Hunting sounds like it will be a BLAST!