WW: Existing. And Not Exactly Wordless.

Sought For Speed heading to the test barn after victory

I'm still here. I just don't know what to write or really have anything to write about or what to do with my thoughts. The pain has almost been crippling this past week but today is not so terrible. I had to go to a wedding on Saturday, which we left early because I couldn't stand keeping it together anymore and talking to people with that amount of ache in my body. I also learned that I do not like the way people stare and talk about me when I walk past them because of the way I am walking. Too bad I can't ride everywhere, and then nobody would know the difference.

Blaker and Reaper. 

I was so happy though to watch American Pharoah take the crown before the wedding. My mom and grandma were on the phone with me as well shouting and screaming and all I could do was shake and cry. I couldn't even fumble out a hoot. Blake made fun of me, but I didn't care. Every year, we had hoped it would happen. I figured he had it when he came out of the gate with ears forward, but I tried to shake that feeling off. He knew he had it. And I needed to watch that.

Well hello Mr. Mayhem

I can't tell if he is balancing on one toe or mid hop.

Head butting fists.

I have another event derby to attend on Sunday. This time, it will be where we had our first beginner novice run. The one with the really sketchy looking jumps, and I will again meet with the giant twisty table. I hope it won't be balls hot though so I don't die. Also, goats will be home this weekend (YAY) and the Meatball turned 4 years old yesterday. Anyways, this was going to be a mostly wordless Wednesday, but that turned into a lie. Sorry! Here are some photos from ponies at the track last week. I will be off to the track again today shortly to snag some more!

Speedy has the same sire as Bacon. He also weaves and is special

Heat Man. Cute but naughty.

Heat Man and Speedy lead the pack down the stretch.

Speedy does not like losing.

So, he didn't. But it was fun to run first and second!

Good job buddy.

Muscles

It's Yuma Landing's turn!

She looks like she smoked something before her race.

Brush your teeth!

Pretty girl. Handsome husband.

She ripped her shoe off during the race.

But still tried really hard.

Cute pink nose!

First Derby at Novice

Born to shine on the center line.

I wasn't nearly as nervous for my derby this year as I was for the same derby at cross rails last year. I could feel my legs and arms and face. Don't get me wrong, I was still nervous, but I felt more controlled. Blake and I got up early to make sure we wouldn't miss Aimee and Papa (Courage) and Linds and Prisoner. I got to enjoy watching their beautiful rides and then I went to tack up my super sleepy pony.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Trying to be fancy.

I need to look up, dangit.

I think the weekend had tired my pony out, and I told her she was almost done. I was so sore and fatigued, but it was just one more day. Of course, I forgot to grab my number and inhaler, but thankfully I have a good husband and friends who look out for me. We tried to warm up, but I was super flustered with all of the other riders and a sticky horse. Aimee lent me her spurs, and I suddenly had a more awake horse. I haven't ridden her with spurs since the first couple of months I owned her, and I didn't actually use them. I tried to keep the warm up easy and before I knew it, I was going down center line.

At least my outfit is classy.

Stretch little Bacon.

Damn left lead.

Bacon had a trailing hind end the first quarter of the test, but she got better as she went. I was not nearly as forward as I was with her during our dressage schooling show. I am going to chalk that up to nerves. She is still having a hard time bending and being comfortable going left and went around more above the vertical than I would have liked. I think more bodywork is in order. But we still had notes with "good bend in corners" and even a "round circle" comment. Which is a first. And again, we got on the incorrect lead for our left circle.

Bacon would rather do the right lead, thanks.

I was trying really hard to remember to be relaxed and breathe. Half of the time I was busy just trying to relax my breathing and body and then I would remember to widen my hands and push her into my leg. Despite feeling rather sloppy out there, we still got a 34. Someday, we will get our leads correct from the bat and have an even better score! But I was happy with that.

I watched my friends go out on the xc/trail ride for Aimee course and was taking my sweet time. I was scrambling to get everything ready when tacking up, and then had to pee, and then and then and then....I was just not prepared. And all of the sudden, when I walked into the warm up area, I was informed that I was the next rider. OH DEAR GOD. WHOOPS. Sorry Bacon! We made a quick lap around the field, jumped a xrail and the tiny vertical, took a hit off of my inhaler, and off I went. No time to think, just go.

Silly vertical, you are in our way.

Our first  jump was the one and only show jump on the course. I wanted a good pace right from the start, so we set off and went over the vertical. Next was a ramp like jump directly ahead, and Bacon was already locked on. Over we went, with a somewhat sharp turn to a rolltop and then a weird path (made weird by my ride) to another fancy log roll top. It was a left hander to a jump we hadn't rode over yet, a log/barrel type thing down a slight hill. I was worried about it, but I sat up and kicked and it was no bid deal. Bacon was on a mission, and that mission was to go over anything I pointed her at and to have a good time.

Maybe my favorite pic from the show. I am pleased with my position.

Weeeee roll top!

Ain't no thang.

We blasted through the water and then over the little ditch. I thought she might look at the ditch, I thought wrong. Over the hanging log for obstacle 8, and then around the edge of the field to a coop. I thought we had a nice pace and cruised around over to another ramp. Bacon scooted in pleasure and glee after it and we made our way over the cabin to the biggest ramp. Again, I thought she would look at it, and the most she did was flick an ear back to me and I encouraged her with a "let's go!" and it was easy. Over the barrels jump and into the next field we went.

Sitting up, leg on, holding on.

Oh, ok, not scary.

Making this ditch her bitch.

Logs will not stop a Bacon.

Last two jumps on course were a large coopy thing we hadn't jumped yet and the FLOWER JUMP, the jump I have been oh so wanting to jump since I saw it last year. There was no stopping my pony. Over the coop and straight to the flowers. I had my leg on and sat up but all I had to do was hang on. The flower jump was so fun, and we galloped to our little finish line right in front of us. It was sooooooo much fun. No jump felt awkward. Everything was great, in spite of our super short and flustered warm up.

You dumb.

Right before we went for a little scoot.

Outfit is just so good.

Whatever ramp, get out of our way.

I hurried to the shade on her though, because I was super out of breath and very hot. My friends came over and watered me. Bacon stood still, but was still in beast mode and thought she might pretend to bite Lindsey when she came over. What are you smoking horse? She had herself a good time out there. Eventually I put her away and went to see where we had finished. Novice was split, so we ended 4th out of 4. I don't even care because I made it through the weekend and had a great time. Overall, I would have been 8th out of 15, so that's not too shabby. There were some nice horses with us, and only one had any faults on xc. Someday we will be better at dressage. At least we looked great!

She looked at those barrels the day before. It was not so that day.

Almost done!

Ears locked on target. Initiate beast mode.

Squuueeee!

What. A. Weekend. But Let's Start With the Clinic

Bacon, no sleeping when taking pics with Jan!

So a lot of you cool cats are already friends with me on the ol' facebook and have taken a gander at the zillion photos posted. But that's ok, because I will just share them again! This weekend helped bring my mood back up. I hate being sad and stressed all of the time and I have a hard time getting out of that funk, but I try really hard to leave that out of my riding. And that is easy to do when you ride a Bacon.

Trying to make a left angle.

The first day of the Jan Byyny clinic was stupid hot and muggy. It was show jumping day, and I came out with three other riders in my novice group. I did not know any of them but I like watching new riders and horses work through their own issues. We were quite the group. The other riders were seasoned and had fun horses (a really cool warmblood, a blue roan quarter horse, and a cute Idon'tevenknow). And then there was Bacon and myself. Jan asked all of us how long we have been eventing. I told her that I had been jumping and doing this for a year. I also told her that I have health problems too. She looked really worried. She asked how long I had been riding for and was relieved when I told her most of my life. She was probably thinking what the hell is this girl doing in the novice group? Sorry Jan!

Bacon photo bombing. Not sure why the saturation is so high in this photo.

Our group.

We started off talking about angles on our horses and how to ride at an angle and using your aids to accomplish that. We started off at a walk down the quarter line, and she would call out for a right angle, straight, left angle, straight, etc. We had to keep our inside leg at the girth, outside leg slightly back, with a guiding rein and a support rein. We did this at the walk, trot and canter both directions. It was very difficult for me and I really wished I had spurs on because my mare was taking a nap against my leg. It was also difficult for me to keep all of the pieces correct for each angle and I almost had to think out loud to get it done. I discussed that with Jan, and she encouraged me to try and incorporate that into our regular rides to automatically establish it.

Weeee jump the caveletti!

Next we cantered over a bending line of caveletti. Bacon and I actually did alright with this and Jan liked my ride over them. I told her the biggest thing I wanted to work on was our balance because we tend to get flat before our jumps. So, to help with that, she had me widen my hands, ride the angle, and treat each jump as an entirely new jump and start my ride from scratch. Just ride each jump separately. And it helped! We strung together a couple of courses. She likes to start out with long courses and it was nice to be last in the group so I could watch everyone go around and memorize it and catch my breath. I don't know if it was the heat or what, but after the first flat ride I had full body tremors. And they stayed for the entire ride.

I think this is a snazzy outfit.

Right before the end of our lesson that day, I had to hurry and hop off for my inhaler before bad things happened and Jan ran over to help me. She grabbed my inhaler out of my camera bag for me and told me to just let her know if I needed it or anything else. She is such a sweet lady. We had a great ride though, and I was pretty proud of my horse.

The jump on the mound!

The next day it was supposed to be hotter, so I was really worried about that. Fortunately, it stayed cloudy and cooler for much of the day. Thanks weather! It was xc day and I was a wee bit nervous but knew I was going to have a lot of fun after auditing several other groups before mine. I tacked up the Bacon and did a brief warm up. Jan discussed watching Michael Jung at Rolex this year, and just watching him ride in general. She said for most of us riders, it is more fitting to watch him ride and to try and emulate him because no one is really going to look like WFP with a neck as long as his. We talked about Jung's approaches, and how he would ride for the balance, and use his turns towards his jumps to help balance his horses. We did a warm up on the terrain practicing this and I kind of got the feel for what that should feel like.

We don't care about logs.

Or this dinky rolltop.

Or this ramp.

Next we practiced going over a little vertical on top of a mound and how to ride for that jump. It was actually quite fun and we did pretty well! Again, we quickly strung some courses together incorporating the balancing strategy. The other thing I had to work on was our pace. She told me to pick up the pace, trust my horse because she would get the jump and just let her take me there. Ride the balance, let her loose, ride the balance, etc. We went up banks, down banks, over intro fences and our novice fences. We rode across the fields (where Bacon took a hard look at a barrel jump, and then I did, and then she did even more and jumped the side of it, so I came back around and re-did that mess) and through our waters and ditches. At one point, Bacon must have caught herself quite badly because she came back missing a bell boot. We found it, and the velcro was really good because it stayed put, the the rest of the boot did not. Brand new boot, gone. But that's ok, because that is better than a hefty vet or farrier bill!

I was worried about this jump. I was wrong.

Weeeee down the bank!

Bacon is clearly enjoying herself.

Up the bank!

I was having too much fun. Jan is an incredible talent and could easily see what could be done to help every rider with their horse. Bacon was a kick ride instead of the usual race pony ride that day, so that was different for me. I am just happy that I got to ride with her and would highly recommend anyone else to if they get the chance.

Our favorite part!

We need to bust this trot out in dressage, horse.