Recalibrating

And so the familiar chorus goes, I've been a very bad blogger. Loudoun has come and gone and Waredaca is a mere two weeks away, yet it's been almost six weeks since I last updated.

When I graduated college, I knew that my free time was largely going to be a thing of the past. I'd had it largely cushy time-wise for the four years I rose through the levels. I was planning on fast tracking my way through my second degree the way I had my first, but the fact was, with no math under my belt since high school, I had to take eight semesters of classes thanks to prereqs. However, because I had a degree under my belt, I didn't need any core classes. So there I was, scratching for credits just to be a full time student, and coasting through four years with lots of free time to compete.

It was great, I'll admit it.

As I said, I knew when I became a Real Person and had a Real Job, that all this free time would go away. The days of thinking that an 8 am lesson was early in the morning would be over. And sure enough, when I started having to wake up five days a week at 5:30 am, I thought it was rough.

I got used to that.

Then I started getting up at 4:45 am, and I thought it was rough.

I got used to it.

Then Dante arrived, and my energy levels plummeted.

I haven't figured out how to eat yet to keep my energy up; I bounce between starving and lethargic. Some weeks I mainline coffee all day and sometimes I'm bouncing off the walls from too much sugar. When Dante wasn't here, I was able to eat right after work....now I go from having lunch at 11 am and then not eating anything else until dinner at 8:30 pm.

So there's that to figure out.

I still can't quite get the knack of going to sleep prior to ten or eleven either, which means I end up running the day on five to six hours of sleep per night, which is not really enough for me. I've been trying hard to go to sleep earlier, and to make an effort to make sure to get at least one long night of sleep every weekend.

I'm slowly becoming acclimated to my new schedule of working, riding and/or trailering out to lessons/gallop, then possibly running. For the first time since Dante has arrived, I finally feel under control again. After two plus months of working and riding, my body is hopefully calibrated again.

From here, onwards and upwards!

(Dante being his beautiful self at a Stephen Bradley lesson this spring.)

A Day in the Life

4:10 am: My first alarm goes off. Blearily, I press the snooze. It continues to go off every ten minutes.

4:40 am: Second alarm joins the chorus. I spend the next twenty minutes rolling from side to side to press snooze.

5:00 am: After finally dragging my butt out of bed, I spend five minutes staring angrily into the mirror. I am not a morning person, in case you can't tell.

5:25 am: Dressed and ready for work, I get on the road.

6:25 am: I arrive at work and spend the next thirty minutes to an hour answering emails.

9:00 am: Breakfast time! I spend fifteen minutes eating a banana and writing down details about my ride the night/day/session before and detailing goals for my ride that night.

9:15 am: Back to work.

11:00 am:  Lunch time, take a mental break, and read a book. Sometimes it's dressage theory, sometimes it's pure entertainment.

11:45 am: Back to work.

3:00 pm: I start thinking about getting on the road. D.C. traffic is not too bad if I leave by 3:15 pm.

4:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Arrive at the barn sometime in this time frame. It always depends on whether there's been any accidents. And whether it's Friday. Occasionally, I even get there by 4:15 pm. First change out of work clothes into riding clothes. If I'm jumping, I go down to the arena to set up fences. Bring in Dante, groom, tack up, get on. Choices are generally jump, hack, or flat, although I'm about to throw trailering out for lessons into the mix too. Lessons will be late nights for sure. Untack, groom, and clean tack before I can leave the barn.

(Middleburg sunset hack.)

7:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Leave the barn, arrive home 7 minutes later. Thank goodness I live close by.

7:30 pm: Watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report and possibly a sitcom if I have time while eating dinner. Set out all my work clothes for the following day, make my lunch, and reset my riding clothes gym bag.

8:30 pm: Get off the couch to go shower and get ready for bed.

9:00 pm:  Bed time! Read a book until I fall asleep around 9:30 pm.

Reunited, and It Feels So Good

On Saturday, it was cold with a high in the mid-30s and the rain drizzled down steadily from a steel gray sky. Despite the miserable weather, I found myself unable to sleep past 6 am, due to the imminent arrival of the big guy.

That's right, on Saturday, Dante came home to me.

(The Brookledge trailer backs down the drive.)

As I watched the Brookledge trailer try and fail to turn into our small drive, then give up and masterfully manuever through in reverse, I was bouncing on my toes like a kid in a candy store. Soon enough, Dante's smiling face (metaphorically of course) was in front of me as the guy opened up the trailer window. He charged off the trailer like a rampaging dragon, steam blowing from his nostrils as he dragged me around.

Into his new stall he went to settle, and after about 30 minutes, he calmed enough to turn out. Immediately, he trotted up to the rise, where he could view his new domain, and surveyed the nearby herds as if he were king.

Silly pony.

(Dante enjoys his new field.)

Of course, then my truck decided windshield wipers and turn signals were for wimps, so I spent the rest of the day at the mechanic. I was able to come back at the end of the day and tried to wash out his tail from his travels.

On Sunday, we went for our first hack with our new barnmates. The hacking out here is simply stunning; we were out for at least an hour, and that was only the 'longer' hack, not the 'really long' hack.  The fields are gorgeous, the hills are gorgeous, the woods are gorgeous. Dante had the opinion that we were headed out to run cross country, and jigged for the first ninety percent of the hack. The final ten percent, he finally understood what was going on and decided to walk like a normal horse. Hopefully as we hack more and more, he will understand that XC is not at stake.

I flatted him just a tiny bit at the end, and he was absolutely lovely. I threw in most movements to test out where we were in terms of flexibility, strength, and remembering what the hell we were doing. He gave me some lovely work considering his vacation time; he obviously remembers how to do everything, although some of the lateral flexibility is missing. On the other hand, his spinal flexibility is shockingly good now.

Last night, we ventured out to do flat work at dusk, my first ride in a dressage saddle since our dressage test in Colorado. I'm playing between the Devoucoux Mendia and the Prestige 2000D. The Mendia seems to fit better, but might be slipping back and last time I used it for a long period of time, his back became sore. However, that may have simply been a coincidence, as I was not sitting the trot particularly well at the time either. In any case, until I can have a saddle fitter evaluate the saddles, I'm bouncing back and forth a bit.

At first, Dante wanted to stand and watch the deer who gathered on the other side of the fence. After about five minutes of staring without any particular distress, I convinced him that he did, in fact, need to work, and did not, in fact, need to keep an eye on the deer. He settled under the lights and we spent a long time in a low rein, working on pushing from behind. As I asked for more and more lateral work, he began to pick himself up until he was working in a nice frame without me really even having to ask. We spent a lot of time leg yielding, working on his lateral flexibility while maintaining his rhythm. Although he had given me a lovely canter tour the day before, I decided against working in that gait when I felt him getting tense as he tired.

I'd forgotten the soothing aspects of the routines of grooming and cleaning tack. I practically have the barn to myself in the evenings, and there's something calming about accomplishing each task in a methodic manner. Here's to having horses in my life again!

Marking Time

In about two weeks time, Dante will be coming to his new home at Windover Farm in Middleburg. I can't begin to explain how lucky I feel to have found this facility. It's small, private, with only a couple other boarders. Yet it has fantastic care, beautiful individual turnouts with run-ins, a full size dressage ring with lights and all-weather footing, and other amazing amenities that will help Dante and I in our quest to ride at the top levels.

(The lovely hack down to the dressage arena.)

As the time gets nearer, I get more and more impatient. At times, it often feels that I will never get him back, and that the two-ish weeks before I see him will last forever. It reminds me a lot of waiting for Christmas when I was a kid. Each delay (which is less and less each time) seems to feel like a bigger and bigger deal. In October, a too-short trim immediately delayed his return to me by at least a month; at the time, it seemed no big deal. This past week, when I tried to schedule a reshoeing for this Monday, I discovered the farrier-vet that had done his feet before would be out of town until the following Monday. A week's delay! I felt like throwing a fit, until I realized that I am a sane and rational person (right?). 

 This next week may be the toughest yet, but I will attempt to distract myself by retrieving my trailer next weekend from Destination Farm and making my first attempt at bringing it into Windover. (The one drawbrack to the farm is the tight entrance for my 26.5 ft trailer; I figure this can only force me to become a great trailer drive quite quickly!) Some of my gear is already set up at the farm; the rest will follow next weekend.

(Dante's individual turnout.)

I'm trying very hard to further distract myself by reading riding theory books. I've finished the German Dressage Federation's Principles of Riding, and have moved onto Common Sense Dressage by Sally O'Connor. It's surprising how much I never thought about theory and how much I plan to incorporate it now, particularly since I will be riding more on my own than ever before. Since I won't have mirrors, I will have to learn to feel what I need, rather than see. I've bookmarked pages in 101 Dressage Exercises and 101 Jumping Exercises, and decided to do quite a bit of pole work based on my auditing of the Nicola Wilson clinic.

In addition, I've been mostly faithfully doing the P90X workouts. When I rode a friend's horse a few weeks ago, it was almost shocking how out of shape I was. While nothing substitutes adequately for actually riding everyday, at least I can get my wind and some of my tone back. I've been at it for about 2.5 weeks now, and my body is much trimmer already. I'll need to cut back a bit once I start riding simply because of time constraints, but this is much better than starting off cold.

So here I am, marking time until Dante gets here.

Instructions on How (Mostly) Not to Spend a Weekend

How Not To Spend a Thursday:

Go to work. (Actually, you should do this. Otherwise, your beloved pony will be very perturbed when you tell him there is no money for treats this month.)

After work, go to the DMV. (First mistake.) Spend lots of time on the Internet verifying that you have all the documents you need to get title and registration of your new used trailer. (No matter how much time you spend researching, the workers at the DMV will curtly tell you that you do not have everything you need and make you leave.) Leave the DMV in a bad mood thanks to the realization that your trailer title is invalid due to the presence of white out that neither you nor the seller realized was cause for invalidation. (No, neither of us knew that, but apparently the rest of the world did.) 

Get on the phone with your SO to vent while you drive home. (He'll be super happy to listen to your rant when you wake him up after pulling the overnight shift at the hospital.) 

In the middle of the phone call, on the Inner Beltway of D.C. right before rush hour, suddenly feel your engine lurch while simultaneously the check engine light comes on. (@#%&! %#$$#*$! $%*@#!) Hang up on SO after hasty 'I gotta go', pull over to the side and listen patiently to the nice highway service man talk. (No sir, I can positively guarantee that despite the fact that I am a young woman driving a diesel truck, I did not put gas into my tank.) Call AAA and arrange a tow to your local mechanic. (Free 100 mile tow = winning.) 

Have a small mental breakdown before the tow truck comes. (#@$*&*!) 

Enjoy the nice tow truck and the entertaining stories the tow man has. (Your eighty-year old mother tried to walk three miles to a hotel in how many feet of snow?!) Arrive at the mechanic, arrange for a rental car. (Remember how to drive a vehicle that isn't a diesel.) Call previous owner of trailer, who is the nicest woman ever, and figure out a game plan for getting a new title for the trailer. Get home, drink a beer. (Beeeer.)

How To Spend a Friday:

Go to work. (Again, necessary.) Get a text with your pony's four feet now clad in shoes for the first time since July. (At least one thing is going right!) Get a call from the mechanic. (The repairs to Casey will be how much?!) Text friend who is an assistant trainer to say I will be coming by tonight for entertainment. 

(Dante's new kicks.)

Go to said friend's farm after work. Ride her lovely horse, and jump for the first time since early June. (Wheee!) Stop missing at the fences. (Er, sorry horse.) Have major issues dismounting and vow to return sooner to ride horse. (Too bad hot tubs aren't standard on horse farms.) Stick around and watch Sylvester for the first time. (Being from Texas makes that movie extra hilarious.)

How to (Sort of) Spend a Saturday:

Wake up earlier than planned to go get truck from the mechanic. Drive truck almost all the way home, only to feel it lurch again while the engine light comes on again. (#%^%@!) Limp home, call mechanic, ask if it's safe to drive back. Cancel first appointment to see horse farm.

Drive back.

Hang around for a bit until they decide it won't be done until Monday, then head back to the rental car company where you just dropped off your rental earlier that morning. (Weren't you here earlier?) Drive all the way back home, then head to your second and third farm appointments.

Long story short, I found a home for Dante, which pretty much made everything okay. The new place has the following:

• Bank barn that's cool in the summer and warm in the winter with clean shavings.
• My choice of feeds, beautiful hay, Dante can be fed on the floor.
• Tack room with room for saddles and bridles.
• Areas to cross tie and tack up in.
• Storage room with room for tack trunk and blanket bars for blanket storage.
• Wash rack with hot and cold water.
• Individual turnout in green, gently rolling field.
• Paths between all the paddocks and around the entire property to hack and trot on.
• Full size, fully lit dressage arena with good footing next to large grassy area with jumps. 
• Second small arena with good footing with jumps.
• Access to miles and miles of trails.
• Large, gently rolling gallop field.
• Pull-through trailer parking included in board.
• No in-house trainer, so I can take lessons with whoever I like. I can either trailer out or bring them to me.
• No specific farm vet or farrier.
• Seven minutes from my house.
• Within budget! Slightly on the high end, but well worth it.

And another great part is that the owner's willing to hold a stall for Dante! She has two left. There's only room for nine horses total on the farm, and her four stall barn is rented to a family of eventers, so I'd be with people of my own sport. Her own five stall bank barn has two therapy mares, her personal dressage horse, and two stalls open for boarders, one of which would be Dante.

It's absolutely lovely and I was nearly jumping up and down with glee afterwards. Now I'm truly counting down the days until Dante arrives. Now that he has shoes, S is starting light flat work with him. Dr. Newton will look at him at the end of this week and we'll decide how far out we are from there.

The Beginning of the End

Dante has finally begun walking under saddle! The other night, Stephanie of Graystone Stable in KY got on him for the first time and proceeded to walk him for 45 minutes. According to her, he spent about twenty minutes pretending he had never been ridden, then settled and was fine for the rest of the ride.

This ride marks the beginning of the end of Dante's vacation. For the next couple of weeks, he'll walk under saddle for 30-90 minutes, followed by 10-15 minutes of trotting on the lunge after the shorter rides. Dr. Newton decided to keep him barefoot until after the holidays; as soon as he re-evaluates Dante, we'll add shoes after the first of the year. If all continues to go well (and at this point, there's no reason to believe that it won't), he'll get a new set of shoes in early February. At that point, he'll come home to me in Virginia.

Having a tentative date set for his return to me is a huge relief. I know that if anything goes wrong, that date will be pushed back again. I know most of you are aware that Dante has been living in Kentucky while I'm starting my new life in Virginia. What I haven't been very frank about is how much I miss him, the horse, and not just riding. Since I bought him almost six years ago, I haven't gone without seeing him for more than a couple of weeks. He's been with me through three cross country moves (not counting this latest ones), four relationships (with the fourth still going strong!), and two years worth of vacillating over my future. Not having him with me through this latest upheaval in my life has been a lot harder than I thought it would be.

So it's with a great big sigh of relief that I have a tentative date. And with that date, I can start planning for the show season in 2013. I already had my official USEA schedule worked out, but now that the local farms are putting out their schooling show schedules for winter, I can start penciling in dates for February and March. The vet is on board with my show schedule, provided all continues to go well, and hopefully we'll begin making appearances at dressage schooling shows at the end of February, with our first official USEA event scheduled for Loudoun Hunt at the end of April.

In the meantime, I have the holidays to distract me, and after the New Year, I'll put my nose to the grindstone and find Dante a place to live. At the beginning of January and February, I'll be helping out at Destination Farm's schooling jumper shows. Over MLK weekend, I'll head up to NJ to see my SO. The end of January brings Nicola Wilson to Locochee Farm, and I plan on auditing every second. So my time will be filled, and hopefully time will fly by!

(Dante pretends that he has no idea what is going on. What is that strange saddle thing?)

Much Ado About Nothing

So. Pretty much what the title says.

Not much has been happening on the Comedic Eventing front since I bought the trailer. I haven't seen it since yet, since it's living about an hour away from me and it's not as if I really need to go SEE it.

Dante was doing very well, but had a set back when the farrier rasped his feet too short in mid-October. The farrier had been doing a good job until this point, but suddenly quit/retired without warning to any of his clients shortly after doing Dante. When Dr. Newton came out a couple days later to look at him, he was lame in all four feet with 30% less foot than he had had before.

Le sigh.

In terms of setbacks, it could be worse, really. It's an easy fix, just wait for his foot to grow out. Again.

When Dr. Newton looked at him a few weeks ago, he was 90% back to where he was before. He said at that time we could put shoes on and see how the horse was, or be conservative and wait a couple more weeks. I figured I'd waited this long, might as well let the horse be 100%. He'll be out to look at Dante again on Friday, and hopefully we'll move ahead on shoes.

We updated Dante's FEI passport as well. This is so important to keep updated, even if your horse is currently being a pasture puff. The officials can give you the hairy eyeball if there's a gap in your horse's vaccinations, and possibly eliminate you. We had a scary incident last spring where almost half the kids at the barn were almost retroactively eliminated at an FEI competition after dressage due to a secretarial clerical error on their passports that said the horses had been vaccinated less than seven days before the show. This wasn't the case and they were allowed to complete after much hoopla, but there were a lot of tears and heartbreak before the whole mess was sorted out. Moral of the story, keep your FEI horses religiously updated on their vaccines!

I haven't looked at a single barn yet. Since Dante had a setback, it's likely he won't arrive until late January now. I can't quite bring myself to go look at barns until I know for sure he's coming, or at least until he gets shoes.

I've been running quite a bit, trying to stay in shape. The hills of Middleburg are kicking my butt! It's hard to stay motivated during the week though, when I arrived home and it's already completely dark and cold. I'm looking into buying a P90X or similar program, that I could do inside.

I've been traveling too, went to Vegas for a high school friend's wedding, and up to NJ over Thanksgiving to be with my SO for the holiday. I managed to run my two miles on both occasions!

(The most awesome window display ever in Vegas.)

In October I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the Puissance at the Washington International Horse show. It was quite entertaining to take a subway to get to a horse show, not to mention all the stalls in the middle of the street. This weekend I am excited to witness the Middleburg Christmas Parade, something that apparently can draw over 10,000 people! Thankfully I automatically have parking at my house! So I'm finding ways to fulfill my horsey fix. Hopefully the wait will be over soon.