reflections

Hm. Thus far i have done quite a bit of copy and pasting from the blog meant to be read by my employers. and i think that now, i would like to do a separate one, because after all, this blog is mine. and for me, most of all (though i am glad you all get a peak into the crazed dual minds of the gemini you so hopefully love :)

Anyway. Here, in florida, i've been exposed to the crazy world of eventing for the first time. I mean the real, true, upper level eventing. The riders. The horses. and what they do when they are not riding.... which is a shit ton of work, and a shit ton of conditioning. Fitness is so huge in the minds of the riders, for both themselves and their horses.

I have been thinking about this alot receintly, as Missy, who rides anywhere from 4-8+ or so horses a day, then goes twice a week to the gym for a session with a trainer. She bikes to the barn, and then bikes al over the cross country fields, which is no small feat (up and down up and down up and down hills all day).

The horses go for 20-30 minute trots every day, then they do canter sets. This is crazy to me..... where we actually try to not get the horses too fit because unruly horses in the hunt field could be less than desirable to the boss' if you know what i mean.

Then, we took a lesson from Karen Oconor today, which was amazing. she explains everything in such detail, almost micromanaging everything, but making it seem so clear and obvious, that it (hopefully) instantly absorbs. But she also talked alot about fitness, and although i walk a ton for work, up and down hills over and over, and ride a couple horses a day, I was out of breath after cantering a few circles with a jump stuck in there..... i mean, she was asking a lot of me, always changing a super tiny detail to get the best out of me and winton, but ultimately, we only rode with her for maybe a 1/2 hour or so, a few minutes more, because we were not in good enough shape. (mostly the horse, cause i would have pushed myself to the end... but STILL)
the point remains.

and i think, that as this is something that i want to do, event, ride, train, what have you, i really need to figure out a way to be fit. Yoga has helped me a ton with flexibility, calm, nerves, mood swings and upper body strength (i can now do a bunch of real live pushups no problem), but  i am now realizing it its not enough.

and in the training of my horse, i also need to work on the training of myself so i can not only keep up with him, but stay ahead of him and one up him on all levels so we can progress and so neither one of us will get hurt.

the end.
ps. any suggestions..... in which i will not jeopardize my safety, would be great.

last few days

Its been a few days since I last posted. 

1. i decided that sleep was indeed important

2. we had dinner with Orlando, the only year round employee at meredyth south last night, and, well. he is not only one of the nicest people ever, but has an unparalleled ability to chat. So after dinner, i couldnt bring myself to deal with chatty writing.

however, some exciting things have happened:

On tuesday, Missy rode a few of the horses, tuned them up/kicked their butts, however you want to phrase it. The exciting part about this was that she jumped journey! He is notorious for wanting to use all four feet at the same time when he is jumping, much like a deer; all four leave the ground at the same time, and all four land at the same time, OR he jumped first with his front end, then following with the hind end, much like a chinese dragon would take a jump, a little discombobulated. However, Missy is magic, and after a few rounds, Journey was jumping like his feet were not only connected to his brain, but working in harmony. (kind of.... i have a few stellar photos that i swore i wouldn't show anyone let alone post them on the internet. i also got a video that included some words not meant for children's ears. it's always exciting when journey jumps!)

Yesterday, we went hunting with Misty Morning hunt. They do a drag, (drag the scent of a fox or some such beast and then the hounds follow that scent. these kinds of hunts are known for being super super fast, and crazy, and usually you get to jump alot. this was no exception.) they dragged it as we were hunting, which was interesting. We started the morning with some introductions over port, and then off to the kennels we trotted, then quickly we were off cantering through the woods, over some jumps and through some huge open fields. at every little stop.... known as a kill, when the hounds got to rip apart some meat, we got to drink, port, champagne, more champagne.... it was fun. and we ran ALOT. and jumped ALOT.

The property belonged to  couple who built the place as their dream. She is an ex-eventer, so the fields and woods throughout their 500-700 acres was littered with all sorts of jumps, two dressage arenas and a stadium course.

It started raining just as we were trotting over the the kennels, and then let up to serious misting for the rest of the day. It was perfect because the humidity made it hot, but the mist on our faces kept internal temperatures under control.

The other great thing about the hunt was they had a photographer, so although i didnt take too many photos.... i was worried about the water and my camera... hopefully the photographer got plenty of amazing shots, including us jumping a truck!! and jumping a long stone wall four abreast.

Today was a little less exciting. Journey and Winton, who were hunting yesterday had off and the other four were ridden by Missy. We are competing in a derby Saturday, which should be super fun, and they have to be in top form..... tomorrow jen and I will most likely get our butts kicked into gear as well.

This evening, we are having chinese food, and i am going to try and go running at the gym. (gasp)

until tomorrow!

tidbits!

Oh! also, I found out that Frank loves him some dried pineapple. AND a Chihuahua tried to eat my face the other day.

rollercoaster

No, we did not go to an amusement park, though it would have been fun. Today we took another cross country lesson, this time moving on, and we have video! I rode Winton and jen rode Ranger, both of whom were wonderful and forgiving and super excited.

We jumped around a little, over barrels, logs and some scary floating logs over seas of stone, scary scary, and then we jumped through the most fun cross country obstacle yet:

the rollercoaster!

and although we make it look super easy, i know i know, the first times were not so pretty. Jen missed her second jump she was kicking so much, and had to be reminded to steer as the same time as kick :)

and the second time i did it, it was flawless. seriously.  though missy didn't catch it on camera... my camera was acting up, or something along those lines. and in the repeat our first spot was wonky.

We also got to jump the stone walls from one field to the other, gallop down the hill, over a little ditch, then up and over a few big logs lashed together and into the water, cantering through, and then up a bank out of the water.

too bad my camera died after the rollercoaster. Missy promised we will do it again though, and this time, we'll take it. show off our amazing water complex skills.

Other exciting news, the chiropractor came and adjusted half the boys, the other half he will do tomorrow. He said they all felt pretty darned good, Hubert and Hunter particularly considering they hunted for 4 1/2 hours yesterday.

oh! and we went out for dinner! crazy, i know. we almost took a picture just to prove we went out and were up past 8 pm.

And that was all the excitement for today. Tomorrow Missy will jump Journey and Springer, tune up the other two boys Jen and I rode today, and, fingers crossed, will be nothing but impressed with how they are going :)

until tomorrow.

hunting with Live Oak

Today we went hunting with Live Oak, a hunt up in Tallahassee Fl. they are known for being the best around, and, well. we certainly drove a ways to get there. After waking up at 2:15am, leaving the barn around 4:07 am we drove three hours or so north, to this incredibly beautiful country. 

It looked a little ho hum as we first hacked out into the woods. However, the fog quickly closed in, creating a kind of creepily quiet, swirling mist through which we walked through. hounds bounding in an out of sight through the fog, sometimes it lifted enough to see the ground stretching further than the tops of the trees, sometimes completely shrouding everything but what was fifteen feet in front of you. 

It seemed like a scene straight of of sleepy hollow, or a tim burton film with the trees dripping with spanish moss and mist, everything either bright green or a muted greyish brown.

the first field we walked through

fog dropping down

our crew. jen and hubert, ann and riley

the mist on Hunter's eyelashes.

So as we were carrying on, every few minutes, someone would stroll or trot up on their horse, introduce themselves, and then proceed to not only warmly welcome us, compliment our "incredibly hansom" "super cute" "so adorable" "perfect foxhunter" horses, but they would ask us about where we were from, how long we were staying, and we would of course be coming back, wouldn't we?

and considering how much fun it was, even though it "wasnt a normal Live Oak day", we are going to try and go again next sunday if we aren't too tired. (And missy said she wanted to come too!)

Honestly. Everyone could not have been nicer. Seriously the most welcomed I have felt in a really long time, anywhere, and I am pretty sure jen halds the same sentiment. Just the nices folks. and funny. and entertaining. 

keeping that in mind, and the fact that it wasn't a normal live oak day, we hunted for FOUR AND HALF hours. by the time we were back at the trailers the day had substantially warmed up, from about 38 degrees to 70, and the whole field, led by the master, had shed their jackets, and some their vests as well. They all started out saying how cold it was, then how hot. silly floridians. 

There were also two folks visiting from Canada, one was the master in Vancouver I believe, and his wife. Their season is even shorter (who knew it was possible) than ours in Pa.

We got on a couple little runs through the day, one just back to the trailer to tape together the masters horse, as he stepped on himself and was bleeding pretty good. And we got to do more jumping than they had thought we would, some really nice coops, the biggest about three feet, maybe three three, nothing too crazy. 

And we caught two grey fox. Apparently in that area they hunt, grey and red fox, bobcats, coyote and wild boar. CRAZY! Jen will get the mask and brush from the second fox of the day. And everyone insisted it go to one of their guests.

"easy day"

getting steph ready for her cross country

  Today, saturday, was our easy day. We got a bunch of stuff done yesterday so we could go to the horse show that everyone and i mean EVERYONE was competing in. We took our first two sets out after all our. barn chores and then headed over to Rocking Horse, which is a good hour fifteen or so.

mr fantastic looking fantastic

the sea of trailers. more than i have ever seen in one place

a jump

then, after hanging around, trecking across the GIGANTIC cross country course, and, gasp, helping Missy and her student/worker steph who also had two horses running, we left around 4pm. got back to the barn, fed, got the last two of our horses ready to roll in a hurry, and trotted over to longwood to do the craziest thing i think have done to date. we took a cross country lesson in the dark. like not fading light dark, but sun down, no moon, no shadows, cant really even see a horse cantering towards you kindda dark.

It was NUTS! and really fun. and all we could do, was get a good canter, and be straight, and they had to do the rest, because we really couldn't see. I didnt know until after the lesson, but apparently Missy's first, or one of the first lessons se ever had with David O'Conor was in the dark, like the kind of dark we experienced tonight. Pretty cool.

Anyway. We got home around 8 and here we are. i need to go to sleep. (up at 2:15 for hunting tomorrow) so until next time!

friday. i think. still the first week

Today we did incredibly long trot sets with the horses. hack out to the gate in between longwood and meredith south (the o'connors' place) and then trot all the way around longwood, through woods scattered with jumpable logs and ditches, through two cross country fields and around two others. then back through meredith and around the perimeter there, up the last stretch through the sparse grove of trees up to the small six horse barn where our horses are happily staying.

Today was a landmark day: Hunter aka Frank (for frankenstein who has tons of scars from his youth) who is known for being flighty and uncomfortable in new places.... took a nap in the sun! laying down! i have NEVER seen him lying down except to roll, which as a grey he does about five zillion times a day.

tomorrow we will do some more trot/canter sets with the horses, and the two we are taking hunting sunday, Frank and Hubert, we will take a short jumping lesson on from missy after she come back from her event (@ rocking horse)

Hopefully we can make it over there to watch her and karen's cross country courses as well as a few folks from home who are also competing. its going to be a whos who of the eventing world. should be fun to watch. (i'll bring my camera of course)

So Sunday, should be amazing. we are taking two horses to hunt with Live Oak, which is apparently the best around. Fast and furious, i hope. the unfortunate part is having to pull out of the barn at 4am. lots and lots of coffee. and snacks. and more coffee.
but it'll be loads o' fun!
until later.