CITIZEN HORSE IN 2009
posted by citizen.K on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 / 
Print & Hang in the Barn
Time has been limited this year for writing. That’s not to say there aren’t articles that are in the works, they just haven’t been finished.
Busy, busy, busy.
A lot has happened in 2009. There was a switch in disciplines, shortly. Minor health problems for Frankie. Too much work! But most importantly, I ended spending more time riding than writing.
A good thing, I suppose.
However, there are some subjects I didn’t get to this year and even more people I have not gotten to address either personally or through the comments.
Time just wasn’t on my side.
Frankie and I spent some time switching from Jumpers to Eventing.
How did this go?
If you didn’t see Road to Rolex, I will give you a crash course of our experience.
We started at training level. Dressage was going to be Frankie’s biggest weakness, seeing as he is a Giraffe and all. Turned out, as long as we weren’t on turf, Frankie did quite well in the dressage portion. Stadium was too easy and too small, and cross country was REALLY FUN!
Too bad the short, one day format didn’t bode well for Frankie’s stomach. Ulcer’s ensued, and turns out Frankie is more of a fancy pants than I thought. He likes the stall, the breaks, the grooming, the show environment. He doesn’t like the long trailer ride, dressage, stadium, cross country, and long trailer ride. He also doesn’t like rain or mud and has never liked water.
All this stressed Frankie out and his performance, condition, and health suffered.
He’s okay.
I really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of the eventing riders. I was often confused by the helpful riders. I’m more used the the A show hunter/jumper crowd where you always have to watch your back. At an event, everyone is nice, kind, and helpful. If someone needs help or forgot an item, someone is offering assistance, tack, feed, whatever it is the person needs—and it’s not even just one person offering help.
I didn’t like the scary riding and disregard for horses’ health and safety. It wasn’t at every event but certainly more than one.
All in all, I decided it would be nice to have a hybrid jumper/eventing discipline. The derby jumpers is the closest thing to the riding part, but then you are still dealing with the stuffy hunter/jumper crowd. I’m petitioning the USEF right now…
To make a long story short, Frankie and I will be jumpers. Maybe another horse will find me back in the eventing field.
Horse people are nuts whether they are dressage, eventing, hunter/jumper, saddleseat, western, trail, or non-descriptive-horse-people. That was of my experience in 2009—as with every year before that.
The drama never stops and the urgency of every single person’s personal horse saga is that of nuclear warfare. Luckily, there is a supplement, a piece of tack, a bit, a shoe, a trainer, a rider, a horse masseuse, an equine acupuncturist, or a animal communicator to the rescue for the temporary fix. Honestly, if these women would just find a good therapist and chill the hell out their horses would be much happier and they might, just might, even ride better.
I have learned a lot this year, and that is something that really makes me happy. It’s never good to feel stagnant as a rider. Frankie has come a long way, and as much as the eventing didn’t sit well with his stomach, the dressage has really helped him over fences.
We might even end up showing next summer. Dun, dun duuuun.
Christmas is over, the cold has hit, and riding is far less enjoyable in an indoor. To those who live in cold climates, if you really want to ride and the cold is swaying you not to; get to the barn and start riding. It’s amazing how fast you warm up.
For those in a warmer climate. Shut up. You are VERY lucky.
Life is too short to live in a freezer.
More to come…
4 Responses to “CITIZEN HORSE IN 2009”
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December 30th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I am soooo glad to see you back.
I don’t blame your horse at all. He may well be proud of being a good show jumper.
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I do so love your pieces. Puts a sensible spin to a frequently unsensible world! re: cold. My part of the world is TOO cold to ride in much of mid-December till mid March. Right now the wind chill is at -41.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:59 am
AWWW! I was JUST getting some time on my side to read the road to rolex. Sad
I’m glad you had fun eventing! I had a short foray into the eventing world when I lived in Missouri and everyone and their mom did eventing. Mainly because everyone was in Pony club. However, my eventing horse was a dirty stopper and I never advanced past Novice level. I tried ONE training jump and then I was like “no. job done.”
In other news….my feathery boy is learning to be a jumper. He likes to stop at the first fence no matter what it is, but after a good spanking, he jumps everything else without incident.
January 17th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
LOL my boyfreind is new-ish to horses and can manage a broke horse pretty well. I haven’t gotten him to buy britches yet — best I could manage was khaki Dockers and half-chaps for a hunterpace we did this past fall. Some men just won’t wear tights (and “roomy” men’s britches are prohibitively expensive for amateurs!! I never had that problem!). I think I’d have better luck if he had a competition goal.
He’s DYING to do a cross-country-only competition, or at least something like it where you don’t have to wear white pants and a stock tie to earn the chance to run and jump. I had to laugh when I saw you were petitioning USEF for a new discipline, because he asks me every time I talk about a competition, “Why can’t we JUST do cross country?!”
My snotty answer of course is “Why don’t you go foxhunting?” But all other obvious differences aside, it does lack the competitive aspect. You can’t “win” a foxhunt. And we don’t have steeplechases or point-to-points anywhere in New England that I’ve heard of.
Hunter trials are nice, but the speed is generally moderate and they aren’t usually timed. Some offer a “Foxhunter Trial” which is a neat concept — a group of competitors must follow a “huntsman” leader over an outside course demonstrating form, handiness and manners, then the last mile or so is a full-out race. But again, we have one or two hunter trails a year within a 2 hour radius, so it’s not exactly a “season” of competition.
Some unrecognized events will host a “jump-jump-jump” which is a varied combination of stadium, x-c, or derby courses, depending. Those are fun, but hard to find (and when they are found, hard to get entered!).
Some people train all summer to hunterpace for 10-12 weeks straight in the fall, which is also great fun. I’ve never done the “circuit” of hunter paces we have around here, but the people who do it seriously are very competitive and go hell-bent-for-leather. They really move. However, you don’t have the same groomed footing one learns to expect at a recognized event, and they can be treacherous, not to mention to other maniacs trying to pass you at a canter on a narrow trail.
I still feel like eventing is my “home base” for training. I have beem training a horse I bred, so I’m just now getting back into it now that he’s 6. There are snotty people in every sport (lest you think dressage is any better than Eq, and you should SEE saddleseat people, my GOD it’s worse than a beauty pageant…) but there are nice people too. I like eventing because it tests a whole lot of different things — horsemanship, courage, conditioning, obedience, your horse’s ability to take care of himself and of you — and you get several tries to improve your standing. My little guy finished on his dressage score both events we’ve done, so now we just need to get the dressage a bit more “dressage-y”!