Category: Equestrian life

Posted on

Doing Juuust Fine…

directions

Alvin managed to snap a pretty great still of Louise and Pilar tonight! They were practising cordeo riding for the first time — Pilar’s not accustomed to being ridden bareback and certainly not without head tack. However, barring this little incident, it went absolutely fantastic.

Counting the days until I get the sling off my arm which, by the by, resembles the Swedish flag. The novelty of one-handedness is wearing off pretty fast, but it is absolutely awesome to have so many people willing to help out with the poneh.

Posted on

Gravity? Works As Intended!

Thank the gods for helpful friends, small blessings, and little grey pills. Those were pretty much the thoughts on my mind when the figurative dust settled and I was alone in the dark in my hospital bed. Nothing’s so bad it couldn’t be a whole lot worse.

My otherwise very cool headed horse spooked and bolted, bucking. I found myself testing gravity which turned out to be working as intended. As I hit the ground my first thought was, at least it’s dry; landing in mud isn’t all that pleasant, particularly not in winter. No, actually, that was my second thought. My first went something like, OH PINEAPPLING CRANBERRY, this is going to HURT!

It did. For about thirty seconds everything in creation revolved around trying to breathe in spite of my lungs trying to escape through my abdomen.

Giving all the attentions.
Have a picture of cute animals. It’s better than the pain.

I managed to roll onto my back and noticed out of the corner of my eye that my arm didn’t roll along. Dislocated shoulder, fantastic. I was immediately reminded of stories about how much it hurts to have a shoulder pushed back in place. Then I realized that I could not move my arm and mentally added broken arm to the list.

My recollection of the next minutes are a little hazy. Somebody caught my horse and returned her to pasture. Somebody called an ambulance. The ambulance guys poked me everywhere to check for spinal damage and waved fingers in my face to test for concussions. A lot of bad jokes were made because laughter sure is preferable to crying. The ambulance guy gave me a shot of morphine before loading me onto the stretcher, and another before we drove off on the dirt road, the oh so bumpy dirt road. Somewhere in the middle of this my shoulder snapped back in place, but thank you, sweet morphine, I didn’t notice. I got a third shot before x-rays so that I didn’t try to kill the radiology nurses for moving my arm around.

Now I sit typing with my left hand only and thank the powers that be for helpful friends. Everything is difficult in my drugged state, and people have stepped up all over to offer assistance. At times like this one remembers how important it is to have a solid network of friends, how important it is to be part of a community where helping each other out is the natural choice.

Posted on

I Believe I Can Fly

Last night Pilar showed me that we can fly. The half-dark of the outdoors arena and the spooky sounds of something in the forest at the edge of the paddocks, combined with feeling energetic and wanting action — you know where this one goes. Suddenly,  OH MY GOD SOMETHING IS IN THE WOODS WE’RE GOING TO DIE, and off we were, up the centre line of the pen at a high speed gallop and kick the sky bucking.

Amazingly I stayed in the saddle. I have my old Arabian, dead for decades, to thank for this, I think; he used to buck and try to throw me every other day when he felt like it, because that’s just how he rolled.

Even more amazingly, I managed to keep my wits about me enough to ask Pilar in an every day voice (while hanging up there among the clouds, the seagulls, and the occasional NASA satellite), to stop, please. And she did. Just like that. Came down from gallop and bucking and just stopped. Then she nuzzled my right foot with her nose as she does when she wants to tell me she’s scared or uncomfortable or doesn’t understand what I want her to do.

This is how a bolting, bucking horse earns a metric buttload of praise. If I was ever in doubt that I bought the right horse, that doubt is certainly gone. Something in the woods scared her enough to bolt from it, and she trusts me enough that when I ask her to stop she does and trusts me to save her skinny butt.

Besties share their hay.
Have a feel good pic at the end of the day: Besties share their hay.
Posted on

Not Everyone is a Critic

Not everyone is a critic.

Today, Equitandi will be removing her controversial video clip in which she comments (loudly and hilariously) on Tina Lund’s statement that it’s okay to use sharper bits because if the horse didn’t like it, it wouldn’t win.

I can’t say I blame her. I read a fair number of the comments on her video, and while many of us agree with her, the amount of anger that the clip caused in Tina Lund’s supporters is… staggering. Rabid. Foaming at the mouth levels of crazy in some cases. Equitandi uses facebook as a free space for herself, and does not want to be the target of such sound and fury so she’s taking the clip back down and telling people to move on.

I just wish that people would take a breather sometimes, count to ten, and agree that few things are black and white before they start penning threats and abuse. Come on, whether you think Tina Lund’s riding is okay or not, you have to admit that saying that horses win because they like pain is bloody stupid. Maybe it didn’t come out quite as Tina intended. Maybe she is just stupid. I don’t know, and I don’t care much, either.

Criticizing a highly controversial statement such as that one does not constitute an attack on everything Tina Lund is or has been, and it does not warrant a barrage of hatred and abuse in return. It means she said something stupid. We laugh, and then we move on.

Thank you, Grumpy Cat, for coming to the rescue of my sanity.

Posted on

How Many Horse People Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

WESTERN PLEASURE RIDER:
Oh, my God, someone fix that bulb.  I have to have light so that my silver and spangles all glow to their best and so that all the highlighter on Old Peanut Head makes his nose look so smooth and sparkly, and oh my diamonds studs have to flash in the light, you know, so oh, someone has to fix it.  Oh, maybe you without all the silver on your saddle, obviously can’t ride, you can do it.
ENDURANCE RIDER:
Light bulb?  Do you mind, I’m trying to get my horse’s pulse/respiration/hydration levels down to respectable levels.  Once that is done, I have another 50 miles to go before I can even think about changing a light bulb.
DRESSAGE QUEEN:
Change a light bulb?  Are you joking?  I couldn’t possible be expected to subject myself to such a menial task.  Change it yourself.  Oh, and wash you hands when you are finished.  The very thought!
CLASSICAL DRESSAGE QUEEN:
These things cannot be rushed, but must be approached slowly, with great patience, and adherence to the principles laid down by the classical masters, otherwise the light bulb will  not attain its true potential, but will forever just be a shadow of its true self.  Never, ever, use any type of gadget when changing the light bulb.  That is an offense to the principles of classical light bulb changing.
EVENTERS:
Wuss!  As soon as my arm is out of this sling broken after falling off at that large stone wall while riding Hell Bent for Leather cross-country, I’ll change it.  Until then, deal with the dark.  It’ll put hair on your chest.  Only dressage riders require lights, anyway!
SHOW JUMPERS:
Why on Earth would I need to change a light bulb when the whole world knows that the sun shines out of my butt.  Why, when I release over a jump, the spectators are practically blinded.
NATURAL HORSEMAN:
You must instill respect in the light bulb, so that it sees you as the Alpha light bulb, using “light bulb dynamics’ (video set available at $179.00 on my website).  Once you have done this, you will find that there is really no need to change the light bulb at all, but that the light bulb will, with very little coaxing from you (using patented “light bulb coaxer”) designed by me–$99.00 each, (for extra $49.99 you get an introductory video thrown in) will behave as all good light bulbs should.
HUNTER RIDER:
Well, I’m waiting for my trainer to tell me exactly how but he’s changing light bulbs somewhere else right now.
BACKYARD HORSEMAN:
Do I have to do everything??!!  Oh, yeah, I do, don’t I?  I’ll get to it as soon as I’m done mucking stalls, cleaning and filling the tub, cleaning and filling the water buckets, stacking my hay, setting up for night feeding, cleaning my tack, picking out manure from the paddock, brushing and exercising horses, and whatever else needs to be done.

 

Proudly powered by WordPress