Music In Style

I interned for Mental Floss years ago, and while I don’t have too much time to read their magazines while trying to produce my own, I do subscribe to the daily Watercooler Ammo. Today’s was a gem:

“I’ve only just learned about photographer James Mollison, but I’m already a huge fan of his thought-provoking work…my favorite of his works is The Disciples -portraits of fans who gather and create a culture around various rock artists.”

I looked, and I loved! Click here and check out the photos, then be sure to watch the video projection that pans over the photo as the relative artists’ music plays. It’s chilling in a weird sudden clarity Clarence kind of way. I think the Spice Girls one is my favorite.

If you can take it, look at the Where Children Sleep Album. Not as entertaining, but just as eye-opening.

Navigating the Upperville Horse Show

I don’t know why it is called navigating, because I actually just tried to stay aboard. Kate is a top international combined driver, and I got to ride along in the carriages at the Upperville Horse Show this year! It was SO COOL!

My groovy get-up for the cones competition. I think I pull off tweed quite well!

The first ride was a cones competition where you drive your horse as fast as you dare between sets of cones with tennis balls balanced on top of them. The point is to post the fastest time without knocking down any balls/cones, which adds 5 seconds each to your time.

Scrutinizing the competition.

I was not entirely sure what to do. I just didn’t want to screw up!

And we’re off!

Kate was first in the ring for her division. She had to set the pace, go as fast as she could and hope no one could catch her. She started right off at a gallop.

Between this photo and the one above, you can see the margin of error is slim.

The first few turns were smooth and easy, like a lovely drive in the country. I was generally able to tell where the next set of cones would be and prepare myself to shift my body weight one way or the other. I had one hand on the rail next to me and tried to smile.

By halfway, Kate and Winslow were really rocking, and I was holding on with two hands trying not to look like an amateur. I couldn’t tell where the next cones were anymore because usually they were behind us. I was amazed at how quickly and sharply Kate could steer that massive carriage and still she didn’t knock a single cone!

Two hands so you don’t wreck!

No one came close to her time, and she won by a landslide. I’m learning that she’s fairly well known and lots of people came up to her to compliment her round. One lady even expressed her disappointment because she thought she had a shot at winning until she saw Kate’s name on the entry.

Later that same day…

A dear friend of Kate’s recently passed away from pancreatic cancer and her husband had arranged for Kate to do a driving demo before the Grand Prix competition on the last day of the show to raise awareness of the illness.

Kate drove her friend’s pony, Bouncer, who had been at our farm for a few weeks preparing.

As we galloped around the ring during the demo I heard the announcer list Bouncer’s many accolades. I had no idea he was an individual world driving gold medalist. He even has his own Breyer model! Although I was told later that his model has, ahem, a few extra details that geldings do not typically have.

We just went in the ring and “winged it” galloping around the Grand Prix jumps between a few cones that had been set up. People clapped, we laughed, I leaned, and it was just an overall joyous occasion. I hope I get to “navigate” again!

Thanks to my friends Amanda and John Dayton for taking pictures and letting me share them with you here!

Finding Our Feet and Next Steps

Friday I thought, since he’d been getting so much exercise running with Harold, that it was about time I see how a little jog goes with Sam.

You’d never know he was once a Prelim horse.

His lack of balance was LOL-worthy. Trying to get him to turn on uneven ground was…I don’t even know what to compare it to…trying to bend a 2×4 around a slip’n'slide. He basically fell to the outside, and while he tried, he just couldn’t seem to coordinate bending, turning, and balancing all at once.

The half-halts came every three strides or so. He tried his best to respond. If he did manage to balance, he certainly couldn’t hold it for long. As a result, we clicked, clanked, and generally stumbled around the field with our noses poked out for 10 minutes.

I think Sam was just as amused and confused as me.

I think we’ll be doing some lunging on the hillside to help us find our feet.

Time Vortex

At first I think Quoi? It’s June? Then I remember it’s June in Virginia, not June in Georgia. Which must be why I didn’t notice. My skin isn’t boiling.

I’ve barely been home this year. I finally have a break for a bit and actually have weekends to myself. Since March 31 I’ve been to a wedding in Texas, announced at a horse trials at Chattahoochee Hills in Georgia, went to a wedding in Georgia, drove to Kentucky and did Rolex for a week, drove to Georgia and back to bring Sam home, and announced at Chattahoochee Hills again. I’ve been back to Georgia more since moving to NOVA than I ever did while living in Alabama.

My house is a freaking wreck. I finally got all my laundry and dishes done and put away this weekend. I still need to actually clean. I also went for a ride, which I haven’t done in a while. I did not ride Samster, however, as he continues to disable himself on a daily basis.

So now it’s summer. Things are great and busy at the office. I’m grateful that I get to do all kinds of projects and fun things, not just sit in a cube and melt to my chair. I’ve driven to Maryland a few times for projects, and I’ll be going to Richland Horse Trials in Michigan in August.

Josh and I have some fun projects in the works for US Eventing TV. Josh already does great coverage with Frankie Thieriot at events. My role in the video series is a little less formal and, I think, will be extremely fun. Sam is a character too…if he ever stops bludgeoning himself.

Do Not Read with Lunch, Zeb.

Rip off half his foot, horse stays sound. Twist a shoe and sting himself with a nail, lame. And pitiful. So very pitiful.

Sammy hadn’t been shod for an ungodly eight weeks after his suspicious self mutilation. He finally got new shoes and the next day twisted the shoe on his good front foot and bled a little from a nail hole. Mom said the Auburn colors were by “accident,” but given how much time she’s spent cleaning, medicating, and bandaging Sam’s feet lately…I wouldn’t put a joke or two past her. “Designer look!” was the accompanying message to the following photo…

Sam jacked his shoe up on April 4th. The day prior his boo-boo looked like…

The black stuff is medication that hasn’t come off yet. Since the cream (which forms a fairly durable barrier) has to be scrubbed off in order to clean and reapply, it winds up bleeding and looking redder and scarier than it actually is.

April 8th was the first time I saw the wound in person while I was in Georgia announcing at the Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials.  He really did a number on himself (still no idea how), but it is not as awful looking in person as it is in a photo. Plus, it is a lot smaller and a ton of hoof has grown back there on the south side.  It’s clearly a bit deformed and there will be a crack between the old hoof and new hoof that will grow down and have to be managed with supportive shoeing. The hoof should ultimately look normal again, but the vet thinks the bulb will probably always look a little funny.  I wonder if the hair on his coronary band will grow back normal, if at all?

In the photo above, taken on April 13th, it looks great! Much less bleeding after cleaning, no proud flesh, and it looks like it’s really healing from the inside out.  Even just a few days after seeing it myself it looks less awful…except his hoof looks all gnarly down by the shoe. Ugh. He exhausts me…I’ll add “order more Keratex” to my to-do list.

After the initial rounds of antibiotics and using the cream the vet prescribed, we ordered Equaide at the recommendation of a friend. I found nothing but positive reviews online, and Mom swears it’s a miracle medicine.  It healed the bit of proud flesh that had appeared and has since kept any new from forming. Equaide looks like something the creature from the black lagoon might like to take a bath in. It’s pearl black (kind of pretty actually), and just a little bit goes a long way.

Silly Sam has been soaking up the daily attention he gets from his “Maj” (short for her Her Majesty…yes, Mom picked the name out). Really, though, Mom has been awesome taking care of my sweet boy and been very gracious about the insane changing travel plans.

For being a pasture pony for so long, he still looks so handsome! He’s always had a lovely shiny coat, a sexy cresty neck (thanks in part to Gamble taking six inches of his neck between his teeth when Sam was five resulting in a conveniently located chunk of scar tissue), and a great butt! He’s shedding out his teddy bear winter hair and feels so soft and sleek.

Sam is a quirky kid (he’s so mine!). His drinking bucket is behind him in the corner, but his dunking bucket is hanging on the wall next to his nibble net there. He likes to flavor his hay with a little H2O.

For several weeks, Sam has been wrapped just while in the stall at night. Now he is going unwrapped 24/7 (hooray!) but still needs daily cleaning and medication. I’m really hopeful the wound will be mostly closed up within the next few weeks. He did have to be separated from Gamble as Mom and Sue came back to the barn after a trail ride and found the two goobers stallion fighting over the fence between their walkabouts. Although they were just playing, neither Mom, Sue, nor I could handle the stress of the risk…he should just live in a bubble.

I can’t wait for my sweet boy to come home. Kisses, kisses.

Thanks everyone who has continually asked about him and helped me keep my brain between my ears throughout the ordeal. xoxo

1, 2, 3…

Looking very stoic halfway through Novice show jumping…

Suddenly, Mark appears with his camera!

Yay.

Hoofclix.com

Naughty Pony

My dear Sam was supposed to move to Virginia this spring, and his little nose would live just a few steps from my front porch.  Plans were made, plans changed.  I’ve been griping about it, so here’s the story up to this point.

My Sam and I have been separated for five years, seeing each other only when I went home to visit or cover an event nearby.  I was moving back to Georgia from Alabama when I was offered the job in Virginia.  Despite aching to be with him again, I opted to leave Sam in Georgia for the winter and bring him up in the spring.  I felt like I was being a good mom.  His feet had been doing so well, getting stronger with regular treatments and good shoeing.  He would be living outside in Virginia, and combined with the usual cold, snowy winters in NOVA, I didn’t want him to back track.  I thought ‘don’t throw him into a heavy winter he’s never experienced’ and ‘let his feet have a little more time to get stronger.’

It was hard to leave him, but I thought it right.  Then of course Virginia had its mildest winter in years, with just a few dustings of snow, and temperatures comparable to back home.  Wtf.

Early this year I started coordinating his trip.  Since I’ll be traveling most of April, I felt like March would be an appropriate arrival time for him so I could be around while he settles.  The other option was waiting until May.  We used Rachel Devita-Anderson at Town n Country Transport to bring Bailey down from New York last June.  She’s very attentive to the horses, is on time and professional, and we trust her.  I refused to book any transporter but her to bring my Sam home.  We had it all set up.  The prices were reasonable (there were to be two other horses on the trailer coming to the same location), the dates were set and flexible, the contracts signed, etc.  I was so excited.

I’m a bit of a basket case about Sam these days.  I have an absolute meltdown anytime something goes wrong.  Since leaving him to finish school, Sam has been generally healthy aside from his crap feet, a tick in his sheath (yea, ouch.), and other mystery injuries ponies pick up.  Honestly though, as laid back as he is, he’s extremely high maintenance.  Allergy shots, thyroid medication, treating his feet, managing his slippery stifles.  Sheesh. Mom has been very gracious taking care of my boy, who’s been a brilliant, handsome, fat pasture ornament for the better part of the last five years.

So when Mom called me the Tuesday before Sam was supposed to come home (I’d been telling everyone and their brother, grinning like a kid and demanding we have a party to celebrate his arrival) she went through the “now don’t freak out, Sam’s ok, but” and my heart sunk.  We aren’t entirely sure how it happened, but during the night while he was hanging out in his walkabout behind his stall, he either rolled or laid down or tripped or something silly, and upon standing again, he flipped his foot over the gate, got stuck, yanked back, and ripped up his left front foot.  I’m told the angle of the blood spatter was wrong for him to have been playing games with Gamble over the fence.  So the ding-dong did it to himself.

The pictures are pretty gnarly so I wouldn’t scroll down the page any further if you’re squeamish.

He ripped up part of the bulb of his heel, yanked a chunk off the side of his hoof, and did some damage to his coronary band.  This is the first picture I received.

Brilliant.

Mom warned me he probably wouldn’t be able to travel, which was confirmed by the vet when she saw him.  They had to cut the loose piece off, it could not be stitched back.  He was put on antibiotics, wrapped up, and put in the stall.  He wasn’t happy being in the stall with his walkabout closed up, and he could do more damage being upset in the stall, so he started spending a few hours outside during the day when it was dry.  No painkillers for that kid though, we didn’t want him to feel good and cut up in the pasture.

Yuk.  Below is March 9th, three days after the incident.

March 14…

March 21…

I chatted with the transporter and the owner of the other horses.  They were very gracious and we rescheduled them to travel two weeks later depending on how Sam healed.

Well, when the time came, he was healthy enough to travel but not well enough to go straight outside in wet weather.  The wound had to remain wrapped still, and we couldn’t risk him playing with the new horses in the pasture and f’ing it up even more.  So last weekend, the horses he was meant to travel with arrived in Virginia, and my baby boy is still at home, bothering his grandma.

I’ve waited this long to be reunited with my boy, and I’m trying trying to be a good mom and make the right choices for him even though I miss him terribly and want to smother him with kisses and stuff him with carrots.  The good thing is he will heal, the injury could have been worse, and he’s been sound the whole time.  In fact, I’m told he doesn’t appear to be at all concerned about his injury, he’s just pleased to be getting undivided attention.  The wound is healing and we are managing the proud flesh.  By next week it should be able to be unwrapped during the day and wrapped only at night when he is in the stall.  I’m hoping we get all the details of his arrival sorted soon.  Then. Then we will party.

Short and Sweet

Work is awesome. Srsly enjoying all things horses.

Virginia – Also awesome. Srsly enjoying…well…almost all things horses.

Pilates – I can sit up straight and it isn’t uncomfortable!  Plus, no shin splints. Hooray!

Zombies – I played one in a movie last weekend. Out until the sun came up. Bought coffee at the Shell covered in fake blood and kept a complete straight face. I’m not allowed to post any pics though, sorry.

Most important -

SAMMY COMES HOME IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!

Look, My Boy!!

It’s taking forever to unpack all my boxes.  I keep finding photo albums, letters, books, and videos to peruse as I go.  One discovered treasure is a video of me and Sam competing Novice in 2005.  Palmer kindly gave me permission to upload and share it.

Just prior to this competition, Sam had been going through a snarky phase on cross-country – a stop, rear, and spin phase, actually.  This show was a huge triumph for us, as we ended up winning the division, leading the whole way on our dressage score of 29.  It was the Midsouth Three-Day Event and Team Challenge at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Sam and I had been placed on a team, but we were not expected to finish.

Boo-yah.

Sam was so fit and strong – he looks smashing in his dressage test.  The second half is better than the first, as he tends to dive onto the forehand.  The trot serpentine and transitions picked him up, and he has some super nice moments.  The canter could have used a bit more “oomph,” but my boy’s got a free walk that could kill.

I’ll mention briefly my wretched leg position on the flat.  My right leg is all jacked up, and my stirrups could have been three holes longer.  Ugh.

The footing on cross-country was wet and torn up, so I let him pick a pace, tried to focus on keeping him balanced in the turns, and gave him regular, significant reminders to not be an ass.  He gets a bit close on a few (and my shoulders fall forward on a few), but he was going, happily.  At the end, we were so well up on the time that I did several circles.  I’m plenty aware of the appropriate Novice level pace, but he was comfortable at his quick little clip – I did not want to disrupt him.

There is nothing like crossing the finish line to an outburst of cheers.  When Mom appeared she was crying, as usual.  The show jumping didn’t get filmed for some reason, but he had a fine round.  He clipped the last fence pretty hard, and we were only leading by 0.5.  It bounced, but it stayed up.

I’m loving finding these videos and watching our progression over the years.  Sam is scheduled to arrive in Virginia in March.  I can’t wait to have my boy back!

No Alarm Clock Day…

…and I still woke up at 9.

I’ve been whooped.  Things have been moving very quickly lately, so I don’t feel bad about a few 8pm bedtimes this last week.  The Virginian’s have been keeping me up late other days.  Like, REALLY late.  Like, flat tire at 5am and it’s snowing outside late.

I like Virginia.

When I moved here in October, I brought only clothes and other essentials…like the Playstation 3 because Skyrim was coming out soon…Two weeks ago I sold a kidney so I could afford to fly back to Georgia (cost four bucks a minute, just saying) to get my furniture and things.

I spent a couple of days sorting and organizing.  We picked up the Penske truck, which we dubbed Penny Lane, on Friday morning.  I had rented the 16 footer because it cost no more than the 14 footer, and I didn’t want to leave anything behind due to space issues.  Turned out we could have made it with 10 ft, but we’d have had to work a lot harder to load it.  Since we were getting on the road same day and wanted to get at least half way before stopping for the night, we did very little vertical packing.  We shoved everything in, like horizontal Tetris, and hoofed it out of there.

Did I mention it was my birthday?

We stopped off in Columbia, SC and grabbed a couple drinks at Outback (classy!).  On the road again at 7am, an hour later we stopped at South of the Border.  I’d been at SOTB once before…I was six weeks old and we were moving from Rhode Island to Dad’s new post in Charleston.  24 years later, it’s grown, Mom says, and I could only stand so much cheese for 30 minutes or so.

Before we reached the Virginia border I took back the driver’s seat so Mom could see the countryside.  We rolled into the faery farm around 4pm, unloaded nothing, and went to dinner in my landlady’s home.

I’ve met some really groovy, amazing people in Virginia.  They threw me a fabulous birthday celebration.  Jerusalem artichoke soup, pasta with pepper sauce, salad, and carrot cake.  And my gifts…

For one thing, I don’t buy Balvenie for myself, it’s too good.

I have some now.

On New Year’s we had played dress up in Charlottesville at a friend’s vintage store (I still have no fashion sense, but I have a new appreciation for vintage.  Not only are vintage clothes beautiful and unique, but they’re made from good materials and for women made of breasts and hips.  I am not shaped like a boy, Abercrombie.)  Anyway, I tried on this incredible red dress that I ended up not buying for sake of my pocket book.  My friends pitched in and surprised me on my birthday.  Hubba hubba!

And with my classy dress came a classy, classy card.

Yes…

We did finally do some unpacking.  The real success of the trip was the tv made it without injury or technical difficulty.  The first thing we put on the wall was, fittingly, Breezy’s painting that Noni did for me years ago.  It’s been hanging in my bedroom in Georgia because I was too afraid to move it around during and after college.  I am thrilled to have Breezy here with me now.

I can almost see the floor through the boxes.  It’s slow going unpacking everything.  I nearly broke my leg getting wedged between two plastic storage things and falling on my face.  But it’s coming together.

Sam is the last step.  Although there is snow on the ground at this moment, it’s been a mild winter for the region.  Just got to get through February, and then we’ll be making plans to get him here before the eventing season is in full swing and I find myself traveling for work.  Sam will love it here, and I’ll love having his sweet nose only a few steps from my front porch after five years of complete separation.