Are you still eventing?

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In case you missed BadEventer’s latest adventures in Jumper Land they can be seen here.

The Dark Side & Is this the Dark Side

PC ESI Photography

I’ve lost count of how many phone calls & text messages I’ve gotten where the first thing the caller says is, “Are you still eventing?


Not, “Hello!”

Not, “How are you?”

It’s, “are you still eventing?”

While my dedication to eventing long ago passed into the area of totally insane……..

I’m not a professional.

And I don’t ride event horses for a living.

While I was pondering my response to the latest person that messaged and asked if I was still eventing I watched Doug Payne go into the ring ahead of me at the jumper show.

I’m going to take a guess, but I don’t think anyone is asking him that question.

Did you know Michael Jung also goes to jumper shows?

And so does every Fearless Leader I’ve ever ridden with.

Eventers go to jumper shows for a variety of reasons. But one of them is to get better at show jumping, which for the non-eventers in the group is part of eventing.

I’ve been wanting to go to jumper shows FOR YEARS. But between the full time job,

a series of injuries, and my ridiculous show schedule I haven’t been able to make it happen.

Until now.

PC: ESI Photography

And today was a big first.

In eventing there’s no reason to race around the show jumping. You just need to make time and there are no bonus points for going faster.

In show jumping that’s not the case. You want to be clear AND fast.

So I’ve been cruising around a few courses, taking my sweet slow-as-an-eventer time.

Until today.

Today I decided that I was going to try taking off the hand brake.

The speed was set at 350 meters per minute. That’s the normal pace for Preliminary and Intermediate show jumping.

The time was set at 83 seconds. BadEventer ………

smoked around it in 74 seconds to finish 4th out of 37.

Oh yeah……

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