It’s possible that no other sport is as humbling as Equestrian events.
Just when you think you’re really getting somewhere
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some mishap brings you back to earth.
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I just had the very best weekend storming around our first recognized event since last November.
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It was a huge success & a pretty good reflection on how far I’ve come.
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The days where all I could do was hear my heart beating in my ears & I had to count outloud to be sure I didn’t hold my breath weren’t all that long ago.
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So when things were going well enough this weekend that I not only noticed the photographer but went out of my way to smile for the photo……..
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That was a huge milestone.
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I’ve gone from being so terrified I couldn’t even tell you what happened out there to being able to describe the number of strides I got & where I wish I’d adjusted things slightly for a “smoother” round.
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I was complaining to the Fearless Leader that I had a near perfect round but completely blew it at one jump.
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So I was disappointed in my riding.
He made a thoughtful face & said, “Look, a couple of years ago you’d be celebrating what a great round it was, because you jumped everything, now you’re upset about one less than ideal jump.” ?♀️
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The BadEventer has come a long way.
So this week we headed back to jumper land with the hopes to fine tune those skills a bit before the next event.
We arrived late last night & this morning I was on Miss Unpredictably Spooky first. This is a horse that has the second highest “body count” of every horse I’ve ever ridden.
She’s the only one I’ve fallen off of twice in one day – on more than one occasion.
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So we’re warming up outside & all of a sudden she realizes there are horses – jumping – in the indoor & she does a bit of a head shake, spook, turn, buck move…….
and off I came – but I completely stuck the landing & landed on my feet.
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It was definitely a 10 dismount.
But falling off the first horse of the day – in the warm up is definitely not how I wanted this to go.
So I’m walking over to the mounting block to get back on & the official says, “Put your mask on!” (You don’t have to wear one when you’re on the horse, only when you’re not on the horse.) And I thought, hmmm since I seriously stuck the landing now I have to figure out how to pull my mask on, on the way down too!
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She jumped well in the ring, and I thought my warmup mishap was behind us.
Next I went in the ring on the Unicorn.
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I’ve had him the longest, and I just don’t miss on him. We’re also coming off a near foot perfect performance last weekend at the event.
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It was looking like it was going to be one of the best rounds we’ve ever done.
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Is it just me – or do things go the most wrong when they seemed to be going the most right?
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We jumped the first 7 fences beautifully, nailed a perfect spot at the 2nd combination & headed down a bending 9 stride line to an oxer.
And……….
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It was the miss of all misses.
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Normally my brave scopy beast would have just figured something out but instead we plowed through the jump.
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And I did quite the faceplant.
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You know when you hear your helmet make a crunching sound it just saved your life.
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I’m ok other than the demolished helmet. And my bruised ego…..
Falling off twice the first day was definitely not how I wanted to start this trip.
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If you’ve been following my tales for awhile, you know I buy helmets two at a time.
In a moment of – I don’t really have time to pack for another show- I didn’t have a spare helmet with me.
This sent me to the tack store to get another helmet.
They didn’t have the color or brand that I wanted & as I was explaining I needed TWO, so that I have a spare….. The puzzled sales person said, “Is he being naughty?”
I said, “No he’s a unicorn.”
And she said, “Hmmm ok, I was just wondering why you were anticipating needing two helmets.”
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Clearly she didn’t realize she was talking to
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The BadEventer.
Did you know when the BadEventer isn’t riding badly I’m producing a true crime podcast called Aggravating Circumstances?
Season One is about a wrongful conviction.
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Aggravating Circumstances can be heard on your favorite podcast app or the website.
https://aggravatingcircumstances.com/