I mean, it’s pretty hard to miss the pink, right?
I realize I’ve been missing for a bit.
O.K.
I guess, it’s been kind of a long, looooong, bit……
And I so appreciate all my fans that have messaged me & said something like,
“We miss you!!!”
“Write more blogs – damn it!!!!!!”
I appreciate every one of you that reached out.
It is super nice to feel appreciated.
Even if it is just because you totally suck at your sport.
I apologize for my absence.
It’s been a pretty strange time.
Honestly, it’s hard to know where to even start with this story.
I just looked at my last Blog entry “RuleGate” which I gave the subtitle
“So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye …..”
In that blog I ranted on and on about discussed the rule change proposal that would have required 8 qualifying events (called MERs) at Training level with the same horse before moving up to Prelim for riders with no experience and 6 qualifying rides (MERs) for riders like me who…..
wait for it…….
…. riders like me who have 53 MERs at Training level on 13 different horses, 2 at Modified, 41 MERs at Prelim and 2* on 7 different horses, and 7 MERs at Intermediate and 3* on 3 different horses.
That blog was actually a neat trip down memory lane and I even included photos of all of those horses. You should check it out, just for the photos, really. You can see it here: RuleGate
Speaking of photos……
When I started to write this particular BadEventer installment, the photos wouldn’t load.
As you know, my blog is told with, by and through the photos. That’s the entire point!
So I spent 3 hours (yes, really 3 hours) online with tech support to fix it.
And when they FINALLY got the photos to load….. 3 hours later I thought I was back in business!
But when I looked at my RuleGate blog to see which photos I’d used….
they
were
GONE.
ALL OF THEM!!
Every blog I’d written for more than a decade was affected, which as you know, are all told with, by and through the photos….
Over 450 blog entries were missing every single photo.
Panic does not come close to adequately describing the sensation that caused.
So immediately after 3 hours online with tech support, I was right back on the phone with them. I explained that when their I.T. guy had “fixed” the photos loading, he had broken the path to all the rest of them. A decades worth of them.
And you are NOT going to believe what they said.
After HOURS on the phone, after THEY broke it. The supervisor suggested that I “check some online forums for a solution.”
Um. WHAT?!
Did you seriously just tell me to, “Google it??!!!”
You can imagine just how well that went over with me.
Needless to say I let them know THEY had broken it, I pay THEM to host it and back it up, and THEY had better fix it.
So it’s been a stressful several days, waiting to see if they could undo whatever Mr. I.T. had done, and finally today they did.
Hallelujah
One crisis averted.
So back to my last blog and RuleGate, and that entire rule proposal.
The plan was to change the number of Training levels you had to do WITH your horse as a pair before you go prelim from 0 to 8. I mean, how about one? or two? or even three? Why are we going from zero to 8?
To be honest,
I was so disgusted with the proposed rule change, and what it would mean for me and my quest to get to Rolex (or rather Land Rover Kentucky) that I honestly don’t even know what happened in the end with it.
I just walked away.
I had 8 event horses at the time.
And while I had been trying to get to Rolex Kentucky for many years and I had success through 3*, making the step up to Advanced just kept eluding me.
I broke my leg.
My Advanced horse bowed a tendon.
I broke my arm.
I pushed my Intermediate horse into a jump coming out of the water and he severed a tendon on the sharp edge.
My up and coming 2* horse fractured her coffin bone.
My other 2* horse was just plain scary on XC and I decided I was too old for that shit I didn’t want to event him anymore.
My young horses decided they’d rather be hunter floofies.
And to top it off, after sliding off onto a table at a 2*, I got roasted on COTH as someone who “shouldn’t be competing at the level.”
Of course, I had 2 horses going well at 3* but the COTH OP, in all their wisdom, determined I shouldn’t be running a 2*.
Here’s what happened.
This is the short version.
And here’s more about that event if you’re curious.
I had always believed getting roasted on COTH was my worst fear.
And well. It happened.
And for all of you that jumped to my defense with the COTH thing, it’s hard to say just how much I appreciated it. Thank you. From the bottom of my hurt feelings. Thank you.
So when the world went crazy with the pandemic & it came down to it.
I was tired of failing.
I was tired of being broken.
I was tired of chasing Qualifications.
I was tired of people telling me I didn’t deserve to be in this sport at the level.
I was just plain tired.
And then Covid changed the world.
Shows shut down for awhile.
Work got crazy.
Veterinarians had WAY MORE patients than we could reasonably see, as everyone was sitting at home staring at their pets and rushing them in any time they so much as blinked funny.
Meanwhile half our team members were out sick. It was a terrible time.
So I took some time off from showing and working.
I decided while I was hiding at home from the plague (due to my severe germaphobia) it was a good time to focus on my True Crime – Wrongful Conviction podcast.
I published 2 seasons of the podcast, and I’m working on Season 3.
It’s called Aggravating Circumstances. If you’re into that kind of thing, definitely check it out. You can find it on any major service. https://aggravatingcircumstances.com/
And then, after awhile I decided to go hang out with the show jumpers for awhile.
I wanted to see if that “felt better.”
To Be Continued…….