Fiddle Jump
/ posted in: Horses, PhotosThis jump was used in the cross country course. It is huge! The other side of the jump is just as wide as the side that you can see here.
10 Oct, 2010
This jump was used in the cross country course. It is huge! The other side of the jump is just as wide as the side that you can see here.
This was the squirrel garden.
Daniel Wurgler of Switzerland in team colors
Gavin Robson of Australia. Not the greatest video
This is the Stone Garden. It was very tight and it had some balls on top of the boxes. If they knocked those off then they got 2 seconds added.
James Fairclough of the US
Koos De Ronde of The Netherlands
Werner Ulrich of Switzerland on obstacle 4.
Deborah Laderoute of Canada, one of two female drivers.
Obstacle 3 was Spooky Hollow.
This is a US team.
This is Fredrik Persson of Sweden.
Obstacle 2 is through the same water obstacle that the cross country course uses.
This is the first driver on course Georg Von Stein of Germany.
This is Mike Mc Lennan of the US.
The driving marathon day starts with a 6k drive through the fields. Then they have to walk for 1k. There is a 10 minute vet hold and then they start the obstacles.
The obstacles are timed and they get 0.2 penalty points for every second they spend in the obstacle. So they go full out in each obstacle.
Obstacle 1 is hard to see because the hedges are high.
This may be Tomas Eriksson of Sweden but I won’t swear to that.
This is a better video but a way worse go. Bill Long of the US. Strong language alert.
I’ve never heard of Blogtoberfest until this morning. It is a pledge to post every day in October on any topic my little brain desires. You sign up with Mr. Linky. He’s a seducer is Mr. Linky. I fall for him every time.
October is an interesting month for me. I’m going to the World Equestrian Games next weekend. I plan on taking enough pictures there to fill a whole month of posts. A few weeks later I’m going to judge a trail ride that includes a costume contest. Photo ops galore. I’m bringing a costume for every day. It is sort of hard to think up costumes that are cool but also mobile enough to be able to work around horses while wearing.
My big news of the day is that I’m now officially enrolled in acupuncture class starting in January. I’ve been wanting to do this for years but it is expensive. I finally found a way to work it all out. Now I’m going to have to get smart. I signed up for the mixed animal track. That’s dogs, cats, horses, and exotics. There is a small animal option and a horse only option but no. I decided to be complicated. Luckily Prize and her buddies are a bunch of invalids so I have two foundered horses, a horse with navicular disease, and a horse with severe arthritis to practice on. Now I just need to find some busted up dogs that I have easy access to in order to practice.
I need a flag on a stick.
That’s what I’ve learned so far from watching the World Equestrian Games. I subscribed to the FEI TV site so I can watch everything. The games are also on Universalsports.com but they are only showing the three Olympic events – dressage, show jumping, and eventing. I care more about seeing the driving and vaulting and endurance.
Right now I’m watching the reining. I don’t really care about reining but it is fun.
My mother and I are driving down in two weeks to see the Driving Marathon phase and the vaulting finals live. We need flags on sticks to wave from the stands.
Is it bad when the farrier says that your horse has “Morgan control issues” and then gives up trying to reset a shoe?
Is it also bad when your horse picks up you, the farrier, and the barn owner and runs backwards down the aisle while having a chain over her nose, a twitch on, and being fed treats?
Are we surprised that Miss Prize is now barefoot again? If she doesn’t stay sound I’ll have to bring the tranquilizers…
How can you tell if your horse is feeling better? Equine Avoidance Manuevers (EAM) are put in place.
EAM happen when you are trying to brush out a thick tangled Morgan mane with the horse standing in the stall. She dances forward and back to get away from you. Then she shuffles sideways to get moral support from her neighbor. Since for the last few months this horse hasn’t taken any unneccesary steps this is a huge breakthrough. This makes you so happy that you don’t even yell at her to hold still.
The getting-better-horse may also chew on your shirt, head butt you, and engage in other naughtiness now that her thoughts aren’t full of concerns about her feet.
Since she got away with low grade naughtiness you can safely expect an escalation of the naughty until she isn’t cute any more. Bad pony!
Miss Prize has gotten spoiled with her uber-expensive footwear. The low rent foam board and duct tape are no more. Let it be known that she destroyed the one that the barn owner put on. My super vet duct tape bandage had to be CUT OFF.
She wasn’t having it. She’s a brand name footwear kind of girl.
Look at the disgusted/long-suffering look. I had just put the green ice wraps on her. I think she wants to get better just so we leave her alone.
I have a running coach.
I didn’t really mean to have one. It started innocently enough. The SO wanted to go to the track to run when I did. The first time we did our own thing. The second time I decided that in the spirit of togetherness I would do whatever he did.
Conversation while walking from the car to the track:
Him: You are the competition.
Me: I am?
Him: Yes
Me: What is the competition?
Him: I don’t know yet.
Me: So, are you just going to look over at me at some point and say, “I win”?
Him: That wouldn’t be sporting.
Me: ‘kay
Him: At this point, you are the better runner and that’s just pathetic.
Me, mock pouting: Thanks sweetie
Him: You know what I mean.
Ah, ego. This is why I hadn’t suggested running with him. He used to be really good. Like trophies around the house good. Now he is broken. He is not happy.
We warmed up by walking a lap and then started running on the straightaways on the track and walking the curves. I stayed a few steps behind him. I decided that it would be bad for the male ego if I passed him right off. We alternated walking, running full laps, and running on the straightaways for a while. I decided to see what would happen if I sped up a bit on one of the straightaways. He sped up too. I decided not to push it too hard and backed off. He didn’t mention it but as we approached the next running point he hissed back over his shoulder, “Easy!” Then he added laps. That may have just been a coincidence or I may have been being punished for being bad.
It reminded me of racing Spirit. He was always the fastest horse in the neighborhood. But as he got older young whippersnappers moved in. Then he was 20 years old racing 5 year olds and it was harder to win. He still could do it but the young horse would be close to him. I had to work out a system with the other rider before the race so that when we crossed the finish point that we had decided on they would stop their horse. If they didn’t Spirit wouldn’t stop. He would have killed himself rather than be passed in a race*. The male ego is a fragile thing.
The SO told me afterwords that I was a good running partner because I was determined. I’m not sure what that means exactly. He pushed me to go consistently faster than I would on my own and to do more intervals so that is good.
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* Spirit got passed one time. I was 15 or 16. We had gone to a lesson and he was being a jerk. He wouldn’t listen at all. My instructor told me to take him into a large hay field. They had a path mowed around the edge. She said to run him all the way around to get some of his excess energy out so he could focus on his lesson. We were about halfway around moving at a really fast pace when I heard hoofbeats.
I looked back in time to see a blur fly past us like we were standing still. It surprised Spirit at first and then he kicked into another gear that I didn’t even know he had. He went about 25 yards and the other horse was still pulling away from us. Spirit slowed back down to the speed we were originally going. He knew it was hopeless. He was very subdued and listened to his lesson after that. I don’t think it was shaking off the excess energy as much as being publicly humiliated in his mind that made him mild mannered that day. Turns out the other horse was a Thoroughbred recently off the track who needed to run to even be sane in regular work but I don’t think Spirit would have cared that he only ever got beaten by a professional racer.
Prize has trashed her previous sneakers. I liked them because they were well padded but they weren’t very sturdy. I bought her a new brand that seemed sturdier but they aren’t as padded. They had one other fine attribute though:
Pink! She’s styling now. The male barn owner said that he thought I was kidding about buying her pink boots. Silly man. We don’t kid about things like that. It was all I could do not to add rhinestones.
I know that she will take these in the mud so I took lots of pictures now when they are still pretty. We’ll have to figure out how to pad them up for her since I don’t think she likes them as much. But at least these ones aren’t as floppy for her.
Here are the rescued orphan babies at the farm hanging out with one of their “uncles.” All the big horses have taken an interest in making sure the babies have manners and are protected at all times even though they are not in the same pasture with them. Prize and her buddies are to the left in this photo and then there is another group in the pasture behind the babies.
The one on the left is 1 month and 1 day old. The one on the right is 6 weeks old.
I’m off to Dallas in the morning to judge a ride but I’ll leave you with this video dedicated to all the spammers out there because you have to love “Baby Got Back” references.
From The Horse:
National competitive trail mileage record holder Elmer Bandit, 38, passed away Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the pasture of his longtime boarding stable, Misty River Equestrian Center, in Independence, Mo.
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In September 2009 Wood and Elmer completed the Stephens Forest Competitive Trail event near Lucas, Iowa, which pushed Elmer’s lifetime mileage to 20,780 miles, surpassing the previous record held by Wing Tempo. Elmer won numerous National Championships over his 34-year career.
I judged Elmer (and Tempo) many times. He was amazing. At vet check in he always looked his age. (He was 36 the last time I judged him.) This would lead to fervent prayers to any and all deities – Please don’t let him die on my watch!!!!!
But then he would go out on the trail. He would get stronger and stronger over the weekend. By the end of the 60 miles he was bouncing along like a young ‘un. He would give you an extended trot at the end of the ride that would make you forget that he had just gone 60 miles or that he was older than me.
The last time I judged him he had the highest score of any horse in the entire ride. I kept thinking to myself that I must be doing something wrong if an elderly horse was outscoring everyone else. But then he’d go bounding by totally sound and energized and looking better than anyone else and I realized that he was just that good.
Prize has been dieting. I know you can’t tell from this picture with a full winter coat but there is less of her. This has been accomplished by very strict dietary guidelines imposed on her and her two buddies in the “Plump Pony Paddock.” I decided that I would go over there today and slip her a Christmas peppermint. Bad, I know. I had to make sure I was stealthy so as not to get caught by the barn owners. But she loves peppermint and it is near a holiday and if she didn’t eat these mini candy canes I would and that wasn’t good either.
All was well at first. I was stealthy. I got up to her and then, I couldn’t get the cane out of the wrapper. She was about to eat my hand off. I finally was able to slip it to her when one of her buddies noticed the activity. Game on. He’s on a diet too and he was not going to miss out on whatever treat I was giving. Right as he came over with ears pinned at Prize the barn owner snuck up behind me and said, “Hi.” The horses started bucking at each other like crazy beasts. The barn owner was reassuring me that they normally got along wonderfully while I was standing there deciding whether to ‘fess up or not. I decided not. I managed to slip Prize another piece too. Two mini candy canes isn’t going to kill her. Her pasturemate might kill her because of preferential treatment though.
When I walked away they settled down. I’m a bad influence.
Then I had a two hour conversation with the barn owner about everything wrong with kids and men. We swapped divorce stories. (Hers is better than mine.) We agreed that people with 6 kids under the age of 10 should not announce another pregnancy by writing in their Christmas card “God continues to surprise us with His blessings.” If you are still surprised at this point you need a remedial sex-ed class. We discussed ways we’ve disciplined kids that would probably get us in big trouble if we told the wrong people but that we think are funny (and were effective!) It was a nice afternoon.
By Thursday night (2 days ago) Prize’s left foot felt better but she wasn’t able to use her right foot well at all. She was almost three legged. It was very sad. She was angry about being inside but couldn’t move very well at all. I called a farrier friend of mine to see what the latest and greatest founder treatments were since I don’t do horses most of the time.
She recommended a special kind of boot to pad her feet. I ordered them yesterday and got them today. Of course when I got to the barn she was feeling better than ever. I accused her of feeling better as soon as the boot supplier swiped my credit card! But the barn owner said that she had been pretty sore this morning before her banamine.
She was a very good sport about putting on her boots. I expected her to have a fit so I had in her the arena. They are padded enough that she is about an inch taller.
She walked off sound immediately. The barn owner and I watched her for a while. Then he noted that the boots were going to fall off. I said that I hadn’t velcroed them on very tightly. It took us a bit to realize what we were seeing. She was trotting. Two days ago she couldn’t walk and now she was sound at the trot. Pretty cool. Of course, we’ll need to she how she does when she isn’t high on pain meds.
They aren’t very pretty. Everyone keeps commenting on that. I threatened to get pink glitter pen and decorate them in a pretty princess style.
I got a call tonight that Prize wasn’t walking well.
Me: “I’m heading to the barn. Prize is sick.”
The SO: “Did they call a vet?”
Me: “Yeah, me.”
Him: “Oh, yeah, I, uh, meant one that wasn’t emotionally involved.”
Good save, I guess.
I got there and she was flat out in her stall. She’d been out all day and was reluctant to walk when they went to bring the horses inside. Her pulse was up and she was breathing hard. She seemed to have a little gas colic. Eventually she stood up and she isn’t putting much weight on her front feet so I’m assuming she’s trying to founder too. Her feet aren’t very warm and she doesn’t have noticeable pulses in her legs. She never gets sick so I’m hoping that everything is on the mild side and she’s just being a drama queen because she isn’t used to pain. After all, she didn’t let any of this stop her from eating all her hay! For tonight she’s drugged up with anti – inflammatories. I’ll recheck her in the morning to see if we need to get more aggressive with her or if it passed.