A 40-Day Crash Course in Eventing: A Prelim Mom's Journey to Starter

Little Emily Kicking on September 16, 2017 The last 24 hours have been filled with a whirlwind of emotions. Yesterday, I competed in my first schooling show since I was in the second grade, which means it was also the second one of my entire life. My biggest problem heading into it wasn't memorizing my dressage test, nor was it being brave for show jumping. No, you see, when I sweat, my glasses slide off of my nose. You may laugh, but this is a problem for us glasses wearing folk! Richard stopped on the way to the show and purchased a pair of croakies to hold my prescription sunglasses in place.  He is the greatest husband in the world.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t tighten enough to secure my glasses. So big decision - do I ride the test constantly pushing my glasses up my nose, or do I take them off and ride in a blur. What the heck…let’s go for blurry! Moving on, I became a bit paranoid as we drove to the show.  BANG!  Me: What was that? Someone h...

September 12, 2017 I didn’t want to ride today. Thanks to my granddaughter, I was battling a daycare stomach bug. But I knew it had to be done as I have worked on the jumping components with Erika but not dressage. I am choosing my days very deliberately now. After this lesson, I will only have time to fine tune what has been taught and hope for the best. Battling waves of nauseousness, Romeo and I headed to Merry Hour. We had a lengthy walking warm-up as to save the stomach bouncing for my lesson! I rode the test for Erika. Hopefully, we will have time in the next two weeks to work on connection and bend but for now it was all about accuracy; when to ask for transitions, how to aim at letters, the judges vantage point and those darn circles. Or in may case, ovals.  We broke the test down and worked on making the circles round and using the corners.   Don't throw up. Don't throw up. It was a good lesson, leaving me with lots to lay awake at night and memorize. ...

September 7, 2017 Today, I talked Erika into meeting me at another nearby farm, Cedar Valley. I had told her I wanted to work on stadium, but once I arrived, I changed my mind. The weather was amazing; crisp and cool. The view from the dressage arena was too nice to pass up. Forget jumping, that’s too stressful on a day like this. Unfortunately, Erika didn’t agree and we headed to the jumping arena. Em and Loki were also along for the ride. At this point, Em has decided not to compete at Jump Start. This has been a difficult decision for both of us. It was part of my dream that she compete with me, of course not in the same division, but I had imagined us walking horses together, braiding manes and giving pep talks to one another. Fortunately, Em has her priorities straight. She is taking an extremely hard accounting class this semester and couldn’t dedicate the time needed to prepare for the show. She will still be there by my side at Jump Start but studying in the down time. ...

Monday, September 4, 2017 It was Labor Day, and Romeo and I were on the road early headed to River Glen for another cross-country schooling. This time I was nervous. I had a sense of dread, not fear, just a sinking feeling. I figured if it didn’t go well, Erika might be inclined to say we were not going to be ready by the end of the month and pull the plug. With butterflies in my stomach, I tacked up Romeo. My jaws hurt.  Stop clenching your teeth . Without Emily to double-check everything, I was even more insecure. I enlisted Erika’s help with the jumping boots ( not dressage boots ) and she also presented me with a crap strap to use for the day. For those of you who don’t know, a crap strap, as eventers call them, is a simple leather strap that is fitted around the horse’s neck. It comes in handy when you lose your balance or need something to hang on to as you're careening through the fields yelling, “Oh crap!” A small hiccup in our plan was that Erika and I had com...