The Truth is That...

I am something of an eBay Queen. Or Princess. Or maybe Lady-in-Waiting. Anyway, I'm very good at finding what I want on eBay, and getting a good deal on it. Like my top hat. If I chose to go to Dover Saddlery and purchase the Grand Prix top hat, it would cost me about $500. Yes, $500. Orrrrrrrr... I can look on eBay, and get one that is almost brand new and in stellar condition for $65. Guess which option I chose.

eBay is also useful when one seems to have a penchant for things that have been discontinued or are no longer stylish. Like a Beval New Canaan square raised breastplate. Breastplates are pretty much not cool in Hunter World (guilt by association, here). Beval Saddlery discontinued the New Canaan line a while ago. Apparently plain, square raised is also not very cool. $50 on eBay (price new: over $200... moot, because it can't really be purchased new anymore).

My cohorts wonder how I am able to get such good deals. "How do you do it?" they ask. "I always get outbid!"

The truth really is this: I get outbid - a lot. Do you have ANY idea how many times I had to bid on rust breeches before I finally got mine? It's true. But I don't talk about it. Not because I'm ashamed or embarrassed (though maybe I should be, given how much time I actually spend on eBay...), but rather because it's not very much fun to talk about what you didn't win on eBay. I mean, really? Who wants to do that?

The other part of this truthfulness is that I. am. Cheap. Yes, with a capital 'C.' No, not as in easy. I decide exactly how much (or, really, in my case, how little) I am willing to spend on a given tacky item (pun intended), and if I get outbid, I wait until another rolls around.

So that's the truth behind my success on eBay. I'm cheap, and I'm patient. It's easier to be patient when you're buying stuff that you don't really need.

It's coming...

Until recently, I owned the *perfect* breastplate. All flat leather, lots of adjustability, no loose, flapping ends, and not an overwhelming width. It was perfect.

And then it broke.

Now, I knew that my *perfect* breastplate was on its last legs - I'd had the damn thing for about 10 years, and it was on its way downhill when I got - so I had been searching for a replacement as perfect as the original.

Analysis: Perfect replacement does not exist.

There is a company called Bit of Britain. They cater mostly to eventers. (Come to the Dark Side... we have cookies.) Their in-house line of leather goods is called "Nunn Finer." I like Nunn Finer products. They are well-made, quality products that appeal to those who want workmanlike items that will last forever with proper care.

There is an Amish harness shop called Bartville Harness Shop in Middle-of-Nowhere, Pennsylvania. They cater mostly to people who want good quality, workmanlike leather goods. They sell their items at about half the cost of a normal retailer. Oh, and they make many of the Nunn Finer products for Bit of Britain.

As you may or may not know, The Boyfriend lives in the Bronx (yes, New York). I sometimes go to visit him. It turns out that Middle-of-Nowhere, PA is about 2.5 hours from the Bronx.

I like road trips.

Moral of the story: I now have a perfect replacement for the *perfect* breastplate being made by the Amish, to my specifications, for me. And it is going to cost me less money than purchasing an imperfect replacement at a normal retailer would. Even with the cost of gas for the roadtrip. YAY!

Lessons Day!

Since I've decided that Sparky needs more, uh, exposure to various kinds of riders, and because I had Monday off work, it was decided that Jen and I were going to take our horses to her barn of employment so the Sparkplug could be used in one of her lessons she teaches for young people who are generally of the teenage persuasion. Jen was also thinking that riding her OTTB, Tiki, in a lesson with Jen's Boss-Lady would also be a good idea (See blog here: http://tailsoftheottb.blogspot.com/2011/01/maybe-this-one-will-work.html ). I had planned on just watching, but somehow I ended up getting dragged into it, too... so I figure, well, if I'm going to lesson on one horse, why not two? So it was decided to also take Kelly, a young SWB mare I've been riding for a friend, in order to take a lesson on her, too.

After a slightly mad rush to load, trailer, unload, and prepare horses, I hopped up on the Sparkplug. Jen and I rode in our lesson, and, once complete, I rode Kelly. Oh, boy, was she hot that day. The lessons were nothing earth-shattering: W-T-C and jumping through a gymnastic. Jen's Boss-Lady had a faboulous analogy about the contact we should keep with our leg: it's like holding an egg. You want the contact to be supportive enough that the egg doesn't fall, but you don't want so much that the egg cracks. Nobody wants raw egg on their pants, especially their Tailored Sportsmans. Jen's Boss-Lady also introduced to me "The Ear Game." If your horse twitches an ear in response to something you do, you have their attention. If there is no ear twitch, you're pretty much background noise, and it's time to do something to get their attention back on you. Fabulous trick. Overall, Sparky was a very good boy; Kelly was as good as she could be, given her mood. Jen's Boss-Lady said the best thing I can do for her is to make her uncomplicated, and work towards keeping all her parts working together as one unit.

I've decided this about lessons (especially when taking a lesson with someone from whom you don't frequently): It's not about taking EVERYTHING to heart; it's about taking the bits and pieces that help you NOW, applying them, and filing away the rest for future reference. It was very interesting to hear another person's opinion on my overall equitation, both good and "needs improvement"... I was actually complimented on my upper body over fences, which has never happened before (so it very well may have been a fluke!). It was also pointed out to me that I tend to put my horses *too much* on the rail, which forces their (substansial) hind ends off the track. Hmmm... see, this is why eyes on the ground are good. I will be keeping this in mind.

After riding two horses I know well, the obvious next thing to do is to ride a horse I've never before ridden in yet another lesson, this time with Jen's students. The point was to either a) Be a good example, or B) Serve as a terrible warning. So I did this in the same lesson in which one of Jen's students-of-the-teenage-persuasion rode Sparky. Again, it went well overall. I think I managed to not be a terrible warning, and Sparky mostly behaved himself. As he started to get tired near the end, he did pop in a buck that sent his student-of-the-teenage-persuasion over his shoulder... but she really should have been sitting up better. ;-) She was good-natured about it (else I wouldn't have mentioned it), saying that she *did* need that as a reminder to sit up.

The big take-away messages of the day were the egg analogy and The Ear Game. Sparky got in some good experience being ridden by a rider who isn't me. Kelly got some good experience in being off her native lands. Quite nicely (as in a nice surprise type nicely, not that I was told it in a nice fashion - the fashion was a little more matter-of-fact, rather than "oh, let me fawn on you"), I was told that I was a good rider for these green horses. I guess, sometimes, having more guts than brains works out.

And the hunt begins...

It all started innocently enough just before Christmas. We got a "new" saddle in at the store (I work at a consignment tack store): a Collegiate Diploma Convertible. As sort of an impulse, I took it home to try out on my horses, with the thought that it could potentially be a second saddle (not that I can ride two horses at once, but there have been times that having a second saddle would have been a good thing!) Well, so much for that innocent whim. The saddle (which I had thought would be far too narrow) actually fit my horses much better than I expected; as for me, I felt much better balanced, and I wasn't ending up in a chair seat on Star (always a challenge, due to her conformation). The fit is still not quite ideal for my horses, but much better than my current saddle. It was really the kick in the pants that I needed to get moving with finding a new saddle.

“Well, it sounds like you just did!” you say. Weeeell… no. The problem is this: I'm a tack snob, in the sense that I prefer better-quality tack because it wears better and lasts longer. There were also some structural features of the Collegiate (especially when changing the gullet) with which I was not thrilled, and to be honest, though the saddle was much better than my current saddle, it still wasn’t a perfect fit for me OR my horses. So I returned the Collegiate.

After talking with the owner of the consignment tack store where I work on Saturdays, she suggested I try the County Symmetry that we had in. So after I got back from Christmas, I did. And it was saddle LOVE. Comfortable, balanced, fit horses well, fit me well - I was able to do an auto release over a 3' vertical, and I've never been able to do that over anything bigger than 2'6" before (and even that might be a stretch). Problem: $2000 for a used, discontinued model. I can’t justify that kind of money right now. So back it went.

However, I am now out a saddle, because I cannot, in good conscience, put my old saddle back on my horses' backs. *Sigh*

So I start trolling eBay. Lo and behold, I find a used County Symmetry that was going to go for a good price, so I put in my bid.

And thus goes the Master Saddle Procurement Plan:
Plan A: Win the Symmetry off eBay

Sounds great, right? It was. Until I got outbid.

So the Master Saddle Procurement Plan changed to something like this:
Plan B: Buy the Collegiate for now and us the extra money to participate in the Greg Best clinic being held at a nearby farm
Plan C: Buy the Collegiate for now and continue saving money to eventually purchase a nicer, higher-end saddle.

As much as I would have loved to have participated in the Greg Best clinic, I chose to go with Plan C. To get the most from the clinic, I would have wanted to participate all three days, and two things prevent me from doing so. #1) Having to take a day off work doesn’t work so well when an individual has no available vacation time, and #2) The clinic is the same weekend as the IEA show. Jen, my honorary big sister, usually uses Star to meet her team’s horse quota for IEA shows, and I couldn’t just say, “Nope, not available, sorry.” (Well, I could, but I would have felt bad).

So I now own a Collegiate Convertible Diploma – the very same saddle that started all this.

But the hunt continues…

Three times is a charm, right?

I'm going to be honest here: I'm feeling more than a bit frustrated right now. I've hit the ground three times in the last week... oh, wait, that would also be the last three times I rode. Granted, one of those times was not falling off a horse, but still, it's getting pretty old. I would be REALLY happy if this trend were to just END now.

Wednesday was really kind of a freak thing. As we were walking back down to the barn after a very good jump school, Sparky spooked at something near the upper barn, and I mean he really spooked. This was not some half-hearted-I'm-feeling-silly thing. And in the process of this spook, he knocked me down and pretty much ran me over. I hit the ground HARD - so hard, in fact, that my head hurt from the force... and I had on my helmet. Thank god I did, otherwise it would have been my bloody head, and not my torn helmet. New helmet and Advil needed? Check.

Saturday rolls around, and Star and Sparky are going to be used as horses at an IEA show. Cool. I knew Star would have/be no problem, so I went to the show before going to work in order to school Sparky. We walk once around the ring tracking left, turn around, walk once around tracking right, and then pick up a trot. Once around to the right, and turn around, rinse, repeat. Tracking left, Sparky spooks at the dog (which IS NOT supposed to be there, by the way), and scoots out from under me. Now this one, I could have saved it and stayed on, but I decided that I really did not have that much pride, and pretty much let myself fall.

Sunday. Riding a horse I'd never ridden before (but had met) for someone else at a show. Just on the flat, should be pretty easy. Sure, until the horse decides to spook, spin, rear a bit, causing the saddle to slip, and thereby dumping you on the ground. All because of scary horse-eating people walking by on the hill. And the show hasn't even started. Sweet.

To rub salt into my wounds (because, by this point, it was more than a bruised ego), I find that Sparky's first IEA rider didn't quite grasp the concept of how to ride him - after I had told her - and after a nearly disastrous round with said rider really pissing him off due to her lack of concept-grasping ability, and his subsequent grudge-holding against subsequent riders (much more tactful though they were), he was pulled from the rest of the show. I was told that 90% of the problem lay with the first kid - hell, I'll even cut her more slack and say 75%-80% - but it's hard to not take personally, thinking that you should have done a better job in terms of training your horse - ESPECIALLY when you know that there are other trainers, coaches, etc out there thinking, "Well, that was a crap horse."

Bah! So that all sucks, and I'm definitely ready for it to end, but it wasn't all bad. The horse I rode on Sunday did pretty well overall, and Sparky had actually done a really nice job with his warm-up on Saturday and had also done well on Wednesday. I am told Star was absolutely wonderful at the show on Saturday - one of Jen's kids drew her and won her class, so you can't complain about that. According to the kid, Star was perfect, got perfect distances, got her leads, everything. You can't ask for better. And Oren did make me feel better with his astonishment that the IEA kid couldn't ride Sparky: "Even I can ride Sparky!"

New helmet - purchased at a great price - should be on the way soon, and I might be coming closer to finding a saddle that is actually wide enough for my horses. Overall, that's life. More shit piled on shit is still just a pile of shit, so since it's all the same, I'd rather get it over and done with. And that seems to be the case, so moving on.

Now if I could just stop falling off horses!

2010 Reserve World Champion Jumper

After the ribbons were presented for Jumper III, we were called back into the arena for the high point World Championship presentations. I had said to Joyce, "I think she's got it. I think Star is Reserve Champion," but I was so overwhelmed at that point that I wasn't sure.

MM and her mare, a very cute mare who reminds me of Star and also goes by "Star," took the World Championship, having won all three classes. Because I like her horse, and because MM is actually quite a nice person, I'm okay with that. My Star and I had come, having no expectations, having not competed in the jumpers in over a year (and over three years before that, and not at that height), and did the best we could.

And our best was damn good! Much to my delight, Star did, indeed, earn the title of 2010 Reserve World Champion Jumper! I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, so I'm pretty sure I did some of both. We were awarded a big tri-color ribbon, floral neck sash, a red square cooler, a wooden plaque with a silver horsehead and engraved plate, and I will be receiving a little-ass check.

Our victory lap and jump in the sport horse arena were followed by a presentation in the main Colesium later that afternoon.

I could not possibly have been more proud of my horse, and I can honestly say that it was the proudest and happiest moment of my life. And I had done it on my own. I had set out to do my best, knowing that there is not another horse there that could touch my horse if I rode well. And this was absolutely the case. If I had ridden this --> <-- much better, Star would have been champion.

Guess we'll just have to go back next year!

The BIG Day - Jumper III

A really fun (but not easy) course and potentially awesome jump-off... as long as I can remember the courses! (Are we noticing a trend here?) Thankfully, Wednesday's course was a Table 2IIa, which means everyone jumps the first course before anyone does the jump-off. Awesome - this means I really only have to remember one course at a time!

It's do or die time, figuratively speaking. By my rough calculation, Star is in the running for the reserve champion title... and currently in the lead for it. Annoying, however, is the fact that MM is again after me in the posted order of go... I really should be closer to the end, and she should be before me. Dammit.

Upon walking the course, we find that the combination at 3 is literally set on 2 1/2 strides. I walked it a couple times, came up with the same answer, and decided that I had walked it wrong (or calculated wrong), and decided I would resort to my usual strategy in this type of situation: let my horse find the distance. (Sometimes, you have to be willing and able to just sit back and let your horse do the thinking... and thankfully, I have a horse that can think). After walking the course, MM and I spoke briefly, and she mentioned that her horse could not do it in two strides; she was going to have to add. Hey, so I did walk it right! As MM said this to me, after first being excited that I was not an idiot (in this instance, anyway), I thought to myself, "Star can do it in two," and the game plan officially changed. We were going to do it in two strides. Sometimes I can think, too.

The time allowed for the first round was 72 seconds, but you're kind of all over the arena, so it's not as super-generous a time as it sounds. I decide that in the interest of leaving up rails, I'm going to try for a slightly less forward pace than the day before, but save time by jumping some things on a bit of an angle, having neat, tidy turns, and not adding the stride in the combination.
A few other horses go, and then it's our turn. Just before we enter the ring, Oren informs me that the time allowed has been adjusted... to 62 seconds. Great. Guess our pace is going to have to be a little more forward than I'd thought. We take the straight approach to fence 1 (vertical), large-ish right to fence 2 (vertical), and continue the bend to fence 3, the combination (vertical to oxer). We kept a nice, forward pace, balanced, and Star jumped through perfectly: up, over, one, two, out. Another large-ish right to fence 4, a vertical set on a diagonal, which was followed by a rollback to fence 5. We jumped 4 on an angle to make a smaller turn back to fence 5, which was a decent oxer. Started turning back to the left over 5 to cut between 4 and 8 and save time running back to 6, a Swedish oxer near the opposite end of the arena (also on an angle). Jump 6 on an angle as well, taking a straight path to go around 2, making a right turn to 7, another oxer. From 7, a bending line to 8, an oxer set right on the center line going home. Land, one stride and we're through the timers, clean and under time! Star gets a HUGE pat, and we exit the arena, and I start contemplating the jump-off course.

The jump-off course was 1-7-10-11-6-8. I had learned something else during the initial... the fences are NOT set exactly as they are laid out on the course diagram. In fact, fence 2/10 is set very close to fence 7. Hmmm... this could be interesting, as my jump-off plan had been to cut inside fence 2/10 to get to 7. Hmmm...

It's our turn for the jump-off, the time allowed for which has also been adjusted to 38 seconds. We approach fence 1 on an angle this time, to minimize the time between passing through the start timer and jumping the fence... and to set up for the turn to fence 7. I knew that it was taking a BIG risk, but I also knew that I have an amazing horse. We stuck with the plan, and Star perfectly made the super-tight inside turn to fence 7, perfectly jumping the oxer on an angle. And then I promptly forgot where I was going.

The plan had been to make a hard right and quick left back to 10, but that didn't happen. By the time I remembered where I needed to be going, we were somewhere down near fence 4. Oh, shit! So I do the only thing I can do at that point; I tell Star to GO!!! A sharp right to get turned around, somehow manage to not cross my track, gallop to 10, set-up, over, and gun it. Gallop for 11, taking the shortest path possible and start turning left in the air over 11 to make the turn inside the timer to go back to 6. I will admit, that one was close; I wasn't sure we were going to make it inside the timer. I'm pretty sure it was sheer determination that made it happen. No longer in danger of knocking down the timer, I tell Star to GO!! again, and we gallop up to 6, the Swedish oxer. Set-up, over at an angle, immediate roll-back to the right to finish with fence 8. I push Star about as hard as she can go, yelling, "Go, go, go, go, GO!!!" the whole way. Again, she gallops up the fence, we set-up briefly, and she flies over the fence. I am told that as Star landed from jump 8, she was landing even with the timer... which was set two strides out from the jump. The announcement came: "And she talks her way into first place with a time of 35 seconds." A chorus of, "Wow! Nice round!"s greeted us as we exited the ring. I was SO pleased with my horse... she absolutely rose to the occassion and stepped up to make up for my error; I could not have asked for better!

Now I just had to wait for MM to go. I didn't watch her round, but I heard a HARD knock of rails, and I prayed they would fall. I am also told that MM almost fell off as well at another jump. Neither the rails nor MM fell. Nor did MM get lost. With a jump-off time of 29 seconds, MM won the class, and Star and I finished second... but NO ONE else, not even MM, attempted the inside turn from 1 to 7 that Star and I had made. Apparently, when others saw what we were doing, they were in absolute shock and disbelief - "No, no she's not!" "She's not making that turn!" "Omigod, she is!" - afraid to watch and fascinated at the same time and absolutely amazed that we successfully did it.

I was very pleased that we made the difficult turn successfully, but I can't say I was amazed... but then, I already knew that I had an amazing horse, and for an amazing horse, amazing things are the norm.

Ribbon Tally:
Hunters: 2-4th, 1-7th, 5th Overall High Point
Jumpers: 2-2nds, 1-4th