EN Today: Burning eventing questions, part II

Tori Rodriguez and her horse Plaid recently returned to eventing after a hiatus. Since it’s been a while, there are a few odds and ends she’s still trying to sort out.

From Tori:

This is a series written by me, about me, and my return to eventing. We’ve (that’s me and my horse Plaid who has been chronically lame for 5 years) been away awhile, so sometimes we need a little help with the unknowns. Read Part I here.

Well, we did it! That’s right, we made it, AND without anyone having to reference my will that I put in my medical armband before SJ.

The dressage was not as good as it should have been, admittedly. I was so happy about him being calm (and by calm I mean falling asleep in his hay bag) that I didn’t push for the amount of contact we usually have at home. As a result, the horse I’ve been competing in dressage for the last two years had a not great dressage result. Oh well, who cares? I’m learning to be an eventer again and not give a hoot about dressage anyway.

My mantra in show jumping was ‘get through it get through it then you go cross country.’ Plaid was a little spooky, but I rode aggressively enough, and when his feet touched down after the last fence, I was so freakin happy because that means I get to go CROSS-COUNTRY!

Which, was awesome. Coming up that last hill, with 13 jumps behind us, legs pumping to the tune of the voice in my head saying ‘we’re going to make it, we’re going to make it,’ and finally flying over the last, having to pause for a minute before I went back to my people, a minute to pet my horse and take a breath and have a moment where I thanked him for bringing me home safely. That, was awesome.

BUT I still have questions. Maybe even more. So, here they are:

1. Smoothie lady, how do you do it?

2. When you fall off in the warm up for stadium, how the hell do you get back on to jump not only a clean show jumping round but a clean cross-country one as well?

3. Can someone please come help me read my horse’s tattoo number so we can compete in those OTTB things?

4. Can we ban 10-horse trailers at events so Buck Davidson can’t compete 3 horses in every division?

5. Does anyone know the number of the cross-country lady who tried to hand me a training level course map so I can apologize for laughing at her? She was about yay high and had blonde hair.

6. Did you know that if you go around telling food vendors, ‘hey I didn’t die today!’ they’ll put extra whip cream on your smoothie and maybe not charge you for a hot dog?

7. How do you convince your horse not to refuse jumps in the warm up ring because that’s not a great confidence booster when you have to go jump 16 fences in a row?

8. Is ‘We finished on our dressage score!’ the proper way to describe a good result that didn’t necessarily result in a good result?

9. Is the announcer supposed to announce your horse’s age after you finish your stadium round?

10. When can I do it again?!