SUBSCRIBE TODAY Smiley face  Get updates via email! 




We Are Flying Solo

April 16, 2010

The Night Before Rears Its Ugly Head

It's always a comedy of errors with me.  But I guess if it wasn't this would be a really boring blog.

I have cleaned enough tack for five horses. See, as I was cleaning my bridles for tomorrow, I thought, hey, while I have the cleaning stuff out, why not clean up and oil the old bridles hanging in the trailer and put them in a bridle bag so they will store better? About halfway through, it became clear this was a bad idea. So much leather...the only good part is when one old cavesson broke in my hand so I didn't have to clean it anymore!

The trailer is packed with a full water jug and hay bag; the first aid kit is stowed next to saddles and bridles and girths and spare girths and spare reins; the galloping boots and splint boots and bell boots and open front boots and spare bell boots and spare spare bell boots are hung.

Since I realized that despite my somewhat exhaustive supply of horse accessories, I was a bit short on apparel for a recognized dressage arena, sigh. All the buttons had been snapped off my coat at the last horse trial during an exhausted dismount. In my own true redneck fashion, I was just going to safety pin it shut. Well, BO would have none of that and insisted I borrow her jacket and stock tie.

So now I have a $600 jacket and a stock tie I don't know how to tie hanging in my closet. I am horrified to put the jacket on in fear that I will somehow ruin it merely by coexisting near it.

Oh and because smooth sailing would be too easy, as I was bathing Solo, I discovered he had a very inflamed muscle in his back. OF COURSE he does. He got a Sore-No-More massage and a dose of bute and a stern admonishment that he better have himself fixed up by 1 pm tomorrow!

Dear god, why does every adventure have to be so...typically me??!

6 comments:

  1. LOL are we related?

    I totally know how u feel. I am a walking disaster, especially when it comes to special events. Somehow, it always turns out ok though. Good luck tomorrow!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm the first to admit that I don't know squat about eventing rules but... at a recognised horse trial, wouldn't bute be a banned substance? Like I said, I don't know, I'm just sayin'....
    Best of luck to the two of you, and I'm sending him tonnes of healing vibes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You and Solo will be the very best you both can be, I just know it. Enjoy your first run with the big guys! I will think good thoughts for you all weekend!

    I feel I should also remind you that just like your Senior Prom, this one long-anticipated and fretted-over event will be what it will be and nothing more. Despite what you see in the movies, the underdog will probably not get the highest score in stadium and win the whole shebang, the evil plotting rich guy's horse will not be disqualified and publicly shamed, and sadly, the entire room will NOT break out in synchronized dancing. But if it does, you MUST YouTube it!

    Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. suma, due to recent rule changes, bute is now legal in competition. You just can't have more than two drugs in the system at once.

    SP, I skipped Senior Prom, not my style, LOL. But I sure would like it if the underdog won the whole shebang, ROFL! I will catch it on video if we do!

    I will let Solo tell me what his limits are and if he says he can't go any further, I will walk off course with no hesitation, knowing we did our best.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah. But you get Wonderful Mommy points for:

    a) noticing an inflamed muscle (I'm amazed at how much stuff people don't notice)

    b) putting any tear-out-your-hair feelings aside and immediately treating him with appropriate care.

    c) sharing your tear-out-your-hair feelings in the right place. We hear ya!

    Whatever happens tomorrow (and may it be shining), you get the Good Mommy blue ribbon!
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  6. Going back and reading all these show things is awesome! Except I do have to agree with Sumaclab, Bute is not really legal, as in right before your dressage test you could not give your lame horse some bute so it will perform well. The rules are written so that the horse cannot have more than a specified concentration of bute in its blood sample (15 micrograms/milliliter of blood), so in theory it would really depend on how fast your horse metabolizes the drug as to how long before the competition your horse could have the drug. Before the new rules, the horse was allowed to have below max limits of 2 NSAIDS at one time, but now it can only have 1. (And of couse never Bute and Banamine together.)

    ReplyDelete