Climb Every Mountain

Neighbouring Grayson Highlands SP has feral ponies.

With fuel prices up, bills to pay, time at a premium, and my bestest riding buddy with a schedule perhaps even more difficult than mine, it's been a long time since I've been able to hit the road and enjoy the woods with a pony.  These trips are also an important part of our conditioning regime; 20 miles of walking up and down mountains is an unparalleled way to strengthen your partner's hind end (and wear out yours!)

I shall wait no more!  BFF and I share a farrier, whose wonderfulness you can find on the team page; he and his family go to Mt Rogers National Recreation Area every year, which is part of George Washington National Forest.  This year, we actually scored an invitation, which sent me on a hunt for the perfect campground, as I require that my horse have a safe and comfortable place to rest after carting my butt up clifffs for 8 hours!  Bonus:  if my horse loses a shoe, I won't have to go far for a repair.

Reservations are now made and we will be off shortly to explore new vistas of Appalachian beauty and relax with good friends and a good beer.  Hopefully I will even remember to take pictures.

Team Flying Solo wishes everyone a safe and wonderful holiday weekend.  Share your horse riding/hugging/dreaming stories for Memorial Day!

Mt Rogers NRA - I can't wait to be back on the trail!

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There And Back Again

It feels like we’ve been away.  Lost in some nebulous pocket of time where we’ve been bouncing in circles, up and down the emotional roller coaster for so many hills, I've lost count.

He's sound!  Not sound.  Oh wait, yes, he's...oh, maybe not.  No, he'll be great!  Or perhaps...no?  Yes?

It's exhausting  to contemplate.

I scrambled madly, struggling to pick up pieces of Encore falling apart and stick them back in proper order, all while trying to be five other people at once.  There were thoughts coming at me from all directions, tugging me back and forth between hope and despair.

Everyone should own a horse.  It makes so many of life's other aspects seem so easy!!

Since our field season at work is well and truly underway, I won't have a regular schedule for quite some time.  As a result, once I decided to rest Encore a bit more post-Longleaf, I did mostly long lining and slow, brief schools during the sporadic intervals when I could squeeze him in.

April and early May, with their many trips and the whirlwind of Southern Eighths 3DE, came and went and finally, I had a couple weekends to myself and the resolve to nudge my horse back into some real work again.

What I found when I picked up my reins was a horse who had not only processed and finally accepted the contact thanks to the lines (go figure, that Holder lady was right), but one who felt like a horse again, instead of cobbled together parts, when he was doing it!  I was too tired to jump up and down, but when I'm not riding like an idiot, I get off my horse with a smile these days.

Because Away Again is away again again again again again.  Hmmm, I might have left out an again or two?

In the post-game analysis, I can see that his back and hind end were not strong enough yet for the intense work he did at Becky's.  We were so close, but as hard as I worked to bring him back after my knee surgery, I fell just a bit short.  Hence his back flare-up, causing soreness, which I can tell you from my own experience, just begets more soreness!  I am glad I made the decision to re-inject when I did and very glad I was able to pull up the blog archives from last year to remind myself of the healing timeline.

Which brings me back to now.  Given the aforementioned time pocket in which I had plenty of time to think.....mmm, just about everything to death, I did manage to clarify our path forward, armed with a much-beefed-up understanding of what Encore's body needs to be great.

Returning soon to theatres.  Except with even sexier neck.

We focus now on building topline and hind end strength and lateral suppleness.  I ride bareback and spiral and leg yield and pivot and bend and unbend and re-bend to get the closest possible feel of my horse's back and feet beneath me.  We powerwalk hills, stretching forward and down while moving the hind feet up up up.  I continue work on the lines, which become a more and more sophisticated tool as I get more practice.  With trial and error, I've gotten the right feel and better body control and been able to graduate from asking him to step into contact to teaching him to lift and bend the base of his neck and his whole spine (REALLY REALLY haaardddd, says he!).  I'm still playing with the best rein setup for that and he has only mastered a few steps at the walk that were truly great, but it's an excellent start.

Encore has had a year and a half now to mature mentally to his new life and job, as well as giving his rider time to clamber up the learning curve, complete with spectacular backslides.  It seems like such a long time ago and it seems like such a short time ago that I was explaining that poles were for going over and necks were for flexing and there was indeed a gait between trot and gallop!  So it feels pretty damn spectacular to be discussing fine-tuning transition accuracy and lifting that back to the next level.

Oh, and it should amuse you to know that it took me until I was done writing this entire post before I got my own unintended pun in the title.  *facepalm*

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It's All About Energy

One of my favourite things about working events has to be the people I meet.  Owners, trainers, product reps, sponsors, photographers, artists, vets...just about every category you can think of and a few you probably can't.

Wendy shows off her display space in the indoor arena.

At Southern Eighths, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Wendy McCaughan, a designer from Ireland who decided to take equestrian safety into her own hands by creating KanTeq and manufacturing custom fit body protectors.  The business model is very similar to that of my beloved Rodney Powell, but I learned, and Wendy confirmed, that he has gone out of business, gasp, sadness!  I have a body that is all kinds of odd shapes, so a made-to-form vest which has been certified is something I cling to with desperate hands.  All foams have a lifespan though (and it's not 20 years, sorry, my friends), as I have learned from several materials and textiles engineers, so what to do when I must replace my sturdy RP? 

Wendy had come to the US in late April to display her product at Rolex and we were lucky enough to have her stay over to the next weekend to visit South Carolina and provide some demos and information on falls and energy and how to think about protecting yourself as you inevitably hurl yourself from your steed.  As we do.

I've talked about my vest before and my basic thoughts on the types of protection available to us at this time.  Too bad we don't have knee protectors.

I apparently lack Irish style genes, but it doesn't stop me!

Wendy was kind enough to share with me, though, a lovely article that she had put together on energy management, with the help of the testers and engineers who examined the shock absorption properties of her vest (yes -- they tested it and she showed me the graphs of data, eeee, GEEK OUT!).  It was such a well-written and concise summary of the topic that I begged her permission to share it with you (if you haven't already seen it in BHS publications).  So without further ado and with a huge thanks to Wendy and KanTeq for not only supporting our long format event but also for just being a wonderful, kind, fun person to chat with and for letting me try on her sweet (blue!), very comfortable vest, which was both reassuringly solid and notably lighter than my RP, while at the same time giving me complete freedom to move (absolutely KEY in a fall; if you can't move, that impact energy is going to find its own way out = not good) and breathe.  That sentence is way too long...

My disclaimer:  I have received no incentives to share this product with you and have no stake other than my own safety parameters and intellectual curiosity.  I hold, as you know, quite firmly to my self-proclaimed title of Mme. Skeptic and Ms. Analyse-It-To-Death (that one's not so catchy).  But I was really impressed by the work and thought that went into this vest and with Wendy herself and her earnest desire to have an open, honest dialogue with riders and to provide them with effective protection, having evented herself on the other side of the ocean.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT – Body Protectors and Air Jackets Explained
Written by Wendy McCaughan

This article is intended to be a basic but factual and helpful piece for anyone who is confused by what is on offer in the market – there is no reference to brands including my own. My thanks to the Impact Engineer and Aeronautical Engineer who helped me get the physics right.

Body Protectors and Air Jackets perform in different ways.

The purpose of a traditional body protector is to help prevent injury to joints, bones and internal organs in the event of a riding accident when thrown from a horse or kicked. It does this by absorbing and spreading the forces involved. To a large extent body protectors are designed to emulate a ridged shell with spinal conformity and have the effect of wrapping around the ribcage. They should be impervious and ideally largely unbending around the circumference of the upper body, backed up by an impact absorbing and dispersing layer to cushion the blow. Too much flexion in the shell would allow blunt point impact to bend and possibly break a bone.

I finally got to do a Google Image search for physics!!!!!

An air jacket is designed to help provide protection by decelerating or slowing down the moment of impact.  However, to spread impact loads on the rider’s body, a body protector must also be worn because the inflated bladder of an air jacket will not dissipate sufficient energy – instead this energy is transferred from outside to inside, which is why there is a “bounce,” and must then be absorbed on the inside. BETA, the FEI, USEF, and BE insist that if you are wearing an air jacket it must be worn with a body protector to give sufficient impact absorption. 

Physics of Impact

When falling from something there is the energy from gravity accelerating the person’s weight (mass) plus the energy given by the thing they fell off (bike, horse etc). Most riders are sitting at over 1.4 metres (4’8”) above the ground and may be traveling anywhere from 15-25 mph.  That is a long way to fall, even when the horse is stationary. Once on the ground there is the added danger of being kicked or trampled - an average horse weighs 1200-1500 lbs, (544 – 680 kg), so the risk to the rider is significant.

Newton’s third law of motion states: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” i.e. push a ball and it rolls away, the more energy put into the push the further the ball goes. When landing, this energy has to go somewhere and often the energy goes into the rider’s body. Therefore the choice of safety garment must be shock absorbing so that the body inside is protected.

In a horse riding environment impact types would be:

-Flat impact on ground with no hard lumps,
-Blunt but point loaded impact i.e. a rock, tree root, fence post or rail,
-Sharp penetrative impact.

I would say that the first two and a combination of both are most likely. If when falling from a horse we hit, for example, a tree root or fence, the energy is transferred into a small area causing greater damage than if we fall onto flat ground. Therefore it is vital that the rider chooses the best shock absorbing and energy dispersing materials as their primary layer of protection (it is all about lessening the transfer of energy to the body). Body protector foams for use in the equestrian sector are designed to pass stringent impact tests.

Do not want.

Safety Standards

All body protectors carrying the EN: 13158 or BETA marked labels have been tested to one of 3 levels and this denotes that at each level the body protector is capable of absorbing and spreading a given amount of impact. Protectors meeting BETA Level 3 should provide a level of protection that is considered appropriate for normal horse riding, competitions and for working with horses. These certified body protectors also have specific dimensional and space requirements so that sufficient torso areas are protected.

Air jackets are not body protectors. Whatever the benefits of wearing these items, currently none of them meet the relevant European CE standard for body protectors for equestrian use. To pass the standard protectors must be independently tested by a European-approved laboratory, using impact performance test methods to simulate impact due to falls and kicks from horses.

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There Is More Than One World Class Feature At Southern Eighths Farm

I already knew I was lucky enough to have ridden and worked at an eventer's mecca where nothing is ever done halfway.  However, since I spent most of my time here...

The So8ths fire station, oh, I mean, green shed (this is only half of it)

...feeding our loyal volunteers and officials, I didn't get to see much of this:

Erin K. performs the Training & Novice tests  for the "What Dressage Judges Look For" clinic

Dressage judge and President of the Ground Jury Sue Smithson examines Goldie's bum in the 1st horse inspection.

Dr. Debbie watches a competitor jog on the evening prior to dressage day.

What I had noticed in my golf cart wanderings was a guy and a chainsaw, hard at work on a tree trunk in a field corner next to the "shed."  I drove by one morning and discovered this fallen log was in the process of being ressurrected as an exquisite work of art.  You can imagine my squeaks of delight as I found that it was just the most recent project in a wildlife sculpture collection the likes of which I have never enountered in all my art snob perusings.

 

I later learned that this marine panorama was born of the talents of Randy Boni, whose works of chainsaw prowess grace locations literally around the world.  He and his twin brother were both born blind due to cataracts and he only regained his sight through surgery in his late 30's, which makes these beauties even more unbelievable.  When I finally had a few minutes to stop and chat with Randy, I met an incredibly humble, thoughtful man and we proceeded to have an amazing conversation about art, passion, love, opportunity, and the magic of having animals in your life.  Even though he is afraid of horses himself, he has a deep appreciation for their poetry of motion and heart and his sister is a dressage rider.

It became a treasure hunt around the farm as my mule buzzed through the woods and I collected quite a basket of wonders, each more alive and fantastic than the last.  All of them were commissioned by the farm owner for the sheer pleasure of seeing them and each tree from which they were carved has a story of its own.  They fit perfectly into the rolling woods of the facility, as if they had always been there.

Ducks take flight above a school of fish on the hill above the water complex.

Each sculpture changes depending on your viewing angle.

My trusty mule gives you a sense of scale.

The detail is incredibly lifelike and there is a sense of motion barely paused.

Perhaps my favourite, this fantastical scene of lions and wild boar sits up by the shed.

On the off side, beautiful leaves shelter this emerging fellow.

The boars seemed ready to leap off running.

This large totem lives down by guest stabling.

Endearing details, like this hound and raccoon, bring even more to each work.

Eagles, owls, and a pileated woodpecker keep watch at the top.

Every piece has its own energy, including the fox and hound scene that graces the main barn, which I showed you before.  On the latter, the hounds were actually modeled after Jasper, the farm's own charming Walker hound.  Rather unfairly, I now want a piece of my very own, but short of the Prince of Nigeria actually coming through with his promise of millions in gold, I fear it will never be.  Despite my deprivation, though, I have a distinct feeling that my chance encounter and conversation with such a gifted, unique, and brilliant individual was a gift of its own.  Take a few minutes and watch this fantastic video of Randy at work and it quickly becomes clear how much love and pride he instills in each masterpiece.

Still to come:  another great individual you want to give money to!  The end of your lame horse worries!  And how to open a beer with a chainsaw (why wouldn't you?)!

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Not So Live From The Other Side

Wow.

I have just returned from the best event I have ever attended.  What you get as a competitor is unparalleled -- heck, you get a bucket full of NICE swag just for showing up!  The clinics, the parties, The Derby!, OH MY!  The experience as a core team member is phenomenal.

Baby animals cry if you don't jump them.

There are pictures to share and stories to tell.  I met some new and amazing people, artists, product designers, facility builders, and officials, all of whom work untiringly for the sport and for those who attend, out of the sheer force of love.  Every time I work at an event, I learn more and see our eventing world from yet another new angle.  To do so from perhaps the most beautiful amateur facility that is generously opened to us on the east coast, with a group of talented individuals at the top of their game, is a privilege.

For now, it will have to wait until I have a bit more consciousness.  If you have never been intimately involved with putting on even a horse trial, you cannot begin to imagine how hard people work, most with no reward beyond the grins on riders' faces, and how long it takes to put all that together for you - it's exhausting!  It is also thanks to those people that we had only two minor rider falls due to rider error, no injuries, no one who got lost, perfect footing, an exquisite XC course, and a level of detailed preparedness for ANYTHING that the competitors had no inkling of! 

I will say, though, CONGRATULATIONS to all the competitors who successfully arrived and rode (heck, getting there with a sound horse is challenge enough!!).  And to those who completed this special opportunity, I envy and salute you.  One day, with hard work, I aim to be you, if the horse stars would care to align for me.

For the rest of you out there, I can't encourage you strongly enough to enter these long format events -- they are in danger of disappearing forever and with them, an indescribable educational experience in horsemanship and partnership that you simply will not get anywhere else, something in that category of "you don't know what you are missing until you participate yourself."  Without your entries, we cannot keep going.  What you get for your fee is an incredible bargain that I will describe in more detail later.   However, there may not be that many times you can say, "Maybe next year..." (of course, no one can control soundness, sigh).  I will keep doing everything I can to support these events because I have seen it with my own eyes:

Every person matters.

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