My very good friend, Amy Richardson, writes a family-based blog called Bliss Happens.  This weekend Amy and her daughter, Amanda, were my “guests” at the King Oak Horse Trials. This was their first EVER event and here is what she wrote about her experience. (This is taken from her blog Bliss Happens).

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My friend Debbie is a mother mucker. you see, there is a whole lot of work that goes in to having a daughter who rides horses and competes in Equestrian Eventing.

She hauls trailors…

She carries hay, shavings, saddles, tack and other gear to and from the barn.   She mucks the stall (scoops the poop), cleans the tack, and assists Emily in preparing the horse for competition. 

Debbie walks the cross country course with Emily…all two miles of it!  While trying to remain calm about the fact that her teenager will be sitting on the back of a large animal who’s attempting to jump over these giant obstacles.

on the walk through, Amanda jumped almost half of the 28 jumps.  This was a “fairly easy” one.

Emily in the Dressage

I now have a deep appreciation for not only what Emily does, but what her mom does to support her.

Thankfully, after this weekend at the King Oak Horse Trials in Massachusetts, my own daughter is not begging for a pony!

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It was so much fun – AND SO MUCH HELP – to have Amy along. And Amanda was FANTASTIC for her first time around such excitement. NEXT UP: GMHA … last show of the season.

HAVE A GREAT RIDE!

Friends, Horses, Shows / Events

What's a Mother Mucker to do?

As my daughter approaches her last few shows of the season before taking her Fall break I find myself scratching my head and wondering WHY we sign up for these last few shows.

Of course … it’s because my daughter loves the eventing and back 6 weeks ago when we signed up, it was August 1st and we were both still raring to go! But now, school has started and as a Junior the homework is already heavy. And she plays Varsity Volleyball for her school, which is practice every day as well. Someday (like the past 2 days) her schedule would be:

• Wake up and get to school before 8 AM
• Homework from 2-3:30
• Volleyball practice from 4-6
• Ride Billy (thank goodness there’s an indoor arena)
• Finish homework upon arrival while choking down dinner at 8 PM

One more week and she’ll attend her final show of the season: GMHA Fall HTs. These few weeks of my daughter’s overload is tough on mom as well. I know she loves it all and she isn’t willing to let any of it go. You think after all these years I’d know better but NO!

I am, after all, just a mother mucker.

Horses

After two successful dressage outings – both which also included an RF in the final stats – many of our horse friends were emailing us and sending us facebook messages that read like this:

“We’ll have to glue her to the saddle.”
“Let’s get a big ball go string and tie her up there.”
“Put velcro on your bottom.”
“Next time we’ll duct tape you to the saddle.”

There were more … but you get the idea.

So, after  GMHA August horse trials, my daughter signed up for Valinor Farm to run Prelim/Training as a schooling to get back into the groove and work out the kinks.

Off this mother mucker drove through summer traffic south on I-95 around Boston for a one day event – which included our overnight camping adventure. I did my usual tack-cleaning therapy session, complete with ipod tuned into Grateful Dead tunes so I could dance around the stall. Since there weren’t many people around, I didn’t feel funny grooving to the music as I applied the cleaner and conditioner.

We went with rider friend Tiffany Cunningham for a great Indian food dinner before hitting the hay (aka the tent) and awake to a beautiful morning. this was our view from the stabling area:

The view from stabling at Valinor Farm

Dressage went fine, with the exception of a canter on the wrong lead.

Show jumping was … well, different. The warm up, actually. Billy didn’t want to go over the warm up jumps and that never happens. But just before going into the ring, Emily kicked him on, he went over, and off to the show jumping ring he went – with no hitches at all.

Within 30 minutes she was out on cross country, where I strategically placed myself near the water for optimum viewing. Emily was number 3, so I didn’t have long to wait.

Rider 1 came through … STOP at the bank down into the water.

Rider 2 came through … STOP at the bank down into the water.

I heard Rider 3 on course, clear through jump 4. Soon after she came into view. Clear 5. Couldn’t see jump 6 or 7, but I saw her coming toward where I was standing – a log at the top of a steep hill. CLEAR over jump 8.

And then … horse briefly stops at the water and JUMP DOWN THE BANK – through the water, and out the other side.

No Duct Tape Necessary!

Emily and Billy continued to a successful AND COMPLETE finish. Confidence regained. Nuff said.

Next up – King Oak Farm on September 12, 2010. I hear they have a bounce there in the fall horse trials. Anyone know?

Horses, Shows / Events