A Crazy Week - Silver Spurs, the Chronic Abscess and a Broken Rib

My plan for last week was straightforward.

Sunday : sell stuff at a "bar boot" sale - tick.

Monday (a public holiday) : attend car boot sale and sell off more of our "stuff" - tick.  We made €170 selling old clothes, cds and bric-a-brac which would otherwise have been thrown into the skip which is currently sitting beside the house.

Tuesday : Watch as much of the Olympic Dressage Grand Prix Special as possible while at the same time continue going through household "stuff," packing boxes and preparing for Silver Spurs. I'll give Tuesday half a tick.  The entire Grand Prix Special got watched.  Boxes remained unpacked.  Some of the old Silver Spurs rosettes (which we are recycling this year) got ironed, just because that was a job I could do while watching dressage.

Wednesday : this was the day I was going to catch up on everything I should have done on Tuesday, so that I would be able to watch the Kur on Thursday, PLUS I had to collect the Silver Spurs rosettes from the manufacturer in West Cork, an hours drive away. No tick.  I got absolutely nothing done.
I had just finished poulticing and hot-tubbing Aero's foot (yes, that was being fitted in twice daily as well) when the ED came out of the office clutching her side.  "Mum, I think I need to go to hospital."  Man, she was pale.  She's had a cough going on for just about as long as Aero has had his hoof abscess going on, has been back and forth to her doctor and spent a day in the Emergency Room while we were on holiday in July, but the cough has refused to clear up and the pain in her chest has been explained as "you probably pulled something coughing."  She went and lay down for a while, hoping it would ease the pain, while I finished the rest of the horsey jobs.  An hour later, she was still in pain, so off we went to the hospital, and that's where I spent the rest of the day.  The LSH relieved me at about 6.30pm and I went home to treat Aero and look after the rest of the animals, but about an hour later he called to say they were going to keep the ED in overnight so she could have a CT scan the next day.
The YD had a gig at 10pm which I really wanted to go to, so when the LSH got home, we had a late dinner and spent the rest of the night in a bar listening to her performing with her new band.  They were excellent, especially considering that they'd only practiced together for a couple of hours!

Thursday : was originally going to be a nice relaxed day.  I would have prepared everything for Silver Spurs on Wednesday, so all I would have to do was the usual household and animal care stuff, pick up the Silver Spurs trophies, watch the Kur, head off to meet my Silver Spurs co-organiser Naomi at about 5.30pm and carry on to Wicklow, about four hours away.
It was manic.  Phone the ED.  Treat Aero's foot.  Feed cats, dogs and chickens.  Turn horses out.  Skip out stables.  Whizz off to West Cork to collect rosettes, it's just after 10am as I leave and I'm doing ok.  Continue to Ballincollig to collect trophies, stopping to buy shavings on the way.  It's already 1pm by the time I get there, where did those three hours go?  Carry on home.  All I have to do now is eat, print off everything we need for Silver Spurs, finish ironing the rosettes, pack my bag and go. I arrived home just in time to see Fuego and Juan Manuel Munoz start their Freestyle, and I sat and watched dressage for about twenty minutes while I ate.
The TV stayed on for the afternoon while I got through my jobs.  Scoresheets, judges sheets and start lists were printed and collated.  Prize-winners' letters and claim forms were printed, envelopes were stuffed.  Recycled rosettes were ironed.  My overnight bag was packed.  Dressage was watched.  Tears were shed, not quite as many as Charlotte Dujardin, perhaps, but a significant amount nonetheless.  I was ready to leave at 5pm, and made the final decision as to whether I would go with Naomi or stay with the ED, who was being kept in hospital until they had some sort of diagnosis.  The decision was "Go" - I couldn't let Naomi down, and if the ED got a nasty diagnosis I could be home in a couple of hours.  I paid a flying visit to the hospital en route, the ED was in less pain and a couple of her friends were visiting, so I felt a little happier leaving her.

Friday : Silver Spurs day at Marlton Stud.  Tick!

The sun beamed down on us all day.  The kids were great.  The horses and ponies were great.  The parents were great.  Best of all, I got a phone call from the ED saying she was being discharged.  The diagnosis?  A broken rib caused by coughing, the coughing was caused by a chest infection which had cleared up but her airways were so irritated that the cough was still present.  I didn't know any of that was possible!  She had been put on Ventolin and painkillers, but was already feeling much better.
Later in the day, the LSH sent me a photo of a pus covered poultice.  That was the icing on the cake - Aero's abscess had finally burst.

Saturday : Silver Spurs Ride Off day.  Another Tick!
This is the most exciting part of the competition, and is fitted into the middle of a busy show day at Marlton Stud.  The top three riders from both our Pony and Junior sections have a World Championship style Ride Off.  They each perform a test on their own mount - ponies do a Preliminary level test and Juniors do a Novice level test.  Then they swap onto the other riders' ponies/horses and do the test again, doing the test three times in total.  They have approximately seven minutes (the length of a dressage test) to get to know each strange horse before they have to ride the test on it, and the most adaptable rider will invariably come out on top.
It's always exciting, and this year was no different - there was just 1% between 1st and 2nd in the Pony section.  The Junior section had a clear winner, but there was less than .01% between 2nd and 3rd - it can't get closer than that!

The top three riders in each section get the same prize, a €500 bursary, thereby reducing pressure and negative competitiveness (we hope).  Our sponsor is the governing body of equestrian sports in Ireland, Horse Sport Ireland, who have been very generous to continue sponsoring Silver Spurs, considering all the cutbacks which state run bodies are enduring at the moment.

Naomi and I have been running Silver Spurs for four years now.  Unless things go very pear-shaped in France, this was the last time I'll be so closely involved.  It's a lot of work, but it has been a huge privilege to be involved with these youngsters.  Many of the riders come back year after year and it's been a pleasure to watch them develop as riders and as adults.  Some of our riders have gone on to represent Ireland internationally, but we're proud of them all!

I got a couple of hugs from some of our regulars.  I didn't cry, but there was a strange prickling sensation behind my eyes as I said goodbye.  I can't imagine what that was!

Best of luck to Liz, who is stepping in to fill my shoes!

Swansong?

It's entirely possible that I've just competed in Ireland for the very last time, unless the whole France thing doesn't work out and we come back next year with our tails between our legs.

I'm sad about that, but otherwise I couldn't be happier about today.

It started at 6.40am, when I hauled a fat, contented Flurry in from the paddock with really long grass, which he had broken into overnight.  No feed for him, then, the little glutton.  I washed his mane, tail and fetlocks, sprayed his tail with loads of Mane&Tail conditioner, plaited his mane and spent AGES going through his tail, but it was worth it, it looked gorgeous afterwards.  I gave him a small amount of haylage to keep him happy while I went in for my brekkie - well, I couldn't let the poor little guy get hungry, could I?

Warming up, fetlocks blowing in the breeze

We arrived at our show venue, Maryville, in good time, tacked both of us up and headed to the warm-up.  Flurry didn't feel great warming up, it was busier than he's used to and he was a bit intimidated by the other horses.  He was also lazy and a bit inattentive, so I was doing transitions and leg-yielding to try to sharpen him up, but I still wasn't too happy with him when we were called up for our first test, BD Prelim 12.

Time for one more mental rehearsal before we went in, time for a little trot around outside the boards, throw in a few transitions, and Enter at A...

I felt it was accurate and obedient, but a little sluggish.  Accuracy is usually a good sign - you can't ride an accurate test if the horse is inattentive, too onward bound or too lazy.  I guessed my score would be low sixties, but I wasn't too sure.  Here's the video :

I was astounded when I saw my score - 69.6%, the third highest score in all of test 12, and the winning score in my section!  The judge's comments were "Nice active test, accurately ridden making good use of arena.  He gets a little on forehand in canter but otherwise good consistent test."  Woohoo!

I had a quick look at the video afterwards, and I have to say, it looks better than it felt!  Yeah, the canter still isn't great, I think the judge was a wee bit kind to me, but the trot work looked good throughout.

Here we go for the second test

I was determined to improve the impulsion for the next test, BD Prelim 14, but at the same time I didn't want to overcook him in the warm-up, so I carefully allowed 25 minutes to tack up and warm up again.  When we arrived back at the trailer, though, we found he had covered his formerly lovely tail with liquid, grassy poop - yuck!  There was nothing I could do except shake most of it off and hope the rest would fall off during our warm-up!

He was more attentive in the warm-up and we worked on transitions again, still trying to get more impulsion going.  I went back into the indoor feeling positive initially, but I felt like I was booting him around and the test just didn't flow as well as the first one.  The good news, though, was that the poop seemed to have fallen out of his tail!

Look at that tail!

This time there was no video, the LSH was taking stills instead, and having seen them, I have to say it doesn't seem to have been as good as the first test.  In looking for more impulsion, I lost consistency in his outline and the transitions did not flow as smoothly.  The score? 64.58%, still a score to be proud of as far as I'm concerned, and once again, the winning score in my section.  The judge's comments this time were "Overall calm, obedient test.  Needs to be more active in trot work and lighter on forehand in canter."  Yes.  I agree with all that.

So since completing our 500km trek across France, Flurry and I have competed twice in dressage and have managed to score over 63% on each occasion.  What's so special about 63%?  That's the qualifying mark for our National Championships - we're now qualified for the Sportsmans A finals (an amateur section), but the bad news is I probably won't be able to go - we've just got too much to do before we leave for France.

Halt, Salute and...

Oh well, at least we qualified.  I'm very proud of my little horse!

A Wrinkle in Time

There was a lot going on last week, so I only managed to ride Flurry once all week.  I was fairly casual about it, to be honest.  After all, it's two months before I leave, I'll have plenty of opportunities to ride and compete before I leave for France, right?

Wrong!

On Tuesday, I looked at the show schedule for the Dressage club and I looked at my diary.  What with attending car boot sales to get rid of some of the crap we own, running the Silver Spurs finals and attending the Dublin Horse Show with the tickets my daughters gave me for my birthday, plus a road trip to transport all the ED's gear to London, it looks like this Sunday may well be my very last chance to compete here in South Munster before I go.  In fact, we've only got three (yes THREE) full weekends at home before we leave.

I guess I'm competing this weekend, so.

Flurry waddled happily out of the paddock beside me and we went for a nice easy hack yesterday.  Well, it was easy for him - he trudged along like a sedated snail while I kicked, whacked and cajoled him down the road.

Today, there was no avoiding the arena.  "More Ongoing" was foremost in my brain, but the only whip I could find was the same silly short one I'd had hacking out the previous day. Still, he wasn't too bad, lateral suppleness could have been better and he could definitely have gone forward more willingly, but he was as obedient as ever - he's such a good boy!

Finally, towards the end of our session, I spotted the LSH passing by and asked him to find me a proper schooling whip.  Once that was in my hand, Flurry produced ten minutes of decent, forward work, and we quit while I was ahead.

We've got two days to go before the show.  Plenty of time to run through the "iffy" bits of both tests, plenty of time for Flurry to magically become forward and supple!

One other consequence of time telescoping in on itself is that I won't get to compete Aero here before I go.  I'm pretty disappointed about that, but hopefully we'll be able to do fun stuff in France.