Area Championships are three - almost two - days away now, and the pressure is at a fever pitch. This week has been a complete nuclear meltdown of my life, and I am now out in the living room with Shannon, each sleeping on our respective couches because both of our rooms have been totally gutted, and we have no other place to live/sleep except right here. All our stuff is either out here or in a rental pod outside the apartment. It's a disaster.
And there is plenty to stress about concerning Areas. First, HOW tough is this course going to be? Last year's Area 8 Novice Championships at South Farm were CRAZY hard - I remember seeing a down bank to an offset coop three strides out... not sure Gogo could do something like that in three days. Secondly, Areas was where we blew it big time last year, where we were first after dressage with a 28.5 but had Gogo's first ever XC runout at fence 6 - the smallest, most boring, most pathetic log on course, where we just lost all steering and brakes and went rocketing by for no reason at all except to keep me humble. Thirdly, the people I'm up against are GOOD. I mean really, really GOOD. A lot of them have been winning and some of them have gotten better scores than I have. I mean, I do think we're right up there in top contention but seriously, wow. The cmpetition is really going to be fierce.
And the Alex drama and the apartment drama on top of all that? Yes, I think I'm giving myself ulcers. I'm not the type to get nervous-scared about events, but I do get very ants-in-my-pants sometimes, and this is definitely the time to pull out all the stops we have. And the pressure is outrageous, now that we've won things and people have been noticing what we're doing. While I had an amazingly lovely dressage lesson yesterday, complete with plenty of transitions, lengthenings, shoulder-ins, 10m circles, reinbacks, and serious moments of collection between all these things (and dare I say.. during as well?), today I was completely frazzled when I went to get on, and immeditely got up in her face for essentually no reason at all. Bless her, she was pissed but didn't do anything ridiculous to retaleate against me, even though I deserved it. Eventually, I just ended up going back to the walk, and did walk-halt-reinback-walk-halt-walk-halt-reinback etc. for a very long time. It chilled us both out, and we got some pretty relaxed work in the end, but wow, I really need to CHILL OUT. I am not riding on Saturday for sure, but tomorrow I'd still like another dressage sesson. Maybe it's not a good idea... maybe a hack is. Or maybe another day off, althogh I think she'll be spazzy on Sunday if I do that.
CHILL OUT ANDREA. JUST CHILL. You're going to be just fine because you have the Supermare and she can do anything.
Let's get ready to show everyone what we're made of.
Proving her heart of gold and guts of steel at the 2009 American Eventing Championships
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7 comments:
Yes just CHILL! :D I know so much crap is going on, but seriously....you are a VERY GOOD rider, Gogo is a FABULOUS mare, and you too will do a GREAT job! Just trust yourself, trust your horse, and know there are so many of us out here who are rooting for you. :) How cool is that???? People you have never even MET are rooting for you! :) Hang in there and take it a stride at a time! I will be thinking of you on Sunday! :)
One of my favorite sayings is, "Even the Olympics is JUST a horse show". I think it is totally normal to be freaking out with everything going on in your life right now, but...you LOVE to show. You love to run through the woods and jump things. With everything else going on in your life you should be thinking about how great it is going to be to get to run for 5 minutes with your supermare and fly over jumps. You get the chance to not think about anything else for a little while...wont that be great? To just be able to focus on your mare and your riding?
No matter how you and GoGo do you two are amazing. And I am sure this wont be your only area championships ever so worry about the rest of them later. Enjoy this one. Enjoy not having to work for a few days, being able to put your mare at the center of your universe, and eating horse show food that you would never touch any other time. Good Luck and Have Fun. Regardless of how you do you already know that you are GoGo are amazing because lots of other people out there could not even qualify! And you did and you are going. You already have kicked some major ass in my book.
"Enjoy this one. Enjoy not having to work for a few days, being able to put your mare at the center of your universe, and eating horse show food that you would never touch any other time."
Oh man I love those walking tacos. They just writhe on your plate with the promise of indigestion. It's also become tradition to get Taco Bell on the way home post-show, as if I haven't tortured my GI system enough already.
Sometimes a little drama and stress is good to put you in competition mode. Let it help you focus and ride like you know you can.
Good luck this weekend. Remember those other riders are good, but hey so are you!
Long time lurker, first time poster...
Wishing you the best of luck from Texas! You guys are ready and you'll do GREAT! Just trust in each other and ride for all you're worth. And remember to HAVE FUN!!!
Go for a run or something before your next dressage ride. You've said that Gogo needs a long warm up to settle in when she's antsy - maybe you do too.
As for the Areas, best of luck, but at the end of the day, it is just another horse show. You might have a bad day or Gogo might, or you might just have bad luck (nothing like pulling a rail that everyone else just rattled) - there's not much you can do about these things...but if that happens (and I don't think it will), that will not detract AT ALL from EVERYTHING else you've accomplished. You already have 3 back-to-back wins against stiff competition. Even if you had to scratch this event after dressage, nobody's going to take that away from you. Go out to have fun and give Gogo the best ride you possibly can and stop worrying about the course and competition. There's nothing you can do about the other peoples' rides. They will score worse than you or they won't. All you have control over is your ride so focus on that and let the rest fall into place.
You'll do great if you can keep that in mind - best of luck - can't wait to hear all about it!
Andrea,
You are an amazing rider! You are beautiful and so is your mare!
Please go back to my blog, hoofrecovery.blogspot.com and the post you commented on. I've added the pictures you sent me. I hope that is okay.
Thank you,
Pat
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