Eventing? My Ass!

My second eventing show didn't go as well as the first. I am not sure I can even list all the things that went wrong before arriving. In hind sight, I should have respected the signs and bowed out of the competition.

First, there was the plague that infested the house for weeks. The kids and I were all on antibiotics for respiratory infections, weak and pathetic. Horses are hard enough to handle when healthy, definitely too much to handle when sick and in my case, illness induced asthma.

Then there was the flesh eating bacteria that was eating my nose. Josie had scratched it a week before and because of my low immune system, the cut festered. This left me feeling very self consious, which effected everything I did.

Then there was Spencer's trip to Clarens with the guys. He was so hyped for the trip he kept forgetting about my show and was giving me a hard time about the timing. I had to coordinate a sitter for the day. Of course, Spencer left late in a mad rush and the sitter got to the house late, making me leave in a mad rush.

I was just too excited for this. You know how sometimes, the more excited you are the worse the outcome? Yup, I had the feeling this was going to be one of those times.

My usual horse was sick with a cold, so I borrowed one from a friend. The saddle and tack were also all borrowed.

Those were the early warnings. The horses arrived at the show all hyped up. Apparently, I failed to notice the full moon. The three of them walked to the show from the neighboring farm and still had lots of energy.

All together it was too much. Foolishly we chose to do the cross-country first, thinking it would tire out the horse. He was completely out of control. I couldn't get him to stand even to fix the stirrups. Instead we galloped around the course, with my feet out of the stirrups half the time. After jump 31 I began to think we were going to get through the course ok. Then I tried to turn him to go over a dunga and he decided to go straight. He galloped back to the barn and I sat on the ground thinking that South African ground is so much harder than US ground.

The event organizers are a very nice bunch and even though I should have been eliminated, they allowed me to participate in the other two events. I had to retire halfway through the jumping round, since I was still unable to breath. The dressage was "very stiff" according to the judge.

A little over a week later and I am still sore, but happy to report that there is no permanent damage. The nose is healing nicely with some high powered antibiotics. I will make sure to tell all of Josie's future boyfriends the source of my scar. All the cold germs are gone and the kids are happy again. Spencer had a memorable guys weekend in Clarens. Thursday, Jumanji was back to his old self and Lone Star was over his cold. I must work on my fall. I landed somewhere between my hip and my butt, so I sit like an old lady. I bought an eventing vest on Amazon, so in 4-8 weeks I will be, hopefully, be ready to try this again. Next time though, I will trust instinct and ignore my over excitement.