United States Eventing Association

I've done something very stupid, very brave, or very both. I've signed Rodney and me up for a Jimmy Wofford clinic in October at Foxwood Farms. I have signed up for an eventing clinic with a horse I can't ride who has never jumped a cross-country fence. I figure that in the next four months, we will have made:

“Along the way, I also wanted to prove to the world that you don't have to put an age limit on your dreams, that the real reason most of us fear middle age is that middle age is when we give up on ourselves.”

I feel sorry for Phillip Dutton. Enter his name on the USEA Rider Search. In October 2010, he rode seven horses at Preliminary in the Waradaca Horse Trials. He finished 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, & 11. Sure, he rides many horses, jumps many fences, and wins many ribbons, but how much time is he allowed to spend with each horse?

(The author despairs that she will ever return to Eventing.) "We have a long-standing joke that when a horse is going well, it's because it's being well ridden, but when it's going badly, it's because it's not being fed properly."

[The author organizes self and horse for a return to eventing.] "She who dies with the most toys, wins." - Anonymous. Since this is the Season of Stuff, let's talk about new equipment for a new horse:

The new horse has been found and bought, the rider has gotten her “eventing legs” back, events have been scoped out for possible future participation, and now….well, you’ll just have to read to find out.

Since my publicly stated goal is to win the Training AEC, I went over to Georgia to scope out my future. So what did I learn? I learned that Chattahoochee Hills is huge: six dressage rings, a stall assignment list that ran to 12 pages, and a parking lot that doubled as a horse trailer trade show. Yet, it felt neither squashed nor sprawled. The cross-country warm-up contained three stadium jumps, four permanent jumps and eight horses zooming about with plenty of room.

Roscoe is an 11-year-old, 17.1-hand, bay Thoroughbred gelding. No, that's not a typo. When he sees voices and hikes up those ears, he channels his inner giraffe. I became enchanted despite not because. He comes with buttons installed for jumpers and dressage, with the dial up to 10 for Likes to Jump. As I understand his life history, he has not hopped over so much as a twig outside the ring.

The title is an overstatement since I am horseless. After 20 years of owning an Adult jumper, I am going back to eventing. Just as soon as I find a horse to take me. The subtitle is one of those affirmation actualization statements the sport psych books endorse. That's the goal. Let's see how long it takes to realize and how the scenery looks along the way.

There is no cover picture because it's not about one particular book, it's about finally reading that book you have been intending to read for years. This was mine. I challenge you to while away the filthy winter weather reading yours. Unless you are headed off to Florida, in which case, your hands will be too slippery with sunscreen to hold a book.