The post that wasn't...

I worked some overtime at work today and was able to watch all of the Cross Country phase of this weekend's  Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.  I was happy.  In between  paying  legal invoices, I  jotted  down notes about things I  wanted  to  mention  in my blog post...and I  still have that piece  of  paper  in  the  pocket  of  the  shorts  I'm  still  wearing...but it's  going  to  have  to  wait  a few days.

Our weather  has been crazy.  Yesterday  we had a brief rainstorm and the temperature  was below average.  Today it was overcast and again  we had below-average  temperatures  but not only that, some areas  of  the  state got snow!  Snow at the end of April!  And the level  was fairly low...6,500 feet.  Too high for my neck of the woods, but only about a 2 hour drive.

On another note...I'm  thinking  I might like  to  attend  the  RK3DE...maybe next year.  It's  held  at the Kentucky Horse Park, which is the same place as Breyerfest, and I  have  been  wanting to attend  Breyerfest  since the first one 25 years ago and have yet to get myself  out there.  And I'd  still  like  to  go, but I  think  I'd  rather  go to RK3DE.  Mostly  the Cross Country phase.  After  it's  done  for the day, the spectators  get  to  walk  the  course  and get up-close views of the obstacles...I  like  stuff  like  that.  One year, I  got to enter the elephant  yard at my local zoo to hide treats for them and thought  it  was  the  neatest  thing.  We'll have to see.  There's  a 3 star event much closer  to me, but the big names are at 4 star events like Rolex.  I  still  have  lots  of  time  to  decide, though.  1 year until the next Rolex and 15 months until BF 2016.

Right now I'm  watching  a new cheesy  giant  reptile  movie.  Lake Placid vs Anaconda. No, I'm  not  kidding.  Apparently  they decided  that  after, what, 4 Lake Placid movies  and  at least as many Anaconda  movies, nothing was left except  to bring the 2 together.  This one stars Robert  Englund aka Freddie Kruger and Corin Nemec from the short-lived series in thw 1990s Parker Lewis Can't Lose.  Apparently  even  Nicki Minaj has a part in it.  Oh joy!  I don't  know  how  much  of it I'll  watch, though, since it's  after 9, this movie just started  and I'm  getting  tired.

I  hope everyone  is  having  a good weekend!  Certainly  better  than  what  mine has turned  out to be (and the reason  why  my Rolex post has to wait).

World Cup Part II

As promised, here are some pictures of the US based riders.  For some reason  there's  less covrage on them than the European ones, but maybe that's  because  the  European  ones came from a lot further away.  Who knows?

Before I  share, though, I  want to update...I have decided not to go to the show in person nor am I  going  to  pay for the live stream.  What it pretty much boils down to is time...and money.  I've  known  it was going to be in Vegas for several months and had plenty of time to make arrangements, but I  pretty  much  decided  I wasn't  going  to  go  back when the trip was still affordable.  It wasn't  until  the  show  was almost  here and I  got caught up in the excitement  that I  really  wanted  to  go.  Unfortunately  I didn't  plan well  enough  and now it's  not a realistic  idea to want to go.  It's  nobody's  fault  but my own and while I'm  bummed  to not be going and miss out on the chance to see Beezie Madden ride, I  know  it's  the right decision.  I would  only  be able to see one of the 3 phases of jumping  and since I  don't  know  which  one  Beezie  is riding in, there's  no  guarantee  I'd  even  get to see her compete.

So that should leave me with the live stream, right?  I could watch both Dressage and Show Jumping with FEI TV...and $80.  Well, $45 if I  wanted  access  for just a month, but why not pay the extra $35 for an entire year?  However, I don't  think  the cost is worth watching on a 7" tablet screen.  The cheapest is $26.99 for 24 hours' access, but how to choose which 24 hour block?  And I  can't  watch  it  while  I'm  asleep  so that's  a waste there, too.

Anyway, so on to the pictures.  Most of them are from Chronicle of the Horse and some are from John Madden Sales.  One is from the Las Vegas  Sun.  I wish they'd  done  a piece on the US teams like they had the European, but what can you do?

Packing up the plane

McLain  Ward's horse Rothchild and Beezie Madden's Simon

Landing in Vegas  

Unloading...looks like  the US horses didn't  get custom stalls like the Europeans 

Champion Dressage rider gives an interview outside the Thomas & Mack Center 

Beezie Madden trots Simon out for his pre-show vet check.  He passed.  In fact, all the horses passed.  Yay!

World Cup in Las Vegas

The Longines FEI World Cup finals are getting ready to start on Wednesday, although  the  actual  competition  doesn't  start  until  Friday...I'm  not  going  to  be  there  more than likely.  Not unless  I  can  figure  out  some  way to get my mom to "allow" me to go.  I  was telling  her  about  it  when  I  got  home  from  work  and  she  said  "And you want to go..."  I told her they  never  have  competitions  of this magnitude  in this  area  of the country.  I  said  I wanted  to  go  but  "My mom won't  let me." and she laughed.  In all seriousness, though, I  know  I  could  go if I  really  want   to.  And I  want  to, but I  don't  know  if  I  want  to  spend  the  money  to  go.  I just  worked  2 Saturdays  doing  OT at work to build up my bank account  and I  don't  want  to  blow it all in one overnight  trip to Las Vegas.

So, what are my options...?  It doesn't  appear  as though  any  of  it will  be  broadcast  on  TV...not in the US anyway.  On the World Cup's Facebook  page  someone  asked  if anything  was going  to  be  broadcast  and I  replied  to  her comment  with  one of my own.  Well, today they confirmed it would streamed live on 3 different  websites  for a fee, which  sucks, but I can  deal  with that.    So I followed  a link to the apps you need to watch  the  live stream and guess what?  My Samsung Tab 4 is NOT compatible  with  the  app.  So now I'm  trying  to  charge  my iPad  mini  to  see  if  that  will  work  because  the  website  says the app is also iOS compatible.  Unfortunately, I  haven't  used  it  in  awhile  and  so the battery  was completely  drained.  Hopefully  it will w

ork.  If I'm  unable  to  watch  it  online...then I  guess I'll  go back to trying  to  decide  if  I  want  to  just  go  to  Vegas.

Early Saturday  40 horses left the airport in the Netherlands, bound for Las Vegas.  Because  of  time  zones  and  such, they arrived  less  than  2 hours after  they  left Europe.  Can  you  say  Jet Lag?  And while  Totilas  won't  be  there, his former  rider  Edward Gal will be.  Good luck to everyone!  I will, of course, be cheering  for  Steffen Peters to win Dressage and several  riders for Show Jumping.  Hahahaha.

Before I  go  I will  leave  you  with  some  pictures  of  the  European  horses  during their travels.  Tomorrow or Wednesday  I'll  share some photos  of  the  US riders.

Getting ready for the flight...

Loading into a special designed  stall

Convoy of jet stalls.  Wouldn't  this be neat to see?

Inside the Boeing 777...empty

Loading  the  transport  stalls

Trailers waiting  at McCarron for the horses

Valegro, aka Blueberry, from Carl Hester Dressage is sprung from quarrantine  today  by his groom Alan C Davies.  

And the Mother of the Year award goes to...

Well, it's  certainly  not  the  one who dropped her 2 year old into the Cheetah exhibit at Cleveland  Metroparks  Zoo  yesterday.

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"We have a number of eyewitness accounts that point to the strong likelihood that the child was dangled over the railing," zoo director Dr. Christopher Kuhar told reporters.

The mother was holding two children when the toddler slipped from her grasp and fell 10 to 12 feet into the cheetah pit, Cleveland Fire Department spokesman Larry Gray told the Northeast Ohio Media Group. The boy's parents went into the exhibit and pulled him to safety. The cheetahs never approached any of them and the boy was taken to the hospital for bumps and bruises.

"I'm looking at the cheetahs and then all I hear is the screams. Everything happened so quick," witness Michael Lurie told WKYC Channel 3.

Should the mother face charges or is this an unfortunate accident? 

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There is a link to the video where it begins with "witness Michael  Lurie.  Out of all the videos I've  watched, this is probably  the  best  one since it has eyewitness  accounts  and doesn't  have  the reporters over-sensationalizing what happened, although the one in the studio  said  it could've  been  much worse.  The other news reports, though...saying he survived  a horrific experience  and he's  lucky to be alive.  Blah blah blah.  Yes, Cheetahs  are carnivores.  Yes, they eat meat.  But they do NOT attack people.  There has never  been  a documented  case where  a Cheetah  has attacked a person, either in the wild or a zoological  setting.  Don't  let their size and sharp teeth fool you.  The boy was never in any danger  from the cats.  His injuries  are from being dropped 10 feet by his mom.  I hope the zoo does press  charges  against  the  boy's parents.  They are morons!

Beezie Madden and Authentic

So, I  was  reading a book today and medical armbands for riders was mentioned.  It said they're  in case a rider fallsand is unable to answer questions about medical conditions  or allergies.  I'd  never heard of that so when I  got home I  decided  to  look up pictures  on Google of show jumpers.  In some of them you could see the armbands, but in most of them there was none.  But  I  thought  it  was  too generic of a search so I  decided  to  look  up pictures  of  one of my show jumping "idols" Beezie Madden.  "Idol" isn't  really  the right word  because  I  don't  idolize  her, but I  do admire her and ook up to her and I'd  love  the chance  to  meet her someday...

Anyway, so I  was looking  at  pictures  of  Beezie in competition  and came across a video of her falling during the 2007 Rolex World Cup in Las Vegas.  The person who posted  the video did it as sort of a "See?  Everyone falls, even Beezie Madden so get over yourself!"  That video led to the one that is the subject  of  this blog  post  and is actually the same video but more of it.  In the video, Authentic takes a jump and for some  reason  his legs come down and he trips.  Beezie falls off and is eliminated, but apparently  Authentic  doesn't  realize  that  because  he keeps going and even jumps over 2 more obstacles, much to everyone's  delight.  One person  who tried to catch  him almost got run over by the horse.  Fortunately, nobody was injured, but it was still kind of scary.

http://youtu.be/Wdb7qAtTLbc

And hey!  This is my 200th post!

Shocking George Morris Footage Uncovered!

Ok.  Let me start out by saying that until a few weeks ago, when his name came up on my Facebook news feed for some sort of riding clinic, I  had no idea who George Morris was.  And...well...I still don't  know  but apparently  he's  a  big deal in the horse show world.  And when you're  a big name in the horse show world you have to watch your Ps and Qs because  you never know who might be watching  and possibly  videotaping, especially  when  so many cell phones can do video nowadays.  So that's  why  I  was so shocking when I  came across this video of him...well, not just him, but it involves  him.

This video is so shocking and horrifying that I  can't  put the video directly  on my blog, I  have  to  link it so the awfulness  of it won't  hit you in the face.  It's  not  for the faint of heart so if you choose to watch it, don't  say I  didn't  warn you.

http://www.horsenation.com/2015/04/01/shocking-george-morris-footage-uncovered/

Happy Birthday...

To me.  At 10:21pm on April 1st, 1970 I entered  the  world at Seattle's  Northwest Hospital.  My mom is fond of reminding me that I  interrupted  a Glenn Campbell concert on TV and that  I almost  didn't  wait for the doctor, apparently  thinking  being  born in an elevator  to be more fun.  I would  be the 2nd and final child for my parents, who'd  already  been  "blessed" with a boy almost  3 years prior.  I  write it like that because I'm  the younger sibling and we had the typical  relationship  of kids, fighting and stuff.  In addition  to  today  being  my birthday, it is also the 5 year  anniversary  of  my  dad's  death.  He died on March 31st, but the date on his death  certificate  was April 1st.  I've  never  been  fond of my birthdate because  of all the practical  jokes people play on each other and the teasing I  still receive.  But I  digress...

I was born to love horses.  My mom, having lived on a farm and riding  the  plow horses, gave me the horse lover gene, although it was actually  my dad who took me riding most often.  It was on one of the family farms in Minnesota, when I  was  just 4 years old, that I  road a real horse for the first time.  My mom keeps saying it was just a pony, but I  remember  it to be a full-sized one.  Of course, being only 4 it probably seemed a lot bigger.  The ride was short and consisted of my mom's  cousin  leading the horse around the yard for a few minutes, but it's  one of my earliest memories.  There are no photos of me from that month spent in Minnesota  back in 1974 and only 2 of my brother.  There are a couple  of  ones from the drive there, but those weren't  horse-related.  Hahaha.  That's  what  it comes down to, isn't  it?

The last time I  rode a horse was for my 29th birthday.  A friend from high school I  had re-connected with at our 10 year reunion booked us a 4 hour lunch ride in the Superstition  Mountains.  My horse was a large Thoroughbred  named Larry.  The picture you see as my avatar is me on that ride.

Today I  am 45.