Safe, but in the dark

We're safely back in Houston. Our pets are fine, and our house weathered the storm perfectly as far as we can tell. We have (natural) gas and water, but no electricity or phone/dsl service. Cellular service is flaky, but text messages and voicemails do seem to arrive eventually.

Ronan is happy back in his barn. The barn lacks power, but Ronan doesn't really care.

Rain, Rain, Rain....oh, and more rain

Ok...so we travel all of the way to Chicago, just to get poured on at a horse show like we do in Texas! (I swear...ever since we bought the Irish horse!) Oh, well. At least it didn't rain on us until our show jumping phase. The cross country for other levels yesterday was wretched, slippery, yuck. They had to keep taking out jumps because the footing was getting so bad. They changed the cross country that was supposed to be today to tomorrow, but I'm a bit worried that they're not going to be able to have it at all. That would truly suck.

It could be worse! We could be at home dealing with hurricane Ike. However, it seems that we're going to have to drive through it a bit to get home, so I'm not sure yet when we're leaving yet. Something tells me that Ronan's not going to be too happy traveling through nasty roads and stop and go traffic from the storm.

We're still bubbly from our 6th place finish, so it's not too bad.

Lost power at the house, which means that I also have no email, since our mail server is at the house. If you need something, just leave me a message here on the blog.

6th Place at the American Eventing Championships!!!

Nothing could be more groovy!
I just wanted to come, have a good time, not fall off, and not get eliminated so that we actually got to do all 3 phases....and what happens? We kick butt!

I finished on my dressage score of 28.4! Really great. Fantastic. Super! I was tied for 5th, and lost the tie because I was farther away from the optimum time for cross country.....Yeah, like 25 seconds early...only 6 seconds away from being penalized for going too fast....so no complaints here! Guess that he's pretty much set for his training pace!

Check out this picture from the USEA web site.


Oh! and I won prizes!!! and MONEY!!!
Yes! I actually won some money!! (Dr. Mangold will be so proud!)

I can't remember everything, but...I won $250, a $100 gift certificate for the Bit of Britain tack store, a pair of SSG gloves, a pair of ice boots (I've always wanted a set of these for Ronan), and something else too...can't quite remember what. But, holy crap, I've been doing this for 20+ years, and I've never ever won any money!!! Woo-hoo.
Oh, and our beautiful green ribbon ain't too shabby either!

Our show jumping round was great. I think that he would have done it regardless....really acting like he knows his job now, but I rode great...exactly how I wanted. The course was very nice and flowing. No real scary jumps, only 1 two stride combination. Oh, but it was pouring down rain, and had been for the last several hours, so that put a bit of a twist on things. Very sloppy, but not slippery....Hey, thank goodness for the Irish horse! Ronan was like...what mud? what puddles? All I see are show jumps!

Ronan got 3 stud muffins yesterday, and lots of hay, so all was good in his little Ronan world.

28.4 !

Wow! I finally got to an internet connection.

The show is just awesome!! Lamplight Equestrian Center is beautiful. Really great facility.

We are currently tied for 5th after cross country !!!! How totally cool is that??
Dressage was yesterday, and he was pretty great! Not his best test, but a good one, and no silly spooking stuff. Very focused, very grown up. :)

X-country was today! I walked the course 3 1/2 times, so I was ready, and didn't get lost. Ronan was great. Listening and moving on! He didn't look at any of the fences, just kept on jumping. Really good boy! Oh! and he was moving on so well, that we almost got penalties for going too fast. We were supposed to be going 400 meters per minute. He wasn't noticeably fast, very balanced, not running of or on the forehand at all, just more at a training pace, I guess rather than the Novice pace. I did get him slowed down at the end, so didn't have any time faults, but it was close.
The course was challenging in some ways, but not crazy hard or trappy.
As far as fences go, there was 2 water combinations, a half coffin, a wimpy trakhener, and a very wide in length and narrow in width corner. There were 4 or 5 combinations. It was really nice. Our run was very uneventful, which to me is always a good thing, but may have appeared to be a bit boring. Ronan seemed to be really having fun, but was bummed out when we finished because he couldn't jump anymore. He felt like he was all warmed up and ready to go!

Tomorrow is showjumping, so I'm off to braid again. (He looked pretty spiffy for dressage.)
Keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be a good boy tmorrow. I can't wait! (more about the actual trip, etc. later...)

Oh and, I hear that there's a hurricane that's going to hit us back home. Lovely. At leaast Ronan's already evacuated.

I'll try and add pics to my post later on.

Wow! It's almost here! And I'm so not ready!!

Ronan pretending to be Rocky

Well....Here's the tentative schedule...

Saturday, 9/6 - Sarah works 8-6, rides Ronan (courses) then finishes up some packing, panics, etc.
Grant, works diligently on preparing for the trip, and does all of the stuff that Sarah thought that she'd get to, and of course, did not. : ) (I know...he's awesome.)

Sunday 9/7 - Sarah works 9-6...Grant picks up Dad from the airport in the afternoon. After work, Sarah takes a short nap, then finishes everything else and we depart for Lamplight ASAP...probably will be like midnight or something.

Monday 9/8 - We drive forever, and Ronan is bored. Hopefully, arriving at lamplight sometime late that night.

Wed. 9/10 Dressage (Ronan is lovely)

Thurs. 9/11 Cross country (Ronan is bold and kicks butt (not Sarah's))

Fri. 9/12 Show jumping (Ronan is awesome!)

Not sure when we're leaving yet. It'll depend upon how things are going, how much fun Ronan is having, and if Ronan is bummed and or rammy because he hasn't been turned out in a week!

I don't have to be back at work until Tuesday....but, I'll be working every single other day in September. : )

More later!!!

Trailer woes...

Ok...so...still having trailer woes... : (

Tried Laura's trailer out this past weekend, and well....

1.) He really didn't fit much better in it than in mine.

2.)The yellow truck/yellow submarine/big yellow taxi pulled that big sucker just fine.

3.)Her super huge long trailer is actually easier to turn and back up than my little Sooner trailer!

4.) Somehow, the balance wasn't right for my truck, and the front of her trailer weighed down the back of my truck too much...Kind of scary.

5.)So....We're going to take ours instead, and just open up the divider and see how that goes. We tried it the other day, and he seemed just fine.

6.)However, our AC unit still shifts some when we're trailering, so if Grant doesn't get back up on the roof and shift it back.... it rains in my trailer (inside the living quarters) Will try and take it to Bunkhouse and get that fixed before we go.

7.) The good news is that Grant secretly ordered me a new memory foam mattress off of ebay so that hopefully, my back won't hurt so much when sleeping in the trailer. : ) I love that man.

As Healthy as a Horse

Well, Ronan went to see his favorite Equine Vet Dr. Jenni Schroeder out at Waller Equine, and he got a thumbs up! So, all set to go from that angle.

Yes...I take my horse to another vet. I feel that since I see him everyday, that I might miss something.

We discussed our travel plans and she gave me some great tips on traveling with him for that long of a distance.

We're still trying to decide on what to do about the trailer situation. He needs to be able to drop his head down so that he can cough and clear his throat as needed, as well as just for generalized comfort on that long of a trip. The truth is, that in our trailer...he can't. He barely fits in there! His head's wedged up against the window, and his but is smack against the wall.....no chance that he's gonna fall down though! Doesn't seem to mind for a couple of hours, but this is like an entire day. 20+ (I'm guessing 24 hours)

I can open up the divider so that he can have both stalls, and that's a bit better for him, but I'm not sure if that's going to be the safest thing because he won't have anything to lean on.

My awesome friend Laura has offered the use of her really awesome extra spiffy trailer. We put him in it last week, and he does have a bit more room, and another half a foot in height, but it's still not ideal. <Sigh> He's just too darn big! I'm going to try driving her trailer this weekend and see how it pulls etc. I don't know how I'm going to be able to park that monster! So...then we hopefully can make a decision, and get him as comfortable as possible.

We're getting so excited. If it would only stop raining and dry out a bit!!!
I rode late last night after work, and yes, it rained on me...again....Oh well.
I just did some small jumps, as the footing wasn't too bad, but it was still wet. Just a bit of gymnastics. He was awesome....I love this horse! Such a good boy.

Got the Nick Larkin clinic coming up this weekend...so we'll see how it goes. I know that he's going to be just fantastic!

Ronan and Sarah going to the AEC's (American Eventing Championships)

Ok...For those who don't know, Ronan and I have qualified to ride in the American Eventing Championships at the Novice level! This is beyond groovy!

They will be held from September 10-14, 2008 at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, IL (outside of Chicago). So, YES WE REALLY ARE DRIVING THE HORSE ALL THE WAY TO CHICAGO FROM HOUSTON!!! (and no, we're not crazy....well, maybe not.)

We have all sorts of family and friends in the Chicago area, so this is going to be totally awesome, besides being at a show with all of the pros, and people from all over the country.

Our goal is to have fun, not fall off, and not get eliminated. And of course be safe... Believe me, that is plenty.

I will try and post updates here, and maybe even one or two from the show if possible. We'll have to see where I can find some wifi, so it may be coming from the iphone.

He's Our Man! (still!)

Went to see George Michael in concert last night. All that I can say is damn! He is still awesome.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, as his latest album is more of a greatest hits collection....basically it's called "25 Live" and it's a representation of the 25 years that George Michael has been in the music industry.

So... I was like....hmmm....Does he have an actual new album with stuff on it coming out? Is he out of money, like the Eagles? Is there some George Michale reality TV show that I don't know about? As far as I can tell...it's none of the above, but honestly, after seeing the show, I wouldn't care. It was that good.

Amazingly artistic setup. Very, very cool. Let me describe... Instead of 1 big screen or backdrop behind the stage, there were 3 columns of screen with space between them. In those spaces was a type of industrial scaffolding type structure that had actual stories...The band was on the different levels of that...very cool, especially because he had the usual rock and pop musicians as well as all of the big band type musicians since he tends to mix both styles together. Back to the screens...they would have artistic images of light moving across the screens, or sometimes shots of his videos, or famous people...all very purposeful....Really neat. The stage itself was minimalistic. Nothing on it except for him, and at times his backup singers all standing in a semi circle around him. Very nice atmosphere.

It didn't hurt that we had awesome seats (thank you! thank you! thank you! Grant!!!!) They were first level, pretty much on the diagonal across from the stage. Woo-hoo!

His voice was still the same awesome, beautiful, fun, soulful voice that I expected. But, to me, the best part was that he danced throughout the entire thing. Not choreographed like Madonna or Brittany...Just danced....like he was in a club having a great night out. He looked like he was having a blast. Oh...and no head mic. (Of course not! He's gay and would never wear anything so tacky.) He talked too...between tracks which was really neat. So, I danced the whole time, and remembered why I love his music soooo much. Because it's fun. Plain and simple, it's fun. He's "just too funky."

His reason for doing the concert? He actually discussed it. He was basically out there to have fun, and trying to say thank you to all of his fans who have stuck by him for the last 25 years. Groovy.

Oh, and did I mention that he still looks great! "oh yeah! "

He sang songs from various different points of his solo career intermixed with some Wham! songs as well. There was a 20 minute intermission between sets. Very classy. Hell, the poor man was probably tired after dancing that hard!

Poor Grant...he was looking oh so sexy all dressed up, but it was hot in there...(of course it was...it was Houston in July! What were we thinking?) He's not the greatest George Michael fan. Not against him, but pretty much just ok. I think that he had a good time. He liked the show. Of course with it being in a big arena (Toyota center) the sound is never good...but I thought that his was better than most, so of course bad sound is a huge annoyance for Grant and me too...but I was also there for the visual. : ) I do think that Grant had a really good time watching me having a really good time and being so energized and happy!

So...can you tell that I loved it? I would go again in a second. Hey...the chance to dance the night away with George Michael? I wouldn't miss it.

Back to the Blog

Ok, ok....So people have been bugging me about not blogging more. I know...To say that we've been wonderfully busy is such an understatement! Life is groovy. Gas prices suck, but my 10 mpg while pulling the horse trailer, detonator yellow pickup truck is still AWESOME! Hey, at least I only use it when I pull the horse.

Yes, Ronan rocks., and is going better than ever.

But, ahhhhh....now it is summer, and I can breathe a bit....not at work, we're getting crazy busy, but that's normal for summer. My last horse show until September was last Sunday, and so I plan to sit back and kick it for a while. Now is when I can do more art stuff, read more books, watch movies. I have managed to fit a bit of art stuff in here and there, but never as much as I want. However, I did take a break and went to CKU while it was in Houston last month....Too awesome. More on that another time.

So anyway...I'll try and post more stuff. I mean, I've got a husband who takes the most amazing pictures, and I'm sure that I can find some sort of art or scrapbook related stuff to put on the blog.