Time to Get Serious

When I got home from work Thursday, I had all intentions set on riding Chewie, in the arena, and working on test pieces. I was all pumped up reading other blogs, watching FSSunnySD videos of her canter in that open field. I figure, "If these other folks can ride that fearless, I can at least put on a calm show."

I fed the crew, ate dinner, relaxed a while, cleaned the bathroom, ran the vaccuum cleaner everywhere's, took out trash & loaded the trash can on the truck for drop off, walked outside to survey & water the flower gardens. When I saw Chewie standing asleep in the pasture, I lost all motivation. It was almost like a depression of, "I'm here all alone today, with nobody to talk to, nobody to answer to, and absolutely no reason to ride." I considered every excuse... I think he'll be grouchy by Sunday if I work him six straight days; his feet are long, trimming tomorrow, and he'll stumble a lot before we fight; he worked a good canter & tigger trot yesterday, leave that good thought in his mind." And the laziness set in. I went back in the house, didn't even wash pads or polos, I just sat in front of the TV, lazily watching boring re-runs. I gave up on the sugar-diet, chomping down three pieces of whole wheat garlic bread & two glasses of white wine. I was depressed, lonely, and flat feeling sorry for myself. By 8:30pm, I felt like a lazy dork for not riding my horse, and went outside to rub his neck, get a pony-hug, and at least let him know he's loved.

Today, I'm going to get serious. There's plenty to work on for the GAG tests. The show-times are posted, and I don't start until after 1pm Sunday. I considered going for the day, saving dog-boarding, hotel fees, and quickly changed my mind. This show trip is supposed to be a "get over the train, get used to the facility, and learn to concentrate on each other through distractions", and if I only go for a day, he won't get the full flavor I'm aiming for.

Tonight will be work on the pieces of the tests, finishing up with GAG tests II and III. As it turns out, if nobody else is allowed a last-minute registration, Chewie and I will be alone in our GAG division. That's an automatically meaningless blue-ribbon, but more importantly, it should result in good judge comments, and a $50 gift certificate. YAHOO! There are for AAs in our Intro division. I'm not looking for big-prizes here, but good scores. I don't ever want dressage to be about competition with other riders, but rather higher scores than any previous test ride. I've received good scores for other Intro tests, and I just want to be better than other rides.

Taking the Sony digicamcorder for the weekend, rather than my wimpy camera with camcorder capabilities. It's time for serious video that I can learn from, so it may not be postable. Any of you readers with uber-video knowledge, consider offering up your nerd-skills. grins

That "Nerd" word reminds me of a funny series of commercials running on Sirius Satellite Patriot radio - "AppRiver", a spam-software company, blocks email spam, pop-ups, and apparently all other garbage not desired on company email servers. They advertise themselves as "We're good. Because our nerds are smarter & more efficient than the nerds that create spam. AppRiver - We've got good nerds." The latest ad features "the nerds" complaining they don't want to be called "nerds", but rather "messaging experts", and desire "red capes with Spam-killer" written across the back. NERDS!