In which I visit the West

I just got back from a (for me) very looong vacation.  I was gone for 10 days (plus took yesterday off to organize/recuperate).  There were no horses, but it was fabulous nonetheless.  I flew from PHL to BZN (who knows that airport code?), or for those of you wondering --- Bozeman, Montana.  I immediately drove down from Bozeman to Idaho Falls, Idaho.  I am newly enamored of airbnb and highly recommend that you check it out if you are traveling (especially to smaller towns).  In Idaho Falls, I stayed in an upstairs room of a lovely home about a mile from the race packet pick up location and about 3 miles from the race parking/finish.  Oh, right, race.  Well, we know I am slow, so there isn't much racing, but my primary goal for this trip was to complete 3 half marathons in 8 days.  June 19th, The MAD half marathon in Idaho Falls, June 24th (Pioneer Day),the Deseret News half marathon in Salt Lake City, and July 26th, the Madison half marathon in Ennis, Montana.  So after settling into the room, picking up my packet and having a decent dinner at a local bar/grill (with interesting conversation with some local folks there), I had an early night, then got up in the morning and headed to the park to catch the race bus to the start.  The race bus got totally lost and dropped us off in a random parking lot.  We kept telling them it wasn't right, but they had no directions and no contact information for the race director.  One of the drivers ended up going back down to the park and finding out where we were really supposed to be, so we got there late and then there were only two porta-johns for about 100 people.  The organizers were really nice though and it was for a good cause, so hopefully next year they will have the buses, the johns and the aid stations (which were on the wrong side of the road with unclosed roads) sorted out.  The course itself wasn't terribly interesting, slight rolling hills on back roads around Idaho Falls, no real scenery, and simple aid stations, but it did the job.  It wouldn't be first on my list for a race recommendation, but for locals, it is a nice group of people.

I grabbed a shower, then hopped in the car to head down to Salt Lake City, got there and checked into my next airbnb accommodation, which was really wonderful.  I arrived Saturday evening and would be in SLC until Friday morning.  I ended up filling the time with yoga, local beer, Liberty Park and quite a lot of work.  I found a great yoga studio just about a mile (through the park) from the apartment and they had a Groupon deal, so I bought a 10 class card and ended up doing those 10 classes while there (2 Sunday, 2 Monday, 1 Tuesday, 2 Wednesday, 2 Thursday and 1 Friday).  On Thursday, I ran the Deseret News Classic half marathon.  It was mostly downhill, so I was able to run a reasonable amount of it and enjoyed the race.  There was a great view over the city and good shade in the canyon, so while daytime temperatures had gotten up over 100 the past several days, we got about 15 minutes of rain and wind which cooled things down and with the shade, it was quite pleasant. This was a fun, well-organized race.  The medal was quite large for those of you who collect the bling.  The logistics weren't bad at all, a quick drive up to the Rice-Eccles stadium to park and then a quick bus ride to the start.  After the finish, the buses back to the stadium were very prompt, so I was actually back at my room by 9:30.

After a quick shower, I headed into town, did yoga and enjoyed the Pioneer Day festivities.  There were parties and fireworks at night, but I fell promptly asleep and wasn't bothered by any of it.  Friday morning, I had a leisurely breakfast and then headed up to Montana.  It was a 5 and a half hour drive, but much of it very pretty.  Ennis is tucked away alongside a river, a cute little fishing outpost where 3/4 of the shops on the main street seem to be selling fishing gear.  Packet pick up was in a park outdoors and we then got a pasta dinner from a local non-profit and a great talk from Frank Bartocci who was running his 600th marathon at this event.  I can't even imagine running that many marathons.  There were also guys who were running their 350th and 300th marathons and many other high mileage folks.  Interestinging, the first place male, first place female and overall first place half finishers were all NCAA athletes and the two marathon winners were each running their first marathons.  The race was super challenging, billed as the highest elevation *road* marathon in the world, it has an average elevation over 9,000 reaching a high point just over 9,600 feet.  We got on buses in Ennis and headed to the staging area (almost 2 hours by bus) and then from there onto the start line (over the race course road 13.1 miles away).  The start was pretty much straight uphill and I had a couple of minutes of wondering if I was going to be able to do it at all.  I had been worrying a bit about whether the blood-breath machinery was going to be up to this one but I told myself I would go very slowly to the first aid stop at mile 3 and make a decision there.  The first mile was slow and hard, mostly uphill, but then there was a pretty good downhill and some reasonably level ground and by the time I hit the next uphill before the aid station, I was feeling fairly warmed up and capable of finishing, so I chugged on and did finish (very slowly).  Much of the slow was just me being slow, but I did stop to take some pictures along the way. 

The Wildflowers didn't come out that well.  After hanging out at the staging/finish area for a while, watching several runners finish, I climbed back aboard a bus for the two hour trip back to Ennis.  Once there, I jumped in the car and drove the hour to the airport.  I was tempted by the Norris Hot Springs, but decided to head onto my airport motel (no airbnb near the Bozeman airport).  The front desk folks recommended a surprisingly good Italian place around the corner, where I had a very nice glass of montepulciano with yummy eggplant parmigiana for dinner.  Then packing, sleeping and up at 3:45 for the flight home (uneventful).  

In other parts of the country, much eventing was occurring.  The first weekend, I was gone Maryland Horse Trials took place, scores here: http://www.evententries.com/livescoring/15648.html.  Then the second weekend, both Rebecca Farms in the West (I considered going up, but it was over a 7 hour drive to Kalispell) and the WEG test event at Great Meadows in the east.  It felt a bit odd to be fairly disconnected from horsey happenings for so long, but I ended the vacation feeling very refreshed.  

Sunday night invovled massive amounts of lightning and very loud thunder, but I fell asleep fairly quickly despite the light show. Monday, I took a day off and hung at Blue Hill, getting a great dressage lesson from Rachel and then Tuesday was back at work, but ending the day with xc schooling at Fair Hill.  Keegan was very good and jumped a bunch of the preliminary stuff, so I'm starting to feel ready, though still nervous.  Dressage at Dunmovin Saturday, lots of work and hopefully this amazing weather holds.

Keegan being a rock star

Happy recovery Monday to everyone.  I enjoyed the weekend.  Lots of barn time and some great meals and wine.  Wednesday night, Henry and I started his birthday celebration early and went to Sovana Bistro.  The wine that night was the Greenock 2005 Alice's Shiraz.  Thursday, I had work and then a great dressage school on Keegan.  I got home just in time for the big wind to blow through and knock out the power (luckily dinner was already cooked).  The power remained out for 16 hours with a very widespread outage.  Friday, I was happy to discover that Delaware had power so I did Pure Barre,  and then after the power returned, hung out at the barn for a couple of hours, then had a dressage lesson.  Things are starting to come together, although I need to work on sitting trot for longer periods of time and continue to work on the trot lengthenings. The canter lengthenings are quite good.  The leg yields are doing well to the right, not quite so well to the left, but getting better as we practice.  Friday evening, more good food and wine at home.  Henry's sister Judy joined us and then we went off in search of ice cream, which took some doing as several places didn't have any as a result of the power outage.  In the end, we had success and ice cream for dessert.  Saturday, Keegan had and I had a nice hack with Fie and Jean.  Fie is a lovely Danish Warmblood mare, who has been at Blue Hill Farm since early winter.  She is very well behaved and I enjoyed the company and hearing more about her on our ride. Saturday evening, Henry and I enjoyed attending one of my colleague's wedding.  It was a nice ceremony (although a little hot outside) and the Farmhouse in Delaware was a very nice site for the wedding.  Henry and I got to dance a little bit, which is always fun.

Sunday was great.  Pure Barre first thing, then a little bit of gardening to replace one of the butterfly bushes taken out by the winter storms.  The afternoon was schooling at Windurra.  As always, the jumper course was challenging and on the excellent footing.  I goofed on the first try, coming to fence 3 underpaced on a counter canter and then chucking my shoulders at the fence, but I set off again from the start, and Keegan jumped around perfectly.  We then headed out to the cross country and had our first go at some preliminary fences.  It went very well, with Keegan jumping everything he was pointed at and me eventually getting my form into decent shape and finding the right pace with some consistency.  We jumped a one stride to one stride coffin, the trakehner, two versions of the same corner and the keyhole as well as a bank and a couple of logs on lumps.  Keegan took it all in stride and other than a brief peek at the trakehner on take-off and "ducking" through the keyhole leading to a somewhat awkward jump, he was very good about everything.  I was surprised at how good he was staying straight to the corner.  Brigitte and Harper also had a successful day and Devon rode both of hers, the youngster Salty at novice and her seasoned boy Dan at Preliminary to knock the rust off.  Lexi rode her Merry over both training and prelminary show jumps and did a bit of work out on the xc course trying out some tack options.  I think everyone felt it was a very successful day.  It was great seeing Steph Cauffman out on her boy Dylan and seeing Cindi Cauffman and their adorable puppy Beezie.  Annie Jones apparently is looking at a Danzig grandson and she admired Keegan when she saw him.  Always nice to see lots of eventers in this kind of fun, laid back setting.  Nilson da Silva and Laura Vandervliet were there with some nice youngsters as were Ryan Wood, Jane Sleeper and Pam Wiedemann.  Caitlin had a day off so I didn't get to see my buddy Brody.

Now back to a busy work week, ending up with SBIR grant review day in Bethesda Friday.

Running and Riding at Fair Hill

Fair Hill Natural Resources Area is a great local "resource".  If you event, you just know it as Fair Hill and spend time there through the year schooling and attending horse trials and possibly aspiring to Area II's big show in October.  The past two weekends, I spent Saturday at Fair Hill, not riding.

Saturday, the 21st was the XTERRA Big Elk trail marathon and half marathon.  I did the half (plus a bit as it turned out).  We started right outside the Walls building, but started out going across the bridge (which I've never crossed on foot before).  We ran through a lot of areas of the park that I hadn't seen before.  Early in the course, I missed a turn (along with a fairly large group of runners) and ended up tagging on an extra 2.1 miles to my day.  All of a sudden, I see two very big jumps and we were running in the CCI jump field.  Then toward the end of the run, we cut across the middle of the horse trials jump course, on the water side of the mound and then took the trail that we come up on the horses to xc back to the starting area. It was hot and humid as well as fairly hilly, so I took it slowly, but was doing OK.  I ended up walking more slowly about the last four-five miles as a fellow marathon maniac had fallen and cut her knee pretty badly.  She said having me with her helped and the knee looked bad enough that I thought it a reasonable idea to stick with her.  She ended up heading to the ED for some stitches at the end, but got credit for a half finish.  It turns out she also broke off a bone spur, but that shouldn't cause any issues going forward.  Trail runners are tough. Minus the big green arches, this should look familiar to my area II eventing peeps.

Then, Saturday the 28th, I spent the day volunteering at the Fair Hill unrecognized horse trial.  I was dressage steward down at rings 1-3, so had many opportunities to chat with folks.  Sadly, I missed June's test as she was in Ring 4, but did snap this shot as she hung out while her friend Chester did his dressage test. 

It was Chester's first BN and he was excited, but a good boy, thanks to David's excellent calm riding. Here they are waiting to do their stadium round. 

June put in a very nice dressage test and was tied for 1st place after dressage and stadium.  She had a green moment or two leaving the warm-up to head out on course, but once she got into the rhythm, Rachel said she was very bold.  They are headed back to Fair Hill today to do some xc schooling. 

Meanwhile, Keebler was at the Longwood South jumper show with Jordan.  I hear many blue ribbons ensued, but no details.  We need a guest blog!

To kick off the summer, last evening we had lovely Henry margaritas on the roof deck in the city.  It was great fun and made Monday a much better day.  Looking forward to a busier than usual holiday weekend, complete with a wedding and xc schooling and/or jumpers at Windurra as well as Henry's birthday.  Usually, I'm excited about baseball this time of year, but the Phillies are 8.5 games back and the cubs 14.5 (despite yesterday's really excellent almost no-no against the Red Sox and a 2-0 win), so I'm rooting for the US to defy the odds in Rio and for Andy Murray and Eugenie Bouchard at Wimbledon this week. 

More running and riding reports

Does this blog read like a broken record??  Keegan and I completed the training at Fair Hill the weekend after my last blog.  The cross country was tough enough with three triple combinations, but he skipped around it.  We ended up having time faults as I had to stop for about thirty seconds to be able to breath, but the whole thing felt really easy and I don't think it was.

The following weekend, I ran the half marathon at the Alexandria Festival of Running.  It was a fairly nice day and I had a decent race, but it was rather poorly organized, with the start over 30 minutes late and several very tight turns that were not well marked and course marshals off doing other things.  My GPS said 13.6 by the time I finished.  The best part of the day was catching up with Kaiti Saunders for brunch at another great restaurant that she selected.  This was accompanied by an excellent mimosa.  

Keegan and I ended up not competing at Plantation as he had bump up on his shoulder that seemed somewhat ouchy.  Stacey wasn't sure what it was, but it resolved over a couple of days while I was in San Diego.  The Value Institute presented 13 posters at the meeting and we had a lot of good discussions.  The 5 of us stayed in a great house up on Banker's Hill that was listed through VRBO.  It meant 3 floors, 2 kitchens, 3 televisions and all for far less than the price of a hotel.  After the meeting ended, I spent some time with my dad in Encinitas, where I  I did try something other than riding and running and did a SUP yoga class

, and we both went up and spent some time with my brother in Calabasas.  Just my brother this time as my sister-in-law and the kids were in the Philadelphia area.  It was for the sad reason of paying last respects at the funeral of Kathy's younger sister Jane, who passed away from cancer last week. I then ran a trail half marathon in Temecula, California.  It was very hilly and the first time I've ever wished for trail shoes as some of the downhills were very steep and slippery.  I finished up and flew home, arriving BWI at 1:30 a.m. then arrive home around 3:30.

Meanwhile Bromont and Luhmuhlen happened.  Lots of coverage of both over at the ever up to date  Eventing Nation.  Sadly, two riders and a horse passed away, but as always the eventing community showed great support and community/ and in a great show of team spirit, Boyd Martin and his owners made Trading Aces available as an option for Phillip Dutton. 

Sunday was a lazy day at the barn.  I met Maggie Deatrick there.  She is a COTH and FaceBook friend who has moved to the area.  Her lovely advanced horse, Dante, will be joining us at Blue Hill Farm in August. It will be great to have Maggie at the barn and as a member of wine night in the city.  We are meeting tonight for a BYOB dinner and Henry is picking out good wine for that. 

Yesterday, I rode Keegan in his new dressage saddle.  It is great.  Of course, in the way of these things, I bought a new (to me - it is used) dressage saddle, but my jump saddle sold first, so now I have two (three if you count the E. Jeffries Justine is still holding on to) dressage saddles and no jump saddles, but I've placed an order for the monoflap version of this one, which I'm really looking forward to.  I briefly had a similar Ryder saddle, but it was a demo and ended up not fitting the horse I had at the time (it was bought for a different horse that was sold in the interim).  So if you know anyone interested in a dressage saddle....

In which I do all the things

Once again the combination of work, running and riding in Area 2 made for a packed 4 days, and then I had a lot of work to catch up on, hence the Wednesday blog.

Friday, I attended an NIH grant writing conference at Penn.  I've written and successfully obtained grants in the past, but was looking for more tips to pass along as part of my mentoring work in Delaware's ACCEL- CTR program.  The conference was interesting and I have some great material.Fighting traffic on the way home makes me even more thankful that I don't have to make the Friday commute on a regular basis.  I headed straight to Plantation where I happened to run into Missy who was there to walk the xc with Jason Racey, so I got some Jamie time, walked my course and then met up with Ann Baumgardner who was in to ride her Mick Dreamy on Saturday and was staying at our place (Mick got to stay at Blue Hill).  We headed home after walking (and wondering a little about the course layout) and Henry cooked us super yummy steak and asparagus with a great bottle of Syrah for dinner.

Saturday, I rode at Plantation (after not riding Friday - good Keegan!).  I also played groom briefly (for Jason Racey doing the intermediate with his handsome Dodger) and then volunteered as cross country control (one of my favorite volunteer jobs) once I finished riding.  Keegan was great.  We were back to our traditional 38 dressage score, but he was much better throughout the test overall and especially in his trot rhythm and his canter transitions.  His show jumping was excellent and he clocked around the cross country.  We were just a little slow (7 seconds) because there were some very weird turns on the course that I elected not to make.  I either made circles to present at what I considered a better angle or trotted a bit.  We also trotted down the steep hill as it was starting to get a touch mucky.  The jumping was great and I had a lot of fun.  We even brought home a ribbon, moving up from 7th after dressage to 5th and racking up our first USEA leaderboard point :).  Steve Berkowitz captured another great picture and was kind enough to share it.

 Control also was fun despite the late afternoon thunderstorm that suspended activities for an hour.  We were able to stay otherwise on schedule to finish up just before 6 p.m. I then spent 20 minutes searching for the car key that I managed to lose - in my car.  For those of you that have seen my car, this is not surprising.  And the day was still not done.  Henry and I met Blaine and Rachel for dinner at Catherine's to celebrate Blaine's graduation.  He is now officially a radiation oncology A.A.S. and has a great job lined up to start next week.  We're hoping this will mean he has more time and funds for riding.  Because we started dinner at 8:30, it ended up being a fairly late night - well at least in my world where 9:00 is generally considered bedtime. The mushroom soup was fabulous as always and Henry brought a bottle of new find Spanish wine that tasted very good and had a nose to die for.

And the alarm clock still went off at 5:00.  I didn't have too much trouble getting up and got dressed and headed down to Wilmington to pick up my packet for the Delaware half marathon.  At 6:15 when I arrived, there was still easy parking and no lines at the packet pick-up (apparently most people took seriously the admonition to pick up their packets on Saturday.  I had planned to do so, but was thwarted by that thunderstorm).  I got my stuff, put it in the car, wandered around and at 7:20 headed out.  It was another warm, humid day and as at DeLeon Springs in January, I had to go on the slow plan.  Still it was a lovely day.  I had a good time and racked up half marathon number 40.  I also got a hug at the halfwayish point from Eddie Vega, the Barefoot Bandito who was there running barefoot marathon 28 for his targeted Guinnness World Record.  Read about his exploits here as well as learning more about the charity for which he is running, Soles4Souls.  Apparently, it was a bad weekend for keys as Eddie lost the key to his rental car and ended up missing his flight and having to take the train home.  With his usual great attitude, he considered it an adventure.  I also saw one of our Value Institute Biostatistics Interns who also was running the half.

After finishing, I headed back to Plantation where volunteers were in slightly short supply given the confluence of 1)Jersey Fresh CCI, 2)Mother's Day, 3) Willowdale Steeplechase races.  I somehow was lucky enough to get to volunteer as the xc finish.  Because the Plantation starter events operate on the honor system, I got to ask every rider how it went.  Even those with stops had big smiles and thanks.  There were some incredibly cute kids and ponies as well as some very good looking young horses.  While many of the pros were at Jersey, Molly Rosin, Daniel Clasing, Cherie Gaebel and Jane Sleeper each rode at least 3.  My favorite of the day was seeing Camilla on Remi at novice.  They won the novice on their dressage score of 25.2 and looked great doing it.  Remi did not seem to object to pink bell boots.  The weather stayed lovely through the day and we finished up just before 5:00 with no lost keys or other objects.

Meanwhile across the state line, Caitlin and Hoku finished 4th in the CIC*** and Erin and Bucky finished 2nd, so that was a great reroute for both of them.  The overall scores are here. David and BG demonstrated their talent and poise by turning in a clean xc run after being held at the water for a fall (only half of the riders who started dressage completed the CIC**), then being sent back to the barn for the thunderstorm and having to jump the water as their first fence after getting untacked, retacked heading out and only having one practice fence before being restarted.  Both crazy and impressive.

We wrapped up our weekend with Mother's Day dinner with Myrna Levin.  Henry and Jonathan Levin have been friends since 4th grade and it was great to catch up with Myrna. I also got a great update from Kathy (my sister-in-law) on how she and the kids are doing.

And the fun wasn't over as Monday was first ACCEL- CTR Conference on building Academic-provider-community partnerships for research.  It was a great chance to network with colleagues from the VI and beyond.  Tuesday was back to the everyday work world, although I did end it with a great dressage lesson with Missy.

And then there were marathons

Before I get to the main marathon part of this blog, a few eventing shout outs.  Plantation was last weekend.  The scores are here.  Caitlin was first and fourth in the preliminary on Callisto and Ballyneety.  This weekend, Fair Hill is going on up here.  David and BG finished 5th in the Intermediate and David said it all felt quite easy.  Kimberly Kojima finished 9th in the CIC*** and also served as David's SJ coach.  Busy weekend there with preliminary XC running until after 5:30 today.Scores from FHI. 

In Aiken, Jordan and Keebler were completing their first recognized training level event together.  They had a successful day, adding just one rail to their dressage score and, according to Cyndi, almost getting speed faults xc.  

I had a lovely hack, hill canter, couple of logs ride on Keegan today, enjoying the warm weather.  It was the first time I've used fly spray in 2014.  I felt good, although the legs still felt a little heavy. This resulted from my first multiple marathon adventure. 

From last Saturday through Wednesday, I completed the Mainly Marathons Riverboat Series. This consisted of doing 5 marathons in 5 days in 5 states, a total of 131 miles of marathons plus 1400 miles of driving.

Friday, I flew down from Philadelphia to Nashville.  I considered it an auspicious sign that my rental car was a VW Jetta with Michigan plates.  I drove to Mayfield, KY and checked in at the Wingfield Inn, then hit a CVS for the last of the needed supplies for the week.  I sorted gear into a few different bags and pop-up laundry baskets for ease of organization during the week.  I went out to check out the site and then had dinner and headed back to the hotel, where I met my roomies for the week, Chavet Breslin and her mom Alexis Milosc.  We hit the sack fairly early, ready for the adventure to begin.

Day one was at Columbus-Belmont State Park.  As for all of these events, the course was a fairly short loop (in this case a figure 8 type loop) so that we passed the start/finish/support area frequently.  At each pass, we collected a rubber band.  This course had a first loop on asphalt trail (with some hills) and a second loop on dirt/grass trail that was more of a traditional single track trail, although not too technical (photo credit Cynthia Tanzi).

I took it pretty easy, not at all sure of what 5 days of marathoning were going to be like.  It was also fairly warm and humid and there were definite hills.  I finished feeling fairly good.  Got in the car and drove to Millington, TN.  In Millington, our hotel was the Plantation Oaks.  We got upgraded to a very nice suite there.  After settling into the room, I had some dinner and then pretty much went to sleep.  In the morning headed to the park.  I ended up doing most of day two with a new friend, Deb Lazerson.  She had injured her ankle, so we took it fairly easy.  This group of folks completes many, many races per year and often compete through injuries and illness in search of their records.  I finished up with Mike and Frank.  I was excited to hear that Frank will be completing his 600th marathon at the Madison Marathon in Montana in July, which is also on my schedule.  After finishing, it was off to the next venue.  I had gotten us a cabin in Leroy-Percy State Park in Mississippi for two days.  I was a bit confused thinking it wasn't too far between day 3 and 4 venues when in fact, we ended up having to drive a little over an hour for day 3 in Arkansas (and my GPS was a bit confused about the route), but got there successfully Monday morning and completed all of day 3 in the rain (photo credit Cynthia Tanzi).

It was fairly chilly as well, so I didn't mind the slightly long drive in the warm car back to Leroy Percy State Park in Mississippi.  I did some work and then had dinner with Deb at her hotel before once again heading back to the park for the night.  We had some confusion about the heating system, leading to the night being fairly cold and reminding me of the night in Florida when Hilda had set the system in the coach to cool for the night and it was 42 when I got up.  It didn't get quite that cold this time, but was still a bit chilly as we got ready.  We didn't have far to go as we were already in the park.  It was a chilly day, but I was still feeling quite strong and finished faster than any of the days before.  There was then a fairly long drive to Winnsboro, LA where I had a lovely Mexican dinner before heading to bed prior to the final race.  The final race had the most loops (22 as opposed to 20 on days 3 and 4 and 12 on days 1 and 2).  I once again felt very strong and pushed a bit for my fastest finish of the series (still turtle slow, but nonetheless).  At this race, Patrick Weldon, a neurologist based in Mississippi finished his 100th race!  He runs to raise money for a great cause http://www.upwithdownsteam.com/ and is another of the Mainly Marathons extended family.

Major props to Clint Burleson and his team/family for putting on these races.  They were super organized and very well supported.  While many runners did all 5 races, several others did 1-4 and volunteered at the ones that they didn't run.  Alexis planned to do her first half marathon ever on day 4.  She ended up doing the full marathon and I think we may have another addict. She supported us at the other 4 races.  Chavet will be doing the Keys 100 in less than a month.  Eddie Vega is working on 50 full marathons Barefoot! in a single year and ran again today (as did at least a few of the others) at the Kentucky Derby Marathon. Sabra Kurth did both running and volunteering and several who did half marathons stayed the rest of the day volunteering.  It is another one of those groups that one is proud to be a part of (and can't quite believe one is).  Following the final event, I got in the car for the long drive back to Nashville and a nice night at a bed and breakfast there before heading home in the morning.  I assembled the medal when I got home - most excellent swag!

Eventing Rocks

This was a COTH post, but I'm putting it up here because I'm too busy to write a new blog.  On the countdown to Marathon craziness.

We are all sad about the loss of two lovely horses this weekend. We feel for their riders, owners, grooms and other connections. Hopefully, those who bash are 1) in the minority and 2) not really eventers because those of us who are eventers know how much we care for our horses (and each other's). A couple things I noticed over the last 48 hours or so:

1) Phillip riding Boyd's horses at the Fork. The fact that everyone just accepts (as lovely, but still not that big a deal) that Phillip would give a competitor's horses a final run so that they might have the opportunity to compete (against him) at Rolex.

2) Posts #7 and #8 here http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/sh...ianapolis-area!

3) Kate Chadderton withdrawing from the Fork to gallop Cole (who had some time off due to a bruise) with full support from the owners of the other horses (Liberty and Buckharo) and then posting on facebook, "my all consuming problem of Cole's bruise seems totally irrelevant now. I'm stopping on the way home to buy my horses some carrots to go with the hugs I'll give them tonight."

4) Sally Cousins winning an advanced and an intermediate (with Minion tape on her xc boots https://www.facebook.com/13930022275...type=1&theater), continuing to take it one step at a time with Taz, giving him time to grow into the big time horse she believes he is capable of being

5) This excellent story on EN http://www.9news.com/story/news/mili...arity/7389389/ 

So: hug your ponies, cheer for your friends, coaches, and competitors, give to support those things that touch your heart (including the USEA Equine Medical Research Fund if you want to help understand more about what contributes to horses dying in our sport) and Go Eventing!!