A quick post here as I am off to take a plane flight. Where am I going, you might ask. Well, nowhere. I am getting on a plane, getting off, getting on another, getting off, another, and off and a final one to bring me back home. Why in the name of all that is sane would you do this, you might ask. It's all about the miles baby. I need 3,900 more to make premier elite status again. Having enjoyed this status for the last nine years, I'm not willing to give it up now just because all this year's meetings were on the east coast and I used miles two of the four times I flew to California this year. So, off I go. At least I will finish my holiday cards. Meanwhile, Keegan is safely in Florida with Hilda and starting his Ashmore bootcamp stint. Haven't heard much other than he is a bit fresh on the ground, but well-behaved under saddle. Looking forward to rejoining him and seeing Gizmo in a few weeks. The Florida Chronicles are looking forward to heading back to Florida. Meanwhile, I am also starting the run planning. More on that to follow as well.

The trouble with horses

Wait, there is no way you have enough time to read the full list. Not to mention that most of you could probably add lengthy additions to any list I might create. But, it often strikes me that we go along with our horses, enjoying them, enjoying riding, enjoying barn life and forgetting all that we know (we are horsepeople) is lurking out there just waiting to rear its ugly head. Human injury, sure. I (knock on lots and lots of wood) haven't had a major horse related injury in a while, though there was the stress fracture in March that while not caused by riding kept me from it for a while, but friends have been a bit less lucky. Facebook reveals a broken collarbone, a recently healed shoulder, and a a run of bad luck - blogged about here http://skipjackeventing.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-been-bad-luck-kind-of-year.html. Horse inury, even more common. I've been lucky through the years, but Gizmo is currently rehabbing from an injury that is probably coffin joint related. There is some lack of clarity, which adds to the fun, but he is in a great place and I have a great vet. Horse illness can be tougher. Not so bad when it is Keegan's 2 day minor fever (although I was glad enough that Madison had the ride on his first time back). Worse when it is Eli's arthritic neck. Is this the total cause of his bad behavior, or just an excuse. Either way, Eli is off to find a job that pleases him more and doesn't involve dressage. And much worse, and very sad, Medley's diagnosis. My friend Sherry got Medley within a few weeks of when I got Gizmo and has developed their relationship and love over all that time. I can't imagine how tough it is for her knowing that she only has a few months more with Medley. Which brings me to one of the great things about the trouble with horses; the great horse community that totally gets it. Jackie and Hilda at Ashmore who are taking great care of Gizmo and sending pictures and updates on a regular basis, my wonderful vets both north and south, my friend Holly who is picking Eli up to take him to her place and work on finding him that new home and new job, Caitlin Silliman who despite the craziness of her work schedule is spending time with Eli and keeping me updated on his condition. And then there is the joy that is horse buying and horse selling. So far, all horse buying has been generally good. Sure, every now and then there is an Eli, but who could have know he had arthritis in his neck and buying horses expands ones horse community. I think of Nancy Kempe in Texas from whom I bought Gizmo in 1999 and to whom I still send a holiday card with his update every year, Nancy Wilcox from whom I bought Keebler, Margaret King who sold me Tobe, Finn and Eli, and most recently Kate Chadderton, the original off the track buyer of Keegan. And honestly, selling and/or leasing has often done the same. Keebler has added a Michigan fan club to his Florida fan club and has the best life ever thanks to Lynn who has been leasing him since 2009 and has seen him through multiple injuries. It is great fun getting updates from Andria Pooley (except for that broken collarbone) and we mourned together when Guinness had to be euthanized 9 years after she bought him from me. Kaiti Saunders is my go to expert eye when I want to buy everything in sight, Lauren Tjaden sold several horses for me and then bought Vic and even though she is no longer riding, we are still in touch. See, horses and being a horseperson make you forget the troubles. I started there, but the post really wanted to go to the good stuff - the riding, the volunteering, the cool people you meet doing both as well the community it all creates. Here's hoping that tomorrow's cold weather lesson on Keegan doesn't produce any interesting troubles.

Planes, trains and automobiles

Sometimes, one says this, but yesterday to return home after 9 days out and about I 1) took a CTA train from downtown Chicago to O'Hare, 2) took a USAir flight from O'Hare to PHL, 3) took a SEPTA train from PHL to 30th Street station (sadly realizing that I was passing home), 4) took an Amtrak train from 30th street station to BWI, 5) took a bus from BWI train station to airport and 6) fetched my car from the BWI parking lot and drove 2 hours home to Philadelphia.

You may ask why my car was at BWI. It was there because I had flown to Chicago directly following a fabulous time at the Waredaca T3DE. I was in Atlanta Monday night and Tuesday, flew to BWI (where I had left my car Monday afternoon), drove around in Maryland, then headed to BWI in my car to catch the Chicago flight on Saturday morning. Then 4 days in Chicago at the Society for Medical Decision Making meeting www.smdm.org. Now home again and ready to see my horse, get a ton of work done and generally pick back up on everyday life.

While I was gone, Tag's sale was finalized. I am excited about his new life as a dressage horse. He will be staying where he has been for the past several months in Upper Marlboro Maryland so I have hopes of seeing him out and about at dressage shows.

I also bought another dressage saddle (I know, it is a problem). It is a Kieffer Ulla Salzgeber that I got on ebay. It was relatively inexpensive. I was just remembering how much I liked my Kieffer dressage saddle on Tempo, and thought it might be worth a shot for Keegan. Meanwhile, Lynn's Boscoe no longer needs the wide County. I'm hoping that the person in her barn that might be interested buys it. I am now about to buy winter blankets for Eli as I sent him to Caitlin without any and he is too big for the ones I have.

Hoping to have lots of fun Keegan updates soon.

In which I take the first lesson on Keegan

Great flat lesson with Missy today. Keegan was a good boy and Missy gave me the current keys to riding, go forward to the trot - getting him to push more from behind at every stride and while maintaining the push work on the consistency of the bend through all the turns. It went quite well. The cantering is quite good to the right, but still pretty crooked to the left. I guess since he didn't race to the the right, he doesn't have bad habits to overcome going in that direction. Meanwhile, I am very impressed by his work ethic and how much better he is after a month at Blue Hill. He is also getting fatter and glossier every day. I am interested to see what color of bay his winter coat comes in. Planning for a jumping lesson later in the week.

In which I digress from horses

I wanted to mention some of my favorite truly kick-ass women protagonists in book series. Just in case you are looking for some non-horse, non-work, non-intellectual reading material.

Charlie Fox (Zoe Sharp) - ex-special forces officer now a bodyguard. This is a series of (so far) 8 or 9 books. Charlie is tough, complicated and in love with her tough and complicated boss. She is both a killer and a survivor. If you like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, you are likely to like Charlie.

Tara Chace (Greg Rucka) - Tara is a British government assassin - or as she is called a minder. There are three books in this series so far and it is hard to tell if there will be more.

Kate Daniels (Ilona Andrews) - is the daughter of a truly powerful and evil magic guy, who has her own magic and over the course of the books (5 so far) ends up mated to the Beast Lord, head of the Atlanta were-animal group in an alternate US where magic and technology rise and fall.

Eve Dallas (JD Robb) - is a police officer with the NYSPD (Safety and Police Department) in the 2050s and now 2060s following the US Urban Wars. She ends up with the richest guy ever, who has a criminal history. She survived abuse as a child and became an incredibly good homicide cop. Very interesting police procedurals with just a touch of difference for being in the future and a good romance line as well.

Diane Tregarde (Mercedes Lackey) - was in 3 full length books a long while ago. There are some kindle short stories now. She is a witch who lives in modern day NYC, ends up partnered with a Vampire (one of the few stories including a "good" vampire).

Vic Nelson (Tanya Huff) - is a police officer who becomes a private eye when she develops vision problems, teams up with a vampire (another generally good one) who is the bastard son of Henry VIII and writes romance novels. Vic's love interest is another cop and eventually she ends up a vampire. There are two fairly recent spin off books about Henry (the vampire) and another character, but no recent ones about Nelson.

I'm sure there are many others. Feel free to add. I will say that I read and really enjoy the Kinsey Millhone, Sharon McCone, VI Warshawski, both characters by Linda Barnes, Kayla Neya (sagara), and practically all other strong female characters in both mystery and fantasy, but while all are strong in various ways, I think the ones I have listed best exemplify kick-ass

In which I ride Keegan at Blue Hill

It was not an ideal day for a ride. The sun was shining in Philadelphia, but in Unionville it was raining away. Keegan was less affected than I was by the rain thundering on the roof of the indoor, plus actual thunder. He was well behaved though needs to figure out where all his body bits are. If anything, when he gets confused, he just quits moving forward. There was only one small leaping event during the ride. Then we hung out for a while in the barn and watched it pour. More this weekend.

In which Irene pays a visit

Thursday evening, it rained hard enough to cancel the Phillies game, but that was just a rain storm. Still, we had several bouts of significant rain and the rainiest month in the recorded history of Philadelphia and it was only August 25th. Still coming was the hurricane. Her name was Irene and she was touching down first in N. Carolina and then moving Northward. The good news, Aiken was forecast to have lovely weather for Kenzie and Gizmo's recognized eventing debut. Cyndi said they left a perfect dressage test in the warm-up, but since many of us with *much* more experience have done that on Gizmo, I don't think it detracts at all from their 7th place finish adding nothing to that dressage score. And, it leaves some room for improvement, which isn't a bad thing either. In Richland, Michigan, the weather was also cooperating for the Richland Park Horse Trials, including the Pan Am Games selection mandatory outing. Much more on that can be found anywhere eventing is reporting on including www.eventingnation.com; www.useventing.com and http://www.richlandpark.com/index.html. Gabby Ledger and Franklin finished 2nd in their debut preliminary together. Franklin is a lovely horse, brought up through the ranks by Ralph Holstein, a great Ohio rider. Brett Huard and her Thicket's Ticket also scored a 2nd place finish in their preliminary division on their return to competition following Brett's injury earlier this summer. Others from both Cobblestone and Blue Hill Farm were also there, so check out those results.

Meanwhile, baseball was cancelled in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York for the weekend. Saturday morning, I headed out to Blue Hill and rode Symphony and Cole and lunged JD, then helped get the horses and barn situated for the storm to come. Headed back to the city in a moderate rainfall, which steadily gained into the evening. No power outage in town and altogether uneventful for us. Henry and I ventured out Sunday morning to check the aftermath. The Schuylkill was pretty impressive (picture) and many things were closed, but some (including DiBruno Brothers) open, so we scored breakfast goods and then headed home. Today is a beautiful day, almost perfect, sunny weather as a follow-up. Baseball resumes this evening and Monday night football will be on as well. I'm ready.