Cass has been back for a couple of weeks, and I have to say — the time in Aiken did him wonders. He’s a completely different horse on the flat, and his jumping has improved immensely thanks to his stronger flatwork. (See, guys, dressage does improve jumping!)

Caroline and I went up to Turner Farm yesterday to school some XC fences. Since Caroline is going to Morven in two weeks and Teddy hasn’t been out since last August, it was important for them to get some miles in. Cass has already been out this season with Skyeler, so we weren’t too concerned about the jumps, but I haven’t gone XC in awhile and needed to get out in the open.

Both boys were very well behaved — Teddy was a bit lit up from not having been off the property for 7 months, and Cass spent several minute oogling the construction at a house next door, but there were no temper tantrums or meltdowns, so I consider that a good day. We had no issues going over the two ditches (YAY!!!! ), and he cantered off the larger bank with almost no problem. Go figure that he spooked and went sideways when we trotted the 1 foot high up bank.

We ended the day with an angled jump over a table-thing to simulate a more difficult question. Skye stood about 25 feet away and instructed, “Aim toward me and pretend I’m the skinny in the second combination.” Nailed it. “That’s the type of stuff you’ll see on a Prelim course.” Oh lord, she used the “P” word.

For all the non-horse people reading this, Preliminary is the next level up from Training (my level) in the eventing world. The move to Prelim is a big one, not only in size but the questions start to become much more technical. (The dressage’s isn’t easy, either.) On a Training level XC course, you can afford to make an error because the jumps are more forgiving — not only are they lower in height, but they’re usually wider and set further apart. At Prelim, you’ll get fun combinations like this:

Granted, those are on the USEA Championships course and it’s unlikely you’ll see something like that at your average horse trial, but still. Those are some narrow-ass jumps. And for “Let’s go LEFT!” Cass, we’re going to have to work real hard on staying straight, or that B element is going to be a fly-by. Oh yeah, did I mention you have to average 520 meters per minute on a Prelim course? That’s about 19 miles per hour. Additionally, some those combinations require you to slow down to a safer 375 mpm, so you have to make up time on the other side by going way faster than 19 mph.

Not worrying too much yet. Our first competition isn’t for another month, and I plan on sticking to Training until we can at least get our pace right on XC. But his dressage has improved enough that he can definitely bang out a Prelim dressage test, all that matters is if his pilot can ride him through one!

Cass just returned from his month abroad (let’s face it, Aiken, SC, is like another country to us Northerners). I’m almost done with my personal training sessions, as I’m about to start sending in those entry checks for spring competitions and can’t afford to do both. Not to mention I’m so sore the day after training that it would affect how many hours of riding I can get in.

Running has gotten [slightly] easier. Unfortunately I had to take a reprieve this week as my left hip flexor seized up on Monday, and it felt like someone had jammed a needle into my hip socket. This happens from time-to-time for no apparent reason, so I wasn’t too concerned. I was annoyed, though, because I felt good after Sunday’s run (albeit with some left knee pain afterwards) and was ready for more pavement poundin’. However, I had a personal training session scheduled for the next day, and I didn’t want to miss that. Of course, Tuesday’s session ended with my right hip flexor getting just as pissed as my left one. Grand!

Either way, Cass is HOME! Which means I get to ride today… first time in over a month. It’ll be interesting to see if all these weeks of outside training have helped or not. I can say I have a set of killer abs, though. (I’m known as “crazy ab” girl on the benches. I guess all that no-stirrup work does provide some extra benefits!)

This is going to be a weird, painful month.

Every winter, half of the barn (including my coach) head south to Aiken, SC for at least two months. Since I can’t afford the luxury of taking time off from work *and* paying training board, I get to stay in the frozen tundra of Northern Virginia (sans indoor arena). Fortunately, January was mild and we only had one week where the ring froze over. Unfortunately, training still didn’t go well.

This happened last year, albeit much more severely: Uncontrollable circumstances force Cass to get time off. Temperature drops 20 degrees. Cass becomes, quite simply, a total a-hole.

Whether it be 3 days, 2 weeks, or a month off, the next ten days are spent dealing with his temper tantrums (“I don’t WANNA go straight!” ), high energy, and general inability to accomplish anything productive. The first 40 minutes are spent riding the stupid out of him, and by then, we’re both so tired from trying to reach a compromise that I can’t get anything else done. It’s a vicious cycle.

In December I contemplated sending Cass down to Aiken for a month for training at some point, since my coach can get MUCH more done with him than I can in that span of time.  Additionally, she’s aware of his quirks and history, which helps in the long run: if I sent him to some dressage trainer who’s used to working with complacent warmbloods, I’d have a pissed-off, surly horse on my hands. After one-too-many crappy rides where I felt like I couldn’t do ANYTHING, I made up my mind: Cass –> Aiken.

So last Friday I brought Cass out to Middleburg to hitch a ride south with a fellow eventer who was going down for USEF training sessions. (Thanks, Kendyl!) With that, I found myself horse-less for at least a month.

It’s a weird feeling: I spend at least 5 days of my week out at the barn (2-3 of them spent after work), and all of a sudden, I have all this free time on my hands. This past weekend I preoccupied myself with getting the Suburban detailed to sell it (Anyone want a Suburban? ). I did laundry. I made chili. And this week I began my new fitness/training routine to stay in shape while Cass is at bootcamp.

Ever heard that saying, “You’re stronger than you think you are?” Yeah. The realist in me knows now that it only applies figuratively, not literally.

People tend to think that riders have no fitness whatsoever, because “the horse does all the work!” Actually, no. It takes a lot of strength, coordination, and endurance to be a top rider. More so if you have a horse that can be hot-headed and tends to get heavy on his forehand (like Cass). So although I’d like to believe I’m in good shape, I’m not. It really should be, “You’re not as strong as you think you are.”

Monday I started my “Couch to 5k” running plan (which is kind of a misnomer, as I’m not a fat, lazy couch potato… I’ve got decent cardiovascular fitness, but my legs aren’t used to that sort of pounding. If I ran for 30 minutes straight, my lungs could handle it, but my legs would split in half). Yesterday (Tuesday), I had my first personal training session.  I told the trainer I needed to work on my quads and core since my cross country rounds consist of my legs bursting into flames by minute 2. So… ensue lots of squats, lunges, crunches and other muscle-bustin’ activities.

I’m sore, I won’t lie. But it’s a good sore, like “I know if I keep doing this, it’ll pay off in April.” If not, at least I’ll have a potential career in inline skating with my giant, muscular thighs.

Oy. Just spent about an hour trying to figure out why my spam trap plugin wasn’t showing the image in the comments form. (I was wondering why my spam queue was consistently empty. Since my site generates little-to-no traffic, I only get a few hundred spam comments a month, but not having ANY spam or legit ones had me somewhat concerned.)

I played around with the plugin settings to see if that helped, and nothing seemed to do the trick. I finally got an answer when I clicked “view image” on the blank anti-spam image, and got this message, along with 3285 lines of Windows gobbledy-gook characters:

Function set_magic_quotes_runtime() is deprecated in wp-settings.php on line 37.

Magic quotes? Like magic mushrooms?  [kidding]

After a brief Google search, it turns out the set_magic_quotes_runtime() function was deprecated in PHP 5.3, and no one bothered to tell WordPress. Either that, or it’s included in some secret new WP build that I’m not aware of.

I added the patch found here, and voilà! Anti-spam image now renders. Now back to my normally scheduled spam queue of links to illegal prescription-grade painkillers and fake Coach bags.