So today was show day! Ian drove us out to the barn, which is good because I overslept and wouldn't have made it out otherwise. We got luca out, we loaded into the trailer, and we were "wheels up" as Robert likes to say, an hour before we needed to be in the ring. Just as we planed.
We got there and parked, Alyssa wanted to get on a little under 1/2 hour before her test, so we had about 20 minutes to wander around. We got Alyssa her number, we found some water, and mostly I went and drooled over this gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, grey arabian mare. Alyssa watched me drool and we chit chatted with the owners a little. Then Luca started pawing in the trailer, which made it rock up and down on its wheels. I looked at my watch and it was time to go tack up.
Having the three of us there made it faster to tack him up. We didn't want to tie him to the trailer because there was another horse pretty close to us. So Robert held him and we got the saddle on him. Luca was really fussy. One girl brought her horse in our general direction. I think that was the point where Luca looked, Robert brought his head back and luca pulled back and reared up. Robert asked the girl with the horse to give us some space. Then he turns and says to me "gosh, some people they just walk right up to any strange horse." She really didn't get all that close, maybe closer than I would have gotten, but I'm paranoid. Anyway, Luca was reacting to everything but he was all ready to go and Alyssa got on him there in the "parking lot." (they had us all park in one of the turnout fields)
I didn't envy Alyssa the task of trying to walk Luca all the way to the gate past all the trailers and people coming and going. Last time we went to a show we had Alyssa get on outside so that she wouldn't get muddy out in the wet pasture. This time she just hopped right up. It wasn't really a planned thing I think. We just always had her get on at the hay barn where we tacked up. She was standing right there so up she went. Luca was being a pill but she kept him fairly well under control and Robert and I took lots of pictures. (It was Alyssa's camera I was using so its on her to get them to the blog.)
Alyssa stoped and wanted some water, good plan, I always approve of water. I was holding Luca when Robert whacked him for something, I wasn't paying as much attention as would have been good. Anyway, Luca drew back, I went with him and when he started to slow down I backed him up a little more. Then we led him over to Alyssa to get on him. She was now vocally nervous about it "Oh, now I have to get on him, dont I?" or something like that. It was all smiles from the ground crew, dont be nervous you'll do great.
He was even worse than before. I was fidgeting with something, maybe putting the camera away, and I was listening to him fighting with Alyssa. They were pretty far away so I didn't really worry to much about it, Robert pointed out that I shouldn't turn my back on them. So I turned and watched and he went to put his camera away. Luca tossed his head and then up, up, up, he went. Alyssa up on his neck clinging gamely to his mane. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking about at that moment but when Alyssa slid off him I was really relieved. 1) Luca hadn't fallen over with her and 2) She fell straight down, on her butt/back and hand't stayed on him long enough to be bucked off headfirst or slammed into something.
I started to go after Luca, and was going to check on Alyssa when I'd caught him. Then, after taking about two steps in his direction (where he had stopped to sniff some poop) I thought to myself, "No, to hell with that, there are plenty of people here and Alyssa just fell off a horse!" So I went over and she was on her knees curled up in a little ball with her face in her hands. She looked at me, no blood ergo no need to run for the first aid kit that Robert has in his truck. (Slight twinge of disappointment that I didn't get to use the first aid kit, followed by larger twinge of guilt for that thought.)
I told Alyssa she'd done well, and she said to me, "No I didn't, I fell off him." Sometimes Alyssa says/believes stupid things. She'd just fallen off a horse and was still shaken up so that attitude didn't surprise me. Nor was I surprised that she wanted to go catch the horse. Something about that being her job or responsibility or something. This is where I put my foot down.
I had decided previously, after much reflection, that when you fall off a horse, the proper thing to do, by default, is to stay down. I really regret getting up and trying to walk back to the barn after falling of Colonel. I could walk so I did. Bad decision. It was many minutes before I realized the extent of the damage that had happened when I fell off. I was concussed and I should have stayed down. When Alyssa had her accident with Colonel she should have been forced to stay down. No way in hell was I letting her go gallivanting off after Luca, getting frustrated that she couldn't get him, getting angry, aggravating any injuries she may have incurred, etc. etc.
Her job #1 was to keep herself safe. Keeping others safe is good, keeping Luca under control facilitates that but it is not the job. If she happens to go and ride him in the dressage test so much the better, but thats not her primary job. Fortunately she was shaken up enough that I could bully her away from the scene of the crime and over to the truck to rest and get some water. I completely shut out all thoughts of dealing with Luca. In the periphery of my mind and vision I noticed Robert running after a bucking Luca, lots of people getting near their horses in a protective stance.
The gate was open and Alyssa wanted to get it. Barring that she wanted me to get it. I wanted to get her water. As we were arguing about this I got her the water (It took four seconds or so) and started after the gate to keep her happy. Somone else had already gotten to it by the time I took my second stride. So, back to bugging Alyssa.
She had her water, she got her jacket off and the helmet off. She was occasionally willing to rest at the truck but clearly unhappy that Luca was still on the loose. I have to say, that was kindof embarrassing. So I meandered over to help corral the stallion. Someone offered us some carrots. Robert initially refused because he was pissed, then he agreed because he finally realized that he needed to get Luca and it didn't really matter how. Luca was not going to learn anything constructive from this experience, we needed to accept that and move on.
Robert got him just as I was getting close too. I suppose I was planning on driving Luca back towards Robert if he turned to run in my direction. I didn't really think that would help a whole lot. You dont corner a running horse when you're on foot in an area that size. Anyway, Robert got him and I turned around and was grateful to see that someone had meandered over to talk with Alyssa. Although her shoulder was hurt Alyssa was, predictably, still trying to do things. Robert wanted the saddle taken off, Alyssa started to do it, for example.
Then Robert asked me to scratch Luca. I was rather confused why I was supposed to pet him. After walking over there to go comply with instructions and rub Luca's neck or something Robert said "go scratch him from the class." Oh, Ok, that makes more sense. I run over there, they've been looking for us, I tell them we're scratching and, just like that, all the administrative stuff is dealt with.
Robert took us out to breakfast and we spent a lot of time debriefing and analyzing the situation. I'll post my thoughts on the whole thing tomorrow. Alyssa was looking better and better, which surprised and pleased me. I expected a lot more brooding and visible feelings of undeserved guilt. I guess I'm just a pessimist.
We got back to the barn and unloaded Luca and the trailer. I loaded Star into the trailer just for practice and she did fine. She's not calm about it per se, but she's reasonably casual, no extra spooking, no snorting, so thats good. We cleared the jumps out of the field. Alyssa got done with the job of hunting for poles in the field, which does not require the use her injured shoulder, and started to try and get a jump. I tried to stop her but she was less shaken up now, and she was less easily bullied into taking it easy. So I didn't push my luck, and fortunately the shoulder hurts enough that I dont feel much of a need to fuss about it anymore.
I didn't really feel like riding, so Alyssa and I went out to survey places to start making a trail up the hill. I brought some tools, just in case I felt inspired. Well I brought her to one place I was thinking about, it didn't have very many trees in the way but it had tons and tons of blackberry bushes. I wanted to test how the machete handled that so I took a swing. It worked satisfyingly well so I took another swing.
Before I knew it I had cleared part of the path. So I asked Alyssa to supervise me, you know, compress the wounds I inflicted upon myself, call for help if necessary, etc. So I cleared lots of berry bushes in a zig zagging path. Then I ran into trees and called it quits. Robert looked at it and agreed that it was a great start and we talked about bringing a chainsaw out and cutting some more path. So that was good.
We were very very tired. Alyssa made up feed with her one good arm, which might have been one of the most awkward things I've seen in a while. I cleaned the mirors in the arena and loaded the cushman with hay. We told Vic that we were going home early and he said he'd tell Robert and help him feed. Alyssa fell asleep on the bus, periodically waking herself up when her head tipped too far in any one direction. It was cute.
So she'll be off for a week while her arm heals and I'll be off for at least a week visiting my family in California, and job hunting some more.
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