2017 EVENTING BINGO

BINGO STORIES

(see comments for links to more!)

From Betsy in WI:

This is a mostly true story from my eventing history. I was leasing a 19 Yr old QH and we went BN. The rules were new to me. 

Dressage was held on grass. The field wasn't level. Scottie was 14.3 at the withers and 15.1 at the croup. Ski slope was just one of his nicknames. We did okay, but he did give me the wrong lead at the canter the first time. And then the free walk across the diagonal,  down the hill. I let the reins out, he fell on his face,broke to a trot, and I couldn't get him back until almost to the corner. That was a 4 and the judge was generous. However, the final trot up centerline sat him on his butt and we got our best square halt ever. Yeah,  an 8!

Cross Country was his favorite. He was barefoot in a French link snaffle and usually had more whoa than go, but he was fence hungry that day. We walked into the start box and he decided it was time. The starter was on count 5, 4, - we were out of there. Crap. How many penalties is leaving early? But we're going! 

The course was like an "M"; away from stabling through the woods, back through an open field, turned away through more Woods, then home. Once we were over the first few logs, he settled and even trotted. Trot? I'm going way too slow! Time fault city! Then we came out into the field and suddenly we are going Mach 3- way too fast! I was able to point him at a fence and he launched from 10 feet away and landed 10 feet past it. Holy long spot! But now we have to turn away- nope. Turn now, Scottie! NOPE. Pulley rein to a circle , circle,  circle,  pay attention,  darnit!

Finally,  I get him pointed in the right direction again. Did I circle before a fence?  How many times? Oh, well, they're just penalties. Pony club kick back to a canter  (no crop and regretting it) and off we go again. He spots a training fence and locks on,  hopping over the ditch on our course without a second look. 99 problems but a ditch ain't one. Skylark over the training fence - that's legal,  right? No? More penalties? Oh, well.

We get held before going into the woods so the rider behind can pass. How long did I circle? Scottie now says he's tired and the barn is behind us so let's just trot between the fences. The jump judge pickup vehicle is following us by now. At last,  we turn back toward the barn and his short legs get going again.  We find the finish flags but my watch has stopped.  Battery died. So many penalties but somehow not eliminated. 

Early the next morning,  we head for  stadium. We are in last place so the first one in. The gate points toward the barn. You guessed it. We lost our line and had to circle in stadium. Managed it the second time but he chipped in an extra stride. Lost all energy in the second line and he stopped at the coop, then jumped from a halt. I stayed on by grabbing the breast collar strap, which then broke. Wardrobe malfunction! The next fence was into the sun. I call that a cheap rail. The final line was toward the exit, and he fired up the turbos, left one out and cleared the standards. Last in our division,  but we finished with a number. A four digit number. 

-----------

From Grace C:

The fateful day dawned early as I pulled into the designated parking lot after the hour long drive. It had rained heavily the night before and the pea soup thick morning fog was only just slowly starting to wisp away. I found a free spot (lol I is clever) to park and checked my watch- we made great time on the road and were right on schedule but the lot was filling up super quick. Geeze, just how many people signed up for today?! I took one final sip of my tea and hopped out of the truck to join the hustle and bustle.

Quest immediately knew something was up when I got her unloaded. She scented the air, pulling one of her infamous faces (hence her nickname), and breathed out a huge sigh. I tied her to the side of the trailer and gently rubbed her forehead, her favorite spot. “Our first event ever, mareface. Let’s get this show on the road!” Quest blinked at me for a moment and promptly dug into her hay bag. I couldn’t help but laugh.

The air was charged with quiet excitement as we made our way to the dressage ring. Quest had warmed up well and was feeling great. She also looked nice for once, I brushed out the pasture mud until she glowed and even got her mane done up in a nice running braid. The ring attendant waved us over. I triple checked our attire on more time and entered the ring.

Of course it was only during the end salute that I realized I somehow missed a spot of mud right behind Quest’s ears…So much for trying to look neat and tidy. But still we must have done something right (or the judge was feeling generous) because we were among top 3 scores at the end of the first phase.

Next up was stadium. I had stopped by the arena earlier and was a little worried really hoped the ground would dry out more by our ride time but no such luck. The arena resembled a giant slip and slide. I groaned internally but the show had to go on.

This is where the story goes a little sideways, in more ways than one. Issue #1: Quest decided it was a great time to revisit her puddle agnst.  Issue #2: She spooked at the jump judge who was standing next to a puddle. Issue #3: In the midst of not-so-fun acrobatics, Quest slid and we took out the whole damn fence. Don’t ask me how I managed to stay on. We somehow finished the course without incurring any additional penalties and Quest was thankfully no worse for the wear but the fence crash sent us down several places.

However the day was not over yet and I was determined to end the outing on a positive note. I got ourselves cleaned up at the trailer and we headed right back out for the third and final phase. I think XC could be summarized something like this: We got 99 problems but a ditch ain’t one!! Quest always been much happier out tackling technical terrain rather than working in an arena but wow...she ROCKED the course and we were totally in sync the entire time. I couldn’t stop grinning as we walked back to the trailer to untack and cool off. Sure, there were a couple rough moments that day but it was our first eventing outing and we ended on a great note.

I didn’t care about the final results but apparently we did so well in XC that we moved up 5+ places to finish a respectable 2nd place. What a day!

------------

CARD ASSIGNMENTS:

Name	Blog	Card 1	Card 2
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	B	C
Alli	PONY'TUDE	B	F
Amanda	Bel Joeor	B	E
Amanda C	$900 Facebook Pony	F	H
Andrea G	The Reeling	E	N
Appydoesdressage	Apping It Up	D	O
Arteriole	Cruisen in Stilettos	L	O
Austen	Guinness on Tap	N	C
Besty in WI	(n/a)	O	E
Brita A	(n/a)	F	D
Carey	Me Jump Pretty One Day	A	F
Carly	Poor Woman Showing	I	M
Cathryn	Two and a Half Horses	K	B
Catie P	Thoughtful Equestrian	F	K
Courtney	An Equestrian Life	A	M
Grace C	The Horseback Artist	G	N
Hawk	No Longer Fiction	M	O
Jessi L	(n/a)	E	I
Kaity	The Repurposed Saddlebred	C	M
Kate L	Incidents of Guidance	J	B
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	M	H
L. Williams	Viva Carlos	E	L
Leah	Confessions of a Dressage Barbie	H	G
Lola	Green Horse Blog	D	I
Megan K	Let's Get Ready to Runkle	K	C
Micaylah	Two Points Tacos & Tiaras	I	J
Michele J	(n/a)	H	J
Nadia	3Day Adventures	F	M
Nicole	Equine Pilot	D	L
Nicole S	Zen & The Art of Baby Horse Mgmt	L	F
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	J	N
Olivia's Husband	DIY Horse Ownership	G	D
Renate	Grain before Groceries	N	F
Sara	The Roaming Rider	N	A
Spanish Walk	Spanish Walk	K	G
Stan the Horse	Weanie Eventer	J	K
Stephani H	The Undaunted Equestrian	O	K
Stephanie P	Hand Gallop	A	D
Teresa A	Journey with a Dancing Horse	H	E
Teresa S	Eventing Saddlebred Style	M	G
Wendy	Horse Crazy Mom	L	J

2017 Eventing Bingo Season-Long Contest:

Things are a little more squirrely in the actual playing of EVENTING BINGO, for which the cards are open ALL SEASON. I expect (and hope for!) multiple winners - but proof will be tricky.

Obviously photographic evidence of each achievement is ideal - whether that's a picture of your dressage test sheet, your ribbon (or, um, lack thereof), or actual action shots or videos. But this is not required.

Reporting on your BINGO card achievements should be done in real time (in comments or on your own blog) and you are responsible for keeping track of what you check off throughout the season. It may take multiple events to complete a winning BINGO path (so, if you fall during xc in one event, but come back and win the next one - you could complete a path that includes both those criteria).

To report a winning card: Write the story of how each achievement came to be (whether it was over multiple events or just one) and either publish on your own blog or send to me (in which case, I will publish the story here).

Some "achievements" are fairly tongue in cheek. For instance, "Wardrobe Malfunction" could be many things and is left to your discernment. Could be a popped boot zipper. Or a broken stirrup leather or rein. Or a pinny flying into your face right before a fence. But it probably isn't a snagged hairnet, unless it somehow snagged hilariously (feel free to take that as a challenge!).

As for prizes.... Because I'm hoping for quite a few winners, the prizes will likely be on the light-hearted side of things vs cold hard cash money. Think: Custom badges for your blog. Or like. Stickers or something. Small fun stuff that probably won't require me darting back and forth to the post office 8 thousand times.

However, I reserve the right to do some sort of retroactive prize for winners, maybe on a quarterly basis? Such as: everyone who reported a winning BINGO card in Spring gets a token prize.

Honestly I'm hoping that the $25 Door Prize will incentivize entries well enough, and that you'll continue to play along bc it's plain old fun. Let me know if I'm way wrong on that tho lol.

Players & Card Assignments:

EVENTING BINGO Cards:

Card A

Card B

Card C

Card D

Card E

Card F

Card G

Card H

Card I

Card J

Card K

Card L

Card M

Card N

Card O