2018 Volunteering Wrap Up

This weekend I volunteered probably for the last time this calendar year, at Loch Moy's Donation Derby. The event took place over those three giant arenas Charlie and I schooled last week, and all the competitors were dressed to the nines in all manner of Christmas decorations. Bells, tinsel, reindeer antlers, elf shoes, horse body paint.... You name it, we saw it!.

Each arena was filled with mostly cross country jumps, but a few stadium jumps too. My role was super easy: I was positioned as a steward in the middle of the three rings, which just had two stadium jumps. My job was to reset dropped rails, adjust the heights for each level, and also to clear out the poles and itsy cross rails from the first ground pole division.

one of my volunteer prizes from Sara this year. hard to express just how much i love this calendar!

It was a super fun event, everyone seemed to have a blast. And it seemed like the perfect way to cap off my busiest year of event volunteering to date.

this does not include the 5 schooling shows i volunteered for at my own barn 

As you may remember, Sara from Roaming Rider hosted a Volunteer Challenge this year. Participants were encouraged on a monthly and quarterly basis to get out and give back at every opportunity that presented itself, in any capacity.

Turns out, it was just the nudge I needed to take this activity I've always enjoyed a little more seriously. I honestly really enjoy being at horse shows. I love the atmosphere, love the vibes. It's just a great feeling being out there to watch so many riders go and Do the Things with their horses lol.

dressage scribin, yo!

Originally I planned to volunteer in some capacity at least once each in 7 of the 12 month calendar year, and ended up getting closer to 10 of 12. It's hard to remember exactly bc the small schooling dressage shows and the starter trials at my own barn weren't organized through the USEA Volunteer Dashboard, so I can't actually remember those details lol.

Suffice it to say, tho, that it ended up being a lot of hours. All told, I spent the equivalent of two full time work weeks volunteering in 2018. This included spending time in a lot of new roles, learning about different classes. Like the FEH and YEH classes, and the cross country vet box at FEI events.

 the two purple boxes add up to my total hours for the year, plus the hours from the 5 shows not reflected thru the dashboard

The most prolific volunteers across the country accumulated many, many more hours than I did lol. The folks at the top of the leaderboards had at least 100+ hrs each, and included folks in roles like EMT, unpaid judge, or TD. The Top 10 nationally had a cumulative total of nearly 2,000 hrs, otherwise known as almost a full year's worth of work. 

But I was still pretty proud to end the year toward the top of some lists. There are different rankings categories, tho I'm not sure each category has any actual recognition associated with it.

jump judgin, yo!

Actually, from what I can tell from my research, there's very little recognition associated with any volunteering outside of like, the Top 10 nationally. Tho the top prize is a pretty substantial chunk of change, I believe.

If it were up to me, I'd probably argue that it'd be more valuable to spread the love a little farther - even if it's just with like, t-shirts or hats or something lol. But nobody asked me ;)

just this, again and again and again

I'm satisfied enough to look at that rankings board and feel like maybe I made a difference at events this year. In an ideal world, my hopes as a volunteer are twofold:

-One is to help organizers feel less stressed and more.... organized lol, so that they continue to want to offer so many awesome events.

- and Two is to help facilitate positive, fun experiences for riders and their horses. Whether this is helping calm their nerves and answer their questions in the warm up ring, or even just taking careful clear notes as a scribe or jump judge.

More than anything, tho, I really enjoyed getting out to so many events this past year and learning so much more about the machinations of how these events work. Hopefully next year will include a lot of volunteer opportunities too. Actually there are still a couple more areas within the realm of event planning and design that I'm interested in pursuing additional educational opportunities.

So we'll see what happens. For now, it's a wrap on the 2018 volunteer year!!

friday foto finish (the 4th)

Happy Friday, everyone!! Congrats on surviving another week of summer. Surely I'm not the only one who feels like it's FLYING BY right now, right?? Like the days are already noticeably shortening. Wth, how does that even happen??

can we just appreciate what an inspired gift this is?? the quotes on each card are perfect too.

Who knows. All I do know tho, is that Sara's 2nd Quarter Prize for her 2018 Volunteer Challenge was absolutely spot on. This gift is so perfect in so so so many ways and I mayyyy or may not have gotten a little misty eyed opening it up!

oh man, so many pictures, so many memories!!! <3

Obviously the calendar aspect is perfect bc - again, I can't stress this enough - time is flying right now lol. More than that, tho, Sara spent a little time browsing ye olde 'Fraidy Cat Eventing blog for some of her favorite shots. Which, naturally given my fully fledged #mediajunkie status, there's no shortage to choose from lol!

Her selections are so great tho. So so so so many of my favorites here, so many special moments. Especially when I think about not only what's happening in the picture, but also what was happening just outside of the frame - my friends who were all right there cheering us on either from the sidelines, the saddle, or from behind the camera. Just so many memories, and I'm so freakin touched. Thanks so much Sara!

omg hand shit and shitting rainbows socks. yesssssss!

Plus there were also some awesome socks and the most delicious smelling Hand Shit too. Seriously guys, Sara gives great gifts. She's pretty committed to making her 2018 Volunteer Challenge awesome, and for rewarding those who give their time to making eventing such a great sport.

So definitely get out there and volunteer! Sara does random drawings monthly (except on the quarterly months) so even just a little bit of your time is enough to be eligible for a prize! Volunteers who have accrued the most hours in a quarter win special prizes too, so there's real incentive to make time for it!! So what are you waiting for, right??

moar saddle surgery!!!! bet you're not used to seeing their guts spilling out like this, eh?

Anyway. Tho it may seem like I spend literally all of my time volunteering (bc uh, yea I do it a lot and will actually be in the CCI1/2* Cross Country Vet Box tomorrow, much excitement!!!), I do actually do other horse stuff too.

Like, ya know. Occasionally ride. Lol, assuming the horse is sound.... Which, last I checked he was. So these are all good things.

but just like that, charlie's got himself a new gullet plate

I wrote after Plantation that we're doing a comprehensive wellness check for Charlie, which includes all sorts of little things like checking tack fit etc. Charlie's massage therapist felt like he was a little saddle sore, so I finally got around to changing out the gullets in my Bates jump saddle (after sending back that beautiful Beval monoflap.... much sadness).

mcta always has the best prizes. allllmost made me sad i wasn't showing this day!

It's hard to say if it's made much of a difference, honestly. Mostly bc it's not really clear if saddle fit was really the big issue anyway at Plantation, vs regular old attitude problems. In any case tho, I've jumped Charlie in the new gullet plate three times now and he seems fine. He's also been happy to stretch out for a gallop or two as well.

So we'll see. A new jump saddle is probably a little higher on the "Want" list these days, but it luckily isn't urgent. For now..

it was exciting to be cheering on friends tho!

And meanwhile I've kinda been bummin around other local shows too. Not always volunteering - sometimes I'm just the cheering squad and/or chauffeur. Like when I took a couple barn mates to MCTA's starter trial at Tranquility.

brita and bella are back in action after a little vacay. bella naturally looks like she never skipped a beat!

It was a really great day - the first starter trial ever for both riders and both horses. And they were all superstars! Did the dressage thing, jumped all the stadium jumps, and tooled around the same awesome little starter xc course that Isabel and I did at a Tranquility Hunter Trials all those many years ago.... They even had the same little stone wall and everything!

Brought back a lot of happy memories, and I was so happy to see both my barn mates kill it!

rachael and birdie meanwhile have been keepin busy!

I also got to go help Rachael out at Loch Moy's recognized event recently too. They had pretty tight times between phases so I was happy to hang out and groom for her while she rushed off to walk her courses.

usef blood testing!!

Which proved extra convenient bc Birdie got pulled for random testing lol, which I had never seen before and naturally asked about 1,000 questions lol....

Anyway tho they had a great day and made that course look like a cakewalk! Made me kinda sorry to not have anything on the books for a little while myself. Oh well, in time!

fireworks prep is very serious stuff, guys!

Bc for now we've kinda just been chillin. Enjoying summer. Relaxing. Like obviously everything I've been writing about being disciplined and consistent still holds and is still my #1 priority. But that doesn't mean I'm full on Gunnery Sgt Hartman all day every day, ya know??

this was the day i learned trainer P is also a licensed pyrotechnician lol

Bc c'mon, let's be real: we gotta make time for the parties, right?? I've heard tell of OF's epic 4th of July parties, but had never actually been to one before. I moved Charlie to the farm at the end of July last year, so clearly had just missed it. And despite coming to the farm for lessons for the past 4 years, I never really came for anything else.

the on-farm fireworks show did not suck at all

This year tho, I was determined to go. And I also learned this year that my weekly jump trainer P is also a licensed pyrotechnician. So... they definitely got the BIG fireworks. And put on a BIG BIG show. It was seriously impressive. Plus we were all basically right there directly underneath the explosions - they were so loud and so bright I needed my sunglasses lol, and by the end I was completely covered in ash. #worthit

horses are also just bein horses. way too smart horses lol

The horses had been kept in the barn until after the show was done, but they were all fine anyway. Like, annoyed and confused about being inside and eager to get out, but not at all crazy or anything. Apparently the golf course next door sets off fireworks fairly often too so I guess they're all used to it.

Which seems reasonable to me - Isabel lived next to a gun shooting range, and sometimes they'd be shooting some LOUD stuff. But the horses never really cared about that either. Go figure.

we've still been finding lots of time for this too

Anyway tho, things are just chuggin right along. After a seriously crappy June, July is starting to feel a little better. Charlie feels good again. And feels like he's responding well to my zero-tolerance approach.

they've been mowing like crazy and everything is getting brown :(

He's also been jumping well - like you saw from last week's lesson with trainer P. And I'll actually have more to share from another lesson this week with trainer K. Nothing ground breaking, but just good solid practice. Just what we need!

can't wait to get out and gallop, but just wish the ground wasn't so hard...

Meanwhile, the farm is finally finally putting the xc jumps back out in the fields after having pulled them all out back in May for Shawan Downs. The ground is harder than concrete right now bc it's so dry....  but we may be scheming all the same anyway. More on that soon ;)

For now tho Charlie and I have been just trying to get back in sync at speed. There are a couple great spots out in the trails that are perfect for some speed. And Charlie's been rarin to go! Like, we turn toward a clearing, I push my hands up his neck and get into half seat, and he just GOES! Now that is the feeling I want from him leaving the start box haha.

So maybe we'll do a little more galloping this weekend too haha, it's addicting. Plus obvi I'll try to take a lot of pictures in the vet box tomorrow at Loch Moy. I'm pretty excited about that - have never really been behind the scenes at the finish line for upper level cross country, so hopefully there will be lots to learn! Stay tuned for more later.

Do you have any big plans this weekend? Or is it more like the dog days of summer - weekend beach trips or backyard bbqs or quiet trail rides?

2017 Two Point Challenge: Winning!!

November is here. Fall is in full swing, with winter undoubtedly on its heels. All this to say, the annual equestrian blogger challenge 2ptober has come to a close.

It's been a hell of a ride, with quite a few riders laying down monster times. Quite possibly with a few record breakers thrown in there as well. And while we can only award four final winners, it's worth taking a moment to celebrate the group as a whole:


Stats & Accolades: 

- 17 Riders doubled their baselines or better
- Average longest time spent in 2pt position was 8 minutes
- That's quadruple the average baseline time of 2 minutes
- Total sum of all riders' longest times was over 3.5 hours

Those of you who gave the challenge a shot this year deserve a major pat on the back. And esp those of you who kept on working, week after week, burning muscles and all, toward your own improved strength and ability as riders -- Y'all are basically heroes. Well done!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	8:00	2,082%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	8:12	1,868%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:51	383%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	0%
Emily Frank		5:38	19:40	249%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	1:03	800%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	6:03	198%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	40:14	1,912%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	9:15	125%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	21:49	734%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	43:20	700%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	8:00	167%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1,115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	5:46	168%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	23:26	402%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	4:38	769%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	8:40	400%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

For your efforts, please right click on the below Participation Ribbon Badge to save it for upload and display on your blog's sidebar or in a post!

We'd also like to take a moment to congratulate the Top 5 Finishers for each division:

Longest Time			Most Improved
Rider	Blog		Rider	Blog
Nadia	3day adventures with horses		Megan	Phoebe the Freebie
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles		Fig	Topaz Dreams
Emily Frank			Sara	The Roaming Rider

Congrats to you too - and please grab the below Ribbon Badge recognizing your extreme prowess at holding your two point position for longer and longer times!

And finally, we'd like to congratulate our 2017 Two Point Challenge Champions and Reserve Champions for Longest Time and Most Improved:

Longest Time			Most Improved
Rider	Blog		Rider	Blog
L Williams	Viva Carlos		Alex	TheHorseDream
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic		Amanda	Bel Joeor

Champions and Reserve Champions - each and every one of you laid down a very impressive longest time! My hat is off to both L. Williams and J. Alexander for lasting a muscle-melting 40+ minutes, you're both winners in my book!

And special congrats to Alex and Amanda for proving why this practice is so valuable by blowing your original baselines out of the water to finish with very respectable 8+ minute finishes. Way to go!

In addition to your Ribbon Badges, please get in touch with Allison from PONY'TUDE on her contact page or FB to claim your real life omg so awesome prizes!!!!!

Thanks again to all of the 2017 participants for sharing in on this excellent community challenge to be the strongest riders we can possibly be! I hope you enjoyed following along, and especially hoped that you maybe found a few new blogs in the process! Be sure to check out all of this year's participants linked in the table above!

tick tock: week 3 2ptober is closing!

Alright everybody, I'm starting to get a litttttle bit concerned by the lack of two point times rolling in!!

Thanks very much to those of you who have been so diligent in your reporting. And actually - despite the low turnout in terms of participation, those of you who are making it happen are really laying down some BIG times!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	1:53	414%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	5:35	1240%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:41	339%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	0%
Emily Frank		5:38	13:58	148%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	0:31	343%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	5:42	180%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	11:01	451%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	9:15	125%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	8:31	225%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	20:25	277%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	8:00	167%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	4:11	95%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	6:15	34%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	1:22	156%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	8:00	362%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

We've seen a pretty giant uptick in the average longest held 2pt time - pretty darn close to 5min now! That's a huge improvement from the starting time of 2min. Congrats everybody!

Naturally there are a few who stand out among the crowd, with a bit of a shakeup in the leader board since last week.

Top 5 by longest time:

L Williams

Emily Frank

J. Alexander

Kaity

KC

The most improved category keeps on chipping ever onward too, with the placings held fairly steady since last week with just a little bit of reshuffling.

Top 5 by most improvement:

Amanda Megan

J. Alexander

Alex

Teresa

There's still time tho to get your time in and make it count! Final longest times are due by next Tuesday Oct 31, by midnight. And remember, we've got some serious prizes on the line for those who are willing to really go for it!!

you're gonna need that aspirin lol

Blogger-shaming Edition -- No change shown:

Aimee

Anxious Eventer

Bee Tea

Britt

Chelsey

KateRose

Megan K

Nicole Sharp

Olivia

SarahO

SarahW

Tracy

****

So don't forget: Just one last weekend and a couple days left to make a final push for 2pt Champion 2017!!

2ptober: halfway there!

Happy Hump Day, everyone! Hard to believe October is already halfway gone.... But the days are in fact getting shorter and the air most definitely has suddenly turned crisp and brisk. Fall is here, winter is coming, and 2ptober is shifting into the home stretch!

Thanks all for reporting your times so far in our fun little rider challenge contest. We've done our best to collect all your info and report it here as accurately as possible, but please look carefully at the table below to ensure we've got your most up-to-date longest held 2pt time!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	1:53	414%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	3:32	748%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:41	339%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	-1%
Emily Frank		5:38	6:15	11%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	0:31	343%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	3:48	87%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	8:37	331%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	4:07	0%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	5:02	92%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	12:04	123%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	5:40	89%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	3:43	73%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	6:15	34%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	1:22	156%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	7:40	342%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

The color coding indicates where you stand among the group in both categories. Deeper reds indicate longer times or greater degrees of improvement, and paler hues show where there's more work to be done.

A note on the percentages: An improvement score of 100% would mean that you have doubled your time (a 100% improvement on your baseline).

The contest for Longest Time is already starting to heat up. L Williams currently holds the lead, but J Alexander and Teresa are closing in, with Emily Frank and Nadia close by in the hunt.

Megan's currently got an edge in the Most Improved category - with Amanda vying for the reserve position. Alex, Fig and Teresa have all posted impressive gains however. And if we know anything from years past, it's that the Most Improved division is anyone's game until the very end!


Of course there are still quite a few of you who have not yet submitted a time for the first weeks of October, which is basically akin to automatically absenting yourself from the "Most Improved" game. And, it turns out, the Longest Time game has gone on ahead and gotten past where anyone could win on their baselines anyway.

So if you want a shot at those sweet prizes (custom embroidered saddle pad plus a bath bomb and some pain pills to ease your aching muscles lol) you've gotta put in that time!

Of the 31 participants, the average longest held time is 3:45, and as a group all your longest times add up to nearly 2 hours of sustained two point position while riding. That's really impressive. Nice work!! Keep it up - two weeks left to really push yourself for the longest, most improved position!