Been a while

It’s been so long since I wrote anything on this blog post and it’s because my current job as an article writer has been keeping me sooooo busy, together with college and trying to get my high fantasy novel ready for the March submissions to Angry Robot ... well spare time's been hard to come by. I am still straining and going to a lot of shows as well.

Missy's fitness levels are not where I want them to be, but she is looking very good, though perhaps still a bit porky, but I can see her reduction in food has made her trim down a bit. The lunging aid I have started to use is also improving her general way of going and I actually managed to get her to achieve self-carriage in canter during one of our dressage sessions, but doing such thinks at a show is an entirely different and difficult affair with her.

Studying animation is hectic and overwhelming, I must say I am having difficulty keeping up, as the moment I get the hang of one program, we start using another and I forget what I just learnt - I seriously have student brain ...

Now I've review until middle chapter four in my fantasy novel but I need to get to chapter 6 before submission date and I still need to add about 20 000 words to my novel, but since I write about 10 000 a day for work, it should not be too difficult, if I could just get some spare time.

Until I have something meaningful to say - cheers

A weekend away

After the hectic week my family had and our friends family had we decided it would be a good idea just to get away from life for a bit and go to a game farm. I was seriously happy as my hands needed a break from typing! Esther's family owns a game farm neat the Waterberg mountains and we left early on Saturday to go for a visit until Sunday afternoon.

It took us 4 hours to get there! And they told us it would only take at most 2 hours. I didn't believe me when I showed them on my stopwatch and I still think they don't. Belinda, Esther's daugther, said she never realised it took so long and that she will from now on seriously consider not going the next time they visit. I seem to have caused some trouble, oops. But the trip was great, seriously hot, but great. We relaxed in air conditioned rooms, same in a pool and had great food and drinks all the time. My poor sister had to ride in 30 degree heat at 8am and she had such a bad cold after her trip to Ireland - she is currently stuck on the coach in front of the tv trying to recover.

It was really nice to just relax, good company, great and too much food, nice cool drinks, relaxing game drive and comfy beds all added to a enjoyable weekend. Everyone was also relaxing and no one mentioned any of the troubles we had to return to on Sunday evening. Me and Belinda really hit it off and spent most of the time together, we even went on an unsuccessful trip walking through the bosh to find nice tree stumps to take home. Its nice to find someone you click with and her little dog, who usually only pays attention to her and bites anyone who comes close adores me and I am the only one who can pet her when she is sitting on Belinda's lap - I think this made Belinda like me more.

Now back to reality, I am waiting for more writing assignments to come in. Hope they will soon as I hate the waiting game ... until then I think its time for some overdue gardening.

Sleeping giant of the Waterberg

The next moment and beyond

Ok, so I look a retch after the depressing situation of last night and the fact that my families' potential demise is a possible reality as soon as today. I'm not one of those girls that look all sweet, helpless and slightly attractive in their saddened state. You know, the ones that have mascara conveniently smudged to accentuate their glistening eyes. No, my face turns red, my eyes puff up and go smaller then they already are, my forehead wrinkles and I look ten years older - not a pretty sight.

I was up till 2 am, scribble horrible doodles on the computer - ones that really should not be shown, but they destructed me and I was able to sleep after. But today, its difficult to know what to do. I got early to spend time with my small, broken family - we are there for each other, but I've noticed no one touches. We all remain at least a half a meter apart at all times and no one seems to be able to break through this. Perhaps if one of us did, it would mean that we would need to comfort each other and that would be an admittance of our current situation, which we all know is there but do not want to recognise our despair- not that openly anyway.

'Then let's be rid of it,' Sam's words form LotR. Sometimes, I do wish for it to be over, as this malicious shadow that hangs over us, every moment of our lives, marring every good thought and hope for the future, gnaws at one's soul and makes life less then what it could be. I love gardening, to create a home, to make a place to be lived in. But how can I plant trees, hang paintings, fix things, change things, live - when I know it can be taken form me at any moment? I don't even weed the garden anymore or trim the hedges, or arrange the flower pots, or plan for anything more, as it just has no pleasure as it did before.

If we lose our home, I think I will miss it more then I yet know.

Broken thoughts never mend

SO it comes to this:
My life is going to be flipped upside-down, and I will probably lose everything that is important to me. My parents are going through a divorce, and being in my mid-twenties, this should not be such an issue for me, but we own a small holding, with my sister’s stables on, that I and my dad help to run. This was purchased for my sister, by my father many years ago, when he and my mother were still together. Now, today, my father told us that we will lose everything – my mother is not just going to take our plot, but the stables, my father’s pension and she is also gunning after me and my sister’s trust fund. She never consider herself our mother – she told us so, between violent outburst - and only married my father, after her first devoiced husband died and could no longer pay for her lifestyle.
The law in SA is such that the woman in the marriage gets everything in a divorce, regardless of how terrible a wife or how abusive a mother she was. So now, I, who has hardly an income due to the lack of work, will lose the house I live in, my pets and any money that my father would have left for me. My sister will lose her business, and my father will lose his pension. And all to a mother who was an abusive, violent, bio-polar drunk, who never worked a day in her life and has been cruising on other peoples’ money all her life, and she will come out of this rich – very rich and we will be left to pick ourselves out of the dust, if that’s even possible.
I will probably not be able to spend time on DA much anymore until this terrible mess is over. I cannot describe the horrors this woman has inflicted on everything around her, people and animals! Which is why my father separated from her; as he could not take her sadistic cruelty any longer. We have been fighting against her for 3 years, so one has to wonder, if such a terrible person can come out of life getting everything she wants, by destroying other peoples’ lives – then what’s the point of trying to be a good person?
I am sorry for my rant, but I am at a lose at how to survive this intacked

Chris is back

Nothing much has happened since my last show, except tthat Missy has been given the week off, and I was quiet busy running my sister's stable yard and giving lessons to the more advanced students, while she was over in Ireland.

I quite enjoyed being the yard's manager, but I got the impression the grooms where rather annoyed about it. I was very specific on the tasks I wanted them to do as priority for the day, and how I wanted them done. I also checked on them twice, once before lunch and again before I had to give lessons in the afternoon. The head groom, who usually does what he wants as my sister does not really supervise her employees, seemed particularly vexed by me. In my defence, a lot of things that the grooms were doing incorrectly got sorted out, and the two new grooms seemed very pleased that I took the time to explain everything to them.
The yard also looks better, and more organised then it has in ten years... well in my opinion.

The lessons I gave went great. Even the annoying kids did well. I enjoyed doing exercises and taking the time to really change up the lessons. The students were a little apprehensive at first, but then things really started to click. Though they do admit that being called over to have their faults explained to them, was quite scary, but on the last day I was told my lessons were very interesting and fun.

I think running a stable yard and riding school suits me, but unfortunately my father bought my sister a yard, not me. And now Christine is back and I am back to job searching - sigh. If only she decided to stay in Ireland.

My sister had a great time in Ireland, but she mostly spent time in a pub or inside her friend's house drinking - she says there was a lot of drinking. If I went to Ireland, I would probably spend most of my time visiting museums and hiking around the countryside, but that's just me. Her trip was enjoyable, until she had to come home with Turkish airlines. They were delayed in Dublin for 5 hours because of weather, and then again in Istanbul again for another 5 hours due to technical difficulties. These things happen, but Christine said what made it worse is that they would say they would be delayed for another  half and hour, then just before the time expired, they would shift it another half hour on excreta. This made it impossible for her to relax, and try and sleep while she waited, because its too little time to try and sleep. When she was in Istanbul, her bags weren't there and about tow days after she landed in South Africa, after countless phone calls and inquirers, her bags were flown over from Ireland - they had never been packed and had been miss placed. All this inconvenience and never once an apology was hear from the staff of Turkish Airlines.

So now it's Monday again. Christine is back, hogging the PC to go on facebook and I am back to looking for work. The worst part is that I have work, apparently. I was hired to write articles for a very small payment and told I would receive my first assignment today, but its already mid-day and I have heard nothing. I can also not do anything, as I need to be home to write.

My Sister at their main hangout

First Eventing Show 2012

It has been a while since my last post, but things have been a bit hectic and dull - if you want to know what I get up to between blogs, follow me on twitter @CMMeridian.

So last weekend I had my first Eventing show of 2012. It was also the first real show I’ve ridden in since last year. It took place at Inanda Country base, one of my favourite venues. And surprisingly the weather played along nicely.

On Saturday, I was scheduled to ride my dressage test at 9am, so that meant waking up bright and early at 5am to feed the horses. Well, my alarm did not go off, which teaches me not to set it the night before when I’m half asleep. But I managed to speedily feed the horses, and get myself looking decent and ready for the show. Final checks, and re-checks that I had all my gear. Remembering to feed the dogs, fish and birds, and we were off.

                Missy was very excitable, but who could blame her, it was her first show in two months, and she flew out of the box when we arrived. But I managed to get her saddled and ready in good time. I noticed lots of people watching me, I hope it was just because my horse was particularly clean and shiny. I walked Missy for a while to settle her, and started our warm-up about a half an hour before we had to enter the arena. It went well, a couple of drills of our test, if she did them well enough; I would give her a break to watch a few of my fellow competitors, and then another warm-up session. I was very pleased and actually looking forward to our test.

                The dressage arenas were set out side by side, on the polo field, which is the norm for the venue. Their boarders neatly spun with white, thick nylon cords; all very neat and nice. My tested started well, nice down the centre line, straight and slow, which I good square halt. But when I had to ride along the arena’s boarder it was clear Missy was not happy. She seemed convinced the fencing was electrified, as it did resemble the material we use to span her portable, electric paddock. So needless to say, there went our promising test. And our score was not that good, but at least we were spot on with all the transitions and we weren’t the worst test of the day, but in the lower half.

                After getting a very hyped up Missy back to the horsebox, saddled off and finally relaxed. I left her in the care of my farther and went off to walk the cross-country. It was pretty straight forward, not too many questions and not too long, I even managed to run most of it – which I was very proud of. There were two water complexes, both with drops in and the second had a combination after, which I knew I would have to concentrate to ride correctly. A few sharp turns and running stretches, oh and one BIG log, but nothing too hectic and I felt ready.

The cross-country day was more relaxed as I would ride late morning, but heavy rains were predicted which made me nervous. I arrived with plenty of time, I could even quickly run off to the toilets, which was great as I am very fond of coffee.  Missy was much more relaxed, and grazed pleasantly while I put on all our gear – red and blue. We walked up and watched a few competitors go before starting our warm up. Mainly walking, with some trotting and cantering, as I did not want to tire her out before the course. I popped her over three fences, just to get her ready for the jumps and into the correct pace. We were called into the starting box – 3 -2 -1 and we were off.

                The first few fences when well, Missy felt good, though our pace was a little fast then I wanted and I had trouble slowing her down. We flew over the tires, logs, picnic table, up to the helipad, down over the corner and off to the first water complex – a drop down into the water, two strides then a jump out. Missy hesitated and I landed on her neck, we splashed in and she lost her footing. I could not see, so I let my reins loose, kept myself in the saddle and let her do what she needed to .  Missy was the start she always is; managing to pick us up and regain her feet to jump out, without me needed to ask her. We had cleared the complex!

                I stopped her to check that she was ok, the jump judge indicated she was not injured, and we were off again – a lot wetter. The rest of the course went well, nice and smooth. But I decided to trot her into the next water complete, we jumped neatly in and out, but a very enthusiastic spectator that sat right next to our next jump, screamed their praise and Missy got a fright – I was nearly off, but managed to get my feet back in and jump the last fence.

                We had a clear cross-country round as the time wasn’t so tight. I am happy with Missy as she was sensible and brave, as is her nature but our round was not as smooth as I would like; we usually have no trouble through the water complexes, and this reminded me that I must forget about my past as a Showjumper and ride more like an Eventer. From now on I will remember to sit back when jumping into water!

                I walked her back down to our horsebox, she got sponged down, taken for a walk and then put into her portable paddock to have some lunch and relax, while we did the same. Two hours later I was ready for our Showjumping round. Nothing too difficult and we had an easy clear. I did notice a lot of people cheering for me and taking photos, I do know that I am noticed at shows and I also know I have a few people who follow me, but it’s still a little strange to find people I don’t know cheering me on.

                Well, Missy will have about a week off, just in case there  were in adverse effects from our stumble, and then we will prepare for our next show. Dressage will have to be the main focus, as I am aiming to be in the middle standing after the first phase next time so that we have a better shot at the placings.



Missy and me at the start of our Dressage test.