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.



Life's getting in the way

Well I'm working again and the hours are erratic and very long so when I do get home its mostly spent trying to catch up on 'things that must get done!' and reading / writing. I haven't been reading a lot which is poor, as my bookmark in the Ambassador's Mission never seems to travel very far through the book, and I've hardly had time to write - which is the real tragedy!

Missy is doing well, but with the for mentioned time issues and the rain (that caused my room to flood - luckily laptop off floor), or trainings hardly progressed and the fitness worries, and dressage issues are nagging at me. Our first show is only a month away!

I must also apologise to wonderful Yolanda, my self appointed proof reader who has edited my prologue and I haven't even looked at it yet, but I think fear has something to do with it as I know the pain that comes with proof reading.

But hopefully, if I push through, I can make it in this hectic holiday season, get everything sorted, including presents on a very tight budget and still have time to keep my wits about me!

Happy holidays and season's greetings!

CM

First training session

It's been raining every evening for the past few days. The red clay ground here is slippery and sticks to everything! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the rain, I always am - even when last year at every show we attended at least one of our horseboxes got stuck ... but that’s another story. Today I decided to ride, and somehow managed to get up early.

Missy, my Saddler, Arab, Warmblood cross mare, is currently in her last week of her African Horse Sickness vaccinations (I'm so glad I did it early this year as AHS reports are already coming in), and so it's time to ease her into her work again, and to prepare for our first Eventing show in the middle of December.

Well today's training did not go as I would have liked, and I already am a day late because of the weather. Missy was not impressed that she could not spend her morning snoozing in her stable and she showed me just how annoyed she was by sticking her head extra high up whenever I requested anything other than a loose reined walk - oh I can just imagine how our first dressage training session is going to go. Mind you, the ground as stated before, is not ideal for riding at the moment and even our sand arena is waterlogged, so I mainly just walked. I made Missy walk over poles, low jumps, up and down hills and occasionally just trotted a few strides on ground that looked fairly stable. I also decided to go on a walk outride, but after Missy got two frights up our driveway at who-knows-what, I thought better it and turned around. Our back field is huge, but the clay ground is just as slippery, if not more so as it’s on a slop; so it meant more walking. I could tell Missy was getting pretty fed up at this point and when her paddock mates started to be taken out to their field I decided to call it quits.

Ok so our first training session was not very successful, and only lasted twenty-five minutes, but at least I actually had the resolve so get up early and ride, despite the weather that looks like its threatening rain again. I will probably see if perhaps the ground can dry out a bit, and try again on the weekend, as after 5 weeks of not riding, both me and Missy need to get seriously fit before our next show.

Reviewing my own novel:

Under one of the forums of NaNoWriMo, it was suggested that one writes a short, positive review of one's novel. So here it is, read it and weep ... probably as its rather poorly written ;)

I found C M Meridians first novel; Blue River Chronicles: Full Moon Rising, a refreshing take on a well-worn out, and badly portrayed genre of claw and fang, that we all have gotten a little tired of lately – or is it just me.

While the book focuses on the turmoil of high school life, and the troubles of being a creature of the underworld would present to a hormonal teenager, it remains true to the traditions and folklore that has come to be lost in modern fang fiction. No sparkles, puppy love or even elaborate powers to fill in loop holes in the story line, as there are none!

Full Moon Rises, draws one into he mystery of the story and the life of the character quickly. Causing the reader to sympathies with him and his every day struggles on who and what he is. At one point I wish I could have climbed into the book, slapped his girlfriend aside, and given him a hug, whispering the words ‘I understand’ sweetly in his ear.

This novel was captivating, engaging and left me wanting more after the cliff hanger of an ending. I cannot wait to see what the next novel in Blue River Chronicles will bring.

Searching for opportunities

Wow I had a great weekend, it was the end of yea function at our stables and we had a great time! I got the trophy for Eventer of the Year, and it was no surprise, not to sound vane, but I am good at Eventing and it helps to be only one of four people at our yard that event. It was great fun that we all played games, catches (I was not caught), balancing on barrels, trampoline games, stalk the lantern (one of my faves) and hiding-go-seek in the dark and in a very bushy/woody area - I hid up a tree and was not found (yay me!)

My odd trophy

Now it Monday again and that means I have to try and be productive - though me and my sister decided that spending two hours watching Burghly and FEI Showjumping was not a bad way to start the day. Well now it early afternoon and I have sent out about 10 job applications *sigh* its never fun. And I seriously need to catch up to my word count for NaNoWriMo, as I really want to submit my book to potential agents by the end of November so I need to get a move on!

Oh, I'm going to look for sponsorship for my Eventing again. I say again as I did contact sponsors and they said yes! But the suppliers of their product in South Africa said no *sob* so I was told to look for new ones.

I am seriously getting in the mood to ride again, which is great! Riding almost every day of the year can make one get tired of it, and this break really help me get a longing for it again. But now that mean both me and Missy need to get fit - yep an out ride is definitely on the cards this afternoon.

Cheers
C

No time no time

Its the thrid day of NaNoWriMo and I'm only just over three thousand words! Oh my I've just been so busy looking for work ( I quite last week) and trying to get everything organised on the dosen paintings I need to do for christmas that I find it so hard to keep up with the word count.

Ok so last year I got over 50 000 words in like 15 days, but tonight I am joinung a write in and I don't want to be like "um my word count, ... do I have to answere that?'

A write in is gonna be a new experience for me, meeting like minded people that are essentially strangers, and they've had a meeting already so I'll be the new one .... nervouse!

Well my first layer of paint has dried so off to continue my current painting.