Wednesday, July 16, 2014

All The Hats At Championships

So I'm hanging out at the USPC Championships and today what struck me as most remarkable was how many different hats I'm wearing here. I mean that metaphorically: other than my riding helmet, I've only got one actual hat here. It's a pale green ball cap reading BOSS MARE, and I've been complemented on it many times.

Anyway, I don't know the name of the metaphorical hat that one wears when the alarm goes off at 4:20 am, but whatever it was, I was wearing it. Then, after I dropped my daughter off at the eventing barn, I got to wear my Rider hat for awhile. I bought my mare with me so that we could take part in the educational workshops that follow Championships, since I try to never pass up a chance for good lessons. I fed Sarah, cleaned her stall, then, in the rising dawn, spent an hour in the saddle.

Next came the Mom hat: watching my daughter ride a very nice test. Eventing's a small world: though we'd never met the woman we'd hired third-hand to coach my daughter here, that woman knew my daughter's horse from its former owner. She understood Mickey's quirks, which made my daughter really happy. Their score puts them in the middle of their division.

Next I put on my Coach hat, along with my official Coach name tag and ribbon (which grants me permission to get near the warmup ring) and coached one of my pony club members who's here competing in dressage. I don't usually coach and I found I really enjoyed it, though my highly useful comments were pretty much limited to, "don't stare at your horse's mane," "quit staring at your horse's mane," and "breathe."

That brought us up to mid morning. I briefly put on my Volunteer hat, but it turned out that they didn't need me. I retired to Sarah's stall, removed all hats, stretched out on my tack trunk and a bale of hay, and slept for 90 minutes. Seriously. I can sleep just about anywhere.

From there I put on my Friend hat to go have lunch, only to snatch it off again and replace it with DC. That's District Commissioner, which is ponyclub speak for troop leader. I was supposed to go to the DC Lunch, and nearly forgot about it.

Rushed from lunch back to Coaching Dressage. Finished Coaching, went back to Rider, taking Sarah out for some rope work, refilling hay and water, picking her stall. Then Mom got to go into the barns to check on daughter and her team, who were busy cleaning tack and creating new lyrics to "Let It Go:" "dressage never bothered me anyway."

It's getting late, it's a bit chilly, and there's a nice little bar here. Time to find my sweater and see if I don't have a hat that says, Just Chill.

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