The Catch Up - April, 2016 - Horses and Running

Yeah, it’s been so quiet here on the blog, so much so, I bet you all figured I just stopped taking photos, and disappeared into the abyss.
While not 100% true, life has certainly been busy and I’ve gotten lazy about taking photos, getting them up to flickr (heck, even my auto publish from Instagram stopped working for two weeks) and posting all those mundane details about them. My parents even noticed my lack of activity and called me out on it!
So, here’s what I’m dubbing the “Highlights” and “Dimmer Lights” of the last several months, and this is April's installment. I have more written for May and June (since it is now July)!
I am purposefully not using the term “Low Lights”, as I really have nothing in my life that truly warrants a “Low Light” category.....

April Highlights:
Equestrian Zone Competition - Erica and I flew to Amarillo, TX so she could compete in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association’s Zone 7 competition. She is an active member of Illinois’ Equestrian Team and qualified to compete at the Regional level in March. At the March competition, she won her Regional event (Novice Flat Equitation Class), which allowed her to compete at the Zone level, in Texas.



The event was hosted by Western Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.


Highlights – the weather was warm, I got to see some friends who recently moved to Amarillo (yeah, kind of random). The event was a great experience for Erica, who attended with another rider from the club.



Announcing the winners - In a process akin to a beauty pageant, the competitors line up and the judges announce the placements in descending order until there are only two left.


So the excitement mounted when Erica's name was not announced.... three left, two left and wow, she's the winner!



The biggest highlight of the month - Erica winning this competition, which meant she advanced to the National Competition!



Dimmer Light that weekend – I set off the Airport security machine and then proceeded to fail the next level of testing (swabbing my hands, clothes for bomb producing chemicals). Yeah, I had to be taken into the “back room” and personally searched. No big deal, just a little humorous (Sorry, no picture, I know you are disappointed).

Running - I ran Marathon number 4 at the end of April. Highlights: This was my best marathon training cycle to date. With the exception of a slight quad tear early on, I executed all the runs, didn’t get sick and went into the race feeling great. I hit my target pace of 9:30/mile up until mile 20. That’s when “Dimmer Lights” started in the form of calf and hamstring cramps. Darn those cramps! I got them when I ran Chicago, too. Race day was a complete slog, with rain throughout the race, somewhat reminiscent of last year, but not as bad. Even with the rain, I was cheered on by so many people I knew - that makes a big difference and really makes this race special. I ended up walk – running the last 3 miles and as a result, wasn’t tired after the race. No PR either. Oh Well.

The only photo I got, after the race, with my running friend, Sandeep.

An interesting trend – all of my marathon times are within 2 minutes of each other. Consistent, that I am! I recovered quickly and was back to running three days after with no soreness.

And that's a wrap for April. Tune in again for May highlights - more horses, travel to the UK and a fun concert.

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Last Horse Show of the Season

The last events for the day's horse show didn't start until after 5pm as the sunlight faded. I don't recall any of the previous show that finished up so late, but I liked the light coupled with the autumn scenery. The Girl and her horse did a great job.



The barn adorned the jumping gates with scarecrows and ghouls! Something new to "freak out" the horses. But it didn't bother these two - and I love that she's smiling.


For the end of the season, the barn tallies up the scores for each division. Last year, she took 3rd place in the Low Working Hunter Division, where the poles are set to 2'3" - 2'6" high. This year, she took 2nd (Reserve) in the Hunter Division, where the poles are 2'6" - 2'9" high. This is the highest division for this course.



She's also riding with the college club team, and will participate in shows where she won't ride her own horse, but will draw a random horse before riding. This should give her new experiences and challenges. I know she is looking forward to it.

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Black and White Days

I was challenged by my friend (who happens to be a runner / photographer / creative soul like me), Kyla to a five day Black and White Challenge. So we're going black and white for the next five days.

Here's a classic horse shot, from my daughter's last show of the season:


The great thing about black and white conversions - it takes away all those distracting colored items in the background (in this case, the porta potty is less obvious). Good to know, right?

I still find it hard to determine which shots look good in black and white. I think this one works because it's a simple photo to begin with. Caesar is a great horse to convert to black and white due to his variegated coloring.

More black and white to come!

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Horse Jumps at High Speed

About 2 tenths of a second (estimated based on my camera specs of 5.5 frames / second):













I told my daughter I would buy a GoPro video camera if she would jump with it. I think it would cool to see it from her perspective. She hasn't warmed up to the idea yet....

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More Horse Show Photos

Despite the heat and humidity, the girl and Caesar had another successful horse show.





They went Up


Then Over


And goofed off with friend, Jordan


A great day for all of Meg's students.

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Horse Show - Jump for Joy

I spent all Sunday at the daughter's second horse show. I was well prepared to wait, and the weather was nice, the grounds were beautiful and there were so many pretty horses to watch.

But I only took photos of my girl and her horse.







My absolute favorite shot of the day - they look like they are riding on some expansive horse farm in Kentucky - every equestrian's dream, right?


And my least favorite - she's holding on for dear life. As I was capturing this, I was thinking "holy crap, she's about to fall off". Afterwards, I said a silent prayer that there wouldn't be any more close calls.


This jump, during the competition was better:


She competed in two jumping events. The first one was rough - you know those flower boxes in front of the jumps? I learned they are not there just to make things pretty - they are there to psych out the horses. And Caesar did not like them at all. During his first run, she had to hit him with the crop and yell to get him to go over. That's all it took - after Caesar realized it was all in his head, the subsequent jumps went just fine.



She took home a few ribbons - another great but tiring day. More to come in a few weeks!

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