Wednesday, October 23, 2013

100 Reasons We Play the Game

“This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will.  Five percent pleasure.  Fifty percent pain and a hundred percent reason to remember the name.”
                                                                                                                 - Fort Minor
                                                                     

Eventing is hard work.  A rider will spend weeks if not months of their life practicing the basics and honing their skills.  Even more time is spent maintaining the horse’s welfare through grooming, feeding, mucking etc.  There is time spent on tack.  Time spent on the facility and other equipment.  Eventers are invested in their passion.
Yet no matter how much time and money is sunk into the pursuit, lady luck has her say.  There are too many variables for anything to ever be a given.  A horse can go lame, slip in the stabling, or just have a bad day.  You can forget a movement, skip a fence, even stay up to late cleaning tack.

The wind might blow.  The skies may open up and pour or even snow, but Eventers ride on.  The post office has nothing on what Eventers will endure.  What keeps us going?
It isn’t something that can be put into words.  The partnership, the bond, the accomplishment, the progress, the adrenalin, the comradery, the peace, the fun, the heartbreak, the hope, the knowledge that you can always do it a little bit better but knowing what you did today is enough.  There are a hundred reasons we play this game.


We’re headed to our final event of the season this weekend.  It’s going to be cold.  It’s been hard to ride in the wet, chili, dark rain of the past couple of weeks.  Regardless, the trailer is packed, the tack is cleaned (well it will be before Saturday morning), and Nutmeg and I are eagerly awaiting our Friday departure.  We’d love to see you there.  They always need volunteers!
 
 

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