Seriously, 1200 Pounds??

OK, I see how it is.  I can write about how it feels as I reach a milestone age and it gets maybe 50 views.  But when I write about a really awesome kid doing fun stuff, it gets about 200.  I get it.  That's fine.  From a marketing standpoint I need to pay attention to the wants of my customers, so if you really want to read about people that you think are more interesting than I am, well, I guess I have to oblige...

A couple weeks ago you got to meet Evan.  Evan weighs maybe 130 pounds after a heavy meal and is quite physically fit.  Today I'd like to introduce you to an athlete who weighs, well, a bit more.  Annie is strong and extremely fit and weighs about 1200 pounds.  Hard to believe, I know.  A 1200-pound fit athlete?  Yep.  Of course Annie is a horse, so that's a pretty healthy weight.

 Annie is part of a team - her partner is Dani (who weighs less...), another of my really awesome students, and recently I got to see the team in action at the Richland Park Horse Trials, a huge equestrian event near Kalamazoo.  I went to see them last year as well, getting to see the Dressage competition (very cool, but, well, not terribly exciting), so this year I attended on "Stadium" day, and got to see them in the stadium jumping over things.

Wow.  What I saw between the stadium where Dani and Annie competed and the cross country course (where they competed the next day -I got to watch other riders) completely amazed me.  Horse and rider act as one.  Lots of things for the horse to go over, around, through (sometimes over and through at the same time), and all the while the clock is ticking and judges are observing.  Nerve-wracking for the audience, especially if your kid is on said 1200-pound animal (ask her mom), which on the XC course can travel at speeds up to 25+ mph.  But the pressure on the rider?  I'll let you in on some of the things that Dani and her folks taught me.

First, though, let me ask this: when was the last time the piece of exercise equipment you were using had a mind of its own?  I'm not talking about how this bike has a different steering feel than that one, or your tennis racket is strung differently or you don't have your carbon fiber golf club so you can't hit as long.  I am talking about an actual breathing, thinking, reacting very large animal, maybe something that can squash you like a bug.  Yeah, I didn't think so.  

See, in the unlikely event that I go over some kind of obstacle/jump on the mountain bike, for instance (I was getting bolder before the crash...), I know how to sit the back of the bike down, I have control of the handlebars, and I theoretically know exactly how the inanimate piece of metal and rubber under my butt is going to react.  Now imagine the same idea of a jump or going off a ledge, only you're about five feet in the air in your seat (when your seat is on the ground), and the equipment under your butt is a half-ton being who maybe doesn't really feel like doing that jump right now, or gets a little spooked by the crowd, or for some other reason just decides it's not the right time for her to do what you want.  Oh, and you're holding two relatively thin strips of leather which don't really brace you against anything or allow you to physically steer in mid-air.  Now you're getting the idea...

As we wandered around the various events I noticed something that I thought was pretty significant.  As I watched the riders go past, I came to the realization that there weren't any, well, fat people there.  Now this may be due to some factor that I am unaware of, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly due indeed to the level of fitness and endurance required even though the horse is "doing all the work."

Hydrating before the stadium event.

Dani's father, Dave, was explaining some of the training he has helped set her up with.  It includes some core exercises along with stretching and some fitness/weight training.  She's also doing things like jumping jacks, squats, and pushups as well as riding at least six days a week.  

 Dani explained the level of strength to me this way: "back and core muscles are a huge part for sure, along with all of the hip muscles - flexors (the ones in front) and stabilizers (on the sides) especially.  Quads play a bigger part when I'm in the jumping saddle (there's a jumping saddle?  I didn't ask that...), because my knees are bent further.  Hips and core are more important for dressage, but still important all the time.The arms should technically only have to hold themselves and the reins, which doesn't amount to much weight.  However if the horse gets 'strong' (puts more weight on the bit and therefore the reins), the rider has to be strong enough to keep herself in position while correcting the horse.  As far as the most fatigued muscles, it depends on what I've done that day.  Sitting trot will make the core tired, jumping makes the quads and calves tired, and galloping can be hard on the back.  Overall, it's a lot of fine motor control and stabilization."  Wow.  She must be pretty tough!

Dani also keeps fit by eating well.  She and the family are on a mostly gluten-free diet due to dad having Celiac disease, and she has learned much about a healthy human diet from that.  So, while the healthy lifestyle isn't totally because of her riding and training, she tells me she can definitely feel it when she isn't eating as well as she usually does.  (Somewhere in an earlier post I talked about this very thing - I am the same way as far as gluten is concerned.  It was a very interesting post; you should search for it.)

I'm standing here as a size reference (for height...)

On stadium day Dani was seated 7th in her class after Friday's dressage competition.  In that, as in golf, lower numbers are better, and she scored a 37.3 for the day.  In the stadium event, riders must complete the course, which includes a number of jumps in a circuit, within a certain time period.  During your event, should your horse knock down a rail or otherwise "miss" a jump (this can include a "refusal," which is just like it sounds), penalty points are added to your score.  There is also the clock for these events.  Each level of competition has a time limit for Stadium and XC.  Your score over the three events is combined, and basically the lowest score wins.

Dani and Annie finished their Stadium event with no penalty points and under the required time, so they earned a "Double Clear" and therefore held the 37.5 score.  And moved up to 4th place!  As I write the first draft of this, they are competing in the Cross Country event.  Here is the video of their Stadium performance (in two parts due to size restrictions...)

 I also learned about the preparations for these events.  As we watched the Cross Country event I saw several riders, all with their numbers strapped to their vests, walking along the course.  Most were pushing those little meter-wheel things, and occasionally would stop to write in a little notebook or look around.  They were doing a "walk through," in which the rider is allowed to literally walk through the course, measuring and marking time and distance, even planning out the number of steps their horse will take between things.  

Each class has a different time rate to average; for each minute Dani's classification must travel 470 meters over the 2550-meter course, for an optimum time of 5:26.  So the riders will take their measuring devices and mark off that much distance, and then make a mental or physical note of where they are on the course.  Dani and other riders wear watches with timers set for each minute.  When the watch beeps, they know where they should be on the course based on their walk-through.  (The horse, however, is running it for the first time, and therein lies a big part of the challenge.  Dani's mom told me of the time a couple years ago when Annie was spooked by an obstacle.  The jump was actually in the shape of a horse that was lying down, complete with eyes, etc.  Annie balked and wouldn't jump.)

But since some of the XC course is jumping and some is riding as fast as you can to the next part of the course, and the meters per minute are averaged, a rider needs to know when/where she needs to go faster to make up for the obstacle section, where she will be slower.  The XC course is about two miles in length at Richland Park, though the distance and obstacles differ from class to class; lower-level riders get shorter courses and easier and fewer obstacles.  Here is a very brief look at one of the Cross Country obstacles.  The horse and rider approach from the left, jump over a fence-like structure, land lower than when they started, climb out of the ditch, and immediately jump over the next fence.

Last year...

As you can see, this particular rider (horse...) missed the jump as his mount went between the obstacles instead of over one.  So he turned around and went back and did the sequence again, which cost him penalty points.  When there is a break in the action, course officials zip by on golf carts to grab the penalty sheets from the judges that were right nearby, and the scores are tallied and totaled for the day's final result.

This year...  Minus about 20 pounds (me, not the girls!)

Speaking of the final result, Dani updated me on hers: she ended up with a second "double clear" in the Cross Country event, so she ended up adding zero points to her Friday score (that's the goal, remember), and ended up in THIRD PLACE in her class!  Great work!

Dani has done four events this year, and plans to do two more, which fits in her season average of between five and eight shows per year.  I am really excited to have seen this a couple of times, and learned a LOT.  Thanks, Dani!!

**2015 Update:**
Dani has a new horse named Dash, and yesterday I got to see them run the cross country portion of the event.  WOW.  That is all I can say.  Remarkable athleticism from horse and rider.  (Dash is very cool as well, though yesterday he was very focused and intense and wasn't as cute and cuddly as Annie always was to me.  Friendly horse, but you can definitely see the difference in personalities!)