This past Sunday, my horse Cody and I drove up to Damascus, MD to compete in our very first horse combined training event ever at Waredaca.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with combined training, aka eventing, here's a little blurb off the Western PA Combined Training Association's site:

Eventing or Combined Training, as it is also called, is a "combination of three riding disciplines that present the horse and rider with the ultimate riding challenge. In dressage, the first discipline, horse and rider work together on the flat to achieve balance, suppleness and relaxation while performing a series of prescribed movements at the walk, trot and canter.

The second discipline, cross-country, is considered the heart of combined training and has a much different approach than that of dressage. Speed and endurance play a crucial part in the ability of horse and rider to gallop "across country" jumping solid obstacles that vary in height and width (depending on the experience of horse and rider). The jumps in cross-country are mostly natural in design, such as logs, streams, and banks.

Finally, as the last phase of a combined training competition, show jumping tests horse and rider for accuracy and obedience. After challenging dressage and cross-country tests, a show jumping course will decide the final ribbon winners.

Yeah. Anyway, so since this was Cody's first time at an event and the first one I've done in about 4 years, we did the very lowest division possible - Elementary, which is a walk/trot dressage test and the jumping phases consist of teeny 18" high jumps.

Cody tends to get a little nervous and high strung when we're in an unfamiliar place, so I was just trying to get through the day without getting killed. Dressage was decent, although he whinnyed to the other horses the entire test. Dork. Show-jumping was next (they ran that before XC), and he jumped over everything in there. Finally, cross-country was good, except for the part where he slammed on the brakes when he saw the humongous lake next to the road we had to trot on. Cody has this fear of water, so when he sees this large body of water, he stops and tries to turn around:

Cody: "What the…? You KNOW I don't do water!"
Me: "We're not going in it, dummy… just trot past it."
Cody: "Um, no. Screw you, I'm going home!"

Anyway, after a brief argument, he trots right through the road, past the lake, and we finish with no problems or penalties.

Overall, we finished 11th out of 15, which wasn't too terrible, but considering it was our first time out… not too shabby. And I'm very proud of him for being a big brave horse and jumping over everything I asked him to.

I think I'm going to start a support group called "eBay Addicts Anonymous (EAA)."

I've bought a whole slew of stuff that I could probably do without over the last month or so, with the only reason being, "But I'm saving so much money than if I bought it new!"

For example: Sketchers bike shoes. Don't necessarily need (although they will be extremely handy when I use them for biking to work), but wanted. Boogaloo boots for Cody - great price, and they're very durable and will last a long time. (Hey, he needs them.) New/used fly sheet for him to wear while I'm washing/repairing his old one.

The list goes on. Hopefully I'll be able to curb my habit and also sell some of the stuff that I don't use/need.

Either way, it's hard not to justify buying items that are at a great price used, or will end up costing you less than if you got in your car and bought it new. [flips tabs on web browser.] Oooh - an LL Bean backpack! Must… resist!

I try not to use smilies too often, since they can be kind of… um… 12 year old-ish… but I think I need to use one for this occasion.

I have a room!

Yes… that's right, after going through the reality-show/sorority rush of searching Craigslist, open houses, and potential roommates who informed me they frequently ran around naked, I finally have a place to live! Without divulging too much information on its location, I can safely say that it's about 5 minutes to the Ballston Metro on foot and about 20 minutes or so to work. I can also bike there fairly easily, but it will be tricky. Fairfax Dr. does have a bike lane, but that's not always a guarantee that you won't get run down by some errant construction vehicle or doored by someone getting out of their car.

Slightly bad news on Cody, though - yesterday, I went down to ride, and he had pulled off his right front shoe along with about a quarter of his hoof. Ew. And, for some reason, I couldn't find the damn thing anywhere in his paddock. (Somehow it managed to find its way into Cygnet's stall - I have no idea *how*, since he obviously lost it outside. Odd.)

The farrier managed to carefully nail another one on and patch over the missing chunk of hoof, but we'll have to be careful that he doesn't go out in really deep mud. It was really alarming at first, but turned out OK. Even better, Cody's pulled muscle/mystery lameness has ceased, and he was sound yesterday when I rode. Most excellent.

Okay, lots of work to do, so I must get back to it.