There are roughly five billion things happening all at once between my work and home life right now.
Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration although it doesn’t currently feel like it. The end of the year is always hectic at work but this year I decided to torture myself and staff with changing my electronic medical record and billing system. Ahem…again. The one I have won’t work with new government mandates in 2018 and so I’m stuck making another change. Changing systems in this day and age should be easy. Ha. Hahahahahahahaha.
That is added on top of the typical year end rush of people wanting seen and surgery performed prior to deductibles starting over again.
Some big life stuff is happening at home too and well, it has finally all caught up to me. I’m having a difficult time figuring out how I’m going to get it all done in time. When this happens my body, oh so helpfully, shuts down and freezes. It’s like it says “how are we to do it all? I know! I’ll just stop functioning, drain all energy away and that will help!”
Ugh.
Anyway… all this whining to say that I’ve decided that Gem is on vacation until further notice. Well, it wasn’t all my decision. With the darkness now and no lights or arena to ride in, she is a pasture pet Monday thru Friday anyway.
I was supposed to go to a schooling show this past weekend. The rules were posted forever ago, but I only stumbled upon them the Thursday before the show and was dismayed to read that even though it is a schooling show, the material clearly stated that schooling attire was not permitted and coats were required.
I don’t own a show coat. Or didn’t anyway. Friday I booked out of work to make it to the tack shop an hour away that has a plethora of coats in my price range (under $200) with 15 minutes to spare before closing. I snagged a navy (ick but beggars can’t be choosers) RJ Classics Sydney coat on sale and an Ariat long sleeve show shirt that was $60 off.
I was all set. Or so I thought.
About a week ago I texted with Trainer about what classes to do. It was a hunter only show and I wasn’t sure what all the classes meant like Hunter Under Saddle O/F 2′ and Rail Work. She had no clue what that one was either. The plan was to do one cross rails, HUS and equitation O/F 18″ and then the HUS and equitation O/F 2′ classes. If Gem was feeling good and ready we would add the hunter derby 2′ as well. I was stoked for the progression of height for both of us and the planned 5-6 rounds.
Then Friday I found the rules again and read past the “no schooling attire” part. This basically killed my show plans. Turned out that cross rails meant no other height could be entered, scratch that off the list. Then I saw the definition of short stirrup was under 14 yo and all the 18″ classes were short stirrup only. The adult classes started at 2′.
Sigh.
Having only done one prior course at 2′ and um…not having ridden in 2 weeks…I didn’t think it was fair to pull Gem out for only 2’classes without the warm up smaller rounds. We are so incredibly green to the whole jumping thing and our participation is tenuous. Every outing needs to be fun and confidence boosting for us both. I didn’t think this would be.
Plus it was an hour away for only 2 rounds. Seemed a bit silly to trailer out that far for two rounds.
After that blew up in my face I decided to call the rest of the month off. Gem does so much better with consistency and it isn’t fair to grab her only once every two weeks and expect much of anything. She isn’t that type of horse. Instead I think a month off to relax and regroup is in order.
Once things settle down at work and home, which should happen simultaneously once the holidays are over, we will get back to our lessons and schooling shows. Until then she is on vacation while I pull my hair out and try to squeeze 30 hours of work into a 24 hour day.
The Roaming Rider 
OH man – so much going on! Best of luck through this final whirlwind push at the end of the year.
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Thanks!!! The end of this week should see a major stressor off then getting through. I figure Gem won’t be any worse for the time off either. It’s been in the mid 70s during the day, 30s at night and she is a hairy yak
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ugh what a bummer about the show. i hate it when schooling show organizers are such sticklers about rigid rules. like. it’s a schooling show. let ppl school. sorry 😦 Wyatt’s birthday cake is freakin amazing tho, hope that was a good time! and good luck with all the rest, esp that system conversion…. what a pain.
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It was weird cuz it’s a schooling show but went by non schooling rules. I’m sad I missed it but the day was spent doing other things that needed done.
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Wow on the cake, very cool. Ha on the Zombie in your Christmas Village. And sorry you are so slammed right now. BUT you have a coat now 🙂 HA and a show shirt so you are ready 🙂 HA. And schooling shows SHOULD be flexible (maybe this is why I dont go to our local hunter schooling shows HA) TOO MUCH STRUCTURE! 🙂
Take a breath and then another. This too shall pass and you will be back on Gem in no time 😉 (And yes your Bernese is getting very grown up looking and gorgeous) ! 🙂
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His cake was pretty awesome. He is spoiled. I was thinking about you this weekend and wishing I had your number to call. Real estate issues abounded and my stress level was beyond max.
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ha email me at martidoll@gmail.com and i will give it you. We have NOTHING to look at here house/farm wise so i can live thru your troubles with you 🙂
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You would have definitely made it through the 2′ rounds easy peasy. It is well within yours and Gem’s wheel house and not a stretch at all you just gotta believe in yourself!
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It still seems so dang high even though I know it isnt
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Awww, that SUCKS about the show. I wouldn’t drive over an hour for 2 classes either.
And I totally laughed out loud about changing systems…SOOOOOO easy. Ugh. Not. I think it’s smart to give her off when you’re so busy. After next weekend, P’s getting a pretty extended break, too, for pretty much the same reasons.
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An hour haul for 2 classes seemed a bit much to me on top of all the other stressors right now
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The good thing about shows is there will be another one!!! I love the zombie pub in the middle of your Christmas village and think Wyatt is smart as a whip convincing you to get it bc of Nightmare before Christmas 🙂
Hope everything quiets down quickly and the stress dissipates!!!
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Yea, he is pretty smart when it comes to getting his way
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The thing to keep in mind with hunter shows is that all heights are a gross exaggeration. The 2′ class would probably have been 18″. We have to enter 2’9 or 3′ classes just to get jumps at 2’6″ to practice for BN. But all those rules make it sound like it probably wouldn’t have been a very fun show anyway.
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Hmm..I didn’t realize that. Maybe the 2′ rounds would have been more doable. The hour+ haul for 2 classes was a bit daunting though.
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My heart goes out to you! I think pulling from the show makes sense. I hope that things get better soon
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I do too! Thank you!!
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You can do it! Make sure you get out to the pasture for some quick sessions of horse therapy to keep you grounded. That pup sure has grown up nicely! Such a cutie.
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That seems frustrating particular for a schooling show. I thought the point of those was experience, not clothing and limited classes.
Regarding the medical record changed, my aunt is an RN and she was saying that they just changed as well. And has to do a lot of overtime. Because NONE of their historical records were carried over. NONE. Working in software, I was appalled to hear that. Historical records being migrated to a new system is the number one priority when bringing a new customer on. But I guess the new rules for 2018 make it so no one has time to complain about it. =/
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The whole show seemed a bit off being a schooling show.
The whole EHR thing is crazy. I demonstrated almost 25 systems and all but One told me they couldn’t convert data from other systems into theirs. Stupid
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Oh they said they could. But it didn’t happen. And how much time does a busy drs office have to wait for the software people to fix their problem? None. So they are manually entering those who have appointments first and then the others further out.
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