I've got some new video. Maybe you can read her thoughts?
It was 80 degrees and sunny today. Time to get out the sunscreen! I have this dramatic fear of wrinkles, and I got a little sunburn on my chest today. I refuse to look like a baked ham when I'm 50, so I try to do the sunscreen thing. I had a friend in college who was 21 and looked like leather (with crows feet!) from spending so much time in the sun. She didn't smoke or anything! Just sun damage. The lesson: Sunscreen it up, folks.
So, after some thought, I'm throwing caution to the wind, and am going to discuss the "circumstances" that happened at the show April 14th. Pull up a rug, and get out your milk and cookies, because it's story time.
I scheduled a 6:30am leave time. My first ride time was around 10:15am. Bear in mind that I was driving the trailer. Trainer blew off the leave time, deciding that 6:30am was too early for him to wake up. As a result of his "johnny come lately" attitude, we left an hour late, arriving at the show an hour late. I was able to get in 15 min of warmup before my ride time. Sorry, I can't even be funny about this.
Just as I was about to go in to the ring to do my test, I realized Trainer left my stock tie at the trailer. As a result, I missed my ride time, and was almost eliminated from my first class. For the uninitiated, dressage riders are required to wear certain articles of clothing, one of which is the stock tie. Our illustration of the illustrious Mr. Peanut does not include one, so I've attached a photo here:
Yes, this was also my very first show ever. So, you can understand why I wasn't too unhappy about our scores. He was supposed to read my tests out loud for me, but disappeared, and didn't read my first test. I had the test memorized, but was so livid by the time I got into the test ring that I went off course.
To be fair, he did talk to the judge about what happened, which is why I got to ride at all. I don't know what he said. Otherwise I would have just been eliminated.
Really, the guy is a brilliant rider, but has serious time management issues, and serious respect issues. The cabron just loses it when he has to do anything but ride. I'm getting to the end of my tether with this guy, especially considering the level of effort I've put out to keep him working with my horse. I'm beginning to question whether working with him is worth the chronic headaches. He leaves so much up to me to figure out on my own, and then bitches about how I do stuff.
Really, though, Friday's walk through the Garden of Malcontent has been the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. We have been working consistently on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, with nary a deviation except for the past 2 weeks due to holidays and shows on Sundays. Because he doesn't have a license right now, I have to pick him up to come to the farm, and we chose these days because both of us could allot enough time for picking him up and dropping him off. We have done this consistently for 2 months.
I don't know what got into him, but he tried to tell me Friday that we had been discussing switching Sundays with Saturdays. Yeah, um, no we hadn't. Now, I get that on Sundays he is tired from working and just wants the day to be over. I can appreciate that. However, considering the amount of patience I've had with this whole arrangement, especially taking into account the events of my last show, being told that we have discussed something that I'm quite aware we never discussed is a figurative slap in the face. I'm not stupid, so either he is trying to lead me down some garden path, or he's having psychotic episodes and having these discussions with himself. Like I said, I'm basically out of patience with this guy. So, I really don't know what's going to happen. The arrangement we have, and our interactions with each other, and with the horse basically works, but he gives me far too many headaches. I've had root canals that were more pleasant than dealing with him has been lately. (No, really, I have.)
