Oh, portablemusicplayer, how I love thee....

As I sit here typing, I am entertained by my personal music-producing device -- serenading me with the likes of the crazy types of music I love.

Now, if you've met me, I bet you can't really peg the type of music I listen too. Country? Sure. Rap? A little. Hip-Hop? A bit. Folk-y? Yup. I am a giant sponge of music, and my brain is muddled with half memorized lyrics from all different genres. For instance, right now I am rockin' some Gavin Degraw, preceded by Damien Rice, and proceeded by Eric Church's classic "Smoke a Little Smoke". :)

Also, if you know me, you'll also understand why I have a portablemusicplayer, NOT an iPod... it's not that I'm an anti-Mac person (I've had the same Mac desktop since 2002), but it's that an iPod is really expensive, and I'm probably going to leave it in my pocket and wash it, or loose it, or something... so the $50 Philips serves me just as well. PLUS, it has a nice little clip that attaches it to my pocket (although I did find out that the clip does fail when I'm flying through the air after one of P's monster spooks - oh well, earbud cord kept it from hitting the ground. :) ).

Anyway, there is a horse-point to all of this, I promise, just wait.

With the imminent arrival of the T3D over Easter weekend, my time between now and then is going to be spent perfecting P's imperfect dressage, jumping jumps that make my stomach feel a little bit funny (Gotta be ready to move up to prelim after the 3-day), and millions of seconds, thousands of minutes and several hours spent doing hacks, trot sets, and gallops (gotta get the ex-racehorse pony to delve into the repressed memories of when he used to know how to gallop).

That later of the list is why I bought the now hailed, protablemusicplayer (ok, and maybe to make our dressage schools a bit more interesting).

Why so much time spent in the saddle? For those of you who don't understand what it means for us to be doing a full-format 3-day, here's a bit of a breakdown on what we will be doing.

Day 1 - Jog Up for soundness
Here we simply jog up and down a path (with me leading him) for the veterinarians to make sure he is sound enough to safely compete in the event. He is groomed within an inch of is tolerance, and I actually may put on make-up.
Day 2 - Dressage
Just the usual dressage test -- hoping to stay in the ring and do the circles and lines when appropriate.
Day 3 - Endurance
The break down of endurance is pretty much the following: Phase A: 1.8 miles at 8.2mph. straight onto Phase B (steeplechase): .93 miles at 19.4mph with 4-6 jumping efforts. straight onto Phase C: 2.2 miles at 5.96mph. 10 minute box (where grooms cool down the horse as much as possible, riders freak out about the next phase, farriers replace shoes if necessary, and vets watch the horse jog for soundness). Out to Phase D (cross country): 1.55 miles at 17.52mph with 20-27 jumping efforts. Horses are then cooled down in the vet box until they get the release to go back to the barns.
Day 4 - Jog/Show Jumping
Horses are Jogged for Soundness again (just as in Day 1). Repeat steps to make horse beautiful, and put make-up on my face. Once they pass, then we do show jumping in a ring (just as a normal horse trials).

So now see why I'll be spending hours and days in the saddle with my music blasting, getting both P's butt and my own flabby body in shape for the 3-day?

Thank God for my portablemusicplayer.... :)