It’s a Random Notes from All Over day:

If you haven’t been to the KHP (which, by the way, has nothing to do with fried chicken), you need to see it and preferably to compete there. While perhaps lacking the crusty tradition of Gladstone or Devon, it’s been on many Got to Go To lists for nearly 40 years. If you’ve come to equestrian sport recently, let me explain that the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington opened in 1978 for the World Three Day Event Championships. It hosts the Rolex CCI**** each spring, and in 2010, the World Equestrian Games.

So we’re just back from Lexington and the second U.S. Dressage Finals. From an organizational and infrastructure standpoint, it was a competitor’s dream. Staff and volunteers were plentiful—able to answer questions, guide you where you needed to be and to help everything run smoothly. The footing was as good as it gets. Electronic scoreboards graced each arena, but even better: You could scan the QR-coded sign at any of the six arenas and movement by movement E-Scores from each judge would post on your iPhone in real time. By the time a rider left the ring, her total points, percentage, and placing to date were all available. I may be sounding a little like the startled Bush ’41 when he first saw a barcode reader in a supermarket about fifteen years after their introduction. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool!

In a totally unrelated matter, I thought of a slogan for practitioners of Natural Trim to use in promoting their approach to hoof care: “Barefoot’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose!” That’s for my friends who have to scour their pasture every week or so grumbling that they need to buy a metal detector.

In other places I’ve discussed my disdain for the happy talk Power of Positive Thinking mindset as it is applied to training. In [citation] I voiced support for the power of negative thinking. Be prepared for the worst, rehearse in your mind every conceivable misadventure which can occur, and you’ll have the best way available to solve the inevitable problems you encounter. Quoting Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (creator of the viral Space Oddity video filmed on the ISS), without such precautions “There’s no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.” Words to live your dressage life by also.

Lest you think I can only cast doom and gloom on an otherwise sunny world, I was charmed by this little vignette: In Indiana (or one of those other “I” states) an ice cream shop advertises “Second scoop free on rainy days.” It perks up their business on such slow days and cheers the customers at the same time.

Overheard at one of my “out thar” clinics:

Auditor number 1, “Did you bring your horse for the clinic?”

Auditor number 2, “Naw, he ain’t right in his mind for this!”

And my reaction (kept to myself), “I am the grateful and fortunate beneficiary of this person’s decision.”