“Get thee a PMP (Portable Music Player)!”
In this series, Cassidy Sitton chronicles her experiences as she and her OTTB, Subway Prophet, prepare for the FENCE SmartPak/USEA Training 3-Day in the beginning of April.
Before I even get started, I must digress a little bit to explain some terminology – the PMP. Yes, I am aware that the world is an Apple world, and I am an Apple girl. However, my version of the Apple brand is my desktop Mac, circa 2002, and haven’t been able to afford anything ‘Apple’ since then (I didn’t buy the first one, but instead received it with scholarship). So from here on out, I will refer to the PMP (portable music player), which cost me $40 and does everything I could ever ask an iPod to do, PLUS I don’t have to yell as many expletives when I drop it in a bucket of water.
So back on topic now… Last weekend was a weekend ‘off’. ‘Off’ for me is a very loose term, as it means that I’m simply not competing. I used to imagine taking the ‘off’ time and do things like clean my truck and trailer, pamper the pony, clean my house, etc… But what it really means is that I teach and ride other people’s horses from sun-up to sun-down, which leads me to why everyone needs a PMP.
Nighttime trot sets… or really any trot sets, but the night ones especially.
Somehow the Diddy manages to be some sort of cross between a wild chicken (with or without a head) and cow–perfectly happy being lazy and doing nothing until he decides to freak out. Not a whole lot of ‘in-between’ for him. But night time trot sets are usually more ‘cow’ then they are chicken – vice versa for those done during normal human daylight hours. Seeing as I know the field like the back of my hand, and can tell you how many strides it is from cross-country fence to hole in the ground, nighttime trot sets seem the more logical choice for his sanity, and my safety.
I’d like to think my PMP is specifically programmed for optimal warm-up, peak, and cool-down periods, but no… I just hit the shuffle button and away we go blindly trotting through the night air. Somehow it manages to find just the right song I need – a good pounding Coldplay when my tempo gets a little slow, some mellow Corey Smith as Diddy and I enjoy the moonlight, and a funny little twangy thing by Eric Church to top off the outing.
Now, like any good Pony Clubber/former-working student, I spend a good portion of time pampering the pony post-ride. This includes mini-massages, legs thoroughly linamented, leg/neck/back stretches… all the while I’m still rocking out to the soundtrack of my night, and forcing my (wonderful) significant other to make his own dinner.
I know that they say full-formats take you and your horse’s relationship to a whole new level, however I can honestly say this sort of “Diddy and I” time has been a long standing tradition. This horse has traveled around the country with me (or at least East of the Mississippi), and I’m pretty darned excited to (hopefully) add a completion at FENCE to the long list of things that I’ve shared with my pony…
Plus, I know he’ll keep a secret about how I make the neighborhood dogs howl with my P!nk renditions.
We are off down US1 this weekend for the short drive to the Carolina Horse Park. It’s our ‘hometown’ event, so hopefully P will keep on those big-boy pants in front of his ‘fans’ and the rain will stay in the clouds. Until next week… Ciao, ciao!
Cassidy Sitton, 25, bases her C-Horse Eventing business out of Raleigh, North Carolina where she enjoys teaching and training, and is also a marketing professional for an equine-related business.
