Big Bad Badminton

"If you just relax into a fall," her friend read that caption, "you are less likely to get hurt." and she showed Jill the picture shows a horse upside down, in mid air, having struck the jump with a shoulder with great momentum instead of clearing it. The rider has already hit the ground and looks to be about to crushed under the horse.

"R e l a x i n g would indeed help? I must shalt remember this!" Jill said she liked to cross country defensively, "but with an optimistic approach because what you expect IS what you get.  I ride like I'll believe it (with my jumping position) when I see it horse (aka we art airborne). Now, let's GO!"

Her riding buddy was rehashing the Badminton footage they'd watched on the internet.

"I can't believe that event is only a four star. They are crazy in England!" Jill thought what they had just watched had to be the hardest competition there is in the sport of eventing in the whole wide world. It was just unbelievable.

They would watch the competitions so many times that they actually memorized the course and many rides. Those riders are soooo brave. Those horses are sooooo brave.

The sunken road. And the long, double drop bounces into the lake with a bounce up and out? Ohmigosh - watching was kinda like watching a horror movie, the first time.

Whenever Jill needed moxy for some other enterprise in life, she would watch Badminton.

The guy winning it this year had won it 30 years ago and Jill had been at the Dining Room table a few years past when he decided to come out of retirement.  Seeing how tired his horse was as the end of the cross country course drew near Jill was reminded of the icy winter hacks with another high performance team, where she'd learned the concept: "Imagine training for Badminton, at a walk." as an injured hopeful was carefully conditioned in advance of the competiton.

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"I will never own another horse," Jill said, still broken hearted from the mare she'd lost at 17. "I don't even aspire. Let someone else pay the vet bills and make the hard decisions. I will just love 'em and leave 'em."

Basically we are offering you a "Make Your Own Adventure" position, they said.  But somehow it still hadn't panned out.  Jill was beginning to wonder if their whole idea was to get her to write up all her ideas to try and steal 'em.  She'd just graduated from New Media/Journalism program but was too entrepreneurial for much of the job market.