Liebster Questions

Hannah tagged me for the Liebster Award that's going around, so here you have it. 11 random facts about me, followed by 11 questions.

1. I have had colic surgery. No, really. A few years ago I wasn't feeling great and went to bed early, then woke up with excruciating abdominal pain, then went to the emergency room, then went in for exploratory surgery when they couldn't figure out what was wrong from the tests, and when I woke up they told me that an abdominal adhesion, a bit of scar tissue, had wrapped around and tied off my intestines. Which is basically exactly what happens in a torsion colic.

2. I once held Bruce Davidson on course. True story. Read all about it. I was quaking in my boots. (No reason to, he was perfectly nice, but the guy has a statue at the Kentucky Horse Park, for crying out loud.)

3. I used to live in a nunnery in France. I'm not even a little bit Catholic, but that was the housing my college arranged for the three of us who chose to live in the random provincial French city instead of Paris. It was awesome, except maybe for the bells for the 7am mass every day.

4. Speaking of France, I also rode for a year at the equestrian center there and I'm fairly certain the French system of equitation is basically the Thunderdome. If you live, you are a damn good rider. We would routinely have 20 horses in two circles in their large indoor, doing these insane lessons, WTC. Picture the worst warmup ring you've ever been to and now imagine riding in that every day.

5. I am a third generation Star Trek fan. My grandfather owned a set of collectible original series Franklin Mint plates and displayed them on the den wall and now they are a legit family heirloom that I hope to inherit someday. There is at least a 1 in 2 chance I was named after Spock's mother. (The other option being the Doberman my mother's family showed when she was a child.)

6. I studied medieval military history in college, and wrote my undergraduate thesis on the crossbow. I had so much fun doing it. My advisor - with whom I am still close and see a few times a year for dinner or coffee - still talks about it at dinner parties.

7. I am NOT a cat person. I am such a curmudgeon as to push the barn cat off my lap when he settles there while I'm watching a lesson. (And yet, I live with one. Sigh.)

8. I have gout. Yes, the same thing that fat old man villains in eighteenth century novels get. My body does not process uric acid effectively, and so it builds up in my joints instead and eventually causes pain. The incidence rate in pre-menopausal women is a fraction of a fraction of a percent, but it is also hereditary, and apparently I lost the genetic lottery.

9. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, and I actually use them! I've been lucky to piece together a career in museums and I'm very deeply involved in the field. I serve on national and regional committees, blog professionally, and a lot of my travel is museum-related.

10. I was on the board of the Save Farscape campaign. Yep. Insanely geeky and yet it taught me SO much about community, advocacy, and passion.

11. I have an almost paralyzing fear of driving on bridges over water. I break out into a cold sweat almost every time, especially if we're high up or the water is wide.

Here are my questions:

1) Why did you choose your current horse sport or discipline?
Compromise; I wanted to focus on dressage after one too many falls on my head, and it turns out Tristan really likes to jump and run cross country, so we event.

2) What is your horse-related Big Goal, if any?
I'd like a small farm some day. My dream is to be able to retire Tristan to my own land.

3) Pick a horse-related thing about which you have changed your mind. Why?
Rope halters. When I first started Tristan, I liked them a lot and while I never bought one I always had plans to, and I would do ground work with him in them. Now I haaaaaaate them. It makes me twitch to see people tie with them, especially, because if a horse pulls back against them it's awful. All those pressure points!

4) Favorite apocalypse?
The EMP kind - where all technology is obliterated at once. Probably not a coincidence that that's the one I think I'd best be able to survive, what with all my living history/agricultural experience.

5) Horses and riding as social outlet: pro, con, or it's complicated?
Complicated. Some of my best friends and my favorite people have come from barns, but my real reason for going to the barn is to see my horse. He's my motivation, not a social scene - which is good, because right now 90% of the time I'm at the barn I'm alone!

6) What's the oldest piece of tack you own?
I have this beautiful, wonderful dressage saddle from the 1940s. It was a gift from a friend who has since passed on, and she rode in it on her horses when she was my age. It's caramel-colored and flat as a pancake. I'm fairly certain the tree is broken and in any case it would need a lot of work to be usable again, but I love to look at it.

7) Is the glass half-empty or half-full, with what?
Half-full, but it could turn half-empty in the blink of an eye, so you should be ready at any time! I am a prepping, have fifteen plans maniac. I drink almost exclusively water, so we'll go with that as the liquid.

8) Time to colonize some other planet! It's a one-way trip. Do you go?

Not unless I can take Tristan with me. I might've gone to grad school in England except Tris couldn't have come. If he can come with, I'd probably do it.

9) What's the best horse-related time- and/or labor-saving trick you know?

I dunk my bit in Tristan's water bucket after every ride, and keep a towel tied to the front door of his stall to wipe it off. It takes 2 seconds and it works like a charm. There's very little horse-related that squicks me out faster than a bit with dried foam and bits of hay stuck to it.

10) Recommend me a poem.
Margaret Atwood, The Loneliness of the Military Historian, which strikes rather near to home, as you can imagine.
Excerpt:
My trade is courage and atrocities.
I look at them and do not condemn.
I write things down the way they happened,
as near as can be remembered.
I don’t ask why, because it is mostly the same.
Wars happen because the ones who start them
think they can win.

11) What's on your keychain?
Half-lanyard, flashlight, keys to my vehicles and home(s), a bottle opener (though I don't drink so I'm not sure why), the key to my tack trunk that I have literally NEVER locked, and the key to my great-great-uncle's dump truck, because we found it when we were cleaning out his house and I think it's awesome.

So, um...I'm not sure I can fill out 11 blogs with less than 200 followers because I'm still kind of new to reading horse blogs regularly. So how about I write 11 questions and if they strike your fancy, steal them and answer them. That work?

1. How old were you when you started riding?
2. Favorite season, and why?
3. Most memorable moment on horseback?
4. Do you have an affinity for a particular breed of horse? Why?
5. Favorite cheesy horse movie? (Feel free to pick a non-cheesy movie, but I'm not sure there are any.)
6. What living rider would you most like to emulate in style?
7. What's the furthest you can imagine yourself going in your chosen sport? IE, how high do you want to jump, or how big or often do you want to show?
8. What's one country you've always wanted to visit but haven't yet?
9. Marvel or DC?
10. What's your guilty pleasure meal, ie the one you eat totally for comfort after a long day?
11. Have you ever played an instrument?