Lost In Space
Have I mentioned that I have absolutely no sense of direction? I’m not exactly sure who to blame between my mother and father for this apparent failure.
While I am fairly confident that I inherited this trait from one or both of them, it may just be my own personal weakness. But I don’t think so. I remember, as a child, my father refusing t o pull over to the service station dispite the pleading of my mother and the rest of us kids, all of whom had no clue of where we were at the time, though we had the maps and directions in front of us.
It was actually because of my problem with direction, especially when going faster than a walk, that led Peggy Whitehurst, the Regional Supervisor of the U.S. Pony Club South Region, to take me aside one day and mention that I might want to consider specializing in Dressage.
This proposal came at the end of a National Rally in which I won, as usual, the Dressage, finally went clean cross-country and in stadium jumping, but incurred 120 time faults when I somehow left the very well marked path for “rodes and tracks” and went off into the woods on a litle “trail ride of my own”.
OK, the truth is that I mistook one of those little red ribbons surveyors hang on tree branches to delineate property lines with the red markers showing where the trail for the horses to take is. I guess the fact that there was no white flag across from this red one escaped me.
Now, I also have to admit that the above situation was most definitely not my first (or even my 20th) incident
with getting lost. There is some amazing footage taken years ago by the great Anne Rieley, who was like a 2nd mother to me at the time, coming up a hillside trail out of the woods and into a clearing. I was riding my crazy Anglo-Arab with a long flaxen many and flagging tail. As I come into focus in the field, the expression on both my and my horse’s face is clear desperation
We lurch and vere left and then right. Then left again and right once more, before galloping wildly of toward the west.
Several more riders come confidently up the hill into the same clearing and Anne shows them quietly picking up a canter and riding off to the east, after which I come flying back into view, all 4 eyes from horse and rider now with the obvious look of terror. We prance right and left a few times at the opening where the trail hit the field and then, reminiscient of Zoro, gallop of to the east.
The saddest but also most funny part of this story is that a couple more riders trot out into the clearing and move off to the east before, back comes Robert Dover at a flat out gallop to the same spot to once again prance around before racing off to the west!
As I recall, I actually did finish the cross-country on the same day as everyone else, but with a few hundred time penalties.
Peggy was showing me a kindness by saying that I should stay within the confines of the Dressage arena where I would have a harder time getting lost and could always resort to looking at the letters. In the end it definitely worked out for the best, and all my friends know that whenever we are driving somewhere together and I say to turn right, turning left will most assuredly get us where we are supposed to go!
Cheers!
RD
Savannah Brentnall — August 21, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
LOL. OK, you HAVE to post a video clip of you going back and forth across the clearing!
RDover2 — August 21, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
I think I probably paid somebody off many years ago to get rid of the evidence!
RD
Chrissy — August 21, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
Thanks for a good chuckle on a Friday afternoon! I, like Savannah, would LOVE to see that video clip!
Jane Savoie — August 21, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
LOL. Reminds of the times we spent driving in Europe with you behind the wheel. Belgium and Holland are small countries, but I think we went in so many circles that they felt as large as the US!!
Obviously your sense of direction did NOT improve with age!!!
Rebecca Pennington — August 22, 2009 @ 7:32 am
Note to self: Never get in a car with RD behind the wheel if we actually need to get someplace in time….
Beth Collier — August 22, 2009 @ 9:27 am
Horse Trials mostly have discontinued the roads and tracks part, but riders STILL get lost on cross-country! My favorite is when someone does a HUGE upper level jump way above their own level. They do it easily and just keep going! That shows great confidence between horse and rider.
dlh — August 22, 2009 @ 10:00 am
Love that story RD!!
RDover2 — August 22, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
OK, you will just not believe it, but I got up this morning and my TomTom’s battery was dead and I didn’t have a charger.
I went to the front desk and asked them to print out Mapquest directions to the stables, 15 minutes away, where my symposium was being held.
Off I went following the directions which brought me to a circle which I went around, stayed on the road which was written down on the instructions, and ended up right back at my hotel!
Well, after 3 tries with the same results, I called my host and told him he’d have to come find me at the Staples where I was parked. He came five minutes later and I followed him on a path which had nothing to do with the directions I was holding, but we arrived 5 minutes later at the barn.
They got my TomTom working again for my trip home and it was so simple and only 7 minutes back to the hotel with only 2 turns!
Some things never change!
RD
Jane Savoie — August 23, 2009 @ 6:55 am
LOL! Yes, it’s comforting to know that some things never change!
And, yes Rebecca, don’t EVER get into a car with Robert behind the wheel if you want to end up at your destination before next Tuesday.
J
xo
Beth Collier — August 23, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Dressage riders are usually also not very competent with golf carts either.
Ellie B. — August 24, 2009 @ 10:04 am
This is pretty timely for me, I have no sense of direction and I just went off course for the first time in a dressage test this weekend. I even talked through my test with a friend as I was taking up. But I had done Training Level Test 4 in the morning, and I had to do Test 3 in the afternoon. I had a reader, but I’m so used to the tests going in the correct order, and I was really working on impulsion and bend in turn, that when I looked ahead to plan my turn from E to X, I saw B. The judge was very nice about it, but I felt bad. It must be disappointing to them when someone can’t remember a simple pattern.
Jean Dover — August 25, 2009 @ 7:06 pm
Dear Friends,
I must admit Robert got his sense of direction from me. I am left handed and always tend to turn left. My best girlfriend says never give me directions especially in the car. I will say, “You better go left here,” and of course that is totally the wrong way. One day we came out of a show & I said we need to go left to the car. She walked in front of me, faced me and said in a very stern voice. “NO” “Do not tell me which way to get to where the car is parked.” She was,of course,right.
Robert leased a beautiful Lexus for me some years ago. It came with a mirror that had N,S,E,& W on it plain to see, right? I came out of a parking lot and turned right. I looked up at the mirror and thought to myself, It must be broken, it says I am going North. After a few more blocks I suddenly realized I was going North and needed to turn around and head South to get home.
I could go on and on but, you get the idea.
Robert’s Dad is much better then I am, but once when we were all at a horse show in California no matter how we started for the show, no matter how many times we were given directions, we always ended up at Bullocks (?) Department store! Robert Ross had to come and rescue us. Thank goodness we could laugh about it then, and now.
Happy memories to all,
Roberts Mom
Sandra McGuire — August 26, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
1) Sat Nav is a beautiful thing.
2) Those who design traffic circles should be forced to drive them.
3) Judges get lost too. During my first test, the whistle sounded. The judge wondered what I was doing. She reviewed the movements and the test sheet, and said “I’m sorry, I missed a movement and got lost”. I got my heart out of my throat and asked where she’d like me to pick up.
4) How do you mount a GPS unit on a horse?
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