DTW- it's mostly a good airport

Initially, I was concerned about using Detroit as a connection. For one, the city might as well be Nagasaki, but with bad chi instead of nuclear radiation. They do the same amount of damage to the surrounding area though. Second, this was the famed "Flight of the Underwear Bomber". In case you live under a rock, here's the photo evidence:

The man apparently stashed some kind of explosives in his, erm, testicular region (I am keeping my promise on the penis-free blog!) and then failed to detonate them properly, instead setting himself on fire in that area. He was apprehended and taken care of, but the aftermath meant I was traveling with a very very nervous father. Security in the Amsterdam airport isn't like what you normally deal with here. Each individual gate has its own agents, xray machine, and sniffer room thing. I thought it would just be an improved version of a normal procedure. Until I recieved, hands down, the most invasive frisking ever. Seriously, it was more action than I have gotten in a good long while. I know I'm, erm, well endowed, but I am not hiding bombs in there. Also, I was wearing leggings-type pants. Grabbing my butt cheeks/lady bits is unnecessary, a visual inspection, I believe is more than adequate. However, I am not in control of security procedures, and I was in Amsterdam, so I let the creepy Asian with the soul patch do his thing without protest. I didn't like it but I bet no one else sneaks anything on in their underwear, so, that's how it goes.

Now, back to Detroit. According to their airport website, the buildings that I am in are the McNamara terminal, which are all new as of 2002. It's really a pretty, bright airport. Concourse A is the second longest airport in the world, with a one mile long hallway. There is a train that moves up and down it, but instead of being underground, they installed it way overhead, so you can see it buzzing up and down. It's definitely neat to watch. The most interesting part about the airport, however, is the acid trip that is the tunnel. Here's the wikipedia entry reference to it:

The "B" and "C" concourses are connected to the main terminal building and the "A" Concourse by a pedestrian walkway under the tarmac. This walkway, known as the Light Tunnel, features an elaborate multi-colored light show behind sculpted glass panels extending the entire length of the walkway, as well several moving walkways. The light patterns are synchronized with an original musical score. This installation, one of the first, large scale uses of color changing LED lighting in the States, was produced by Mills James Productions and has won multiple lighting design awards including the prestigious Guth Award of Merit.

Well, and here is my version:

The flights themselves were actually really pleasant. Going over, I slept most of the way, and coming back I enjoyed the personal entertainment screen and a copy of Shutter Island. Some random comments from that aspect:

• If you have read the book Shutter Island, please take a moment to inform me WTF is going on in the last 50 pages. Thanks. I liked it a lot until that point and then I was lost.
• If you choose to watch the movie, "The Men Who Stare at Goats", it probably makes a lot more sense if you don't take a nap in the middle. I woke up to an army base that had LSD released into the water supply and everyone was going insane. It was a really confusing time for me.
• Top Gun. One of the best movies ever. That's really all I have to say about that.
• I also got in a bit of Inglorious Basterds (sic), and wasn't all that impressed. I have really bad taste in movies for the most part I think though. I rarely like a movie that wins any kind of award.

Traveling With a Saddle

So, for my shortest topic, it can be done! You can, in fact, carry a saddle on board of a plane. I have even managed to fit it into the overhead of a "regional jet"- puddle jumper. Here are some things to expect:

• People will look at you as though you are some kind of freak carrying something dangerous. I don't know why, nor can I understand why no one asked me about it, but it's apparently very, VERY suspicious.
• Security, surprisingly, will not care like you think they will. I even have cheese grater pads on my stirrups, which I think could be some kind of weapon. No problemo, send 'er on through.
• On the note of stirrups: I have the black Italian carbon ones. If you have metal ones, CHECK THEM. You do not want to carry them around, and I have heard that they can be taken, since you could swing it at someone and smush their head like a hardboiled egg. The latter part being my interpretation, not the TSA.
• Even if you want to risk the security with the stirrups, you absolutely don't want to carry them around. That saddle gets heavy real quick when you are on an endlessly long moving walkway.
• It's not as good of an idea to perch the saddle on the handle of a rolling bag as you would think. The double bar configuration means it will start slipping on the aforementioned moving walkways, then you will have to stop and right it. This will inevitably happen just as the one pissed off New Yorker who is late for his connection is trying to perform the airport walkway version of a Talladega bump draft. Carry it if you can. Much less irritating. However, I suspect that if I had given that plan more thought and secured it around the handle, in a burrito fashion, with some kind of strap, it would have worked out better.
• You probably aren't as crazy as I am, so disregard that above if necessary. That's really only going to come into play if you're trying to bring three carry ons. Which, also, no one seems to care about. Go figure.

This concludes my helpful tutorial on how to carry on a saddle. More travel-related rantings to follow.

So the first day over here, not surprisingly, got significantly better once the horses were factored into the picture! First, once we found some gas station food, we headed to the first barn of the day. I saw about seven or eight horses there, none of which really struck me for a hunter, though I loved one as a jumper. Three year old stallion by Unaniem, huge personality. Anyways, the last one is a gorgeous gray who someone else has first dibs on, so all I did was watch him loose in the ring, but he was a cute mover and just was running around and having so much fun. What got me mostly was that he kept jumping the fence that was set up in the ring just because he loved it. He'd veer across the ring and jump it off a 2 stride approach, or go all the way on the rail, and he was always dead on with how he judged himself. So cute.

After that, we drove 2 hours to the eastern part of the country, near the German border. I tried one other horse, whose videos I really liked. He's really fancy, but tends to lock his jaw on the left. I'm not sure if it's a baby thing, or of he needs his teeth done, or a training issue, but it is a concern. He wanted to be good once he figured it out though, and we got some really good fences in. I have a video of yours truly riding him around that should be ready sometime before the next ice age at this rate. Until then, I'm fighting off the jet lag...

I'm sitting in the hotel now, getting ready to go see the one horse. Here are some of my writings from earlier, when I didn't have internet access. More updates to follow.

Currently, my altitude is 8754 meters and we are beginning our descent into the Amsterdam airport, which is 174 km away. I have spent the flight sleeping, watching New Moon in an effort to be culturally literate, and filling out the most beautiful notebook ever. I have all the contact information for dealers, hotels, confirmation numbers, and then pages upon pages of forms. One per horse, and I have fields so that I can not forget to write anything down. The saddle made it through the trip without the horrifying concept of the gate check being exercised, it folded right up into a burrito and fit even in the overhead of the regional jet. Time to turn off approved portable devices!!!

8 AM- We have arrived in the town of Ijesslstein. I wish we had not. The town feels like...hmm, how can I describe it? If Nazi Germany had a zombie apocalypse. There is not one open coffee shop, restauraunt, anything, just lots of school children on bikes moving in packs. None of them seem able to describe where to find some food, or speak english well, which left me feeling like a hobo, shivering on main street and yelling “Food? Food?” at passers by. Dad and I have since completely given up on the concept of a quaint bakery for breakfast and are sitting in the car enjoying the heat, possibly going to grab some munchies at a gas station, and kill some time until 9 when I am going to look at the first batch of horses.

"This is where gnomes come from. I just saw one driving a van" -WW

Adjusting to euro time

I spent a good portion of the night sleeping, but at this point all I'm getting is "kid before christmas" sleep- dozing off and then snapping awake, "is it time yet?!" That's probably for the better since my passport comes in the mail this morning and I need to be able to sign for it. Traveling outfit is still up in the air, but there seems to be no escape from the black pants and brown bag. I can not for the life of me get a flight tracker widget to embed in here properly, so my flights are 6118 from Norfolk to Detroit, and 252 from Detroit to Amsterdam.

I leave tomorrow! For real this time! After a lovely final night in the states involving a mechanical bull, I think I am ready to do this. By some miracle, I was able to fit into a 21" carryon bag:

• 3 pairs breeches
• 1 pair tall boots
• 1 GPA speed air helmet
• 1 North Face down jacket
• 1 raincoat
• 2 cashmere sweaters
• 1 fleece pullover
• 1 wrap dress
• 1 pair jeans
• 1 dressy top to go with jeans
• and of course underwear, socks, medicine, and toiletries to go around.I mean really people! It can be done! I am the opposite of the light traveler, and just my first try I might have been converted. I think the key is keeping the number of pairs of shoes down.

Equine Stomach Ulcers, Diagnosis Continued

So, I lied. Well, I didn't lie, I was just incorrect in my outline. I was supposed to talk about whether or not to scope in the last post and then I forgot. Apologies. There are two ways that you can diagnose ulcers clinically. First, you can have the horse "scoped", which is a procedure in which the vet runs a 3 meter long endoscope through the nose, and then into the stomach, and examines the lining of the stomach. Second, you can treat the horse for ulcers for a short amount of time, and if you note improvement in the behavior, then assume there are ulcers and continue treatment.

Personally, I think the scope is a valuable tool, in certain circumstances. If the horse is colicing on a regular basis and waiting it out isn't wise, if the behavior is genuinely dangerous, or if there is another situation where you absolutely need to know. Also, if your horse is insured and you plan to file a claim, and thus money is somewhat less of a concern, it's great to be able to re-scope after treatment so that you can see if they have been cleared up or not. (Note: if you do choose to file a claim, remember that the insurance company will then put an exclusion on the stomach, so colic surgery will not be covered until you can get the exclusion off the policy) If the horse's health is at stake, if YOUR health is at stake, if you just really need to know, the scope is the way to go. However, if you are considering that your horse has ulcers because of behavioral issues that are more minor, you might consider treating the horse for a few days to see if there is a response. I have found that within 3 days of full-dose gastrogard, I can see a significant improvement, but some horses take longer. Of course, you can take the combination approach and treat the horse for a few days, and then decide based on the improvement or lack thereof if you want to scope.

If you do choose to scope, the procedure is as follows: the horse will have to fast prior to the procedure, generally about 12 hours, but different vets like different amounts of time. Be sure to follow your vet's recommendation on this. You can either sweep all the shavings out of the stall or leave the bedding in and put a muzzle on. I favor the muzzle approach not only because it means less sweeping and shoveling for me, but also because after that amount of time with food, most horses are grumpy and the muzzle means they can't bite. I have the bucket-style muzzle, I think most of them will work. You will also have to withold water from the horse starting 4 hours prior to the scope. The fasting, I think, is the major downside to doing this- having an empty stomach is very stressful to the horse and will exacerbate any ulcers that are there. There's certainly that trade off to consider.