It’s T-minus two weeks to Gladstone, and I am a big ball of stress.

I’m pretty predictable: Once I’m on the grounds, I’m cool as a cucumber. But until then, I’m not sleeping well, I’m unfocused, I’m eating anything that will hold still long enough. I’m a red-hot mess.

With a “normal” show this ridiculous period of psychosis only lasts a day, tops, if not a mere few hours. But Gladstone is A Big Deal, and accordingly, I’m fried well in advance.

Thank goodness for my distractions. I’m back to running, and while I’m not yet at the distance I was at pre-back-tweak, I’m able to do some distance walking instead. The hot weather has broken a little, which means I can ride outside more, always good for my head.

Best of all, I have amazing friends like Liz Austin and Eliza Sydnor to talk me down and buck me up. You are incredible horsemen and people. I love you guys!

I’m also waylaid from total mental breakdown by one last show before Jersey: the EEMI Summer Fling at Morven Park this weekend. Midge and Fender are staying home, but my mom is bringing her wonderful Indy as a non-compete, working student Liz is making her second level debut, Ella is going to do some I2s, and little Tres, the world’s cutest Spanish stallion, is making his domestic Prix St. Georges debut.

Packing this morning was entertaining. I have a swell four-horse head-to-head trailer, but it’s a rare thing that I’m ever taking four horses anywhere, so I rarely have a reason to use the hayrack installed on the trailer roof. Said rack was thrown in as an incentive for us to buy the trailer, and was, naturally, installed upside down, which no one noticed until the trailer was delivered to me in New Hampshire, 1000 miles away from the dealership. Grand. It works fine as long as we secure the hay.

Enter the ratchet strap.

Ratchet straps are not complicated. Insert strap into buckle and crank until tight. Easy, right? I have a college degree. Working student Nicole has a college degree.

And we are foiled by the ratchet strap.

Twenty minutes later we got them attached, somehow, though I’m quite confident we’ll have to remove them with scissors and a crowbar. So much for that college thing.

Packing aside, the show will be fun. Tres and I will be lacking in a few areas—the heat wave has made it impossible to train the way I’ve wanted to, so he’s a little behind the curve—but there will be some real highlights, and most importantly, we’ll look darn cute.

Ella will be what she’ll be. This heat has been hard on her, and she just feels blah. I can pick up a whip to help motivate her in the piaffe and passage a little, but I don’t want to do that, because I get dependent on them, and at Gladstone we have to do without. The I2 is a nice straightforward test, so hopefully we’ll have nice straightforward rides.

And if we do, maybe they’ll let me get a few nights’ sleep without dreams of going down centerline in Jersey without any pants.

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