Comedy of Errors

So. Yesterday did not go according to plan. #storyofmylife, am I right? But that's okay. It was still productive, and I still have something to write about, so I guess you win some, you lose some! In the category of winning some, yesterday a long-awaited package arrived.

Prepare yourself. GIFs are coming.

My very own Pixio. A good friend was selling hers and I couldn't resist the chance to snag it. I've been lusting over one forEVER. Especially after getting to mess with Jen's when I photographed her in the KPG clinic. So anyway, I digress. It arrived last night, and clearly the only thing I had planned for the evening was to set it up and ride with it!

This is where it spent most of the evening.

Which, spoiler alert, didn't happen. I did set it up, and I did ride, but no media. *sobbing* my friend shipped it all to me in a super cute backpack with everything carefully tucked into it's place. I promptly dragged everything out, and started trying to put it together..... yeah. I maybe should have printed out Pixio's handy little user manual and done some reading. That might have alleviated some of my problems. But I was WAY TOO EXCITED and just dove right in. After spending 30+ minutes trying to attach both the Pixio and the camera to the tripod, I finally gave up in defeat and texted my friend. Turns out I was trying to use a base that wasn't intended for the video camera, she had just thrown it in there as a freebie (which explained why I could not for the LOVE OF GOD get it to fit haha). Then I realized I didn't have the necessary micro sd card. All the memory cards for my camera were too big. Whoops? That meant another half an hour frantically googling and playing with settings until I figured out how to set it up to record to the internal memory. So finally I thought we were ready to roll, so I grabbed Cinna and tacked her up.

Isn't this backpack for real the cutest? All the chargers and everything are tucked into it, so all I have to do is pull out a plug and find an outlet, and everything can charge neatly!

My excitement was apparently a bit too palpable, and she fed off that and lost her marbles. When I was bridling her, she barged over me and took off, sans bridle. Thankfully, DH was in the arena and she made a beeline for him, so I was able to contain her. Then we spent 10 minutes trying to CATCH her, which she thought was the most fun game imaginable. I was.... less amused.

Whoa there wild steed. I'm not sure you can see it well in this photo, but I had put a bonnet on her -- it didn't budge an inch in the shenanigans. Props to ITBF!

Clearly things were off to a SUPER GREAT START. Arghhhhh. So we caught her, I finished tacking up, then I walked around the arena placing my beacons. No sweat, I got this. I pulled up Jen's handy "how to set up the Pixio" post, and worked my way down the checklist. It took me a minute to get the tripod and camera adjusted and zoomed in on the necessary beacon, but finally I got everything squared away. Cinna was already tacked and waiting, so I pressed the power button on the Pixio. *crickets* I pressed it again. Still nothing. The battery was dead. Ughhhhhhhhhhh. So I plugged it in, and went out to ride Cinna, so the evening wouldn't be a total waste.

Handy little tripod legs wrapping around the fence!

We ended up having a nice ride, once we both calmed down and took a few deep breaths. I didn't ride super long (mostly because I was hoping I could still play with the Pixio haha) but we had the nicest canter transition on her to date -- tracking right I just thought canter, and she did! We also worked on some circles and changes of direction where I just hooked my fingers through my grab strap and focused on my body, and let her do whatever she wanted (within reason) with her head and neck. I was a bit shocked at how well it went, especially since I left the arena gate open (DH had gone inside and I thought he was coming back, but he didn't). She never once made a dive out the open gate, and was very easy to direct with my body, even with my hands in a stationary position. Is she getting a little trained? Funny how that works ;)

Working nicely even with the gate open.

After I had her cooled out and untacked, DH was starving to death, so I had to take a break go to make dinner. I plotted the whole time about how I was going to make him come back outside with me after dinner, and I was going to toss him up on Trigger as a test dummy while I continued to play with the settings. We pulled the horses in for the night and I went to check the charge on the Pixio base -- and by then it was charged, but the tracker (for me to wear) was not. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I admitted defeat. Pixio video was just not meant to be last night. But I plugged every conceivable piece of equipment in to charge last night, so we should be good to go today!