Rally Report! (Plus extra training thoughts)

Well, I have a little less than a month to go before the Mega-Rating where I'll take my C-1. It shouldn't be too terribly challenging, but it's more of a challenge than my D-3. The real question will come if I decide to take my C-2 next spring, because the level of riding and knowledge expected for it is more than what I have right now. But, you know me, I love a good challenge.

I really had to DRAG myself out to the barn yesterday. I was very tired from the rally. But, I did it, and I had a great ride. Pandora was on her best behavior and we rode in the outdoor - it was the absolute PERFECT temperature for riding, and there was a beautiful sunset too.

With all the hard work we've put in, Pandora has become much more responsive to lateral work. We still are just not getting that left bend at the trot - she tilts her face to the outside and leans in over her inside shoulder while swinging her haunches out. I have also noticed that in halt and reinback, she tends to blow her haunches out through my right leg/rein. So it's all symptoms of the same problem, and I just need to figure out what the problem is. Strength in her hind end, I'm guessing - the right leg since it's the one she ignores, or the left leg since that's the one she swings out to unload? Don't know.
Either way, the more lateral strengthening work we do, the better it will get, I'm sure. In fact, I think general strengthening will be a big help. I'm hoping to make it over to Elijah Bristow, a state park with horse trails about 10 minutes from our barn, to do some riding and conditioning. Event horses need to go over terrain, after all, and there's nothing for building strength like riding over hill and dale.

On the plus side, she can hold the correct bend at the walk. So we do a lot of walk-trot transitions on the 20-m circle, trying to hold her in the bend as I transition up. I can actually feel her lean into my inside leg as she makes the upward transition. It gets worse as she gets tired, but I'm thinking that maybe if I do this, I will be able to hold her in the correct bend for a few strides, so both of us can at least understand what it feels like to do it right.

She gets excited about the canter transitions too. But, I got some good ones. I am trying everything I can think of to keep her engaged and working hard off her hind end, like a 20-m circle with transitions from trot-canter-trot-canter-trot-walk-canter-trot-canter-walk...etc. It gets her a little riled up, but she carries herself better. Walk-canters are hard, but Brian had us doing them at the clinic I went to last weekend, and it really helped my half-halts and Pandora carrying herself. I struggle with that, because we're not near good enough to do proper dressage walk-canters, but even our attempts are helping with strength and carrying...chicken-and-egg, I suppose.

Anyway, lots to work on. There's a nearby dressage trainer I want to try taking lessons with. A friend's ridden with her before. If all goes well, I'm hoping to take a lesson every other week for several months throughout fall and winter, if I can swing it. We are just at the point in dressage where I don't know what to do next, as I've mentioned several times before.

Then, I was thinking about maybe trailering to Inavale for stadium and XC lessons with Brooke as we move from winter to spring, because I could certainly use some of those, and I click really well with Brooke no matter which horse I'm riding. Brooke is $40/hour for a private lesson, and the dressage lady is $35 for a private lesson (don't know how long it is). I think I can do it, it's only an extra $70-80 per month if I don't overlap too much with the two kinds of lessons.


I'm funny about lessons. I take a bunch and learn a lot, but if I go on too long, I develop this overpowering need to go home and work on things on my own. I need time to take what I've learned and digest it by myself, working through the exercises and awareness that I've taken away. I did that for most of the summer - I took a LOT of lessons early summer and then I really needed to go home and figure some things out for myself. It's been good for me, because focusing so hard on how to fix this left bend has made me incredibly more aware of what Pandora does with her body and why.
But, now I'm at the stage where I want and need another round of lessons. I'm at the limits of my experience, so I need a pair of educated eyes to help take us to the next level. I think with some quality, one-on-one instruction this year (I've found consistent, individual lessons seem to help much more than group lessons with rotating instructors, at least for what I want right now), I should be able to easily meet my goal of competing Novice next year and maybe taking my C-2.


ANYWAY.


The rally was wonderful. We got 8th place riding-wise (an E for one of our riders on XC really hurt us, plus a few stops and time penalties here and there), but we got 3rd place in Horse Management! I was extremely proud of our team because that's certainly the best we've done since I've been a member. I told everyone on the team that I wanted to do really well in HM, and they all got psyched about it - everyone chipped in to help keep our tack room clean and organized, stalls picked, etc. As the weekend went on I think we all got tired and let some things slip, which may have cost us a higher placing, but oh well!
It was my first time as Stable Manager, so now I know a lot more. I learned that it's easy to drop a lot of needless points on safety checks, as they will dock a point for a not-quite-tight-enough girth, a crooked noseband, a strap not through its keeper, and the like.

Still, I had a great time. The facility was gorgeous - it is the same place where the Mega Ratings are held. She has 78 acres there, wow. Lots if it is in a big open field with BN through T sized fences, and I really hope we get to go in THAT field for the rating next month instead of the little field we did the rating in last time!

I was glad I wasn't riding, because it was much easier to take care of all the riders than to deal with my own horse and equipment, but I admit I was itching to get out there on XC. There were some Training-level fences that looked like a blast to jump, including a section of trunk on a huge fallen tree. Next year, maybe!

Okay, enough for the day. I am writing the clinic report (probably even as you read this!) and it'll be posted tomorrow.

A Fine and Pleasant Misery*: Part II

Here's a continuation of the Event Derby story. Sorry it's taken me so long, finals and packing and working has sucked up my time. The good news is, I'm OFFICIALLY done with my first year of college. Yeehaw!

I haven't ridden much lately for pretty much the same reasons I haven't been posting. Pandora has been acting on-edge a lot - not as bad as when she was in raging heat, but I free-longed her last night to blow off some steam and she was just going for it. Fingers crossed she settles down for Lily Glen.

Anyway, without further ado:

---

Ah, morning. A quarter to 8, to be precise. Birds chirping, horses nickering, grass waiting wetly outside to be tromped through. Which I do, promptly, to feed and water my horse, who has managed to drain two hay bags and two buckets of water overnight. Sigh.

It is satisfying when she nickers at the sight of me, though. I choose to ignore the fact that she nickered only the second time I approached, which was when I brought her hay.

I head out to the barn, correctly suspecting that our instructor won't quite be ready for the guided course walk at 8AM sharp. My pants are wet wet wet by the time I even get down to the barn, so I know the course walk is going to be hopeless. Thankfully I borrowed my mom's very waterproof boots, so my socks at least are dry. But everything else is, as usual, wet.

Our instructor is perky. This is because she has a cup of coffee in her hand, and also waterproof boots that are tall enough to keep her legs dry. The course walk, despite its sogginess, actually goes well. The course looks nice, though there are some rather tight turns for Beginner Novice. Then again, this is a hybrid between SJ and XC, so I suppose I should be glad there aren't any SJ-tight turns.

The course looks like this: the first three fences are a serpentine, two stadium fences and one rolltop. Then a right turn to a double stadium, hang a right to a fake trakehner (it was a little stadium vertical set down inside a shallow ditch), then up a longish hill to a little barn. Over the barn, pretty tight left-hand turn and down the hill to hop over a little ditch. Then an almost 90-degree left turn and a few strides to a little table with a pretty straight line to another bigger table. Loop awkwardly way left and then tight right to go through the water complex, then turn around the judge's mound for a turquoise stadium fence and another tight left to jump the Fence-3 rolltop in the other direction for the final fence.

It looks like a nice mix of fences, and I'll actually have some room in places to let Pandora move out a little. Some of the turns suck, but most of it should ride nicely.

My only concern is the footing. I'm not sure if you picked up on this, but everything out there is pretty darn soggy. Before my division goes, the turf has to withstand divisions of Prelim, Training, and Novice, most of them with studs. I can't stud because Pandora's not shod on hind, and you don't want to have more traction in front than in back. Barefoot should be okay, I just don't want her to slip and get anxious in the mud.

Anyway.

I make the long slow return to the tent and again change into breeches and half chaps to save my poor wet legs. Isn't it summer yet? Thankfully, breakfast is equally good as dinner: leftover pork chop in scrambled eggs. Yummmm. Delicious.

Then we need to scurry, because Prelim XC is from 10 - 10:15 and we want to see the big jumps! As expected, it's exciting and fun to watch. There are only three of them, and one accidentally jumps the (bigger) Intermediate trakehner instead of the Prelim one. The big E for her after she jumps her next fence, but cool to see.

So we head back, take care of some chores, check on the horse, and the like. My dressage ride time is at 1:12 and now, at last, I get to take a nap. Once again the sleeping bag is very comfortingly dry.

I wake up to the most welcome voices I have ever heard. My father has arrived in his shining white armor - okay, maybe more like a white t-shirt - with, praise the lords of Eventing, dry sweatpants and my rubber boots. And food, more food. I am thrilled beyond words. I am now warm, dry, and immune from the ever-present tall wet grass. My day has suddenly become several orders of magnitude better.

Just in time for me to tack up, of course, but it's the peace of mind that counts.

Pandora dislikes being tied to the trailer away from all other horses. She commences dancing around like an idiot, eyes wide and rolling, ears flicking all over the place, ignoring her hay bag. I get that familiar feeling that sits somewhere in the belly and goes "Oh, well, this ride is going to be fun." I tack up anyway, of course. After taking a moment to admire the vast expanse of white that is my brand-new dressage saddle pad, I mount up and head off to the [soggy, squishy, grass] warm-up area.

Happily, Pandora mellows out once I'm in the saddle. (Highly preferable to the opposite situation.) Our warm-up is, one might venture to say, nice. She relaxes and stretches into my hands. We have bend, we have transitions, we have obedience even in the slippery grass. How exciting.

Naturally, this all goes out the window once we get to the actual dressage court. Our test is tense. The 20-meter circle at A has been thoroughly pounded by all previous divisions and is not squishy but hard mud and therefore very slick. Pandora, who is paying more attention to the judge and letters than me or where she's putting her feet, has several minor slips until she's so nervous about the footing that her canter is short-strided and incredibly tense. We survive the test without any major mishaps and exit.

Oh well. At least the warm-up was good.

I never check my dressage score, but if I had, it would have been a 46.2 and we are in 6th place out of 9 or 10.

So we put the horse away, settle down for some food, etc. It has now progressed past cold and wet, through warm and wet, and everything is growing decidedly drier. It's a pleasant idea.

Anyway, I trudge out to the course like a good little Pony Clubber to walk the course one more time. Much to my surprise, it's dried out. A lot. Still a little questionable in places, but for the most part, it reasonably resembles solid ground. This is a good thing and it makes me a lot more comfortable about my impending round.

So I go get tacked up and hack out to the course.

(This was actually taken on the way BACK from the course, but oh well)

Now, Pandora likes short jumping warm-ups. As in, walk around for three or four minutes, trot for a minute, canter a bit, jump three or four jumps, and go in. Grand total 10 minutes or so. Therefore, I check in as soon as I'm in the warm-up area.

Obviously this would be a good time for someone to fall off and hold the course for 40 minutes.

She was okay, or I wouldn't complain. But still. I end up hopping off, because Pandora hates being sat on for that long and I hate sitting on her for that long. I mount up with a few minutes to go, walk a lap, pick up a canter, jump an oxer, make a neat tight turn around to a vertical, and call it good.

We head out to the course.

She wavers before the first fence, a big red and white vertical with a lot of stuff going on near it (water complexes, big hill with permanent fences, judge's area, spectators). I growl just a little and we get over nicely. Left turn to the second stadium vertical which rides really nicely. We loop around to our first XC fence, a tiny rolltop, which rides well.

I pick too much to the purple stadium combination so it's a bit ugly, but we get through okay. I give her a strong ride to the fake trakehner, convinced she's going to want to put her nose down in that ditch, but to my surprise it rides super smoothly. A bit more aggressive on the uphill, push the speed a little, then over a barn and a tight left turn to go downhill. She slipped a little on that turn, the only place on course - probably my fault for turning too tight, but she let it go quickly. Back to a trot down the hill - my downhill horse, who wants to stick her nose in every ditch and pull me onto her neck, is probably not the best horse to canter downhill to a ditch - and over the little ditch with no problems.

Then a tight turn to the line of tables, which she nails with no problem. Awkward long loop to the water complex, and after a bit of drop-the-outside-shoulder-skitter-sideways, we plunge through. Around left past the judge again and over a turquoise vertical, which was super ugly because we just got a weird distance and I stopped riding, then a tight left turn to the first rolltop again. That one rode super nicely.

And we're done, clear, and according to my father the announcer called it 2:30, which was one second under optimum time. Go us!

Everyone packs up, heads out, and we load everything up. I decide to head over to check on my score. And, to make a long story short, they'd given me 7 time penalties which I knew was incorrect. After yet another trek to the XC course, all is straightened out, my time penalties are removed to make me one of two clear rounds, and in the end I move up 5 places to take 2nd place.

Victory (or close to it) is so sweet.

*Again, I shamelessly stole this post title from a book by Patrick McManus of the same name. He is an outdoorsman and hilarious. I don't hunt or fish or much of anything, but I am still in awe of his humor. Horse camping, much like hunting and fishing and regular camping, is indeed a fine and pleasant misery.

Combined Test

Phew, what a great day I had at that Combined Test. Not only did I have a fantastic day, I knocked out practically all of my May goals in one fell swoop.

A Combined Test is sort of quasi-eventing, I guess. It's a schooling show with an eventing dressage test and then a stadium course. So, eventing minus the fun part ;)

Our dressage test was mediocre. In warmup, Pandora was beautiful - relaxed, stretching into my contact, bending nicely, transitioning nicely, completely ignoring all other horses and the very colorful jumps set up in the outdoor arena we were riding in. Once we got to the indoor arena to perform our test, it wasn't quite as good. She is not a big fan of the judge's box in any way shape or form, which is unfortunate since it's the first thing you ride straight towards! This tells me we need practice riding straight towards scary things and ignoring them.

She was distracted so we lost more 'forward' than I was expecting, at two times actually breaking gait for a step (though the judge only caught one of them). Distraction aside, it's still the best test I've ever had, the previous two horses preferring giraffe and motorcycle impressions. We ended with a 40.5 (eventing dressage - it's like golf, not bowling), tied for 5th place.

We had a few hours until my stadium ride, so we camped out at the trailer in style. Pandora had a big ol' haybag and a bucket of water, and we were in the shade about 15 feet away. Dad brought a little propane BBQ so we had cheeseburgers. Yum! We also brought our young dog, who behaved wonderfully. He hung out at the trailer with us, respected the horses, and played fetch with blades of grass when he got bored. No, seriously. I actually threw pieces of grass and he would bring them back. We have it on video.

I got on a bit too early to warm up for stadium. Well, if they had been running on time it would have been fine, but they were about a half-hour behind schedule. Pandora, I've discovered, loves about a 5 - 10 minute warmup for jumping. Get in, w/t/c, jump a couple fences, and call it good. When you do it that way, she's light and soft and springy and fantastic. Unfortunately I was on her a little longer than she would prefer, but once I dismounted and stood with her, she stood patiently. I hopped back on just before my round and it worked fine.

Our jumping round was awesome! The fences at Inavale are both beautiful and spooky, so I was worried we'd have some 'forward' issues. Not a chance. She didn't hesitate at a single fence! None of our distances turned out particularly well, which is my fault - I have only practiced jumping once in the last month and a half, so I think I've just lost a bit of feel for pace. I could tell that I needed to have her moving with a little bit bigger steps so we made better distances, but overall we had a smooth pace and a good clean round. I was very pleased with her - she was soft, controllable, easy to steer, and honest about the fences.

We ended up with 4th place. Hooray!

Then we got to the fun part!!

I headed out to school some XC. I can tell we need more practice at rating in general on a cross-country course, but we definitely have a good baseline. I hopped over some low fences, then came to the water complex expecting to have to patiently insist for the next 40 minutes that she really could take a step into the water.

It took about 40 seconds.

After a brief and halfhearted protest, she went straight in and splashed straight out the other side. I trotted in, she trotted through. The next time I trotted in, she picked up a canter as she stepped into the water and cantered through. This water comes almost up to her chest.

I guess I have a water horse!

After that I practiced hopping over some little tiny ditches (no problem), then put together a couple short courses for myself. By the time I finished, I'd pushed myself to go over some larger fences, like the house you see me jumping in the picture in the last post (I'm jumping the larger house in the middle, not the coop that's nearest the camera). Those fences were either maxed-out Novice or tiny tiny Training, but my money's on novice. Either way, they were pretty big, and when I finally talked myself into letting Pandora have a decent pace coming in, we stopped chipping in and got a good distance.

Seeing a pattern here? Need more pace, need a longer stride, need to let her go a little more...it's a good lesson for me to learn.

Overall it was a fantastic day and I love this girl more all the time. On Monday we're riding in a fun Hunter Pace/Foxhunt Derby, where you ride in teams around a set course but get to choose which height of fence you jump (if you jump at all). That'll be great because we can start out at our level and then pick a couple fences at Novice or small Training to jump too.

I will post this weekend with an overview of my summer horse plans. It's going to be an awesome summer!

A Good Day

I'm too tired to write a real post.

But, I was at a Combined Test (dressage and stadium) at Inavale today. We ended up with 4th place out of 10ish, then I got to go school XC.

It was a good day.

Here's a preview.

Event Derby

Phew.

So you guys know there's a reason I love eventing, right?

Well Cross Country is it.

Don't get me wrong. I love Dressage - I love gymnastically developing my horse, deepening the connection and communication between us, and gradually learning to influence all parts of her while she's in motion. I love Stadium - the tight turns, the bright fences, the relative low risk.

Our dressage test was mediocre at best. Clearly I have been putting a little too much focus on our jumping work. She was a little nervous and looky, didn't really want to focus. She wasn't trying to take off, and she completed all movements, but was very stiff to the left and in general just kind of unresponsive. Time for more schooling.

But I love XC. I don't think I will ever find anything else that rivals the rush of galloping in an open field, coming up to (big) solid obstacles that I fully trust my horse to get us over. It's fantastic. I was grinning like an idiot the whole time. Mmmmmmmmmm it was amazing.

Pandora, for the record, was awesome. I've no idea how much actual XC experience she has. She was boarded at Inavale by a girl who evented her (they have a record for 1 recognized event), so I'm assuming she got plenty of schooling.

But still. It was my first time going XC with her. And she was fantastic.

Since it was an eventing derby, XC and Stadium were combined in a big field. The first several fences were stadium fences, and most of the rest were solid XC fences. She was not too sure about the stadium fences at first! But she went over, and by the time we hit the first big log, we were rockin' and rollin'. We weren't really galloping, but we had a big, forward canter. She figured out all the striding on her own. Sometimes it was a little tight, but oh well.

Her 'diving' tendency came back quite a bit- on the takeoff and landing side she had her head and forehand down as if looking at the fence. She used to do this a lot doing regular jumping in the ring, and it's gone away with miles and fitness, so I'm not too worried. Riding that course was definitely a challenge to her fitness, and we did it twice. We've simply never had the space to canter/gallop for long distances before. I am hoping to work more of it into our schedule if possible, and our long road hacks (once the weather lets up a little!) should help as well.

We had one stop. My first round, the second-to-last fence was a maxed-out coop. So it was 2'7 (I swear it was taller), probably 3' in depth, and it wasn't a super wide fence either. On an uphill. I could have forced her over it, but for some stupid reason I decided to wear gloves (because everyone else does??) and I couldn't get a good enough grip on my right rein to keep her straight. No big deal - circle around and we jumped it fine. The second round we were more confident and cruised over everything, though she was getting a little tired.

One of the fences was about 3', too -- hay bales. There was a lower option, because I think the taller option was for the level above us, but oh well. It rode really smoothly.

I was so proud of my girl. I'm going to a clinic next weekend at the same location - we'll spend the first half on dressage and the second on jumping, so I'm excited to get some good schooling done (for both of us). Now that I've got a baseline established and I know what she's like going around a course, I want a pair of eyes on me to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid with my position whilst caught up in the adrenaline rush.

I even sponged her legs, back, and chest down with a little liniment-water afterwards. She probably didn't need it. And it probably didn't really do anything. But dang, it made me feel good! And the spearmint smell is wonderful.


....you didn't think I'd leave you without a little video, did you?

Here you go. Hope your weekend was as awesome as mine!

Edit: the video was looking really weird and grainy, so I took it down for the moment. I'll get it back up tonight when I get home.


Here's a few things I see. I'm doing a pretty good job of not jumping ahead, though I still did it a little. This is the first habit I regress to when nervous or trying new things, so it's understandable.
I need to allow her to have a more forward pace in order to hit the fences in a good rhythm. This means I need to practice riding at speed more so I can get A. more comfortable and B. more aware of what speed is appropriate.
Steady, steady, steady is what we need. I think we can get it if we can just get some time riding outside somewhere.
I'm also going to install some lead changes sometime, or at least start asking her for them more over fences. I didn't want to fuss with her and make her do an interrupted (through the trot) change, so I either let her do a flying change on her own (which she did) or just go around on the wrong lead, which we also did. It got irritating though. So I think I'll start asking for leads over the fence or even asking for the change -- if I don't get it, no worries, but maybe I'll get some.

In a couple days, expect some more in-depth training posts. I've been thinking a lot lately. And when I think a lot, you get thoughtful posts ;)

Rally Report

Wonderful was the word of the weekend, used first in bitter sarcasm to describe the wind and rain, later for the few hours of sunshine that warmed up the barns a tiny bit, frequently to note appreciation for the readily available hot cider and hot chocolate, and as the rally went on, increasingly to describe my Pandora.

Saturday evening found us arriving in light drizzle, which naturally turned into a sheer downpour as we carted in the last of several wheelbarrow-loads of equipment and tack. Horses were screaming for their lost buddies. We set up tack rooms equipped to Pony Club standards for four riders, feed rooms with labels and perfectly secured grain containers. We used plenty of sawdust to bed down stalls whose dirt floors geographically resembled a love-child of the Rockies and the Grand Canyon. Conveniently, the wind blew straight down the barn aisle. At 7:00 sharp, we had to bridle our horses and stand in line outside to jog out for soundness. Then came bit/bridle/helmet checks. Then a written test from 8:30 to 9. Barn closes - make sure you're back at 5:30 tomorrow morning to feed and be ready for the rally briefing at 6:30!

Wonderful.

I am not a morning person. I consider 8 to be the perfect wake-up time, provided I went to sleep at 10:30. I tend to need that much sleep. I can get up at 6:30 and function for the day if I need to. But 5? No.

Anyway.

Wander blearily into the barn at 5:40, throw hay and fill water. Pick stalls, sweep aisle. Rally briefing, which goes mostly in one sleep-deprived ear and out the other, though important things like 'Don't be late to anything or you lose massive amounts of points' stick. Head back to the barn, curry and brush and brush and brush and tack up for the Formal Inspection.

After Formal (with no penalties, I might add), I headed to the warmup arena promptly on time in order to stand for twenty minutes outside of it because it's small and they only allow six horses at a time. I realized ten minutes into my wait that I had somehow misplaced my medical armband with my release form in it, which is now required to be worn at all times at all rallies. Trotted a puzzled Pandora back to the barn, frantically found my Stable Manager (not the first time, and certainly not the last, that her calm smile and efficiency would be my saving grace), retrieved the missing armband, and returned to the arena to wait another five minutes.

My warmup began nervously, but settled down remarkably quickly. Pandora, bless the mare, is not a horse in need of lengthy warmup. After twenty minutes, we'd calmly taken several fences, and I'd memorized my course and double-checked this memorization at least ten times. I and the butterflies in my stomach were ready to ride.

"I'm scared, but if you say so, I'll do it," said every inch of Pandora's pricked ears and wiggly, warp-speed trot. Scoot though she may, once she was pointed at a fence, Pandora did what I asked of her -- even over the rather bright fences, between lavishly decorated standards and plenty of decorative greenery. The swedish oxer, which spooked a lot of horses, didn't phase her much. A bit rough, a bit chaotic, but we made it clean and I slowly began to understand the trust Pandora placed in me.

Untack, groom, dunk bit in water, fill water, pick stalls, sweep aisle, wipe tack, blanket on, change into warm clothes, don't forget the armband. I helped my stable manager reorganize the tack room, which after four riders' worth of Formal Inspection and ride preparation looked like a tornado zone. We watched some of my teammates ride, but all too soon it was time to tack up for round 2.

Warmup was shorter this time; Pandora was much more relaxed. We put in a reasonable round. She was calmer, I was calmer; we cantered more fences and took conservative lines because until we locked onto a fence our steering was a bit suspect, but we made it around clean again.

I took care of all business, then took a moment to breathe. I glanced at the watch hung up in our tack room for lack of a clock. Good - an hour and a half till my ride time. I had enough time to wander back to the arena and watch a little. On my way by, I happened to glance at a clock hung in the aisle way...which read an hour later than the watch in my tack room. After verifying that this was the correct time, and taking a moment to very quietly swear about the fact that I now had twenty minutes to tack up, get a safety check, and warm up, I grabbed a teammate and scooted back to the stalls.

After a grooming and tacking-up that lasted about five minutes and was undoubtedly the shortest I've ever managed, I arrived at the arena two minutes before my ride time, just in time to wait for another ten minutes because things were running behind.

Wonderful.

I warmed up for maybe five minutes. She just didn't need any more. She was with me, she was good. This round was "choose your own line" -- jump every fence once, in whichever way and order you please. I had planned an ambitious course, full of tight jumper turns neither of us usually do. To make sure we had it in us, I practiced tight turns to an oxer in the warmup arena. Outside rein, outside leg, push forward out of the turn to the fence. Perfect.

It was one of the most fun courses I've ever ridden. Salute. Canter, first fence, right corner, second fence, left corner, third fence. Around to the fourth, the big blue swedish oxer, then over five and a super tight turn to six that walked reasonably but was just too tight for her to make...though she sure tried. We skipped to the side of the standards. No worries, loop back to jump it, then fence seven, rollback to eight, tight turn to nine, and through the flags.

Wonderful.

I came off that course with the biggest idiot grin on my face ever. I was pumped. Never mind that one turn -- that was my lack of course-walking experience combined with Pandora's much-appreciated sense of self-preservation, not her fault -- she was awesome for me. She sat up, did the tight turns, powered up to every fence, nailed all the striding and did all kinds of flying changes on her own.

What a horse I have, I thought as we walked back to the barn. For her to rise to my challenge and run that tight course, when we'd never practiced things like that before, was fantastic. For her to listen to me every single round, and always be there for me when I asked her to do it, was awesome. It was a really powerful experience for me. I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude that this gentle, sweet mare, who always closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against me when I slipped into her stall to say hello, would put so much effort forth for me -- would trust me that first round when I said "Jump, please," and she said "I'm scared, but which fence do you want me to do?" I felt somehow humbled, that I could ask her to do such a hard, twisting course, the likes of which we'd never practiced before, and she would unquestioningly do it. It doesn't sound that remarkable, writing it down. But in that moment something changed about the way I see her. I'm suddenly so grateful, so in wonder of her willingness to trust me and to try for me.

What a horse.

It was all a relatively easy downhill from there. Take care of the horse, watch my teammates ride, begin tack room tear-down, go to awards (we took fourth and fourth in horse management and overall scores), load up, finally get home and crawl into bed at midnight.

I think I was sleepwalking through most of today.

When we got out to the barn this evening, the horses were out in paddocks, cheerful and alert in the cool air. I lay with just my head under the electric fence, pulling long handfuls of grass and setting it down for the two mares, smiling at the quick thump-thump of their lips as they vacuumed it up. Everything had a yellow cast from the lazy sunset, the temperature was perfect, and all I could smell was the grass they eagerly lipped up from my hands.

Wonderful.

Slow Going

Hey guys - it's been a busy couple of weeks just dealing with life, hence lack of posts. But I've been riding and making some really good progress with Pandora!

I love, love, *love* how our transitions are going. We have smooth, relaxed halt-from-trot, and if at any time we get out of control or out of balance, I have instant access to a quiet transition down and back up to rebalance ourselves. Very cool.

I've got a few hours of calculus homework plus an outline for a 5-page history paper to do, so you will have to make do for now with a short post. To tide you over, here's a video of the 2'3" class from the schooling show we went to on Saturday.



She was great! Didn't even try to peek at the fences, just jumped them around as if she was saying "Finally, we get to do some slightly challenging stuff!" We did two 2'3 classes and were also entered in a 2'6 class, but by that time I'd been tacked up for several hours and I just felt like I was too tired to give her a decent ride. So, we schooled some of the 2'6 fences and she was totally fine, then we called it a day!

It was a beautiful day for the show and many people showed up - turned out to be a great fundraiser for our Pony Club.





Next week will be a little mellower in terms of workload for me, so expect some regular posts again.

Equestrian Team

So here's why participating in Oregon High School Equestrian Teams (or OHSET, if you don't want to tie your tongue in a knot) was really, really good for me and my horses.

There's something like two hundred riders. Lots of them have more than one horse.
Therefore, your horse gets introduced to crazy warmup arenas. Big time. After the first meet, Bailey was an awful lot less concerned when A. people tried to run their horse up his butt, B. horses went flying by bucking wildly, C. people with flags galloped around playing tag, or D. miniature ponies with carts were about.
After a few minutes of sensory overload, the horse generally starts ignoring all the other asshats and just listens to you.

You haul to practice once a week and you haul to three meets, once a month in the winter/spring. This provides a very nice incentive for your horse to learn to trailer nicely, doesn't it? And how convenient that you get weekly practice! By the end of my time with him, while trailer loading could still be a high-stress experience simply because he was never quite happy being shut in, Bailey would pretty much walk right on the trailer. With McKinna this has never been an issue.

Did I mention the asshats? People will cut you off and glare at you. People will see that you accidentally crossed your reins before you put them over your horse's head and say nothing. People will roll their eyes if your horse misbehaves. They will also run their misbehaving horse into you in the warmup arena. Their training methods are right, and yours are wrong. Also, if you don't want to wear a neon-colored helmet cover for dressage, you have no team spirit and are a Diva. After awhile, it all rolls off your back, a valuable skill to have anywhere and especially in the horse world.

Then again, there's also nice people. Making friends from other schools, spontaneous bonding with people who I empathize with ("Yeah, I have a crazy horse too..."), people who loan you tack and rule books and horses and help you with your patterns, people who offer a free spot in their trailer, people who cheer for you even though they don't know you. Life's not all that bad, is it?

You are expected to compete in 5 individual events and as many team events as possible. This is so your team can get as many points as possible. You're an English rider and there aren't 5 English events? Guess you'd better learn to ride Western then. My three safe things were Over Fences, Hunt Seat Equitation, and Dressage. With both Bailey and McKinna, I have competed in Pole Bending, Individual Flags, and Figure-8 for individual events. I also learned how to team pen, do Canadian Flags, and run Birangle. Another popular event, IHOR (In Hand Obstacle Relay), which I stepped in to do after a team member quit, involves showmanship at speed over obstacles.

Basically, doing all that different stuff means your horse had better be one hell of an all-around horse. My horse neck reins very well, grasps the basic concept of pockets though I never patterned her, understands working cows in a team, and gets really, really excited when we're about to run Individual Flags. She already lead well before I started OHSET, so I wouldn't have worked on it; thanks to competing in IHOR, she can flawlessly (and quickly) turn on her forehand or haunches, sidepass, trot in hand (on the off side too!), or back through an L, all without me touching her. She also stops dead on a dime.

Here's some pictures to illustrate the different sides of it all (these were all taken at OHSET):Lining up for the sidepass in IHOR

Getting ready to carry the flag for Grand Entry

Team Penning (sorry Mugs, I'll never be as good as you with cows ;)

We're serious about our pole-bending. Really.

Just trying to keep a gray horse clean!

That's all for today!

Ugh.

Hmm. Did I say that camping Friday through Saturday and then going to a schooling show on Sunday wouldn't be tiring?

Ha. Who was I kidding?

The horses were just fine, but I am one tired kid. Yes, you crazy people who get like five hours of sleep per night notwithstanding, I really really need about 8 hours of sleep a night. 9 is ideal, but my body can't handle less than 7 for a few days at a time or I get really cranky and start to get sick. In any case, both camping and the show were quite fun!

A quick overview before I go crash for a nap:

Camping
I had a blast where we went. It's a state park in Salem, and they have campsites that fit four horses and two tents (though really there's plenty of room for that and more). Since we had five horses and seven people, we took up two adjacent campsites. McKinna was awesome on the trail - just truckin' along being the lead horse, totally fine with all of it except the occasional downed log in the underbrush. For whatever reason, she really doesn't think that big chunks of wood belong in all the bushes and stuff. Don't ask me why, but without fail, every time we passed big pieces of wood in the brush she'd scoot sideways a little and look at it like it came from the moon. Other than that she was good. The rest of the party had the occasional panic issue, probably because the trail was single-file and a bit windy through the woods. There was some bucking and some all-out meltdowning (at the end one of our riders got off to walk for a bit because her horse just lost it), but the majority of the ride was quite nice.

For me the only unpleasant part was the heat. It was just downright muggy - hot I don't mind, but humid sucks. All the horses were pretty wet by the time we were done (except McKinna, who was only a little sweaty under the saddle pad - do I get to be proud of that?). They all slept cheerfully in the corrals and we went for a short ride the next morning with no issues at all.

Show
We ended up taking only Chaucer and McKinna to this show. I did Intro A and B on Chaucer and A on McKinna, then Mom did B on McKinna. All in all it was a very successful first show! We ended up with some ribbons but those hardly count at schooling shows (especially when they score juniors separate and I was one of very few people under 18!).

The real victories were in the rides, though. My first ride on Chaucer was alright - not bad, not good, but still a definite improvement over past rides. Generally inverted and counterbent, but I'm looking for the right gait and the right general direction, here ;)

My ride on McKinna was . . . stressed. I didn't give myself enough time to warm up. I KNOW better, but I did it anyway. The test itself was actually pretty okay, and I got some nice moments, but I know it would have been way better if I'd taken the time to walk and trot for about twenty minutes before I went in.

The awesome part was in Intro Tests B, though! I went first on Chaucer and I was just blown away by how good he was. His lines were straight! His free walk was stretchy! His trot across the diagonal was downright powerful! Our weak spots were the trot circles, where he lost focus and wanted to go fast. But my goodness, I was so happy with him, as I'm sure you can tell by the exclamation marks ad nauseam! That trot across the diagonal was really something. He reached into the bit, brought his back up, and was dead-on straight. It made me really itch to bring him along further just to feel what his trot lengthenings and extensions would feel like.

Last up was my mom on McKinna, and that little horse was just a saint. For my mom's first dressage test ever, she trotted around relaxed and calm, reaching into the bit, marching along at the walk, and halting perfectly on the centerline. From a horse that normally gets so anxious she trots around at warp speed with her head flung high, that's pretty darn good! My mother, by the way, was also pretty awesome.


So all in all the weekend was a great success, and I am off to bed.

Progress, Progress

I haven't posted in awhile (has anyone ever told you how busy the last two weeks of a high school career are?), but I haven't disappeared! We took both McKinna and Chaucer to an Eventing Derby this weekend. It was pretty fun -- a dressage test, then a big loopy course in the big field on their XC course using both stadium and solid fences.

McKinna's ride times were first, since they went from the top down and I was doing Beginner Novice on her and Intro on him (again: little horse doing bigger stuff than the big horse). The dressage test was not exactly pretty, but I was expecting that. You know all those canter problems we have? It's not like they fix themselves when we go to a show. But the whole point of taking them to the show was to get them out into the big bad world, the more of which McKinna does the calmer she is. Naturally.

So Dressage was rushed and hollow and above-the-bit, but on the plus side, she also had a few moments of nice walk, a few steps of nice trot where she thought about relaxing (right before the canter, unfortunately), and she went where I wanted her to go. At this stage, with a horse who's done maybe three dressage tests in her life and is still having a midlife crisis about cantering and rounding in general, that's all I'm expecting. I've talked it over with Ellen, and I'm going to get once-weekly flat lessons (probably twice-weekly this summer if I can swing it), so before she knows what's hit her, McKinna will have the muscle and the mental capacity to canter beautifully. Once you start working in earnest on something, it doesn't take her long to figure it out.

Jumping was...a little disappointing at first. Of all the fences out there, she spooked hardcore at the little stadium ones. You know, pretty painted post-and-rail fences that she may glance at, but never ever really tries to stop. Well we had several refusals (hooray for schooling shows), and then at fence four: I could feel her wanting to stop. She was squirrely, she was sucking back, she was spooky, and I put my leg on as solidly as I could and drove with my seat. No dice. She planted her forelegs and sliiiiiiiiiiiiid to a stop on the grass, dumping me neatly off her shoulder as she lowered her head for balance. Nice. I landed on my butt, too.

Sigh.

So I haul my sorry self back up in the saddle, check with the judge-person (is there a technical name for that?) to make sure I can keep going, then leg her over it and away. She has one more stop at 5A (another stadium fence), but then we truck around the rest of the course with no problem. Except that I couldn't find fence 6. Don't ask me where it went. I knew where it was SUPPOSED to be from the map. I saw a fence 6 in black on white, which was not my colors (I was black on yellow). But I did not see a fence 6 in my colors. After pulling up and looking around hopelessly for a minute, I gathered up my frustrated self and went from fence 7 through the end without issue. She had no problem with the solid XC fences that just a couple weeks ago were still making her wobble and stop, so there was a small victory for the day. At any rate, she jumped everything eventually, just not always on the first try -- and it was a good learning experience for her, since I could feel her getting more brave as we went around. Really it's only her third time on an XC course, so she gets a little slack.


Chaucer actually impressed me very much with his dressage test, incidentally the same one as McKinna's (up until the morning of, I mistakenly thought we were doing a walk-trot test. Which also shows you how far ahead I plan things like memorizing my test). I told the judge we were there for schooling and I didn't expect to be able to finish the test, but we actually did it, with some really nice canter strides and everything. Chaucer's weakness is definitely NOT cantering -- it's beautiful, I tell you. It was a terrible test at any rate, but the point is that for him, it's wonderful that he completed the whole thing without A. frying his brain and stopping dead, or B. tuning me out completely.

Anyway, we took him out to jumping warmup, and he was just too tense. Trying to leap over things and the like. I ended up walking up to little crossrails and picking up the trot a few strides out, which kept him fairly manageable. We did a little cantering around the field, he got acquainted with Mr. Pulley-Rein when he wanted to take off, and then Ellen and I agreed that taking him out on the course would be an unnecessary stressful experience for him. We had enough jumping in the warmup field, and if he wasn't doing it calmly out there, why would he do it calmly in the bigger, scarier field? So we called it a day and headed home.


I was really, really tired anyway!




I'm learning a lot about handling Chaucer. It's been very good for me, because while some of McKinna's problems are similar to Bailey's and thus old frustrating problems, the challenges that Chaucer offers me are new. It's interesting to think through how I am going to handle him or what I should do next.

I did some groundwork the other day and had him walk through a series of oddly-spaced scattered poles. He was very, very careful about the placement of his feet, leading me to believe that he's not stupid about his feet, he just likes to be slow about it. Which could explain a lot about his jumping-terrors: he gets overwhelmed and since he doesn't have time to think about where to put his feet, he just trusts brute strength and throws himself over. Something to ponder. He's definitely a horse that needs to be taken along slowly.

I also think lots of miles on trails would help him out. Nothing too challenging, just moseying along for a couple hours over varying terrain and through water and such. I think it would really improve his confidence and his sense of balance.

Any thoughts on working with this type of horse? I'm thinking gridwork would be a good idea.

(Pictures soon, I have to get them on my other computer!)