Next year's event team :)

Wow. What a day :) So today was the hunter schooling show at GEC and several novice riders and two novice horses from GRS decided to play.



In the beginner junior division were:

Caelan and Nick,

Emily and Bella,

Kennedy and Apollo (his first hunter show *ever*!),

and

Olivia and Lissy.



Emily and Nick competed in the beginner senior division.



And in 2'3" hunters we had Rowan and Jack (his first ever hunter show :) and Alex with Lissy.



And in a last second addition, Hailey took Bella in the 2'6" division :)



Got all that? Ok so starting with the beginner juniors. Both flat classes went well. All the horses did essentially what they were supposed to do in reasonable form. There were some interpretive moments -- after a *long* wait for his turn, Nick wasn't sure he should actually canter. Apollo opted not to canter on the left lead (although demonstrated a nearly perfect hunter canter right) and Em demonstrated some interpretive diagonals. However, being a beginner division - and first time out for some of the riders - this is totally to be expected. They all listened to and followed instructions. They all kept their eyes up and paid attention to where they were going and where the other horses were. And in the end, they all took home ribbons! I think Olivia and Lissy placed the highest with 2nd.







Over fences Nick and Lissy performed like the old pros they are and both their riders did a great job of piloting them around.







Apollo in the w/u round was very unsure of the scary not-quite-flowers. The *look* kinda like flowers, but don't really *smell* like flowers... Wonder how they taste?







After he decided they *probably* weren't going to eat him, he jumped around beautifully. Kennedy did a great job and ended up bringing home 3rd! Woohoo!







Then it was Emily and Bella's turn. And Bella decided to show her pony side today. She even *actually* bucked! I would've been highly amused if I wasn't so annoyed. Poor Em had a ride and a half to get her around but she did it! Kept her cool, even with show stress and pony being a brat, and jumped her around everything in order and even good form! Well ridden Emily. As to *why* Bella decided to be a brat? Well there's a couple theories running around... The legit "being a grumpy mare on a hot day taking advantage of a nervous beginner" isn't much fun. More interesting is - it's the first time we've shown her as Bella instead of Superpony -- and she was bitter >;-P Or another favourite (with some plausibility) -- she's learned about and enjoys eventing. One flat round equates to dressage, one jump round (w/u over fences) equates to stadium, so the *next* jump round should be xc. And doing pretty little hunter course was NOT in her contract. hahaha ah well. So after this I asked Hailey to hop on and jump her around in a later division.







Then in the adult division, Emily bravely stepped up with Nick overcoming all sorts of nerves to do all FOUR classes! Awesome job! She even finished the day with a collection of ribbons and a smile on her face :)







Moving up a level we had Lissy (a last min substitution after Alex saw Bella's state of mind :) and Jack in the 2'3" division. Alex and Lis did really well in the flat division and ended up bringing home 3rd! But sadly parted ways in the jump warmup and Alex hurt her shoulder :( So discretion being the better part of valor, she headed off to get checked out and will save her jump showing for another day!







Rowan rode incredibly well jumping Jack around his first hunter course ever -- and they were prostars! He grew a little as he walked in the ring for the first time, but she kept him under control and straight and with the right impulsion and he gave her every lead change and awesome form over fences! Was lovely to watch. They came home with FIRST! Sweet.







And then there was Hailey and Bella. Hoping on to school the pony around since she'd been a brat earlier. Turnout was, ummmm, interpretive. Since Hailey hadn't planned on showing and only had schooling gear, but it's all good. And in her *first* round, Hailey rode like a pro. Nice lines, good pace, hit her distances. All good. In her *second* round though they got a little sloppy. And with that pair, sloppy = fast. Too fast. And Bella was smart enough to know it. So she stopped; Hailey, breaking GRS rules 1 AND 5 at the same time, continued over the fence with the bridle but not the pony. *sigh* Poor form! She was, however, unhurt and remounted to jump a few more fences before heading home. Ah well -- just as good to get that particular mistake out of the way at home and not at a horse trial!







So except for Alex hurting herself, which really sucked :( all in all it was a good day. I was super impressed by how Emily handled Bella. Olivia did a great job in her first show ever! Both of Nick's riders rode around beautifully. And Kennedy and Rowan piloted their horses around their *first* hunter rounds like old pros. Awesome job ladies!

How to find the end of the universe

Didn't write this, but it amused me so I thought I'd share :)

----
How to find the end of the universe

It’s pretty simple, actually: Drive about five miles past the secret alien landing strip, turn left at the Repository of Missing Left Socks, travel due up into the New Jersey Time/Space Wormhole (toll) and when you come to the mariachi band playing “Yellow Bird” to a beluga whale, you’ve reached the end of the universe.

Credit and Vid

Show season so far :)

Wow. So it turns out that the amount of time I have for writing blog posts is inversely proportionate to the amount of stuff I have to write about *sigh* Classic eh? My apologies to all those who should've had their stories written by now :) On to do the all in one.

Soooo way back on Jul 12, we went to the Equus CT; a Combined Test includes dressage and show jumping, with no cross country. Hailey took her Superpony (aka Bella :), Margaret took Nick and Kennedy took Apollo. The last two were both on their first show.

The weather, while thunderstorms threatened, held all afternoon. Margaret and Kennedy were in both phases back to back so they warmed up together and the horses were super. Apollo was *so* calm for his first show ever! And Nick was pretty much exactly as he is at home. Sweet.

Dressage went well -- Margaret's test was a super first try and Nick was so good for her. Judge's comment was something like "very safe horse" hahaha love it. Kennedy also gave a solid effort for her first time in the ring but never having actually practiced the test before going, her shapes were a little interpretive. It was, however, very impressive to watch her trot Apollo around a 10m circle with nearly perfect bend. I don't think I'd even realized he could *do* that! Were it the training level test she would've been set! Those girls walked their show jumping while Hailey warmed up for dressage. Her test was a *significant* improvement over Caledon; still speedy, but soooo much more accurate. The stadium looked very reasonable.

Stadium warmup went reasonably well. Nick showed Margaret his "other side" which few have seen. hahaha It startled her a little but she dealt well with it and he reverted to his usual self when he felt her get nervous. Kennedy and Apollo were legit all-stars. And then it came time to go in the ring.

Nick and Margaret went around clear and *very* under control. Fortunately the event wasn't timed and that round led Margaret to finish on her dressage score in 6th place. Sweet! Kennedy and Apollo started out really well, but sadly parted ways when Apollo met a monster in the trees somewhere between fences 5 and 6. K was unhurt, just disappointed (it's hard when all that adrenaline gets pulled down by gravity!) and A was very confused as to why K wasn't on anymore when they'd been having so much fun jumping stuff!

The fences went up and Hailey had her turn. And with no interpretive circles, they jumped clean and mostly under control! This led to finishing on their dressage score in THIRD place! Woohoo!

After that it was time to school xc. All three riders headed out to the course - Nick and Apollo jumped the PE course with the occasional E fence thrown in, and Hailey did both the PE and the E course, with one PT fence for good luck :) All three horses and riders navigated the little bank up and down perfectly as well as a whole variety of other options. Apollo decided he *loves* xc and really got into the game. Gallop, jump, eat! Seeming to have fun with all 3.

So overall, Equus was an awesome day.

So we followed it up with going *back* for their full HT (horse trial = dressage, cross country, and show jumping). Just Hailey and Bella came to this one. Dressage continued to improve, but the competition was much greater here. Stadium course was very challenging -- ate most of the E and PT divisions - but Hailey rode it brilliantly; her best course yet! Then out on xc -- and really, that's the whole reason for this game. They were *fast* (particularly entertaining as the person in front of them was exceptionally *slow* and having regular stops, so they very nearly caught up! Not a situation I usually have to teach my students about in xc, but now we know :) and fast is not ideal, but fortunately for Hailey time faults were being considered "educational purposes only" and didn't have any influence over the score.

The next weekend, having jumped double clear and starting to get a hang of things, Hailey and Bella upgraded to Entry at Grandview. Now they had schooled the Entry course there before so had a fairly good idea what they'd be doing. Dressage was decent; not terribly competitive at this level but for a rider who's only been doing dressage for a couple mths and a pony who'd much rather be out on xc, I was pretty happy with them. Stadium course was lovely -- bigger of course, but fair and well set and she rode it *really* well. It was the first course where I've seen her really take charge of the pace and both check the pony where necessary (slick footing in one corner after a deluge of rain) and ride forward to the big oxer with scary filler. I was really happy with that. So then out on xc, where both child and pony had an absolute blast and jumped clear. They finished in 9th with Hailey coming home requesting dressage lessons. hahaha perfect! Now we can get somewhere :)

So now you're caught up! Upcoming are the GEC hunter show on the 13th, the Lollipop show on the 17th -- GEC is open to anybody who'd like to participate, Lollipop anybody under 18. And I think either Glen Oro or Woodwinds - but I'm not sure which yet.

Finding willpower

So I was reading this article on neuroscience (which, despite having no science background, I'm fascinated by :) and it was discussing ways to train certain traits that have at times been considered inherently part of you - essentially unchangeable as an adult. The unchangeable idea seems to have been shot down by just about everybody (yeah!) but this particular one struck me as a rather fallible argument.

They suggested that to improve willpower, say before going on a diet, you should brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand for two weeks. They ran tests, and the people who did that were far more successful in whatever they needed their willpower for than those who didn't. So I think ok, well I'm sure I can use more willpower (funny I can hear my mother scoffing as I write this), why not give it a try?

So what I've discovered, one week in, is A - it's a lot harder than you'd think - give it a try! But far more importantly B - it's not training willpower, it's that only those who already *have* willpower are going to last the two weeks. Maybe it enhances what's already there? That I don't know. But honestly, it's a little task that you do (or at least I do :) only when I'm tired -- first thing in the am after getting up and last thing at night when I go to sleep. This is when I'm *least* likely to want to take 3x as long and concentration required for a task I can do literally as I'm falling asleep just by switching hands. Now 1 week in it's now taking me only twice as long *sigh* but I'm still not proficient.

Not that I particularly care, to be quite honest. I'll do the two weeks because I decided to do the two weeks, but whether or not it helps anything? hahaha we'll see. I'm still allegedly running 15k in, as my email reminded me today, less than a month. Could use some willpower for that for sure :)

It's amazing the things you learn when you let your horse teach...

Yeah so decided since we had reasonable temps today I should actually *ride* my horse (as opposed to hack around the xc course having fun pretending to be productive :). Now my number one riding concern with this mare is my inability to rate her gaits. Sometimes I can, but not reliably enough to safely compete her. So I thought we'd test a bit and get at least a baseline for where we are, so that as I school it I can see whether or not we're improving.

Ok so I set two poles on the ground at 50'. Zero height, literally poles on the ground. Now the gymnastics text book will tell you this should be an easy 5, and you should be able to collect to 6, or push for the 4. No problem right? With most of the zippy little horses I like to ride I'd be able to get anywhere from 4-8. So thought I'd see what I ended up with with Athena.

Usually I just let them do their thing the first round to see what we've got, but for some reason I decided to ride it from the beginning and picked the middle ground of 5 for a starting place. And she did it perfectly. The problem? It was the most collected canter I've ever managed on her *sigh*. Let her do it at her pace (sleepy cause this was nearing the end of our ride) and it was an easy 4. Put my leg on a little and cleared the 50' in 3 strides. hahaha might've taken me a lap and a half after that to bring her back again, which we did - next round in 5, but even still...

So it turns out that it's not that I can't actually rate this horse, it's that her stride length is so insanely much longer than I'm used to that I'm misjudging everything. For the non horse people out there -- basically I'm used to horses with gears 2-5, this one has 4-6! So we'll have to spend some time installing the lower gears, cause much as they're not a ton of fun they are *really* useful sometimes! hahaha but baseline has at least been established and now I have a better understanding of what our issue truly is. And thankfully a lot of it will get better as she gets stronger -- she simply doesn't have the strength to sit and tuck her hind end under her right now.

Now off to ride Lis who *only* has gear 4 and work on putting in 3 and 5... :)

It's amazing the things you learn when you let your horse teach...

Yeah so decided since we had reasonable temps today I should actually *ride* my horse (as opposed to hack around the xc course having fun pretending to be productive :). Now my number one riding concern with this mare is my inability to rate her gaits. Sometimes I can, but not reliably enough to safely compete her. So I thought we'd test a bit and get at least a baseline for where we are, so that as I school it I can see whether or not we're improving.

Ok so I set two poles on the ground at 50'. Zero height, literally poles on the ground. Now the gymnastics text book will tell you this should be an easy 5, and you should be able to collect to 6, or push for the 4. No problem right? With most of the zippy little horses I like to ride I'd be able to get anywhere from 4-8. So thought I'd see what I ended up with with Athena.

Usually I just let them do their thing the first round to see what we've got, but for some reason I decided to ride it from the beginning and picked the middle ground of 5 for a starting place. And she did it perfectly. The problem? It was the most collected canter I've ever managed on her *sigh*. Let her do it at her pace (sleepy cause this was nearing the end of our ride) and it was an easy 4. Put my leg on a little and cleared the 50' in 3 strides. hahaha might've taken me a lap and a half after that to bring her back again, which we did - next round in 5, but even still...

So it turns out that it's not that I can't actually rate this horse, it's that her stride length is so insanely much longer than I'm used to that I'm misjudging everything. For the non horse people out there -- basically I'm used to horses with gears 2-5, this one has 4-6! So we'll have to spend some time installing the lower gears, cause much as they're not a ton of fun they are *really* useful sometimes! hahaha but baseline has at least been established and now I have a better understanding of what our issue truly is. And thankfully a lot of it will get better as she gets stronger -- she simply doesn't have the strength to sit and tuck her hind end under her right now.

Now off to ride Lis who *only* has gear 4 and work on putting in 3 and 5... :)

The little things in life...

There is very little in this world that I would rate more highly on the 'simple pleasures' list than a perfect, star-lit, summer's night. 25ish degrees with a warm gentle breeze blowing. Stars brilliant against a black sky. Or alternately a harvest moon -- either option works for me :)

Got home around 10:30 tonight, but it was just that kind of night and I sooo wasn't ready to come inside yet. So decided to go for a run (remember that 15k idea -- yeah it's creeping up awfully fast and running all of about once a week - if that! - isn't really getting me anywhere :) It's been legitimately too hot to run during the days and most evenings I'm rather zonked by the time I get home, but today I was feeling good so away I went.

Now you have to understand - I'm a night person. I have always *been* a night person. If the day never started before about 10am and regularly went till 2, I'd be thrilled. Except I'd stay up late and even 10 would seem too early *g* The issue is, with this whole "adult" thing, no matter how late I'm up I still have to get up in the am. Boooo. And when I exercise, I'm usually rather spun (hence writing at midnight -- no sleep for a while yet!) Which makes the next morning brutal. But I'll worry about that tomorrow.

So I enjoy night. And I usually get an energy burst around 10 or 10:30 in the evening. And today I took advantage of it. Now running at night I learned a few things...

There are fewer people out (can't imagine why! :) but they ones that are are *much* friendlier. When I run that same route during the day, everybody I meet is in their own little bubble, bitterly trying to get some exercise in before their real day starts. Running at night, I met very few people, but every one of them smiled and at least said hi.

I have a vivid imagination. It's made more so by nightfall. This can be good or not >;-P hahhaha I swear I had half a dozen stories half written by the time I was finished my run; the only issue is I can't run and write at the same time, so they're now all lost. I know better than to try and reclaim them -- that never works. This vivid imagination though did at least keep me safely in reasonably well lit areas. Much as I wanted to run through the forest, the grown-up side of me said that would be a really dumb idea. And for once I listened to her.

Running on well paved streets requires FAR less effort than dirt roads. I could run faster and easier and was significantly less tired. I think that's the first run I've done where my cardio gave out before my muscles.

And this was due to lack of watch. Or not so much lack of watch as inability to read said watch in the dark. hahaha so instead of carefully rating my pace and x mins "running" (read carefully contained jog) x mins walking. It was more of run as hard and as fast as you can just for the sheer power of it and don't stop till you have to. I realize this is not the ideal training schedule, but it was a lot more fun *g* Well till I had to stop - a pretty brutal minute or two there, but I recovered and repeated the game; stopping just *slightly* before brutal on consecutive occasions.

Was the first run that I would say came anywhere close to resembling "fun" -- although I suspect a nice quiet walk through the same evening would've had the same results *g* But we'll ignore that little detail :)

And on a completely different note -- Athena got on the trailer after only about 20 mins today with no kicking, striking, or drama. Sweet. We're getting there.

Today = so much fun.

Awesome day today! Kids cleaned up at the hunter show today. I was soooooo impressed. Fully story on GRS blog.

Line of the night, completely unrelated to the horse show, "sometimes a little chivalry has to take precedence over feminism." hahaha Love it! Those who should know the story behind that, already do. Those who don't, can appreciate the line in its own right :)

GRS students clean up at GEC!

So several students ventured into hunter world today, participating in the schooling show at Georgetown Equestrian Centre. We had students in every division and took WAAAYYYY more than our fair share of the ribbons! Woohoo!

Let's see... Hailey was the only GRS student who chose to enter the hack division - coming out with two firsts, one second, and one third. Not half bad for her first ever hack! And really - the third was pleasure hack... If you've seen Bella go, you know that's never going to be her sport. Hailey earned the third by riding well and getting all her leads (which not all the participants did) but Bella is never the pony you're going to put your grandmother on...

Paige was our entrant in the leadline divison. And Paige, some day, is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Because when the judge "couldn't decide" and all participants got ribbons - which of course *most* of the children were thrilled with, Paige was thoroughly (and rightfully in my mind!) annoyed, saying she'd rather have been last and *known* it than not told how she did at all. And I agree. Especially as she happened to do awesomely! (how is that actually a word???) So next time we'll up her to walk-trot and she can get actual scoring.

In walk trot we had Kassidy and Caelan. Both on their first EVER show. Kassidy's pony was choosing to test her a little and she rode *really* well dealing with everything and even taking 7th in a HUGE class of riders with WAY more experience than her. To quote one of the other riders who spoke to me later "that girl's amazing. Within a year or two she's going to be able to ride anything!" -- I tend to agree! Caelan picked up all kinds of ribbons, despite having a last-second horse change. Rode absolutely beautifully.

In 2'3" world Margaret on Nick put in possibly the nicest hunter round I've ever seen. Sadly it was in the schooling round *g* Classic eh? Fortunately she did a fair interpretation of it her second time in the ring as well, earning FIRST! Sweet. In other classes in the division she took 2nd and 3rd as well, for a flush :)

In 2'6" world Hailey and Bella were a little on the quick side, but with perfect rhythm and meeting every distance also took home BOTH red ribbons. Really, it doesn't get much better than that.

I am sooooo proud of all the girls! Thanks tons to Olivia for helping out all day and to the many friends, family and supporters who made it *such* a great day. Nothing like hearing a large cheer when you finish that perfect round :)

Pics hopefully tomorrow :)

Happy Birthday to me!!!

hahaha GREAT day today. Lesson on Athena got some amazing flat work, followed by CAKE for breakfast!!! Hahaha Hailey made it for me and it had a horse on it :) Believe it or not, my first cake *ever* with a horse on it :) Little things in life...



She then gave me the birthday gift of time :) As in did all the chores for me so I could have the day off. A lovely afternoon nap followed by dinner and a movie with friends. A simple evening, but I really enjoyed it.