Got on Athena today for the first time since last summer. That mare just makes me grin like a little kid on a pony. I don't know what it is about her but from the first ride she's had that effect on me. That being said, omg does she ever make me appreciate Lexi *g* Athena tries her heart out and yet will never have a fraction of the movement, balance and coordination Lex has at four without even trying.
Sasha was *such* a superstar at puppy class on Thurs. Starting to make her way through the weaves with fewer and fewer guides and a fair amount of speed :) Even went bravely across the teeter-totter. She is totally addicted to the A-frame though -- that's a little excessive :) hahahah seems totally ok with the chute (tunnel with the all but the opening collapsed) -- runs through knowing there'll be a frisbee flying on the other side *g* Now I just have to convince Lexi to be so brave and we'll be all set! Ah the joys of baby animals.
Readers of fantasy -- I stumbled upon The Book of Deacon the other day. And promptly got nothing else done. hahaha it's a good trilogy, but be warned -- it's not three stories in the same world, it's one story in three books. So don't start reading till you don't need to surface for a couple days. Unless, unlike me, you're not *quite* as obsessive about things and are actually capable of putting a book down and functioning in real life.
And while we're at it - another shout out for Lindsay Buroker - if I had to pick a single favourite fantasy series, it just might be her Emperor's Edge books. Tbh, the description of them didn't really appeal to me and the cover actually turned me off entirely. Even though it was *free* I didn't read it for months because everything else always seemed more appealing. But when I did get into them? By about the third chapter I was hooked, and each book was better than the one before. Her books have a loose plot running through them all, but each is also its own unit so it's not quite as life-sucking to start the series. But by far the best part about them is the character development. Her two primary characters will leave you randomly wondering some day, hey I wonder what they're up to now? The writing is light, so you feel like you're flipping through quickly and don't have to think too hard, but the books are reasonably long so there's no loss. It's possibly the only series I've read of more than about three books, that doesn't lag in the middle (Sword of Truth anybody? Fabulous start and end - the first as a stand-alone is one of my fav fantasy reads, but may as well skip half a dozen in the middle of the series). And some of it is quite sharp - good one-liners. Definitely worth a read - esp as the first one is free in ebook. If you don't enjoy it, all you've lost is a few minutes of dl time.
And as far as writing goes - had real hope for a FridayFlash today -- but it turns out it's already Saturday *sigh* Oops. Sorry about that. hahaha Not exhausted yet though so maybe next week's magic might happen? Admittedly don't really have any ideas floating though -- still stuck in Jezina's world as I'm in what *should* be the LAST round with my editor! Woohoo. If the world is good my book will be available May-ish :) Maybe even earlier in ebook format. Can you believe it? I can't - not really. But then I also hardly believe I get to go to the barn instead of the office every morning *g* hahaha Speaking of - had a blast teaching tonight. Extreme gymnastics *g* And the girls did an amazing job with them! Woohoo!
Ok yeah, happy day - you get the point. I think I need a little less caffeine. Later :)
Showing posts with label #Athena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Athena. Show all posts
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment. -- Horace
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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I miss summer :(
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Today is the first day of fall. I'm blaming that for everything that happened today. You see, I am a summer child. I *love* summer. I was born in the summer. I love the heat. I love the sunshine. I love the long days and the hot nights. I love everything to do with being in, on or around the water. My job gets easier, more fun, and I have more time in which to do it. We get to play XC. Basically everything about summer is good. And this summer was amazing. I had tons of fun showing Athena, who got better every time out, and I had a great group of girls competing and had an awesome time with them.
Of course, the flip side is also true -- I *despise* winter with a passion. And today was the first day of fall. The bringer of winter. I should've stayed in bed.
Which I very nearly did. Hit snooze a few times too many and ended up rolling out of bed at 6:10 -- I meant to leave the house at 6. Oops. Then I realized I neglected to fill up the gas the night before. Detour 1. And by this point I was so late I decided I needed Timmies too. Detour 2.
But eventually I made it to the barn, and it turns out I am *very* efficient at show-morning prep. Mostly based off the fact that I have always hated mornings and therefore sleeping till the very last second has been a great motivator. So I was, in fact, ready to go less than 10 min after the planned time. And Athena loaded like a saint! Best yet. Hesitated slightly and then just strolled on. Sweet.
So we were off. And passed through some random time-warp that got us there in record time. I had an hour before I had to get on for dressage, so I left Athena with Chelsea (who has, after today, been totally promoted to Supergroom. She was *awesome*.) and went to get my package and walk xc. Completely forgetting my passport *sigh* Can you tell it's been a while? But they gave it to me anyways with my promise to deliver said passport later.
Head out to XC. Now the night before a friend had texted me the course, so I was a little concerned. I texted my coach who returned with the short-hand virtual course walk that made me feel a little better. And as I started to walk it, I wondered what my concern had been. Fences one and two were super inviting. Three would require a bit of a ride, but it was really small -- she could easily trot it if we had to. So no problem. 4-5 would be a *very* challenging bending line for her; until I realized we could angle 4 slightly and jump them on a straight line which she could do reasonably well. 6 was a random house. Np. Then the map showed cross the treeline, turn left, and jump the half-coffin. So I crossed the tree-line, turned left, and found nothing... Backtracked and walked straight farther -- found an Intermediate ski jump that ran the other way and figured I was misplaced. Now at the treeline there were two options to go "straight". It looked like the one on the right connected back at the bottom of the hill. So, walking backwards and figuring this was the only option left, I decided to take the connecting path and see if the jump was in there.
Short story - it wasn't. You can skip a few paragraphs now if you want to know about the *riding* portion of today's activities. Still with me? So I pretty quickly ascertained that this was *not* the correct route, but it looked like it'd reconnect back at the top of the hill so I followed it. It didn't. So I turned around and went back... And here things get a little fuzzy... Somewhere, lost in the woods, I made a very wrong turn. Not sure exactly how, but I was clearly not making it back to the xc course. And I was turned around enough I didn't even know which way the course WAS. :( And pretty soon it was very clear I wasn't even on the property! By this point I'd turned around so many times it seemed turning back would just get me more lost and I stumbled upon a wider, groomed and signed path. Clearly for snowmobilers and not likely part of the xc course -- but I had hopes it'd go somewhere civilized so I followed it for a while. By this point I realize I have less than 20 min till I had planned to get on and absolutely NO idea where I was or how to get out. Less than fun, let me tell you. And I'm on foot. And I didn't have my cell phone with me. And Sasha had no brilliant ideas, but thought this was a really great game :) So I followed the nicely signed big path for a while and could see a clearing. Doing most of this at a jog now in an effort to save time. My little brain equated clearing with "xc field" -- or at very least "open field" which'd mean farm of some sort and therefore people. Yeah. First day of fall, remember? The open field was a hydro line path. Oh dear. I definitely hadn't crossed a hydro line before so now I knew for a fact I was going the wrong way -- BUT had no idea how to get back where I started, so figured I'd continue. And then my nice big path disappeared. Seriously. But there was a little path that went straight up the hill to a place that looked like it had a good view. Ok, climb hill and look around. Straight down the hill a little ways away, I could see a silo. No idea how far it *actually* would be from there -- distance is deceptive at that point. But I'd much rather be lost on a road with buildings and, conceivably people, then in the woods wandering aimlessly.
So there's a scrawny little path leading straight down the hill (and these are not small hills!) which Sasha and I mostly slid down... And a road! Woohoo! A dead-end road -- but I had hopes it would lead to another one. Preferably the one Glen Oro is on! Oh - and I have 10 mins till I'm supposed to be on my horse. I see a driveway - sweet! Nope, it's a construction pit. Oh dear. Keep walking and in the distance there's a nicely manicured lawn. Look and house appears to be absolutely deserted. But look closer and there's a guy chopping wood by a barn at the back. I think that's the most happy I've been to see anybody in a very long time. So I interrupted his work as politely as I could and explained the situation and how lost I was and asked if he could point me in the right direction. As soon as I mentioned the horse show it was very clear he knew exactly where I was supposed to be, but... "that's the next concession over. If you give me 10 mins to finish this, I can run you over."
Now there's a life choice for you. How many times do you get told growing up never to get in a car with a stranger? But, otoh, I approached him. And I had *no* idea where I was. So really, if he were a bad guy - I'd already walked right into his home base. And if not, then he could really help. hahaha so I accepted the ride with great thanks. As we pulled out the driveway, we met his wife (or that's the impression I got anyways) pulling in so he stopped to tell her where we were going, and she offered to take me instead which I thought was super cool of her, but Sasha was with me and def wouldn't've fit in her little car... But OMG we were SO far away. That road connected to Horseshoe Valley Rd, which *then* connected to the street GO is on. It would've taken me a solid hour, probably longer, to walk that. As it is -- I was pushing it really tight for dressage by this point, but I still thought I might make it. Profuse thanks to awesome farmer dude and book it back to the trailer where supergroom Chelsea, completely unaware of my drama but very aware of the time, already had Athena tacked up for me. Just had to get dressed and go. Trotted our way to warm-up and got tack check and then exhaled. hahaha we made it. And even had time to warm up. And Athena was being *amazing*.
Went in the ring and she continued to be amazing. Wow. That test was significantly harder than what she's done this year, although I admit I schooled both the pieces AND the full test at home all week, so she did have some idea what was going on. She was brilliant. I wasn't convinced she'd be competitive for training level, but compared to every test she's ever done, this was was awesome. So I was pretty excited about that.
So. Then it was time to walk XC. This time I brought a friend! The first 6 fences seemed still just as nice as the first time around. And we went to the forest and *still* couldn't find it. And this time I was getting *really* frustrated about it. And again, we only had about an hour so not a ton of time to fuss around being lost. Got smarter this time though - knowing all the *wrong* routes and also knowing where fence 9 was, we went there and worked backwards. 8 I also knew as they were the steps down. And then I wondered if 7 wasn't really in the woods at all -- pt 7 was in the field beside the woods. So figured I'd walk back there and see. And as I did, I discovered it! Yes in the woods, but not a straight line through the way the map showed... A swerve and basically a little loop next to the treeline. So this one was a half-coffin. Nice little log, one stride downhill to the ditch. The ditch was def home to at least a few horse-eating monsters -- of the deep and not particularly inviting type -- but my plan was to trot the log so A'd have time to process and I thought we'd be ok. She looks at ditches, but is pretty sainted about them. Then back to 8 - two steps down. She hasn't done that before but we've done a ton of banks so I wasn't terribly concerned about it. My plan was a super-slow approach, step down off the first and continue. 9 was just a random fence. 10 was a bank into water, but with the water shortage you could actually land on sand for one stride. Sweet. 11 a small skinny after the water. 12 was a corner - which worried me on the map as GO used to have a *huge* maxed T corner (remember it with Zel) - but this was a tiny and inviting one. The tree next to it would be more of a challenge :) Sweet. Then we have more water, but again can land on solid ground. The bank up was reasonably substantial, so I gave it a fair amount of respect, and one stride to some logs. Then a nice run and a little pile of logs in the tree-line. Bending line to a substantial trakhener. I figured it'd be ok though (kinda like the one she did at Will O Wind -- the ditch was more dug out, but not as wide) - the only issue really was that the footing was boggy right before it and A *really* dislikes soft footing. Then a coffin that was about as friendly as coffin's get. Main issue there is by this point she'd be tired... And then just one little log fence to the finish.
So at this point I was pretty excited -- I really like technical courses and as a schooling upgrade it'd be prefect because it had some of everything but nothing too massive or scary. Woohoo! Went to check stadium quickly and it was open to walk, so did that. It was maxed. Seriously maxed. And any fence that would be a "gimmie" in a normal course had some sort of optical illusion to it for all sorts of fun and games. And the footing was slick. Striding was text-book perfect and nothing complicated in the turns. It was just size and appearance.
At this point I would've liked to have been warming up already, so booked it back to the pony -- who Chelsea already had tacked up (didn't I say she was awesome!) and trotted back to warmup. She warmed up *beautifully*. I was thrilled. Jumping positively and in front of my leg and just feeling good.
And then it started to rain. Is anybody surprised by this? And we went in the ring. She was really backed off the first fence which surprised me a little as it was very inviting (or so I thought - I later discovered there were a lot of stops there) but she jumped it well. Fences 2-3 rode really well (in the right number of strides!) but she was feeling a little hesitant off the ground. Not looking at things, but just not flowing well. Fence four -- even watching it on video I'm not exactly sure what happened. I do know that I got more air time than is legal without a pilot's license. It looks like she changed her mind and put her front feet down for an extra mini-stride and then took off again straight up. Got my balance back and 5 rode really well. I thought she'd look at it as she was *very* backed off a similar fence earlier this year and hasn't seen anything like it since. But she flew over it -- prob the best fence of the day. 6 though we came in too flat and she got deep and cat-leaped it. Cleared it -- evidently this height isn't a challenge for her either. In fact when it went well, she felt WAY better over the bigger fences. The issue is, when it *didn't* go well... And I very nearly landed without her on that one. Again, serious air time -- but this time we didn't land as well. *sigh* At least I knew *why* that one was bad. 7 was a triple-bar of decent size that she flew over beautifully. We weren't as balanced on the turn to 8 as I would've liked, but we managed it. However, that flowed through in that we missed the turn to 9. *sigh* I did manage to get her there and she *started* to take off... And then her hind legs slid :( Boo on that. We demolished the fence - right through it. Pause to rebuild and then try again.
And she did it the second time. Serious hesitation though, I could feel she'd had enough of this game. And the rational side of my brain said "retire." *sigh* I have to learn to listen to the rational side of my brain. It doesn't appear often in competition, but it's almost always right. Sadly the competitive side of my brain which said "there's only one line left" won out and we approached the last combination. She propped and spun out and I landed on my feet next to her, still holding the reins. *sigh* I don't blame her being scared and unconfident after the way the course was going -- and that line had some tricks to it. Perfect distances but optical illusions with the poles. That dirty bastard Hindsight is kicking me for not stopping when the thought entered my brain. Because really, if any portion of the rider isn't convinced they should keep going, why would the horse? That's the first round since I was a kid where things got worse as we went. I'm pretty disappointed in myself for that :(
So I did remount of course and we jumped a few fences in the warm-up area again. She was still super hesitant and sticky *sigh* I didn't even try the oxer that she'd been so brave over earlier. Jumped a few low ones where she felt good and called it a day. They *did* say we could still go xc (the attrition rate in stadium was rather atrocious so I guess they were letting people school if they wanted to) but I felt that would not be a positive experience and was certainly not about to make the same mistake twice. The rational brain may not have won out in the three strides I had to make a decision in stadium, but it certainly did in the time between stad and xc!
On the plus side -- I was super proud of and impressed by miss Chelsea! Who took complete care of my pony all day and did an amazing job of it -- as well as doubling as puppy sitter and videographer! And, tbh, it was a great social day. I got to chat with a bunch of friends I don't see very often and some of the other riders that I know but rarely have time to talk to. That part was actually a lot of fun. Was parked next to a friend riding after me in competition -- I miss that part of competing; the last few years I've always been out on my own -- which is awesome, but I hadn't realized how much of a difference it makes. On both sides of the cheering on when things are going well and commiseration when things don't go as well as planned. Not to mention the always fun gallows humour about the course :) And just having somebody to walk the course with and bounce ideas off of. Social outtings are always good :)
So now I know our homework for the winter. Fix what I broke and improve it to the unbreakable point! No problem :) For all today was brutal, I was still so proud of my little mare and how very far she's come. And next year no fall shows.
Of course, the flip side is also true -- I *despise* winter with a passion. And today was the first day of fall. The bringer of winter. I should've stayed in bed.
Which I very nearly did. Hit snooze a few times too many and ended up rolling out of bed at 6:10 -- I meant to leave the house at 6. Oops. Then I realized I neglected to fill up the gas the night before. Detour 1. And by this point I was so late I decided I needed Timmies too. Detour 2.
But eventually I made it to the barn, and it turns out I am *very* efficient at show-morning prep. Mostly based off the fact that I have always hated mornings and therefore sleeping till the very last second has been a great motivator. So I was, in fact, ready to go less than 10 min after the planned time. And Athena loaded like a saint! Best yet. Hesitated slightly and then just strolled on. Sweet.
So we were off. And passed through some random time-warp that got us there in record time. I had an hour before I had to get on for dressage, so I left Athena with Chelsea (who has, after today, been totally promoted to Supergroom. She was *awesome*.) and went to get my package and walk xc. Completely forgetting my passport *sigh* Can you tell it's been a while? But they gave it to me anyways with my promise to deliver said passport later.
Head out to XC. Now the night before a friend had texted me the course, so I was a little concerned. I texted my coach who returned with the short-hand virtual course walk that made me feel a little better. And as I started to walk it, I wondered what my concern had been. Fences one and two were super inviting. Three would require a bit of a ride, but it was really small -- she could easily trot it if we had to. So no problem. 4-5 would be a *very* challenging bending line for her; until I realized we could angle 4 slightly and jump them on a straight line which she could do reasonably well. 6 was a random house. Np. Then the map showed cross the treeline, turn left, and jump the half-coffin. So I crossed the tree-line, turned left, and found nothing... Backtracked and walked straight farther -- found an Intermediate ski jump that ran the other way and figured I was misplaced. Now at the treeline there were two options to go "straight". It looked like the one on the right connected back at the bottom of the hill. So, walking backwards and figuring this was the only option left, I decided to take the connecting path and see if the jump was in there.
Short story - it wasn't. You can skip a few paragraphs now if you want to know about the *riding* portion of today's activities. Still with me? So I pretty quickly ascertained that this was *not* the correct route, but it looked like it'd reconnect back at the top of the hill so I followed it. It didn't. So I turned around and went back... And here things get a little fuzzy... Somewhere, lost in the woods, I made a very wrong turn. Not sure exactly how, but I was clearly not making it back to the xc course. And I was turned around enough I didn't even know which way the course WAS. :( And pretty soon it was very clear I wasn't even on the property! By this point I'd turned around so many times it seemed turning back would just get me more lost and I stumbled upon a wider, groomed and signed path. Clearly for snowmobilers and not likely part of the xc course -- but I had hopes it'd go somewhere civilized so I followed it for a while. By this point I realize I have less than 20 min till I had planned to get on and absolutely NO idea where I was or how to get out. Less than fun, let me tell you. And I'm on foot. And I didn't have my cell phone with me. And Sasha had no brilliant ideas, but thought this was a really great game :) So I followed the nicely signed big path for a while and could see a clearing. Doing most of this at a jog now in an effort to save time. My little brain equated clearing with "xc field" -- or at very least "open field" which'd mean farm of some sort and therefore people. Yeah. First day of fall, remember? The open field was a hydro line path. Oh dear. I definitely hadn't crossed a hydro line before so now I knew for a fact I was going the wrong way -- BUT had no idea how to get back where I started, so figured I'd continue. And then my nice big path disappeared. Seriously. But there was a little path that went straight up the hill to a place that looked like it had a good view. Ok, climb hill and look around. Straight down the hill a little ways away, I could see a silo. No idea how far it *actually* would be from there -- distance is deceptive at that point. But I'd much rather be lost on a road with buildings and, conceivably people, then in the woods wandering aimlessly.
So there's a scrawny little path leading straight down the hill (and these are not small hills!) which Sasha and I mostly slid down... And a road! Woohoo! A dead-end road -- but I had hopes it would lead to another one. Preferably the one Glen Oro is on! Oh - and I have 10 mins till I'm supposed to be on my horse. I see a driveway - sweet! Nope, it's a construction pit. Oh dear. Keep walking and in the distance there's a nicely manicured lawn. Look and house appears to be absolutely deserted. But look closer and there's a guy chopping wood by a barn at the back. I think that's the most happy I've been to see anybody in a very long time. So I interrupted his work as politely as I could and explained the situation and how lost I was and asked if he could point me in the right direction. As soon as I mentioned the horse show it was very clear he knew exactly where I was supposed to be, but... "that's the next concession over. If you give me 10 mins to finish this, I can run you over."
Now there's a life choice for you. How many times do you get told growing up never to get in a car with a stranger? But, otoh, I approached him. And I had *no* idea where I was. So really, if he were a bad guy - I'd already walked right into his home base. And if not, then he could really help. hahaha so I accepted the ride with great thanks. As we pulled out the driveway, we met his wife (or that's the impression I got anyways) pulling in so he stopped to tell her where we were going, and she offered to take me instead which I thought was super cool of her, but Sasha was with me and def wouldn't've fit in her little car... But OMG we were SO far away. That road connected to Horseshoe Valley Rd, which *then* connected to the street GO is on. It would've taken me a solid hour, probably longer, to walk that. As it is -- I was pushing it really tight for dressage by this point, but I still thought I might make it. Profuse thanks to awesome farmer dude and book it back to the trailer where supergroom Chelsea, completely unaware of my drama but very aware of the time, already had Athena tacked up for me. Just had to get dressed and go. Trotted our way to warm-up and got tack check and then exhaled. hahaha we made it. And even had time to warm up. And Athena was being *amazing*.
Went in the ring and she continued to be amazing. Wow. That test was significantly harder than what she's done this year, although I admit I schooled both the pieces AND the full test at home all week, so she did have some idea what was going on. She was brilliant. I wasn't convinced she'd be competitive for training level, but compared to every test she's ever done, this was was awesome. So I was pretty excited about that.
 |
| In dressage |
So. Then it was time to walk XC. This time I brought a friend! The first 6 fences seemed still just as nice as the first time around. And we went to the forest and *still* couldn't find it. And this time I was getting *really* frustrated about it. And again, we only had about an hour so not a ton of time to fuss around being lost. Got smarter this time though - knowing all the *wrong* routes and also knowing where fence 9 was, we went there and worked backwards. 8 I also knew as they were the steps down. And then I wondered if 7 wasn't really in the woods at all -- pt 7 was in the field beside the woods. So figured I'd walk back there and see. And as I did, I discovered it! Yes in the woods, but not a straight line through the way the map showed... A swerve and basically a little loop next to the treeline. So this one was a half-coffin. Nice little log, one stride downhill to the ditch. The ditch was def home to at least a few horse-eating monsters -- of the deep and not particularly inviting type -- but my plan was to trot the log so A'd have time to process and I thought we'd be ok. She looks at ditches, but is pretty sainted about them. Then back to 8 - two steps down. She hasn't done that before but we've done a ton of banks so I wasn't terribly concerned about it. My plan was a super-slow approach, step down off the first and continue. 9 was just a random fence. 10 was a bank into water, but with the water shortage you could actually land on sand for one stride. Sweet. 11 a small skinny after the water. 12 was a corner - which worried me on the map as GO used to have a *huge* maxed T corner (remember it with Zel) - but this was a tiny and inviting one. The tree next to it would be more of a challenge :) Sweet. Then we have more water, but again can land on solid ground. The bank up was reasonably substantial, so I gave it a fair amount of respect, and one stride to some logs. Then a nice run and a little pile of logs in the tree-line. Bending line to a substantial trakhener. I figured it'd be ok though (kinda like the one she did at Will O Wind -- the ditch was more dug out, but not as wide) - the only issue really was that the footing was boggy right before it and A *really* dislikes soft footing. Then a coffin that was about as friendly as coffin's get. Main issue there is by this point she'd be tired... And then just one little log fence to the finish.
So at this point I was pretty excited -- I really like technical courses and as a schooling upgrade it'd be prefect because it had some of everything but nothing too massive or scary. Woohoo! Went to check stadium quickly and it was open to walk, so did that. It was maxed. Seriously maxed. And any fence that would be a "gimmie" in a normal course had some sort of optical illusion to it for all sorts of fun and games. And the footing was slick. Striding was text-book perfect and nothing complicated in the turns. It was just size and appearance.
At this point I would've liked to have been warming up already, so booked it back to the pony -- who Chelsea already had tacked up (didn't I say she was awesome!) and trotted back to warmup. She warmed up *beautifully*. I was thrilled. Jumping positively and in front of my leg and just feeling good.
 |
| Stadium w/u |
And then it started to rain. Is anybody surprised by this? And we went in the ring. She was really backed off the first fence which surprised me a little as it was very inviting (or so I thought - I later discovered there were a lot of stops there) but she jumped it well. Fences 2-3 rode really well (in the right number of strides!) but she was feeling a little hesitant off the ground. Not looking at things, but just not flowing well. Fence four -- even watching it on video I'm not exactly sure what happened. I do know that I got more air time than is legal without a pilot's license. It looks like she changed her mind and put her front feet down for an extra mini-stride and then took off again straight up. Got my balance back and 5 rode really well. I thought she'd look at it as she was *very* backed off a similar fence earlier this year and hasn't seen anything like it since. But she flew over it -- prob the best fence of the day. 6 though we came in too flat and she got deep and cat-leaped it. Cleared it -- evidently this height isn't a challenge for her either. In fact when it went well, she felt WAY better over the bigger fences. The issue is, when it *didn't* go well... And I very nearly landed without her on that one. Again, serious air time -- but this time we didn't land as well. *sigh* At least I knew *why* that one was bad. 7 was a triple-bar of decent size that she flew over beautifully. We weren't as balanced on the turn to 8 as I would've liked, but we managed it. However, that flowed through in that we missed the turn to 9. *sigh* I did manage to get her there and she *started* to take off... And then her hind legs slid :( Boo on that. We demolished the fence - right through it. Pause to rebuild and then try again.
And she did it the second time. Serious hesitation though, I could feel she'd had enough of this game. And the rational side of my brain said "retire." *sigh* I have to learn to listen to the rational side of my brain. It doesn't appear often in competition, but it's almost always right. Sadly the competitive side of my brain which said "there's only one line left" won out and we approached the last combination. She propped and spun out and I landed on my feet next to her, still holding the reins. *sigh* I don't blame her being scared and unconfident after the way the course was going -- and that line had some tricks to it. Perfect distances but optical illusions with the poles. That dirty bastard Hindsight is kicking me for not stopping when the thought entered my brain. Because really, if any portion of the rider isn't convinced they should keep going, why would the horse? That's the first round since I was a kid where things got worse as we went. I'm pretty disappointed in myself for that :(
So I did remount of course and we jumped a few fences in the warm-up area again. She was still super hesitant and sticky *sigh* I didn't even try the oxer that she'd been so brave over earlier. Jumped a few low ones where she felt good and called it a day. They *did* say we could still go xc (the attrition rate in stadium was rather atrocious so I guess they were letting people school if they wanted to) but I felt that would not be a positive experience and was certainly not about to make the same mistake twice. The rational brain may not have won out in the three strides I had to make a decision in stadium, but it certainly did in the time between stad and xc!
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| I wish this weren't fuzzy - she flew over it! |
So now I know our homework for the winter. Fix what I broke and improve it to the unbreakable point! No problem :) For all today was brutal, I was still so proud of my little mare and how very far she's come. And next year no fall shows.
To upgrade or not to upgrade?
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Ummmm yeah, so my pony stepped it up this weekend. Mostly.
First -- shall we review our last run at Grandview? *shudder* Right -- that was the one where we were tied for second after dressage and ended second last. Yeah. Stadium was the kind of round people watch with their eyes covered and XC was horrifically sticky and we entirely missed the B element of the AB combo when she grabbed the bit and charged over A. It was *pouring* rain, she was sliding and losing her balance, and by the end she didn't even want to jump a tiny entry-type log. It was exactly the type of run you never want a green horse to experience.
So. We went home, did some homework, ran a couple other shows, qualified for champs. Ok, better. The goal for champs was decent dressage and to jump clear and *well*. Her *best* dressage will put her middle of the pack if the top OPT horses are there -- her movement just isn't flashy enough to match some of them. So first wasn't necessarily a reasonable goal, but I wanted decent dressage and good jumping; the idea being if she was confident and ridable over a champ level PT course, she's potentially ready to upgrade.
Alright - time to go back to Grandview. I'd been horribly sick on Thurs and moderately sick on Fri *sigh* Fortunately, thanks to Rebecca taking over chores and my awesome students switching lesson times, I both got to sleep in AND go home early. Helped a lot. So when the alarm went off at 3:30, I was actually ok to go. Well - along w/ my Advil cold meds *g* My awesome friend Jen came with me to groom for the whole weekend -- despite the combo threat of early morning and horrific weather. And it was pretty horrific. Ridiculous amounts of rain (no hyperbole here -- CP24 informed me it was a record amount of rain for that date. Sheesh). But it's Grandview -- it *always* rains at Grandview. Well, except when it snows. And it pretty much always rains when I compete (did you *see* Lane's End? Perfectly sunny day, then when I tacked up to jump one cloud rolled in and rained exactly as long as I was jumping. Classic.) So the combination pretty much guaranteed I'd end up wet.
Anyways - got in and ready for dressage. The warm-up ring was a swamp. Thanks to their awesome sandy footing even in 3" of water it's not slippery, but it was deep and Athena was definitely *not* happy being bogged down. She was also super-stiff and sticky. I didn't know if that was due to cold and wet or just her being her... So when she was as good as it was going to get, we went in the ring. The footing there was excellent - not sloppy at all. But she was still super sticky. I had *no* forward :( None. Couldn't get or maintain a canter for anything. It wasn't our *worst* test ever. Thankfully. It'd be hard to top that test at Will O Wind earlier this year *g* And I'd rather not try! BUT it was arguably a close second. By about half way through the test I knew our weekend had been reduced to a schooling exercise *sigh* And for a seriously competitive A-type personality that's a disappointing start. Booo.
So given the weather, we located her stall (YEAH for having a stall!) which I was super-happy to discover was in the arena. Sweet. Took care of Athena and got her stall all set up and then left her in Jen's care (who gamely went and hauled her giant water buckets all the way from the trailer) while I went to walk XC. Course looked good. Not actually as big as I thought it might be (although my eye might be a little warped these days), but reasonably technical for the level. The bending line that ate us was early in the course again. The bank was an up-one stride-down which'd be fun. There was both an open ditch and a trakhener. And lots of up and down the hills and strategically located jumps.
Had lots of time to relax and chill before xc. Moved some more stuff down to her stall. Tacked her up early because I suspected we might need an extra warm-up to overcome the stickiness of dressage. Turns out I was wrong. She was sticky for about three strides till she realized her handy studs would stop her from sliding on the grass and then she switched gears. Forward and energized and yet ridable. Jumped a few fences like a pro and then just stopped and hung out. Watched a few other riders running their courses. Chatted with some friends warming up. All the usual things :) One away we did a second mini-warmup and then we were good to go.
She had the game down. Went right from stride one, picked up the first fence and attacked it. But not the grab the bit and bolt strategy that failed so horribly earlier this year. This was balanced and ridable -- but forward and committed. Pony's come a *long* way. Woohoo! Got through the first four like we'd discussed the course map ahead of time *g* Beautiful rhythm and jumping everything on stride. Lovely. Then we had our oh-so-tricky bending line. Which I could *not* handle screwing up again. *sigh* Fortunately I didn't have to -- she did it like a pro. Kept her rhythm and balance and got the correct number of strides. Was pretty excited about that -- suspect the "good pony!" could probably have been heard back at the start box *g* The rest of the course continued pretty much the same. I did ask her to trot on one curve where the footing is slick and you angle across it -- didn't want to risk her sliding. Unfortunately that ended up costing us significant time faults and several place *sigh* But I do think it was the right choice for her. The only issue we had was at one very vertical box that she misjudged and actually hit -- was pretty scary. I really don't know exactly what she did, but yikes! Managed to land together though on the other side of the flags and she was still sound and eager so let it go and moved on. She did the on-off bank and the open ditch like they weren't even there. The only thing she looked at was actually the *smallest* jump on course -- a little roll-top. She started telling me about ten strides out that she wasn't sure about it though and I was not about to get a stop at a tiny fence near the end of the course so we had a pretty serious discussion and she hopped over it. Trakheners she's not sure about -- but she also doesn't usually notice till she takes off. So we jumped it -- then magically rose higher and hovered in the air WAY above the gremlins before landing. Not exactly text-book style, but we were over it. The last few fences were maxed and she skipped over them easily. At the end she was feeling muscle tired and sticky -- the last couple jumps were an effort for her -- but cardio was amazing. Her pulse and respiration dropped pretty instantly and she wasn't overly hot (albeit the low temp and random showers might've had something to do with that). So yeah - I was pretty thrilled with her. What a difference from the last time we were here. Wow.
And that was it for the day. 1:00 and we were done. Now what? hahaha well I groomed and wrapped my pony and meandered around organizing things a bit. Then she was happy napping with her hay, water and new friends so Jen, Sasha and I headed over to the hotel and got ourselves settled. Came back later that afternoon to feed (she actually ate!!! Anybody who knows Athena will know why that warrants three exclamation marks. Or even four! :) and rebraid and figure out what time I'd be riding on Sunday. Noon. Civilized. Very civilized. Hung out for a while, took Athena for a nice long walk so she could stretch (remember she's on 24/7 turnout at home -- being stuck in a stall isn't her favourite thing in life). Debated for a while about a blanket for her (decided not -- right choice). Visited the BBQ, but since it was crowded, I couldn't find any of my friends in the first few minutes, and I had Sasha with me -- we didn't stay. Walked show-jumping by sunset and once Athena was settled in for the evening we went out for dinner and socializing :) I tell you - def one of the most relaxed shows I've ever been to. Lots of time between phases, only one horse, not coaching any students, and no need to get home to take care of the other horses made for a significantly easier day than I'm used to.
Sunday I wanted to be at the barn to feed around 9 - perfect as that's what Athena's used to and she'd have lots of time to digest before needing to ride; it'll also give me lots of time to chill and relax before riding. I was contemplating taking her for a stretchy hack before jumping but that didn't actually happen. When we got there (after a surprisingly good continental breakfast) I was greeted by an entirely new horse. This one is alert and happy and likes people and attention. She also very much wanted out of her stall. Ummmm ok. So she got breakfast (less interested in eating this time) and the braids bobbled and then got to go for a long walk thanks to her new friend Jen. I went up to check out stadium -- course was riding well and looked good. Soon enough it was time to ride.
Once again I gave myself a fairly long warm-up time and didn't need it. I trotted for a while to allow her to stretch and physically warm-up but the actual jumping she nailed on the first try. She was also a little tired after yesterday (not really lagging just not super-fresh either) so I didn't want to spend her strength in warm-up. And then our nice sunny day turned dark. And we got soaked. Really soaked. And *cold*. Brrrrrr. Both of us were shaking and she was pretty bitter about being out in it, so I stuck her under a tree so we could shelter from the worst of it -- at least until we actually *had* to get going again. Fortunately the unpleasantness ended before we actually had to go in the show ring.
The course was maxed -- as one would expect at champs :) But all the related distances were on text-book strides -- and while she doesn't *have* a text-book stride, at least I know how that's supposed to feel *g*. Trotted into the ring and Athena came to life. She. Was. Amazing. Wow. Forward but balanced and not running. Scanning and picking up the next fence on her own (hahaha only once where she snagged the wrong one -- but she was willing to be redirected :) Ridable. I could bend on the corners and rate her pace. I got the same number of strides I walked in every line. And if all this sounds like a "yeah, so what?" you need to re-read the summer's adventures with this horse... hahaha Princess Zel - for that pony it was a yeah, so what. But for *this* horse, that's a serious accomplishment. And she was clear.
Double clear. On a championship level course. Sweet. Soooo.... time to upgrade? :) hahaha we shall see... But regardless, I'm pretty happy with her :)
You know what's fun? Winning.
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Ok so I have to admit it made me laugh to use the same subject line two weeks in a row. Small things amuse small minds n all that.
So I was supposed to show Athena this weekend at Cedar Run, but then I decided we'd try champs (not because I actually believe she has any hope of being competitive in that crowd *sigh* but because I'd like to see if she'll jump confidently around a maxed-out course before deciding whether to upgrade or not). Couldn't do both -- that'd put her out four weeks in a row, with the hardest being last. Definitely not an appropriate plan. Even two was pushing it. Well, evidently not too much given her results *g* Something to be said for consistency. But still. She earned a weekend off.
However, by the time I decided this I'd long since sent in my entries (remember Woodwinds was never on the original plan...) And it was past the cancellation date. And I *really* didn't want to lose my entry fees. And neither of the girls wanted to go (well that's not entirely accurate -- they both had other commitments). So... Now what? Well it turns out I have eight *other* horses to pick from. hahaha handy.
Which leads to the "which horse" decision. Some get kicked out of the pool right away: Apollo - not fit or appropriately trained. Louis - not mentally ready. Nick - fit and trained but he doesn't fit very well in my trailer and I *really* can't risk anything happening to him. That and, tbh, he's not exactly my *favourite* ride of the group. And there's no benefit -- he's been-there-done-that so no real point to taking him.
Then we get to the maybes. Dixie and Charlie are both totally valid options and I seriously contemplated both. They could easily do the same level Athena was supposed to, so would've been a non-issue to trade. Was esp considering Charlie since his pbr was coming to groom for me and I think she would've been entertained by that. But the simple reality is that neither one of them is fit enough for a HT -- both being TBs they'd run it and have a blast... And then be sore the whole next week. So no-go on those two.
Then there's Bella. She could do it. She'd have a blast. And is totally fit enough that she wouldn't even blink. And she is also ready for PT now. But she's less than 14hh. And while I have ridden her and I know logically she can carry me, I really don't feel it's appropriate for me to be jumping her. And, as with Nick and the above two, she doesn't need any schooling. The only reason for me to take her would be so as not to have to switch levels for the horse. And that seemed fairly unreasonable.
So then we're down to Jack and Lissy. I like both horses. They're both fit. They both need more training. Of the two though, Lissy has the most to work on. She's also my favourite. Handy combination that :) So she got voted onto the island. Or into the trailer as the case may be. Minor flurry of emails with the ever-amazing secretary and my times were switched as Lis isn't ready for PT yet.
This was Wednesday night. The last time I rode Lissy (as in *rode* her, as opposed to hopped on for 10 mins to show somebody something or do a really minor tuneup) was before I got Athena last year. hmmmm so Thursday I figured I should probably school her a bit. I did flat her for a few mins (literally) on Tues eve as a tune-up after a lesson so at least I knew what we were starting with. Which wasn't all that much. So Thurs comes. Start w/ a warm-up hack. And on said hack we negotiated the fact that she could indeed be on the bit and keep her back up outside of the dressage ring. Sweet.
Then we head to the stadium field. Have a bit of a discussion about how the canter is supposed to work. Her feeling was head up, back hollow, legs moving asfastasphysicallypossible. My suggestion was head down, back up, legs moving in a quiet 3-beat rhythm. It didn't take very long at all before she agreed to try it my way. This is one smart, hard-working mare. It took *months* to make that change in Athena *sigh*. Took about one lap of the field with Lissy. Only down side is, since she's never done it, she really doesn't have the muscle to maintain it very long. Fair.
So having jumped the horse exactly once in the last year -- and that being gymnastics to reschool a specific issue -- I felt a little bit of work over fences would be a wise plan. And we pretty much repeated the last paragraph but over jumps. I let her know that running as fast as possible and throwing yourself over things giraffe style wasn't really the preferred methodology, and she gamely gave my way a try. We also did a couple "scary" fences to make it clear that over is the only appropriate option. While we didn't *quite* get an award-winning hunter round in, she did improve significantly quickly. So we left it on that -- why drill endlessly?
Well Friday I went to ride her and realized very quickly that she was *tired* hmmmmm apparently doing 6 months of training in 45 minutes is somewhat tiring for new muscles. So we just did a very short (20 min? If that?) stretchy walk/trot so that all muscles were good and nothing was stiffening up. And then she got to go back to her field :)
Which means on show day I had a still somewhat tired pony (day after the day after) with exactly one day of training on her (in the way that *I* want her to go -- she's solidly kid-broke in the walk-trot-run-around style). Ok why not :) So the first amusement of the day was when we took her off the trailer. To appreciate this, you have to remember the kinds of horses I usually ride... The ones who come off the trailer bouncing and feel the need to investigate the entire property at a power walk, or run laps around the trailer. Lissy didn't even have all four feet off the ramp when she started grazing. Kirby and I were a little bemused at this, but ok sobeit.
I left Lis with Kirby and went to walk cross, which was ridiculously easy. I also watched stadium for a couple rounds -- this was training level so it was big and lots of filler, but I figured that'd go away and the course itself seemed ok. The first two fences were a related distance, which isn't entirely easy as it doesn't give you any chance to get a rhythm going, and the turn to fence three was a little tricky, but everything else seemed good.
Went and tacked up for dressage and realized I hadn't read my dressage test yet. Oops. Gave it a quick read-over and decided I'd watch a couple later (I knew I was last in dressage -- with my switched times I was in some strange positions). Got tack check and started to warm-up. She was quite sticky off the leg, but once she started going was moving nicely. Still felt a little tired though, so I didn't push too hard in the warmup. I also neglected to watch any tests. Oops. Not sure why -- definitely had time. Ah well. I did glance over once in a while and felt like I knew it :) Does that count? Anyways -- after our break when I picked her back up again to do a last few min w/u before the actual ride she was not happy about it. Had a few catty moments and then she agreed to go along with the game. Test was... Well let's just say a long way from brilliant. BUT, for one day of training, it actually wasn't too bad. She was accurate (but that I'd expect as her normal rider is quite good about that). Inconsistently through, but no different from how she warmed up, so can't ask more than that. And her pilot who didn't bother to memorize the course made up a random test movement that wasn't technically called for *sigh*. Classic.
We had less than an hour before we'd be first in show jumping so lead her back to the trailer (about a 15 min walk from dressage -- 20 to show jumping and 25 to xc!). Swapped tack, gave pony a drink, and headed out to stadium. Trotted part way there -- both to keep her muscles loose and to save some time. Warm-up was pretty sticky. While this mare is awesome for xc logs, she has very little show-jumping experience and seems to feel she should get to inspect all the fences before she jumps them. So when she approached and hesitated and I told her to jump anyways -- she did it, but wasn't terribly convinced it was a good idea. Our warmup was, well pretty horribly sticky. I mostly worked on getting her to land and gallop away and then balance for a turn. I definitely wanted forward installed as I was keeping an eye on the course changes going on in the ring next to us...
That maxed out training course with all the insane filler? Yup, all they'd done was lower it. The *one* piece of filler that was too big for max dimensions removed and replaced with a scary gate, and the first part of the triple came out. Everything else was still in play. Aqueduct, scary purple planks, giant green fuzzy box, 2-stride combination, a couple scary latices of different colours. All sorts of fun stuff! There was one fence I couldn't see (remember I didn't actually walk this course - no time) but it had ridden easily in the higher levels so I figured it was probably not-too-scary. The rest of them though... oh dear. Particularly fun since most of it she's never seen before. I can't wait till I have scary jumps at home to school! hmmm ok. So seeing this, forward and first try became important items to install in the warm-up. Got tack check done and jumped a couple more -- *finally* getting rhythm, balance and forward together. But of course by now they're not scary new jumps anymore either.
And then we were in! But... Not everybody else was out yet. hahaha so on the way to salute the judge I detoured slightly so she could at least *see* a couple scary things -- I think we got one box, one aqueduct (I *so* can't spell that word w/o spell check!), and one lattice in *g* Conveniently for me the scribe wasn't there yet either. Judged looked at me, I saluted, then he realized he was missing a scribe. hahaha no whistle yet while he found them (slightly behind him) and asked if they were ready. Handy for me though -- more time in the ring is great for a greenie! By the time the whistle actually blew she'd gotten a chance to see the second portion of the in-and-out as well. Sweet.
And then we were off. I really wish I had this one on video because I'd like to see how it looked. To me it felt like a really solid green-bean ride. Not a prefect balance stadium round, but a looky-baby getting over stuff. We had moments of brilliance and moments of ugly. But she made it. And she made most of it in a balanced, rhythmical canter. I was definitely riding defensively -- she questioned a good 3/4 of the fences. And was particularly concerned about the aqueduct (hey - spelled it right that time!) and the in-and-out. But did both on the first try. And then I could just feel her confidence growing, so by the end she wasn't questioning it as much, was more willing to relax and bend and rate her rhythm on the turns, and jumping beautifully. Even the scary boxes of varying colours and shapes that appeared in the 2nd half of the course didn't require *as* strong a ride as I had anticipated. And the last two fences were totally lovely. Now to be fair -- the last two fences were also the easiest *sigh* - but they were at least as nice as our attempted-hunter-school round on Thurs. So yeah, I was pretty thrilled with her for that.
No time to stay and watch anybody else though -- less than an hour till xc and remember the distances? Yikes! Hopped off and walked her back. She had time for a quick drink while I changed my gear and then it was back to xc. Again with the trot across the long field, down the hill, up the hill... Starting to feel like old-school eventing with the roads-and-tracks phases: baby-style! hahaha too fun. Got there, got tack check, did a minor gallop around the field and over one fence (pro!) and good to go. Except.... Change of plans -- apparently my change of order hadn't made it to xc, so after a quick consultation I was put at the *end* of my division instead of the start and suddenly found myself with time to kill. Ah well, no biggie. Gave pony a long well-deserved break and hung out chatting with people. Always fun. Not like this was a high-stress course I had to psyc up for :)
So it was eventually our turn and off we went. Had a *serious* negotiation about the first fence. Totally tiny and inviting so I'm not sure what she was concerned about, but we did maintain forward movement the whole time and she got over it. Rode *really* forward away to make a bit of a point (which she was all too happy with) before balancing for fence two. And then we settled into a lovely rhythm. Too fast of course (you're not new here :). And I was a little dismayed at how unrateable she was -- I'll have to install that feature sooner rather than later. Definitely only had one speed she was comfortable with.
Now about 3/4 of the way around the course, the track went directly beside the water jump. Neither the track nor the water were flagged. So I decided that if she was too fast AND jumping confidently when we got there, I'd take the opportunity to school the water. Pony's got the talent to go reasonably through the levels so she's going to need to learn it sooner or later :) Since we were definitely too fast and she was jumping like an old pro, I brought her back to a trot and we tried the water. She wanted to walk in and sniffed it a little, but she didn't even try to actually stop. Woohoo! Previous "no option" discussions having an effect! Sweet. And I even got a little baby trot out. I was pretty happy with her :) And then we settled into a slower rhythm (yeah combination of going away from home and tired pony) that ended us through the flags just past the minimum time :) Sweet!
When I was giving Lis a bath, Kirby filled me in that we were in 3rd after stadium. Sweet! Worth sticking around then :) By the time I got there, final scores were posted... With us in first :) Woohoo! I saw the one who was first after dressage (lovely horse!) stop at the first fence, so that clearly made a difference. No idea who was in second or where they ended up. But no worries. Socialized for a bit till ribbons were announced then time to wrap up pony and head home. HUGE thanks to Kirby for tons of help on a very long day.
So yeah - two weeks, two horses, two firsts. Not half bad :)
So I was supposed to show Athena this weekend at Cedar Run, but then I decided we'd try champs (not because I actually believe she has any hope of being competitive in that crowd *sigh* but because I'd like to see if she'll jump confidently around a maxed-out course before deciding whether to upgrade or not). Couldn't do both -- that'd put her out four weeks in a row, with the hardest being last. Definitely not an appropriate plan. Even two was pushing it. Well, evidently not too much given her results *g* Something to be said for consistency. But still. She earned a weekend off.
However, by the time I decided this I'd long since sent in my entries (remember Woodwinds was never on the original plan...) And it was past the cancellation date. And I *really* didn't want to lose my entry fees. And neither of the girls wanted to go (well that's not entirely accurate -- they both had other commitments). So... Now what? Well it turns out I have eight *other* horses to pick from. hahaha handy.
Which leads to the "which horse" decision. Some get kicked out of the pool right away: Apollo - not fit or appropriately trained. Louis - not mentally ready. Nick - fit and trained but he doesn't fit very well in my trailer and I *really* can't risk anything happening to him. That and, tbh, he's not exactly my *favourite* ride of the group. And there's no benefit -- he's been-there-done-that so no real point to taking him.
Then we get to the maybes. Dixie and Charlie are both totally valid options and I seriously contemplated both. They could easily do the same level Athena was supposed to, so would've been a non-issue to trade. Was esp considering Charlie since his pbr was coming to groom for me and I think she would've been entertained by that. But the simple reality is that neither one of them is fit enough for a HT -- both being TBs they'd run it and have a blast... And then be sore the whole next week. So no-go on those two.
Then there's Bella. She could do it. She'd have a blast. And is totally fit enough that she wouldn't even blink. And she is also ready for PT now. But she's less than 14hh. And while I have ridden her and I know logically she can carry me, I really don't feel it's appropriate for me to be jumping her. And, as with Nick and the above two, she doesn't need any schooling. The only reason for me to take her would be so as not to have to switch levels for the horse. And that seemed fairly unreasonable.
So then we're down to Jack and Lissy. I like both horses. They're both fit. They both need more training. Of the two though, Lissy has the most to work on. She's also my favourite. Handy combination that :) So she got voted onto the island. Or into the trailer as the case may be. Minor flurry of emails with the ever-amazing secretary and my times were switched as Lis isn't ready for PT yet.
This was Wednesday night. The last time I rode Lissy (as in *rode* her, as opposed to hopped on for 10 mins to show somebody something or do a really minor tuneup) was before I got Athena last year. hmmmm so Thursday I figured I should probably school her a bit. I did flat her for a few mins (literally) on Tues eve as a tune-up after a lesson so at least I knew what we were starting with. Which wasn't all that much. So Thurs comes. Start w/ a warm-up hack. And on said hack we negotiated the fact that she could indeed be on the bit and keep her back up outside of the dressage ring. Sweet.
Then we head to the stadium field. Have a bit of a discussion about how the canter is supposed to work. Her feeling was head up, back hollow, legs moving asfastasphysicallypossible. My suggestion was head down, back up, legs moving in a quiet 3-beat rhythm. It didn't take very long at all before she agreed to try it my way. This is one smart, hard-working mare. It took *months* to make that change in Athena *sigh*. Took about one lap of the field with Lissy. Only down side is, since she's never done it, she really doesn't have the muscle to maintain it very long. Fair.
So having jumped the horse exactly once in the last year -- and that being gymnastics to reschool a specific issue -- I felt a little bit of work over fences would be a wise plan. And we pretty much repeated the last paragraph but over jumps. I let her know that running as fast as possible and throwing yourself over things giraffe style wasn't really the preferred methodology, and she gamely gave my way a try. We also did a couple "scary" fences to make it clear that over is the only appropriate option. While we didn't *quite* get an award-winning hunter round in, she did improve significantly quickly. So we left it on that -- why drill endlessly?
Well Friday I went to ride her and realized very quickly that she was *tired* hmmmmm apparently doing 6 months of training in 45 minutes is somewhat tiring for new muscles. So we just did a very short (20 min? If that?) stretchy walk/trot so that all muscles were good and nothing was stiffening up. And then she got to go back to her field :)
Which means on show day I had a still somewhat tired pony (day after the day after) with exactly one day of training on her (in the way that *I* want her to go -- she's solidly kid-broke in the walk-trot-run-around style). Ok why not :) So the first amusement of the day was when we took her off the trailer. To appreciate this, you have to remember the kinds of horses I usually ride... The ones who come off the trailer bouncing and feel the need to investigate the entire property at a power walk, or run laps around the trailer. Lissy didn't even have all four feet off the ramp when she started grazing. Kirby and I were a little bemused at this, but ok sobeit.
I left Lis with Kirby and went to walk cross, which was ridiculously easy. I also watched stadium for a couple rounds -- this was training level so it was big and lots of filler, but I figured that'd go away and the course itself seemed ok. The first two fences were a related distance, which isn't entirely easy as it doesn't give you any chance to get a rhythm going, and the turn to fence three was a little tricky, but everything else seemed good.
Went and tacked up for dressage and realized I hadn't read my dressage test yet. Oops. Gave it a quick read-over and decided I'd watch a couple later (I knew I was last in dressage -- with my switched times I was in some strange positions). Got tack check and started to warm-up. She was quite sticky off the leg, but once she started going was moving nicely. Still felt a little tired though, so I didn't push too hard in the warmup. I also neglected to watch any tests. Oops. Not sure why -- definitely had time. Ah well. I did glance over once in a while and felt like I knew it :) Does that count? Anyways -- after our break when I picked her back up again to do a last few min w/u before the actual ride she was not happy about it. Had a few catty moments and then she agreed to go along with the game. Test was... Well let's just say a long way from brilliant. BUT, for one day of training, it actually wasn't too bad. She was accurate (but that I'd expect as her normal rider is quite good about that). Inconsistently through, but no different from how she warmed up, so can't ask more than that. And her pilot who didn't bother to memorize the course made up a random test movement that wasn't technically called for *sigh*. Classic.
We had less than an hour before we'd be first in show jumping so lead her back to the trailer (about a 15 min walk from dressage -- 20 to show jumping and 25 to xc!). Swapped tack, gave pony a drink, and headed out to stadium. Trotted part way there -- both to keep her muscles loose and to save some time. Warm-up was pretty sticky. While this mare is awesome for xc logs, she has very little show-jumping experience and seems to feel she should get to inspect all the fences before she jumps them. So when she approached and hesitated and I told her to jump anyways -- she did it, but wasn't terribly convinced it was a good idea. Our warmup was, well pretty horribly sticky. I mostly worked on getting her to land and gallop away and then balance for a turn. I definitely wanted forward installed as I was keeping an eye on the course changes going on in the ring next to us...
That maxed out training course with all the insane filler? Yup, all they'd done was lower it. The *one* piece of filler that was too big for max dimensions removed and replaced with a scary gate, and the first part of the triple came out. Everything else was still in play. Aqueduct, scary purple planks, giant green fuzzy box, 2-stride combination, a couple scary latices of different colours. All sorts of fun stuff! There was one fence I couldn't see (remember I didn't actually walk this course - no time) but it had ridden easily in the higher levels so I figured it was probably not-too-scary. The rest of them though... oh dear. Particularly fun since most of it she's never seen before. I can't wait till I have scary jumps at home to school! hmmm ok. So seeing this, forward and first try became important items to install in the warm-up. Got tack check done and jumped a couple more -- *finally* getting rhythm, balance and forward together. But of course by now they're not scary new jumps anymore either.
And then we were in! But... Not everybody else was out yet. hahaha so on the way to salute the judge I detoured slightly so she could at least *see* a couple scary things -- I think we got one box, one aqueduct (I *so* can't spell that word w/o spell check!), and one lattice in *g* Conveniently for me the scribe wasn't there yet either. Judged looked at me, I saluted, then he realized he was missing a scribe. hahaha no whistle yet while he found them (slightly behind him) and asked if they were ready. Handy for me though -- more time in the ring is great for a greenie! By the time the whistle actually blew she'd gotten a chance to see the second portion of the in-and-out as well. Sweet.
And then we were off. I really wish I had this one on video because I'd like to see how it looked. To me it felt like a really solid green-bean ride. Not a prefect balance stadium round, but a looky-baby getting over stuff. We had moments of brilliance and moments of ugly. But she made it. And she made most of it in a balanced, rhythmical canter. I was definitely riding defensively -- she questioned a good 3/4 of the fences. And was particularly concerned about the aqueduct (hey - spelled it right that time!) and the in-and-out. But did both on the first try. And then I could just feel her confidence growing, so by the end she wasn't questioning it as much, was more willing to relax and bend and rate her rhythm on the turns, and jumping beautifully. Even the scary boxes of varying colours and shapes that appeared in the 2nd half of the course didn't require *as* strong a ride as I had anticipated. And the last two fences were totally lovely. Now to be fair -- the last two fences were also the easiest *sigh* - but they were at least as nice as our attempted-hunter-school round on Thurs. So yeah, I was pretty thrilled with her for that.
No time to stay and watch anybody else though -- less than an hour till xc and remember the distances? Yikes! Hopped off and walked her back. She had time for a quick drink while I changed my gear and then it was back to xc. Again with the trot across the long field, down the hill, up the hill... Starting to feel like old-school eventing with the roads-and-tracks phases: baby-style! hahaha too fun. Got there, got tack check, did a minor gallop around the field and over one fence (pro!) and good to go. Except.... Change of plans -- apparently my change of order hadn't made it to xc, so after a quick consultation I was put at the *end* of my division instead of the start and suddenly found myself with time to kill. Ah well, no biggie. Gave pony a long well-deserved break and hung out chatting with people. Always fun. Not like this was a high-stress course I had to psyc up for :)
So it was eventually our turn and off we went. Had a *serious* negotiation about the first fence. Totally tiny and inviting so I'm not sure what she was concerned about, but we did maintain forward movement the whole time and she got over it. Rode *really* forward away to make a bit of a point (which she was all too happy with) before balancing for fence two. And then we settled into a lovely rhythm. Too fast of course (you're not new here :). And I was a little dismayed at how unrateable she was -- I'll have to install that feature sooner rather than later. Definitely only had one speed she was comfortable with.
Now about 3/4 of the way around the course, the track went directly beside the water jump. Neither the track nor the water were flagged. So I decided that if she was too fast AND jumping confidently when we got there, I'd take the opportunity to school the water. Pony's got the talent to go reasonably through the levels so she's going to need to learn it sooner or later :) Since we were definitely too fast and she was jumping like an old pro, I brought her back to a trot and we tried the water. She wanted to walk in and sniffed it a little, but she didn't even try to actually stop. Woohoo! Previous "no option" discussions having an effect! Sweet. And I even got a little baby trot out. I was pretty happy with her :) And then we settled into a slower rhythm (yeah combination of going away from home and tired pony) that ended us through the flags just past the minimum time :) Sweet!
When I was giving Lis a bath, Kirby filled me in that we were in 3rd after stadium. Sweet! Worth sticking around then :) By the time I got there, final scores were posted... With us in first :) Woohoo! I saw the one who was first after dressage (lovely horse!) stop at the first fence, so that clearly made a difference. No idea who was in second or where they ended up. But no worries. Socialized for a bit till ribbons were announced then time to wrap up pony and head home. HUGE thanks to Kirby for tons of help on a very long day.
So yeah - two weeks, two horses, two firsts. Not half bad :)
You know what's fun? Winning.
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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So to fully appreciate today's adventures you have to understand what led up to it...
I wasn't intending to run this HT -- I was supposed to do the earlier Woodwinds and screwed up my entries so didn't get to go (remember that stupid moment? Yeah, it was fun). This one was scheduled for the girls, but for some reason or another neither ended up going and I figured that since I'd already planned to go coach, I may as well go ride instead and sent in my entries at the last second.
On Thursday I find out they've switched it from a two day show to a one day show. Meaning now instead of showing on Saturday I'll be showing on Sunday. Meaning now I need to find staff for Sunday, see if my groom (yeah Brena!!!) can come Sun instead of Sat, and move all my Sunday lessons to Saturday. Tons o fun let me tell you. Most of my lessons managed to switch and HUGE thanks to Rebecca who took care of the barn for me :) Thankfully the awesome Brena was able to come Sunday instead. So ok, we can still go.
Friday I have a lesson. Stadium. Remember Lane's End? Yeah - not so good. And we really hadn't recovered. Why? Well let's see... Monday she had off as the day after the show. Tues was long/low hacking (always our first day back exercise). Wednesday I was away all day at Equus and then puppy class. Thursday was simply insane and I didn't ride at all. So now it's Friday. My horse hasn't jumped stadium since our last disaster. And hasn't even been ridden in two days. And I'm supposed to have a lesson.
Suffice to say it was ugly. Really ugly. Coach, rider AND horse were all expressing language not usually heard in polite company. For instance -- our warm-up exercise. 3' vert with a placing pole 9' in front. As simple as it gets. We tried jumping it and bolting on landing. We bolted before the fence and went right through it. We managed to put a stride between the pole and the fence. We took off BEFORE the pole and cleared it and the fence together. Nice to know my horse can jump a 12' spread over a 3' jump, but definitely not what we were aiming for. We came in off-balance, downhill, and sideways. We knocked it down about 8 times -- a horse who almost never pulls rails. And if she got it right, I'd get it wrong. We were so *not* working as a team and both of us were being horrifically useless. I'm pretty sure my coach was ready to fire us. In a little over an hour of jumping, I think we got two fences that were boarder-line acceptable. Nowhere near good. But had to lower the bar a whole lot *sigh*. One of those what-the-f-do-you-think-you're-doing-going-out-in-public type rides... But the thing is, it was SO bad it was actually comical. So in a laugh or cry moment, I decided to laugh. I figure it's the next-best-thing to falling off in the warm-up ring (I used to win whenever I did that. Hate that it's now boarder-line illegal *g*).
So needless to say I jumped her again on Saturday and it was *significantly* better. Phew. Not that it could've been much worse *g* But she was balanced and listening and we were able to jump around in a civilized fashion. So we did that once or twice and went for a walk hack instead. Why mess around when it's going well?
Sunday am my alarm went off after a grand total of two hours sleep. Not intentional - I swear. I'm too old for this! Got to the barn, fed, prepped, etc. And when it came time, Athena loaded like an absolute star. I was somewhat shocked and pretty happy :) Away we went, getting to the show with just enough time (early start so I didn't leave much "bad loading" buffer -- sometimes you get lucky). In dressage warm-up she was quite sticky, but we had time and I was able to work her through it. We got bumped up a time slot as somebody had a conflict (and really, would five more minutes *really* change anything?) so she was first in. Had to laugh when I recognized the judge -- it was the same one who was there for our disastrous dead-last effort at Will O Wind. hahaha I figured it could only go up from there. She was a little tense when we first went out to the ring, but by the time we got around she'd gone from tense to high -- and a rideable/workable high. Sweet. The test went well. Still not flashy really, but definitely our best test yet. More forward than she has been -- less sticky. Reasonable rhythm and bend and accuracy. I was pretty happy with it.
BUT - the goal for the day was reasonable show jumping. Happy with dressage just wasn't going to cut it. So leaving the pony with Brena, Sasha and I headed out to walk our courses. Stadium was busy so we did XC first. The first couple fences were very upright -- not the best to get a good flow going... But other than that the course seemed really easy. There was nothing on it that I thought would concern her. Course map was a little tricky to read -- I met several people wandering around looking for fence # whatever. Having been there before I had a pretty good idea where the course would go, but I admit I prob wouldn't've found all of them relying on the map alone. The best map I ever saw I *think* was Will O Wind one year (although I could be wrong on that) that used an aerial photo of the farm and drew the map on top. Brilliant. Anyways - fences were all found and there was nothing on it that I felt would challenge her at all. It's a sad day when XC is boring but you can't upgrade due to incompetency in show jumping.
So as I wander back I discover stadium is open for course walk. Set at T level, but that's ok. Close enough :) And the course looked comparatively quite easy. There was one line on a downhill that I figured would get a significant number, but the striding was textbook on all the distances and no particularly challenging turns. The only turn of interest was to the last fence -- could go inside or out of fence five. My thought was that I'd rather do the inside turn but clearly I really doubted the likelihood of that happening as I walked the outside line.
Had about 15min left to chill before tacking up for stadium. All good. Get ready, tack checked, and start warming up. First fence... She stopped. Really??? For all the disasters we've had, I don't think this mare has *ever* actually stopped at a stadium fence (water/ditches/banks all a different matter :). Huh. Ok, re-present and she tries to stop and then momentum pushed her through (not the most balanced mare on the planet remember). Really??? So I'm frantically wondering if there's something wrong? Is she sore? Is there a *reason* for this? But she's sound. 100%. And moving well other than neglecting to pick her feet up. So we go for a third try -- and she clears it by about 3'. And then the light went on. It was a cross-rail. Like every other show there was an x, a vert, and an oxer to w/u over. But *this* x was still set intermediate style -- the cups were almost on the top hole. And it occurred to me that I don't think I've ever jumped her over a big X before -- I suspect she was catching only the edge of it in her vision and thinking I was asking her to jump 5'+ out of a trot. No wonder she stopped! The middle was still baby-sized, but I honestly don't think she understood that. So we switched to jumping the vert and the oxer and suddenly I had my mare back. She was a little sticky and a little hesitant at first, but clearly much more comfortable and the more we jumped the better she got.
And then the gate person was searching for somebody to go first. I was supposed to be third, but first wasn't there yet and second had only *just* shown up (this being the same one from dressage who had another horse running and some time conflicts). So I volunteered Athena and I, took one more jump and in we went. And had by FAR our best round ever. We did pull a rail -- the second of the downhill line (gee, there's a surprise) which I was a little annoyed with myself over since I *knew* it was a trappy line. But sobeit. Far more important though was that we made the inside turn! Yes that's right, we landed off a downhill fence balanced enough to make the inside turn and clear the next jump. Sweet. I was pretty stoked about that. She also rode the combination with a little more confidence than she usually does. And only really looked at one fence (had really funky standards).
So yeah, I was pretty happy after that. Goal accomplished. And all that was left was xc. With nothing scary on it. Sure - why not :) Went out of order for that one too -- all sorts of missing people. But we were ready -- with only an hour between phases we just untacked, bathed, and tacked her back up again so it's not as though we needed a long warm-up :) This was definitely her most confident run yet -- she left the start box and was an absolute superstar till we crossed the finish line. And it really doesn't matter how challenging or not you feel the course is, it's still an adrenaline rush and when you finish clear, you're still beaming ear to ear. So. Much. Fun! Had a few really good gallops and this course was no-stress for her; she's finally getting fit enough that it was an easy run even with the hills. Sweet.
After we finished taking care of Athena, I went to check the scores. Dressage had been decent and we'd only had one rail and some time faults (oops - pilot error :). So worth a look. And I see first after dressage and stadium -- xc not yet posted. Woohoo!!! Followed instantly by Frig! Only two points between first and second and I know I was off by more than that in time faults *sigh*. So then while I was still thrilled with my pony, I was pretty thoroughly annoyed with myself for not paying more attention on xc. But still worth sticking around. And then when they posted all three phases I discovered second place had some issues out on xc and were no longer in the running. Meaning even with the time faults we were still in first. Woohoo! I *know* at this level it's all about introducing the horses and giving them a confident ride. And you should be happy any time you accomplish that. But I'll tell ya -- it's a lot easier to be happy bringing home the red :)
And now, off to champs :)
I wasn't intending to run this HT -- I was supposed to do the earlier Woodwinds and screwed up my entries so didn't get to go (remember that stupid moment? Yeah, it was fun). This one was scheduled for the girls, but for some reason or another neither ended up going and I figured that since I'd already planned to go coach, I may as well go ride instead and sent in my entries at the last second.
On Thursday I find out they've switched it from a two day show to a one day show. Meaning now instead of showing on Saturday I'll be showing on Sunday. Meaning now I need to find staff for Sunday, see if my groom (yeah Brena!!!) can come Sun instead of Sat, and move all my Sunday lessons to Saturday. Tons o fun let me tell you. Most of my lessons managed to switch and HUGE thanks to Rebecca who took care of the barn for me :) Thankfully the awesome Brena was able to come Sunday instead. So ok, we can still go.
Friday I have a lesson. Stadium. Remember Lane's End? Yeah - not so good. And we really hadn't recovered. Why? Well let's see... Monday she had off as the day after the show. Tues was long/low hacking (always our first day back exercise). Wednesday I was away all day at Equus and then puppy class. Thursday was simply insane and I didn't ride at all. So now it's Friday. My horse hasn't jumped stadium since our last disaster. And hasn't even been ridden in two days. And I'm supposed to have a lesson.
Suffice to say it was ugly. Really ugly. Coach, rider AND horse were all expressing language not usually heard in polite company. For instance -- our warm-up exercise. 3' vert with a placing pole 9' in front. As simple as it gets. We tried jumping it and bolting on landing. We bolted before the fence and went right through it. We managed to put a stride between the pole and the fence. We took off BEFORE the pole and cleared it and the fence together. Nice to know my horse can jump a 12' spread over a 3' jump, but definitely not what we were aiming for. We came in off-balance, downhill, and sideways. We knocked it down about 8 times -- a horse who almost never pulls rails. And if she got it right, I'd get it wrong. We were so *not* working as a team and both of us were being horrifically useless. I'm pretty sure my coach was ready to fire us. In a little over an hour of jumping, I think we got two fences that were boarder-line acceptable. Nowhere near good. But had to lower the bar a whole lot *sigh*. One of those what-the-f-do-you-think-you're-doing-going-out-in-public type rides... But the thing is, it was SO bad it was actually comical. So in a laugh or cry moment, I decided to laugh. I figure it's the next-best-thing to falling off in the warm-up ring (I used to win whenever I did that. Hate that it's now boarder-line illegal *g*).
So needless to say I jumped her again on Saturday and it was *significantly* better. Phew. Not that it could've been much worse *g* But she was balanced and listening and we were able to jump around in a civilized fashion. So we did that once or twice and went for a walk hack instead. Why mess around when it's going well?
Sunday am my alarm went off after a grand total of two hours sleep. Not intentional - I swear. I'm too old for this! Got to the barn, fed, prepped, etc. And when it came time, Athena loaded like an absolute star. I was somewhat shocked and pretty happy :) Away we went, getting to the show with just enough time (early start so I didn't leave much "bad loading" buffer -- sometimes you get lucky). In dressage warm-up she was quite sticky, but we had time and I was able to work her through it. We got bumped up a time slot as somebody had a conflict (and really, would five more minutes *really* change anything?) so she was first in. Had to laugh when I recognized the judge -- it was the same one who was there for our disastrous dead-last effort at Will O Wind. hahaha I figured it could only go up from there. She was a little tense when we first went out to the ring, but by the time we got around she'd gone from tense to high -- and a rideable/workable high. Sweet. The test went well. Still not flashy really, but definitely our best test yet. More forward than she has been -- less sticky. Reasonable rhythm and bend and accuracy. I was pretty happy with it.
BUT - the goal for the day was reasonable show jumping. Happy with dressage just wasn't going to cut it. So leaving the pony with Brena, Sasha and I headed out to walk our courses. Stadium was busy so we did XC first. The first couple fences were very upright -- not the best to get a good flow going... But other than that the course seemed really easy. There was nothing on it that I thought would concern her. Course map was a little tricky to read -- I met several people wandering around looking for fence # whatever. Having been there before I had a pretty good idea where the course would go, but I admit I prob wouldn't've found all of them relying on the map alone. The best map I ever saw I *think* was Will O Wind one year (although I could be wrong on that) that used an aerial photo of the farm and drew the map on top. Brilliant. Anyways - fences were all found and there was nothing on it that I felt would challenge her at all. It's a sad day when XC is boring but you can't upgrade due to incompetency in show jumping.
So as I wander back I discover stadium is open for course walk. Set at T level, but that's ok. Close enough :) And the course looked comparatively quite easy. There was one line on a downhill that I figured would get a significant number, but the striding was textbook on all the distances and no particularly challenging turns. The only turn of interest was to the last fence -- could go inside or out of fence five. My thought was that I'd rather do the inside turn but clearly I really doubted the likelihood of that happening as I walked the outside line.
Had about 15min left to chill before tacking up for stadium. All good. Get ready, tack checked, and start warming up. First fence... She stopped. Really??? For all the disasters we've had, I don't think this mare has *ever* actually stopped at a stadium fence (water/ditches/banks all a different matter :). Huh. Ok, re-present and she tries to stop and then momentum pushed her through (not the most balanced mare on the planet remember). Really??? So I'm frantically wondering if there's something wrong? Is she sore? Is there a *reason* for this? But she's sound. 100%. And moving well other than neglecting to pick her feet up. So we go for a third try -- and she clears it by about 3'. And then the light went on. It was a cross-rail. Like every other show there was an x, a vert, and an oxer to w/u over. But *this* x was still set intermediate style -- the cups were almost on the top hole. And it occurred to me that I don't think I've ever jumped her over a big X before -- I suspect she was catching only the edge of it in her vision and thinking I was asking her to jump 5'+ out of a trot. No wonder she stopped! The middle was still baby-sized, but I honestly don't think she understood that. So we switched to jumping the vert and the oxer and suddenly I had my mare back. She was a little sticky and a little hesitant at first, but clearly much more comfortable and the more we jumped the better she got.
And then the gate person was searching for somebody to go first. I was supposed to be third, but first wasn't there yet and second had only *just* shown up (this being the same one from dressage who had another horse running and some time conflicts). So I volunteered Athena and I, took one more jump and in we went. And had by FAR our best round ever. We did pull a rail -- the second of the downhill line (gee, there's a surprise) which I was a little annoyed with myself over since I *knew* it was a trappy line. But sobeit. Far more important though was that we made the inside turn! Yes that's right, we landed off a downhill fence balanced enough to make the inside turn and clear the next jump. Sweet. I was pretty stoked about that. She also rode the combination with a little more confidence than she usually does. And only really looked at one fence (had really funky standards).
So yeah, I was pretty happy after that. Goal accomplished. And all that was left was xc. With nothing scary on it. Sure - why not :) Went out of order for that one too -- all sorts of missing people. But we were ready -- with only an hour between phases we just untacked, bathed, and tacked her back up again so it's not as though we needed a long warm-up :) This was definitely her most confident run yet -- she left the start box and was an absolute superstar till we crossed the finish line. And it really doesn't matter how challenging or not you feel the course is, it's still an adrenaline rush and when you finish clear, you're still beaming ear to ear. So. Much. Fun! Had a few really good gallops and this course was no-stress for her; she's finally getting fit enough that it was an easy run even with the hills. Sweet.
After we finished taking care of Athena, I went to check the scores. Dressage had been decent and we'd only had one rail and some time faults (oops - pilot error :). So worth a look. And I see first after dressage and stadium -- xc not yet posted. Woohoo!!! Followed instantly by Frig! Only two points between first and second and I know I was off by more than that in time faults *sigh*. So then while I was still thrilled with my pony, I was pretty thoroughly annoyed with myself for not paying more attention on xc. But still worth sticking around. And then when they posted all three phases I discovered second place had some issues out on xc and were no longer in the running. Meaning even with the time faults we were still in first. Woohoo! I *know* at this level it's all about introducing the horses and giving them a confident ride. And you should be happy any time you accomplish that. But I'll tell ya -- it's a lot easier to be happy bringing home the red :)
And now, off to champs :)
Running Lane's End HT
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Not an insanely early start today given where we were going. Left the barn at 8 for what Google told me would be just under a 3.5h drive. Yikes.
Athena loaded reasonably well -- took a bit of discussion, but comparatively it was a good start :) The drive was long but pretty and we got there in less time than Google had threatened, so that's all good. Parking lot was pretty full though so we parked right at the far end of the universe -- which ended up being great as it put us right beside show jumping and xc warmup.
Made the long hike to the secretary and found the dressage rings in the process. Athena was pretty high at this point -- Stephy was doing laps around the trailer with her and Sasha was hiding underneath the truck. We got her tacked up though and made our way to the w/u ring. Where she promptly chilled out entirely! Sweet. She was tripping a lot in warm-up but when we got in the ring was really good. Sucky -- she didn't want to move forward and was highly concerned about what was going on in the show-jumping ring in the distance (yet really didn't care about the horses galloping by on xc??? Classic). The test was accurate though -- she paid attention and did what I asked. Not brilliant by any means, but acceptable. Possibly our best yet all things considered.
Then I had a break so left Athena with Steph and Emily (who appeared during dressage :) and went with Sasha to walk my courses. Only thing is - about half way through xc I started to feel really weird. Couldn't focus at all; had no idea where we'd just come from or what jumps were on the course. ummmm less than good. Finished my trek and walked show jumping as well -- and at the end had no idea how many strides were in any of the related distances. Uh, less good. Went back to the trailer and since I had a bit of time decided to grab a 20 min cat nap in the truck. Felt a little better afterwards but not much. Stephy got Athena ready for me and it took me *forever* to get myself ready. Things were just not going well. And a little disconcerting knowing we were going into our worst phase *sigh*
Warm-up was pretty disastrous -- from a rider point of view. My poor horse was trying and I just was not getting my act together. And of course, it started to rain. Not a cloud in the sky all day until it's time for me to jump -- then suddenly it's midnight black and soaking wet. Classic. The coach inside me was spewing instructions at top speed, which the student was failing horribly to apply. Finally it was just a case of go out there and Do. Your. Job.
Well let's just say it wasn't my best round ever *sigh*. What WAS good, was for the first time Athena made a concerted effort to help me out. Took about three fences before I got into the game and she did her best to cover for me -- getting us over all of them. Then thankfully I clued in enough to get her through the ones that she was concerned about (combinations and related distances are still very tricky for her). We both failed horribly at the last fence -- actually even pulled that rail which isn't something she does often.
Needless to say, I was none too thrilled with myself for that ride. I went back to the w/u ring and jumped another fence or two out of a trot to idiot-proof it a little and rebuild her confidence a bit. Then we had all of about 15 mins before xc, so Athena got a drink and a short break and I contemplated how to fix what I'd just broken before sending her galloping at solid fences. Got our tack check done and I was playing all sorts of mental games. Convinced myself that A - xc is my strongest phase so even in incompetent mode it's only PT, I could sleep through it. B - Athena jumps better with pace, so again, even if I'm not all there it'll be easier for her. And C - xc is fun! So with B and C in mind I galloped her around the warm-up. Just let her run and have fun and then randomly popped over a couple fences with the sole goal of staying out of her way and letting her jump in rhythm. I needed her to remember that jumping is fun and I needed it to happen Right Away. So applied what I often tell my students: "pretend it's fun and your horse will believe you" -- thank god that's not entirely BS *g* And it worked. After two or three fences I could just feel her confidence coming back and she was clearly enjoying herself.
Just in time -- as suddenly it was our turn for the long trek to the start box. hahaha she *is* starting to understand about start boxes as she did a little jig when we got there. That always makes me smile. So we started out really well. Incompetent day or not, I knew she'd already saved me as much as was going to happen in one show and I'd better get it together fast. *Really* rode the first three fences and the world was good... And then I got lost. *sigh* Well technically not actually lost as I knew exactly where I was and where I was supposed to be -- I just missed a turn (remember really not with it when I walked the course?) and it took us longer than it should've for my brain to process, turn around, get back where we should be, and get going again. Definitely killed our rhythm a bit, but we got it back fast. And then she *really* wanted to gallop - so I let her :) That was So. Much. Fun. Had a bit of a discussion about if/when she should come back to me to prep for the next fence. Wasn't brilliant, but not horrible either. The one after that we had it figured out and all good. She actually listened when I asked her to come back for the reasonably technical bank complex so I was very happy with that.
The long gallop through the woods was tons of fun, but she was struggling so I let her set the pace and she chose a trot. A nice forward trot, but definitely needed a minute to catch her breath. Fair enough given the non-break between phases and how much extra jumping/running around we had to do to prepare. After a trot break she seemed ready to go again, albeit at a canter pace rather than a gallop. So we loped our way around the rest of the course -- clear, rideable, and under control. But did end up with a few time faults (ummmm detour AND extended trot break. hahaha the fact that she didn't have a ton MORE faults gives an idea of how fast she was going when I let her go :) Passed the vet check no problem and after a walk and a bath (or two :) her temp and respiration were back to normal in a reasonable amount of time. Yeah pony!
I was still feeling pretty out of it, although by this point adrenaline was fighting with whatever was slowing me down - and winning. Food and liquids helped, so by the time it was time to pack up and drive home again I was feeling more normal. My best guess is probably dehydrated (ie - stupid *sigh*), but will never know for sure.
Athena got back on the trailer for the ride home and away we went. Got home exhausted and happy.
So overall - more than 9h of driving today to compete for less than 15 mins. Worth it? Totally.
Athena loaded reasonably well -- took a bit of discussion, but comparatively it was a good start :) The drive was long but pretty and we got there in less time than Google had threatened, so that's all good. Parking lot was pretty full though so we parked right at the far end of the universe -- which ended up being great as it put us right beside show jumping and xc warmup.
Made the long hike to the secretary and found the dressage rings in the process. Athena was pretty high at this point -- Stephy was doing laps around the trailer with her and Sasha was hiding underneath the truck. We got her tacked up though and made our way to the w/u ring. Where she promptly chilled out entirely! Sweet. She was tripping a lot in warm-up but when we got in the ring was really good. Sucky -- she didn't want to move forward and was highly concerned about what was going on in the show-jumping ring in the distance (yet really didn't care about the horses galloping by on xc??? Classic). The test was accurate though -- she paid attention and did what I asked. Not brilliant by any means, but acceptable. Possibly our best yet all things considered.
Then I had a break so left Athena with Steph and Emily (who appeared during dressage :) and went with Sasha to walk my courses. Only thing is - about half way through xc I started to feel really weird. Couldn't focus at all; had no idea where we'd just come from or what jumps were on the course. ummmm less than good. Finished my trek and walked show jumping as well -- and at the end had no idea how many strides were in any of the related distances. Uh, less good. Went back to the trailer and since I had a bit of time decided to grab a 20 min cat nap in the truck. Felt a little better afterwards but not much. Stephy got Athena ready for me and it took me *forever* to get myself ready. Things were just not going well. And a little disconcerting knowing we were going into our worst phase *sigh*
Warm-up was pretty disastrous -- from a rider point of view. My poor horse was trying and I just was not getting my act together. And of course, it started to rain. Not a cloud in the sky all day until it's time for me to jump -- then suddenly it's midnight black and soaking wet. Classic. The coach inside me was spewing instructions at top speed, which the student was failing horribly to apply. Finally it was just a case of go out there and Do. Your. Job.
Well let's just say it wasn't my best round ever *sigh*. What WAS good, was for the first time Athena made a concerted effort to help me out. Took about three fences before I got into the game and she did her best to cover for me -- getting us over all of them. Then thankfully I clued in enough to get her through the ones that she was concerned about (combinations and related distances are still very tricky for her). We both failed horribly at the last fence -- actually even pulled that rail which isn't something she does often.
Needless to say, I was none too thrilled with myself for that ride. I went back to the w/u ring and jumped another fence or two out of a trot to idiot-proof it a little and rebuild her confidence a bit. Then we had all of about 15 mins before xc, so Athena got a drink and a short break and I contemplated how to fix what I'd just broken before sending her galloping at solid fences. Got our tack check done and I was playing all sorts of mental games. Convinced myself that A - xc is my strongest phase so even in incompetent mode it's only PT, I could sleep through it. B - Athena jumps better with pace, so again, even if I'm not all there it'll be easier for her. And C - xc is fun! So with B and C in mind I galloped her around the warm-up. Just let her run and have fun and then randomly popped over a couple fences with the sole goal of staying out of her way and letting her jump in rhythm. I needed her to remember that jumping is fun and I needed it to happen Right Away. So applied what I often tell my students: "pretend it's fun and your horse will believe you" -- thank god that's not entirely BS *g* And it worked. After two or three fences I could just feel her confidence coming back and she was clearly enjoying herself.
Just in time -- as suddenly it was our turn for the long trek to the start box. hahaha she *is* starting to understand about start boxes as she did a little jig when we got there. That always makes me smile. So we started out really well. Incompetent day or not, I knew she'd already saved me as much as was going to happen in one show and I'd better get it together fast. *Really* rode the first three fences and the world was good... And then I got lost. *sigh* Well technically not actually lost as I knew exactly where I was and where I was supposed to be -- I just missed a turn (remember really not with it when I walked the course?) and it took us longer than it should've for my brain to process, turn around, get back where we should be, and get going again. Definitely killed our rhythm a bit, but we got it back fast. And then she *really* wanted to gallop - so I let her :) That was So. Much. Fun. Had a bit of a discussion about if/when she should come back to me to prep for the next fence. Wasn't brilliant, but not horrible either. The one after that we had it figured out and all good. She actually listened when I asked her to come back for the reasonably technical bank complex so I was very happy with that.
The long gallop through the woods was tons of fun, but she was struggling so I let her set the pace and she chose a trot. A nice forward trot, but definitely needed a minute to catch her breath. Fair enough given the non-break between phases and how much extra jumping/running around we had to do to prepare. After a trot break she seemed ready to go again, albeit at a canter pace rather than a gallop. So we loped our way around the rest of the course -- clear, rideable, and under control. But did end up with a few time faults (ummmm detour AND extended trot break. hahaha the fact that she didn't have a ton MORE faults gives an idea of how fast she was going when I let her go :) Passed the vet check no problem and after a walk and a bath (or two :) her temp and respiration were back to normal in a reasonable amount of time. Yeah pony!
I was still feeling pretty out of it, although by this point adrenaline was fighting with whatever was slowing me down - and winning. Food and liquids helped, so by the time it was time to pack up and drive home again I was feeling more normal. My best guess is probably dehydrated (ie - stupid *sigh*), but will never know for sure.
Athena got back on the trailer for the ride home and away we went. Got home exhausted and happy.
So overall - more than 9h of driving today to compete for less than 15 mins. Worth it? Totally.
Time to cut the grass!
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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So with riding the tendency is to improve greatly, plateau for a bit - which is frustrating, and then go backwards - which is far worse. The only plus side to this -- is when you leap OFF the plateau and start climbing your way back up again, it's pretty amazing :)
Athena and I have been on the plateau before. I've been there in the past - I recognize it; I know it's normal; that doesn't make it any easier. And then we slid backwards. Fast. My "almost ready to upgrade" suddenly was barely even managing to trot fences safely *sigh*
But we got off the downhill slide and back to where we'd been before in time for Will O Wind last week. That experience has its own post :) So after WoW we took it easy for a day or two and then started back to work. And we were pretty much back on our frustrating plateau.
Then Friday rolled around... And for a whole variety of reasons (not the least of which was our atrocious showing on Saturday) I deemed it dressage day and dressed accordingly. Athena was exceptionally stressed while I was tacking up. She's always a *little* high-anxiety, but this was way more than usual, so I figured I was in for a ride-and-a-half. But when I got on, she settled right away. Sweet. So my coach arrived and I explained what had happened in dressage and talked for a bit about the jumping (he'd seen the video - yeah social media!). And then we got to work.
OMG was that lesson ever *intense*. Seriously detail-oriented, every stride, and even some off-horse work. The end result? Dressage way beyond anything I'd ever thought Athena would be capable of. The kinda stuff Zel could do in her sleep, but Athena struggles to even come close to. And I felt I was riding *really* well. So I was pretty stoked about that too :) As my coach put it "just wanted to push you to the next level" - yeah. I'm good with that.
And then today I took her to the Leslie Law clinic at Eventing Canada. And really - horses don't care what a superstar rider you were the day before. They want to know what you can do today. For better or for worse :) She warmed up acceptably; not brilliant but not horrible -- she was relaxed, but not really through or bending. In the warm-up Leslie's focus was on accuracy of aids -- he reviewed the various rein aids and made sure all the horses were moving well off the leg. Sound like dressage? Yup, she was a little stiff after yesterday, but mostly all good.
And then we started canter poles. And it fell apart. As, let's be honest, it generally does when we try to do canter poles. Soft and ok on the turn, good over the first one, grab bit and charge to the ground. hmmmm Ok try again. This time break to trot. *sigh* Try again. Grab bit earlier and charge. Trip over pole. Break to trot. Lovely. So finally I gave up and asked if there was anything I should try... The response? "I'm going to get on her." Very kewl. hahaha I love when clinicians get on my horse -- it never used to happen with Zel, but I've had a couple since then that they'd get on :) Anyways - I have to admit I was glad to see her be a little snarky to him too :) Even threw a couple bucks *g* hahaha But once they finished their discussion, he got her going nicely on the flat and then tried the poles... And crashed into a tree afterwards. Or two. hahaha but eventually he had her cantering through the poles in a reasonable fashion -- not *good* yet, but reasonable. He rode her for significantly longer than I would've expected. And when I got on I had a MUCH softer horse. Sweet. He had me focus on a stronger hand with a softer elbow -- a good combination as it worked out brilliantly. It took a few tries, but soon enough she was cantering through the poles and over the jumps like a pro-star. We even managed to fit 9 strides in a 7 :) I won't say it was 100% perfect -- there *might've* been a broken pole... Oops :) But other than that, she was a complete superstar. I was pretty thrilled. HUGE thanks to Kirby for grooming for me today and Arthur for hosting!
So yes, after a long while that's one show and two lessons that seem to imply things are finally going the direction they should be. Yeah!!!! Off to Equus tomorrow :)
Oh and the subject line? See this post from my working student days :)
WE JUMPED ALL THE THINGS!!!!
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Alright dear reader -- grab some popcorn and settle in, as today's story - like all the best stories - actually starts several weeks ago.
That's right - today's story started the day after I sent in my entries to Will O Wind. That was the day Athena's brain fell out her ear. *sigh* Athena had done Grandview and the Lucinda Green clinic and was jumping really well, so I figured we'd be good to go to upgrade. And then all of a sudden we were completely out of control over fences. And while eventers may have a bit of a reputation as, well... Flat out yahoos :)
The truth of the matter is, most of us realize we actually need *more* control to jump solid obstacles safely at speed -- not less. So when all-of-a-sudden my horse is grabbing the bit and CHARGING at fences and then throwing herself over them with, shall-we-say, less-than-traditional form, upgrading suddenly seems like an absolutely horrific idea *sigh* So we spent a week on trot to the fence, jump, land, halt. Sometimes even trot to the fence, halt, reinback, trot, jump, land, halt. (not my favourite exercise since I don't like to ever stop a horse in front of a fence, but at very least this horse is honest about jumping!) Understand -- that halt at times was taking up to 10 strides! That's very not acceptable.
So after about a week of that she was starting to rebalance herself and charge a whole lot less, so we started adding in canter work -- which actually went remarkably well. The constant halts after the fences made it so she'd land and listen -- so half-halts became a legitimate option. Sweet. So we spent a week mixing up land-halt with land-balance-canter away. And it was almost getting civilized again.
BUT, now less than a week from the show. We've never jumped a PT height course. We've never jumped related distances without building them up slowly. And our off-property experiences haven't been excellent. I was a little concerned. Fortunately my coach found said concern to be valid and arranged for an off-property jump school at a place with a reasonable show-jump course. Only down side? The only time we could meet was for a 7am lesson. You're not new here.
However, such is life. So we bring her out and he's set a course at PT height + a bit with an in-and-out, a triple (incl scary planks!), and a few random jumps. There are two smaller, less-interesting ones, that are clearly meant to be warmup fences. So we mimicked the show environment as best we could with one ring to work with -- she did get to see the fences as we warmed up, but she only got to jump the two uninteresting ones before doing the course. Including both lines. And you know what? She was awesome. High and looky, but tuned in and allowing me to make the executive decisions. Even though I, I have to admit, was not riding my finest. So that was a HUGE confidence boost, and suddenly I felt we might survive our upgrade.
Ok, so then we get to Thursday. Which went just fine except right before I was going to go home my puppy and I collided. End result -- a puffy eye I couldn't see out of :( Booo on that. Fortunately by Friday the swelling had gone down and I was just left looking like a make-up artist gone horribly wrong. I also had a wicked head-ache. Thanks to said headache, I did not sleep well Friday night and when my alarm went off at 5:30 I was already awake. If you don't understand the significance of that, see above >;-P
So Saturday morning I was less than thrilled about this idea. Temp supposed to be 30deg and sunny -- discounting the humidex. Lovely, except for riding a black horse who's not uber-fit. And my xc was scheduled for 3:46 -- right when it should be good and hot. Still had said headache, so dealing with loading my horse was going to be less than fun. AND, being an upgrade, I knew I'd have to make the ride -- which I simply didn't feel like doing *sigh* I also knew there were almost 40 people in my class; most of whom are team-level pros mounted on very nice babies that they're bringing along. And Athena simply doesn't have the movement to compete with that in dressage so we're already starting at a disadvantage. And when you're tired and not feeling well and grumpy and hugely competitive -- that's enough to make it seem like you should go back to bed. But I wasn't sleeping anyways, soooo....
Off we went. Paula took care of the barn for me today so I could escape and Chelsea spent all day in the sun grooming for me. I have the most awesome students :) Got there with lots of time and there was a huge amount of parking, so that was excellent. She was a little dancy while I tacked up for dressage, but not too horrid. Got a little lost trying to figure out what path horses were supposed to take to get to dressage world (I knew how to get people there, but that path said no horses...) but eventually we got there, way earlier than I probably should have. She warmed up super-well, but we had time and I didn't want to exhaust her (not as fit as I'd like and super hot remember?). So I gave her a break for a bit, chatted with some people, watched some tests. All good :) And when it was really time, warmed her up again. And she was great! Forward and through and round and connected. Sweet.
And then we went in the ring. In my *entire* eventing career I have had exactly ONE test that was worse than what we did today. Remember that whole grab-the-bit-and-charge thing? Yeah, it suddenly made an appearance in dressage. We trotted up the centre-line beautifully. And left her brain at about G. Tracked left and she grabbed the reins and tried to dive over the dressage ring. Frig. There will be NO getting eliminated in dressage. They might not let us jump! So forget nice quiet subtle aids, that was nearly a pully-rein you WILL stay in the ring. Well that was the highlight. *sigh* Our circles were neither round nor the size they should be -- I swear one of them had a diagonal in it! Seriously - try that on purpose some time -- it's an interesting challenge! There was leaning and falling and pulling and at least once more we had another attempt at the interesting cavelletti exercise set up. We did have the odd moment that was almost acceptable -- but if the judge blinked she would've missed it. I actually apologized to her after the test. It was *that* bad. And remember -- the last horse I campaigned seriously would pull 9s on almost every test. So after that, this was both embarrassing and appalling. I had figured we wouldn't be seriously competitive in dressage just because of her movement limitations, but I HAD at least expected to put in a reasonable middle-of-the-pack test. This... Not so much :(
Alright well now we are out of the competition. May as well have some fun. Got Athena untacked and bathed and then went to walk the course. Stadium was what I'd been concerned about, so went there first. It was in-progress, so no walking but I could watch it. And I have to say -- if I could've set my absolutely IDEAL course for this horse, that's exactly what it would've been. And all of a sudden, I was actually looking forward to stadium. A combination of my stadium round at Grandview was fun (that never happens!) and that this was so perfect for what we needed to school (which, given our dressage, was all we were going to do today anyways). My concern about related distances was negated by the fact that there weren't any *g* And it was a super-twisty course. Which means land-balance-turn. Exactly what she needed. But not ONLY was it super-twisty, the ring was HUGE. So if you didn't want to turn tight (or, perchance, ended up going a little faster than technically ideal), you didn't have to. I heard a lot of comments from other people about the turns -- esp 1-2 and 2-3, but really it was riding well for the lower levels and for almost every turn you could buy a ton of space if you wanted to.
Ok, starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the whole upgrade thing. Go walk cross and come back grinning :) Fence one = log. Not even a big log. Absolutely perfect start to xc. Fence 2 = slightly raised log. Took me a little to find fence 3, esp as two riders doing PE came through back to back so I was trying to stay out of the way :) Fence 3 was a lovely little stone wall in the tree-line that had the optical illusion of a scary drop after it, but it really was just an illusion and a couple strides to 3B - a little cabin on a slightly bending line. Cool. Get to think a bit, but nothing so big she couldn't easily trot it. And the distance was text-book. Then our first nice long gallop of the day, which I was mentally thinking Athena could trot if she needed to :) Fence 4 was our first actually maxed fence, but it was an easy roll-top (and tbh, maxed PT is still trotable for Athena). The trick here is that the next one is an open ditch. Far enough away that they weren't actually related, but close enough that I'd really need that land-balance concept working. Followed that by a decent sized bench in the treeline. Then the second lovely gallop (aka trot) down the hill and back up the other side. Here was a small and easy set of logs on top of the hill. Only thing here is I once had a really nasty run-in with the T fence right next to it that even though it was several years ago, made me really consider this one. But honestly, no matter how I evaluated it, stupid-history aside there was nothing scary about the fence. Down the hill around a corner to a slightly raised log with some flowers under it. Ok np. Back up the hill to another slightly raised log. Only thing... this one has a BFD under it... (ummmm translation - Big ... Ditch; a takeoff on the ever-traditional BFJ that should be on every course :) Uh oh. So Athena's never jumped a trakehner before... hmmmmm but it was carefully disguised -- she'd see the ditch only about one stride out. For better or for worse :) Ok, mental note made. Next was a trip to the water -- the water itself was actually optional. For the best line to fence 10, you had to go through it. But you could skirt it and jump 10 on an angle... 11 was a tiny up-bank. The only thing I wanted to consider there was that it was skinny with a spook factor on one side (the bigger bank :). Bending line to a tiny cabin type thing (I think? -- memory's a little fuzzy here but it was a little jump that I knew would ride easily). So I mentally decided that if my horse was feeling tired or lagging we would retire at this point. By here she would've seen all of banks, ditches, related distances and water and finished on something easy. Fair enough. But on the off chance she was good to go, I continued my walk. 13 was a random log -- only thing there was it was about a stride after the tree-line, so a bit of a spook/add factor. 14 was a line of houses - again, text-book striding. Another long gallop to 15 -- one of the few maxed fences, and 16 was just a quick curve away and also maxed -- both of these were pointing directly towards home though so no real concern except for fitness. But overall a super-inviting and fair course. Perfect for an upgrade. And suddenly I was really looking forward to the rest of my day :)
And then I got back just in time to get to actually WALK stadium. What a luxury! Went back -- poor Chelsea had been hanging out with Athena all this time! It's boring being the only extra person at a show! But she was still smiling :)
Had a bit of time to chill and then tack up for stadium. She was a little sticky in the warm-up, hesitating and then over-jumping, but it got better as we went...
Then in we went. I was SO proud of her. We had a bit of a discussion to fence three, and on landing from fence three. So I opted to trot fence four -- partially so we could make the turn and partially to make a point. Schooling after all :) She also really didn't want to give me the right lead -- that I didn't pick on at all; I know the left hind is weak so I didn't stress about it. She was balanced and maintained a rhythm and that's what counted. Mostly she was just backed off enough to be rideable. What really impressed me was the one fence she did lock-in on (after 6 we were supposed to jump and bend left, but she locked in on the fence to the right) she let me renegotiate a change of direction. HUGE improvement from the disaster that was a couple weeks ago. I was pretty happy after that round :) Not yet pretty by any means, but under control and safe -- and jumping clear! A reasonable start. On a minor note -- they have to start making armbands that go smaller! Mine was on the tightest setting and fell off >;-P And there are a lot of riders out there smaller than I (like my entire competitive team :). hahaha -- I tied it in knots before going xc cause it was a *slight* distraction *g*
Amazingly Athena wasn't terribly stressed by stadium -- we took her back and bathed her, but it wasn't totally necessary; not nearly as hot as after dressage. PE XC had had some challenges, and as a result XC was starting half an hour after the posted time. While I usually prefer tight times, since I was still pretty concerned about her fitness level, the extra half hour was good recovery time for her. And I was thrilled that she was drinking all day.
So I deemed XC warm-up less necessary. I didn't want to waste what jumps we had left. We cantered around a bit and hopped the vertical a few times -- again, very sticky at first but gaining confidence each time. Never did do the oxer *g* Fortunately we had two good ones in a row just after the 2-minute warning and got to the start box confident and ready to go.
The first two fences on XC were very sticky. They were super-inviting but I still needed a seriously defensive "this is NOT optional" type ride. Got over them though and landing from two she booked it *g* Sadly I had to bring her back to trot fairly quickly as the 3AB combination had earned my respect. But after that I let her have the run to four. I started to bring her back ridiculously early though -- and glad of it since it took probably 15 strides to get her to rebalance and listen. Ditch was a non-issue. We trotted it, but I'm not even sure that was necessary. Bench was little more than a speedbump *g* I DID get all responsible and make her trot down the next hill, we then had a very reasonable canter to the one at the top. Fence 8 I rode really defensively as though it had a giant ditch under it. Sitting in the back seat, kept her head up, serious leg on, etc. And she jumped it and I could just feel her roll her eyes like "what was that all about?" But it meant when we went to 9, which looked very similar to 8 at first, and I gave the SAME ride -- she didn't question it. Until she took off. hahaha then we kinda defied the laws of physics. In the air she saw the GIANT-HORSE-EATING-PIT underneath her and I swear she levitated. We somehow got higher than her initial propulsion would've allowed. And she landed and booked it. We were getting away from those monsters as fast as possible! hahaha but that's ok -- I let her run till the end of the field then brought her back to the trot for the water. She really had NO interest in getting her toes wet -- methinks we need to do some water schooling. But was all-for jumping the bench out on a random angle with a one-stride approach. hahaha All good. She actually did consider shying at the tiny bank, but being as it was a tiny bank and we were trotting, and I was expecting it -- it didn't take much to redirect her up instead of around. Jumped 12 and then we were at the decision point. She *felt* awesome -- it was only really in my head that she wasn't fit enough. But I decided I'd let her make the choice -- allowed her to go but didn't make her... And we were OFF. hahaha flew across that field in an awesome rhythmical, albeit way-too-fast-for-PT pace. Had to fight to get her back for the next jump, but she DID listen. Woohoo! I did ask her to trot for a bit after the 14 combo (which I *really* had to ride), partially cause I was worried about her and partially cause I was pretty sure even with the trots we were too fast -- turns out that last part wasn't quite right, we ended up 2 seconds slow :( Bad rider. Regardless, we flew over the last two fences, locked on and taking me to them :) Got to the vet -- she was hot yes, but her respiration and heartrate dropped almost right away. And the awesome people at Will O Wind had water troughs at the end of the finish line, so I'd asked Chelsea to bring our buckets over so I untacked Athena there and we gave her a few quick baths till I was sure she was cool. Only down side to that was the very LONG walk back carrying all the gear! hahaha
But yes, overall I was absolutely thrilled. Our dressage... UGH. But admittedly even on her best day she wouldn't've been entirely competitive in that group, so if we're going to screw it up - that's the day to do it. But I couldn't've been happier with the way she jumped. Even now, hours later, I'm still grinning :)
That's right - today's story started the day after I sent in my entries to Will O Wind. That was the day Athena's brain fell out her ear. *sigh* Athena had done Grandview and the Lucinda Green clinic and was jumping really well, so I figured we'd be good to go to upgrade. And then all of a sudden we were completely out of control over fences. And while eventers may have a bit of a reputation as, well... Flat out yahoos :)
The truth of the matter is, most of us realize we actually need *more* control to jump solid obstacles safely at speed -- not less. So when all-of-a-sudden my horse is grabbing the bit and CHARGING at fences and then throwing herself over them with, shall-we-say, less-than-traditional form, upgrading suddenly seems like an absolutely horrific idea *sigh* So we spent a week on trot to the fence, jump, land, halt. Sometimes even trot to the fence, halt, reinback, trot, jump, land, halt. (not my favourite exercise since I don't like to ever stop a horse in front of a fence, but at very least this horse is honest about jumping!) Understand -- that halt at times was taking up to 10 strides! That's very not acceptable.
So after about a week of that she was starting to rebalance herself and charge a whole lot less, so we started adding in canter work -- which actually went remarkably well. The constant halts after the fences made it so she'd land and listen -- so half-halts became a legitimate option. Sweet. So we spent a week mixing up land-halt with land-balance-canter away. And it was almost getting civilized again.
BUT, now less than a week from the show. We've never jumped a PT height course. We've never jumped related distances without building them up slowly. And our off-property experiences haven't been excellent. I was a little concerned. Fortunately my coach found said concern to be valid and arranged for an off-property jump school at a place with a reasonable show-jump course. Only down side? The only time we could meet was for a 7am lesson. You're not new here.
However, such is life. So we bring her out and he's set a course at PT height + a bit with an in-and-out, a triple (incl scary planks!), and a few random jumps. There are two smaller, less-interesting ones, that are clearly meant to be warmup fences. So we mimicked the show environment as best we could with one ring to work with -- she did get to see the fences as we warmed up, but she only got to jump the two uninteresting ones before doing the course. Including both lines. And you know what? She was awesome. High and looky, but tuned in and allowing me to make the executive decisions. Even though I, I have to admit, was not riding my finest. So that was a HUGE confidence boost, and suddenly I felt we might survive our upgrade.
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| High and looking, but still jumping! |
So Saturday morning I was less than thrilled about this idea. Temp supposed to be 30deg and sunny -- discounting the humidex. Lovely, except for riding a black horse who's not uber-fit. And my xc was scheduled for 3:46 -- right when it should be good and hot. Still had said headache, so dealing with loading my horse was going to be less than fun. AND, being an upgrade, I knew I'd have to make the ride -- which I simply didn't feel like doing *sigh* I also knew there were almost 40 people in my class; most of whom are team-level pros mounted on very nice babies that they're bringing along. And Athena simply doesn't have the movement to compete with that in dressage so we're already starting at a disadvantage. And when you're tired and not feeling well and grumpy and hugely competitive -- that's enough to make it seem like you should go back to bed. But I wasn't sleeping anyways, soooo....
Off we went. Paula took care of the barn for me today so I could escape and Chelsea spent all day in the sun grooming for me. I have the most awesome students :) Got there with lots of time and there was a huge amount of parking, so that was excellent. She was a little dancy while I tacked up for dressage, but not too horrid. Got a little lost trying to figure out what path horses were supposed to take to get to dressage world (I knew how to get people there, but that path said no horses...) but eventually we got there, way earlier than I probably should have. She warmed up super-well, but we had time and I didn't want to exhaust her (not as fit as I'd like and super hot remember?). So I gave her a break for a bit, chatted with some people, watched some tests. All good :) And when it was really time, warmed her up again. And she was great! Forward and through and round and connected. Sweet.
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| Pretty dressage warm-up |
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| Our one acceptable moment in dressage |
Ok, starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the whole upgrade thing. Go walk cross and come back grinning :) Fence one = log. Not even a big log. Absolutely perfect start to xc. Fence 2 = slightly raised log. Took me a little to find fence 3, esp as two riders doing PE came through back to back so I was trying to stay out of the way :) Fence 3 was a lovely little stone wall in the tree-line that had the optical illusion of a scary drop after it, but it really was just an illusion and a couple strides to 3B - a little cabin on a slightly bending line. Cool. Get to think a bit, but nothing so big she couldn't easily trot it. And the distance was text-book. Then our first nice long gallop of the day, which I was mentally thinking Athena could trot if she needed to :) Fence 4 was our first actually maxed fence, but it was an easy roll-top (and tbh, maxed PT is still trotable for Athena). The trick here is that the next one is an open ditch. Far enough away that they weren't actually related, but close enough that I'd really need that land-balance concept working. Followed that by a decent sized bench in the treeline. Then the second lovely gallop (aka trot) down the hill and back up the other side. Here was a small and easy set of logs on top of the hill. Only thing here is I once had a really nasty run-in with the T fence right next to it that even though it was several years ago, made me really consider this one. But honestly, no matter how I evaluated it, stupid-history aside there was nothing scary about the fence. Down the hill around a corner to a slightly raised log with some flowers under it. Ok np. Back up the hill to another slightly raised log. Only thing... this one has a BFD under it... (ummmm translation - Big ... Ditch; a takeoff on the ever-traditional BFJ that should be on every course :) Uh oh. So Athena's never jumped a trakehner before... hmmmmm but it was carefully disguised -- she'd see the ditch only about one stride out. For better or for worse :) Ok, mental note made. Next was a trip to the water -- the water itself was actually optional. For the best line to fence 10, you had to go through it. But you could skirt it and jump 10 on an angle... 11 was a tiny up-bank. The only thing I wanted to consider there was that it was skinny with a spook factor on one side (the bigger bank :). Bending line to a tiny cabin type thing (I think? -- memory's a little fuzzy here but it was a little jump that I knew would ride easily). So I mentally decided that if my horse was feeling tired or lagging we would retire at this point. By here she would've seen all of banks, ditches, related distances and water and finished on something easy. Fair enough. But on the off chance she was good to go, I continued my walk. 13 was a random log -- only thing there was it was about a stride after the tree-line, so a bit of a spook/add factor. 14 was a line of houses - again, text-book striding. Another long gallop to 15 -- one of the few maxed fences, and 16 was just a quick curve away and also maxed -- both of these were pointing directly towards home though so no real concern except for fitness. But overall a super-inviting and fair course. Perfect for an upgrade. And suddenly I was really looking forward to the rest of my day :)
And then I got back just in time to get to actually WALK stadium. What a luxury! Went back -- poor Chelsea had been hanging out with Athena all this time! It's boring being the only extra person at a show! But she was still smiling :)
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| Chelsea and Athena |
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| Stadium w/u - over jumping just a little :) |
Amazingly Athena wasn't terribly stressed by stadium -- we took her back and bathed her, but it wasn't totally necessary; not nearly as hot as after dressage. PE XC had had some challenges, and as a result XC was starting half an hour after the posted time. While I usually prefer tight times, since I was still pretty concerned about her fitness level, the extra half hour was good recovery time for her. And I was thrilled that she was drinking all day.
So I deemed XC warm-up less necessary. I didn't want to waste what jumps we had left. We cantered around a bit and hopped the vertical a few times -- again, very sticky at first but gaining confidence each time. Never did do the oxer *g* Fortunately we had two good ones in a row just after the 2-minute warning and got to the start box confident and ready to go.
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| XC warm-up |
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| Athena on XC |
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| When all was said and done... |
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