Cinder gets Catch Ridden

 There was another schooling jumper night at Heirloom last Saturday, and I had been on the fence about going. Showing in January is not for the faint of heart, and who knew what the weather would be. Then our weekend tech at work was out for medical reasons and I was working six days a week, and was scheduled to work the day after the show, with my one day off in two weeks being the day of the show. I decided to be a responsible adult and not go to the show. Being exhausted and overworked does not set one up for a successful show. 

The Sunday before the show Trainer M texted me asking if I would be ok with another amateur in the barn catch riding Cinder at the show in the .70m classes. J's gelding has a lot of show anxiety, especially at Heirloom as he used to live there, and she's decided to not show him there this year. She was hoping she could catch ride something so she could work on herself in the show ring. I said yes as J is a great rider and I knew she wouldn't be phased by any antics Cinder might throw at her. 

I ended up not having to work the weekend of the show, and decided to head up to watch and play show mom. It was sunny, but below freezing and Cinder was feeling a little spicy. She was a little wound up in warm up and Trainer M ended up getting on her for a bit, but J handled her antics well. She kept asking if she as doing anything wrong and was afraid she was going to ruin Cinder. I had to tell her that while Cinder can be a sensitive little flower sometimes, she's also a little dense and dumb and most things tend to roll right off her back and she'll forget about it immediately. There was zero chance of J ruining her.

The sun was shining pretty harshly through the windows and creating some epic blind spots and shadows and Cinder kept spooking at them, every time she went past. See above about forgetting things immediately. J did circle in their first round (which was a clear round class) at one of the spooks, but kept her forward and continued on fine. About half way through their second round (a speed class), you could see them click and things started to smooth out. Cin did have a rail in the second class at the butterfly fence above when they got in a little deep and she got lazy. They did manage to pull out a 7th in the class out of 12. 

Their third round was a jump off round, and it was their best round. They had a great pace, no spooks, and Cinder was listening and doing everything J asked of her. J is more of a hunter rider and rode a little deeper into her corners and took longer approaches, so they ended up with time faults and didn't make it into the jump off. Those of us from the barn standing at the back gate thought it was bullshit to have a tight time allowed at a schooling show .70m class, but they still earned a 6th. Trainer M told J that she rode the round exactly as it should have been ridden and that she wouldn't have changed a thing. 

I'm so so happy that they ended on a good note. J kept saying how nice Cinder is, and how fun she was to ride. Seeing Cinder make someone else happy and give them a good show experience makes all the issues we've had kind of disappear. It was validating in a way I didn't know I needed. And it also drives home how grown up she is now. To go to a show and get ridden by an amateur who has never ridden her before and have some good rounds is real, adult horse behavior. My little baby horse is all grown up. 

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

 I have a bunch of little things to talk about, but trying to organize them into a coherent post is a bit beyond me at the moment. I've been working 6 days a week for most of the month and I'm not really sure what day it is anymore. So I'm just going to post some pics and talk about them and not worry about connecting the dots. 

Cinder has been in a full cheek Dr. Bristol bit for the last year and a half-ish and we felt like it might be time to drop her down to something a little softer. She does seem to like the copper, so we're trying this French link with a copper middle. So far she seems great in it so fingers crossed she continues to like it. 

One of  Trainer M's clients has a very looky gelding; any new wall/plank/slightly weird looking jump spooks him. So she's started making jumps, especially those that are more on the spooky side. The above wall came out two weeks ago and Cinder gave zero shits. So much so that as I was lunging her before my lesson, she locked onto the wall and jumped it with me waterskiing behind her. Trainer M then asked if I wanted her to get on first and I happily took her up on that offer. 

Cinder also gave zero shits about jumping it when she was actually aimed at it and with a person on her back. This was also the day M and I talked about trying a softer bit on her, which ya know, was a little odd considering she had taken off on the lunge not thirty minutes before, but that's horses. 

It's been cold here so I've broken out our BoT quarter sheet, and I honestly think the sizing for these things is way way off. As you can see, Cinder has quite a bit of booty hanging out of this. It's supposedly a 78, but I'm considering getting an 81. All of Cinder's blankets are 78s and fit perfectly. I threw a friends 81 blanket on her just to see, and it was a bit big. I really like the BoT quarter sheet so I'm on the hunt to try to find a used 81 but so far haven't had any luck. 

Looking Ahead

 The end of December and early January felt like we were in a bit of a holding pattern. Cinder made it obvious she needed a chiro appointment, but due to emergencies for our vet popping up either the day before or the day of all of her appointments, it kept getting pushed back. We kept riding, just doing light stretchy rides until one lesson two weeks ago when she absolutely COULD NOT canter left without feeling like she was going to launch me into the rafters. Thankfully Doc was able to work on her the next day and she feels so much better now. 

While this never happened under saddle, it felt like it could

Trainer M is super organized and has sent out the tentative 2025 show schedule as well as having a show team meeting day in a couple weeks where she spends 20mins with each of us to go over our goals and which shows we want to go to. So obviously I'm looking at our goals and what shows I can afford to go to, which ones I can kinda maybe scrimp and save to go to, and what I would do if I win the lottery. You know, normal equestrian things. 

For the second year in a row Cinder and I were third place in the OHJA Local System Long Stirrup Hunters. Still waiting for a few other year end awards to come in (ahem USHJA Outreach) for a full post

So, here's our tentative 2025 show plans: 

•  Start off in the 2'3" and move up to the 2'6" hunters and eq
• Qualify and compete in the OHJA 2'6' mini medal finals
• Maybe do the  2'6" jr/am derby at one of the local rated shows
• Do one or two rated shows this year
• Possibly go up to TBird in May or July?????
• Big wild goal: Qualify for the USHJA Adult Hunter Finals 
• Even bigger wilder I need to win the lottery goal: Go to Thermal for the Adult Hunter Finals