Hunter Creek Classic 2025: Amateur Hours

After our disastrous last show in April, and for this being our second rated show, I wanted a lower stress show so Cinder and I dropped back down to the 2'-23" long stirrup division for the Hunter Creek Classic. The division ran Friday-Saturday, with an open schooling round before each day that Trainer M took her in. 

All pro pics from McCool Photography

To be honest, I was completely stressed out Friday and don't really remember much. We had our two division rounds and the under saddle. I know in our first round, as we cantered across a right to left diagonal to the long approach single, I pulled too much with my right rein and Cinder gave me a lead change about a stride in front of the fence, so when we went in for our second trip all I thought was "do not pull the right rein" and we didn't have a swap. 

There were three of us in the over fences classes, and four in the flat, and we placed third in all three classes. Yay consistency? The other horses were all very nice, well seasoned schoolmasters so I'm not mad about placing behind them. And the judge took pity on us in the flat and had us trot half a lap, canter half a lap, reverse and repeat so it was the shortest flat class I've ever done. Thank you mister judge!

I was able to get my nerves under control for Saturday, and actually enjoy my rides. In our first round, Cinder decided to book it to a single on the far outside, but I managed to hold her to a deep distance instead of the flyer she wanted to take. That took all of her energy, she was tired and missed a lead change in our second round, but since there were five in my classes that day, we actually beat people and snagged a third and fourth. 

Sunday was Derby Day! My nerves were once again in full effect Sunday, and it didn't help that the walk for the derby was at the same time I needed to get ready, and that the other person from my barn was doing her 0.90m classic. I started walking before Trainer M made it over, but we had enough time to talk about some of the turns and approaches I had questions on. 

maiden voyage for the shadbelly

I was really happy with our classic phase, she was in front of my leg and listening and landed every lead. We scored a 74. Our handy wasn't as great, as the turns backed her off a bit and we missed two lead changes and scored a 53. I probably should have worn spurs, but oh well. We did manage to pull off a 4th out of 7. 

I was so happy will how well Cinder ended the week, considering the first few days were a little hairy. You could see her learn and relax each day and I think she really got the gist of rated horse showing. 

Hunter Creek Classic 2025: Pro Days

 Our summer show plans were slightly interrupted by Cinder's shockwave sessions. We had originally planned to haul in to one of the local rated shows for a day or two the week of her first shockwave, but USEF rules prevent the use of shockwave 3 days before showing. She got shocked on a Wednesday, so we would have been ok to haul in for Sunday, but we decided to wait to see how she'd handle the shockwave. And it was a good thing we did because a massive storm rolled in that weekend dumping rain and dropping temps by 25 degrees. 

All photos from McCool Photography. This show charges a $50 per entry photography fee and you get all digital downloads for free. It's one office fee I'm happy to pay. Cinder and Trainer M

The only other rated show series in Oregon cancelled their two weeks of showing, and our local venue picked up one of the weeks. They were already scheduled to host an outreach show that weekend that I was planning on going to, but I decided to switch to the rated show to give Cinder more experience. This would be her second rated show and since (spoiler alert) we're going to Tbird next week, I wanted to get her out at a rated venue for the exposure. 

There was one other amateur showing at the rated show from our barn, so the two of us took all our tack and show set up over on Monday and prepped the stalls. Both of us had work commitments and couldn't make it out on Tuesday so Trainer M hauled the girls over and schooled them for us. I got a report that Cinder spent the first 15 minutes rearing and spinning, then was perfectly well behaved once she started jumping. 

Trainer M entered Cinder in the USHJA 2'6" hunters on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a schooling round before the division classes. Wednesday was the hottest day of the year (so far) so the show tried to start early and Cinder's projected show time was 9:40. I busted my ass at work for two hours then drove like a madwomen the 1hr+ to the show, only to see that people hadn't gotten their asses in gear and her class had been pushed back an hour. Which of course created a conflict with the other horse from our barn who was showing in the jumpers. After sweet talking the back gate people, we got our order of go settled and everything worked out. 

Cinder warmed up well, and their schooling round was pretty nice, earning an 6th out of 12. In their second trip, first round for the division, Cinder spooked at people clapping and hooting at the derby ring and bolted across the diagonal line. In her third trip, she spooked at a guy on an electric bike, stopping and then running sideways, causing Trainer M to have to circle. I told her as they came out of the ring that she's supposed to get better with every round, not worse. But that's why we came to this show, to get experience and to get her out. 

Thursday Cinder seemed a little more settled and they again had a schooling round and two division rounds, plus the under saddle. They pulled out a third in the schooling round, but missed a lead change in each of the division rounds. They did manage to snag an 8th in one of the rounds. But Cinder didn't spook and was much more comfortable in the ring which is what we were going for. The under saddle went really well and she earned a 4th out of some very nice horses. Despite her antics the day before, I was happy with how much Cinder learned and grew with each round, and with Trainer M's rides. 

OHJA Medal Finals: Day 1

OHJA medal finals are held over two days, and have three phases. Phase one (a written knowledge test) and phase two (over fences) are held on Friday and phase three (a flat phase for the 2'3" and 2'6" medals, over fences for the higher medals) are on Saturday. The finals are held during a regular rated show, but I only did medal finals. The show was held about 20mins from the barn, and Maya has shown there a ton, so we decided to haul her in for those two days. 

We were supposed to take our written test between 7:30-9:30 Friday morning, and of course my round wasn't scheduled to go till 4:30pm. So I headed over to the show around 8, took the test, and watched a few short stirrup rounds go. There had been a study session held at the show on Wednesday night that I went to and was initially irritated by because it lasted all of 20mins, but the test was the exact questions they gave us at the session so it worked out. I got a perfect 10/10.

Everything was wet because it rained Thursday night and on and off on Friday

 I then went to the barn, hung out, cleaned, and organized my shit before we loaded Maya up around 2 to head over. Maya is a great traveler and was content to hang out in the trailer with a hay net while Trainer M and I watched the bigger medal classes and ate lunch. They opened up the course around 3 for a combined walk for the mini and foundation medals. We walked, made our plan then headed over to the trailer to start getting ready. 

All pro photos from McCool Photography. The show office charges each entry $35 for photos and you get digital downloads of all your pics. 

Trainer M hopped on Maya first, as she can sometimes be a bit spunky at the shows, and M would rather ride her through it instead of lunging her. Once I got on the nerves started to get to me a little. It didn't help that Maya was a little annoyed with me and tried to buck a couple of times. I was riding in her owner's saddle, that has a much deeper seat than mine, and I felt like I was sitting in a hole and slightly behind her motion. I was trying to be more in a half seat, but couldn't quite find my balance. We jumped a few fences, then went to watch a couple of rounds, planning on jumping one or two more right before going in. 

There was a posted order of go, but as the way of hunter ring, there was an open gate for about five minutes. I asked Trainer M if I could just go and get it over with, instead of sitting there letting my anxiety increase. She agreed, the back gate guy gave his blessing and off we went. I felt Maya perk up a bit, and once we picked up our canter she became all business. She really listened to me and was right with me every stride. I liked that the course was twisty as it gave me more to focus on instead of a lot of long straight lines. We landed every lead, and most of the distances came up well. I know I half halted a bit too strongly coming around the corner to fence 3, but otherwise everything else rode really, really well. It was honestly one of the best rounds I've ever ridden. I had given my phone to a friend to video, but it unfortunately died just after my round started so no video. 

We ended up with a 76, so combined with my 10 from the written test, we had an 86 earning us second out of thirteen. I was so beyond happy with our round and honestly don't think I could have done any better on Cinder, or if I had ridden Maya more. Maya got a lot of cookies while we untacked and cleaned her up, and then we headed home ready for round three the next day. 
 

Team NW Bedrock Show August 2019: Day Two

To be perfectly honest, I woke up on day two of the show and wasn't feeling it.  I was considering scratching and just packing up and heading home.  But I rallied and told myself to longe Peebs and see what horse I had.  If he was still amped up I'd scratch, but if he seemed like his normal chill self we'd show.

Peebs played and cantered for a good long while on the longe. He doesn't buck but dolphin leaps and strikes out with his front legs. I can usually tell when he's got his crazies out and Sunday was no exception.  He finished playing, let out a snort and was back to his usual Peebs.  So I called my trainer with an estimated time of go and decided to stick it out.

I'm a bad blogger and got zero media from the show so enjoy Cinder and Scottie sharing dinner

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they actually had an interesting eq course for us.  Usually this show does the single/outside line/diagonal/outside/diagonal hunter course for their eq classes but this time they had a short turn to a diagonal fence we hadn't jumped in the other course set almost on the center line bending to an outside fence.  Exciting stuff!

When I got on to warm up Peebs felt like his normal first day at the show self.  Awake and energetic, but not spooky and he was listening to me.  We did have some issues over bending right and drifting left when we schooled over the warm up fence but I'll take that over running through my hands.  My trainer told me to let him go and ride forward, but I was still hesitant from the day before.  Our first round started off behind the pace till the fourth fence when I got myself in gear, but overall it was a decent round.  We did add a stride in the lines even though trainer told me we could have easily made it without the add, if I had let him go.

Our second round was the one with the bending line and while Peebs was behind my leg to the first fence I sat up and pushed him forward to #2 which was the start of the bending line. The line rode really well and I proud of myself for making the decision to push him forward.  I need to stop thinking that because he's short that we have to always do the add and let him flow a bit more.  He's capable of making the strides. We did have rub at the first fence in the diagonal line but I think that was Peebs just being lazy. 

There were 14 in my classes (they combined the juniors and ammys, damn them!) so we didn't place in either class. But considering the day before I was super happy with our progress. We might show in early October, or this might have been our last show for the year, but either way I'm planning on working on letting him go and getting the strides so we can hopefully be more competitive. And if we do this same show next year, and it's the same weekend as the Art and Air Festival, we're hauling up on Friday to avoid the balloon invasion!

Team NW Bedrock Show August 2019: Full of Hot Air

Every year my town hosts a weekend Art and Air festival. They have hot air balloons that take off Friday and Saturday morning and night, as well as Sunday morning. There's also booths with local artists, food, and drink plus bands.  I've seen the hot air balloons flying many times, but for the first time this year some of them landed super close to us.  Like in the field next to my barn close. My BO said in the 10yrs they've been on that property the balloons have never landed there.

My friend took this from her house, but the multicolored balloon and the red/gray one were landing next to my barn

Saturday morning I was hauling Peebs up to a show.  I got to the barn just as the balloons were starting to deflate.  Peebs had a direct line of sight to the balloons from his paddock, and he thought the alien invasion was upon us.  The BO has just fed but for the first time in his life Peeb was too upset to eat. He was standing at the back corner of his paddock with a bite of hay hanging from his mouth staring at the alien invaders. He would sporadically run circles screaming warnings to the other horses who thankfully didn't seem as worried as he was.

I had loaded the trailer Friday night so all I had to do Saturday was hook up and load Peebs, but I decided to toss a longe line in the trailer.  Normally Peebs doesn't need to be longed at shows, but with as upset as he was about the balloons I figured it was a good idea to take the longe line just in case. When we got to the show Peebs happily tucked into his breakfast and I left him alone for while to chill.  The show ended up being huge so we had plenty of time before my classes.  I did decide to longe and as we were waiting for the tractor to finish dragging the longe area a horse also waiting got loose from his kid and took a tour of the jumper warm up arena before running back to us.  He aimed directly at Peebs and I and poor Peebs shot backwards and into the fence. Seriously, not Peebs' day.

When I got on to warm up for my hunter classes Peebs was still a tense, hot mess.  We spent a long time walking around the warm up ring before trotting.  He was looking at everything, trying to find alien invaders or loose horses.  I finally just picked up the canter, got in a half seat, and let him canter it out. It kinda worked.  He was still looky, but started paying attention to me. When he gets like this there is almost no working him down, I could have longed him again for an hour and it wouldn't have made a difference.  So I popped over a warm up jump once each way and called it good.

Peebs was still looky and distracted once we were in the ring but I tried to stay zen about it.  Coming around to the first diagonal line, we had to go past the in gate and Peebs broke to the trot.  I knew kicking him back into the cater would lead to a disorganized zoomy Peebers so I decided to just trot into the line. Peebs apparently thought the aliens were hiding behind the first fence in the line and  got super wiggly and stopped.  I took a deep breath, circled and made it over on the second try.  In our second round I did a better job of anticipating where Peebs was likely to break and kept my leg on.  But our last line was down the long side towards the in gate and Peebs really wanted to be done.  He took a flyer at the first fence, started to charge down the line, and I pulley rein stopped him. I had already written off this day and I figured it was better to school my horse than worry about proper ring etiquette. We once again circled and jumped the fence fine on the second attempt.  I did make Peebs do a big courtesy circle at the end and walk quietly out of the ring.  We did place fifth and fourth in our rounds, out of five.

Originally the plan for the show was to do the hunters on Saturday as I was showing by myself and then do the jumpers Sunday when my trainer was available to school me. I called her Saturday as I was driving to the hotel and explained the day and how I wanted to scratch our jumper classes and do the eq on Sunday instead. She agreed with my new plan and we also decided that Peebs could go for another longe Sunday morning. I had felt pretty upset after my rounds Saturday, but once I had eaten dinner and talked it over with trainer I felt a lot better.  It just wasn't our day but I was happy with how I handled it and we had a plan for  Sunday.

Team NW Bedrock Outreach Show July 2018

Two weeks ago I took Peebs up to the second in a series of 3 USHJA Outreach shows held by one of the local show management companies.  Originally I wasn't planning on doing the July show, just the June and August ones.  But since we did so well at the June one, and they're doing series champion and reserve awards, I decided to go.  We just went up for the hunters on Saturday, instead of doing the whole weekend. 

Peebs hauled up like a champ and settled into his stall perfectly.  I was by myself again and it's so nice to have a horse I don't have to worry about. I gave him hay and water and he was happy as can be. I spent the morning watching some of the trot-a-course and 18" classes go before slowly getting Peebs ready. We had two over fences and an under saddle. They were running an open 2' division, the short stirrup, and the long stirrup all together for a total of like 35+ rounds.  I was scheduled somewhere in the middle of the group. 

This is what happens when your horse is behind your leg and you pull.  Julie Ward Photography, used with permission

I did a little warm up w/t/c and when there was a lull in the warm up arena popped over a couple fences.  Peebs felt a little sticky; not sore or off, but stiff and behind my leg. I figured I would check where in the order my ring was, then do some easy walk trot work to try and loosen him up. But when I got up to check the ring, the woman working the back gate (not our usual woman who I love, but someone new and obviously it was her first time) was panicking because she didn't have anyone ready and there was going to be an open gate.  She asked if I was ready, almost begging me, and I panicked and said yes.

When you've already been waiting for an hour and you're bored

So needless to say, our first round wasn't great.  Peebs was still behind my leg, and I kept seeing the short spots and pulling for them.  What I should have done was galloped him forward but hindsight is 20/20. It wasn't an awful round, but definitely not what we're capable of. I came out knowing what went wrong, so when we went back for our second round I immediately asked for a more forward canter.  And I was really happy with the round.  We nailed all the distances, did one very nice simple change but otherwise got our leads over the fences, and it felt pretty darn good.  Except for the last fence. I had to move him up just a bit to the first fence in the last line, which was an easy 7 strides, and didn't realize till about stride 5 that I had too much horse for the 7, but not enough for the 6.  I did sit up and shorten him, but that 7th stride was basically a chip. Oops, sorry Peebers.

At least we're consistent?

After our over fences rounds we had an almost two hours till the flat. I pulled his tack and let Peebs have a break while I chatted with people and watched more rounds go. Our flat was nothing special, but he didn't break or canter when we should have been trotting.  We got a 5th out of 6 for it, which I was fine with.  He's not a hack winner. Continuing with the theme, we got got 5ths in both over fences classes. I thought the second round would have been placed higher, but oh well.  I knew what mistakes I made, and what to do next time to fix them. Can't wait till the end of August when we'll be there again!

Team NW Bedrock Show Day Two

Sunday dawned cold and cloudy.  It felt like the temperature had dropped 10-15 degrees from the day before and I was slightly worried that Peebs would be feeling the affects.  But again, I didn't need to worry.  I fed breakfast and unwrapped and groomed while he ate.  We then went for a walk down the rings to see the order of go and figure out approximately when I would ride.  Not only was Peebs super lazy just hand walking to the ring, he kept trying to stop and eat stall decorations and the grass along the edge of the walkway.  

Master of the baby fences

Warm up wasn't great.  It started sprinkling and the wind picked up just when I got on and Peebs wasn't happy with his head getting wet.  There was some major head shaking going on, but princess pony finally got over it. By the time we started jumping it stopped.  Trainer really had me focus on getting him straight to fence and not letting his hind end drift sideways.  The warm up fences were set in the middle of a big open ring so we had no rail to help guide us.  It's the first time I've ridden or jumped him in such a ring and it really showed off our weaknesses.  After three or four times of me asking Peebs to move off my right leg, he started getting pissed and decided to canter and launch at the fence.  I stopped him hard and tried again, but we were both mad at each other.  Trainer yelled to take a walk and calm down.  After a lap she had me come back to fence, off the left (our good side) and Peebs trotted it like no big deal.  And we were straight!! 

 

We had two rounds over fences and it was the same course for each round.  Our first round was very nice, he trotted the first fence but jumped everything after that.  Coming into the first outside line, he felt a bit bold to me but I contained him down the line.  Trainer said it was the correct pace, not the little baby pace and I stride that I like.  Guess I have to get more comfortable with the open stirde! The second round wasn't quite a good, we had a bit of a drunken sailor moment off the first fence on the quarter line when he landed on the wrong lead and wanted to fall in.  Our flat was an eq class and my whole focus was keeping my hands up and quiet and shoulders back.  We nabbed a third and fourth over fences, and a fourth on the flat. Good pony Peebers!!

Much photogenic. Very thrilled.

It started raining again as we ended the flat class, but by the time we got back to the barn and untacked it stopped.  Between the rain, sweat, wind, and an ice fill show shirt I was freezing.  I ended up wearing jeans over my breeches and a sweatshirt and vest over my show shirt once we were done.  My friend BS came up to watch and we got burritos and watched the jumper ring for a bit.  After about an hour we were both cold enough to call it quits and she helped me pack everything up before she left.  I closed out at the show office and loaded Peebs up and headed home.

Team NW Bedrock Show Day One

This is what I saw Friday night before our show. Icky, nasty, poopy pony legs.  He got washed, twice, with Dawn and thankfully I didn't actually need to use the pony spray paint.

Friday night I spent at the barn, sleeping in the office/music room attached to barn.  My BO was out of town and had left their dogs in the office for the weekend for boarders to let out and feed.  By spending the night Friday, I could feed and let the dogs out and hook up and load the truck Friday and not have to do it first thing Saturday. They have a nice futon that I slept on, but I didn't get that much sleep. I could hear the horses moving around and at about 10:30pm one mare had a full on melt down screaming, running, and generally scaring the crap out of me.  I went out and checked on everyone, thinking there must be something wrong, but I couldn't see anything. Needless to stay I was pretty tired when my alarm went off at 5:30 Saturday morning.

I loaded Peebs and we headed off just over an hour north to Hunter Creek Equestrian Park, home to most of the rated shows in Oregon.  We were showing at a local show during the rated show.  When I got there, I didn't see us down on the stall chart so after finding somewhere to park the truck and trailer I scurried off to the show office to get checked in.  Apparently they were waiting to see how many stalls they had before giving me one, which seems a bit sketchy to me especially since I had already mailed a check for entries and stall fees. And of course, the stall I got had a wonky door that you had to kick the bottom of for it to close properly. 

But once I had the stall set up and Peebs settled in my trainer showed up and we got Peebs groomed and tacked up.  I was showing in the 12" trot-a-course and we decided to add a trot pole round before had to get him into the ring.  Which was not needed as Peebs couldn't have cared less about being at a show.  He was almost lazier than he is at home and other than giving the tree on the mound a good look, he didn't seemed fazed at all.

Tiniest jumps ever and scary tree

For our first round over fences, the plan was to trot in and trot out of the lines.  And it was pretty easy to accomplish considering Peebs never actually jumped any of the jumps.  He trotted over all of them and even managed to trip pretty hard on the first fence in the judge's line. I was told in no uncertain terms to add leg at base and make him jump for our second round.  I did, and we cantered the lines.  I hadn't paid attention to what they were set at and I know we added strides, even trotting in, but the lines felt even and flowed well so I was happy.  We had a under saddle to finish the day and let's just say that I have no idea how to ride a u/s class and Peebs will never win the hack.  We finished with a fourth over poles, a fourth and sixth over fences, and a seventh u/s. There were about 10 in the division, all freaking little kids on ponies, so I was happy with how we did.  Considering we were just going around to get mileage and confidence, satin is just icing on the cake!

I put the pony away, parked the rig, watched some junior eq and then proceeded to take a nap in my truck.  Trainer had to head back home for her kids, so once I woke up from my nap I cleaned tack and headed over to check into the hotel.  I then took another nap and went back out to feed and walk around 6.  Peebs seemed perfectly content and not at all upset by being alone at a show, which made me feel great. It's a great feeling to know you can trust your pony not to do anything stupid away from home, and they're going to be the same steady eddie at a show.