MDTE September 2024 Show

 Surprise! We went to a horse show. Cinder is finally feeling good enough that I asked my trainer her thoughts of doing a couple classes at the last MDTE show of year. We were in first place for the 2'3" hunters, and in third in the 2', for the circuit awards and as much as I hate being that person, I wanted to point chase. Trainer M thought a few classes would be doable, so off we went. 

Medal Finals participants got these nice glasses and having my morning coffee in them at work reminds me why I have to have a job to pay for these horse shows

To back things up, Cinder was cleared for jumping only two weeks ago. We had been doing a lot of pole work at the walk, and when we started trotting and cantering poles/cavaletti Cinder was quite enthused. Like, I was getting left behind and slightly run away with when we did a line of four trot poles and the first day we started cantering the 1' cavaletti I almost asked for a bigger bit. It was more funny and exciting that Cinder was so obviously happy to be back "jumping" than scary, but I did pull the ammy card and have Trainer M do the first official jumps back on her. But she was a perfect lady and jumped like she's been jumping all summer and didn't have a five month break. 

quick, pre-lesson power nap

Since I hadn't been planning on showing until the last minute, I had scheduled a dental for Peebs and agreed to feed dinner at his barn the day before the show. Trainer M had space in her trailer so she hauled Cinder and schooled her Friday at show without me. I know that's a fairly common occurrence in h/j land, but it felt so indulgent to me to just show up Saturday to the show and have my horse and tack all set up. I got a report that Cinder was foot perfect on Friday, and was even an emotional support horse to another of M's clients whose horse was melting down in the arena while schooling. 

hot mare morning walk

We decided to have Trainer M take Cin in a 2' class to see how she'd do, then have me do a 2'3" round. Cinder warmed up well. She was moving beautifully and hopped over the warm up fences with no problems. M's round went well, minus one corner when she went to rebalance and Cin tried to break to the trot, but they pulled out the win. M hopped off and Cin got a little break while I finished getting ready. 

Spoiler alert

I got on and did a quick walk/trot/canter and jumped like three warm up fences. M had told me the outside lines rode well, but the diagonal line was a little long and that I needed to make sure she was in front of my leg and that I had enough pace to make the six. So of course in our round I saw the waiting, quiet distance to the in of the line and then proceeded to sit there like a sack of potatoes and not make a decision of moving her up or holding for the add. God bless this horse for making the decision for me and getting down the line in a long six. Other than that the round was really nice. She landed all of her leads, we nailed the other lines and found nice distances to the other fences. There were only two in the class and we won. 

With those two rounds we were able to win year end circuit champion in both the 2' and 2'3" hunter divisions. Cinder won two nice leather halters with engraved champion nameplates. Honestly though, the halters were just icing on the cake at that point. Just getting to jump and show my horse again was amazing, and that she felt so good and was so professional and perfect plus winning two championships made the last five months of vet bills and rehab hell worth it. 

Bucket List: Win a Cooler

 Check! With winning the MDT Events series champion, we won a cooler!! 

It's a nice weight, fleece Horze cooler that's a size too big for Cin, but we'll make it work. I'll probably only use it when we go places (gotta show off), or as a blanket for myself in the winter when I'm watching lessons/A ride. 

I tried to convey to Cin how cool this is, and how proud I am of her for winning this, but she was less than impressed and was mad that I wouldn't let her graze while trying to take pics. 

MDT Heirloom Show: October 2023

 We did our last show of the season on Saturday. It was a two day show, but we only decided to do one day as the body worker had already been scheduled for the second day. And despite a few bobbles, I'm really happy with how we ended our season. 

We had originally planned our move up to the 2'3" at this show, doing two rounds at that height plus an under saddle, but the show secretary posted their series points the week before and Cin and I were in the lead for year end champ in the 2'. And, as I told trainer A, I really wanted to point chase and get that series champ. So we ended up doing a 2' round, the 2' under saddle, and then a 2'3" round. 

Our lesson the day before the show

Trainer A was showing her new horse in the 1.0 and 1.10m jumpers earlier in the day, so we hauled over to the show with them and Cinder got to hang out in the trailer while A showed. She was perfect, happily munching her hay and not caring at all when Surelock left. Which was great, because Surelock had a massive meltdown when it was time to switch and he had to stay at the trailer when Cin left. Thankfully show management let A use an empty stall free of charge. Just one more reason we love this show series!

I was hoping the pro photos would be posted, but until they are have a blurry screenshot

 I let my nerves get to me a bit in warm up, but Cinder was foot perfect. Our 2' round was ok, I know I added in all the lines and didn't ride my best, but we nabbed a 3rd out of 7. When we went in for the flat, I heard one of the other trainers telling her kid that "Molly is a great hunter ride, just watch what she does and follow her." and that gave me a big kick in the ass to actually ride like I know what I'm doing. We had an unfortunate break in the right lead canter when I half halted without enough leg, but we still got a second.  

Spoiler alert

We walked around to keep Cin warm while they adjusted for the 2'3" and A asked if I wanted to jump anything else. I said no, but I should have because Cinder clobbered the first fence in our round. Now we know that when we do a warm-up round at a lower height we need to school the bigger height after. I was really, really happy with the rest of round. I did add in the first outside line, but picked up the pace and made the strides in the other line. We rightfully didn't place, but that's ok. Cinder felt like an absolute seasoned pro marching right around and not caring at all about me being a nervous wreck on her back. It was a great way to end our show season.  

MDT Jumper Show: The Great Pumpkin

 Our last show of the year was Sunday, the last in the same series as the September show. This time I and Trainer A were riding Cinder, me in the cross rails and A in the 0.60m. The venue changed, as the facility the September show was held at was sold to become a boat storage facility (which I guess is better than a housing development but still sucks) and we lucked out with good weather for the outdoor arena at the new location. 

I had found a Halloween themed saddle pad/bonnet combo on Etsy, so Cinder and I were going as the great pumpkin. The bonnet ended up being super small and I could barley stuff Cinder's ears into them. Wearing black breeches and a long sleeved t-shirt to show in did make my inner hunter princess a little twitchy, but my inner 10yr old was happy so it was win.

They had some spooky jump decorations including a skeleton with horse head and swinging ghoul. Cinder took a brief look at the horse head guy, but was very good while A warmed her up. I got on and while she felt more jazzed than she normally does we had a decent warm up. I just tried to focus on being relaxed and going with her over the fences. I could feel her switch into ammy mode once she realized I wasn't asking for as much as A had been. She stood quietly at the back gate while we waited our turn and didn't even care when another horse tried to back up into us to avoid going in the ring. 

Photo bought from Impulsion Images.

I expected to be nervous heading in for our first round, but I wasn't. I knew Cinder is more than capable of trotting a course of cross rails, and I'm a decent enough rider to get her around. I was mostly still marveling at how we're actually at the point where we can show, under saddle, together. Anything else was icing on the cake!

 Cinder listened perfectly, came back when I asked, turned when I asked, took a couple crazy angled fences for our speed round, and honestly felt so much older and more experienced than she is. We did have a rail in our first round (I think she got a little lazy), and in our third round I turned too sharply and aimed at the standard so I circled to re-approach, so we ended up with a second, third, and fourth for our efforts.

Also bought from Impulsion Images

A then got back on her and schooled her lightly during the break before the 0.60m. A's also had another student showing in that division and Cinder was happy to stand in the ring while A coached from her back. A was doing two classes, and unfortunately had the same fence down in both. The first time she cut the turn a little tight and Cinder had to leap long at the fence, and the second time A held her out a bit too much and caught the outside standard with her foot. They earned fourths for both of their efforts. 

so thrilled

We had only showed at two of the four shows in this series, but they only held the cross rail classes at those two shows, so Cinder earned herself her first series champion! We won a handmade ceramic mug, a big ass ribbon, and a handful of peppermint candy for Cinder. No better way to end our show season!

Team NW Bedrock Show August 2018

The third and final schooling show in the Team NW Bedrock series was last weekend.  Having done the other two, my main goal was to try for the series champion in the long stirrup hunters. Going into the final show we were sitting in second place in the division. My second goal was to move up to the 2'6" pre-adult division and not die. Both goals were achieved!!

Peebs and Scottie love each other

 My friend A, whose place I haul over to for lessons, was going to be showing as well and my trainer was going to be there for us.  A leased Phoenix for three years, like five years ago, till we had to retire him. She's had her new horse for two years and this was going to be their first show together.  She was very nervous so we decided to haul up Friday so they could school and settle in. Scottie had a little meltdown in his stall when we first got there, but after we lunged and rode he settled in perfectly fine and was a fantastic show horse all weekend. Trainer had me school the 2'6" stuff on Friday night and other than having to pull up in the diagonal line because someone walked on the backside of the oxer as I was in the middle of the line (and after I called my line) everything was great.  It felt easy, I wasn't worried about the fence height, and most importantly, Peebs was more awake and forward over the bigger fences.

The boys enjoying a late night snack and walk

The show runs hunters on Saturday, and equitation classes with some open hunter schooling rounds on Sunday.  The plan was to show in the 2' long stirrup hunters Saturday to get points and then move up to the 2'6" pre-adult eq on Sunday.  Our long stirrup classes went pretty well.  I overshot the turn to the diagonal line in the first course and chipped in but the rest rode smoothly.  Other than having to do a simple change, our second course felt really good.  The only problem was Peebs was less than impressed with the fence height and I felt like I was working too hard to get him awake and around the course. Trainer said that he was bored and it was time to move up.  We got seconds in both our over fences rounds. We ended the division with the under saddle. The judge had us canter the first direction for almost four laps around a pretty good sized ring and Peebs gave up about three laps in.  He broke to the trot and when I kicked him back up he crossfired. So we had to come back down, reorganize, and try the canter again.  And of course, the judge was staring at me the whole time this happened. We pulled a 7th out 8 for that.  But our efforts paid off and we won the series championship!  We got tricolor ribbon and a box of fancy pony donuts.  I'm slightly pissed though; last year they gave out coolers for series champions and I really wanted to win a damn cooler! A box of fancy treats that are gone less than a week later is not the same as an embroidered cooler.

I forced my trainer to take a win pic with me. Also, they didn't announce awards till after I rode Sunday, which is why he's wearing his eq. boots

Sunday we just had two 2'6" over fences rounds to do.  I wasn't scheduled till around 3 so after A rode in the morning we hung out and watched/played on our phones.  A little before 2 the other hunter ring that the rated show was using ended and they started moving things around and resetting fences.  I thought that was odd and decided to check in with the back gate.  Good thing I did because they moved my classes from Hunter 2 to Hunter 1 and didn't announce it. They were starting classes in 30 minutes.  I called my trainer who had gone shopping and A and I rushed to get ready.  I felt slightly panicked as I've never ridden in Hunter 1, didn't know how the lines rode, and I hate rushing to get ready.

The show photographer got no pics of me, so enjoy this fuzzy screenshot from the video on my phone

I tried to focus on getting Peebs in front of my leg and forward in our warm up.  We had some waiting, pulling distances, especially off the right, but after a good smack with my crop we fixed that.  The plan for our rounds was to not stress about doing the strides, if we got them great, if I steadied for the add that was fine. Trainer just wanted a nice, whole number with impulsion. In the first round I was bit conservative to the first fence and the long approach to the single oxer at fence two got me.  I waited and buried Peebs at the base and it felt like he crawled over it.  But as soon as I sat up and put my leg on on the landing side something clicked in my head and I realized we had it. Peebs was going to jump no matter where I put him and not crash so why not go for it? We did do the add strides, but as long as I sat up with leg everything worked. And it was fun. I was surprised to get a third out of 8 for the round.

Sometimes all it takes is burying your horse to the base of the single oxer to realize 2’6” ain’t no big deal #sorrypeebs #thanksforputtingupwithmyshit #goodboypeebers

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Aug 29, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT

I only had a small break before my second round (one person went then I was back in) and I was still trying to catch my breath as we went in. First three fences were fine, but coming into the judge's outside line Peebs slowed down and we got a really awkward distance to the first fence. We landed in a heap and I couldn't decide if I should move up for the add, or wait and add two strides.  Which got us to the second fence at a half stride and I pulled Peebs out of the line.  We walked a couple steps to regroup then I asked hard for the canter and rode really forward to the oxer. We were getting over that fence no matter what.  It was mostly for my sake; Peebs would have jumped from where ever.  I just had to convince myself of that.  After that line it was back to the single diagonal oxer.  I didn't want to bury him at it like the first round so about five strides out I sat up and put leg on to push Peebs at it.   We got a slightly long distance, but had the impulsion to make it work. After that I could  relax going into the last outside line. After the course Trainer and I talked about the circling and we both agreed that I just needed more time. I felt rushed going into the round and didn’t have the pace and confidence I needed. I need more of a break between rounds to get myself together. I’m not happy that I pulled out of the line, but I’m not beating myself up over it. I’m glad I was able to go back and fix it, as well as the next fence. Not surprisingly we pulled an 8th out of 8 for this round.