Team NW Outreach Show Day One

Saturday morning came way to early.  I stuffed my feet into my paddock boot and ran out to the show to feed Peebs. He seemed totally chill and clean (I don't trust him to keep himself clean but it was too hot to put even a sheet on him overnight). My original plan was to lunge him, but since he was a complete 180* attitude wise from the last show I didn't.  I headed back to the hotel to pick up my parents, change, and get breakfast.

We got back to the show around 8 and wandered to the ring to try and guess when I'd go. My parents parked themselves by the ring while I went back to get ready.  I was doing two divisions on Saturday; an 18" USHJA Outreach Hunter and an 18" Green Rider Hunter.  The Outreach division had classes on Sunday as well, and I was also in the Green Rider Eq on Sunday.  The GR Hunter division had 9 in it, while the Outreach had 1-3 per class.  I was the only one doing the whole division. I had four over fences rounds and they had all four cards open before two under saddles.

Warm up went well, but I was still at bit nervous at how Peebs would be once we were actually in the ring.  I decided that we'd trot the first round then try cantering.  My goal for our round was to ride forward, not let my nerves get to me, and not pick at him.  The first trot round went fine, but I forgot to count in the lines.  I thought they should have been 7s on the outside, and 8 across the diagonal.  When we went back in to canter, the outsides rode in a 6.5 and the diagonal was 7. I pushed him forward for the 6 and it actually felt pretty good.  He was flowing really well, and the 6 and 7 came easy. I was kinda shocked at how easy and good everything felt. I figured I must have screwed up my math.  It was some of the easiest hunter rounds I've ever had, on any horse.  We did have to do simple changes since Peebs doesn't have flying ones yet, but other than that we cruised right along.
 

In which I'm cursing former me for signing up for the flat classes

We had a bit of break until the flats so I hopped off and downed a bottle of water. When I went back in for the Outreach u/s I was the only one.  Luckily the judge took pity on me and I trotted and cantered maybe a 1/3 of the arena each way. They also didn't make me line up. It was my first under saddle win!  I just stayed in for the GR flat which all 9 of us were in.  My left calf started cramping pretty badly about halfway through and I thought I was going to die. For this hack the judge had us do over a lap of trot and canter each way and I was in agony. Once we lined up I dropped my stirrups and tried to stretch my leg as much as I could.

We ended up placing in all of our classes with the first for our solo under saddle, a first and second in the Outreach over fences, and a fourth and a sixth over fences in the Green Rider and a sixth for the GR under saddle. I was super happy with how we did, especially compared to the show a month ago. Peebs was like a total been-there-done-that show pony and I could focus on what I needed to work on and not worry about what he'd do. I was kicking myself for every being worried about cantering him around at a show.

Redemption

I have a lot to catch up on, but first and foremost, we had some serious redemption at our show this past weekend.

Kisses for the best pony

Not only was Peebs back to his normal, happy self, we cantered our first full course at a show and didn't die!!  In fact we did pretty damn well. I honestly don't know why I was scared to do it; cantering him in the big show ring is so much easier than trotting around. For the most part we were able to find a nice rhythm and just lope along.  I found most of my distances, we made the strides easy (actually too easy, homeboy can have a 13ft stride, who knew?!).  I'll put a full show recap up later.

Of course getting here from our last show took some work.  The week after our last show Peebs felt really disconnected and when I lunged him to take a look, it was like his front end and hind end were two different horses. We also had another major spooking incident walking down the road involving a mail truck.  So I called the chiro and poor pony was way out.  When she first started working on him she said his hips were out and his neck was a bit wonky.  But once she started on his neck he was much worse than she thought.  He's very stoic and we think his way of saying he was out was spooking and being super amped. And a couple days after she worked on him, the tension I'd been feeling for the past couple weeks was gone and he stopped spooking at things. At the show we had multiple encounters with the water trucks and tractors and he never once cared about them.  Even when they got close enough that we got sprayed all he did was stick his head in the air and pin his ears.

The week before the show we had our best lesson to date. Trainer put the jumps up a hole and set the lines on an 11ft stride.  Our arena is small and it's hard to set on a 12' stride so we normally do a 10' or 11'.  Since we've mostly been doing baby stuff I tend to set on a 10'. The theme for the lesson was to ride him forward, in prep for  the bigger strides and lines at the show. And what do you know, once I committed to it, it was easy.  Once I'm comfortable with having a bit more pace and bigger stride, Peebs is super easy to find distances on. He's not a super fancy warmblood hunter, but he can have a nice pace and rhythm that makes doing the hunters fun. Now, all we need is a flying change and we'll be set!!

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. 

Sign Us Up

Continuing in the "just do it" mindset, I've sent in an entry for McKenna's first show. Right now we're just entered in two trot pole classes. But if all goes well and we don't completely loose our shit I'll add a cross rail class or two. 

My trainer may or may not be able to make it but my BO's dressage trainer BS is taking her gelding, who seems much happier as a jumper than a dressage horse. We're going to haul up the day before and school the ponies as it's the gelding's second jumper show and he's still green. So if McKenna kills me I'll have someone to haul us home! 

Bad, Busy Blogger

The past week or so has gotten away with me. First I was battling a cold/sinus infection which has decided to come back, then my dad came up from San Diego, and finally we had a show last Sunday.   

Last week McKenna came into heat, and was pretty amped up for a few days. She also wanted nothing to do with her hay for two days, which had me worried, but she was pooping and peeing normally. We did lots of lunging, and I decided that I'm going to have to at least trace clip her this winter. She doesn't have that thick of a winter coat, but she sweats a lot and takes a while to cool down. 

Last Friday we had a great ride in the outdoor. She was a little more animated in the canter, but was paying attention and starting to soften. 

Sunday we took a couple of the lesson girls out to a small schooling show. Since there was going to be an empty spot in the trailer I decided to take Buddy even though we haven't done a whole lot lately. 

All last week the weather was sunny, if a bit cool. So of course show day it's raining and cold! At one point I had breeches, jeans, tank top, sweater, helmet, gloves, and a snow jacket on and was still cold. 

The girls did great, and Anna and Phoenix did awesome! She did walk trot and trot a pole, coming home with a second and two thirds. Phoenix was mister reliable and was half asleep for the whole thing. 

Buddy and I did ok, a second, third, and fourth, but only because everyone else had worse problems than we did. To me, it was obvious that we hadn't put the time or effort into prepping for the show. We missed a few lead changes, and I was picking at him too much, but he gamely went around. 

        The boys bonding at the trailer

One Last Hurrah

I sent my entry in for a little schooling show next Sunday.  We're taking a couple of the little lesson girls, including Anna and Phoenix, and since there was an empty spot in the trailer and it's a cheap show I decided to take Buddy.  We're going to just do a few 2'6" classes, and while I don't feel totally prepared, I think we can pull it off. 

I jumped him on Friday and other than being a bit flat he was great.  He just wanted to get long and strung out and ended up pulling a couple rails.  We were making the strides in the lines, but I decided that waiting and adding would set him up better.  Once I got him listening and waiting his jump felt much better and we weren't landing like a freight train.  This week will probably be out last full training week together as I've decided to part lease him to Amy and another college girl this term.  Amy's going to be studying abroad next term, and obviously won't be leasing, so having the second girl lease will be great financially.  It's basically the month of November that they will both ride and I figure I can give him up for a month.

McKenna's been a bit more wild child this week.  Didn't help that with my cold and trying to catch up at work she got two days off in a row followed by a couple quick lunges. I did manage to ride her both yesterday and today.  I figured that I'd rather be safe than sorry so I put the western saddle on her.  The trainer she was with was mainly a reining trainer so I know that she's been ridden western.  She was pretty good, but is still ADD.  She is harder to steer going right, and tends to be spookier and more up with her front end as well.  Both days we did a lot of walk lateral work in between our trot work.   

One Small Circle for Me, One Large Circle for the Win

While the show didn't go exactly as planned, I'm still very happy with it.  Tia was awesome, did everything I asked even when she wasn't sure.  I had one moment of panic while on course and if not for that we probably would have won. 

We got to the show a little before one, checked in and got Tia settled in her stall.  They opened the course up at 1 to walk, and I wasn't scheduled to do my flat class until 2:15.  The plan was to walk, change my clothes, get tacked up, then warm up on the flat.  The walk went pretty well, minus that both Jen and I  had trouble figuring out strides.  No distances between fences were posted on the course (the course pic is posted below) and we had to walk a couple lines twice.  Overall it was a pretty technical course considering it's a local medal final.  There were 2-3 make-it-or-break it fences and our plan was to just ride everything forward and go for it.

It started raining while I was changing.  The classes were being held inside but warm up was outside.  It was warm, around 70* and humid. I was dying in my hunt coat. We somehow got behind tacking up and I got on with about 15mins to warm up. Oops.  It stopped raining, yay!, and we went outside.  The outdoor ring was pretty deep and Tia was having a little trouble working in.  We schooled transitions, trying to make them as crisp and clean as possible. We headed over to the indoor a couple minutes before to relax and breath.

There ended up being 7 in my class, a few ponies, one somewhat wild TB who kept screaming, and a couple other horses.  I tried as hard as I could to find us a spot on the rail but kept getting behind the small ponies.  Tia was largest horse there, with the biggest stride, and I felt like we were lapping everyone.  We had to do a couple laps one direction and another lap the other way of sitting trot.  My leg hadn't really been bothering me until that point. When the judge called for the second sitting trot I thought I was going to cry.  I'm sure I made some lovely faces.

Jen said we looked pretty good, the only major thing was my hands.  I tend to have piano hands.  When we were just trotting or cantering around I could think about having my thumbs up, but during the sitting trot I was more concerned with the pain and not looking like a sack of potatoes and my hands reverted back.  We ended the flat class with a 4th, which I was surprised with.  As long as it looked better than it felt I'm happy!

We had about 45mins to wait till the over fences round, and I was scheduled to go 6th in the order.  I got off, grabbed a snack and some water, and let Tia graze for a bit.  Then it was time to get back on and school over fences.  We didn't do too much, a couple x's to warm up, then we worked on doing square turns to vertical on the center line.  Tia was pretty balanced, I just needed to ride her forward more.  We went back to ring to watch a few rounds before I went.

The first line was a flowing 4 strides.  I had to make sure we had a forward, flowing canter to make the first line.  Coming to it, I was slightly behind but she moved up perfectly thru the line.  The original plan was to ride fence 3 square, but after watching everyone before me try to do the same thing and screw it up, Jen decided to have me angle the fence.  Tia was slightly over bent coming to it, and wasn't too sure about the jumping on an angle thing, but we nailed the distance.  I had to collect her a bit in the turn to 4 then moved up to it but it flowed well. A lot of people had trouble in the rollback from 5 to 6; their horses loosing impulsion and chipping into 6.  I lost Tia a bit in the turn, but sat deep and pushed her forward to oxer.  It was a bit long, but much nicer than everyone elses!

Fence 7 is where disaster struck.  Tia was over bent again in the turn and didn't want to land and turn to 8.  It was a forward 5 or a tight 6 strides to fence 8, then a tight 3 strides to fence 9. Since she landed a bit disorganized off 7 I asked her to come back to me to regroup.  She took offense, flipped her head, and did her bunny hop short stride thing.  We ended up at five and half strides to fence 8 and I panicked.  I circled her off the fence, and came back to it.  I know if I had just sat up and kicked her forward she would have gotten out of it. The three might have turned into 4, but she would have figured it out. 

Coming back to fence 8 we found a distance and the three to 9 flowed fine.  Fence 10 was the hardest fence on course.  It was angled funny, and you had to ride past the turn to it to have a nice landing turning right. Almost everyone else got an awkward 3 strides to it off the rail with a wide right turn after.  Our plan was to almost hand gallop it in a two.  We nailed it.  The two was almost short and Tia was even pooping as we cantered up to it. I was looking right, opening my right rein, and she landed perfectly balanced and on the right lead.  We were able to shave off a few strides from where everyone else was landing and turning. Coming to the last fence I had to collect her a bit and we got a short stride to fence 11. 

We ended up 6th out of 7 (the 7th rider was actually eliminated for refusals).   A lot of people who were watching told me I would have won if not for the circle.  We had the most polished round and were able to ride the make-it-or-break-it fences (# 3 and 10) the best.  I am kicking myself for that damn circle, but I'm really happy we were able to make the hard fences look good.  For Tia, the point and shoot hunter who doesn't do turns, to be able to do fences like that is huge.  I could tell she wasn't sure or happy with some of them, but she did it, and did it well.  I am disappointed that we could have won, but there's always next year.  I'd say for my first medal finals I did pretty well.

Thank you Tia for being the best horse I could have asked for and for putting up with me!

Golden

Yesterday would have been the perfect show day, if it had been 15* cooler. Showing in 90* weather isn't fun. 

Wasn't nearly as scary hauling this as I had thought.

We took the horses up late Friday night and arrived at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club around 8ish.  It was still in the 80s and muggy but the arena was open so we decided to school.  The horses had hauled well (and I didn't crash the gooseneck!) and were all a little excited to be there.  We had the arena to ourselves and hacked around before popping over everything.  We got the horses tucked into their stalls and headed out to find our hotel and get dinner.

Saturday morning we got up at 6 to go feed then went back to the hotel to eat our breakfast and finish getting ready.  We made it back to the Hunt Club around 8am and the two girls doing the x-rail and 2ft started to get ready.  The show was supposed to start at 9 (but of course started at 9:30) and the arena was open for schooling but was incredibly crowded.  I had the girls use the sand arena to warm up and then we waited for the trot-a-pole classes to finish so they could ride.

Mae and Zoe and Miriam and Hunter

Mae and Zoe did pretty well, minus Mae not hearing that the judge called for a two point in their flat class and doing half a lap still posting.  Zoe did her normal hesitate and look at every jump in their first round but they pulled a 3rd out of about 8.  They did better in their second class and got 2nd.  Their 2' classes didn't go quite as well, Zoe was tired and hot and behind Mae's leg but they still came home with ribbons.  I'm so happy that Zoe has found a person and she and Mae seem to be a good the team.

Zoe was rocking a serious mohawk.  Must remember to braid her hair down!

After Mae and Miriam were done the other girl from the barn had her 2'6" classes.  I couldn't be there to coach her much as I had to get Buddy ready for my medal classes.  Mae went on a milkshake run and I gulped mine down during our warm up.  Buddy was pretty forward and excited and I was trying not to get in his mouth too much.  My plan for the first medal class was to add in the lines, as that was what we had done the night before but Buddy was actually getting the big boy strides. 

Our OHJA mini medal went ok, but not as polished as I would have hoped for. I couldn't make my mind up until half way down the lines if I was going to add or not so some of our distance were a little wonky.  The judge called all six of us back for "test" consisting of a few questions.  As this was my first time being called back for a work off I was somewhat disappointed. She asked for three types of martingales and then told me my standing was on backwards.  Apparently the buckle on the neck strap is supposed to go on the left and mine was on the right.  I've had that martingale for 13yrs and have never once been told that.  Oh well.  She also asked what type of bit I had (broken snaffle pelham).  We placed third, which I was very happy with considering our ride was somewhat erratic. 

The second medal I did was a memorial class for the former H/J trainer at this facility who died of breast cancer.  They have 3 medals, a 2'3", a 2'6" hunter, and 2'9" jumper, and all the proceeds from the classes go to the Portland Providence Cancer Center.  Every year in September they have a finals where the winners from the 2'6" and the 2'9" compete against each other in a work off for a custom County saddle. I felt that our ride was better than our first but we still placed 3rd out of 6.  I'm just hoping that the 3rd will give us enough points to qualify for the final in September.  I've ridden in a County and loved it but didn't have $4700 to spend on one.

We had just enough time between my medals and my jumper classes to gulp down some water, learn my courses, and switch bridles back to the figure 8.  By this point in the day (close to 5pm) the grass was super slick and I was very glad to have my studs.  Two horses had fallen down and many others had slipped.  Our first round was a speed class and went well.  Because of the footing and heat I didn't make the turns super tight and didn't push Buddy as much as I could have.  Again we ended up 3rd.  My friend was holding all my ribbons for me and was awash in yellow/gold. 

Buddy lost his engine waiting for our second jumper round.  We had some ugly distances and pulled two rails but he tried his heart out.  There was never a thought of him stopping or refusing which I am eternally grateful for.  As much as I love and trust Phoenix, I know if I had gotten him to those distances he would have stopped on me.  Our last round was better, no super ugly distances, but he did slip going around a turn.  His hind end went out and I was flung forward onto his neck but he pulled him self together and we kept going.  We did pull a rail in the jump off and ended up getting 5th for both of the rounds.

We lost a ribbon somewhere along the way.

All in all, I'm very happy with how the show went.  Buddy held himself together even though it was miserably hot and the footing was questionable.  He tries his little heart out and I couldn't ask for more!

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Back to my lesson on Wednesday:  Jen had us warm up over a few trot fences then move onto a little canter course.  We nailed everything!  I was able to, for the most part, sit there and wait for the fences to come to us.  We did have a short 5 in a bending line that Jen wanted in 4, but it worked ok and both her and I were happy with it.

 

From there Jen had us work on an angled fence to a tight rollback.  She put the angled fence down since I wasn't convinced we could actually make the turn.  The first time thru I felt Buddy question that we were actually doing this odd angle but he was game for it.  We did it a few times then Jen put it back up.  As I said earlier, as long as I looked and kept my leg on, Buddy was right there and the turn was a lot easier than I thought.



Weeeee!

Tonight I went out with the college girls to help set up for their show tomorrow.  I had designed the courses and I wanted to make sure they were set up correctly.  I think the course looked great, but the girls were wanting someone to ride it to make sure.  They all looked at me, and as I'm the only one with a truck and trailer, I asked if they wanted me to bring Bud to be a test rider.  They said yes, so I'll be picking up the pony early in the am to school the course before schooling begins.  I'm planning on staying to help the girls so Buddy will be tied to the trailer but hopefully I can get him a day stall. 

The farm the show is at is the local event barn that has an awesome XC course.  It's open for schooling and maybe I'll take Buddy for a little spin on it tomorrow, if he's not too tired.  We were talking with the barn owners tonight and they said we (as part of the team) wouldn't have to pay the schooling fee as the team has rented the facility for the day, so score!