HP Blog Hop: Your Dream Horse Show

Where would I love to show? 

I remember watching on TV rounds from Spruce Meadows and thinking that the International Ring was the coolest thing ever!  Walking in under the clock tower, the huge grass ring with the bank, the open water, the devil's dike....it all seems so awesome.  I loved watching the derbies where they had to jump everything.


What else I love about Spruce is the "fun " classes they have.  The double slalom, the 6 bar classes.  I'm not sure that I would want to do those, but I'd be ok owning a horse going in those classes.

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!

Here We Go

Tia got bathed and braided tonight.  Corie was able to work in the charm I got and Tia look so fancy!

  I also finished clipping her and got all my tack cleaned.  All that's left is loading up the trailer and taking off!

Mineral Ice FTW!

My leg is getting much better but is still sore.  As I was getting things packed in my tack trunk last night I came across my tub of Mineral Ice.  I've used it on the horses and a little voice in my head said to try it on my leg. I put it on this morning before work and within a half hour my leg felt great. It was cool and tingly; felt like I had an ice pack on it.  It lasted about an hour or so and really helped me get through the day.

Love Love Love!

I put another coat on my leg before heading out to the barn.  I got Tia ready as I felt it kick in.  We had a short ride, but I as able to hold the canter (part of that could have been my spurs) and we did a quick jump school over a few fences.  I'm still not 100% but hopefully by Saturday I will be! 

My friend's braiding Tia in the morning, and apparently the "thing" is to have a charm braided into one of the braids.  Since the show's a cancer fundraiser, I found a small pink ribbon charm that hopefully Corie and work into the braid.  I also got a pink ribbon pin to wear instead of a traditional stock pin.

Slow Progress

I managed to not only make it out to the barn but also ride last night. I was worried that getting out would be a problem, since lifting my right leg high was painful and Tia's 16.3h.  It turned out to be a non issue and we proceeded to do a long walk warm up.  When I felt secure enough, I bumped her up to the trot.

Trotting and posting were not painful in the least. We did a few walk-trot transitions trying to get her to focus.  She was distracted, was sure that there was something in the bushes along the far side of the arena that was going to get her. I wasn't wearing spurs and that didn't help matters at all. At one point Tia actually spooked.  She did the legs splayed out thing, but tripped and ruined the whole thing.  I think that's first time I've know her to spook.

We took a walk break and tried to canter.  Going to right, I automatically wanted to put my inside right leg on the hold her shoulder up and support her.  Bad decision.  Hurt like a mother and I could only do about 5 strides before taking my leg off and she would break to the trot. We tried a couple times before I gave up.  We walked a bit more then I decided to go left to see if it was any better.  It didn't hurt nearly as much and we were able to do a full lap before I gave in.  I decided to quit with that and not push my luck.

To get off I had to walk Tia up to the 3-step mounting block and dismount onto that.  I didn't want to try getting off onto the ground with a bad leg from that high up.

Today I had to go back to work, so I opted not to ride. My tailbone was pretty sore after work but I plan to ride tomorrow and Friday.  Instead tonight I cleaned my leather open fronts and tall boots.

Before

Getting Ready

I took today and tomorrow off of work to rest.  My tailbone is hurting more, and my right leg is still pretty sore.  I'm not walking quite right, but much better than Saturday night.  I'll try to ride tomorrow, and hopefully I can make my lesson on Wednesday. 

We got the schedule for the finals on Saturday.  We have a course walk at 1pm, then my flat round starts at 2:15.  My over fences round starts at 3:30.  The plan is to leave our barn around 10:30-11 Saturday.  It's a little over an hour away, and that will give us time to settle Tia in her day stall before walking the course.  After the walk I'll tack up and warm up for the flat, then jump after.  Luckily Tia is the same at shows as she is at home and shouldn't take much warm up or fuss.

My friend is going to braid Tia Friday for me since my hunter braids are majorly lacking.  Jen and I finished pulling her mane last Friday with the aid of the twitch.  It looks so nice!  I of course forgot to take a pic but she now has a respectable mane.  I'm planning on clipping her later this week, probably with the twitch.

The last thing I need to plan is what I'm wearing.  I'd normally wear the traditional eq clothes; blue hunt coat and white shirts.  But these medal finals are a fundraiser for the Portland Providence Cancer Center they are asking riders, trainers, and spectators to wear pink.  I have a pink plaid shirt.  Jen said to go with the pink, and I'm leaning that direction but I'm not sure. 

These aren't mine, but the same shirt that I have.  Got it for $15 from TackoftheDay.com!

In the past the winner of these finals got a custom County saddle.  This year they said that awards are being sponsored by a local feed store, a local tack shop, and CWD.  They didn't say whether or not a saddle is up for grabs, but I can hope right?

Three Years in the Making

Buddy dumped me for the first time in the 3yrs that I've owned him today.  I was riding him bareback and decided to jump a bit.  I jumped him for the first time in 6wks on Tuesday and he was good.  The first few jumps he was a bit forward too, and didn't want to balance on the offside but settled down well.  I ended our ride by dropping my stirrups and trotting x's and he was great.

Today we was lazy in warm up and was pretty laid back to the first few x's we did.  He was much more balanced and together on the landings and even gave me a nice lead change.  I decided to take him over an 18in vertical and apparently it looked a lot bigger to Buddy.  He launched over it from a stride out and I got sent flying over his shoulder.  I landed on my tailbone and rolled to my left side.  It did take me a minute to get up, my right leg was hurting more than the left. 

To add insult to injury, the other farrier at our barn and his wife (who were Buddy's former owners who didn't treat him well) were there working on horses.  They saw what happened and came over to help.  Buddy had stopped and wasn't moving but they lead him into the barn for me.  I untacked him and put him back outside.  By then my thigh was screaming so I crawled into my truck and went home.

I barely made it into bed and took a few Aleve.  I rested for a few hours, trying to move as little as possible, and iced my leg.  I was supposed to go out with barn friends tonight because its my barn owner's aunt (who actually owns the property and acts as an aunt to all of us boarders) 90th birthday. I had gotten up trying to see if I could go and it had taken me 10mins to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen to feed my cats.  I was crying and sweating and texted Connie that I wasn't going.  She asked if I wanted someone to take me to the ER and I said yes please.

I could barely move but managed to hobble out to the car and then into the ER on my own.  Two hours, and one pelvic x-ray later, I'm back home with vicodin and directions to ice my thigh for a couple days.  They said it's a deep bruise and to stay off my feet and not ride for a while.  I won't be making my lesson tomorrow, but come hell or high water I'm showing next weekend!  I have a ton of sick hours at work and already left a message for my manager telling her I won't be in on Monday and will let her know about the rest of the week. I have no problems taking the week off to recover.