Hy Court Farms Show 9/27/09

First of all, I want to put out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out and helped yesterday. Special thanks to D.A. for not only trailering to the show even though Duchess was lame and you had to scratch, but also trailering Red all the way to Elgin Vet Hospital after a looong day at the show. I can't thank you enough and I'm pretty sure I owe you enough margaritas to keep you sloshing for a month! Oh, and you also make an excellent Horse Show Mom, keeping everyone hydrated and making sure I was at my test on time.

Thanks also to R.D. who came out to cheer, watch, and took the video and picts of dressage. Your talents are much appreciated! Maeve, thanks for horse-sitting Saga, making sure I had water, and keeping track of the puppies. E.R., thank you for taking care of the puppies and cheering. FuzzyPony, thanks for cheering and reading my tests. And congrads on your fabulous tests yourself!

I also should say that the crew at Hy Court Farms were absolutely amazing. The staff was so kind and helpful, they really made Saga's first experience out wonderful. In the Hunter Versatility class, the judge had lovely things to say about both horses and riders. It was just such a positive experience, I highly recommend anyone who's thinking about showing to go to Hy Court. It's great!

Ok, on to the details. Warm-up for TR1 was fairly short and uneventful. I worked to get him out and in front of my leg in hopes of avoiding the canter hopping episodes of Saturday. Every time he thought about sucking back, I pushed the reins forward and clucked him on, closing my leg softly. We had a few moments early on where he thought about hopping, but he never really got into it. I only did one canter depart in each direction, and those went reasonbly well. However, we were warmed up and then we had to sit and wait for a bit because they were behind. It was super hot and humid, so we did a lot of standing in the shade, which was bad for our warm-up but good for Saga.

Training 1 was not my favorite test ever. We got off to a poor start because the footing at A was really chunked up and so we got screwed up on the entry. Saga was counterflexed on the long sides and especially in the corners, but he was nice on the circles. Our canter departs were decent, but he cantered with his haunches to the inside on the long sides, which is new. I rode very conservatively and didn't really push any of the issues, which made for a lackluster test. Our upward transitions were quite nice but our downward transitions were really downhill. The trot-halt transitions were especially divey, which was difficult for me to ride because he's so strong. Watching the video, I think our transition from free walk to medium was nice, and our right trot and canter circle were quite nice, along with the downward canter/trot transition to the right.

What did the judge say? Well, I should have listened to Joan... she totally pegged our score with a 69.56% ! We got 8s on both trot circles and our center line entry. Everything else was 7s with the exception of the left lead canter and the trot/medium walk transition, where he dove down into the bridle right in front of the judge.

So, in between our tests, I went and schooled better bending, more responsiveness off the leg, and better downward transitions. I also decided to just GO for it and not ride so conservatively, and as a resulty I felt that Training 2 went much better. He was straight on the long sides, we had more bend in the corners (but not perfect), and his downward transitions felt more responsive and less divey. I was very happy with our second test!

We got 8's across the board for our trot work and 6's on the left lead canter transitions (both up and down) and left lead canter. Everything else was a 7 except for medium walk, which was an 8. I have never, EVER gotten more than a 6 for any of Cash's walk work, so I'm pretty thrilled about that! Overall, I felt like the test was much steadier and more consistent, and we scored a 70%! If I had been scoring our tests, I would have scored TR1 lower, but I thought the score for TR2 was fair. Clearly, I know what we need to work on!

After our tests, I tacked him down, hosed him, and he drank a bunch of water (did I mention it was super hot and humid?). I got a snack and then went back and tacked him up again for the hunter versatility class. Maeve was kind enough to hold Saga while I went and walked the course, which was a mix of 2'6 jumps and some trail-like obstacles, including a bridge, serpentine among stumps, 360 box, and backing through an L. My goal was to have a quiet, rateable jumping round where I didn't throw him at the fences, and the rest of the obstacles I wasn't too worried about. I also wanted to see how he did in a field full of jumps that he'd never seen before.

I wouldn't say our jumping was exactly quiet, but he was rateable and I think I only threw him at one fence. I sort of laughed my way through the obstacles but he actually did pretty well and figured them out, despite never having done anything like backing through an L. The "flat class" part of it didn't go too well since he was pretty wound up from jumping, but hey, I was out there for fun. The judge was complimentary of my ride and said she appreciated how considerate and positive I was with my horse over new obstacles, and what a lovely bold jumper he was. I thought her comments were very kind!

D.A. got two really nice shots of us jumping. I like that it looks like we had good spots on both and that I'm not jumping ahead of him, but my leg is slipping back. I really need to work more on two-point interval training to get my leg to cooperate more - I'm just not as strong O/F as I used to be.

You know, somehow this 2'6 vertical looked a lot bigger when I walked the course. In this picture, it looks like it's so small he can barely be bothered to get his knees up. Oh well, at least our spot is decent!

He's trying a bit harder here but still making this fence look tiny. See those fake green grass bits sticking out of the hay bales under the fence? He tried to eat those while we were waiting for our turn to go. My horse is so smrt.

So for the day, we ended up in 1st place for TR1, 2nd place (behind a pro) for TR2, and 1st place in Hunter Versatility (there were only 2 of us though, so that doesn't count for much!). I was very pleased with our day and it was a good confidence builder for the event next weekend.

The only down note was that about 5 minutes from home, I got a call from the barn saying that Red was found in the pasture 3-legged lame. And he was... he almost wouldn't put any weight on his right hind. But, there were no signs of a kick, cut, impalement, or anything else (no swelling even!), so that was odd. We pulled Saga and Taran out of the trailer, loaded Red up, and headed to Elgin Vet Hospital.

The good news is that they think it was just an abscess, which they lanced and drained. There is a chance that his coffin bone is fractured - three different vets looked at the x-rays and they all agreed that there is a "suspicious" area, but nothing definite. He's on stall rest with daily soaking and wrapping for a week, then he's supposed to be x-rayed again to see if anything's changed in his foot. Keep your fingers crossed that it's just an abscess!

Yeah. I just love this picture. :)

P.S. Whoever decided that white breeches were the "in" thing for dressage should be taken out and shot. I soaked mine in OxyClean tonight and washed them with a bunch of bleach... and they're still only *mostly* clean! Argh!

A picture is worth a thousand words

Yeah, we rocked! But, I came home to find Red three-legged lame (right rear). We unloaded Saga and Taran, loaded up Red, and took him to Elgin. It's either an abcess or he fractured his coffin bone. We'll know more when Dr. Hays looks at him in the morning.

I'm exhausted and going to bed. More on the show tomorrow...

Taking stock

It's only 9 p.m., and I think I'm packed. Tack's all clean, boots are polished. Got my show helmet, coat, shirt, stock tie, white breeches, and show gloves. I had to get a new hairnet today since I couldn't find my old one (of course I found it later today). I've got my clothes laid out for the morning, including some jogging pants to protect the white breeches, earrings, makeup (yeah, I wear makeup for shows), and hair stuff. The braiding kit is in the bag hanging on my front door, and all I have to do tomorrow morning is throw it all in the car. And hopefully not forget anything!

Carol is supposed to have the special pads for my RP saddle - three of them. But I packed a black pad and a white one just in case they don't make it for some reason. I have to chauffeur the kiddos around early tomorrow morning, so FuzzyPony's going to load Saga for me and then meet me down near my house. From there we'll head on over to the show...

Sorry, just remembered I needed to put a copy of Saga's coggins in my wallet. Done now.

Oh, and I put the camera batteries on to charge. Anywho, we'll head over to the show and hopefully have LOTS of time to get ready. I still haven't decided if I'm braiding or not. Saga's mane is nice and short now, but braiding seems like a daunting task. I'll probably try a few and see if I'm gonna manage to finish. I MUST braid for next weekend though, so it's not like it won't happen sooner or later.

I'm off to read a bit before bed and finish my cider. If you're coming to the show tomorrow, I'll see you there!

Did you say 70%? I'd say more like 50%!

Today started off by stopping off to pick some stuff up out of my trailer that I had dropped off on Monday to have the ramp repaired and the wiring checked. I expected to find that it had had some work done on it, but not a damn thing had been done to it. NOTHING. Seriously, it's been sitting there for a week and they couldn't even bother to call me and tell me? Grrr. I talked to the manager and he assured me it would be done for next week. I don't need it either this weekend or next since Duchess's mom has kindly agreed to trailer Saga both weekends, but nonetheless I feel better having it, in case of emergency or something. Plus it's got all my extra stuff in it, so I sort of feeling like I'm missing something without it.

So, FuzzyPony and I snagged our stuff and headed out to the barn. Saga was especially cranky when I put the saddle on him and tightened the girth, so I may have Carol check the saddle tomorrow since she'll be at the show. We did a loooong walk warm up since he's been in his stall since Wednesday (yeah, I'm horrible and didn't ride either Thursday or yesterday). His trot started out well enough but was a little divey in front. I'm not sure if I need a bit that he can't fuss with and lean on so much or if it's just a matter of him becoming more consistent in his body so that he's not so all over the place. He does seem to like the Happy Mouth and has even tried to pick it up when the bridle is just hanging there in front of him, so I'm a little hesitant to change it out. I guess we'll wait and see for now.

The disaster came about a bit later when he decided to continually try to canter when I wanted him to trot. Yeah, he hops into our trot transitions (though not as badly of late), but he sometimes also sucks back in the trot, throws his head up, and does this poky little canter thing. Ugh. Pushing him forward only begets a bigger canter, and slowing him down only ends up with a teenier canter or a walk. AARGH! Try as I might, we were just NOT getting the trot consistently. I muddled through it and then went on to canter work... which was shockingly nice. And then came the downward trot transtions. Except, it seems he forgot how to trot from a canter. All I could get was the aforementioned teeny canter or a walk. So, I asked for the down transitions, and if he gave me something crummy, we went back to canter. Again and again. Finally I went for walk transitions and then legged him back up into a trot, and that actually seemed to work. But it was really frustrating to have this issue, which I thought was mostly solved, come out of nowhere. Maybe his back is sore. Maybe he's sick of sitting in his stall. Maybe he was just having an off day, I don't know. But if that's the kind of ick that we get tomorrow, our score is going to more like a 50% than a 70%. Yuck. And frankly, I don't care about the score so much as we were doing so WELL and now we seem to have this big, ugly, new issue.

On a brighter note, a couple of funny things happened as I was tacking Saga down. First, I'd taken off his bridle and hung it on a hook that's right next to the tie point, then turned around to take off my helmet and gloves and put them in my locker. When I turned back around to continue untacking him, I saw this:

New for the fall season: bits on the browband ~ bridles double as hats!

Apparently he had rubbed his face on the bridle and managed to get it tangled over his ears. I just had to take a picture! Saga only managed to look put out that I was laughing at him.

Then, as I was pulling off Saga's saddle, I heard FuzzyPony laughing hysterically next to me. Her horse Taran was next to Saga (I was on Saga's off side) and Taran was apparently feeling salt-deprived, because the next thing we knew, Taran was using Saga as a salt lick!

Yup... tastes like chicken!

Taran must have stood there slurping on Saga for a good three or four minutes, until I moved Saga off to get bathed. The funny thing is that Taran has 24/7 access to a salt block in his pasture, so he shouldn't be so salt-deprived!

I shampooed Saga with Betadine since he's been itchy and has any number of scrapes, scratches, and bites on him, then shampooed and conditioned his sad, scraggly tail. I pulled and trimmed his mane (not sure yet if I'm going to braid or not) and trimmed his bridle path, ears, and whiskers with scissors. I don't do the inside of the ears, and I only trimmed his whiskers to about an inch long, so he still has use of them. I noticed that he had gotten a teeny bit fuzzy with the cooler weather we've had the past few days, but hopefully he'll stay shiny for tomorrow since it's supposed to be pretty warm both today and tomorrow.

This afternoon FuzzyPony and I are cleaning tack, and I still need to get my clothes together. Tonight is a late night for me due to step-mom chauffeuring duties, but I don't have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow so hopefully it will be OK.

Wish us luck!

Ride times for Sunday are UP

For Hy Court Farms' Schooling show this Sunday, here are our ride times:

12:54 Training 1
1:18 Training 2
2: 50 Hunter Versatility


Not at the crack of dawn (BONUS), not too much time between our dressage tests for Saga to go "we're done, I QUIT!" And, plenty of time to tack down and take a break before our "hunter versatility" class.

A hunter class in a dressage saddle... this should be amusing! :)

T minus 4 days and counting

So tonight as I was driving out to the barn for my lesson, I saw one of those big neon bank signs - you know, the ones with the time and temperature? - and it read 58 degrees. Brrr! I had to pull out my polarfleece breeches and dust off my sweatshirt to go ride tonight.

Saga was, of course, a raving nutcase. Between being in his stall for 2 days due to the rain and it being 58 degrees, he was READY TO GO. I decided to do some hand walking to get a few boogers out of his system, but the hand walking only seemed to make him worse. So I groomed him and tacked him, then went and hopped on him to walk him around before the lesson. Fortunately I had about 30 minutes, because I needed every second of it!

We started off with lots of head-tossing at the walk. I shortened up my reins since giving him long reins was only allowing him to be naughty, and we walked for a bit, throwing in a 10 meter circle every now and again to give him something to think about other than the fact that he had a lot of pent-up energy and nothing to do with it. We trotted around some as well, accompanied by more head tossing and a teeny hop or two... just enough for him to prove that if he really wanted to be naughty, he could. I growled at him a lot and eventually he settled down. When I finally got to the point where I could let him have a long rein and not worry about him being a moron, I walked him on the long rein for about 10 minutes while FuzzyPony finished up her lesson.

When my lesson started, we did only had done a few trot circles to the left and right when Joan said, "OK, let's do your test." At which point I confessed that I had not even bothered to look at either of the tests I signed up for this weekend (hey, you're allowed readers, and I'm a quick study... yeah, that's my excuse!) She gave me the quick overview, and we managed to fumble our way through the test pretty decently. He wasn't super straight on the free walk across the diagonal, but Joan said he did have good overstride, and when we picked up the reins to go back to medium walk and then to trot, he got a little upside-down and then I had trouble with the right bend until the circle, where I really got it back. The left lead canter depart was, not surprisingly, sticky, but it was in a dark corner of the arena and Joan said it didn't look too bad. She said that our centerlines were super straight, the halts were square (no swinging his haunches left!) and our circles were round and had nice bend. She told me that the test would probably have been around a 70% at a schooling show.

No shit. A 70%.

After I pointed out all the flaws that she didn't see (like the crummy canter transition), she said maybe high 60s, but still, a nice test. I was pretty floored. This from my horse that couldn't even come round when I got him in May. Dang.

We schooled some canter transitions because they were the worst part of the test, but even after doing 5 or 6 of them to the left I didn't feel like they got much better. He just doesn't lift his shoulders into the transitions like he sometimes does to the right (i.e. like he's supposed to). Part of this I know is that my right leg doesn't ask as well since my heel comes up, and I also tend to throw my body more forward on the left transitions instead of asking him to come up. I really, really need to make an effort to ride those transitions better and not lose my position, or else he's never going to get any better at it.

We then proceeded to do Training 2. In some ways that went more smoothly but he was starting to get tired of this riding thing and wanted me to hold him up. I gave myself more time to get to the medium walk and then the trot after the freewalk by starting to pick up the reins on the quarterline and then asking for really deep bend in the subsequent corner, and it went beautifully. On Tr2 the second canter circle is immediately followed by turning right down center line, and I made the transition right after we hit the letter so that I would have the maximum amount of time to balance him for the centerline turn. So I feel like I rode the test pretty smart, even though Saga was heavier on his forehand (especially in the left lead canter) and somewhat less willing in general. However, it was another good test and I felt pretty good about it. Now, if we can just pull that off on Sunday!

We finished up the lesson with some leg yield attempts. I had a major ah-hah moment when Joan told me to point his nose where I wanted him to go, but keep his body bent to the inside. I've always ridden leg yields with the nose to the inside, so this was completely new. And what do you know, suddenly we were actually doing nice leg yields! Not a ton of crossover yet, but he was getting the idea. He still needs to move better off my leg, but at least we got some good, correct steps in the right direction. And at the trot too!

So, another fabulous lesson. I really feel like Joan is helping us make tons of progress. Now, if only I could ride more in between my lessons, it would be so much better. Alas, I can only do so much, but hopefully I can get in a few more rides before the show Sunday. T minus 4 days and counting!

Odds and ends

Tonight after dinner, I headed out to the barn. I'd spent part of the afternoon polishing my boots (yeah, they're still as uncomfortable as ever, and no, they still don't fit) and cleaning some of my old bridles that I dug out of my bin of unused strap goods. I found not only Cash's old double bridle, from back in the day when I had hopes of going 3rd or 4th level, but I also found Moose's (a.k.a. Karlita, my Lipizzan mare who now resides in New Mexico with another owner) old bridle. Somehow I had my old bradoon reins, but the snaffle reins, which broke in a moment of absolute stupidity on my part years ago, were nowhere to be found. I think they might be in the hubby's workshop somewhere, awaiting to be fixed.

Anywho, I cleaned and reassembled as much as I could. The goal was to get two complete bridles together, one for jumping and one for dressage. I did manage to procure another loose ring snaffle, size 5.5, for jumping, so I wanted to get that on a bridle. I tried Cash's old bridle on Saga, and it was WAAAY too small in the browband, which I sort of expected. Moose's old bridle actually fit pretty well, although the browband was a touch too big. However, I've never much liked the bridle. The throatlatch is really thin in comparison to the cheekstraps and the rest of the bridle, and it just seems out of proportion. However, it's white padded black leather, and it looked pretty nice on Saga from afar. Eventually I want to get a bridle that really fits him and looks great on him, but I'm trying to save my husband from the sticker shock as much as possible. :)

So, for jumping I now have a loose ring snaffle with a flash noseband and 54 inch web reins with stops. I'd prefer 60 inch web reins with stops, but FuzzyPony is being nice enough to loan them to me, so I can't complain. For dressage I have the black and white bridle with a Happy Mouth eggbutt snaffle and my bradoon reins. I'd rather have the plain snaffle reins, so hopefully I can find them. As an alternative, I may buy a set of 60 inch laced reins. My problem with reins with stops is that I tend to hold the stops with my thumb, so often the reins are either too long or too short, because I can't convince myself to hold the reins anywhere but at the stops. Oh well. If I can't find my plain snaffle reins and get them fixed in fairly short order, I'll go back to my leather reins with stops for dressage. At least I do have alternatives.

My ride tonight was kinda strange. When I went out to get Saga, his buddies were inciting a riot. He came up to me twice, got a treat, but then quickly left when his buddies came near me. When I brought him up to the barn, he was behaving very forward, so I stopped off at the round pen for a bit of free lunging. With very little encouragement from me, he cantered around for about 3-4 minutes in each direction, and trotted for several more minutes both ways. He was lathered by the time he was done (but he sweats A LOT) but seemed to feel like he'd gotten the boogers out of his system.

After I did all the bridle fitting, I decided to hop on for a short ride. He behaved as though he had already finished working, and was a bit of a snot about being asked to work more (this is a thing of his, I'm noticing). We only did a bit of trot work, but I noticed that I was really having to move him off my inside hand and leg more than usual. We did have some nice moments, but nothing spectacular, which may be because I haven't ridden him since Wednesday if nothing else.

After I was done and was grooming a bit, I discovered his favorite itchy spot. It's on either side of his spine on top of his rump. He totally gets into being scratched there, and his butt must've dropped 6 inches as I scratched. It was pretty cute! Oh, and I tried on the size 87 turnout sheet I picked up at The Tack Shop of Austin yesterday. Thank goodness, it was HUGE on him. I think he needs an 84, maybe an 82. I may exchange it for an 82 (since they were out of 84s) and see if that would work for him. I mean, he's big and I know he's longer than a schoolbus, but I would be embarrassed for him to wear a blanket bigger than Brego - who, as a big, handsome Percheron, at least has an excuse to wear an 84!

Tomorrow, it's off at the crack of dawn to drop off the trailer to get the ramp reinforced and the lights rewired. You would not believe how much a 1300 lb horse can bend a trailer ramp without even trying! And then there was the rescue that FuzzyPony picked up a few weeks ago for another friend who tried to trample my trailer... sigh.

Since I didn't take any pictures today, I thought I'd leave y'all with this - this is Cash (the white dot on the left) at his retirement home with his 4 buddies. They've got a 10 acre pasture of rolling hills with knee-high coastal all to themselves. Horsie heaven? I think so!

P.S. Thanks for the banana pudding, FuzzyPony!