The BIG Day - Hunter II, Hunter U/S, Jumper III... and hopefully a World Championship Awards Presentation

Wednesday was a BIG day - the last jumper class of the division, the second hunter over fences and the hunter under saddle... and hopefully a World Championship presentation in the Coliseum - so this is getting broken up into several smaller posts. *nods*

Jumper II and Working Hunter I

Tuesday morning, and significantly less nervous. In other words, I'm not almost in tears and about to puke. I feel like there is no way I'll be able to remember my course, once again, but honestly, I can't think of ONE time I haven't thought that!

The day started with Jumper II. Having learned my lesson from the day before, I made sure to inquire about the time allowed today. After only half the riders the day before making the time allowed, the course designer decided to extend the time allowed to 64 seconds instead of 60. MM apparently had another class in another arena that she needed to get to, so she actually jumped the course before the rest of us walked the course (so no, she did not walk the course). Apparently, she was almost double-clean, but with time faults in the jump-off... but then it became double-clean, because it was then decided to extend the time allowed in the jump-off, as well. Alrighty, then.

There's really not a whole lot I can say about the course... honestly, I think it was an easier course than the first class. The bending line from 5ab to 6 was pretty fun, and then there was a trip down the middle of the arena going away to fence 7. I don't know what it was about fence 7... everything about it seemed perfectly straightforward, but almost everyone hit it, and unfortunately for us, it came down. 4 faults... bummer. It did make me glad, however, that I had decided to be more forward in the first round in this class than I had the day before, because it meant that we could still lay down the fastest 4-fault round. And we did. Still disappointing to pull a rail, but we still got 4th in class.

Following Jumper II, we had our first hunter class, the aptly named "Working Hunter I." Being as this was a hunter course, I was MUCH less worried about remembering the course. The course started with a right lead coming home. No reason to make any big issue of it... trot in, pick up the canter near the far end of arena, establish a nice pace, and go for it, right? Apparently not. For whatever reason, Star a) decided that she didn't want to back in the arena (so a "helpful" bystander led her in), and b) decided that she had NEVER been in that arena before, and OMIGOD!!! everything was going to eat her alive, can't you tell?!?! Riiiight.

Trotted to the end, tried about three times to pick up the canter, and finally got it at about the last minute. A few bulging turns to avoid monsters, a couple rough-ish lead changes ("But I don't WANT to change my lead!" and "Are you telling me what to do?!?"), and being very "looky" in general, but we got around, had a fairly decent (steady, hunter) pace, made the lines and made the changes. When we jogged back, I was absolutely SHOCKED to be called back in fourth! Way to go, horse - I don't know how you pulled that off!

Game plan for Wednesday:

Hunter II: Trot right into the ring and pick up a canter immediately, so Star doesn't have time to look at all the scary stuff.

Hunter Under Saddle: Just have a nice ride, letting Star stretch down and forward for a little more of the hunter "nose poke" than is dersirable in the hunter pleasure ring, and work for a nice, ground-covering pace with light rein contact.

Jumper III: Don't pull any rails. Remaining strategy to follow upon learning the course.

Ribbon Tally:

Jumpers: 1-2nd; 1-4th

Hunter: 1-4th

Rockin' It Old-Skool - Jumper I

Rust breeches - check. Green coat - check. Scallop braids - check.

For turnout in our first jumper class (Jumper I... creative, right?) at the Morgan Grand National, Star and I totally rocked it old-skool, with me sporting rust breeches and a greenish-tannish-sageish coat, and Star sporting scallop braids. We looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The only things that could have made it better would have been brown field boots and a brown helmet. *nods*

So on to the course... well, back up a bit. Before the class, I was so nervous I was literally sick to my stomach and near tears. Yes, you read that right. I don't remember the last time I was so nervous. The course wasn't terribly difficult, but it wasn't exactly easy (not that it should have been, given that this was the Grand National and World Champion show). It was also Table II)2.b, so that meant that I had to have not only my first round memorized, but also the jump-off course. Oh! AND I was second in the order of go.

Did I mention that it's been over a year since we last did the jumpers? And before that, it had been at least two years since we had done the jumpers? Yeah...

We go in for our first round, wait for the whistle, and then develop a nice canter. Nothing fast or crazy - in the first round, the main point is to go clean. Star had a pretty good rub on fence number one. Of course, I had to look back to see if the rail came down... there's not much more disappointing than the very first rail coming down, except maybe the last rail coming down. Regardless, pulling the very first rail sets a rather disheartening tone. The rail stayed up, and Star figured out that hitting rails probably wasn't the best plan of action. Bending line from 1 (going away) to 2, big left turn around 5 to 3, rollback to 4, bending line to 5, and fairly long run heading back home to 6a and b, an in-and-out. Now those of you who know something about distances and strides will know that for an "average" 12-foot stride, a one-stride combination (an in-and-out) would be set with 24' between the jumps. I have seen in the past at Morgan shows one-stride combinations set at 21', to accommodate a breed that is sometimes shorter-strided than "average." And 21' is still reasonable. In this course, the distance between 6a and 6b was 18 feet. Yes, you read that right, too. So a long run heading home to an 18' in-and-out. Sounds like a recipe for a rail down. And there were rails down... just not for my horse! A left turn back to 7 and a right turn to 8, and we were across the timer in about 59 seconds with a clean round. Turns out the time allowed was 60 seconds. Oops. Maybe I should have bothered to know that before going in the ring! Making the time allowed had never been a problem before, so I never gave it a second thought, and though we made it, it did teach me a valuable lesson.

On to the jump-off. The jump-off course was 1-2-3-5-6a-6b. NOW I was going to ride for time... especially having come so close to the time allowed in the first round! I am told that you could see quite a marked change in our pace between round one and the jump-off. Fence 1 and 2, pretty much same as before, but with less bend in the line. My plan had been to cut on the inside of 5 to come to 3 this time, but landing off fence 2, I just wasn't prepared enough, and opted to go around. Over 3, tight right back to 5, and the same long run from 5 to 6a and b. Got a bit of a gallop, set up, over, tiny stride, out and through the timer. Time allowed: 30 seconds. Our time: 26 seconds. Good enough for first at that point.

A couple more riders went who didn't make time and/or had rails. And then it was MM's turn. MM was reserve champion last year and champion the year before with the same horse (who I actually quite like and reminds me quite a bit of my Star) she was riding this year, and is pretty much the "local favorite," and the rider that everyone knows. There was talk that she would probably have a first round time of 45 seconds. Well, that's nice, but what's the point? Anyway, MM went clear in her first round. Time for the jump-off. MM apparently had the same jump-off plan as I, and nearly fell off at fence 2 trying to make the turn. Now, normally, I don't hope someone falls off, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping she fell (as long as no one got hurt, that is). Well, unfortunately for me, she did not fall and successfully made the inside turn to fence 3. The rest of her round was clean... dammit! Time: 23 seconds. Beat by 3 seconds, and all because I didn't prepare well enough and stick to my plan (I know it took us more than 3 seconds to go around fence 5). Well, shit!

However, all cursing aside, I can't complain. Star and I ended up second, with which I was thrilled. For not having competed in the jumpers in over a year, being so nervous I was about to puke and cry, for being the underdog, and, well, everything else taken into consideration, my horse was AMAZING, and I could not be more pleased with her performance! And to take second place, to boot, is just icing on the cake (or cookie... I like cookies better).

And we looked damn good doing it!

The Reason Sparky's Event Hony Debut Has Been Postponed

So back in June, I had thought that Sparky would make his eventing debut in the Beginner Novice division at the Oct Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trial. Had I more time and resources, this may have worked, but the simple fact is that he's just not ready.

We went cross country schooling for the first time in July (Happy Birthday to me!), and he was an absolute rockstar! However, since it was his very first outing, we took it pretty easy, and only jumped one "big" fence - a triangular stack of "Lincoln Logs"... and to be honest, I was pretty sure it wasn't happening. It didn't happen the first time, but on the second attempt, Sparky said, "Okay, I got this!" and leapt over the logs like it was nothing. THAT, in and of itself, made the whole day worthwhile.

In August, we had the opportunity to school the course at Chatt Hills, so naturally, I jumped at the chance. I went with Jen (and Tiki), Becca (and Captain), and Marissa (and The $700 Pony... who is awesome, by the way). The three (six) of them took part in the hunter pace held in the morning, and in the afternoon, Jen, Marissa, one of Jen's students, and I went schooling.

There was nothing. small. on. that. course. Nothing. Almost everything was max height (~2'6"), and Sparky had never jumped that high "cold" before. Poor Sparky was overwhelmed, and did the best he could... but it was kind of rough. We had a stop (or two) at almost every fence before he went over, and eventually (after a string of a couple GREAT fences with no stops!) he just said, "No, I'm done." And he was done. There is NO ONE in this world who could have made him go over that fence.

I overfaced him, plain and simple.

We did do a few more fences (bank and ditch on XC, a few in the arena) to restore confidence and end on a (somewhat) positive note, but I realized that with the little time I had and the other commitments I had, I was not going to be able to have him ready for the horse trial in October (unless we were to school XC many more times before then, which just wasn't going to happen). So we nixed it.

So Sparky is backing up a couple steps, and we're going to work very hard on square oxers, things that look solid (thanks to a brown tarp), and removing the word "no" from his vocabulary. I can't really think of a way to re-inforce the idea of "forward," because this is a one-off event... Sparky is naturally a forward horse, so me asking him to go forward has never been so much me asking or telling him - it's really always been me allowing him. So I think if I build up his confidence to the point that "no" never crosses his mind, we'll be good to go, and I will have one hella awesome Morgan Sport Pony eventer.

So what all of this really means is that Jen gets to use my dressage saddle when she and Tiki do go to the horse trial at the end of the month!

The Strangest Thing...

<-- See this bit? This is a Korsteel JP Oval Mouth dee ring snaffle... basically, one of likely the "softest" bits you can put in a horse's mouth.

See this bit? -->

This is a Mikmar Pelham... otherwise, generally known as a "Whoa, Dammit!" bit.

What's the point of this mini-lesson on bits? Well, let me tell you a little story:

About 6 years ago, Star and I competed at the Circle J Regional Morgan Horse Show, and Star did pretty well - Reserve Champion Hunter, Reserve Champion Jumper (by default), Reserve Eq Over Fences. Can't really complain too much about that, right? Well, at one point in between classes, the judge saw me and called out, "Hey, you, #blah-blah-blah - tighten up your horse's noseband!" Star likes to hang her mouth open (no matter what bit), and basically, the judge was telling me that was affecting our placings. So I tighten up her noseband. And then I bought a figure-8. And for the past 6 years, I have almost NEVER ridden Star without a flash or figure-8 noseband on her to keep her mouth closed.

Let me tell you another story:

Star is fast. She likes to get fast to the jumps. And up until this year, really, we hadn't done a whole lot of jumping in the three years she has been in Georgia, and there was a whole year prior to that I didn't jump really at all, because I lived in Georgia, and she was still in Iowa. So I figured that Star being fast to the jumps was partly due to bad habits and partly due to inconsistency of work over fences, because she hasn't always been like this. In an effort to get Star to slow down a bit, I have progressed through many bits, ultimately using the "Whoa, dammit!" bit pictured above. And it didn't do a damn thing, really.

So now for the final story:

I'm at the barn a couple weeks ago, a day or two after the PWF schooling show, where things didn't go perfectly, but I accomplished what I intended. I had come to the determination that I was not going to be able to change Star's style (fast) in the month I had until Nationals, so I was just going to have to do what I could with what I had. Anyway, so I'm at the barn, and of course, I had forgotten all my "normal" tack at home: figure-8 bridle, rolly-ball spurs, flash noseband attachment (no, I do not use it at the same time as a figure-8), and the "Whoa, dammit!" bit. So I pull a regular bridle with no keep-your-mouth-closed strap, put my Happy Mouth loose ring elevator on it (thoroughly expecting Star to run through it, as she has done in the past), put a running martingale on Star, and put my long dressage spurs on myself. I had set a couple jumps with plenty of room to circle between them and before and after them, in an attempt to maintain a decent rhythm and pace.

And Star was perfect.

Well, holy shit. What changed?

So over the next several rides, I changed things one at a time, to see if it was the bit, the martingale, the spurs, or the jump set-up... and she was still perfect, and has stayed perfect. She lopes up to the jumps (solid 3' - 3'3" jumps) in a Happy Mouth snaffle.

It's the strangest thing... it turns out, for the past six years, my poor horse has just been pissed that I've been strapping her mouth shut. That's a mare for you, I guess.

Oh, and the first bit pictured? Yeah, that's what she jumped around in the other. Still perfect.

Wow. I'm really bad at this.

So it turns out that I'm really bad at keeping up with this whole blogging thing. Oops. Lots of things have happened since my last post... and I means LOTS... so I'll just go over them quickly and then (maybe) post in more detail about them later.

Probably the most exciting thing since the last post is that I am officially taking Star to Morgan Nationals this year. She did really well (with the exception of our first class - she was just being a snot) at the Dixie Cup Classic in May, and all the pieces just kind of fell into place, so we will be competing in the Regular Working Hunters, the Jumpers, and the Hunter Pleasure Amateur Mare. If she does well enough, we'll show back in the World Championship Hunter Pleasure Amateur, but I'm really not expecting great things. Not that I expect to do terribly (far from it!), but I am trying to not set expectations. I just want to go and have fun and do the best we can. =)

Sparky has also gone XC schooling a couple of times. He was GREAT the first time, and overall good on the second time, but I have had to re-evaluate my plans for him. We had planned on competing in a horse trial at the end of October, but I have decided that it is not in our best interests to do so at this time. Sparky is young and still learning, so there will be plenty of time to compete in the future.

Another pretty cool thing is that I have a new job. I was faced with the very real possibility of having at least a month's vacation (read: unemployed), but a great new job pretty much fell into my lap. The short of it is that I am back in the lab, doing work I enjoy. I was also asked for a minimum two-year commitment to the position... this is awesome, because it means I'll a) not be looking for a job again in 6 months (which has really been my pretty standard MO for a while now), and b) I'll be staying in Atlanta! I've finally really settled in here, and I am finally really happy, so I am excited to be staying.

IEA season is coming up as well. I have offered up use of BOTH horses this year, so it will be fun to see how they do, should Jen choose to use them both. =)

I'll post more detailed things later about specific events, but I think that's a pretty good general run-down!

The Flying Sofa

ß Meet Star. She was nicknamed "The Flying Sofa" during the 2009-2010 Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) show season because (at least to my understanding): A) Sitting on her is pretty much like sitting on a sofa (though back in Iowa, we usually call them couches) and she is very comfortable to ride; and B) Point her to a jump, and she pretty much does the rest, flying over it. Now part B) can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing – it depends on the situation. For the intents and purposes of IEA, it's pretty much a good thing (I think. I will be corrected if I'm wrong). The riders just have to remember to STEER!

There are two ways to ride Star: you can ride her, or you can RIDE her. If you ride her (small r), she'll pretty much take care of you, but she won't go out of her way to really use herself. She is, by nature, a bit – okay, QUITE – lazy, so will generally do the least amount of work necessary. This means that she will just kind of hack around in no semblance of a frame with a pokey walk, a jog-trot, and the occasional "tranter" instead of an actual canter. Tracking up? What's that? She'll like to get on her forehand and pretend that her front end isn't *really* attached to the back end. She'll look more like a random "school horse" than what she really is. She's lazy, lazy, lazy – until you point her at a jump. Then she'll use that neck and shoulder, truck along on her forehand - but she'll take care of you (but of course, being a mare who knows EXACTLY who she has on her back, she'll also let you know if you offend her), and take you right to and over the jump. She's a good jumper, but not particularly impressed by anything much under 3'. That's the first way to ride (small r) Star.

If you RIDE (capital R) Star, keeping your leg on her and asking her to flex at the poll and actually engage her hind end, you're much more likely to be told by her highness that you've offended her (What? A queen having to WORK?!?), but holy crap! she starts to look like the well-bred Morgan that she really is, resembling almost a mini-warmblood. She still likes to get on her forehand, but she'll start actually bending and tracking up (a little bit, anyway). When she comes up to a jump, she'll actually round over it a bit, rather than "Superman-ing" it. I have seen only two IEA riders come close to RIDING (capital R) Star – and both did well in their classes. The only other person I have seen RIDE (capital R) Star recently has been Jen, when I gave her a no-stirrups "lesson." It's pretty neat to see just how cute my mare can be.

Now the thing about RIDING Star (I'm tired of the "capital R" "little r") is that it's not particularly easy. She has a very round barrel and broad back, which make it difficult to really put your leg on and keep it. That, paired with her strong (heavy) front end and opinionated mare mind (backed up with several years of bad habits) means that convincing her to rock back and work off her hind end (especially when jumping) is sometimes, uhh, well, it just plain doesn't happen.

So I enlisted the help of Jen (my honorary big sister) to be my eyes on the ground and kick my butt (I also have a bit a leaning habit that I am trying to combat) a couple of weeks ago. It was of course, ungodly hot out, which made the whole experience even more fun. The main principles addressed were:

-Make Nicole work in all three seats, not just her [favorite] full-seat (amazingly enough, I re-remembered that two-point is MUCH easier with shorter stirrups!)

-Work to obtain PROMPT transitions with Star

-Get Star working off her hind end

Of course, all of this involved RIDING her. When it came to jumping, the emphasis was on not letting Star just canter along on her forehand and get over the jump in the easiest way possible. We worked on actually getting a nice, bouncy canter and coming in to the base of the jump to make her rock back and really use herself (again, having to really RIDE her). Overall, Star did pretty well – some of our jumps felt REALLY good. But there is always more work to be done. With that in mind, over the past couple weeks, Star and I have done the following:

-Leg means forward NOW, not five minutes from now, maybe. (Holy crap, turns out that horse really CAN work off her hind end)

-Bounces. Lots of bounces. Set at anywhere from 2'6" to 3'0". This was actually pretty fun; she felt as round as a rubber ball by the last jump.

-Walking jumps. This helps on two fronts: it encourages Star to have a much better walk with more impulsion (like a tiger getting ready to pounce, I think is how Linda Allen put it) AND to encourage her to use her hind end to jump. Can't jump from a walk without impulsion and not trip (which DID happen, and Star learned her lesson).

And as for me, it's the same laundry list as it always is, but the biggie right now is to not lean left. It's getting better, but it's definitely going to take a while. Years of bad habits and inherent weaknesses and all. One big goal is to develop a lovely auto release like Jen's. Even my actual crest release could be better: though Jen did compliment me on it once, I have to say that I actually disagreed with her on that – it was too high on the neck and too far forward. So that's definitely another thing.

On the COTH forums, someone posted a question about when a horse is considered "finished." My thought is that there is always something upon which can be improved, so a horse is never really "finished;" I feel that the work I've been doing with Star lately illustrates this point. She's a go-anywhere and do-anything kind of horse that some might consider to be finished, but to me, it is a lifelong process… it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.