Milner - The Ammy Rides

I know the Derby round was the most exciting news to come out of Milner, and no one is ever very interested in small, slow ammy rounds.  But for me, the headline at this show was "HOLY SHIT I LOVED EVERY ROUND."

Which, may seem like a close cousin to "OMG I love my horse."  But it's not.  I loved Pia - but she tried to murder me a lot.  I hated a lot of those rides - even though I "loved my horse." 

I got closer with Prair, because - well, Prair.  But really, even at our most relaxed, it always felt like our success was tenuous at best, and I was always ready for all the proverbial shoes to drop.

I guess I could say that I thought I had already loved every round on Windsy.  But that's probably like saying I thought I loved my high school boyfriend.  True statement at the time, but possibly worth some revision in hindsight...

But back to Windsy. 

I warmed up on Thursday for my first round, with the option to have a Low round before my division started.  Our warmup was lovely.  Not brilliant, but not argumentative. I found my pace and the jumps were coming up fairly easily. 

As we walked down to the back gate I just had this feeling that the Low round was going to be a waste of jumps.  So, we scratched it, and I headed in for my first round at 2'9" cold. 

I was a little nervous about the first fence.  It wasn't your normal Hunter-quarterline-single, which was enough to have me over thinking it.  But Winds lifted his balance and showed me the slightly forward spot out of stride. 

MAGIC.

Then he came back to me, we stayed out of the bit of muck at the end of the ring and I tried hard to keep our step through the turn.  We did.  And stepped right up to the rolltop into the judges line. 

MAGIC.

Then it was single oxer time.  Again, winds sat back, I kept him straight, and BAM, jump. 

Up the outside line, and home in the two stride.  (we swapped into the two stride, but I so didn't care).  At every fence I literally thought "oh, there it is, let's go get it" and added some gas pedal. 

Winds jumped open and round and super duper soft.  The lines were set long, which was also great since I'm used to choking him back - it was so fluid and fun to land and continue and jump out with some push instead of pull...

When we landed after the two stride, my smile was HUGE.  I have never, ever, ever had that much fun on course.  (well, maybe on XC with the old wonder pony, but I was 12, that doesn't count).

Winds was forward, I stayed soft, everything was small adjustments and just flowed. 




Thank god I scratched the warm up, because if I had wasted that round on a Low, I probably would have tensed up and butchered the second round when it counted....

The next day was the Derby, so all I had to do was stretch Winds' legs in the morning.  But Saturday we were back at it.

I was a bit tentative getting on - mostly just nervous that I would feel some crippling soreness or stiffness that I would be able to attribute to the bigger jumps in the Derby - but nothing.  Winds felt loose and lovely.

He was a bit slow at the canter so I picked up a crop (I prefer a shoulder tap and rubber ball spurs over a sharper spur..) and he was perfect.

As we walked into the ring I realized both the crop, and spurs were probably unnecessary.

He was looking at EVERYTHING.  Flowers. Grass. Jumps. Fence posts! OMG.  I had a brief PTSD flashback of Prairie's eyeballs popping out of her head and certain death - but I shoved those thoughts aside and tried to believe that Winds would be good.

Turns out he was perfect

We had the same weird first fence, and Winds was so fluffed up it was all I could do to not grab at his face and start a tug o' war.  But gentleman that he is, he sat back, waited for the fence and there was zero drama. 

Then I cut off the end of the ring (to stay out of mud) and had to be somewhat thoughtful about my track into a bending line on the outside.  Winds was light, and straight and we stepped right up to it.  Loved that line, and it was set long so we got to continue nicely and move up to the out. 

Didn't love my ride into the diagonal, I lost the hind end and ended up adding in.  Knowing the lines were long, I gunned Winds on the landing and he popped off his lead but we got up there ok.  In hindsight I think I could have been less panicked about making it up the line  and not lost my lead by finessing it a bit more, but lesson learned.

Then it was a single oxer set on the outside.  I had built up this fence as my boogie fence because without a real arena fence, lots of horses were bulging, never getting straight and then really messing up the distance.  Winds was still pretty keen at this point which made my track easier and straight wasn't an issue - so we made it through ok.  (I also realized I had been holding my breath and finally started breathing again on the landing, WHOOPS).

Finally, a smooth seven stride home and we were done (with a new favorite round in the books). 




Even with the swap, somehow we won the class, which was reinforced by a win on the flat (maybe the first time that's happened?).  It was a good Saturday.

Sunday we came out for one final round, and I decided to let Winds keep his hair down, so it was a bit of a casual day ;)

fluffy hair

Warm up was our trickiest.  He was dull again, and again I picked up my crop.  I remembered to put it down before we went in the ring, but I didn't have the same, lofty, eager beast under me. 

I was reminded by a barnmate that Windsor is almost always a bit more charged and looky the day after a Derby, but quickly returns to his casually bored self after a round or two. 

I think Winds was for sure bored, but also tired, and potentially a bit sore from jumping significantly more than he had been at home.  He didn't feel stiff per se, just lacked the lifted energy that was so magical for my first two rounds. 

This round felt rough by comparison.  I didn't feel that fluid connection and it sort of felt like I was grinding the gears in the corner.  My adjustments felt clunky and jarring, and while Winds didn't seem to mind, I never got a great rhythm that I could groove into

The video looks less awkward than it felt (thankfully), but still not our finest.  Mostly what I see now is that I didn't trust my canter, so I was fussing in the corner, then pushing him just past the distance even when it was right there.  Most of the time it was fine, but I forced him over his shoulder a bit.

This was fine.

this was a little tight.

All in all, not a bad ride at all, just not quite as magic as the others, but I am proud that I still mostly made good decisions and stayed with him, instead of totally panicking and getting in a fight. 




It was a fabulous show, I adore getting to gallop around the big grass field and we definitely came away with a confidence building outing!

Oh, and a championship, and a cooler.  That's always nice too.  I love this horse show and wish we got to be here more often.

Now it's a few weeks at home getting to know the new kid and gearing up for Thunderbird!

The Hunters (a brief intro for those on the other side)

I was reminiscing over old blog posts and reliving last year's show season, when I noticed a trend of comments saying "great job! can you explain the hunters so I know what it means" or "cool! I think.... because I don't really understand what you guys do.."

And I remembered that I have always intended to do a "Hunters for Dummies" post, but never gotten around to it. 

Ideally you get to wear a shadbelly while jumping.  #goals.

So we're getting around to it.  I'll do my best to explain the sport, but please bear in mind that this pony-clubbing-former-eventer is by no means a sanctioned ambassador of the Hunter Ring. 

Hopefully my (reasonably) fresh eyes will be more helpful than my currently eroding vocabulary.

Let's start simple.  People often refer to Hunters and Jumpers together.  But once you set foot in H/J land, you realize that the Hunter ring and Jumper ring are very different places (usually on literal opposite sides of the show park).  For the purposes of this post, I'm focusing just on the Hunters. 

For anyone who lives really, really far away from H/J land - Jumpers are objective - make the time allowed, don't knock stuff down.  Hunters are subjective - jump the (easier) course assigned, get judged for how you look doing it. (think: ice skating).

What the Hunters mean for me, is that a ride that would have left me cheering in my youth (yay! No stops no rails!), is now something that I can beat myself up about (my canter sucked, we had a late change, and we left a stride out of the line...). 

Why I chose to do this to myself I don't know.  Maybe it's the perfectionist DQ lurking in me..and since I like jumping, but am too chicken to do XC anymore - the Hunters are where I belong....

The Goal:

When presenting a horse in the Hunters, the goal is to basically show that your horse is athletic, polite and safe.  All things that would make a lovely fox hunter out in the field. (though the number of show Hunters who have ever been fox hunting is a very, very tiny number that is very, very close to zero).

What that has come to mean is that successful Hunters complete their task in a relaxed, easy going manner, while showing brilliant (scopey, even, careful) jumping style, and covering the ground in an even, balanced rhythm. 

Exhibit A: Windsy

To translate further:  A competitive Hunter a) is pretty, b) moves well, c) has a big stride and slow step d) explodes into the air with a round jump, knees square (ideally touching it's nose) and ears forward e) looks EASY to ride f) shows no sign of irritation or anxiety.

So let's say you read that and say "hey! I have that horse (fyi, if you do you're sitting on a gold mine), how do I get one of those fancy Champion ribbons at a show?"

You enter a Division.  Divisions are comprised of 3 or 4 separate classes over fences at a given height and one flat class called the Under Saddle.

Your classes over fences will be a straight forward course of 8-10 jumps. Typically you figure eight around the ring (line, diagonal, line diagonal...) alternating related distances with single fences.  for some of the bigger divisions, the last class over fences with be a designated a "Handy" round which means you're supposed to show off how agile and adjustable your horse is.  Typically you see fewer related distances, options for inside turns, sometimes a hand gallop or trot fence gets thrown in. (it's as close to a jump off as the Hunters ever get..)

Traditional Hunter courses are not that technical, and the jumps tend to look similar enough that you expect the leaderboard to be decided by the subjective performance, rather than major faults like refusals or rails. 

USEF defines a Hunter "performance" as "an even hunting pace, manners, jumping style together with faults and way of moving over the course. Manners to be emphasized in Ladies and Amateur classes; brilliance in Corinthian and Formal Hunting Attire classes."

Not exactly a lot to go on.  But don't worry, the list of stuff you aren't supposed to do is nice and long:

1. The following faults are scored according to the judges opinion and depending on severity or division, may be considered minor or major faults.

a. Rubbing the jump

b. Swapping leads in a line or in front of a jump

c. Late lead changes

d. Spooking

e. Kicking up or out

f. Jumping out of form

g. Jumping off the center line of jump

h. Bucking and/or playing

i. Adding a stride in a line with a related distance

j. Eliminating a stride in a line with a related distance

k. Striking off on a wrong lead on the courtesy circle. (May be corrected with either a simple or flying change of lead)

2. The following are considered major faults.

a. Knockdown

b. Refusal

c. Refusal or stopping while on course

d. Crossing the track. A track is established once a horse has landed from a fence or completes a required test and follows the horse until the consecutive fence is jumped or the next test is executed. Upon completion of each consecutive fence or performance of the next test, the track is erased. Crossing a track between obstacles and/ or required tests shall constitute a disobedience and will be penalized by the judge(s). Exceptions 1.  A course diagram that requires a rider to cross his track. 2.  Snake or multiple panel jumps that are jumped consecutively.

e. Dangerous jumping

f. Addressing a jump - coming to a stop in front of a jump in order to show the jump to the horse.

g. Completely missing a lead change

h. Adding or eliminating a stride in an in and out.

i. Breaking stride, or Trotting while on course. (Exceptions-Where posted on the course diagram i.e. trot jumps, steep banks, etc, and also as outlined above in HU137.1k. Striking off on a wrong lead on the courtesy circle.)

So, you know -just don't do any of that stuff.

(we did almost all of that stuff)

Anyway, so you and everyone else in your division jump your rounds, and each class is pinned separately, so you collect a different ribbon for each. (or if you're me you collect a ribbon, then chipped/pulled/crosscantered your second course, so you don't collect another one...)

The final component of a full division is the Under Saddle class, which is a traditional rail class.  Everyone is in the ring at the same time, and asked to walk, trot and canter both directions.  It's basically a beauty pageant and horses are judged on their way of going and general impression.  Hunter judges like to see a big sweeping trot with daisy cutter movement (aka - a flat knee).  Again, horses should look relaxed and obedient (but Prairie taught me that you can look like a lunatic and still win with a big trot in front of the right judge....).

Tension with a side of nice trot.

When it's all said and done, a Champion and Reserve Champion are awarded extra ribbons (and sometimes a cooler!).  That designation is made by tallying up the results of all the results in each class of the division.  First place gets you 10 points, Second gets you 6 points, Third gets 4, Fourth gets 2, Fifth gets 1 and Sixth gets 1/2 a point. 

That point spread means that blue ribbons are worth their weight in GOLD.  If you can win a couple classes and blow the other ones, you're still doing better than the horse that is consistently third and fourth... (I think this is weird, and the point spread in Canada rewards consistency a bit more which I like).

So that's your basic "how to" on getting a cooler.

Like any discipline there is a ride range of levels and weird restrictions. 

The "Open" divisions tend to be mostly pro's and start with the Green and Young Hunters.  Young Hunters is a new thing, and restricts the divisions by age.  Horses 5 years and younger show at 3', 6 years and younger at 3'3" and 7 years and younger show 3'6". 

It's new, we'll see if it sticks, I hope it does.

Green Hunters just got a revamp, but similar to the Young Hunter divisions, it offers a place to show developing horses away from the big veterans on the circuit.  USEF has worked hard to elevate the Green Program and at a lot of the shows they are some of the most competitive classes in terms of numbers and quality of horses.

The Green program allows horses so spend two years showing at 3' and 3'3" before having to either move up to Green 3'6" or compete against the other more experienced 3'3" horses.  Horses also have one year to show in the Green 3'6" and another year to show in the Green 3'9" if they can.

Good form, nice expression, super polite.

Windsor showed last year in the Pre-Green 3'3".  The name Pre-Green has been replaced, and this year he could choose to spend a second year at Green 3'3", or move up to the Green 3'6". But basically, last year he was always showing against horses who were also in their first or second year at 3'3". 

If you're horse isn't eligible Green or Young, you get kicked into the general open divisions.  These start at 3' (split into Small and Large Hunter for under/over 16h), then move into the Performance Hunters which are offered at multiple heights and not restricted by age or experience.

If you have a real looker (with no popped splints or windpuffs) you can also enter the Conformation Hunters which places a higher emphasis on conformation (duh) and way of going.  Conformation divisions also have an in-hand class added to your over fences classes and Under Saddle.

Still with me?

Ammy's and Kids have their own divisions that start at 2'3" and go up to 3'6".  We also ride 4 courses over fences and parade around in an Under Saddle. 

Typically you see the open(/pro) divisions run on Wednesdays and Thursdays so that us ammy's can show on the weekend and kids don't have to miss too much school. 

You can start to see how if you have a horse who shows with a pro, then goes around with an ammy or kid on the weekend - it's pretty easy  to rack up a packed schedule - and we haven't talked about Derbies, Classics or if your horse also takes you in the Equitation ring...

One of the things that's been tough for my former Dressage/eventer brain to comprehend is the nature of numerical scores in the Hunter Ring.  Judges take notes during every round, and at the end of each course, they assign an overall score (0-100).  However, scores are not always announced (though they are for WCHR classes, derbies and medals), and you never get to go pick up your scorecard like you do after a dressage test.  While most judges will score the same round within a point or two, there seems to be less consistency than there is in Dressage for how you score a particular moment, which makes it hard to even compare your own personal scores from day to day. 

When I was riding Dressage, the first time I would score 70% on any given test always felt like an achievement, and like it was a pretty consistent benchmark of my ability.  Last summer I can distinctly remember Windsy getting a 92 for a lovely round up at Thunderbird, but knew in my head it was probably closer to an 88 from a majority of other judges, which sort of cheapened the score.

There is also the oddity of a judge not being able to assign the same score to more than one horse/rider pair in any class.  So, let's take Windsy's 92.  He could have gotten a 92 because the judge got excited by an earlier trip and threw out an exuberant 91 to someone else.  Then Windsy comes along and he thinks to himself, hmmm I like this a bit more than the horse we gave a 91 to... so I'll go 92 which still leaves some room for a 91.5 (or even a 91.25) if another horse splits the difference.

In that way, the scores lose a bit of their independent meaning as judge's focus on making sure the performances are ranked correctly more than the true independent legitimacy of any one score.

A little odd right? it's taken me some time to get used to, but I think I've acclimated enough that I'm no longer shocked by the process...

At it's heart, I really do like the core of what Show Hunters do. 

Be athletic.  Be polite.  And look lovely doing it. 

However, like any sport - there is a dark underbelly to achieving the most extreme interpretation of that goal.

The Hunter Ring has been berated for rewarding relaxation so much that it has encouraged a dead-head, sedated look where the horses are cantering soooooo sloooowly that whether or not they've actually been drugged, it's the look that wins.  The courses have also been dumbed down over the last couple of decades, and I've seen more than one hissy fit at shows if the course designer tried to shake things up a bit.

However, I think the pendulum is swinging the other way.   Judges are being encouraged to reward brilliance and forgive the horse for acting like a reasonable horse, if it say... shakes it's head after a fabulous jumping effort. 

I specifically recall that during one of Winds' derbies last summer, a (very competitive) horse on the circuit laid down a lovely, albeit SLOW trip where it barely centered up to each fence before heaving itself over (stylishly) and loping off on the other side.  I was sitting there thinking to myself that we were screwed if the judge threw a high score at that round. 

Much to my surprise it got a shockingly low score and the judges consistently rewarded horses showing more pace, brilliance and general expression.  (I will say this shift is most obvious in the derby ring where brilliance is specifically called for, but still.... things seem to be trending in a good direction).

So there's my basic, rambling Hunters 101.  What did I forget? And for those who have been doing this waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy longer than I have, what do you add when describing Hunter Land to people?

Slow Spring Start

As the close of Q1 looms large on the horizon, I realize that we haven't really done much. 

Winds ended up with about 5 weeks off during the holidays (not the worst thing that's ever happened), but more than the time off - there has been a slow (inconsistent) return to work and that's left us nowhere near ready for show season. 

But we are 100% ready for Leadline

We think that Winds' left front was nagging at him.  And that it might have been the culprit of the not-so-spectacular performance in Paso, as well as what was driving the moments of cross leads and seemingly random inconsistencies last summer. 

His symptoms never got objectively worse with work (and there was a LOT of work)..

They also seemed to crop up randomly (though usually in smaller arenas..), which made it really tricky to pinpoint. He wasn't always worse after two weeks of showing.  Sometimes it was day one.  Sometimes he was great the whole time.  Sometimes he was stiff at the end... I sliced and diced and tried to come up with constants that could predict the cross lead - but alas, no strong hypothesis.

The upside of the randomness, is that he never steadily got worse, and the flares stayed small and short lived.  But they were there, and that was always in the back of my head.

So, time off. 

And ooooh boy does he feel rested and strong.

In fact, he looks pretty awesome.  He's put a little weight on (probably more fat than muscle, but me too..) and it looks like he has sorta grown into himself over the last year. 

His butt is bigger, his shoulder is filled in, and he just looks more mature than he did when he walked off the trailer 16 months ago. 

On top of that he feels AMAZING.  His trot feels looser, his shoulder feels swing-ier, and like he's reaching through the bridle instead of leaning on it.

That said, it might be time to put a spur back on... my heel is working overtime trying to nudge him along.  oooof



So that's neat, I think we're on a good track, and now that we know he can feel like this, maybe we can figure out how to keep him here.

Sadly time off hasn't had the same transformative effect on me.  In November, I felt ready to step straight into the 3' ring.  Today I feel less capable (both mentally and physically) of that particular task, and am lacking the urgency I usually feel this time of year about tackling new goals.

I'm not sure what exactly that means - but it has me feeling less pressured about where we're going and what we'll be doing when we go there.  (though, knowing my tendencies, that will likely change as soon as I get a whiff of show season).

Our Spring schedule is looking quite a bit difference than last year.  Our first potential show isn't until the end of April, and it's possible we'll wait until May. 

If we make it to April, it'll be back to Thunderbird, for what will most certainly be a rather wet week.

Winds would do a very light schedule, maybe not even any full divisions... but it would be a road trip and check-in to see where we are at while taking advantage of nice big rings to do it in.

Stay tuned for more schooling updates as we inch closer to the back gate! 

Wrapping up 2016

It seems to be a theme that I manage to delay blogging about a show for 2+ weeks - which results in summaries like "we went to a show"  and "we did some stuff."

Which is too bad, because as stuck as I've been on updates recently - I still totally value having them and the ability to go back and review them.  So I'll try. 

I enjoyed our two weeks at Paso Robles.  The park was great.  Footing held up well, staff was plentiful (and friendly!) and the schedule was realistic and on time.  Those things alone make for a pretty great few weeks playing with ponies.

Winds, however, was not his brightest shiniest self.  He wasn't awful, but I get so excited about showing him off that when he is a tad stiff or lackluster I get bummed out.  Not because he's bad - or even that he necessarily does poorly - but I when I know he's got more in there I end up a bit let down.

The second week saw much stronger pro divisions.  Folks made it back from Kentucky - and all the Green divisions about tripled in size.  So it was great to have some good competition and also see some new horses in the ring. 

Winds did fine in his Pre-Greens.  Not horrid, but not spectacular.  No major mistakes, but  he was jumping out his right side a bit and that killed us in the stiffer competition.

My rides were good.  We had one of our smoothest rounds to date and managed a blue ribbon in a big class of 25.  The second day our schedule got a bit off and I ended up going in on a very short warmup.  Winds wasn't quite working over his back yet and was surprisingly fresh in the ring which made for some stiff and jarring rounds.  We still pulled ribbons, but not great ones.

Below is the blue ribbon round.  I high recommend watching solely for the incredible commentary of one of our resident juniors.  She's rad, hired to provide color commentary at all shows from now on.


(FYI, when I went back in for my second round I promptly ate the first fence RIGHT in front of the judge, and killed our laid back vibe.  dammit).

For comparison, here's one of the rounds from the next day. Winds was still a very good boy here - Mostly I felt the tension, but where you see it come out in the video is in a few funky distances.  He felt a little sticky to my leg which resulted in him not moving up subtly when I asked - then all the sudden lurching in the last stride.  It was all a bit rough.  But I will say that we didn't have one sticky change all week - so that's a HUGE success in itself. 



Also, a clip of our Under Saddle for archival sake (very boring, not recommended).



We managed a respectable 4th in a class of 12 with a few REALLY nice movers.  Winds didn't hack his best.. I could tell he was tired, as the "downhill" side of the ring felt quite heavy and difficult - when in fact I know it's only a 2% grade.  Couldn't quite get him up and pushing as much as I like.  But he's a cute nugget.

All in all a great trip.  I'd revisit a West Palm show at this facility without hesitating.  Good food (and wine) and lodging and weather all add up nicely. 

My only real complaint? TARANTULAS. 

I don't do spiders.  and I really don't do well with big ones. 

in the stalls. 

and the dressing room. 

and the fields. 

nopenopenope.

Thunderbird Summer Fort Classic - Pre-Greens

I adore showing at Thunderbird.  There's a post brewing about what makes some venues so much nicer to be at than others... but for now I can say with conviction that given the back-to-back comparison with the Evergreen Classic -  Tbird wins. Hands down.

I was a bit timid about Tbird after I felt like Winds wasn't jumping his best at Evergreen, but the bigger rings and fabulous footing seemed to make a difference.  He still wasn't blooming over the fences how I like him to, but he was soft and correct and a very obedient boy. 

Those of you living through insane heat waves will giggle, but two weeks of 85+ is not our normal here and everyone, including the horses were a bit droopy. 

So Hot.  But so cute.

But the grounds were lovely, jumps were beautifully built, and Windsor is unquestioningly adorable when he does his job.

First Round was great. No warm up classes, no lunge, nothing.  He was pretty chill aside from getting a bit quick through the two stride at the end.

He ended up Second in a nicely competitive 3'3" division of 10. 



Second round was also great.  A bit more pace (in a good way), but a bit stiffer in the judge's line.  We were 3rd.



We came back for the jog and under saddle (omg. So sweaty). And Winds was a good sport.  He was a bit sluggish, but he uses his shoulder significantly better on the nice GGT footing than he does in sand.  It's really fun to hack him on that surface because it feels like you can actually push his stride out a bit.  We snagged a 3rd on the flat which is a *really* nice ribbon for us in that company.  The two (also gray) horses ahead of us are super adorable Huntery-Hunters that we aren't likely to finish ahead of Under Saddle, ever.

The second day Winds was definitely jumping a bit stiff.  He maintained a nice balance and pace, but he was wanting to lean a bit and pop off his right lead - which is a new trick.  A hard rub at the first fence and a swap into he judge's line kept us out of the ribbons in this trip.



The last round was a bit of a recovery.  Whether Winds was just looser after jumping a round or what - I'm not sure, but he seemed to work out of it a bit.  He snagged a second place in this, even with a bit of a rub in the 5 to 2 stride (love 5 to 2 strides, so fun).


The 2nd was great because not only did it clinch Reserve in the division, but it was a Stake class, so he earned some money too. 

Hoever the stiffness was a tad alarming.  Even with his crazy schedule I never like to think my horse is sore or compensating somewhere, so we booked an appointment with an FEI vet who was on the grounds and specializes in bodywork and acupuncture. 

I always love the idea of having a practitioner who is capable of catching potentially bigger issues (and exploring them if necessary). 

If Winds still wasn't feeling good after his session - I could haul him home early and start his time off a bit earlier than planned.

So that's the start to the first week of Third (spoiler alert, he felt great after the bodywork and we stayed....).

Milner Downs - Pro Days

I'm not 100% ready to fess up to my videos/pics yet - so I'll delay by focusing on Windsor's Pre Green rounds...

I opted to get some work done and log family time, so I missed his first day of competition.  Unsurprisingly - he was a stud.  He won his Low 3'3" round out of 17 by marching right around the big grassy field like a champ (which he is, teehee). 

too cool for school

But of course then he turned around and placed second in the first round of his Pre Greens... which was only out of six.   But he cleaned up his act for another first place in the second round...

What we're discovering is that this horse is rarely spooky - and tends to put in his brightest, most brilliant jumps in his first round.  We keep adding a Low just in case there are any boogie monsters - but consistently its his highest placing class or most stylish round.

Because he has such a heavy show schedule in August, we're going to try eliminating the Low rounds and letting him go straight into his Division and see if we get burned - or if we are able to capitalize on his extra bit of interest the first time he steps into the ring...

3'3" just isn't interesting enough for him to keep his big, brilliant jump up after he's been around the ring a couple of times.  He's still a good boy.. don't get me wrong.  But he's not impressed and that makes for some lackluster fences.

For example -

Round 1

Round 2

The second day started with the Under Saddle, and since there is another horse from our barn in the division, I planned to ride Windsy because I flat him pretty well.  It did mean that I had to leave my house at 4am, but waking up for horse shows has never been a problem (school or work is another story).

I will say that this Under Saddle was not my finest work.  I never really got him to loosen his shoulder and reach forward into the bridle.  Our canter work was good, but the trot was a tad stifled and short. When we were debriefing after the class - N reminded me that he wasn't getting any anti-inflams since he's being treated for ulcers - and I'm thinking that maybe he was just feeling a little less than 100%.  We picked up a 4th out of 7 which still felt generous.

He looked fine over fences later in the day - and in fact when I got back on him for the first round of my division he felt much looser and more willing to move out..

Over fences he added another second and another first to his ribbon pile.  I thought he jumped around great.  He was a bit stiffer in his mouth than he usually is - but the big, open field made it easier to ride him forward out of it, so it seemed like less of an issue than it could have been.

Here's another photo dump since they got a TON of photos from his rounds on Thursday...

Round 1 - so he's tidy

So stinking cute.

This is his first round on Thursday (third round of the division) where I actually managed to video from a high point (unlike the Derby).



Pretty solid - he's getting to be so consistent in the ring, steady, forward, amenable.  I love how he hunts the two stride a little more than the other fences.. but other than that - there isn't a lot to say.  He looks good with a pro on him. )

Round 4 was similar (but you know in a slightly different order of fences..). 


I think he looks a little slow on the pace - though I know he feels a LOT faster when you're actually on him.  He makes it look easy - maybe even boring.

The only real disappointment of the day came when we jogged back for soundness. Not because my horse is lame (knocking on all the wood) but because he has strong opinions about when he is on, or off duty and doesn't take kindly to me imposing on his off duty time.

Apparently, standing around is considering off duty - and asking him to jog in hand is just about the worst thing ever.

We jogged in ok for the first class, but he was second and we had someone to follow.  However for the second class, we jogged first and I made the poor assumption that he would again trot politely since we were headed back toward the in gate.

But no. 

We protested.  We stopped.  When I tried to swat him with my hand he spun his butt away and stared at me like an irritated teenager.  When I tried to "lunge" him to get his feet moving and move off, he almost reared. 

Jerk factor of 10 - and horrifically embarrassing.  Finally one of our guys ran into the ring (allllll the way across the ring) to help me herd Winds back toward the in gate.

un-effing-acceptable.

I was so embarrassed I tried to slink out of the ring, but we got called back for awards (not actually complaining) for Winds to receive his Champion ribbon along with our barn buddy receiving Reserve

Go Team!

(barn buddy is a total hunk if you know anyone looking for a super flashy and fancy 3'6" horse...just saying)

Believe you me I am about to employ all of Pia's Cowboy Man leading/liberty exercises on Mr. Windsor while we're home. 

In fact he already had an intro session yesterday whereby we discussed that I get to control all four of his feet on the ground, not just his cute little nose.

We'll test our progress back up at Thunderbird at the end of the month since Canada is the only place the jog the Pre Greens.....

Alpine Preview - Ammy Days

Saturday finally saw the start of my rides with Winds for this show. 

JK, pro ride in the derby - not me.

I really didn't miss my Eq division in terms of extra trips - but it's a little weird to not actually ride my horse until Saturday of a show.  I felt like I had been on vacation and was playing catch up in class.

The upside of me not riding on Friday was that Winds was that much more schooled, and that much more relaxed about my division.

I added a Low round (for my warm up, not his) and looked forward to two rounds over fences for my division.

The weekend was a really good learning one, so let's just dive into that, shall we?

(also I will be posting a bevy of videos, ignore at will).

So for the Low - it was REALLY obvious that Winds was still in Derby mode. He looks uber chill on the video, but he was quite a bit more... forward thinking... than I'm used to and I didn't adjust to it as effectively as I could have. 

Good thing about Derby mode is that his balance stays super up and back without much effort, bad things about Derby mode include a much more open step and slightly weaker brakes when I'm trying to fit one more step in.

Moving up to a bigger distance was cake (see the last line), but we were tight getting out every time and even when I could read the distance it was hard for me to ask Windsy to wait. 

Only major bummer was a missed change in our closing circle - from right to left - our nemesis.  I know I'm tipping in, even though my entire body feels like I'm stepping out and trying to lighten the front end.  ARGH.  very frustrating.



I got assertive and cleaned up my act for the first round of the division, and it totally worked out.  To date this was one of my bet rounds on Winds at a show.  My main complaint is that in "being more assertive" I got a tad tight with my hands and started opening up too early on my fences (hard to break that old XC habit).  BUT  we moved up nicely in each line, and never got tight out.  I rode the crap out of the single oxer and landed our left lead twice - thereby eliminating that pesky change issue...

We won this one, and I felt like we deserved it.



But theeeeen  I got a little cocky.

Or, maybe cocky is the wrong word, I just thought if I sat there, the same thing would happen again.

It didn't.

I came out of the ring really frustrated and feeling like I didn't deserve to ride. It was a bummer of a way to end the day.  And in fact it was such a disappointing trip that I avoided the back gate and seeing/hearing about how the class pinned for like four hours. 

Then I watched the video and realized it wasn't actually that tragic (well, most of it anyway) and got over myself.

In point of fact, there were only two major bobbles.  One, I swam into the outside line and thought maybe we were going to crash. On video it just looks like I justcouldn't pick a distance. 

Then, I checked him hard into the judge's line and Winds pulled a rail to let me know that's a no-no.  He played a little, but we got out just fine and the round was done.

9 horses rode the round.  Ribbons to 8th, and uh.... obviously we we're 9th.  Whoopsie, sorry Windsor.



Sunday I came back with a clear head (full heart, can't lose?) ready to not ride like a nitwit.

But then warm up was a struggle and I was just killing myself on my leads.  Winds was a bit sulky in the turns and despite my attempt at positive thinking I was getting frustrated. 

It's one thing to have a hard, tricky horse (Prair) that most people have a hard time riding (Prair) not warm up perfectly - But when your horse is scoring 90's with the Pro and winning big classes, it's harder to place the blame anywhere other than your uneven hands and slouchy twisted hips.

Finally my trainer told me to just twist my hips hard to the outside when I was rebalancing in the corner or asking for a change - and the clouds parted and angels sang. 

I have been trying (aggressively) to control Winds' butt with my outside leg, which often results in my heel getting comedically far back on his side (move over move over move OVER), without actually being that effective.

When I turn my hips/shoulders out, and drive my outside seat bone back and down, the inside hind magically goes where I want it to.  All without weighting the forehand.

Ta-Da

I made a snide comment about why she didn't just tell me to do this sooner, but really I was grinning from ear to ear and couldn't stop playing with my new trick.

The first round for the day (Round 3) rode really well.  Much like the Derby, the course designer managed to get as creative as one can in the Hunters and I enjoyed having some interesting tracks and single fences to ride.

You'll notice me engage that outside seat bone in every corner as I straighten onto my track.

And you'll notice that it's brilliantly easy to step up and onto a nice distance.  And you'll also notice that our terrible-no-good-very-bad left changes are prompt and balanced.

I did get a tad tight into the outside line, but everything else rode smoothly and felt like a bit of redemption from where we left things on Saturday.



Our final round for the division (first for the Classic) was awesome.  I don't have a lot to say, because it felt like everything clicked.  Nice rhythm, nice balance, no crazy distances... We certainly had our best ride through a two-stride to date - and other than opening up and cutting off his jump a bit - it was great.  We were given an 84 and took first place in the round.



And that's where I should have stopped.  That whole "quit while you're ahead" thing is so hard to do.  But I knew I had that top score going back in for the second Classic Round and that was probably the wrong fact to be thinking about.

I also noticed was that this might be the first time (ever) that I felt tired during a round.  I've never been on course and thought "hmm, maybe I'll turn early and save myself a couple strides.. we might get done faster" but that was definitely running through my mind with about 3 fences left to go.

I think I might have to up my cardio game, or commit to three lessons a week as opposed to the cushy two I've been enjoying.  Anyway, it's not the best excuse, but I do think it contributed to me perching a bit more and losing my nice light-seat connection.

Realistically the only major issue was a totally botched change where I got Winds so bottled up we nearly halted in the process.  But the entire round just wasn't as flowing as the first two of the day.  I am proud of my last two singles as I don't get a lot of opportunity to ride tracks like that in the show ring.

We scored a 68 (oops) and that slid us into 5th for the classic, which was higher up in the pack than I thought we would end up, but certainly didn't win any Voltaire swag like we did the first week. (who needs an extra girth anyway... sob).



We came back for the hack about an hour later, and I felt like I got a pretty stellar ride out of him.  I was able to keep a slightly bigger trot (and canter) even with a decently full ring with 10 horses.  I was disappointed to place 6th (behind two pretty lame horses?) - but that's the Hunters and realistically I know this judge prefers the traditional, long, TB type over a tighter, bouncy little warmblood.  I thought we'd be 3rd-ish as there were definitely a couple lovely movers who I mentally pinned 1st and 2nd.

I actually have footage because The Boy was feeling magnanimous and temporarily lifted his ban on filming flat classes.  I feel like I haven't posted a clip of Winds' gaits in a while, so it's going up for posterity.



Ultimately, a 2nd and 1st from our last two rounds were enough to snag Champion since the pinnings were very all over the place for almost everyone.

Winds is restocking the ribbon wall like a boss.

Tbird - annnnnnnnnd the Hunters

I am for sure lacking clever commentary, but I also hate having photos and videos to post and.... not posting them.

So here we go.

extremely wet horse. not actually this dappled

I have mentioned (several times now) that the last two days (of the first week) at Tbird were apocalyptic.  There was so much rain that many barns opted to scratch all together and play another day. 

I, however- wasn't able to stay for the second week of showing which was (of course) forecasted to have sunny weather in the 70's and 80's.  Instead there was a run on all raingear (I legit saw one lady take the "sale" sign off her winter clothing rack... lolz) and we all whined and complained and felt a little better when we realized that putting some Bailey's in our coffee was totally allowed (sorta).

Winds was ticked.  The drizzle from Friday had turned into an all our downpour and while he had been tolerating it (kinda) before, he wasn't a thrilled horse.  I didn't blame him, so we kept the warm up short and sweet hoping to be in and out and back in a mostly dry stall as quickly as possible.

The first trip was beautiful.  All the rain meant that (once again) I didn't hack or lunge or do anything extra outside that wasn't absolutely necessary, so Windsy was (still) pretty forward thinking.  I deliberately tried to not choke him to death and fortified by my (huge) coffee with a (little) Bailey's, I succeeded.  We stayed smooth, and forward and given how many people fell, off that's all it took for a first place.

(new fav picture)

The second round was also gorgeous, but I had a slightly late change (pilot error), which dropped us to 5th.  On any other day we wouldn't have been anywhere near a ribbon - but again, lots of opinionated horses had large complaints about the weather/jump décor/etc.

Only 10 came back for the hack, which I totally get because the rain somehow got even worse for that.  In fact as a bunch of us were all waiting around at the back gate for the final few rounds to finish, we were all questioning our collective sanity.

It became downright comedic when after the class was called to the center of the arena, we realized our announcer was also calling another flat class in the adjacent ring and there was zero chance he was going to pin our class until that one was also waiting in the middle of the arena (in the pouring rain).

So we stood. 

In the pouring rain. 

All the horses had flopped out ears and droopy necks and we all looked like a collectively defeated bunch.

It was absurd.  I wish I could have taken a picture of the soggy line up of the drenched horses and very wet riders. 

Showing, man.  I really don't know why we do it...

Anyway, the class itself was awesome and Winds was really moving out nicely.  He floats so well to the right, that it's a bummer we don't start that direction as I think our first impression would be stronger.  Somehow we snagged a 2nd (sensing a theme here?) behind a really lovely mover that I'm not sure even Prair would have beat...

Going into Sunday I was only a couple points behind the hack winner for the division, but you know... who's counting.

I thought I had two rounds left and a classic, but apparently there was only one round left for the division.... and the classic, so it was a light day.

Again the rain, and again Winds was upset but not demonstrative.  Again we warmed up in 3 seconds flat and again we did pretty well.

The clouds actually parted a bit and we rode our final rounds in a sprinkle which felt down right lovely after the crazy weather.

My first round has a gerat first fence, then I cut my next two corners which caused us to drift and lose my distance.  I fixed that particular issue and the rest of the course was pretty tidy.  We managed a 77 which, after watching the video back seemed a bit generous.



The second round I made a point of really holding my lines and staying straight out of the corner.  Winds was adjustable and lovely and we pulled down an 84 for a total of 161.  I love when they announce scores for a class (be it a WCHR week or a derby or a classic or whatever) it just is so education for me, especially when I watch other rounds in the same class.  I'm still relatively new to the whole hunter thing and I enjoy seeing the differences in judges and what they emphasize...

This is a round I'm proud of.  I love how consistent our balance is getting, and I'm loving Winds' frame.  He's light and forward and easy to find the jumps on when I keep him there. What a dude.


Anyway, 161 held on for a 2nd out of 18 and (another) blue ribbon which is awesome and will help rebuild the ribbon wall, lol.

(I remain conflicted about how to arrange the weird Canadian ribbons... by color or by placing??? What do you guys do?)

The first round 77 was good enough for 5th and grabbing (another) reserve.  So, we are nothing if not consistent!!!

Really though I feel fabulous about the week and how Winds performed.  I also feel good about the progress I'm making in my own riding and feeling more confident on him. 

Horses leave Monday for the next couple of weeks showing, so we get to go right back in and keep working at it!

tbird - Pro Days

If I happened to intrigue you with my (very) general summary of the show - then I hope that I can remember enough details to make these more specific posts worthwhile..

I didn't get up to the show for Windsy's first day of Low Hunter rounds.  The plan was to show him in a 3' round, which was in the ring the Pre-Greens (and my divisions) would run in, as well as a 3'3" round in a different ring, but to see how the height felt.

Apparently in his first 3' round, Winds jumped the crap out of fence one - and was cantering boldly down to fence two when he slammed on the brakes for no apparent reason.  He jumped the rest of the course fine - but the stop was out of character so a second round at 3' was added. 

He must have jumped around nicely, because he pulled down a 2nd place in a big, open class.

Then he moved over to the other ring (where we wouldn't be showing) to pop around at 3'3" and laid down a nice trip, but swapped off his lead while he looked at something outside the ring, which kept him out of the ribbons in the 45 horse class.

I zoomed up to the show grounds early on Wednesday so I would be sure to catch his trips.  Which I did - but I forgot my camera.  So... that sorta sucked.

But it looked like this

Our barn had two horses showing in the 3'3" PGs so I actually got to see a majority of the division go which was educational, and a bit intimidating as I watched lovely round, after lovely round go by. 

I had to remind myself that lots of these barns put in at least half a circuit at Thermal and have had 3-4 weeks of additional shows since then.  Where as we had two lovely weeks in CA, but those were instead of our "normal" spring shows, not really a pre-season warmup...

But, both our horses were lovely and Windsy managed a 2nd and 3rd, while our barnmate won the second class.

Then I got dressed so I would be ready for the Under Saddle, which is about when I remembered that in Canada they jog the Pre-Greens. I have literally not spent one minute working with Winds in hand, so I wasn't too sure how it would go.  He was baffled as to why we were jogging back into the ring, but he was a decent sport, if a bit lazy. 

The Under Saddle was uneventful - as they tend to be.  But I managed to nearly pick up the wrong lead to the left and spent about 6 strides trying to re organize and strike off.   Either the judge didn't see us - or he didn't care, because we managed a 5th in a class where I was pretty sure we wouldn't ribbon (why do they only ribbon to 6th up here?).

Winds then decided to eat his bandages overnight, which led to a very grumpy purchase of new wraps as well as a Likit holder so that he could amuse himself with something more appropriate. He made his way through nearly the entire thing before his classes in the afternoon - but all wraps were left intact so I consider it a worthwhile investment. 

The temp also dropped a ton overnight and even through the monsoon's hadn't set in yet, I was literally wearing every layer I had packed in an attempt to stay warm.

also coffee. all the coffee.

I did actually remember to keep my phone in my pocket on Thursday, so you can all ooh and ahh over the lovely boringness of a beautiful Hunter round filmed poorly on a phone.  Winds nailed his first round with an 87 and won it.  Even with a conservative 10 strides in the bending line. 

Everyone was squishing in 10. So it was disappointing when in the second round, N laid down a gorgeous trip and a beautiful 9 in the bending, only to have a rail dropped in the judge's line (dang it!). 



I didn't even notice the rail while I was filming, so I was totally confused when they announced a score of 46.  Dropped us out of ribbons in that class, and meant that we missed champion by 3 points. I'd be more disappointed if I wasn't so freaking thrilled with how Windsy jumped.

We were presented with our (absurdly large) ribbon for Reserve and took all the prom pictures we could. 

This ribbon is legit taller than my toddler.

Overall it was awesome to feel like the move up to 3'3" was really easy for Winds.  We knew scope wouldn't be an issue, but having him stay soft and relaxed is a big victory - as is getting up the lines and cleaning up our changes.

I think we'll probably hold him in the 3'3" PGs for the rest of the season.  No real reason to move up and I think he can get some great mileage in the ring without beating up his legs too much.

As the rain set in I was getting extremely excited about stepping back into the ring myself and Friday would bring my Eq division with two rounds over fences and a flat.....