This is around the time of year where I start getting really anxious for eventing season. Especially now that I've decided to drop down a level to start, I feel so ready and so pumped! So to keep from going crazy from the excitement, I do things like organize my trunk and start making my infamous 'Eventing Checklist'.
I am a big list person. When I clean my room, (which is tiny, by the way, maybe 12' x 12', maybe even 10'x10'... my sister got the good room...) I make a list of the order in which I will clean it. Such as, clothes first, then make the bed, then vacumm, etc. So as you can imagine, there are about fifty billion lists made for going to an event. And that's just a one day, forget about staying overnight. Of course, I am famous for leaving all these lists at home instead of bringing them to the barn with me. And then I freak out thinking that I am going to forget something because I can't quadruple check my list.
I have been known, on more than one occasion, to torture my dad and ask him to read me every last thing on my list that I left on the table, or the counter, or in my room, or downstairs to me over the phone.
I bring this up because I am sitting here, right at this very moment, composing my checklist for the 2012 eventing season! I haven't gotten very far because I keep getting distracted but so far I've got about half of my stuff down; like my boots and clothes. I haven't even begun to list my tack or anything belonging to Ben yet. We've got a long way to go!
Writing this post is basically a result of my procrastination of finishing this list. While I enjoy doing it, it takes a long time because I am obsessive over making sure it is perfect, and sometimes I need to take a break. Like now.
I also thought this would be a good a time as any to give a little update on the little brown horse. I did end up squeezing that ride in the other day when it was raining which was good because he had been inside all day. Besides getting rained/sleeted/snowed on about halfway through, he was actually really good considering he had had a day off before that, and was inside for the day. A little quick but really pushing from his hind end.
The next day was similar, not quite raining/sleeting/snowing this time but misting. It was dark and gloomy and apparently there were terrifying things beyond the hill outside the ring fence. The trot work was actually really good. The canter work was really bad. But, at this point, all things considered I'll take the trot work at the moment.
Today I took him to my lesson. I got on early to work him alone before all the other horses came in for the lesson and he was awesome. But the more horses that came into the ring, the worse he got. It's not like he gets excited, he gets distracted and want nothing to do with me because he's too busy looking around at other things. Plus, the indoor makes it hard because its small, there are five horses going at the same time, and there are jumps everywhere. This makes it really hard to do much more than just go around the edge of the ring, and he gets bored with that fast. Oh well, I have kind of come to accept that when he's in a lesson like that, the flatwork just isn't going to be that great.
I jumped him one round over a teeny course and he was really good but he was tired. I've been working him a pretty good amount lately and so I let him off the hook after the first course.
I'm changing the event schedule up a little bit so if anyone is interested in that, it's up at the top of the page. Tomorrow he's getting the day off and I'll probably jump him some time this week because I hardly did anything today.
People who know me could safely describe me as stubborn. You can tell me what is the best way to do something all day, but in the end, I'm probably going to end up doing what I want to do anyway.
Maybe that's not the best character trait. Sometimes it can be beneficial. Standing up for the right thing, doing what I think is in the best interest of my horse, not letting anything get to me, etc.
But more often than not, it gets me into some not so good situations, that not only affect me, but can also affect the people, and horses, around me.
What I'm getting at here is that I know that Ben and I are more than capable of competing very successfully at Novice. We've proven that in the past, placing 2nd in our very first Novice, earning an 8th place at out first recognized Novice after an awesome double clear cross country round, finsishing 2nd again at a recognized Novice...
However, at this point, given our experiences of last season, between the ditch issues and the ulcers and the crazy weather, a normal person would take a step back. Drop down a level, go schooling, take it slow.
Me? I was so focused on what other people around my riding level were doing (getting ready to move up to Training, placing at most Novices, etc.) that I was just pushing Ben to do what may not really be the best thing for him.
I did a lot of thinking about this last night. Could my horse go out and start the season at Novice? Absolutely. Could he jump around Novice cross country clear? No doubt about it (minus ditches unless we get to schooling them before the start of the season). Would he be better off being over confident stepping over Beginner Novice jumps for an event or two at the beginning of the season? Probably.
So, this thinking led me to tell myself to ditch the stubborn part of me that is saying "We'll show everyone that we can do Novice well and with no problems" and do what is right for my horse. It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing, as long as I'm doing what is best for Ben and me.
Just because he can do it, doesn't mean that it will be the best thing for his training and confidence in the long run. So I rewrote my eventing schedule at about one in the morning last night...
We have two combined tests in April and May, which we will do Novice at. That won't be an issue at all. Then the first event of the season, we'll just play around at Beginner Novice. He just needs to lope around a small, flat course and feel like a badass for a little while. This will also give us an opportunity to improve our dressage where the judging is a little softer.
The second event of the season is still a toss up. Unfortunately, its the week after the first one, so I won't be able to run him Beginner Novice for the first event and then decide if he should do another one or if we should move back up. At the moment, I'm leaning towards another Beginner Novice because it can't hurt. I may contact the organizer and see if she'll be willing to let me tell her the week before what division I want to compete in but there is a good chance she won't be able to do that, so I guess we'll start the season and decide from there.
A big part of this season for me was hoping to compete at the Novice Championships at Fitch's Corner. I think that was a huge reason for me not wanting to drop to Beginner Novice for the first event or two, because that would completely limit my qualifying events. However, I have just decided that if we end up qualifying at Beginner Novice, we'll go for Beginner Novice. If we don't qualify, then we'll head to Riga Meadow Horse Trials the weekend before to move back up to Novice. If we complete the Beginner Novice Championships well, I'll pick an event after that to move back up to Novice.
It feels good to forget about what everyone else is doing and just focus on Ben and myself. Turns out I am actually more excited for eventing season to start now that I have finalized this decision than I was before. Thanks for reading guys, and thanks for giving me a place to write out my thoughts.
There is quite a lot to write about since I have been seriously slacking in the blog updating department.
I guess I should start with the latest jumper show at Westbrook. We finally managed to judge the timing correctly so that we weren't standing around for hours waiting for our classes. Ben was a little excited at this past show. Okay, that's a major understatement. He was pretty much a psycho...
The courses were all really long and twisty and confusing and in the first course I completely blanked on where my next fence was in the jumpoff. So I halted for a split second, remembered, and finished up my course. Because I did actually come to a complete stop, they gave me 4 faults so we finished second even though we had the fastest time. Ben was a very good boy for just turning and immediately jumping when I finally remembered where I was going!
Prior to this not remembering thing, I also almost did a nose dive into a fence that Ben peeked at (don't jump ahead Jamie!) and then almost ran into a standard trying to make an inside turn after he took an oxer super long... It wasn't the prettiest round we've ever ridden!
Here's the video from round 1:
Round 2 was Power and Speed and was actually fairly decent. That is until the very last jump where we got the perfect half stride and he just couldn't snap his knees up quickly enough. So we just took every single rail with us, no big deal... We did actually end up winning this round because out of five of us, only two of us remembered the course and the other girl didn't take any inside turns in the speed portion.
Round 2:
And that brings us to round 3 where Ben decided that the jump he had just jumped twice in the round before (not completely willingly, but still...) was going to eat him this time around. So he stopped. No jumpoff for us but we did have the fastest time out of the four faulters so we earned third.
Round 3:
Moving on to the shopping spree...
We ventured on our third annual trip to Dover and I bought entirely too much stuff. I think we spent like $400... (I love you mom!)
Off the top of my head, things that I bought:
-Two big containers of the UltraShield fly spray. Those were $55 but they're raising the price to $58 for this year so we decided to buy two to last for this whole fly season before the price went up. So that was over $100 right there but its totally worth it to buy those there and not have to pay the extra shipping for the 'heavier' items.
-I bought a pretty new jump saddle pad for Mr. Benjamin. It's black with gold and cream trim on the outside which you will see featured in the Jumpathon videos that I am going to put up. It looks very handsome on him.
-I bought another Epona scrubby bath cloth. I love those things so much. We recently had a mouse infestation in out locker at the barn (completely and totally disgusting!) and they ate mine... So now the mice are taken care of and my new scrubby is tucked away in a bin where it can't be eaten if they were to return!
-Bought Ben an anti-sweat sheet for the summer because the only cooler type things I have are fleece. It's blue and looks pretty snazzy on him!
-We also bought this stall front storage bag that hooks onto blanket bars or the bars of the stall and holds whatever you want it to. I figured this would be really good for stabling at events.
-Along the line of good for stabling at events is also the saddle carry case that we bought. It has a handle so it can hang somewhere without needing to bring along the saddle rack because that takes up so much space.
-I bought a new black belt. Its an Ariat and was normally $40 but I found it for $17 in the clearance bin.
-I also bought a couple of new tack cleaning things. I bought some Passier Lederbalsam which I have been meaning to buy for about a year now and I bought some Nevr-Dull because the metal polish I have is goopy and gross to use.
-I bought a new pair of riding gloves because my everyday ones are absolutely shot. They have holes everywhere and the grippy stuff is completely worn off most of the fingers...
-I bought a fancy new black leadline to match Ben's new black halter I bought him at the Equine Affaire.
I'm positive that there are a few more things but I have yet to actually go through and properly organize everything into the 'horse closet' so I can't remember them directly off the top of my head.
So on that note, next up was the Jumpathon. I believe I mentioned the Jumpathon before in a previous post but in case I'm imagining things, or in case you didn't read that one, it is a little jumper show my trainer puts on at her barn every year to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. It's a lot of fun for a great cause. You gather donations either per jump, or just a flat donation. We raised close to $8,000 this year!
This was the first year I brought Ben along because it was the first year I thought that he could handle himself. He was a super star and didn't mind the screaming, yelling, cheering, and clapping that is all a part of the Jumpathon one bit! He ended up winning all three of the classes I put him in, he was such a rockstar!
The first class was the speed class, where you just go as fast as you can through a prescribed couse, and whoever has the fastest time wins:
Then came Fault & Out where you jump a prescribed course as many times as you can until you either get a fault or you run out of time. You get two points for every jump you jump and whoever has the most points before time is up wins:
Finally there was Gambler's Choice where each fence has a certain amount of points. If you clear it, you get that many points added to your score. Harder fences are worth more then simple fences. You get a certain amount of time to ride a course that you make up and whoever gets the most amount of points wins. Ben was an absolute star for this and made a LOT of crazy turns for me:
And here is a bonus picture of us hanging around waiting for our next class just because he's so cute in it:
And last but not least, to finish up this already much too long post, we had a saddle fitter out Monday. Turns out Ben's dressage saddle was in a major need of a reflocking (this is going to sound terrible, but I bought that saddle used and had NO clue that it was wool flocked... I though it had the CAIR panels like my jump saddle does... Oops)
So we got that done and she also told me that in both saddles I should change the gullet to the next size up but otherwise the jump saddle fits great and the dressage saddle should be much better now and he should feel a lot better now. I feel a little guilty because it was his saddle bothering him but I purposefully haven't been riding in that saddle because I knew he was acting funny in it.
So it is a nice relief to know that that issue is all fixed up and I can't wait to ride him in it now and see how he is. It rained yesterday and it's raining today but I might be able to squeeze a ride in between rain showers.
One more thing, back in November I ordered a new cross country bridle from Pink Equine and I finally got it not too long ago in the mail. It is gorgeous and I absolutely love it!
And here he is wearing it:
So excited to use it! Eventing season is approaching quickly!
So apologies again for not posting for so long and then writing a novel... I promise I'll try to be better!
Hey there! I don't have too much writing time today but I thought I'd give a little update and videos because we went to another jumper show this past Sunday. Ben was an absolute star again, went double clean in all three classes and yet again brought home all three blues and the division champion ribbon.
Ben just wanted to know if he could eat them :-)
My friend Kathryn and her mare, Lilly, did very well too, placing third in both of their classes. Very fun day!
And now for the videos:
Round 1:
Round 2 (Power and Speed):
And last but not least, the third round:
Unfortunately I never did get a video of his changes the other day. Maybe next time I school them. In other frustrating news, Ben's dressage saddle no longer fits him. He's built up too much muscle in his shoulders (okay so not really a bad thing at all, but its making his saddle not fit!) and that has caused my weight to sit too far back because the saddle is downhill. That presses my weight right into the sensitive part of his back which totally explains the crankiness I talked about earlier. So we're riding in the jump saddle until I figure out what to do about this situation. A lollipop/keyhole pad is the obvious choice but I hate those. They rip, get dirty, slip out of place, the list is endless. I'm looking for an alternative to the keyhole that will raise only the cantle of the saddle, but will also look nice when he has it on. If anyone had ideas about that, please drop me a comment below.
In just about a week, my horse has totally learned his changes. Smartypants.
They may not be incredibly pretty all of the time, but they're there, and they're there when I ask for them, so that's all I expect out of him now. Of course, they usually involve bucking, and when I start to get carried away and school them a little too much, I turn down the diaganol, he immediately changes, and then goes charging and bucking down the rest of the diaganol. I think its safe to say Ben likes his changes. He's been getting better especially now that I limit ourselves to two to three changes per side per day.
I shall see if I can beg, borrow, and/or steal someone to take a video for me today...
On another note, this is the time of year where you either jump, or you do a dressage school. My horse hates my guts if I make him do a dressage school two days in a row, which just equals a crappy ride anyway. I don't like to jump more than once or twice a week to save his legs. So, it being February, I don't have many other options. Yesterday I got creative. Tacked up in my jump stuff, rode around far a bit on a long rein. Didn't worry about putting him into a frame or anything, just pushing him forward from behind into a nice, soft, allowing contact. He really felt great.
He was moving forward from behind, super balance, seeking the bit, didn't do any of that stopping in the middle of the ring and refusing to go forward crap. I decided to canter on the long rein too because he's been getting super cranky when we canter lately. It is definitely not saddle fit, just him being cranky. So canter on the loose rein, in a light seat. Bingo. Forward, happy Ben. So after that I was fresh out of ideas for my ride. So I got off and threw some random poles on the ground and trotted and cantered over those for a while. Then, at the end of our ride, we just walked up and down the hills in our paddock for a few minutes, which was good for both of us, just to be able to get a change of scenery.
The winter is a hard time to be an eventer up north. Luckily, this winter has been very mild, but that has actually been part of the problem! Now that I can actually ride all the time, I'm running out of things to do! During eventing season, we always have something coming up, something to prepare for. Eventing season is about maintenance rather than improvement. In the winter, aside from the occasional jumper show, there's nothing to prepare for. During eventing season, there's always a cross country school, a jumping lesson, something to break up the monotony of the week. Not in the winter.
As I have come to this realization, I have discovered that I need to make the rest of the winter about improvement, not maintenance. I need to do the things that are going to be ugly at first now, when I don't have an event looming over my head. Ben's changes for example. If it were the middle of the season, I wouldn't be schooling them because they make him excited which I don't need any more of at events. Lateral work that makes him cranky, lengthenings that get him revved, series of transitions that are downright ugly at first. These are all things that I can be working on now that I wouldn't work on during the season.
It also needs to be improvement for me. Ben isn't going to improve unless I do. Last week I took the stirrups off of my dressage saddle and rode without them for an entire hour. Last week I also rode in two point for fifteen minutes straight. Ow. Improving myself means sacrificing a day or two a week of schooling Ben because I need to not focus on him when I'm focusing on me. So I'll let him plod around with his head in the air while I work on my two point or work on keeping my shoulders back or my leg stretched down. Because when I improve, he will too.
So while I'm certainly not saying that I wouldn't want to be in Aiken or Ocala if given the opportunity, I am saying that I am taking what I am given and I am going to be happy with it because it is giving me the time to improve instead of maintain.
Just though I would give a quick update. We got about a half a foot of snow today and I live about 25 minutes away from the barn. The roads were really bad so I didn't make it up there today but Ben had a fun day outside in the snow with his buddies. Tomorrow I'll probably goof around in the snow with him a bit.
We were supposed to go to the dressage show at my trainer's tomorrow but her driveway is downhill and when its snowy its hard to get up with a car nevermind a trailer so we probably won't bring Ben down there. Kind of a bummer but its okay, at least its not something big like an event.
I had a dressage lesson Thursday where we started Ben's changes. He got every change every time, even to his bad direction! He was a superstar.
The Area 1 Annual Meeting was last weekend and they decided on Fitch's Corner for the Area Championships again which makes planning next season much easier. I think I'm going to update the Eventing Schedule page again. I've also been putting some more research into the Novice 3-Day at GMHA. That is something that I would absolutely love to do. I think it'd be a fantastic experience for both Ben and me. It sounds like a ton of fun and a great opportunity.
Ben's been getting a little cranky lately, most likely due to too much dressage work. At this time of year, you either do a dressage school or you jump. There's no trail rides or walking down the street to the fields to condition because of the ground and the weather and I'm not going to jump that often so most of the time its dressage. When I do too much in a row he gets cranky and he needs a fun day. So today he got off and tomorrow we're going to play in the snow and then he should be ready to go.
In February we have two jumper shows at Westbrook. We are currently officially leading the standings for high/low jumper I just found out today which I am super excited about. In addition to those shows my trainer is holding her annual St. Jude's Jump-A-Thon. This is always a super fun outing, it will be Ben's first time going, because the weather was bad last year and I just rode my trainer's horses.
We do this to raise money for the St.Jude's Children's Hospital. You get pledges per jump you jump or just flat donations. There are four classes:
1.) Speed
This class is essentially a jump off class of a jumper show over a set course. Fastest time wins.
2.) Fault & Out
This class has a set course. You get two points for each jump you jump. If you knock a rail or get a refusal, you're done. If you go clean, you start the course again. You go as long as you can until you get a fault or time is up.
3.) Gambler's Choice
This class gives each jump a point value. The harder the jump, the more points its worth. For example, a small vertical is worth 20, while a skinny is worth 50. Last year the "joker" fence was a corner that was worth 150. You make your own course, with the goal to earn as many points as possible. You have a set time limit. You can jump each jump once each direction and if you knock it down you don't get the points.
4.) Slalom
This is everyone's favorite. The ring is split down the middle on the centerline. There are mirrored courses on both sides. Two horses on course at once. The one who crosses the finish line first wins. The winner of each heat graduates until eventually there is just two people left. The winner of that heat wins the whole thing. Mind you this is all done in a 20mx50m arena so things get interesting sometimes.
Its a lot of fun for a great cause, so February will be a busy month for us. Let's hope that the weather holds out for all of our plans.
I can't believe that I haven't written one blog post since the last jumper show! Not much has been terribly exciting, but seriously, it hasn't felt like this long!
Anyway, the second jumper show of the winter was Sunday. Ben and I tried our hand at three classes this time instead of just two. Remembering three courses is hard, but we managed to do it...barely.
It was a gorgeous day, only 43 degrees but beautiful in the sun. We got there, picked up numbers, learned courses, tacked up, and headed to warm up. Ben was awesome in the warm up. He was so calm, and going so nicely in the most gorgeous frame. His canter was to die for: calm, rhythmic, round, balanced, bent. I have been trying so hard to get him to canter nicely at home with no luck whatsoever. It's not on YouTube but I have a video that I can maybe upload later in the week just to show you guys how awesome he was being. I wished we were at a dressage show!
I warmed him up over some fences which he was great for. He was jumping fantastically and snapping his cute little knees up. We then had to wait around for about an hour before our classes started. One of these times we will show up at the perfect time where we warm up and go directly to our classes. I don't know how the hunter/jumpers deal with no ride times all of the time. I am not coping well! :-)
So our first course was outside, diaganol line, diaganol, outside line, crazy sharp left turn to a plank fence, then bending line to the last fence. The jump off was just the first five fences. Ben took a very good, hard look at the first fence. I don't know what it was about that fence but all of the horses took a good peek. So after we got over the uncomfortableness of that fence we rocked around the rest of the course, only momentarily almost crashing through and falling on our faces after the third fence. Oops. Somehow it stayed up and we finished the round clean. Ben made great work of the really tight turn even though I told him too late. He is such a good boy! We rocked the jump off except for one little super deep spot at an oxer and we won the class!
Here's the video of the first round and jumpoff:
The second course is the class we didn't do last time. It was a power and speed class which means instead of stopping after the first course, as long as you're clear, you continue on to the jump off portion without stopping. It makes for quite a long course! In this case the regular course was fences 1-7 and the jumpoff was 8-12. Besides almost pulling the rail off of seven because I made a terrible job of the super tight turn to the fence and the awkward jump we had over the last jump, we jumped clean and won that class too.
Here's the second course:
Our last class was the simplest course yet the one that I almost forgot! It was outside, short side, outside, outside line, diagonal, bendling line to other diaganol, back to the other diaganol. That was probably a terrible explanation, sorry! I jumped the outside line, which we had been doing perfectly in six, but Ben decided he wanted to try to make it five, then changed his mind at the last minute so we had an awkward jump there. I sat up, recovered, then realized I had no idea where we were going. Luckily I rememberd at about the last possible second and you'll be able to see my crazy turn I made my poor horse make! So we finished that up clean, rocked the jumpoff except for almost demolishing the last fence, and won that class too!
Here's the video of the third course and jump off:
So we pulled off a jumping hat trick and came home with three blue ribbons and a champion ribbon. We are currently leading the jumper standings for the series too, so I'm really excited about that. This was really just supposed to be a fun thing to do to get Ben out and keep his head in the game for the winter. I really have a blast doing it, and I can't believe how good my horse is at it!
Next up is the little dressage show at my trainer's barn in a couple of weeks where we will be doing USEA Novice A and USEA Training A. We'll be working on those tests today when I school him. Here's to hoping that his canter is as gorgeous today as it was Sunday!
If I can get a minute, I'll upload those flat videos and post them sometime later in the week. As always, thanks for reading!
