CDCTA Two Phase Results

Ben and I competed in the Novice division at the CDCTA combined test at Mystic Valley Hunt Club yesterday, and I could not have asked for a more perfect day!

He warmed up fantastically for dressage. He felt incredibly light, he was calm, and he was being quite obedient. The only thing I was a bit concerned about was his left canter transitions as he was popping above the bit when he did them in warm up.

We headed down to do our test and he was incredible. He stayed in the bridle the entire time, he was bending really well, and he absolutely nailed his left canter transition. If I was being really picky, he could have had a little more energy in a couple places, especially the free walk, he could have stayed on the bit a better in the canter-trot transitions, and his trot-walk transition was kind of abrupt, but overall the test really was excellent, probably the best one he's ever done.

We were handsomely rewarded for our efforts with our personal best dressage score, a 26! I don't think I stopped smiling the entire day yesterday after that, we've never even broken into the twenties before. His test was all 7s and 8s, which is just remarkable for the horse who scored a 52.6 three months ago...

I don't have the video uploaded yet, but I'll post it here when I do!

Stadium was also great. We just popped over three fences in the warmup before heading into the ring, and he was totally on it, dragging me to all the fences, and jumping clear. I got him a little close to fence 1, I let him get away with dropping his inside shoulder on the way to fence 5, and we has a slight disagreement about the distance to the last fence, but there were all minor things to work on and I was thrilled with the round as a whole. I received lots of compliments on Ben the whole day, which is always a nice feeling, especially on a horse I brought up myself.

I just uploaded the stadium video so here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw64Bx0HlkQ&feature=youtu.be

When all was said and done we finished in second, just one point off the leader! I feel like we're finally starting to put the pieces together; I always knew this horse had a really good dressage test in him!

Next up is Frazier Farm Horse Trials on August 10th!

Back At It!

Ben and I have had a fairly good run playing in the jumpers thus far this spring/summer but I am over the jumper thing a bit faster than I thought I would be and I'm ready to go back to eventing. There's only so many hours I can sit on my horse at the in-gate waiting for my classes to start...

Not to mention that the big A rated hunter/jumper shows get rather expensive very quickly!

For the most part, I'm just going back to the basics with Ben and "re-starting" him in eventing like he's a baby first being introduced. We've already begun this journey by going on a little xc school last week where he was an absolute star, jumping everything beautifully, and didn't look at a thing!

He jumped two different ditches like a pro the first time he was presented and genuinely seemed to be having a blast. I had a blast too, it's been a while since I actually galloped and jumped cross country!

Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C61frFW1QQ&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q&index=1

In about a month I'm going to take him to do the baby division at a local schooling event, which is listed at 2'3", but it's really just logs on the ground for xc. The goal is to just pass through all the flags and cross the finish line. He can quite literally step over every fence.

Then if all is well there, we'll go to the Lyme Horse Trials on August 17th, which is where we just went schooling and jumped all the Novice fences and where he's jumped awesomely for the past two years at their event, and we'll do the Novice. After that, I have no plans, as I'll just see what's happening.

Additionally, I am going to take my trainer's horse Beginner Novice at the Lyme Horse Trials as well. Dressage is not his strong suit but he LOVES to jump, and it is more or less a given that he'll jump clean so I'm really excited to take him too.

On Sunday, Ben and I are off to a little Novice combined test just to get back in the dressage ring because we haven't been since May. His dressage work has been coming along really nicely and I'm really happy with where he is right now. He seems very happy overall right now!

Regrouping

Everybody had better buckle their seatbelts because this is going to be long!

When I last wrote we had just had a fantastic outing at the Mystic Valley Hunt Club Combined Test. We were then supposed to head up to the Course Brook Farm Combined Test and cross country school there as well, but it was unfortunately cancelled so that did not happen. 

We headed to the Sperry View Farm Dressage Show on May 3rd and rode in Training 1 and Training 2 which went well. A few others from my barn came and competed too and my trainer came to coach which was super helpful. We placed 5th in both of our classes, scoring a 60.417% in Training 1 and a 62.857% in Training 2. 

Videos here:

Training 1

Training 2

Then on May 11th we were off to the first event of the season at King Oak Farm. We never did manage to find a venue that was open for cross country schooling, so we went in cold aside from a little cross country simulation I made at the barn with a fake ditch, some coops, and a homemade brush fence. He jumped all of that fantastically and I was feeling good about things.

Video of us popping around our makeshift cross country course here:

XC School

Unfortunately our dressage time was in the afternoon when cross country was already running and Ben became absolutely unglued. We warmed up for 45 minutes and he only got worse and worse. We went in the ring and survived through a pretty awful, tense, distracted dressage test and broke our record for the worst score we ever received in dressage, scoring a 52.6. Miraculously, we were not in last place after dressage, but we were very close. Quite a frustrating development considering how good his dressage has been both at home and off property lately but that is how Ben is. Once he loses his mind, its gone, and you're not going to get it back. 

Video here:

King Oak Novice Dressage

I laughed it off as first event of the season rust and headed to stadium with a positive attitude. He easily jumped double clear.

Video here:

King Oak Novice Stadium

I was feeling very confident going into cross country. The course was straightforward, stadium was fantastic, and I couldn't have asked for a better cross country warm-up. Unfortunately, as soon as we left the startbox he was back to his old ways of spooking at nothing, flying sideways, and trying to stop. After one stop at Fence 1 I managed to barely stuff him over and head to Fence 2. He felt great and bold on the short trip to the second fence and I thought maybe just getting over the first fence would get him into the swing of things. Again, first event of the season rust. 

I thought wrong and he got crooked into Fence 2, I saw a long spot, pushed for it, and jumped ahead and he promptly exited stage right and dumped me. The runout was my fault and the fall was my fault but I think he would have stopped anyway. Needless to say, I was incredibly frustrated. I really thought with the move to the new, busier barn, his recent good behavior, the hacking out in the open fields by himself, etc. that he would get over whatever his distraction issue on cross country is and get back to the old Ben, the one that was point and shoot cross country. No such luck.

I was already entered at Mystic Valley Hunt Club Horse Trials a couple weeks after and I decided that it would be our unofficial determinant of if we were really going to keep doing this awful thing where we go and get eliminated all the time with the few exceptions where he's having a good day and he's perfect. That's the frustrating part of Ben really: he's either really, really bad or really, really good. When he's good, he is a blast to ride, an excellent jumper, pulling me to the fences, and just everything a good event horse should be. However, the majority of the time he is frustrating and upsetting and I have not been able to find a solution to his issue despite trying everything I could think of.

So off we went to MVHC. He was great in dressage, scoring a 37.0 and placing himself in 7th out of 15. We even got a couple 8s on our test.

Video here:

MVHC Novice Dressage

He was really great in stadium warm-up and was chilling outside the in gate on the buckle for quite a while, as they were running late. About three trips before our ride, however, he realized there were horses running cross country right across the way (at this event they run xc directly after stadium) and he lost his mind a bit. Our stadium round was clear but it was very strong and I had a hard time containing him. Regardless, we moved up to 4th out of 15 after stadium.

Video here:

MVHC Novice Stadium

Off to cross country we went, where he proceeded to stop at Fence 1, stop dead on the way to Fence 2 for about 20 seconds until I got him going again, stop at Fence 2, and stop at Fence 3. Every single stop was because he was staring at the jump judges near the fences and no matter what I did: talk to him, growl at him, move the bit, kick him, tap him with the crop, I couldn't get him to pay attention to the fence. 

Fence 4 and Fence 5 were a bank up, down a ramp, right bending line to a bench. Because there was no jump judge sitting close to this fence and the question was something he had to think about a little bit, he did it absolutely beautifully. Same with Fence 6, which was just a hanging log: no jump judge sitting right next to the fence, no problem. 

We galloped into the woods for Fence 7 where a jump judge was sitting right next to the fence and picked up our fourth stop. Elimination. Again.

I was really quite upset about the whole experience for quite a while. It's not like this hasn't happened to us before, but because I unofficially made this event my deciding factor on whether I was going to keep trying to event him or not, it felt a little too final. 

The hard part about this issue is that it isn't easily fixable. We've been dealing on and off with variations of his distraction issue for close to two years now. It has just recently escalated to being this unmanageable within the last year or so. If I take him cross country schooling he jumps absolutely everything. He doesn't look at anything, he's straight as an arrow, bold, etc. So how am I supposed to fix a problem that only exists at competitions?

I know there are horses who just don't like cross country. I do not think that Ben is one of those horses. Back when he was green and everything on cross country was new to him, he had to think very hard about what he was doing. Because of this he was quite an easy ride on cross country, and was always very focused on his fences. He consistently ran double clear and had a blast doing it. As he got more and more experience, cross country became no big deal and he began looking for other things out on course to hold his interest. 

Typically once he gets over the first few fences he goes pretty well. And once he gets going he absolutely has fun. His ears are pricked the whole way round and he's bold and excited. That is why this is all the more aggravating. If he never jumped cross country well or he was miserable the whole way round, it would be a lot easier to accept that he didn't want to be an event horse. I think he likes cross country, but I can't figure out how to make him do it.

I've considered getting somebody else to ride him for a bit and take him to an event, but I really don't think it's financially feasible right now. My dressage trainer is great, has given me some tips, and does have jumping experience, but I don't currently have any one else to get on him and take him cross country to get a second opinion on what is going on.

So, long story short, we are taking at least the summer off from eventing. We will reevaluate in the fall and see where we are. For now, we are going to be competing in the jumpers. Ben loves the jumpers and he's really quite good at it, having been Grand Champion at the local winter series twice now. I'm certainly not counting him out of eventing forever, but eventing is supposed to be fun, and it is definitely not fun the way things are at this moment in time. 

 Ben is absolutely my heart horse and will never, ever be sold, so if the jumpers is what he wants to do, we're going to do it. I enjoy the jumpers enough to be perfectly content there for a while. 

We actually went to a jumper show yesterday and competed in the Child/Adult Jumpers, which are 1.0m/3'3" and had a blast. The footing in the ring was quite deep and I rode poorly in a couple places and caused one rail each in two of our three classes, but Ben was jumping well and was great. We ended up with a 2nd, a 4th, and a 6th. It's nice to come home with a ribbon (or three!) again. 

Video here:

Bethany Horse Show

In a couple of weeks we're headed to a show at Westbrook Hunt Club where we'll be showing in two 1.05m/3'5" classes in addition to a $1500 Classic. There's one good thing about the jumpers, there is prize money involved! 

I'm actually more excited than I thought I would be to be playing jumper for a while. It's fun to go and be successful. 

So this blog is going to turn into a bit of a Jumper blog instead of an Eventing Blog for a little while, but I definitely still plan on doing dressage shows, combined tests, hunter paces, cross country schools, etc. just for fun as well.

It took me a little longer than it probably should have to make the decision to take a minor eventing break, but I love the sport so much it was very difficult for me to let go. Again, this is certainly not a permanent decision and I feel fairly confident that I'll have my event horse back again at some point, but for right now I think this is the right decision for us.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog for sticking with us through everything and dealing with my severe writing procrastination. 

Ben doing what he does best

MVHC Combined Test Results

Show season has officially begun and we started it off fantastically!

Ben was great the entire day. He stepped off the trailer completely calm and happily stood tied to the trailer munching his hay, something that he has never been able to do for any decent length of time before. I got on him to warm up for dressage and he walked all the way there calmly on the buckle. He got into the busy warm up ring and just went right to work. He felt exactly like he does at home, another thing that has never happened at a show before.

He warmed up great, was round, soft, using his hind end, and being generally agreeable. We did some leg yields and walk/canter/walk transitions which I think helped a lot with his engagement. We even got a few really decent steps of trot lengthening.

This good work carried right over into the dressage ring and he put in what was probably his best test at Training level to date. We rode Training A, which I really don't like very much. We also ended up riding in a large dressage ring which meant he had to hold things like trot and canter lengthenings for longer periods of time which wasn't the best thing ever but it worked out fine.

The only parts of our test where we had a little hiccup was at the trot transition at A where Ben was positive I was actually asking him to canter and then at the canter diagonal, trot at X movement that I cannot stand. The latter was 100% my fault, it was the only part of the test where I just stopped riding. I gave a lot more effort to my canter lengthening than I ever have and I just never really got him back and we ended up careening down the diagonal and he was unbalanced so he broke gait. 

Other than that, it was a really solid test and I was very pleased with Ben. The judge was scoring very harshly and some of her comments didn't make sense at all. For example, our left lead canter transition at C, which I thought was quite good, received a score of 5 and a comment of "accelerates at X" which I am still scratching my head over. I am pretty confident that the judge is not rated and so I took her comments with a grain of salt. In addition, she judged everyone else the same way, so as long as I fit into the pack where I would have if somebody else was judging, I can't complain too much.We scored a 40 and were in 5th out of 10 after dressage.

Here is our test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chEbgvHrIwc&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

A little while later we headed over to the stadium ring where he got a bit more excited to be jumping, but was still remarkably well behaved. He jumped fantastically and I believe we only jumped four or five fences because there was no need to do any more than that.

He went in the ring and put in a really great round. He built a little bit as we went and I lost some of my brakes after the in and out, but he was jumping so great and felt so confident that I don't mind that so much. With his clear round, we maintained out fifth place position and earned ourselves a pretty pink ribbon!

Here is our round:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbKAUgA14Pk&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

In a slightly annoying development, there was another competitor who wanted to ride both the dressage and jumping twice on the same horse. I assumed they would count her first round and then have her count as HC for the second round, but they instead scored her twice which I thought was a bit unfair, especially considering she placed first and second. Nothing I could do about it though and at the end of the day it really wasn't a big deal and certainly didn't affect how pleased I was with my horse.

I feel really great about the 2014 season after this weekend. Ben was fantastic the entire day and I really feel like he is finding his brain and growing up. He now knows that he needs to go to work when he's away from home too. Next up is the Course Brook Farm Combined Test at Training on Saturday, the 19th. As long as the weather allows, we'll be getting a xc school in there as well!

Show Season Has Arrived!

Show season is finally here! Ben and I will be attending a combined test at Mystic Valley Hunt Club tomorrow and I am rushing around doing a million things because it actually crept up on me a lot more quickly than I expected it would!

However, before I talk more about the combined test I should mention that we attended the last show of the jumper schooling series at Westbrook Hunt Club at the end of March and Ben placed first, first, and third, earning him Champion of the division and Grand Champion of the series!

He won a very nice cooler and a very fancy ribbon. Hopefully his good behavior at the jumper shows translates to our eventing season.

Here are a couple videos from the jumper show:

Class 1, 1st place 

Class 2, 3rd place (we had the fastest time but had a rail that was completely my fault)

We'll be doing Training level at the 2-phase tomorrow and we've been really working hard on our dressage so I am optimistic that we can put in a decent test. Being the first show of the season my only goals are to put in a calm, accurate dressage test and jump a nice, rhythmical stadium round. 

Something I've been recently working on with my dressage trainer is really riding the test. For so long dressage was just about surviving for me because Ben was hot and spooky and would occasionally just start bucking so I didn't dare ask him for any more than he was giving me when he was having a rare sane moment.

Now he is much more well behaved in the ring and I think I can start to ask him for a little more. I need to have the courage to change what is happening if it is not correct. If he's not bending enough, I need to make him bend more. If he needs to go more forward, I need to make that happen. I can't just accept what he gives me anymore and excuse it with, "Oh well, at least he's not bucking!"

There is a little video of him schooling on the flat a few weeks ago here.

I have a dressage lesson this afternoon and then I'll be washing socks, trimming whiskers, and braiding. Unfortunately, it's not warm enough yet for a full bath so he'll definitely be a little dusty! 

My times are pretty early which means I should be home by afternoon time and I will hopefully be able to write you guys a same-day report!

In Which the Connecticut Supreme Court is Ridiculous...

Hey everyone!

I don't know if any of you guys have heard about the ordeal that is currently going on in Connecticut regarding the horse industry, but if you haven't you can find out about it here.

Long story short, there was a minor incident at a Connecticut farm quite a few years ago where a young boy was bitten by a horse, and ever since the family has been trying to sue the farm and get horses classified as "inherently vicious."

Because, you know, prey animals are usually vicious creatures. *Eye roll*

Anyway, the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled that horses were inherently vicious and the Connecticut Supreme Court has voted to support this ruling. This can have some serious impacts to the horse industry in the state from making horses un-insurable to hurting therapeutic riding programs. 

There is currently a petition on Change.org to overturn this ruling and it is very close to its goal; we only need 447 more signatures. If anyone is interested in helping out the thousands of horse people in the state, you can take a minute to sign this petition here: 

https://www.change.org/petitions/ct-supreme-court-overturn-appellate-ruling-that-all-connecticut-horses-are-inherently-vicious-docket-18949

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about it! I'll be around with a proper post soon (spoiler alert: a cute little brown horse may or may not have been Grand Champion of the jumper series...).

Getting Closer!

I finally feel like we are actually approaching spring! The sun has been shining a lot more lately, the snow is mostly melted everywhere, and I got to go on a little hack on the grass track at the barn. Not to mention that the first show of the event season, a combined test, is only a month away!

While we have been stuck in the indoor for the last few months, we have had plenty to work on and I haven't been bored at all this winter. We're still taking regular dressage lessons and Ben has improved leaps and bounds over where he was last fall. He is so much more responsive, is starting to take weight on his hind end instead of dragging himself around on his forehand, and his canter no longer resembles a runaway freight train. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how our dressage tests go this season. 

While we have been having a pretty quiet winter, I did take Ben to a couple jumper shows at the Westbrook Hunt Club over the past few weeks and he has been fantastic! The first one I took him to he placed third, second, and second and was Reserve Champion. The most recent one I took him to, about two weeks ago, he won all three classes and was Champion. He is also currently tied for first in the overall series standings after only attending two of five shows, so if he behaves himself at the last one this Sunday he has a shot at taking Grand Champion. 

Here's some videos from the shows (for some reason, YouTube will not let me embed the videos, so if you click on the links below, they will take you to the videos):

First show, 2/16/14, first class (timed first jump off, third place)

First show, 2/16/14, second class (power and speed, second place)

First show, 2/16/14, third class (timed first jump off, second place)

Second show, 3/2/14, first class (timed first jump off, first place)

Second show, 3/2/14, second class (power and speed, first place)

Second show, 3/2/14, third class (timed first jump off, first place)

I've also updated the 2014 show schedule to reflect what I know so far about our season. We'll attend the last jumper show of the winter on March 23rd, then we're going to head to the Course Brook Farm Combined Test on April 19th, at Training as long as we get a couple of at height jump schools in before that, otherwise we'll just do Novice. I'm also hoping the weather/ground will be good enough to get in a xc school there as well. 

The first full event will be King Oak on May 11th, at Novice. I'm currently trying to decide between Mystic Valley Hunt Club or the Stoneleigh-Burnham Schooling Trials for another Novice run at the end of May. Assuming those two outings go well, we'll head to Larkin Hill in June to contest the Training/Novice and then hopefully run Training at Riga Meadow in July. That's as far as I've gotten at this point, and I have many backup plans in case Plan A doesn't work out for whatever reason. 

I can't wait to get back into the swing of eventing season so I actually have some more to write about and can get back to blogging more regularly! As always, thanks for reading!