Course Brook Horse Trials Results

Well, I always say better (really, really, extremely) late than never, so here we are a month and a half after Course Brook with no result post in sight! Sorry about that!

Course Brook ended up being a very perfect way to end the season. As previously mentioned, we had decided to run Beginner Novice there, which I think was absolutely the right decision. We had a not-so-great dressage warm-up on slick grass on a slight hill. Ben is still getting used to feeling comfortable doing real dressage work on grass, especially if it is not level. I ended up making the decision not to canter at all in the warm-up, as I figured it would make things worse instead of better.

We then went in to our test which was very average. He was quite lazy, his trot to canter transitions were slightly horrendous, his left canter was more of a 'tranter', and he wasn't as steady in the bridle as he can be. It was still fine, however, it just needed a little more get up and go as a whole. Apparently, they are much more lenient about these things at Beginner Novice because we were in second after dressage with a 35.2!

I have never in my entire eventing career with three different horses, Beginner Novice through Training, ever been in the top three after dressage at a recognized event so I was quite excited to say the least!

Stadium was very soon after dressage, less than an hour actually. I had decided to just do dressage in my jump tack and head right over to stadium which worked out just fine. We had a pretty good warmup and then went in and jumped a lovely double clear round. He was very confident and bold which was exactly what I was looking for. 

Cross country warm-up went very well and was great for both Ben's and my confidence. He was extremely wired on the walk to the start box and it turned into a bit of a rodeo a couple times but we managed to keep it together. He was great out of the start box and over the first fence. He got a little close to 2 and 3 but was straight, forward, and did not balk at all. Number 4 was in the middle of a field so he was a bit more looky, but he still put his eye on the fence and went right over. 

I would say, on average, that it take Ben about 5 fences to really get into a rhythm on xc. During these five fences anything can happen: he can wiggle, spook, stop, buck, go sideways, etc. but usually after that he is an angel. He jumped the first four fences like a pro but we could just not quite make it over the fifth one without him doing something stupid. He saw the jump judges from a ways back and went sideways and stopped dead. After about 30 seconds of coaxing him on, I got him to trot and then canter ahead towards fence 5. As we got to it, I knew he hadn't locked onto it at all as he was too busy gaping at the jump judges so he did end up having a stop there. It was a tiny hanging log of all things, but it really doesn't matter what kind of jump it is if he doesn't even look at it!

We re-approached, he jumped it fine, and then we were on our merry way finishing the rest of the course clear without so much as a look or a spook or a sideways step. I did a lot of trotting in the woods, as I wanted him to slow his brain down a bit and really think about what he was doing, and I think it worked pretty well. We still ended the day in 7th place which I was pleased with and our Junior placing actually ended up qualifying us for Area Championships at Beginner Novice. This was all very exciting until I learned that they moved Area Championships from Fitch's Corner to GVRDC which is six hours away, so I will not be attending unfortunately.

I thought our experience was a great way to end the season. Ben seems to have gotten some much needed confidence back and we both had fun. We have our homework to do over the winter and then hopefully we will be back at it very successfully in the spring.

Here is the on-the-ground video of all three phases: 

http://youtu.be/wx6uYeuSg-Y

And here is the helmet cam of cross country. I went to cut out the spooking as it was just unnecessary, boring footage and I accidentally ended up cutting out the stop by mistake which is unfortunate as I like to go back and watch those things as learning tools. But the rest is all there so enjoy:

http://youtu.be/wx6uYeuSg-Y

Finally, I have some exciting news to share which I will write about soon but this post is already far too long. As always, thank you for reading and for putting up with my severe procrastination in writing my posts sometimes!

Kent Horse Trials Results

At this point I am fairly convinced that the universe really doesn't want me eventing. There is not much to tell about Kent today, as it downpoured on and off the entire way up and when I arrived they had cancelled cross country for Novice and Beginner Novice because the footing was so wet. 

So, that was disappointing but no big deal, I decided we'd just do the combined test and it would be good to be judged and jump a low pressure stadium round. I got on for dressage and made the muddy trek to warmup to find that the warmup was coated with about 6 inches of mud and Ben was up to his fetlocks in it. The actual dressage arenas were not much better. I wouldn't dream of trotting or cantering in that so I made the even more disappointing decision to scratch. I was in good company as at least half the people there scratched as well. The footing was just too mucky and slippery and it simply isn't worth it. 

In addition, they were taking a break to move the stadium fences a few feet to the sides because they takeoff spots were so mucky and deep. As we were leaving, a horse went sliding into a stadium fence. So while it was quite frustrating to drive two hours, sit on my horse for five minutes, and then drive two hours home, I am happy with my decision to scratch. 

So I'm just transporting my goals to Course Brook next weekend where I can only hope the weather decides to cooperate a little more!

Beginner Novice or Bust

Well. Things have changed quite a bit since I last wrote to say the least!

Nothing terrible has happened, but Stoneleigh didn't quite go as planned. Dressage was okay, but he was very hyped up so the canter was quite quick and we ended up scoring a 41. Not as bad as it could be, but certainly far from the best test he's ever put in. 

The courses looked fun and doable. Stadium has never been an issue and we have quite a few Training combined tests under our belt, so I know he's very capable. Cross country had a lot to do but I wasn't terribly worried. Maybe a little weary of the HUGE ditch at 9 and the drop into murky water at 15, but I was in the right mindset to get out there and tackle it.

Unfortunately for me, things got very eventful as I was getting ready for stadium. The wind was picking up, it was starting to rain a bit, and there were horses running cross country right near our trailer so Ben was pretty hyped. As I went to get on him to head to warm up, he spooked, got loose, and took off. Great. There is a lot of pavement at Stoneleigh and he was slipping around on it as he evaded capture. He was probably only loose for about two minutes but it felt like a lot longer as I watched him skid around. 

He seemed alright so I hopped on to warm up for stadium only to find that he was slightly off and just not quite right. Ugh, horses. So of course I was not about to jump him and I was especially not about to take him cross country so we scratched. I was pretty bummed. We have not had a lot of runs this season and we haven't had ANY Training level xc runs this season due to a variety of bizarre circumstances. 

For some reason I feel like we've failed this season and I don't really know why. I didn't fall off, we didn't have a bunch of rails, we didn't get eliminated, and our most recent xc run at the Lyme Horse Trials was great. I suppose just the feeling of going to an event and not completing, no matter the reason, makes me feel as if we are incapable even though that makes no sense. 

Regardless, I have made the decision to drop all the way back to Beginner Novice for the last two events of the season, strictly because I want to minimize the risk of not completing and I want the two of us to have fun. Again, the reason we didn't complete had nothing to do with the level. He could've spooked and took off at any level. Same goes for when I had to scratch after dressage at Riga Meadow because I didn't feel good, it had nothing to do with the level, although maybe I would have run anyway if it was Novice or Beginner Novice. 

I just feel like after not having too many runs this season, I want to finish on a strong note over courses that I KNOW we will tackle with ease. It will also be nice to really work on the quality of his dressage because the Beginner Novice tests are so straightforward. It will give me a chance to work on making stadium even smoother, because I don't need to worry about the height of the fences. It will give me a chance to give Ben some learning experiences if he decides to be silly on xc because I can stuff him over the small Beginner Novice fences if need be.

I'm very much looking forward to going out and having a blast. If we end this season with confidence it will make the trek back up to Training next season much easier. I want to make sure we have a solid foundation and dropping to Beginner Novice is almost like having the inspector out to make sure the foundation doesn't have any cracks.

We were very capable of going Training this season, there's no way I would have attempted a move up if we weren't. But it will be nice to sit on a horse that I feel confident will go double clean next season, instead of the horse this season where it could have gone any way. 

So we've got Kent next weekend on the 6th and Course Brook on the 12th, both at Beginner Novice. Then I think we're going to head to a local jumper show and hopefully jump around some of the 3'6" classes. I haven't done the jumpers in almost a year and I miss it!

My plan for the winter is to really work on our dressage. I would like to master the counter canter as he really struggles with that. I'd also like to perfect our leg yields a little more so the rhythm is more consistent and they're a little straighter. I'd like to work more on haunches-in. And we'll really be working on the general quality of his canter, especially to the left. 

I also plan to keep showing in the jumpers at Westbrook this winter as its always good to keep him out and about during the winter so the first show of the eventing season in the spring doesn't turn into a rodeo. I'm hoping in the spring we can do a lot of xc schooling and start out at Novice before giving Training level a shot, yet again! I think we're on the right track and I feel like I'm doing what is right for both of us. 

So here's to the yellow numbers and having fun no matter what the level, because eventing is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. As always, thanks for reading!

Lyme Horse Trials Results

Back on August 18th Ben and I ventured off to Lord Creek Farm for the Lyme Horse Trials. The day started early with an 8-something dressage time. He was quite good for dressage and put in a respectable test to score a 35.5. The grass was quite slick in the ring so he was very conservative in his canter as he was slipping a little bit. His trot work was obedient but could've been a bit more consistent and a little less tense. But I was still pleased and we were in 5th out of 13 after dressage so it couldn't have been that bad!

Next was stadium where he put in quite a nice double clear stadium round. The stadium at Lord Creek is very challenging because it is set on a large hill. Number 5 was a wide oxer that landed right on the downhill slope. I made sure to collect his canter and get quite close to this fence as I didn't want any yee-hawing going down the hill, especially as it was pointed right in the direction of the in gate! He was jumping quite well and popped me out of the tack a bit over a few fences! He can be quite strong in this stadium field as it is wide, open, and undulating but he was very obedient and came back nicely! After stadium we were in 3rd place. 

Cross country was an absolute blast. What a great feeling it is to actually have fun on cross country again! We did have one frustrating stop at fence 5 because he was too busy paying attention to a woman and her two dogs (who in all honesty probably shouldn't have been on the course at that time...) but he jumped it perfectly upon the re-approach and was an absolute star for the remainder of the course (including over the ditch!). We came in well under time, we were actually the fastest in our division, which is maybe not the best thing considering we were also the only pair to have a stop! The boy likes to run, what can I say? Unfortunately that stop cost us the yellow ribbon and we moved down to 11th but we both had a blast and I felt like this was a GIANT step forward in our progress!

Here is the helmet cam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAdXna7GQ4Q&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

Here is the on-the-ground video of all three phases:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWUeZIiIwy0&feature=youtu.be

We were supposed to head to Apple Knoll to go Training on the 1st but it was annoyingly cancelled at the last minute due to low entries which was quite unfortunate as I was very much looking forward to it. So our next stop is Stoneleigh-Burnham on the 21st in the Training division. I think we will then round out our season with Kent on the 6th and Course Brook on the 13th both at Training. I'm hoping for three solid Training runs to get him prepped for next year where I hope to get some harder Trainings under our belt.

I was also planning on applying to ride in the Phillip Dutton clinic at the Equine Affaire in November but as I started thinking more about stabling and hotels and more of the logistics it was getting expensive and confusing especially considering I may not even get picked so I decided I would just go and spectate instead of participate. More shopping time for me if I don't bring Ben anyway!

We had a fantastic jump school a few days ago where we played around with some bigger fences. I also bought one of those portable inflatable buffet things for about $7.00 to use as a liverpool which we tested out and it worked great. Much better than purchasing a 'real' liverpool for $300! So I set up a little makeshift coffin with our liverpool as well as setting up our small, skinny coops on an angle one stride apart. We played around with this xc stuff before moving on the bigger stuff. I actually went out with my measuring tape and measured the real height of all of the fences as I usually just assume that the fences that make my heart beat 10x faster than usual are 3'6" or higher and I never have a real measurement!

So in the following video the vertical with the gate is 3'3", the oxer of the in and out is 3'6", the vertical on the diaganol is 3'7", and the vertical of the in and out is 3'9"(!). He was fantastic over everything! I need some more work over bigger fences so I don't sit back so soon but other than that I was thrilled with it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4bUoK17gG4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

This post is already too long but I will be back at some point before Stoneleigh to write about what we've been working on in the dressage department! As always, thanks for reading!

Back to Basics: When Less Is More

Lately I've really been struggling with keeping Ben forward and engaged in his flatwork. If I give him a long rein and let him go how he wants he marches forward and tracks up quite nicely. As soon as I ask him to collect a little bit and come onto the bit he immediately lets his hind end trail behind him and loses any ounce of impulsion he may have had. 

Typically this would be slightly annoying and I'd just keep kicking on without much of a response but it didn't worry me much because he is always much more gung-ho at shows. Until we went to Frazier this past weekend and he did the exact same thing in the dressage ring that is. 

When I first got Ben I didn't ride him with a whip, crop, or spurs. He really was (and still is on his own accord) a naturally forward going horse. But as the dressage workload increased the whip got added as support for my leg and the spurs got added as a bending/lateral aid and slowly but surely I ended up with a horse who is at best quite dead to my leg and at worst pretty damn resentful of it. 

He has been remarkably frustrating to ride the past few weeks for this reason and I knew something had to be done about it before I started to dread doing a flat school on my own horse. 

For starters we had to fix the issue where his response to my leg aid was to stop, balk, kick out, swish his tail., etc instead of going forward. Next was to work on getting him to understand that he goes the pace I tell him and he maintains it until I say otherwise. 

I decided to ditch the spurs for now as I think that just makes him resentful and I prefer he move forward off just my calf without the spurs. I had also been riding with a crop lately instead of a dressage whip as I can use it every once in a while and get a more effective response than just constantly annoying him by tapping him with the whip nearly every stride, but I decided to go back to the whip and work on getting him sensitized to that once again. 

Yesterday we got to work on tackling this issue head on. I kept my reins loose the whole ride and didn't worry about his frame at all; all I cared about was his response to my leg aids. We started at the halt. When I gave the lightest of squeezes and he either balked or gave me no response at all he got kicked sharply forward into a brisk trot for a lap around the ring. We repeated this in both directions all over the ring for about 15 minutes until I could give a whisper of a squeeze with my calves and he would step briskly forward immediately. 

We then repeated this for the trot. Starting at the walk, I would give a light leg aid. If he didn't step right up into a forward trot he got kicked forward into a canter for a lap. He picked up on this one much more quickly and only gave me a hard time about the first couple of transitions. He quickly learned that he had only two options: do exactly what I asked or end up doing more work than I had asked for. 

Towards the end of our ride he was going forward off the lightest squeezes of my leg and I felt as if he was awaiting my command instead of going off of his own agenda. We also worked on pace maintenance. I'm tired of kicking him on every stride with little to no response. I should not be working harder than he is just to trot in a consistent rhythm on a 20 meter circle. 

I would trot him forward and not give him any additional go forward aids. The second he tried to slow down he got kicked into the canter. Again, he was either allowed to do what I asked or do more than I asked. There was no other option. 

All of this went over quite well and by then end he was doing some excellent walk/canter/walk transition on a long rein off of my leg alone. The plan for today's ride is to repeat this process for the first half and then attempt some real dressage work on big figures and straight lines to encourage the forward thinking. That will be the true test. This will obviously take some time and I'm willing to take that time to fill in the holes in our foundation, especially because I'm positive his lack of respect to my leg aids translates to xc when he spooks at something and stops dead in the middle of a field. 

I also have a lesson for the first time in months tomorrow morning so I will run this by my trainer as well. I have no doubt that this issue is my fault. I always accepted him being lazy because he used to be such a sensitive hot head. I was always fighting with him to relax and slow down so whenever he offered to slack off a bit I gladly welcomed it. Unfortunately it has now grown into him thinking he can get away with giving little effort when something gets hard. I felt a lot better about our ride yesterday and I'm hoping today's ride goes just as well.

I own a very talented horse but sometimes its hard to get him to display that talent. They always say your horse is a mirror of you and that is quite true with Ben and I. We're both stubborn and we both *know* that our way is the best way. Normally we get along quite well but when we butt heads it can get hairy. I have learned over the years of owning him that sometimes I need to take a deep breath, take off the pressure, and return to the basics. 

Frazier Horse Trials Results

Look at me posting right after a show and not months later! Woo!

So, my unofficial goals for Frazier this past weekend:

*Have a obedient, accurate, and quiet dressage test - check

*Have a good, confident, forward xc round - ehh, mostly check

*Jump a nice stadium round - check

Obviously cross country is still our weakest phase at this point but I was really pleased overall with how the weekend went and this was his first time on xc since the middle of May so we accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish for the most part. Wow, that was quite a run-on sentence.

Dressage was actually quite lovely but WAY too lazy. If you had told me a year ago that I would be complaining that my horse was too lazy in dressage I would have checked you into a mental institution. But seriously. He was straight, he was bending well, our geometry was nice and accurate, but man was he lazy! He had zero engagement and wasn't tracking up at all and no amount of kicking, spur usage, or whip tapping was going to change his mind! The judge gave us some nice comments with just an overall suggestion that the whole test needed more forward (which I knew very well!) and we scored a 33.0 so I can't complain too much!

XC was next and the course looked nice and straightforward which was just what we needed. I own quite the quirky horse however and he never makes anything nice and straightforward. He was absolutely fantastic over the first four fences. He came out of the box thinking forward and actually locking onto his fences which is something I've really been working on lately. 

Fence number 5 was a water crossing/puddle complete with lots of fish swimming around so he was a tad skeptical about that but walked through just fine. This was followed by a left turn to another unmarked water puddle before fence 6. Well. We first found something to spook at before we even saw the second water so we stopped dead like a statue and we argued about going forward. I was kicking and whacking and clucking and he was bucking and balking and mini rearing. We apparently were not in agreement about which direction we should be going in.

He then saw the second water and I got him up to it but he couldn't possibly be expected to go through that water despite having just gone through the previous one. So by this point we were going to be overtaken so I pulled him aside to let the other rider pass at which point Ben realized that the puddle did not contain horse eating monsters and happily went through. 

But then I asked him to jump a log and we all know how scary logs are especially after your life was threatened by a fish filled puddle just moments before. So he stopped. And I reapproached. And he was definitely going but then I decided to add some insurance that he would jump by tapping him with my crop on the takeoff stride and that just shocked him SO much (because I have never, ever done that with him before) that he slammed on the brakes in quite a dirty stop. So yes, we had two stops at the most straightforward log ever. And then he spooked at something else again and I had a hard time getting him to trot down the pathway into the next field... He seriously is lucky that he is so cute because he can be remarkably frustrating

We continued on without fault aside from a peek at the ditch where I reapproached and stuffed him over. He finished happy and jumping well despite having had three stops and finishing more than three minutes over the optimum time...

Stadium was great, he was jumping nicely from the short spot and he easily jumped a nice, steady clean round. 

So overall I need to rev his engine a bit before dressage, keep on keeping on with our xc issues because I really do think the more he gets out and comes through the finish flags the better he will be, and keep riding stadium the way we usually do because that is typically our best phase. We ended up with a sixth place ribbon when all was said and done but the best thing we left with was good learning experience for the both of us.

So here is the on-the-ground video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNPfloC4t-Y&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

And here is the helmet cam videos of xc and stadium although I cut all of the spooking/stopping fiasco out because it was quite long and boring to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28LYPOOixiw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnF-_dbEwqUY6MCsRqmAo4Q

Next up is the Lyme Horse Trials on Sunday, again at Novice. I'm happy to be going out again right away so I can repeat the good things and hopefully fix the not-so-good things! In reality our xc issues are mainly just keeping his focus on going forward and jumping the jumps instead of checking everything else out. The jumps are not the problem which is why I am confident that once I figure out the right way to ride him, Training level won't be an issue at all.

Millbrook Horse Trials

Last weekend I took a road trip up to the gorgeous Millbrook, NY to go watch the Advanced division run cross country at the Millbrook Horse Trials. Living in Area 1, we don't always have access to watching the pros run at the upper levels. Most events around here only run to Prelim, if we're lucky. It was a great opportunity to watch and learn.

I had originally planned to walk around the course a bit but we ended up getting a great spot at the water complex so we sat there for the whole division. This actually ended up working out nicely because you could watch every pair through the same series of fences and see what made it ride well and what made it ride not so well. 

A trend I've been noticing not only at Millbrook, but also from watching video from other upper level events, is that the riders who have a nice forward stride make it look a lot smoother than those who don't. Even for the combinations on course that require a shorter, more controlled stride, those that can package their horses up while still maintaining the energy level in the hindquarters end up having much better rides than those who pick at their horses and kill the power. 

The particular complex at Millbrook was a decent drop into the water, four very forward strides to a corner in the water, and another three forward strides to a table out of the water. The table was luckily very forgiving as more than a few pairs ended up more or less crawling over it! 

Another thing I noticed was that the riders who were able to stay over their legs as they dropped into the water had much better rides. Those that lost their legs dropping in were required to use the first stride in the water to catch themselves and sit back up which left less time to find their line and distance and kick on to it.

Here are a few photos:

Overall it was a great day and Millbrook is a lovely venue! Hopefully I will make it there as a competitor next year!

Tomorrow Ben and I are off to compete at the Frazier Farm Horse Trials in the Novice division. His dressage has really been coming along at the Training level so I have high hopes for his performance in the much simpler Novice test. I'm also hoping for a forward, bold, and confident cross country run. If all goes according to plan I should have a helmet cam video to share as well!