Cob Jockey

That whole weekend of Waterloo, I was struck by how different showing felt this time around, as opposed to the last time I did it five years ago.

Gone were the nerves, the score anxiety, the feeling that I "had" to prove something to someone. There is, of course, a bit of pride to it still, and a bit of wanting to show Disco well on behalf of his progeny and his breeder. But I couldn't bring myself to care about our scores in the 50s, or the score in the 60s -they just fundamentally didn't matter to me on such a deep level.

At any rate, I did tell myself that if I expected better scores, I should have, you know, taken a lesson within the last four years or maybe ridden regularly in the last three.

The overwhelming feeling I had was gratitude and awe. For the first time, I trotted down centerline on a horse I watched grow up from the moment he slid out of his mom, wondering for the next five years what it would feel like when we did this. We did it, and I was present enough to enjoy the moment as it happened.

I still absolutely took my participation awards home (low turnout in the Pony classes, sadly!)

I was also so grateful to be showing with Kate, something I never thought I'd get to do for all of the many years she lived in California, and enjoying hanging out with her fascinating (said with love!!) family and framily.

I also met Eventing a Gogo IRL for the first time after following her blog(s) for the better part of two decades! Hers and Aimee's were the first two blogs I ever followed way back when I started blogging in late 2009.

Disco graciously accepts molestation from total strangers

(It was the craziest thing, I made an Instagram post and tagged her in it, and then she APPEARED AT THE SHOWGROUNDS like I summoned her Beetlejuice-style.)

Possibly most important to me out of anything,  I was amazed at how well my five-year-old stallion handled the atmosphere. Sure, I know he's been showing since he was five months old and has shown three different disciplines in two countries now, but you still never know. 

He went around in a flat/knotted halter all weekend, drank water like a champ, and caused several people to do double-takes and look underneath him after learning he wasn't a gelding. 

The world's most champion drinker from the moment he got off the trailer, even though it wasn't that hot.

He was looky, sure, and a bit backed off at times in the warmup ring when these massive warmbloods rode close to us, but he was far and away a better show horse than Connor was at his first show, which is saying something, because Connor's always been pretty top notch.

His behavior in particular makes me so excited for what we can achieve together. He's just always ready to go to work, and I so appreciate that about him.

One more Waterloo post - riding takeaways next! 

My incompetence at reading a show bill saved my bacon bright and early on Saturday when the show office asked if they could move my 8:00am ride to 11:00am so we could do my pony class measurements at 10:00am. I couldn't believe my ears and felt like I hit the lottery with that one!

We had to do a jog for measurements which was a new one for me.

I ended up needing the time, as I had some fits and starts with braiding. The sewn-in braids I always did with Connor predictably did not work with Disco, and I switched to a running braid technique I had only ever practiced three braids of once. It ended up working really well, and I'll probably write a whole post on that at some point. 

This is a RUNNING BRAID. I'm still amazed. It wasn't too bad for my first attempt at it, although I'm me, so there are definitely improvements I want to do next time.

Kate had the genius idea of entering the same test for all four rides that weekend to really set us up for success. Even still, I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I waved the white flag of adult amateurism hard all weekend, and Kate was very gracious about it. 

Kate read my tests for me and videod at the same time, off of the same phone, AND showed her own Castleberry horse (Belgian WBx Castleberrys Opportunity Knox). I actually don't know how she did it.

For that first test, I had her warm him up for me (I actually didn't know you could do that in Dressage until Kate offered!) and for the first time, I saw that First Level horse she told me she had schooling at home. He was a completely different horse from when I rode him, and it brought into stark relief just how much my own riding would need to improve after I take him home in October. In a good way.

Pictured: potato riding

I also had Kate read alllllllll four of my Training 2 tests. My old trainer would have died of embarrassment, but I was incapable of embarrassment over that. The mental odds were very much stacked against me, and I was going to take every chance I got to offload some stress and ride to the best of my abilities.

This post is long enough, so I'm going to summarize the first three tests (with scores in the mid-upper 50's) as follows:

1. Baby horse does the thing
2. The canter aid is kick and pray right?
3. "Canter surprise", also, OMG there are HORSES OVER THERE DID YOU KNOW THAT

Kate had put a sophisticated canter aid on him (lifting the inside seatbone) that I am more or less physically incapable of doing on my weak side, which I demonstrated by doing leg lifts in the tack stall after the first test. As a result, the canter transitions were a bit of an adventure all weekend even though with Kate he picks it up wonderfully, and he never misses leads with either one of us.

That fourth test, though.

    4. Redemption

I went into the ring feeling confident we could put it all together, and we did exactly that. The showgrounds were a bit quieter, Disco was feeling properly bored, and Kate had helped us to a breakthrough with the canter transition in the warmup.

I had realized I actually haven't ridden many trot-canter transitions over the years. 5-year-old Connor came preinstalled with a walk-canter transition so good, I wasn't motivated to do much with the trot-canter. After I said that, Kate had me ask for walk-canters as if he was an educated horse, and the canter transitions got SO much better, even if they did have a few steps of trot in there.

More on this in the recap post, but "stop riding him like the barely broke baby you dropped off three months ago" was A Theme this weekend.

We ended up scoring a 62%+, and I told him he won the Olympics.

Takeaways post to come! 

Anxiety at A had a good post about having an identity crisis, and after Wordpress ate my comment for the 6th time, I decided to just turn my comment into a post instead.

When watching the Olympics this year, I was struck by how icky Dressage felt to me. Eventing gave me the warm fuzzies - lots of great trips, everyone came home safe, horses that looked like normal horses. And then Dressage - just going off of my own gut feelings, the horses that moved beautifully and normally to my brain never scored well, and the ones that did score well seemed to me like they were moving like robots.

Photo used with permission

I'm not going to turn this into some holier-than-thou keyboard warrior post, it's not that. This is about me and what I want. I don't want that. I don't want a horse that has been bred to move like a robot at the expense of its common sense and durability and a bunch of other things that are a lot more important to a 37 year old adult ammy with a day job than a 10 mover. I want fun, sane, sound, reasonably competitive but not so athletic that they throw me into the rafters because they saw a leaf on the ground.

The best parts of horse shows aren't even what happens in the ring

North Forks Cardi

It means that I know what matters to me, and I align my goals to that. It also means that I support the parts of the Dressage world that I believe ARE doing the right things for the right reasons. My goals in years' past have been things like "qualify for my GMO's championships" (my GMO is awesome) and "compete at National Dressage Pony Cup" (a championship show I don't have to qualify for that puts me on a relatively level playing field for once? Sign me up!) and "finally ride the counter canter serpentine like I've actually seen a serpentine before" (which is a real problem, OKAY).

National Dressage Pony Cup is just a FANTASTIC organization.

I don't buy a full USDF membership, I don't set goals like "score a 70%", and I sure as hell don't give the USDF extra money for qualifying scores. Qualifying for Regionals/Finals is not on my bucket list and I'm, personally, a lot happier for it.

That's not to say you should feel the same way I do. I am forever and always in awe of Karen getting her gold medal and qualifying for the big shows on the self-produced and saintly Hampton, who is not a purposebred leg flinger. She fought hard and persevered through a lot more on-the-bubble scores than most people would have, and I admire the heck out of her for it. Would I do the same? I'm not sure. A gold medal isn't tantalizing to me, although learning to ride those movements is. But I don't need scores for that.

Don't need scores for this either

So where does that leave me? Still here. I'm not "a Dressage rider" any more than I'm "an eventer". The sports I compete in aren't my identity. I feel comfortable supporting the parts of these sports that work for me and my goals and skipping the parts of the buffet line that don't. 

Could literally make a montage of Connor's favorite horse show activity, which is this

Whatever horse you choose to ride, whatever goals you choose to set, whatever sports you choose to compete in, whatever levels you choose to strive for, my sincerest hope for all of you is that you choose those things because you know yourself well enough to know that YOU want them, not because some governing body told you that you should want those things either directly or indirectly. It should feel good deep in your soul to do what you do, and if it doesn't, listen to that feeling. Horses are too all-consuming to feel otherwise.

I keep wanting to title this post "Disco's First Show", but I remind myself that no, this is his second show!

This time he's a little bigger.

But stop growing though!

This is the same WPCSA North Central Regional that we went to last October, only moved to July, and at a different facility 2.5 hours north of me because the facility 30 minutes down the road from me was booked this year.

"Where am I?" - Disco

This, as you might imagine, threw a wrench into my "I can keep a one horse trailer even though I own two horses because the only place I'll ever show both of them is 30 minutes down the road" plan. I still really don't want to or need to own a two horse, and I certainly don't want to sell a trailer I love just to accommodate one Welsh show once a year. 

Because I didn't want to put anyone out on account of my choice to own a one horse trailer, I decided to make three round trips to bring them there and back. Yes, that is 15 hours of driving. In two days. I reached levels of exhaustion I didn't know were possible, but I got it done.

Me and Connor getting gas at 10:30pm on a Friday

I was worried about how Disco would haul and handle it all, since he hasn't left the property since I brought him home in November. None of my barnmates were available to help me load him, so I had a non-horsey gym friend come out. 

I needn't have worried - he thought about it for a second, but hopped right on. He seemed to have a good time too, I saw him flapping his lips out the window many times over the trip.

He arrived and settled straight into drinking and eating hay, which is one of the things I've always loved about Connor, so that made me happy. Of course, there were also baby shenanigans because oh my god entertaining a yearling colt in show stabling is horse ownership on hard mode, y'all.

He broke two bucket straps making water art on the wall over the 24 hours he was there. TBF drinking out of a bucket was new and exciting to him, since he'd only ever drank out of a decidedly (mercifully) less exciting Nelson auto-waterer or stock tank before that weekend.

He spent that whole first night across the aisle from Lisa's horses but separated from Connor, who I would bring up at 4am the next day. Got his socks washed, got his feet rasped (my farrier is hurt and we needed to clean them up) and was just generally a good boy, or as good as a yearling with a need for constant entertainment can be, anyway.

 That theme continued into the next day.

I didn't even bathe his body and hadn't groomed him in a month before this show, he's just that soft and shiny all the time.

He was the only entry in his C/D 2 and under colts class, which was fine with me. We were there to get points for Lisa and to practice the whole show experience. To my delight, but not my surprise, he trotted in hand like an absolute champ, staying next to me as I ran quite fast (and I ran cross-country, so that's saying something).

After that, we had a brief break before we had to go in for the Sec C/D Champion class (all genders). I did end up putting a chain on him for that class - he was being subtly rude and pushy in the flat leather show halter in a way I didn't appreciate. He was MAD about the chain, but only in a "I want to make my opinion known," way.

Reminder: I'm 5 feet tall, he's not THAT big!

The funniest moment of the show was sadly not captured on camera. During the Champions class, the two stallions were on the other side of the judge's tent from the rest of the horses, putting Disco and one of Lisa's other stallions, Castleberrys Red Dragon, next to each other. As soon as the judging was announced and Disco didn't win, he laid down and rolled right there in the arena, I'd have called it a protest if I was prone to anthropomorphizing. 

But even better, Dragon saw Disco rolling and started rolling too! Then Disco started to get up, but got halfway up into a sitting-like-a-dog position when he noticed Dragon rolling, and he sat there and watched him roll for a while. Everyone was laughing so hard! What a Welsh thing to do.

One of the other handlers asked if I was going to tame his mane onto one side. HAHAHAHA. I would if I could, but he literally has two manes worth of mane. That's never happening.

So, did he win big again? No. But I don't care. He was well-behaved for 5 hours of trailering, a hot night in show stabling, being around strange horses, and being amped up in the show ring. These are the kinds of experiences I want him to have right now, and he exceeded every expectation I had.

What a show yesterday ended up being! 

It had everything - highs, lows, comedy, tragedy - and a couple of good lessons along the way.

We were stabled next to NK, whom I hadn't seen since I stopped riding with her 2 years ago (for no reason other than she's closer to me, but more difficult to get to than CGP).

If you remember, my whole goal for this show was to do it for fun, and because we qualified for championships, because why not? The weather ended up being amazing - highs in the low to mid 70s underneath those perfect late-September Indiana skies. My barnmate brought her coming 3 y/o as a non-compete just to see the sights and stay overnight off the property for the first time ever.

Sunday morning dawned clear, cold and panic-inducing, as I realized that I did not, in fact, have enough waxed thread to make it through to the last show of the season. I took a deep breath and calculated that if I did fewer, larger braids and only started the thread near the end of the braid instead of the top, I MIGHT make it. And worst case I could leave the forelock down and pretend he was a stallion. 

I ended up using every. Last. Millimeter. Of thread.

Shitty, shitty braids, lol.

Connor was bothered by those braids for the first time ever for some reason, and kept using a hind foot to scratch them out, which of course was worst case scenario for braids that had a lot less structural integrity than they normally do, but they did live.

Horses that try to scratch their braids out get tied to the wall, and are not happy about it.

But this isn't a blog about braiding, this is a blog about riding. We had two tests on Sunday, which I never do with this horse, but again, we were there 100% for fun. We rode 2-3 for the Imperio Trophy at 9am and then again for the 2-3 AA championship at 11am. Both tests, being championship rides, could be ridden with spurs but I could not carry a whip after warm-up.

Barnmate is such a badass. After lunging and warming up in an unused arena to check her steering and brakes, she walked her baby horse all the way around the warm-up ring, in this bosal hackamore, and he never put a foot wrong or screamed once. On a colt she bred and backed herself. Very impressed!

For the Imperio 2-3, he was quite behind my leg. I had gone for relaxation in warm-up and never really gotten him quite jazzed up enough for a test without a whip. It was a steady, workmanlike test with one big error when he broke in the second canter serpentine and then I picked up the wrong lead because OMG I can never remember which lead we're on when he breaks in a serpentine! Then I had to fix it in order to do the simple change.

But it didn't feel that bad, so I was surprised to see our lowest score of the season by a lot, a 57%.

Back at the stalls, I was hemming and hawing about whether to scratch the 2-3 championship ride. The idea of legging him through that a second time was exhausting. I actually made a pros and cons list (there were literally no cons, aside from potentially bruising my pride in front of the local IDS crowd), talked to Austen about it, and then the deciding factor was watching a video one of my former eventing teammates took of my first ride. I left a LOT of stupid points on the table, and I knew I could at least do better in accuracy.

Just, meh.

So I pulled a tired, confused Connor out of his stall, gave myself a 10 minute warmup that largely consisted of transitions between gaits backed up with spurs then whip if he didn't react to my leg in time, and headed in.

I took this GIF just to show off how my disco ball of a browband blinded the entire crowd, lol. Although fun fact, in the inconsistency of the angle, you can see me fighting to stay over his right side as he continually fights to tip my hip upward and off of him

We f***** brought it.

This scored an 8.0. Right in front of the judge. I'm so proud.

Every movement, I went for more, but tactfully, since I didn't have a ton of horse and being too aggressive would have led to him breaking gait, not giving me more impulsion. More angle, more bend, more lengthening, more stretch. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Was it a thousand percent improved from the Imperio ride? You bet.

Position has gone to shit here but my horse is bringing it.

When they announced my score over the intercom of 63.4%, for an improvement of 6% from the same test two hours prior, I was ecstatic. And when they announced we won the championship class, I was stunned. I've left this show crying twice in the past, completely lost on the path of Dressage, so to come home with a blue ribbon (well, I'll receive it at the banquet in November) was just so sweet.

Speaking of the poor announcer, they announced breeder and breeding at this show, and she did an admirable job of trying to read Connor's dam's name (*Bwlchllan Bessie) the first time, but the second time, she took the easy route out with "...and out of a Derwen Desert Express daughter". I cracked up.

The biggest win of this whole show? We did the whole thing in the thin, 3 piece Myler, the bit he goes best in but also the absolute easiest for him to get his tongue over, which often happened in the warm-up ring at shows in the past. It's one thing that he hasn't been trying to get his tongue over at home, but to do it in a show? It's truly a comment on my hands improving.

I love you, buddy <3

And with that, we are truly done with Second!

I need to start every warm-up checking in with my own body and with his.

Rolling with my entourage. PC: Leah

Adding those extra ten minutes on Saturday really helped. We've both noticed that starting my on-the-contact work with HI/HO on a 20m circle really helps Connor loosen up and get on my aids, and it also gives me a chance to check in with my position too. I need to warm up at home like I do at shows.

Plugging into my back has to become my default.

Connor: Learn how to riiiiiiiiide. PC: Leah

Otherwise I pull. And that's not good for anybody.

I only go off course when CGP is watching my test.

Studying my test in the USDF TestPro app. PC: Leah

Don't know what to make of this, and I acknowledge that it could be a red herring, but the only times I've gone off course in the last 5 years have been the first time I've done a new test and when she's watching. Something to think about and work through.

His dietary changes could have totally been the placebo effect, but I definitely had more horse than ever before throughout this show.

Still cruising along with more than enough horse on Day 3. PC: John Borys Photography

Still debating on whether to even write about what I changed because I know I often influence people to buy things (MEGAN), and I can't prove that what I changed caused the difference I felt. What I do know is that because of the timing of when he went to CGPs and when the show was, I was only able to do one conditioning ride before the show, yet I had more horse than I ever have before, stamina-wise.

2-2 can die in a fire.

Entourageeeeee. PC: Leah

If you voluntarily ride 2-2 for fun, I do not understand you, lol. 

If jackets are waived, it's not even a decision.

My jump saddle is so small, I can use it with a Dressage pad and you probably didn't even notice that until I said something. PC: John Borys Photography

It's not that I can't ride well when I'm uncomfortable, but it's definitely harder, and I've put together a jackets-waived outfit I'm excited about being photographed in. SO, yeah, unless it's required or it's cold, I'm taking my jacket off every chance I get in the Midwestern heat.

Competing at Waterloo definitely helped.

PC: Leah

It changed a lot about what I did at Pony Cup, from the timing of my warmup, to the decision to get a tack stall, to recognizing the need for a bunch more hooks and straps for hanging things, to deciding to change his diet. There are shows that I'll do that matter a bunch by themselves, like Pony Cup and ride-offs, but there will also be shows that I'll do that matter more on the timeline of my show season, and Waterloo is definitely the latter.