Cob Jockey

 January

I brought Connor home from CGP's and had to learn how to ride my new horse! It turned out all that Dressage gave him newfound confidence over fences. I decided to keep Aeres for one more month and got to experience owning two riding horses for the first time. Also, sigh, I realized (again) that my saddle didn't fit.

 February

The story this month was what I didn't post about: the lady flying out to try Aeres, falling in love with her, and then Aeres getting desperately sick. I only wrote six benign posts, including one about my truck stranding me at the worst possible time, but privately I was dealing with a LOT.

Love you too, jerk

March

This month, I finally wrote up the Aeres medical saga, and at the time I wrote it, I thought she was out of the woods, but unfortunately that wasn't the case, so I ended up basically live blogging the last few weeks of it. We spent a solid two weeks keeping her alive on feeding tubes without knowing if she would ever be able to swallow again, and the day before we were going to make the call, she began swallowing again, and eventually made a full recovery. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Final Thoughts. Outside of that, this was also the month I started virtual lessons, which were such a game changer.

April

I showed 2-3 for the first time at Heartland, got my amateur status back, hauled my mom's geriatric donkey from Illinois to Tennessee, and...a very special colt was born on April 28th, which just so happened to also be the day I got my second shot, something that made the entire show season ahead of me actually feel possible after everything was cancelled in 2020. I didn't speak for him immediately, but I had a feeling that I might.

"Why yes, hello world."

May

I officially bought Dyma Hi's colt, who I named Disco (Castleberrys Deja Vu). I rode with my trainer's trainer, who was the non-traveling reserve for the Olympics this year, and showed twice: once schooling, and once rated, for the first time with my trainer and her crew. I also rode the now-healthy Aeres one last time before she left, and tried a Bua.

June

Holly from Party Pony Eventing came to visit and rode Connor, I bought a Western saddle, and then I (finally) bought a Dressage saddle (that I still don't have as I write this post!). I showed at Waterloo for the first time, again with CGP's crew, and had a blast.

It was, um, wet.

While I wasn't fussed about the low scores at Waterloo, it did leave me with a couple of nagging feelings I wanted to sort out.

The first was that I wanted some validation from my trainer that I should really be showing Second. Her students normally get higher scores than my low-to-mid-60s, and I found myself dreaming of the 70s we are no doubt capable of if I'd just drop back down to First. And I know she would not BS me about this.

Unrelated: I want to take a moment to appreciate how freaking well the Fairfax (F/S) browband fits around his head.

"Absolutely, Second is where you should be," she said when I asked in my lesson last week. "Don't let last weekend get you down. It was incredibly tough going on Saturday with all the standing water, and then on Sunday the horses were all tired, probably from slogging through the mud on Saturday. And the judges didn't go easy on people."

Uh, yeah, he was tired on Sunday

While that does make me feel better, it also makes me feel like Second is just not going to be Connor's jam, which I've heard people say is true for some horses. The good news is we've achieved just about all that I want at Second, so at some point she'll say "Hey, it's time to look at Third." We know the flying changes came more easily to him than simple changes, even with CGP in the irons, so here's hoping we can put Second behind us for good soon.

Misty horse show mornings in Michigan

Second, I know I need to start focusing on Connor's fitness. We can't make Dressage any easier for him than one test per day, and in order to score well he can't be behind my leg. Riding in a lake is out of my control, but increasing his work capacity is something I can do.

The body is strong, the work capacity is weak

I had already planned on adding in 20-30 minutes of walking a few times a week when I saw Lauren Sprieser's blog published last week about talking to Jimmy Wofford about how to condition Dressage horses safely. Her plan included 20-30 minutes of walking 3x a week on hills using Equibands. 

"Oh my god are you kidding me?" - Connor probably

So that's what we're doing. One loop of our (rather hilly, for our area) property takes Connor 15 minutes, 20 if I add in the front pasture, and I put his Scoot Boots on so we could leverage the gravel driveways as well. (He's very sound on gravel, but I want to avoid finding "a rock with his name on it" in the middle of show season, as Dr. Marks would say) 

Ideally I'd like to find a way to do 20 minutes of this in the morning and then a schooling ride in the evening, at least through the summer, but we'll see if I can swing that with my schedule.

Finally, after Waterloo I emailed the NDPC show secretary and asked to add a tack stall to my entry for the first time in my life. They've always felt like such an unnecessary and expensive luxury to me, mainly showing at the HHP where my trailer is never more than 50ft from my stall and where I can wait out rain delays from the comfort of my own home if I feel like it. 

But after Waterloo, I had to admit that my teammates had the right idea with their tack stalls. They had a comfy place to hang out, a place to change clothes that wasn't a porta-potty and their show setups were very organized with lots of space to spread things out. Plus, I'm going to have an entire entourage of friends with me at Pony Cup and I don't think we'll be able to fit all those chairs in front of the stall front alone, lol. It's a GREAT problem to have!

Going forward, at least the first time I show in a new and unfamiliar place, I'll be getting a tack stall, but I still can't imagine wasting that money while showing "at home"!

We rode 2-2 on Saturday and 2-3 on Sunday to mimic what we'll have to do at NDPC next month. I've never done 2-2 before, because on paper it looks like a terrible test, not only in general but also in terms of highlighting what we're bad at.

I felt vindicated in my bad feelings toward it when I schooled it on Thursday night during my lesson and CGP was watching me like "Wait what? That's THERE? Are you kidding me? Did you ride that right?" I confirmed that I did, and I could feel her shaking her head.

Both Saturday and Sunday featured 2 hour rain delays

After going off-course twice at the last show, I was determined not to do it again this time, which would be no small feat since I'd never ridden 2-2 before Thursday night. While running through it in my head over and over Friday night, I made a particular error once that I mentally noted felt dangerously easy to do, which is start 2-2 (which begins with two half 10m circles) as if it was 2-3 (which has full 10m circles in the same place).

Guess what I did in the ring on Saturday, ugh.

Judge: "Are you riding 2-2?" Me: "I am, but I'm trying to ride 2-3, sorry"

The rest of the test rode okay, for doing it in an actual lake. To add complete insult to weather injury, it POURED during my warmup, soaking me through, and then the sun came out for the first half of my test, making it feel like I was wearing a wet, steamy paper bag the entire test.

The simples, especially the counter canter to walk, were not quite as crisp as they are at home. He was a little behind my leg (I mean, do you blame the little guy, it has to take more energy to get through water that deep!) And I never quite got that same back lifted feeling that I did the day before. But even with the error, it was good enough for a 62%+. 

On Sunday, CGP made me have a reader for the first time in my life, just "to break the cycle" of going off-course. I gotta be honest, I was pretty mentally shook up about going off course so many times since I started showing with her, because in my whole life up to the point, both Dressage and eventing, I'd only gone off course twice before, usually the first time I rode a test.

But this feels like another Second Level cliff thing. In the past, I focused a lot on riding the pattern correctly. Now, I'm focusing on managing the horse, half-halting, preparing for things, what his balance is like, what my body is doing, and a bunch of other stuff I've never focused on in the ring before, and I'm expecting the test riding to be automatic. Which is somewhat unfair to my brain given that I don't have access to a full-sized court at home, and the only time I get to school these tests completely is at shows.

Unfortunately, and I didn't think about this until it was way too late, nobody ran the idea of a reader past Connor. The first time we came down the long side past the reader during the test, Connor TELEPORTED into the center of the ring.

At least his schnoz is cute

In retrospect, I should've anticipated that, not that I could've done anything to mitigate it. He was very tired and behind my leg (to the point that I almost said "I should scratch" in the warmup, but my trainer said part of learning how to show is learning how to best present the horse you have that day, and she was not wrong), and he was going to look for an excuse to get out of the work, and one presented itself.

I used Saturday's rain delay to (finally) watch a video on how to do a good forelock. Normally I either have Mary do them for me, or I slap one together and hope no one notices how much more terrible the forelock is than the rest of my braids.

The rest of the test kind of sucked - he was super behind my leg, very tense and broke in the second canter serpentine. I was fully expecting a 55%, and was absolutely stunned to receive a 60.8% and some genuinely helpful feedback from the judge.

All my teammates kept commenting on Connor's (partially rubbed out by his muzzle) moustache last weekend, haha

Ultimately, the scores didn't matter to me. My goals for this weekend were to practice as if this was NDPC, get through 2-2 the first time, and on Sunday, my goal was to not go off-course, and I did all of that. So while I wish the scores were higher, I came away from it happy and feeling accomplished, and with a plan to make NDPC go more smoothly.

GP trainer had strongly suggested I enter Dressage Seat Equitation for Friday of this show. "It'll give him a chance to see the ring at a new place before your tests, and it's just a good class to get feedback from."

For those unfamiliar with DSE, (I was before this show), it's basically a rail class from the hunters with all competitors in the ring at the same time, and the judge calling out gaits and movements. According to my trainer, the fanciest thing they might ask for is a leg yield. You're judged entirely on your position, and the horse just has to look pleasant and steady.

Pleasant and steady. Thank you Teresa for all the media! Btw - no shine spray used here at all, he is just mirror glossy right now after a year on Omega Horseshine.

In the warmup, I was having trouble getting him to do anything, and it wasn't until he had one of his classic headshaking outbursts that I realized I was pulling. I also realized I was sucked back on my right side. Immediately after I started thinking "right side forward", he gave me some of the softest, straightest, trot we've ever gotten.

In the ring, we would be competing against my teammate on her imported Warmblood - actually the same teammate whose saddle cemented the win for Patrick last week. What I wouldn't have given to be doing DSE in that saddle! 

Teammate's outfit is on point

Connor felt amazing in this class - truly the best he felt all weekend. You know, when it didn't matter a bit, haha.

I found two things difficult about this class. The first was that remembering to show yourself off instead of the horse is hard. My last hunter eq class was a decade ago at this point, and I kept finding myself riding to make the horse better and not thinking a bit about what that effort looked like to the judge.

The judge called the three of us over at the end and gave us some collective feedback on things we all could do better, and then some individual feedback. To me, she said "There's a lot to like about your position. Did you come from a jumper background?" I took that question quite literally as "show jumping background" and I said no, which I'm sure made me look like an idiot as I was sitting there doing Dressage in a jump saddle, and I'm sure looking back on it she meant "jumping of any kind". But she said I tended to ride with a closed hip and get a bit behind the motion but otherwise she really liked my position.

You don't get score sheets back in DSE, but you do get percentages, and in the end I got a 74%, edged out by 1% by my teammate who deservedly took the win.

After that, I quickly untacked and hosed Connor off so I could return and watch my first ever Prix Caprilli class! This is a Dressage class with jumps up to 2'6 in it and it was SO COOL. One of my other barnmates took her former eventer in it.

From the scoresheet: "Prix Caprilli Test for Horses with jumping experience competing First Level and above - maximum height of fences 2'6". It is understood that in the working gaits, a jumping horse is not expected to be as round on the aids as a competing Dressage horse. The horse must softly accept the bit and may show more "roundness" in the parts of the tests separate from the jumps. Unless otherwise noted, trot work may be done posting or sitting. When allowed to change leads the horse may do a flying change or change though the trot. The quality of the change is what matters. Test may be called"

It was really cool to watch, and I texted Mary midway through to inform her she will be taking Connor in one of these classes someday. She said she'd only do it if she could wear full hunter princess attire - which is legal as far as I can tell!

It's a good thing I'm practicing this away show thing.

Things I forgot:

• Sports bras. All of them. Every single one.
• Schooling breeches

Don't mind me, just schooling in skinny jeans and a jump saddle with my boobs flying everywhere at a rated Dressage show. 😁

(Side note: the matchy matchy DQ game is MUCH stronger in Michigan than in Indiana, my goodness. It's a good thing I'm a badass self-confident individual that doesn't care what other people think of me because my 7 year old $15 Tango brand saddle pad was very out of place among PS of Sweden ALL THE THINGS. People had head to toe matching outfits with their horse, and there I was feeling accomplished because my green t-shirt didn't clash with my blue saddle pad, lol)

This place fancy.

Things I didn't forget:

•  My whip...clearly...😂 Just over here giving my truck a second antenna, don't mind me.
  

Today we leave for Waterloo. And the packing, OMG, the packing.

Part of the reason I felt like it was necessary to do Waterloo was that I need to practice traveling for long and far away shows before Pony Cup. We haven't traveled away from home for a show since the last time I did Pony Cup in 2017, and we haven't shown five hours away from home or done a four day show trip since Fox River Valley in 2016.

Fox River Valley. Eventing this horse was such a f****** adventure, lol.

As a result, I've lulled myself into this false sense of security about things like packing and laundry. When you live 20 minutes from the show grounds, you can come home and wash your whites in between rides and it's not the end of the world if you forget your grain at the barn. When you're five hours away from home...yeah.

Like, who knew you needed to own more than one show shirt?

And more than one pair of white breeches.

And a cooler. (We've been married a decade and somehow have never owned a proper cooler?)

Filled with the proper horse show supplies, naturally

This is also the furthest I've ever hauled by myself, so the truck is got an oil change and a bumper-to-bumper inspection complete with photos of consumable parts from my favorite shop, and two new automotive fire extinguishers.

We're as ready as I'll ever be! Now, if only I felt this prepared about riding 2-2...