I see a lot of things wrong with my position (pumping my arms when I get nervous, lower leg swings, and what the hell am I doing when he goes off of that big drop?!) but the video still overall makes me smile. Foster is clearly having a blast and I love watching his expression, and seeing him finally start to learn how to cover ground! Not that we’re going to ever win a race with a Thoroughbred, but he’s learning how to lengthen his stride a little more, and that’s awesome.
The second half of the year we continued with our busy schedule, and threw in both a Hunter/Jumper and Recognized show for fun.
Hunter/Jumper Show, August 2014
July – Hunter/Jumper Show
We went to a Hunter/Jumper show for a change of pace and with the goal of getting in jumping rounds in a low pressure environment. Leading up to the show, a series of crap schoolings and trying to fix things instead of leaving them alone left me with a super tired pony who just wasn’t up for what I asked of him. He tried very hard though, and still earned us two 4th place ribbons in a couple classes. I learned a lot about show prep for my horse and about the world of H/J.
FENCE, September 2014
September – Recognized Horse Trials at FENCE Foster’s first Recognized show, and my first one in about 10 years had me pretty nervous leading up to it. I did my damned best to prepare my horse for it, and overall it was a success. What felt like a fairly good test earned us our all-time low of 30 for dressage, and we debuted the helmet cam with a rockin’ cross country course up a small mountain and coming in well under time. I made a mishap of not getting to the start box as soon as I should, which looks bad on paper, but oh well. Foster was tired on showjumping day and took out 2 poles, which was pretty good considering I was almost concussed in the warmup.
CHP, October 2014
October – Carolina Horse Park Horse Trials
Another show at the Horse Park. Although an unrecognized event, they reused the course from the Recognized show prior, which meant I finally had to jump the dreaded trakehner and brush fences. The footing was super sloppy, which was a first for Foster, but he handled it well. We had a slightly tense test for a 31.7, and added 1 time fault in showjumping with a scrappy round. I thought I was going to puke with nerves before cross country after watching multiple refusals, but Foster came through brilliantly and went double clear. We got ourselves another 4th place ribbon.
CHP, November 2014
November – Carolina Horse Park Horse Trials
… and yet another at the Horse Park. A more forward dressage test and a harsh judge gave us a 35.7, but left us tied for second place. This followed by our most fluid showjumping round, though I made turns way too way big and Foster accidently dropped 2 poles. I then went out to cross country preparing for a fun run around, which I was having when I forgot a fence and was pulled up 3 fences from home. Ended on a Technical Elimination.
Our Season By the Numbers Total Shows: 10 Number of Horse Trials: 5
Average Dressage Score: 32.65 (67.35%) Average Number of Poles Down: .85 Double-clear cross country runs: 3 (4 if you count that we probably would have gone clear without my TE, regarding pace and jumping faults) Number of Ribbons: 6 Color of Ribbons (Placings): 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 4th Times I Forgot Part of Course: 2 Times I dyed Foster’s tail purple: 2
As the numbers show, our tendency is to be at the top of the pack after dressage, then for me to mess things up in the jumping phases. From now on I am holding myself to a mandatory second course walk. But, looking at the positives- we learned a TON. Foster’s confidence at the level has come in leaps and bounds, which in turn has made me more confident. Pace has not been an issue at Novice, though admittedly, there are other venues that run Novice faster than the few I attended. We had one run-out this year, and that was mostly due to my being a passenger instead of kicking on. Since then, my mantra of ride every fence (other than being ironic at the last show) has been a helpful attitude and keeps me from getting too laid back about seemingly easy fences. I should tattoo it on my arm, right next to where my cross country watch goes.
Next year’s calendar will be interesting, depending on how long it takes for us to feel ready to move up to Training. There’s another Running Start Horse Trials in February, and then we would wait until May to do another unrecognized event. Combined Training shows will help us dip our toes into the Training test and battle some showjumping courses, which may be just the ticket. I’ll be spending the winter thinking about our goals and what is the right path for the spring, and hoping the season goes just as well as 2014!
2014 definitely marks a year of doing more shows than I’ve ever done before (at least with my own horse, because, IDA). Now that the show season is officially over, it’s time to be retrospective and look at how things went.
Running Start, Feb 2014
February – Running Start Horse Trials
This was our debut at the Novice level, and technically a little on the more difficult end of a move-up course. Foster put in a great dressage test (a 35.5 put us in 2nd after dressage), and was about as relaxed as I’ve ever had him. He then went double clear in showjumping. On the cross country course, he came out a little strong, but did his first jump into water and faux trakehner confidently. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep my leg on at the half coffin and he had a silly runout, followed by my celebrating too early and not realizing I hadn’t yet gone through the finish flags, racking up a whopping 26 time faults to leave us at the bottom of the pile placing-wise.
MacNairs, March 2014
March – MacNair’s Combined Training Somehow I barely remember this show. It was an eh dressage test for a 33.4, and I did a crap job as pilot and we brought down one pole for a 2nd place ribbon.
CHP, May 2014
May – Carolina Horse Park Horse Trials Our first Novice at the Horse Park, and I remember being pretty intimidated. Instead, I had a solid dressage test, scoring a 31.3. Our showjumping course was pretty sticky, but Foster’s clever feet got us around for a double clear round. Cross country was the first time I really had a blast the whole way around, and we came in with a big grin and double clear. We earned ourself a 4th place ribbon, our first Novice ribbon!
The Fork, June 2014
June – Fork Combined Training
We drove down to the Fork so my mum could see the painted pony in action. I tried for a forward dressage round that may have been borderline rushing, but earning a 31 nonetheless. I didn’t get to walk the showjumping course at all, and it was the toughest course to date- with two one-stride combinations and lots of bendiness throughout. We took out one rail and I believe we placed 3rd overall. We followed the show with a super fun cross country schooling, and practiced our first water-upbank-fence combinations.
Thus concludes the first 1/2 of the year! Tomorrow, part 2!
This weekend I had the opportunity for a fun cross country school at Running Start. The day was a semi-casual opportunity to play with some Training stuff and just have fun. Even better, Ali was able to video and capture some gems on tape!
My plan is to put together all the clips and do a bit of editing, but since I haven’t gotten around to that yet, I thought it might be just as entertaining in the interim to make a few gif’s of the better moments.
Not that all the better moments meant stellar riding, like when this happened:
Though they weren’t all disastrous, I promise, and Foster was mostly, if anything, a little overconfident…
Seriously, I don’t think these water jumps are going to be a problem!
After showjumping, we headed over to the cross country course, where I incorporated a couple small angled fences as directed(admittedly not as extreme as at home, I wussed out a little) and felt out whether or not I would be able to rate Foster in the new bit. I also started to panic that I couldn’t remember all of the fences, since our course walk was interrupted by nightfall, and I hadn’t found a chance to revisit the course that day.
With that as the backdrop of our tale, I invite you to watch the helmet cam:
That’s right. As much as it pains me to say it, I went off course. The offending fence was a dinky little vertical at the top of the hill before the bank, that I flew by without a care in the world:
Otherwise, we were out there having a blast, and Foster was listening exceptionally well (other than getting distracted by a rider coming home after fence 1), and was coming back to me easily. I was pulled up with 3 fences to go, and I have no doubt that we would have come in double clear had we completed the course.
So, there ends our last show of the season. While of course it is so disappointing to not finish, I am thrilled with Foster and some of the progress we made. While not our best dressage test, we still proved that we were competitive in a large field. We put in a fluid showjumping round and got all of our spots. And we had one erm, 3/4 of the most relaxed and confident cross country courses to date, with Foster feeling as rideable as ever. It’s not the way I wanted to end the season, but it’s another definite learning experience. I thought 3 days later I would be super bummed, but somehow, I’m not. I’m proud of how Foster went and have a lot to look forward to, and that’s all that matters to me.
It has been announced that changes are being proposed at the USEA to the lower levels, in order to bring it up to other country’s standards. Click here for the article on EventingNation. Here’s the recap for those who are unaware:
Cross Country
Beginner Novice
Novice
Training
Speeds @ optimum time
300 350 mpm
350 400-430 mpm
420-470 *450–480 mpm
Speed faults
420 520 mpm
450 520 mpm
520 mpm
* When multiple divisions of Training level are offered, Open Training speed is 480 mpm.
Show Jumping
Beginner Novice
Novice
Training
Preliminary
Heights
0.79m (2’7”)
0.90m (2’11”)
1.0m (3’3”)
1.10m (3’7”)
Height Option*
0.85m (2’10”)
0.95m (3’1”)
1.05m (3’5”)
1.15m (3’9”)
Spreads of oxers
1.00m (3’3”)
1.10m (3’7”)
1.20m (3’9”)
1.30m (4’3”)
Spreads w/ height option
1.05m (3’5”)
1.15m (3’9”)
1.25m (4’1”)
1.35 (4’5”)
Spreads of triple bar
1.20m (3’11”)
1.30m (4’3”)
1.40m (4’7”)
1.50m (4’11”)
Spreads w/ height option
1.25m (4’1”)
1.35m (4’5”)
1.45m (4’9”)
1.55m (5’1”)
* One vertical and one oxer permitted at these heights
Being that I have, do, and will be competing at these levels, I’d like to weigh in with my opinion, which is two-fold. If you want to skip the discussion- scroll to the end.
Speed The current argument for upping the speeds required is that some horses have to do circles at the end of their course before crossing the finish flags in order to avoid speed penalties (for non-eventers, you can actually incur points against you if you go too fast, a time is given as incurring speed faults along with the optimum time). The purpose of the speed faults is to dissuade riders from reckless riding on course.
Beginner Novice XC Oct. 2012
From my standpoint, I can understand why increasing the speed @ optimum time could be a good idea. Even if my sometimes pokey horse might struggle with this, I will admit that encouraging a more forward ride might be a good thing. I completely disagree, however, with increasing the speed fault speed to 520. In the current USEA guidelines, 520 meters per minute is a standard speed for a Prelim course. Let me tell you, you are seriously cruising at 520 mpm. Here is a video comprised of Prelim riders at Morven Park in 2011, for example:
Why would anyone jump Beginner Novice (2’7″) or Novice (2’11”) need to get anywhere near Prelim (3’7″) speed in order to safely get around a course? In my opinion, there is no training program that should ever include galloping 2’7″ fences as part of their regimen. If I see someone taking these smaller fences at almost-Prelim speed (because of course actual Prelim speed incurs speed faults), I think it is safe to assume that either A) the ride is lacking control of the horse, and therefore dangerous OR B) the rider is lacking discipline, and is therefore dangerous.
Erm, yes, I may have trotted a couple steps after the up-bank
Let’s talk about how these new speeds might affect other competitors. When Beginner Novice (the most affected level here) allows horses on course that could be traveling at anything between 350 and 515 meters per minute, it is likely that passing on course is more apt to happen. Think about your average cross country course, which is a mixture of water elements, fields, and wooded trails. Will the horse traveling at the higher speed wait until you are conveniently in a big field to pass you? My experience tells me probably not. Now think about your average horse or rider at the Beginner Novice levels. Beginner Novice is a division created for either green horses, or inexperienced riders. How is a pair like this, presumably new to the sport, going to handle the likelihood of being passed on course? Some horses get understandably upset when another horse gallops up behind them blindly. Novice or young riders may not know how to handle the situation of being approached so quickly on course.
To me, this is the greatest danger of allowing faster speeds on these lower level courses. I think the only solution to this dangerous passing scenario would be to increase the time between riders allowed on course, to allow slower pairs a ‘head start’. However, knowing that most shows operate on tight time schedules, I see this an unlikely predicament.
Height I can think of (and have heard from on the interwebs) more than a few lower-level riders who are crapping themselves thinking about the new height allowances in showjumping. Many of these riders (of course, not all) ride at the lower levels because they lack confidence to move up. Increasing the heights of some fences is crippling to the anxiety of this crowd, and I truly feel for them. While 2″ is not a whole lot (the increase for Novice and Training), 3″ added to Beginner Novice course practically turns them into Novice fences, exactly what that same crowd is looking to avoid. While I don’t see this increase in height to be as dangerous as the speed fault scenario, I do wonder how these changes will adversely affect current riders at the lower levels.
That being said, I do think that these height rules could find merit at the annual Championship Competition (AEC). These riders have to qualify in order to attend, and are therefore presumably better prepared to tackle a slightly harder course. Similarly, if the championship heights are clearly communicated before the event, it would ease the tension between traditional schooling venues as to what facilities implement 2014 heights versus the new proposed heights.
In Summary In my mind, having a more forward optimum time is fine. Still safe, and rewarding a forward ride. I get that. Increasing the speed fault speed allowed- big, big red flags for me, and I hope they will be heavily weighed in the proposal discussions. For height, I don’t understand how increasing the height of a couple fences at the lower levels brings us up to international standards, and even more so, I don’t understand why making these lowest levels consistent with other countries matters. Is there going to be a Beginner Novice Olympics any time soon? Traveling to competitions in other countries for Training level? I seriously doubt it. Perhaps implementing new heights for Championship courses is the way to go. Overall, I would like to see better reasons for implementing changes that will affect the greater population of eventers, and that is those competing at the Beginner Novice through Training levels.
Weigh in! What do you think about the new changes? How will they affect you and your decisions about what level to ride at?
After walking the cross country course Saturday, the sky opened up and it poured. And poured. And poured. Luckily this provided excellent opportunity to huddle in Foster’s stall, do a bit of braiding, mentally run through my test, and try not to think about what was happening to the footing all through the deluge.
No dressage photos, so look at us in our snazzy new colors!
Dressage Needless to say, it was still very very wet Sunday morning. The dressage warm-up quickly turned to slop, which my poor pony is not so used to working in. I attribute his being slightly stiff in his neck because of this, as he attempted to pick his way through the mud and muck. Still, I was happy with the test he put in, and I was pretty confident it would score in the low 30’s.
The test earned us a 31.7, good for 5th place. Looking at the test, I’m pleased with the number of 8’s on there, and it appears we were off to a pretty good start. I am, however, a little bummed with how the test finished, and I didn’t feel some of the things the judge remarked on. Similarly, I wish I could have seen my ride, so I could understand why our overall scores dropped so much from the last show just a couple weeks ago. So we’ll be chalking it up to experience and trying to improve even more for the next outing.
Showjumping
Because of the slop, I was a little worried about how showjumping would go. Foster looked just a hair too relaxed hanging out in his stall, and I knew he would need some extra oomph to push out of the steadily deteriorating footing. I gave myself about 15 minutes of warm up, starting by trying to get him really moving forward (kind of successful), before hopping over a couple fences. He was a bit sticky to the fences, but I decided to take the risk of not jumping further in order to save our energy for the fences that would count.
I’ll say this in regards to our round- thank goodness you don’t get pretty points in eventing. He jumped me out of the tack over fence 7, which I got him a little unprepared to and he made a huge effort over. He didn’t pick up the correct leads 100% of the time, and once I brought him back to a trot to switch leads. Because of this, I think, we got 1 time fault, but went otherwise clear through a course that was definitely taking names. I saw 1 fall, and 2 refusals just while I was waiting- an unusual pattern for these lower levels.
Fence 7
Cross Country
When I got to cross country, I was more than a little worried about the footing on course. Foster does not have studs, and though the sandy footing holds up pretty well, I still wondered about jumping these large fences like #3 right from the start. Combine that with watching 2 different horses have refusals at that fence, and thought I was going to puke. But a quick hop over the couple cross country warm-up fences and Foster perked up substantially, and I decided to give it a go.
I won’t rehash the entire experience, when you can watch the helmet cam!
Obviously the course ran pretty well. Other than getting in deep to 8A, we got all our spots and while being forward, Foster was adjustable and able to come back to me when I needed to rebalance him, such as down the hill and through some turns. We came in right under time because of my more conservative ride.
Breezing over fence 3
In Conclusion
Overall, we finished 4th out of a field of 15 or so horses. I am super happy with how the day went, and again, know there are things to improve which is a great place to be. It was a great relief to finally conquer the trakehner and brush that have been worrying me all year. We’re still waiting to break into the 20s for dressage, but between this and the last show I feel like Foster can confidently be described as a solid Novice horse. I’m thankful for the opportunity to put in another confidence-giving run, and look forward to our last show of the season, next month!
Ahh, that wonderful horse show hangover feeling you get. You know the one- you’ve spent an entire weekend on your feet, shoveling poo, hanging water buckets that inevitably splash all down your pants, walking courses, doing all sorts of math (optimum times, penalty times, time faults, dressage scores… yikes), and maybe doing a bit of riding, before you get back home, exhausted but pleased, and thoroughly brain dead.
So since my brain is not quite up to the task of rehashing all the gory details from the actual competition, let’s just talk about the course.
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Pretty much from the first fence I knew this was going to be tougher than our last visit to the Horse Park. Generally fence 1 is smaller- Training jumps a Novice fence, Novice jumps a Beginner Novice fence, and so on. Not this time- fence 1 was a maximum height roll top, inviting, but still big enough. It turns out they were re-using the course from the previous recognized show. As it went on, this became more and more clear.
Fence 3 was the giant table that was at the end of my course in May. So right away, the pace needed to be forward and your horse in front of your leg.
Remember this guy? Fence 3, baby!
Fence 5 took you through the new Stonehenge complex, which has caused spookiness issues even at the upper levels of competition. Then down and over the massive brush that has made me want to wet my pants. Another fence before hanging a sharp left turn down a hill, then a 90 degree angle turn into a bending line combination. Yikes.
Stonehenge Complex at Carolina International, PC: Everything Eventing
No break after the bending line, because you’ve got to get going again to make it over the huge red bench going up the hill. Followed by collecting again and sitting back into the sunken road at 10 A and B. Then over the trakehner that has made me want to puke ever since I moved up to Novice. Luckily after schooling the trakehner at Running Start, this guy didn’t look quite as intimidating as I remembered. Though I didn’t forget that I could easily sit in that ditch (which I did when I dropped my phone into it in May).
Then up the hill, catch our breath over the up bank down the slope to a rolltop, through the water complex, over one more fence and home free!
We spent the weekend with the husband’s family, participating in a 5k for the Race for the Cure and attending our first doggy birthday party. I think my canine nephew has more friends than I do, and I’m certain he has better birthday parties.
Drake at the doggy birthday party
Anyways, onto today’s musings. Just for fun, recently I’ve been playing with the idea of changing my eventing colors. *gasp!*
But why, you might ask? (I amuse myself by thinking people care)
Currently, my color is green. Green was an easy choice of colors when I started eventing, since I was on an Irish horse and we just weren’t the type to rock out pink or purple or some other ‘girly’ color (no offense if your colors are pink/purple/stardust/whatever, just wasn’t my style!). So I bought a nice green Tipperary chest protector, and that was that.
At the Fork on Merry, circa 2004. These old photos make me cringe!
Over the years, of course, I have started collecting all things green to go along with our color scheme. Green bell boots, green grooming bags, green saddle pads.. you get the gist.
Foster in our green gear, and the same old horrible white Eskadrons before they died
But now that I have a decidedly non-Irish horse, I want to switch it up a bit. I want to add navy. Navy and green, with white accents. The showjumping coat I recently purchased is navy, and I think it looks so pretty against green and white! Of course the designer in me wonders if having a tri-color scheme on a tri-color horse is a bit of a visual overload, before the eventer bit says ‘who gives a crap, I do what I want’. So I invested in a navy sun shirt and a super cute navy/green/white bonnet, and I can’t wait to rock out our new style at the next show!
Navy swag
Eventers out there- how did you come up with your colors? Has it been hard to find gear in your particular scheme? Non-eventers, what would your colors be?
Red on the Right 