Clinic Recap: Day 1

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Britt

Half Trakehner

Whoo! What a weekend. The clinic was a great success, and Foster and I came away tired, but with some definite goals and advice to keep with us as we practice on our own.

The clinic included 3 lessons of any combination, and knowing my weakest areas (jumping), I opted to do 1 showjumping lesson and 2 cross country lessons. Day 1 was our showjumping and first cross country lesson. And boy, did we struggle at first.

heads up like a turtle!

Day 1 Showjumping

One of the first things Holly pointed out is that I was riding with a dressage seat, and I needed to lighten my fanny for jumping. Needless to say, after about 3 months of doing almost nothing but dressage, that fanny felt heavy, and I struggled to find my balance after being out of practice for so long. She also had me lengthen my rein and lower my hands, to encourage Foster to have a slightly rounder shape and therefore jump with better bascule.

The course included a few single fences, a 3 stride line, a 1 stride, and the biggest grid I’ve seen (in life). Foster has never jumped a grid like that, and normally when we do grids we build them up bit by bit. Not to mention, when’s the last time he did a 1 stride? (I’m sure I don’t remember!) Thankfully he was game, and we struggled through.

This exercise showed us that we could benefit from more gymnastic practice, to get him sitting, me waiting (and steering), and improve balance issues.

Overall themes included getting a more active canter (no surprise there), looking without leaning, and getting him straight to the fences. The latter is one of my biggest issues right now, as I don’t tend to take the time to get his shoulders straight at the approach to the fence, and then we jump crooked, or if it’s a line, drift through it. I will be working on this for sure!

Luckily we did end on a good note where I actually started to ride, but the video is sadly a bit blurry. Just a few jumps together, but beginning to see improvement. I do notice in these videos that my form over fences has suffered some from lack of practice (belly button to pommel!), but hopefully we will be able to get more jump schooling in soon!

Day 1 Cross Country

Figuring out how to turn

After Foster had a quick rest, we headed out to the cross country course. I was pretty excited to see what he felt like, but that didn’t keep me from being tense. I had mixed success with getting the tension out of my elbows, but Foster was an honest, solid citizen the whole time, which helped me relax more and more. Everything stayed pretty small as we revisited the basics… No, we didn’t always get our distance, and tempo was occasionally a mixed bag (though admittedly, mostly on the slow side), but I was very happy and got the confidence boost I needed!

Again themes of more canter and allowing him to come to the fence (this is a trust issue with me, left over from his rushing days), and relaxing my elbows. Watching the video I can see exactly when I lock up and when I start to relax my arms, and generally speaking, he looks relaxed when I look relaxed. Definitely something I’ve been working on for some time, and finally started seeing better results towards the end of the lesson.

Following cross country, we headed back to the barn and Foster got a much deserved dinner and I got to hang out with my fellow participants, some of whom are friends from our old barn! It was so nice to catch up with everyone, and hear how they are progressing with their rides!

Drinking beer after riding all day? Yes, please!

A Show Recap: MacNair’s Combined Training

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Britt

Let me start by saying that if I wasn’t prepared for the Running Start Horse Trials, then I really wasn’t prepared for the Combined Training show yesterday. But I thought hey, it doesn’t get much cheaper and easier than 1 dressage test and 1 jumping round at a barn only 25 minutes away, right? So I went, even though Foster had only been ridden three times in just as many weeks (due to my travel adventures, moving barns, one rainstorm from Hell, and one lost shoe).

After getting stuck in the hellstorm..

Anyways, the show went better than expected. We notoriously struggle with the warmup at this facility, as the jump warmup (read: kids on ponies trying to jump fences both directions) and dressage warmup share the same smallish space. But luckily our warmup was only mildly heinous. I tried to focus on relaxation, and spent 20 of my 25 minute warmup encouraging stretchy walk, trot, and canter. Thankfully this approach did help some, though Foster retained some of the tension (I theorize that the tension is also a bit due to lack of muscle and therefore balance in the working paces), but was about 75% alleviated before the test.

Trotty trot trot

So other than having a few tense moments, the test was passable. He felt a little more lateral than usual, which the judge picked up on, but again I put this down to simple loss of conditioning. We are going to have to work to build the strength back up in that right hind in order to achieve perfect straightness. But the test was obedient, and my geometry pretty decent. Foster earned himself two 8’s (20 meter circle trot and our diagonal), and even got a 7 on his right lead canter depart (not expected!). To top it off, we both got 7’s on the collective marks, which I was fairly pleased with as well! (below is a blurry video of the first part of the test)

Following this, I did a hasty tack change, ran around my course on foot (not a single straight line! yikes!) and hopped over a few fences to warm him up. It was apparent that he was lacking a bit of energy, but I hoped he would wake up in my round.

We went in, and noting that the first fence was a nice brick wall, I tapped him on the shoulder to let him know his job. We then proceeded to go around the course like a cross cantering whirlydirvish! It wasn’t pretty, but it sure was forward! He did hit one pole with his backend that I was a bit disappointed about- very uncharacteristic of him but I imagine he was just getting tired. Watching the video makes me cringe a bit, as it’s apparent that I wasn’t really riding the fences- just pointing him at them like a monkey on his back! This is something I seriously need to work on, because I don’t want to give him any bad habits because of my ineptitude. I think a show where I can get in the jumping ring a few times to get my act together would be perfect- maybe a Hunter show is in my future?

Anyways- here is the video so you can see my bad riding (and Foster’s mostly clever footwork) for yourself. Foster, I promise I will do better by you next time! Until then, I need to work on landing on the correct lead, and maybe even trying to teach changes to my horse who wants to change but hasn’t figured out yet how to change the back as well as the front!

It turns out that silly pole cost us 1st place, but we earned ourselves a pretty red ribbon for our efforts! Yay Foster!

What a cutie 🙂

Our next plans include hopefully getting a lesson in (haven’t had one at all this year!) and then I’m debating between a clinic and another horse trial (at Denny Emerson’s farm in Southern Pines). Heading to Pittsburgh again this week, and when I get back we will be working on our fitness! Let’s whip our butts into gear!

Show Recap: Running Start Horse Trials

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Britt

We could rename this blog “Stupid Things Britt Does With a Horse”, and it would be a more descriptive title than the current version.

But let’s start at the beginning. I arrived home from Pittsburgh Friday night about 7:30, convinced the husband to take me straight to the barn where I cleaned the white bits of Foster and packed the last remaining details for the show. Proceeded home about 10:30pm, and unsuccessfully tried to sleep. Got to barn at 5:30 Saturday morning, hooked up and rolled out around 6:20 am. About 15 minutes before arriving at the show, I asked my buddy to look up the test for me so I could go over it once more in my head [most of my test practice had been mental to date, as riding time has been limited by my geographical location and/or weather]. Found out the test I had ridden once physically, and many more times mentally, was the wrong test, and started memorizing the new one.

One thing I love about my horse is that he brings his A game to shows. He tends to get really tense and anxious at home when he sees the trailer, becomes a bit spooky in the cross ties as I put on his shipping boots and fairly prances his way to the trailer. But once he gets to the show, he unloads casually and is always cool as a cucumber. I had the most relaxed horse under me during warm up, and I felt awesome about his dressage test. Beyond coming above the bit in his canter transitions (which we have practiced absolutely nil in the last month), he felt extremely obedient throughout and soft as butter. My hands are a little low, but I allowed his frame to be more Training dressage like, and so since there is a straight elbow-to-bit line, I’m okay with that. When we checked the scoreboard, the placings reflected a strong test- 2nd out of 13!

Screenshot from dressage

In the showjumping warmup, Foster continued to be really relaxed- almost too relaxed in fact! Julieann acted as my coach and tried to get me into a more forward canter, and while we got it in the end, I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t be able to maintain that pace through the course, but I pledged to try.

Imagine my surprise when Foster came out guns blazing in the arena! I thought the first fence was a bit spooky (and recalling our last horse trail there), decided to ride aggressively with a couple warning taps on the shoulder which may have gotten him a bit revved up. I may have also not held the soft knee I was striving for, and so he sensed my tension and got a bit carried away. Either way, it was a point and shoot kind of round, and he jumped me out of the tack a couple times for sure! But clean and clear and heading to XC!

Overjumping.. just a little!

Cross country was where I of course had the most concerns leading up to the show, because of both technical and fitness related questions. He knocked a pole pretty hard in the warmup and overreacted a little bit (with of course the timers yelling at me to get in the start box), so I chose to approach fence 1 with a more collected canter that I could control. After that he really opened up, and we had a fantastic run all the way through the water fence. After that, I breathed a big sigh of relief and mentally went on cruise control. This was a bit of a mistake.

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I approached the half coffin, cruising along and thinking nothing of it, and Foster saw that there was a second element (it was a jump, 2 strides to a reasonably sized ditch), and hesitated. Had I been thinking at all, I am 100% sure he would have gone straight over it, but that’s just it- I wasn’t thinking. So we had a run out, whereupon I brought him back to it and he went straight over. Over one more fence, and we were done. I pulled him up, told him he was a good good boy, and basked in the knowledge that we finished our first Novice course.

Over fence 2

Then I realized (by way of whispers), that I hadn’t gone through the finish flags.

Palm to forehead, then hopped into a canter and backtracked to go through the flags. Word of advice- don’t leave your brain at jump 15. Whoops! In any case, Foster behaved better than I could ever have imagined, and my stupid mistakes cost us a beautiful red ribbon! But in the end though, it wasn’t about the ribbon- it was about getting around and giving Foster a positive experience at the Novice level. I am so proud of him and how he behaved, and can’t wait to take him to the next one!

I do want to take a moment to thank Julieann for coming with me, being a source of positivity that I really needed, and taking the lovely video for us! You’re the best!

2013 Accomplishments Part I: The Horse

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Britt

Dressage at Portofino

This year has been a big one for Foster and I. After ~~the crappiest winter ever~~ basically the whole winter off, we started our spring season with him being lame and myself being busy (wedding planning > riding, and that’s just the way it goes). So it wasn’t until May that we really started to figure out the problem, but after a plethora of treatments he was finally serviceably sound and ready to go.

After that, it was a matter of rebuilding the lost muscle and teaching him to be confident and trust that the movements wouldn’t be painful. We tried very hard to find zen and I rediscovered how much my horse thrives on positive (vocal) reinforcement.

After that things started moving quite quickly, so without writing a novel here are some of our accomplishments this year:

Dressage

Acheiving straightness
Leg Yields at the trot
Shoulder-in at the trot
Becoming steady in the bridle

Shoulder In

At a dressage show over the summer

Show jumping

First gymnastics
Cantering an entire course
1 & 2 stride combinations
Jumping 3’6″
3′-3’3″ courses

Standing next to our first 3'6" (3'7"?) fence

Standing next to our first 3’6″ fence

Showjumping at the Carolina Horse Park

Cross Country

Baby ‘trakehner’
Jumping in/out water
Galloping/making time!
Novice & Training fences
Jumping downhill/terrain

Before: Our first XC school in Feb 2012. Note tiny jump and horrible release

Before: Our first XC school in Feb 2012. We’re jumping the log- note my non-existent release

After: Training Table Nov 2013

For myself too, I have seen some improvements:

Sitting more, using core
Better elbow-to-bit line
Looking straight
Leg Position
Better release during and after fences
Better use of positive reinforcement

Shameful photo of me jumping Merry in a dressage saddle circa 2007

Look ma! Soft hands!

Overall I am quite proud of what we have done in essentially 6 months of the year. There have been plenty of ups and downs, but of course that is the nature of owning and training a horse. I can’t wait to see what he does next year!

Cross Country Schooling at the Fork [Video]

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Britt

It is so helpful to see the video, and have a good friend put this together for us! So fun!

XC Schooling

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Britt

And so passed another weekend of going 200 mph. Story of my life. Friday night I hosted a get together for a group of lady friends, Saturday snuck out to the barn briefly to see Foster before going bridesmaid dress shopping and then finished off the night at a gala!

All dressed up for the gala!

You guys are probably most interested in my cross country schooling yesterday at the Fork though!

We arrived shortly after 1 PM, and it was clear that most of the people there were wrapping up and heading home. We got out to the beautiful cross country course to discover we had it all to ourselves- score! It was decidedly warm yesterday, around 60 degrees, and I was thanking my lucky stars that Foster was trace clipped but still worried he would run out of steam quickly, so we kept warm up pretty minimal.

We popped over one Beginner Novice fence and then proceeded to tackle the Novice course one fence at a time. It was apparent that Foster is slightly less confident (as in, not blasé anymore!) to these fences, but grew bolder as we went on, and felt pretty adjustable throughout. We even tackled a few training fences, including a bending line from a max table to a roll top- he was great!

Breezing over a Novice fence

The courses at the Fork are always relatively tough, and tend to be maxed out in height and width, and it seemed that this one was no different. The only exceptions were when technical questions were asked- such as a couple combinations and in jumping into water, etc.

Overall it was a great learning day with many successes! Julieann conquered her first Prelim fences (badass!) and schooled the training course, and overall Foster showed great competence at the Novice level. We will definitely benefit from more schooling this winter, but this was a great place to start!

Approaching a Training Table

I should be getting a video sometime tonight, and will be sure to post it so you can see our XC awesomeness! Stay tuned!

A Show Recap: Carolina Horse Park and making time (finally!)

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Britt

All braided up and showing off his not-so-fuzzy face!

The show Sunday was a success in many ways. While we did have a bit of a colic scare (not Foster, but his trailermate, Jasper) the supportive community of eventers around us helped us find a vet and eventually send us home safely. We are so glad he is okay and ready to fight another day! We were busy all weekend, seeing lots of familiar faces, including that of a Connemara gelding that my family used to own and breed many moons ago! It is so refreshing to see horses end up in forever homes with wonderful people, and at 18 years young, this guy is going strong! I know because he beat me this weekend! I look forward to seeing this pair again in the future!

Foothills Waterman as a stud at our farm, and this weekend at the show!

Dressage
While there was some tension in our dressage test, we still somehow managed a 32. But the test looked like a giant 7 with a couple 6’s thrown in for the more tense moments, so maybe it didn’t look as bad as it felt. Positive moments included ~~relatively~~ straight centerlines, definitely straight movement down the long sides of the arenas (instead of haunches in!), and a fairly good free walk. We also got straight 7’s in our overall marks, a first for us as a pair! We will continue to work on getting a more active trot and correct transitions, but as always, it’s a work in progress.

Such a ham!

Showjumping
In our warm up, Foster felt really behind my leg, and I was experiencing an odd shooting pain in my right ankle. As a result I kept the warm up minimal. Luckily Foster’s motor and my ankle started to improve as we started our round, and he put in a solid effort to finish with all the rails up and only 1 time penalty point. The first 4 jumps included two serious rollbacks that we lost a bit of impulsion to, which is I think where we didn’t make time. His spots were also not perfect, but at this height I’m not terribly worried. However, I am pleased with my pony for cantering the first fence (no more first fence syndrome!) and getting through almost double clear.

Cross Country
Cross country was definitely the highlight of the show! The course was very nice and inviting, with lots of room to gallop towards the end, and included a sunken road that was so much fun! Foster had a bit of a spook into the water (which is itself quite spooky, being in the dark with an odd reflection in it) but went through the flags and cantered out. I can definitely say that Foster figured out how to gallop, and I finally felt him kick it into gear and feel ~~like Superman~~ confident coming to all the fences. My 1 minute warning beeper went off at the second-to-last fence, and we came in 34 seconds under time– a huge improvement for us! Also… we didn’t get lost!

The ORANGE fence I missed at the last show!

The sunken road

Overall, I am very very pleased with the results. We came in 3rd out of 17 riders and I definitely feel like that he is prepared for Novice- if only we didn’t have to wait till next year to try it! Next weekend we will be heading to the Fork to school their Novice cross country course and I feel like Foster is going to eat it up! So forgive me if I’m a bit quiet this week, and I will post the showjumping video soon and talk cross country on Monday! Congrats to all of the competitors this weekend and thank you to all of the volunteers that put on this great show!

PS if you want to see our photos (thank you High Time Photography!) click here!

Back at home and taking a couple days off!

A Show Recap: Portofino Horse Trials

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Britt

Hey there.

At this point in time, I will admit that I am a little too brain-dead to go into a full blown diagnosis of our show on Sunday. After an exhausting weekend filled with Michael Buble:

Buble, Box Seats, and Big finales- oh my!

and an engagement shoot for a friend:

A preview from the engagement shoot

by the time Sunday rolled around I was straight up exhausted. So I decided we were just going to have fun and see what happened, with our fingers and hooves crossed that things went well.

Well, we had truck issues getting to the show and a very kind friend ended up bringing the ponies out to Portofino for us. So I went way out of order, but luckily the show management was willing to be flexible and let things happen as they may. Thank goodness. Foster felt super relaxed in our warmup, so I rode around for 20 or so minutes before going in the arena.

I have watched the video plenty of times and hashed it all over in my head, but here’s the short version: In hind sight maybe I should have focused on getting him more in front of my leg, but whatev’s. I see plenty of things to work on (I smacked myself in the head when I saw my reins getting long again, what is WRONG WITH ME?!) and some bracing stuff, so all in all, not our best test, but not our worst. So frustrating that again our walk wasn’t up to par until the last couple strides, but good enough to get a 7.5. I think I was being a bit conservative because of the last show when he broke. Anyways, here’s the video, which speaks for itself.

Show jumping was catching a lot of riders out with refusals and what not, so I just decided to go in relatively aggressively (again, Foster was completely blase’ through our warmup but just in case) and get er’ done. He got in a bit deep in some spots and cross cantered a ton (where did that come from?) but because the footing was a bit deep I knew if we stopped we’d never get going again, so we persevered. Clean and clear, but not pretty. Oh well.

I had a tired, hot horse by the time we got around to cross country (PS what is up with the temperature going up 10 degrees on show days?!?) but felt pretty good about the course. Trotted over fence 1 as per our game plan and attempted to rock and roll, but unfortunately never got up to speed because Foster wanted to look at all the funny terrain questions (oh-mah-gerd what is the patch of sand doing there?! and Oh snap! there’s a pile of junk beside fence 3! ahh!) but was a good boy all in all. He hopped over the Novice sized (oh yes, 2’11” fences on a BN course!) fences easily. Not that he shouldn’t have, but still. Here’s the video of our cross country, in which I yell about a certain ‘outrider’ who was wandering around my fences as I was trying to go go go! So I (IMHO) politely was trying to tell people that she was being a distraction and needed to get out of my way! Sheesh!

We ended up 3rd out of 8th, on a 34-point-something dressage score and 5 time faults. I’m pleased and think we are very close! Entry is sent in for another horse trial at CHP on the 10th of November, where we will do our damnedest to make time on both SJ and XC!

Until next time.. keep kicking!

A show recap: Carolina Horse Park

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Britt

Well, if we were searching for redemption, we found it… and then lost it. Lost it in a way I will share in a moment, and in a way I can sum up in one quote:

“The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.”

But let’s start at the beginning- thanks to Ali, Foster was able to get to the show grounds the day before and we had quite a nice schooling in the dressage arena, although I noticed he was getting a bit tense in his neck and starting to go crooked again. During dressage the next day I continued to feel this, but got on with it, since you can’t fix everything in one day. We put in a decent test, with some tension and crookedness but otherwise pleasant enough. I was a bit disappointed that we broke in our free walk (normally a solid 8) but happy that we received a 7 on our right lead canter depart and circle, which has been our pain point in the past couple tests. After discussing with a few equine people much smarter than myself, I am going to get his left hock injected again and hope that solves the crookedness issues that are starting to creep back into our work.

Right lead canter yay!

In show jumping I did my best to go in with a get-er’-done approach to the first fence, which he went over quite confidently and then move on with the rest of the course. While he almost jumped me out of the tack over fence 3, he put in a nice round and I am oh-so-proud of my spotted pony. I thought the energy was much better than our last show, and was surprised to hear that we received 19 time penalties. For this level, I thought a forward canter should suffice, barring a few trot strides to allow for simple changes. The time penalty issue seemed to be prevalent for many of the competitors though, so I don’t count it as a loss.

Whee! Foster thinks he’s ready for 2’11” fences!

Cross country is where things fell apart a bit. Foster was a total star and went over the first fence quite happily, and I had the most fun on cross country that I have had in a long time, cantering all the fences without hesitation. Maybe I was having a bit too much fun even, because when I landed from fence 9 I started looking for 10 and didn’t see it where I thought it would be! In the 30ish seconds that followed, I brought him back to a walk, and then a trot, wandering around looking for what I thought would be an obvious obstacle in the middle of the woods- it was bright orange for Pete’s sake! In any case, I laughed it off when I spotted it, hopped over it and carried on our merry way! Just a minor pilot error, and one that I will be laughing about for a long time!

(and no, I couldn’t hear her tell me to turn right! oops!)

So while we didn’t finish where we wanted to (a whopping 40+ time penalties will do that I guess!) I am so pleased that Foster put in nice jumping rounds and did his best. I desperately needed a positive experience after being so bummed about the last show, and this competition was just that. Still more to work on, I know, but nonetheless proud of my boy for redeeming himself and not being phased by his passenger’s nonsense from time to time!

On a more serious note, I have several family members who could do with prayers and positive thoughts sent their way. As great as horses are, our loved ones come first! So if you are reading this and have a moment, please send a quick prayer our way. Thanks for your support!

A show recap: First Jump Syndrome

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Britt

I’ll start off by being honest- I am a bit dissapointed in the way the show went for us yesterday. However the silver lining to this is that there is plenty of room for improvement, and I am prepared to make changes to our approach and try again next time. Fair warning, this post will be long as I try to recall what happened, and if you don’t want to read look for the pro’s and con’s after each phase.

Dressage
I seem to be in the habit of not leaving myself enough time in dressage warmup. This time that was partly due to the fact that I have a nervous bladder (TMI sorry!) and my constant running to the ladies room ate into my warmup. But my warmup (15 minutes total) also included surveying ring stewards in hope that someone could direct me as to when I was going into the arena, or what horse I was following, and even some confusion over having two #15’s floating around.. crazy. Foster of course also chose this particular show to miss his best friend, and the hollering and distraction were not helping us in the short time we had.

Granted, I thought when we got into the arena (aside from yelling down centerline) that maybe he has found his game face. I felt like I rode a fairly accurate test, but the judge nailed us on several movements in the second half. It is interesting to note that I sat the first half of the test and when I thought he was relaxing a bit I started posting, and the scores went down noticeably. Otherwise, I know that there is some resistance in his right lead canter, but his depart was clean and on target- did that deserve a 4? I don’t know. This was the first time in some while where I got a test back and was surprised by the results, and not for the better. Normally I can pinpoint our weaknesses and have a good idea of how a test went, and see the judge’s comments reflect what I felt. This time though, the tension was obviously more prominent than I thought.

Our test.. off to a good start before falling apart!

So from the dressage phase:
Pro’s: 8 on his free walk, which remains consistent, and apparently my sitting trot is passable
Con’s: Too short of a warm-up, tension, and resistance in right canter remains

Showjumping
After dressage was show jumping, which was a good test as it included bending lines, roll backs, and a two stride combination. We had a frantic warm up, not by any fault of our own but apparently by sharing the warm up ring with some crazies. I won’t go into too much detail, but I was the only one yelling inside/outside for passing, and calling my fences, not to mention keeping my horse’s feet on the ground. One woman almost grazed Foster’s flank as she came cantering up behind us, and I has never seen so much bucking, running, and legs flying about as I did in that warm up.

So while Foster behaved (thank goodness) in the warm up, I think I was a bit rattled going into the ring. Enter first-jump syndrome. As soon as I entered the ring I felt the tension in my arms and likewise him become resistant on the bit. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when we had a pretty dirty run out at the first fence. After that though we had a good forward canter through the course. I did get lost from 3 to 4 and lost a bit of momentum, and upon entering 4a and b he ended up chipping in, but I’m not too upset. He left all the poles up and that was that. Here’s the video, which catches us after his run out at fence 1.

Pro’s: Mostly forward canter, clear round that improved as it went on, my leg position and staying up through landing
Con’s: Dirty run-out and allowing my nerves to get the best of me

Cross Country
Thank goodness our cross country warm up was nice. I kept it brief, but took advantage of the quiet and jumped a vertical that had feed bags under it, which we would see on course. He went over everything and we headed to the start box. Out of the start box we had a quiet canter, as I was debating trotting him into the first fence. Because he wasn’t rushing I decided to try cantering it, which ended up being a mistake. Enter more first-jump-syndrome. Another dirty run out left, and we circled back and trotted the fence and went on our way. I brought him back to a trot a couple more times, but he cleared everything just fine. We had a great time on some of the longer canter stretches, and I was able to ask him to move out a bit. I’m not sure that he figured out how to really canter on, or if he just didn’t have gas in his tank, but it was fun anyways.

So we came in with another 20 points for the refusal and 29 time penalties that came from the refusal and trotting some of the fences, but all in all I am OK with his performance on again, a tougher course for the level with several technical and terrain questions.

Pro’s: Improving as the course went on, Making better decisions after fence 1
Con’s: Another dirty run-out, trotting fences and therefore not making time, or even close to it!

So again, it was not quite the weekend I wanted it to be but it was a great lesson in how to approach the next show. I will be sure to give myself more time to warm up for dressage, and trot into the first fences confidently (and with bat in hand) and attempt to nip first-jump-syndrome in the butt! And as always, continue to work on our ‘zen’ and battle tension wherever we can!