Recognized Show Recap: Showjumping

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Britt

After spending Saturday night basking in the glow of our successful cross country trip, and partaking in Blue Moon and pub food (the best kind), our entire party attempted to get a good night’s sleep and prepare for the last and final phase of the event. The showjumping course consisted of a whole bunch of bending lines and a few rollbacks thrown in for good measure, and seemed like it would ride quite nicely.

When I got to warm up, it appeared to be a circus. Immediately while hugging the rail we encountered issues as another rider blazed up Foster’s bum and sent him (and myself) into a minor tizzy. I tried to regroup, and jump a couple fences, noticing that we didn’t have quite the energy I would have preferred to be jumping with. Since we were several rides out, I decided to let Foster walk around and conserve energy, and when the rider before us went in, we would do a quick hand gallop to get the forward momentum, jump a fence, and go in.

Just as started to put this plan into effect, disaster struck ~~(mildly exaggerating here)~~. I began my canter around the outside of the arena, and noticed a rider playing chicken with me on the rail. In my dealings with this rider (yelling ‘Outside! Outside!’ and attempting to pass on the right as ring etiquette demands), I failed to observe the dog sitting ~~most sneakily~~ just outside the arena. Foster, on the other hand, found the canine highly offensive and promptly threw on the brakes, spinning and throwing his head backwards with impressive velocity, straight into mine. Completely ~~and literally~~ sideswiped by the events, I sat there in the saddle, head in hands, trying to get a grip on the immediate headache that was pounding away under my helmet.

At this moment, J rushed over and offered me water and helped me get a grip on myself. She also, as politely as possible, mentioned that I needed to head over to the arena, and that if I didn’t, I could be eliminated. Great.

With that, I promptly decided I was not going to fall off, I was going to go forward, and in order to do that, I was going to proverbially light a fire under my horse’s ass. I went into the arena and determined to keep my leg on through the entire performance, come hell or high water, and that was that.

Of course we started out by bringing down the first rail. I needed to have him sit up as well as go forward, so that was my fault. Coming around to fence 2, which looked oddly huge, I did my best to lift his balance and get him really in front of my leg, which was successful, but lacked some of the preparation needed for the rollback to fence 3. I’m pleased with the way 4 and 5 went, and especially happy with the way the oxer-to-vertical 2 stride rode, since our habit can be to not have enough power into the first element and then have to scramble to get over the second. Turn right to fence 7, another bending line to fence 8, which he left long and got a little flat, bringing down our second rail on course. Rollback to 9, bending line to 10, and done.

Overall, I can’t complain. Half of my division had rails, so I was not alone in my mistakes. For my part though, it’s not the prettiest riding, as I sacrificed a bit of finesse in favor of the forward going ride, but I like the pace set in the video. I know with a bit more preparation I can focus on my equitation, so that will come. And again with fitness, I was still able to come under time in the showjumping phase, even though Foster had run up a mountain the day before. Many, many things to be happy about, and lessons learned for future shows!

Purple tail for the win!

Final Thoughts
As our first recognized show, I thought this weekend was quite successful. A 30 in dressage, double clear cross country, and 2 rails in showjumping leaves us in a great place to improve for our next outing. We both learned a lot, and I laughed a lot, along the way. Here are some of the tips, tricks, and mistakes I learned not to make from the experience:

Not even power cords are safe from Foster’s mouth. His stall must essentially be puppy-proofed for every outing.
Too much blue lotion = purple tail. Snazzy, but not part of our color scheme.
Give more time than less time for warmups, I’ll thank me later.
Helmet cams are awesome, but they have audio- try to say less stupid things next time 🙂
Don’t be late for the start box!
Keep riding every fence!
Balance up, and hind legs under!
Bleach pens are white jods’ best friend

And the biggest lesson learned….

KEEP KICKING ON!

The Pep Talk

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Britt

Since I’m feeling particularly wilty today thanks to a very ill-timed cold, I find myself trying to get syked for the coming weekend. Catching up with friends! Pony time! Nice weather! All things to look forward to! And yet, still the little mean thoughts about embarrassing myself creep into my mind.

That’s when it’s time for a pep talk.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m obviously a visual person. While mind over matter is certainly a principle I subscribe to, the quickest and easiest way to regain confidence is to show myself I’ve done it before. Evidence that it has been done is proof that it can be done again. So here are some of the highlights of Foster’s career, my video pep talk for myself!

We can do this!

How do you mentally prepare for a show?

Whirlwind Weekend

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Britt

Faces from home: Betty, the Trakehner X Dutch Harness Horse jumper mare

Phew! After spending the weekend playing photographer to two different friends, herding rabbits, eating kangaroo, riding green ponies, and much more, I’m spent. They do say there’s no peace for the wicked though, especially when there’s a show the next weekend! And so the sprint will continue through the week, with two lessons to cram in last minute tips, finding clothes not seen in years (where the heck is that stock tie?), and in general trying to not freak out. No big deal.

Riley, my parents’ Irish Draught (Ivan) X Haflinger gelding

Luckily to ease my mind, my jump school with Foster last night went really well. I tried out a new bit to deal with his neck-balancing issues, with some success. Normally Foster goes in a full cheek Waterford for jumping, and the bit I tested was a Waterford with a baucher cheek piece. Not a revolutionary change, but I found that it did help in asking him to break at the poll, but it also lowered his poll pretty substantially. It may be a good bit to consider for showjumping in the future, but I don’t think I would use it yet for cross country at the risk of him getting a little more on the forehand than I’d like. For now, this one goes back and we’ll stick with the full-cheek version.

Waterford Baucher

Beyond that, I worked on lengthening and collecting the trot, and Foster was much more responsive to my cues than in my lesson. I set up a course at 3′ – 3’3″ to include a one stride and a big rollback. The first time I did my made-up course, I went into auto-pilot mode and just let him do his thing. Then after a swift mental kick to the butt, I actually rode the darn thing. No careening around corners, actually attempting to get the leads right, and all that jazz. It wasn’t perfect, but in general much better than the last time I practiced. We even worked on angled fences, taking a 3′ vertical from a 45 degree approach in two different directions- Foster went over it all like a champ!

Happy to see this cutie again !

So that’s my brain dump about last night’s ride. Tonight we have a dressage lesson and I hope to do a fix-a-test type ride so I can eek out a decent score this weekend!

Lesson Recap: Showjumping

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Britt

Luckily yesterday the rain held off and we were able to take a jumping lesson with Doug. After such a shitty Monday, I must say Tuesday turned out pretty alright. I got to see a couple horsey friends I haven’t seen in a while, and had a really good lesson to boot.

One of my main takeaways was: Stop babying the darn horse. He’s a big boy, and he’s got to be pushed out of his (our) comfort zone a bit to grow, as well as know that there are consequences when he doesn’t do something he knows how to do correctly.

Somehow looking chubby after having his butt worked

To elaborate, though…

After warming up in a surprisingly round trot (Foster is harder to get on the bit in the Waterford in general), we worked on collecting and lengthening within the gaits. At the trot, Doug told me I was focusing too much on the smoothness of the transition, and easing into it when really the exercise was about getting him sharp to my aids- when I say move, he should move! Same thing going from lengthened canter to collected- I should get a clear transition, and insist to Foster that this is possible.

At the canter, Doug threw two poles down on the long side, and we focused on putting more or less strides in between them. After I learned how to count (a very Duh! moment on my part), 5 strides felt like a forward canter, and then we worked on putting 6 in with pretty good success. We then attempted to put 4 in- not so successful, but I got the idea. This is definitely something I need to work on regularly, and incorporate into every jump school, since not only does it help with Foster’s rideability, but also gets him in front of my leg before we jump.

The first jumping exercise we did was jumping on a small circle. My job was to keep him straight through the shoulders and hold the outside rein in particular so that he didn’t overbend in the neck and then fall out. We kept the jumps small since it was a technical exercise, and both Foster and I picked it up pretty quickly.

Next we moved on to a mini course, starting with a related distance that rode in 5 strides with a forward canter. Turn right after and collect him in order to make the turn to the small oxer, and keep the collected canter and do the related distance again in 6 strides. Definitely the hardest part about the exercise was landing on the left lead after coming over the oxer and keep him balanced and collected through the turn in order to get the 6 strides in. All of this to cement in the fact that you establish the canter you want well before going through any related distance (or to any jump), so as to not be scrambling in the middle. Definitely a good exercise in preparation and thinking for me, since I tend to lose sight of these things as I run around a jump course!

Trying again with the hard bit, and Foster throwing in a flying change like I planned to do it or something (I didn’t). Thanks buddy for making me look good.

And then putting everything back together, with another flying change just for fun?

We ended on that, and I was really pleased to find Foster more ‘rideable’ than I had thought. We’ve got a ton of homework to work on, and just for my own benefit, here is the list of exercises to incorporate into our next jump school:

lengthened and collected trot
lengthened and collected canter (strides between poles)
angled fences
related distances with varying strides
rounder outline within the jumping canter

Phew! So so much to do. And then there’s the dressage lesson tonight! Busy, busy, busy!

Helmet Cam Debut

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Britt

When my sweet husband got me a GroPro Camera for my birthday, I was ecstatic. Who doesn’t love watching cross-country helmet cams? Before trying it out at an actual event, I thought I would test my set up while fiddle-farting around in the arena at home. This was our first time jumping again since the show, hence nothing super impressive. Also, Foster’s first bounce in many months. Here’s the result:

It was all planned to really use the helmet cam at an event in Virginia this weekend, but I decided to scratch last night when I realized that it was becoming more pressure than it was worth. We’re still recovering from the 3 day horse show weekend in Hunter/Jumper Land, as well as some life events that must take precedence over training-like-crazy for a schooling event. So, even though I’m disappointed that I won’t be sharing what would have been a hilarious helmet cam cross country video next week, I feel like I’ve made the right decision in waiting a little while longer before competing again.

Instead, we have our first cross country lesson planned with Doug at a much closer venue, and our next show will be in a another month! Many more helmet-cams in our future, for sure!

Unofficial Blog Hop: Transformations

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Britt

I’m jumping on this blog-hop wagon (thanks to Life of Riley for the idea!) because progress has been on my mind a lot recently. We’re going through one of those annoying phases where it seems like we are going backwards a bit (mostly related to the whole getting-crazy-deep-distances issue, and my sudden intimidation of both airy fences and fences with crap loads of filler – sidenote: maybe I’m just a chicken shit?)… anyways.

I keep telling myself, this is just another phase, and just like in the past we’ll come out of it the other side and be better than before. Looking back on where we’ve been is one way to assure myself of this. So here’s our transformation post, before and after Fosters!

Foster:

Foster Jan 2011 in his sales pic

April 2012

May 2014

Dressage (trotting):

Feb. 2011

Nov. 2012

April 2014

Dressage (canter):

Feb. 2011

Nov. 2012

April 2014

Showjumping:

June 2012

Sept 2013

Dec. 2013

Cross Country:

Feb 2012 – first XC school

Feb 2012

Oct. 2012

August 2013

November 2013

April 2014

So that’s it. 3 and a half years of ups and downs, but a lot of progress when I look at the first and last pictures in each set. Our bond has definitely grown, and he’s been able to give me confidence that I could never have in my past horses. I’m sure we’ll get through this latest phase and be moving forward again soon!

Preparation Interrupted

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Britt

Ugh. Just when you make plans to be a ~~more than usual~~ dedicated and studious rider for the week, the weather and life get all in the way. I mistakenly passed up the opportunity to ride Sunday evening on my way back into town because I felt I had been neglecting the husband, who had been cleaning the house all weekend and probably needed some respite. Instead, I told myself I would be able to ride every other day this week- shouldn’t be a problem.

You get photos of Foster’s new hobby- getting disgustingly dirty

Shouldn’t.

Monday- storms. Tuesday- storms, but I attempted to get out and ride anyways, thinking that as long as it wasn’t thundering and lightning I could attempt getting on in the covered arena. 45 minutes of heavy rain and lightning trapped us in the barn, and when we thought the lightning bit had passed, we hustled into the covered arena. I did a bit of lounging, which was successful in that Foster was super relaxed, but not so successful in that he couldn’t respond to my voice cues because it was raining so hard on the tin roof that he couldn’t hear me. Heck, I couldn’t hear me, how could he? So I hopped on and no less than 2 minutes later the biggest crack of damn lighting hit, uncomfortably close to the covered arena under which we huddled. Luckily, Foster only scooted forward about 10 feet, and didn’t hurl me into the ground a la any western movie. I dismounted and called it a night.

Night 2 of coming to the barn to find the dirty.

So, after a grand total of 5 days off, I got on Foster last night and jumped him a little bit. I think most of the jumps were 2’3″, and one 2’7″-2’9″ish oxer in the middle of the arena. Remembering my lesson with Doug, I worked on the quality of canter, waiting with my shoulders, and not staring at the damn fence. I revisited the exercise of jumping the oxer on the circle, which went really well and I was able to almost all of my leads. Approaching the fences from a straight line and getting my leads was still a little iffy, but I’m hoping to work on that again tonight.

Last night’s Foster- scrubbing the face is not fun!

Tonight’s plan- have a short jump school so as to not over-do it, but jump 3’3″ height. I really need to get my eye used to this height again, and get a feel for the pace and again, the quality of canter I need. If all goes well, I’ll be on and off again in 35 minutes and packing, packing, packing.

My packing list.. yes, red bull, wine, and cheese-its are horse show staples for me. That’s how we roll. Also, yes, I have to remind myself to pack underwear. Don’t judge.

Tomorrow, you’ll get round 1 of puppy pics and I will be on my way to hunter jumper land!

Lesson Recap: Showjumping

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Britt

Well, I’m still here, which means I survived my lesson last night with Doug Payne! (PS if you haven’t watched him Rolex helmet cam with commentary click that link- very interesting!) I’m going to go ahead and apologize for the long post, which is mostly for my own benefit to keep the lesson fresh, and the lack on pictures/video, of which I didn’t get any.

Enjoy gif’s instead

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper jumping lesson, and it’s been a struggle to find a trainer willing to come out to the new barn for just one student, so I was exceedingly happy when Doug offered to make the drive. I gave him a brief run-down of where we were, and after watching us warm up briefly he gave me an assessment.

Not a huge surprise here- Foster balances himself with the base of his neck, which in turn makes him a little hollow through the back and short-strided. This then causes some of our issues with getting the true ‘horse’ distances, because when I put on leg he will more likely put in more quick, short strides than lengthen.

We continued from there with a 20 meter canter circle over a pole, focusing on keeping him straight through the shoulder and getting an active, through canter. Canter poles will definitely be in our future, since as simple as the exercise sounds, we were not as successful as I would have liked! Foster was a bit dull to my leg and feeling pretty tired, and I was a little worried moving forward to the actual jumping.

Luckily, there wasn’t much cause to be concerned. Doug set up a smallish oxer on centerline, so that I would canter over it and alternate turning right and left. Foster really woke up then, and was taking really big strides after the jump which made the turn thereafter quite difficult. What was happening is that he was becoming a little on the forehand leading up to the jump, which caused him to land out of balance and quicken his stride in order to catch himself. When I sat up and properly balanced him, he landed much more softly and the turn became easier to make.

Round canter

This led us into the next exercise, jumping a decently wide 3′ oxer on a circle. The geometry of the circle helped me keep him balanced, and as long as I didn’t stare at the fence we got pretty good distances. This is also where the whole ‘weight the shoulder to get the correct lead’ idea kicked in. It is now blatantly (I guess I’m a slow learner) obvious that I have been in the habit of leaning in the direction I intend to turn, which then means he is going to land on the wrong lead because I’m essentially blocking him from picking up the lead I really want. I especially do this going left (will tell story of how my left side is absolute poop later).

When I kept my shoulders back and square to the fence, then shift my weight to the outside, we were able to land in balance and on the correct lead. Doug warned me not to put all the pressure on myself though, and to allow Foster to make mistakes, and to occasionally take down poles. He praised him for being smart enough not to make the same mistake twice, and his willingness to put in another stride for a deep distance rather than launch from the long spot as some horses are wont to do.

After a bit of this, we put together a baby course that included a 2 stride over a 3’ish vertical. I was really pleased that Doug made us revisit the circle fence again, to make sure the idea had cemented itself. Definitely still a work in progress, but I was glad that he was willing to stay a few extra minutes to make sure the lesson would stick.

Overall, here are the main takeaways:

Be patient with my shoulders
Don’t let him get overbent in the neck
Maintain an active canter with a through topline- have the confidence that he can jump 5′ out of a quality canter
weight the outside shoulder to get the correct lead on landing
keep him balance before the fence, the quality of the canter after the fence will tell how successfully balanced he was
Don’t stare at the damn fence

Obviously I learned a lot, and was impressed with the attention given to both horse and rider equally. Impressed enough that I have signed up for a second lesson Sunday! Even though we won’t get a schooling ride in in between, I’m looking forward to further cementing these ideas and hopefully getting more takeaways to keep in my pocket for the show!

New, new, new

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Britt

That is- new job (which of course y’all know about), new saddle (squee!), and new accomplishments!

How ’bout them knees?!

Today is my last day as an Experience Architect. It’s been really neat learning the proper in’s and out’s of user experience (how users interact with websites, and developing interfaces and interactions that make the web experience as optimal as possible), and it’s satisfied my curiosity and hunger for delving into the psychological aspects of design. However, I’m really excited to get my hands dirty in Photoshop and push pixels once more! My new role will encompass print, presentation, and web design, as well as brand development and a whole slew of other fun things- they do say variety is the spice of life!

Because Patrick Stewart in any meme is a win

In other news, I bit the bullet and bought myself a new saddle. I feel like I’m being adventurous, as I bought it on ebay, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that it arrives to me in the mint condition it was advertised as. This puppy has supposedly been sat in 4 times, and was offered at less than 50% its retail value- I’m taking a gamble on it, and I hope it’s a good one! It’s a Prestige D2000- as much as I love the Optimax model, they are hard to find! I think these thigh blocks will be super helpful in getting my leg where I want it though- can’t wait to sit in it!

My preciousss

And then lastly, last night N gave me another lesson. After the frustrations of last week, we decided to do a gymnastic and try and have fun with it while letting Foster find a spot on his own, so I’d stop picking at him for the deep spot. A little trial and error, but here is what we ended on!

That’s a new record for us- 3’9″! Foster handled it so easily, it’s exciting to think that 4′ may be within our reach, and Prelim might be possible after all! The adrenaline was really going, and the ride was definitely a confidence builder and I’m thankful to N for pushing us to make it happen!

3’9″!

I am so stoked about the last couple days, and the changes to come this week. It’s a balm to the soul to know you have good friends, an honest horse, and to think your career is heading in the right direction, and to say I’m feeling so blessed is an understatement. So very thankful!

Show Recap: Fork CT

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Britt

Saturday seems like a crazy blur in my mind, it all happened so quickly! Maybe the time went by so fast because my watch died en route to the show (I kid you not- talk about bad timing, har har), and so I had very little grasp on what was happening when.

Dressage
After getting to the show and letting Foster munch on some hay for a few minutes (he doesn’t eat in the trailer, but digs into the same hay net at the show- weird?), we got tacked up and boogied on down the road to the show arenas. The horse I had for the day was surprisingly fresh, and just a little tense. Still, I liked the energy I had, even though he was being a little fussy in the bridle. I decided to post the trot to allow his back to come up and release some of the tension in his topline, and I think this was the right decision.

Our test felt pretty good. The couple places I know we could improve are in one corner that I didn’t prepare enough for, and those dern canter transitions. The stretchy walk didn’t have its usual stretch either, partially because Foster got distracted by the jumping going on right in front of him. Looking at the test, the judge nailed us on this- just think of what our final score would have been otherwise! Also, you’ll notice that he decided to step out in our final halt- bummer! On the bright side though, I thought the test was more forward than CHP and that in general, he was straighter and more obedient to my leg. The test earned us a 31, good for 3rd after being trumped by a stunning 20 and 24 in 1st and 2nd place.

Showjumping
Showjumping is the most blurry part of the day. After being distracted by the comings and goings of the day, I didn’t find time to walk the course before jumping. Go figure that it was probably the most intense showjumping course we have done to date. Serious bending lines, intense roll backs, and no less than 2 one-stride combinations. What the what?! I thought we were doing Novice! Walking the course was pretty much vital here, but I did without. Where I regretted it most was in the rollback from 5 to 6AB (a one-stride)- you can actually hear my “Geez!” trying to make that turn and get straight into the one-stride. Because of our disorganization, he didn’t find his spot to the first fence and then brought down the second element rail with his hind end. Add to that, a sprinkling of cross-canter, because that’s what Foster does at shows, and that was our course.

Leg needs to be more forward, but otherwise getting better! Also.. does this look big for a Novice fence to anyone?

Cross Country Schooling
After all of the memory-taxing activities were over, we went out to the cross country course! I wasn’t sure how many jumps would be available, since the Fork seems to employ mostly portable XC fences in their course. There definitely was not an endless supply of fences, but there was enough to play over, given that Foster was already somewhat tired from dressage and showjumping. So we played around the water complex for a while, and Foster was an absolute champ over everything. I felt like I was actually riding, instead of coasting around to the next fence like I had done in showjumping. With a smile on our faces, we called it a day and headed for home.

Upbank combination:

Water-upbank-fence:

More water complex fun:

Impression on the parents
I think it’s safe to say that Foster redeemed himself this weekend. He put on his game face for sure, and showed off his chill demeanor and sweet disposition. While you can hear my mother’s gasping and um, other exclamations on the videos, she was impressed by his rideability and quietness. Bonus, that Foster did right by my sister as well, even ponying her back to the barn. I wish my dad was able to meet Foster, but it was not meant to be. Also, unfortunately, Foster managed pulled off both front shoes in the water complex, so he will be having the next few days off anyway- he earned it!