Horse trials (turned Combined Training) recap!

Somehow a whole week has passed and I haven't even posted on our enormous success! Been busy I guess...also been waiting on pics from a certain volunteer photographer named Dad!

Overall the weekend was a huge success. We had to come in after work on Friday, so not schooling happened Friday. We'd been busy packing, so not much work happened that week prior anyway. We did have a jump lesson the Monday before that was great. Then a dressage lesson that salvaged a cranky horse and rider and managed to get to a break through. But we weren't as prepared as we could have been.

Dressage was pretty dismal, we got a 40.6, which was not exactly catastrophic, it was not at all living up to our potential. A few things contributed to that. I didn't leave enough warm up time. She lunged nicely, was relaxed, and looked ready to work. Then I had about 10 minutes to actually ride warm up: not enough time to work through the resistant and distracted mind to the supple submissive horse that is in there. Plus we warmed up on the grass field next the cross country jumps: wrong frame of mind. Then my frame of mind was just pissy and not helping: I deemed it hopeless before we ever stepped into the arena. I was mad at myslef that we prepared to have a mediocre test because of poor planning, and mad that I hadn't pushed the trainer (the one being paid coaching fees to warm us up for success) to do things my way. I think I would have been better off on my own.

We did get some good pics after though! Cutie!

Good news from it, we did improve on the walk and free walk, both items that I had specifically worked on! I screwed up the second 20 meter circle because I spaced and went deep in that first corner. I suppose that sounds like bad news, but it means I automatically improve my score next time JUST by following directions!

After the weekend I started thinking through her frustrating resistance and I've begun to wonder if tack was contributing to it. I bought a new bridle specifically for dressage, and it wasn't fitting quite right. The nose band is too small for her rather large (yet pretty) head. So the cavesson is sitting a little lower than ideal. It could be that the brow band is also slightly too small. She was shaking her ear a few times, maybe that is too tight and pinching. I also bought a new bit to go with said bridle. I bought the same type of bit (French link eggbutt) but a different brand which means it is just slightly different. Could make a difference I guess. So now we'll start experimenting what made the difference. Was it me? The setting? The tack?

I ask all these questions because she came out to warm up for cross country like a whole new horse! Refer to pic above- I look tense, she looks chill. She was relaxed with a big nice trot stride instead of her nervous pitter-patter, and we had just about the best canter warm up ever! Was it just simply that I wasn't nervous? Or did the bridle change make a difference too?

Its a shame this next one is not in focus, it is the best of the whole weekend! Of course she doesn't know to be anxious in the start box, so it isn't surprising that she is standing quietly, but man does she look awesome! Looks more like a halt at x than starting box for cross country!

A little background on the show... Due to a bad weather forecast they completely swapped the schedule around. We did dressage first thing on Saturday followed by cross country at noon. The idea being that is it rained a bit on Sunday we'd have a better chance of getting through the stadium rounds.

Cross country went great. The jumps were all super easy.

We had schooled the up-down bumps and the bank the weekend before, so nothing was a surprise.

The logs were all easy. I didn't get lost! Only problems was it was much harder to hit the optimum time than I thought! We were trotting mostly since it was set at a 275m pace.

We cantered away from a few jumps, but in general took extra long approaches thinking we'd come in too fast. Well, approaching jump 9 of 11 I realized we had only thirty seconds left! Yikes! We ended up with 3.6 in time faults for being just a bit over optimum time. That's, again, my fault, and something that better planning can change. Lola was nice and forward, but happy and relaxed the whole way through. We had some really good cantering on course which is a confidence builder for her. I felt amazing afterward! Lola looked please as well.

She was so pleased with herself that she took a big old nap afterward! I was hanging out by her stall a few hours later and she decided to just sprawled out on her side and sleep. Its great that she can still get some zzz's in the middle of the busy show grounds! Considering this was her first time staying over night at a show, I was impressed that she really didn't care! This was her cute clean self BEFORE napping in her shavings!

Saturday night the rain started, and man did it pour! By the time I got up to feed Sunday morning at 6am, there was a lake in the paddock next to Lola's. She was dripping wet on her head and neck, but with a warm dry body under her blanket she didn't seem to care. It didn't take long for the show organizer to come around to spread the news that we would be calling off the stadium portion and calling the show a combined training event. I walked past the arena to get coffee and the enormous lakes that had formed over night made be extra glad it was called off. Even if it had stopped raining (which it didn't) the arena was so wet and sloppy that I would not have felt good about riding.

Instead we packed up in the rain. Nothing more miserable than stripping a paddock of soaking wet shavings in the pouring rain! We were all in a rush to get horses loaded to dry trailers and get out, but we had to pull trailers out to the road to load because the grass was so wet by then. This created more waiting, and then a frantic flurry once it was your turn. I had to wait 20 minutes until I got down the road to get changed into dry clothes and pick up some hot breakfast. I don't think I've every been that wet for that long in my life! Bleh.

Really despite all that, the weekend was a huge success. Oh yeah, I finished 3rd in the Senior Elementary Division! She has come so far. I just am floored by the amount of unhappy horses at shows. Constant refusals, bucking, bolting, or even general pissyness are all indicators your horse doesn't like his job! Really, if what you're doing isn't working, change it, change you, change your trainer, or change his job. Don't just keep trying like it will just magically work one day! I am so pleased that Lola is really truly enjoying what she is doing. I understand that we can all have an occasional bad day, but I had a feeling these horses were really over-faced and with under prepared riders. Lola is growing more and more confident in herself and me every time we do something like this. It is such a great feeling!