Kentucky 2022 - Cross Country

We woke up fairly early on cross country day so that we could spend the entire day at the horse park. The four star went in the morning and then the five star started just after lunch. 

The classic shot

After declining Jen’s tailgating invitations for years, we finally got to go! We spent the morning there watching the four star from the tailgating spot while we enjoyed Jen’s amazing food. Legitimately it was the best food we had all weekend (we did cook for ourselves a few times, which was also very good, so that’s my advice). 

It was blogger central, which was fun! I finally got to meet some new bloggers after so many years of not meeting anyone in person. As expected, everyone was super nice. My insomnia made it really difficult to interact normally with other humans, but I tried! 

After an amazing lunch, we decided to go to the start (and end) of the course to try to watch every jump. It was kind an out and back course, so we were able to see the first and last jumps and zig zag between the tracks before we ended up at the head of the lake. 

Watching the four star from Jen's tailgating spot,
which I neglected to get a picture of

The jumps are HUGE, obviously, these horses are so incredible. Seeing it in person is other worldly at times, like what even is this place where the grass is green and the jumps are as large as a small house? 

We were lucky to not see anything too scary. The worst we saw was a horse landing a little hard on the ditch and wall and the rider popping off. Horse and rider were totally fine, just an unfortunate moment.

There was a really long hold out on course and we had no idea why. This was the challenge all day. I bet if we had been better at paying attention, we could have figured it out, but it was really hard to hear/pay attention to the announcer. So we were sitting at the Normandy bank wondering what was going on and the longer the hold was, the more nervous we were. Without being afraid of what was happening, it was honestly nice to just sit down and relax, but we were on edge worrying. 

Later on we found out that a horse had fallen in the water and had to be sedated and taken off course. No one knew anything else around us though. Only that afternoon when the day had ended did we finally figure out which horse it was and that the horse was going to be fine (we knew the rider was fine from earlier in the day), so that was good! Still really scary to be out on course and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see it happen.

All of my pictures were from videos on my phone
if you can't tell lol

I was so impressed when the hold stopped and the horse finally came through our jump, what a jump to be held in front of! But whoever came through was amazing and just popped right through. And then we continued our walk! 

The coffin complex was absolutely amazing to watch, as was the sunken road. We finally saw Boyd Martin and Michael Jung come through when we were at the edge of the course. Seeing both of them up close was pretty cool, different styles of riders but both rode so seamlessly over the fences we saw them at. 

We ended up at the head of the lake watching the last few riders. We moved around a bit to make sure we got to see it from different angles. During that time, a rider ended up causing a jump to collapse, so that was interesting to see! We’d seen one earlier on the 4* course that was being stored collapsed and it’s really amazing technology. Not like I’ll ever jump a jump with frangible tech, but I still love that they’re working hard to make the sport safer. 

These open ramp jumps are pretty scary, yikes

At the end of the day, I was feeling so inspired. I’ve had a rough time with the dressage for the last few years and jumping has been a fun thing to do to take my mind off of it. I wondered whether this weekend would make me want to event more or make me shift my gears toward another sport where the jumps fall down. But after that weekend, I am very confident that I want to make my return to eventing. I sat down that evening and did some calculations on where I needed to get to in my career and how much I needed to save to buy my next horse, who I want to be an eventer. 

I love dressage and I always will. I want to continue to learn and take TC up through the levels. But I want to be in a sport where I don’t have such a sour taste. And for that, eventing is perfect. 

It’ll take me a little while to get to the point where I can buy a horse (since I’m going to want a hefty budget so I can buy something very safe and who is my very specific ride over fences), but I do want to switch disciplines. Or at least, add another discipline! So, two to three years from now, I’ll be in the market for something very specific and hopefully will be gearing up to run my first BN in fifteen years. 

Cross Country Camp Day 3: Knocking the Rust Off

Day two started out well with Flounder thinking he was the BEST at cross country and being annoyed at me that I wasn't letting him gallop out all his feelings about how amazing he was. 

It was honestly so absurd to have him squeal every time I asked him to go forward and to feel mildly out of control while cantering around in warm up.

We finally started to jump and Flounder was insulted that we weren't schooling all the Prelim and that he had to jump a tiny intro log. He would land and do his version of exploding which is just to toss his head and squeal. I just love him so much. 

Didn't get as many pictures from the second day

Once we moved onto the BN line, he was much more interested in getting serious. Apparently the difference between intro and BN is enough to get him to calm down. 

We worked on this long, unrelated bending line for a bit. I was for some reason wanting to jump up his neck on takeoff and get too much into my stirrup on landing, which was frustrating but probably due to me being kind of tired and sore from the day before. 

That led me into so many realizations about the adults I used to work with when I was the assistant trainer to an event trainer. I laughed to think of how many times I didn't understand when the adults would be tired from the day before or when they'd feel like it was too hot out or when they'd say that a N fence looked big. And there I was being like "oh no I don't want to school the novice corner no thank you" and "my seat bones are sore but I'm also tired so I am not comfortable sitting or being up in half seat, I need to lay down" and "I know it's not *that* hot out but it's *really* hot out" 

But we made it through! For the most part! 

Flounder thought he was king of the
world at first

After our first few lines, we moved onto yet another pimple fence. If you approached it toward the barns, you had a flat bit right before jumping but you landed on the downhill slope. If you approached it the other way, you jumped from the uphill but you had a flat bit to land on before going downhill. 

We schooled it the way that was more horse friendly (landing on the flat bit) and Flounder reiterated that I wasn't good at jumping pimple jumps so he stopped. When we came back to it again, we made it over and it was much better. I really got the feeling of landing in my thigh on that fence and tried to commit that to memory. 

After that, Kate had us do a little course! We were to do the first two beginner novice fences, then come to the pimple fence (also on the BN course), do the first line we did (BN) and then go through the water and up the hill to a line we'd done the day before. We had some options for intro fences if we were having issues so I felt confident heading out. 

We started in the start box which was SO fun and Flounder was solid over the first fence. Then he started playing a bit and surged toward the next fence. I should have half halted earlier on but instead just let him go and thought he'd launch over the long spot. Well, Flounder isn't *that* athletic and so chipped hard and I had to slip my reins to let him figure out how to get over it. Sorry buddy! Thought you were more athletic than that given how you were acting. 

The next fence, the pimple, rode beautifully and so did the original line we had started with.  

The best fish!

We weren't that far into the course and my body was like "you know what, fuck you for this, I thought we were dressage riders" so I kept having to sit back down into full seat as we cantered to the upper field. 

This tiredness definitely made me look at the next fence so we had two stops there. That sucked because it had been a no-brainer the day before, but that's okay because it's all a learning experience and this is exactly the information I need: I need to ride in half seat WAY more if I want to do this sport again. 

We did get over that roll top and then opted for the last fence to be an intro fence to end on a good note. 

He's so cute and he made himself so
dirty the whole weekend lol!

That concluded our cross country weekend! I'm so glad it worked out for me to go. I learned a ton and had a lot of fun with both horses (more on TC tomorrow). 

My main takeaways were: 

- I need to do more work in half seat to get stronger/fitter for the gallop stretches on cross country

- I need to land in my thigh vs my stirrup to help Flounder balance better after the fences (and set him up for any related lines)

- I need to keep my hip back in the air/wait for him to jump

- I need to work on my down banks

- I also need to work on pimple jumps!

Overall it was a fabulous weekend! I can't wait for the next cross country schooling and in the mean time, it's all half seat all the time for me. Sunny is finally feeling better from his eye issue (long story but he is apparently allergic to something that made one of his eyes blow up and so he got himself a hospital stay recently, he hasn't been ridden much since then) so I think I'm going to start riding him again to practice my jumping work. 

I might try to pick up a saddle for him that isn't awful. Just something cheap that I can practice half seat in and do some small jumps at home in between my lessons on Flounder. 

Cross Country Camp Day 2: First School Back!

I didn't sleep super well the first night because my back was hurting. The entire weekend was a study in "you're an adult now, sorry" for me, which I found rather hilarious. Luckily for me, the back injury that was annoyed (my L4/L5/S1 facet syndrome) is always made better with riding, so getting on Flounder made me feel way better. 

Go Flounder go!

We headed out to meet Kate on the course and she asked us all what we wanted to accomplish this weekend. I told her that I wanted to 1) not fall off and 2) play with terrain questions. I'm happy to say that I achieved both of those goals! 

It's so fun to be part of Kate's barn. Because we're friends and chat all the time, I hear a lot about how she teaches and how she structures weekends like this, but I got to experience it first hand this time. We got a really fabulous talk about how horses utilize their bodies to maintain balance while traveling uphill and downhill (and how we can at the very least stay out of their way if not help them with this). Then Kate sent us off to trot and canter over some terrain for warm up. 

It has been a long time since I did anything other than walk horses up and down hills, so it was a really good starting point for me. Flounder thought he was a badass so kept squealing and trying to go faster. When I finally let him canter up a hill I was like oh wow, I did not expect to feel mildly overhorsed by the horse who really needs me to be dead on accurate if he's going to expend the effort to jump a 2'9 vertical but Flounder is a cross country machine so he ate up the terrain like it was nothing. 

Our first jump on cross country together!

Our first jumps were some intro fences, a small log to a gate type fence. It was perfect to get my feet wet again and each time we went through it, I got more and more confident. 

Cross country used to be my best phase, shockingly enough. I mean, the dressage has always been a strength for obvious reasons, but I really was a decent cross country rider in the mid 00s. The stadium was always my downfall in eventing. I think because of this, I started to settle into it as we moved onto some other fences and realized that a lot of my problems in stadium disappear on cross country. 

For example, one of my main issues right now is commitment to the fence when the horse hesitates. Flounder doesn't love jumping rectangles and when he says uhhh I dunno, my body's first response is you know what, neither do I and he stops. 

On cross country though? I finally found that get over it or die trying tendency again. It wasn't perfect and we did have a total of four stops, but two were with terrain questions and the other two were at the very end of the day on Sunday and it was more of a fitness problem for me than anything else. 

Tiny log, check

Oh god terrain - Flounder

I got annoyed and made him go through it

So much sass

From our first line, we went over to a pimple jump, which was our only stop of the day. Like I said, it was the terrain question that got me. We'd talked about how horses give up at the top of hills and that jumping something they can't see the other side of is tough, but sure enough, Flounder petered to a stop the first time. Woops. I came in with more vigor and looked above the fence (didn't realize how much the fence being in my line of sight as we approached would mean that I continued to look at it as we went up to it) and Flounder popped over it easily. 

We schooled the water and I LOVE the water, it's probably my favorite part of cross country, hearing the hooves go from dry to wet to dry, I dunno, I've always loved water jumps. Flounder was the best boy and marched right in and out with no hesitation. We talked about how water slows the horses down and then jumped a jump, cantered through the water, and jumped a quarter round about four strides out of the water. 

Some of the weekend my old cross country skills would come back and other times not so much. The pimple jump was an example of the latter but the water was the former. I felt him slow down in the water and so put my leg on and touched him with the crop as he came out of the water to gain power as we headed out over the quarter round. It was one of our bigger jumps for the day (I sent it to my mom and she's like "that's BN?!" and it's like yeah, Flounder is little!) and was so fun! 

Tiny pimple jump

Our last bit of schooling had two more terrain questions (Kate was like "you want terrain? I'll give you terrain" I guess lol). The first was to canter over a little house, through another water complex, up a steep hill, to a tiny "ditch" and "wall" fence. 

I learned from the pimple jump because I came at that fence with more vigor and we made it over! 

The next question was a down bank on a downhill slope. Now, I used to be decent at down banks but before then, I was terrible at them. Aaand I regressed too far in my education so really struggled with it this time! Kate even was like "what the fuck are you doing? I'll have to think about this" because while at first I was pitching myself forward off the bank, after the correction to keep me back, I was still doing something weird on landing. 

I got better but we never really got it down really well. So for me, that's going to be something I need to work on in the future! 

Omg he is so cute cantering up this hill

And that was a wrap for my first time back on cross country in a long time! It was so much fun! Flounder was such a good confidence builder out there and I loved how much I felt like my old self much of the time. There's still so much work to get back anywhere close to where I was but it's fun to be able to do things like this again. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about our second schooling the next day, including some hilarious Flounder sass. 

Cross Country Camp Day 1: Traveling

This weekend was my first time schooling cross country (for real) in almost ten years! 

When I got the email from Kate about what opportunities were available this summer and fall, I was bummed to see that this weekend of cross country schooling was double booked for me. Luckily, my clients ended up not wanting to show this weekend, so I quickly told Kate that I wanted to go if Flounder was available! 

I was on the fence about wanting to take TC with me or not, but in the end, I figured it'd be good to take him. Even if we didn't do much, he is still rather immature about hauling to facilities and staying there overnight. He's really only done it a few times and that shows in how he handles himself. He isn't dangerous or completely insane, but he does get a bit tense. 

TC says "can we keep him?"

So, on Thursday I did a ton of packing! I set up all of TC's food and then also brought some extra flakes of grass hay and teff just to munch on. I packed all my tack and my longeing/long lining set up. I had to dig through the barn to find enough buckets for water and a slow feeder. Then I went home and packed everything for me to stay, including setting up my tent to make sure that it was functional. 

On Friday, I grabbed all of Flounder's stuff and brought it to the ranch to pack into my trailer before waiting for Kate's signal that they were loading the horses at her barn. I put TC in the trailer and then took him over to Kate's barn to pick up Flounder. 

Flounder loaded great and he and TC became fast friends. Everyone loves Flounder and TC is super friendly too, so they kind of lipped each other and then I tied Flounder so that they couldn't poke each other too much. 

The boys next to each other!

And after that, we were off! I think this might be my furthest solo trailer drive with my rig to date. I have done a lot of 1-2 hour hauls in the past but never a 3 hour haul. I know a lot of you are probably smiling but we are such a mecca for dressage that even the highest level shows/regionals/CDIs are only a 2.5 hour haul max for us. So there was never any reason to go further. 

For eventing though, we are not the place to be. We have the Woodside Horse Park within an hour's haul but everything else is 3+ hours or further. Our destination was three hours south to Twin Rivers Equestrian, a truly amazing eventing venue with everything from intro to I think three or four star. 

Hi are we best friends?

My truck and trailer handled both horses just fine (I've only hauled two like... once, not that Flounder is big). The drive went smoothly and, despite a lot of traffic, we made good time. TC, Flounder, and I were the first to arrive. I unloaded them and brushed them and by the time I had done that, another person from our party had arrived and told me where to put the horses. 

The box stalls were airy and big! I was a little worried about TC being in a 10x10 stall because he's so large, but they were 12x12 and they each had a little window you could open to allow the horses to stick their heads out. 

I took TC out on a walk on his own and was happy to see that he wasn't too attached to Flounder. He hasn't hauled with a lot of other horses before so I was wondering how he'd handle that. He certainly liked Flounder (they stabled next to each other and I think that made TC more attached than the hauling), but he wasn't too screamy on our walk. 

Walking around the property

Once everyone arrived, we all hopped on to go for a hack. Luckily Kate had an extra kid (two kids were sharing one pony) so she took Flounder out while I took TC out. The kids all went out on cross country for a hack but one of the other adults and I decided to go ride in the arena together. 

It was getting dark and I wasn't sure how TC would be at such a massive facility. That plus my dumb bareback saddle that provides me with no support, really made me want to go school him in the arena instead of hacking around. 

TC was great in the arena, a little up and tense but he let me walk, trot, and canter him around with no shenanigans. Honestly, he was a little up and tense the whole weekend but didn't put a foot wrong other than preferring not to stand still and his neck being stuck too short. 

Flounder got a good report card too, although she did say that he was a little bit wild. Wild for Flounder is HILARIOUS so it just made me laugh. 

TC got a ball for the weekend because
I felt bad for him being in a stall

From there we made dinner and showered and all went to bed! More on the rest of the weekend tomorrow.