Another Successful Show at 4-2!

I wish I could say that today I rode the best test of my life, my horse was obedient, the footing was perfect, and that I feel really good about the possibility of moving up to Prix St George in six/eight weeks.

Not quite but look how beautiful this horse is

Today wasn't terrible though, I have no complaints. But we started off on the wrong foot and didn't quite get on the right foot until the drive home from the show. My ride time was 8:15, which is a bit early for my taste. It could have been worse, the show started at 7:30! The ride time coupled with my inability to stick to a schedule so early in the morning led to me frantically braiding a very silly horse so I could get him in the trailer on time.

We got to Osierlea down in San Juan Bautista at 7:40, giving me 35 minutes to get dressed, tack him up, and warm up before our test. I managed to get on about 20 minutes before my ride time, which didn't concern me too much because I discovered, upon walking into warm up, that the footing wasn't all that great. Let me just say that it wasn't bad at all. I probably wouldn't have noticed on any other horse. I'm just really finicky about footing with this horse.

I moved into the indoor arena which had superb footing but was rather small so I wasn't able to school very many of the test movements. Rico also thought it was really fun to show off for the people on the sidelines and that attitude did not ebb as we entered the show ring.

but when he was focused, he was fantastic!

Up centerline, Rico wanted to stop a bit too early, so I tactfully (at least, what felt tactfully) pushed him forward. He took that as a cue to do some two-tempis. I've never had that happen on centerline before, I wasn't quite sure what to do so we finally reached X and I halted him a bit too hard. That made him a bit pissed off at me so when we went back to trot he shook his head at me and got very animated around the corner.

Starting out with some lovely tempis

First medium

The end of our second medium 

The trot work went really well, he was super rideable in the shoulder-ins and his mediums weren't terrible at all. We earned a 7 on our first half pass... and a 4 on our second. He took the counter change of hand to mean canter, so we cantered about half of the half pass. The walk work was amazing, he earned a bunch of 7s, including one on our left walk pirouette which has not been great lately. When I picked up the canter, he shook his neck at me, so our first medium was conservative, but our extended canter earned a 7!

Just before he started cantering in the half pass...
I'm not helping with how tight the curb is

The best horse!

The pirouettes were much better than last time despite the scores not changing. The right one earned us a 5, it was weak but he didn't swap out. The left one was a 6 with a comment along the lines of "sits well, hollow," which I agreed with but there was not one step where he got quick or trotted, both of which happened in warm up. The tempis were quite good, except that he got a bit crooked as I tried to keep him from doing more unexpected 2s. We earned a 7 on those. The only other bit of tomfoolery happened in our canter-trot transition. He stopped, stared out the gate, and I had to pony kick him into trot. We earned a generous 5 on that movement.

Sits well!!

The collectives were a nice surprise. Rico earned a 7 on gaits and a 6.5 on both impulsion and submission. I earned a 7.5 on rider and 6.5s on effectiveness and harmony. I expected lower scores on harmony and submission because submissive, harmonious horses do not add tempi changes and canter half pass to their tests, but I think his behavior in the rest of the test carried us through.

I guess those scores weren't too far off, he is quite adorable

Super cute

We ended up with a 63.7 and a blue ribbon (I was the only one in the class so that's not impressive). I don't feel overconfident for Prix St George in either six or eight weeks, but I'm feeling good about how we scored today- a score in the 60s despite some silliness. Six weeks is a long enough time to really solidify the counter change of hand at the canter as well as make more progress on the pirouettes.

One of my favorite pictures (except that it's blurry!)

In other good news, I had a client at the show yesterday who secured her last qualifying score for junior championships!

Dressage at the Gaits!

It's OVER!!! Let me start by saying that my horse is amazing and we won our 4-2 class with a 65.5%! We won!!! 65.5%!!

He was SO EXCITED to be there!

Alright so from the beginning! I woke up this morning at 5am feeling quite sick. I've been going nonstop for a month now with finals, graduation, numerous client horse shows, and my own show today. Now I finally get a break! Until tomorrow. Anyway, Rico was fairly relaxed when I went out to braid him around 7 so I was convinced that I was going to have a lazy horse in the test. I was beginning to feel so glad that I found my big spurs last night!

Upon arriving at Gilroy Gaits and getting on my animal though, I realized that he was far from lazy. He was beyond stoked to be at a new place AND to be showing that when I started trotting in warm up, I couldn't exactly control him. Every time my spur would touch him, he'd shake his neck and fling whatever leg was in the air much higher. I'm sure we looked completely ridiculous, especially with my ongoing commentary of "we don't need to be this fancy, it's fine if we're not this fancy," to try to calm him down. At the canter he flung himself around the arena, doing lead changes and threatening to buck me off.

By the time we got into the test, I had gone from "I really hope we get a good score so I can justify buying a shadbelly," to "I don't want to fall off, please don't buck me off." All I wanted to do was get through the test without falling off. And we did that and a bit more!

Look at the surprising amount of relaxation!

After the test I was a bit hard on myself. The right pirouette was more of a reining spin and the left one wasn't as good as we've had at home. But honestly, there were no big mistakes which is HUGE for us. The only problem I was a bit miffed about was that an airplane landed next door and Rico would NOT stop staring at it through an entire walk pirouette (which we got a 6.5 on, go figure). I came out feeling like we did our best for where we are in training, and I was just hoping that the score would be over 60.

This horse likes airplanes...?

When I went to pick up my test, I looked at the scoreboard first and found my name with 65.5% and a little 1 next to it. WE WON! I went into the office and got my prize (some fly spray!), ribbon, and test. I was immensely surprised by this! I had expected somewhere between 57% and 61% based on how unsteady the test felt to me and how bad the pirouettes were.

Most of our scores were in the 6-7 range, but we got an 8 on our first centerline AND an 8 on the tempi changes. The collectives were the most exciting part of the test. Rico always gets a 7 on gaits, so that wasn't surprising, but the 7 on impulsion was a great surprise! We earned a 6.5 on submission, which is what I expected, especially because he kind of got distracted by an airplane during a walk pirouette. As for rider scores, I earned a 7 on position and a 6.5 on effect of the aids. And... we got a 7 on harmony between horse and rider! That means a lot to me, because I was once told "you'll never be able to ride this horse elegantly."

Our tempis which earned an 8!! Not lacking expression...

a 7 on this medium trot!

Half pass right

Overall, I'm immensely proud of this animal. He tried really hard today, even though he was super excited about being there and could have completely ruined the test. I felt like I could really ride him through the test, which is not a feeling I normally get with that animal.

The fanciest

I adore this picture

And this one!

I feel like the door to Prix St George is wide open and I'm definitely going to be shopping for a shadbelly soon! I'm not sure exactly when I'll be doing PSG, but I do know that it's closer now than it's ever been :)

Future FEI horse :) 

Breaking Down Roadblocks

In light of my lesson on Tuesday night and the entries for my first show of the season due on May 18th, I decided to run through 4-2 today to really figure out where we stand against that test. I've run through it a few times and honestly, everything rides quite easily. It's nothing like the beast of PSG and actually other than the pirouettes, the test is much easier than 4-1.

Before running through it, I worked on the pirouettes for the first time! Woo! The left one is perfect as always, he stayed way up into the contact and only sucked back a little bit. Tracey, I'm sure, would disagree with this, but I totally felt like we could get through PSG or even I1 if the only pirouettes we were required to do were to the left. Not to discount how much his right pirouette has improved! To the right I was pleasantly surprised by his ability to turn. I always felt like we could get the level of collection required to the right, but the moment we started turning, we fell apart. Today he certainly wasn't as rideable in the pirouettes to the right as he was to the left, but he definitely did something that resembled a pirouette and that is improvement!!

Onto the test! The trot work in the test is quite fun and is as if it was made for Rico. Instead of starting out with a big medium across a long diagonal (which is a great way to get Rico running on his face and me paranoid about his front legs), the test starts with shoulder-in down half the long side, then a medium trot on a short diagonal. I understand that this is a hard movement because it really tests that your shoulder-in is correct, a shitty shoulder-in won't straighten out into a good medium... but for Rico, this is great! Less medium trots and it forces me to be present in the shoulder-in.

After the first one of those shoulder-in to mediums, the test has you do a trot half pass zig zag. Rico and I used to struggle through those but after Tracey's half pass boot camp, they're SO easy! Before tonight, I was going to see if we could address this movement in my lesson on Tuesday but I honestly don't think we need to. After another one of the shoulder-in to mediums, we do the walk work. I like that because it allows me to take a breather and collect my thoughts before cantering.

The canter work starts with a medium canter down the long side, then you go across the diagonal and pirouette near X. I love that it starts with a medium canter, I'll go more in depth later, but energetic winter-Rico is turning into lethargic summer-Rico and the medium canter is a good test to see if he's in front of my leg before we have to pirouette. The downside of this test is that it starts with a right pirouette... shmeh. Oh well. Another medium (or extended, whatever) canter and then another across the diagonal, pirouette near X. After returning to the rail, we go across the diagonal with three lead changes near quarterline, centerline, and quarterline again. Then another trot extension and up centerline.

The test tonight rode quite well. The first centerline was good but my halt was off center, ugh, what a ridiculous reason to lose points. The trot work rode quite easily, as did the walk work. I got really anxious coming into the pirouettes since I know they aren't strong, but both were actually okay in the test. No breaking and, although the right one was big and the left one behind my leg, I felt more confident in them than I ever have. The tempis were surprisingly good, he was on the aids and only kicked out once! Final centerline was better since it's in trot :)

I was quite pleased that our first test ride in a while was so successful, but I was not pleased at Rico's attitude toward the test. It's getting hot (90s today) and he's a bit out of shape, so he hasn't had the greatest work ethic in the last week. It's good to know that he needs to be very fit for him to actually focus and work hard, but that doesn't take away how frustrating he was today. I felt like I was lugging him through the entire test. He didn't do any one thing wrong, but nothing was very spectacular and I flapped all over the place to keep him going.

After the test, I went back to the walk to work on the walk pirouettes, since both were a tiny bit big, and found that he was even more behind my leg. That was when I really got frustrated, how hard is it to walk forward? The horse just did a fourth level test! That's hard work! I expect him to be lethargic during his canter work, that's difficult, but the walk? Come on you silly horse! It didn't help that during our walk break after our test, he ran off with me because he saw a pitchfork. Clearly he had energy...

So I put him in canter and we worked on being energetic. It was a tough ride, but in the end he was beautifully in front of my leg, even in the pirouette canter and in the trot half pass! As he became more energetic, he became happier to do his work too, so I think that we need to address the energy from the get go rather than waiting until part way through our ride. Neither of us are happy when he's lazy, and he's certainly not going to be the one to fix it!

The laziest of horses

In other news, I've had a realization about myself. I've been putting off showing all year because I keep feeling like I want my next show to be at 4-2. What is my problem? Why do I think that 4-1 is beneath me when I can't even ride my horse in front of my leg, let alone do a reliable pirouette? I realized that I'm treating him like a client's horse. I'm so scared that I'm going to *ruin* our record by doing 4-1 and doing badly, that I want to just wait and wait and wait to move up. Well, news flash, Rico is not a client's horse and I certainly don't need to treat him like he's eventually going to be for sale by worrying about his record. I'm getting out of the horse business as soon as I graduate from my masters, so why do I care about my record?

So I'm for sure showing at either Dressage at the Gaits (June 1/2) or SFP Chapter (June 8/9).  I'm just going to keep doing 4-1 to improve on my ability to ride all the other movements in the show ring, and when Tracey says "sign up for 4-2 instead," I will do just that. It's time to stop being such chicken shit about bad scores and just SHOW without putting up all these goddamn roadblocks about what tests I need to be riding.



I just went through some pictures and look how different this horse goes now! I need current pictures... these are a bit old:

Look at his neck shape and how high my hands are, yikes

At our first lesson with Tracey, short in the neck

A month after our first lesson, hands lowered and HOLY NECK MUSCLE

Hopefully I'll have another picture soon!

Test Riding

The last couple days have been pretty great for Rico and I! Spring break has given me a lot more time to spend with him and that has paid off quite a bit. Break has also given me a lot of time to take pictures and the good ones will be randomly placed to distract from the walls of text about my horse!

My favorite tree

On Tuesday I was feeling a bit down since I felt like Rico and I were working SO hard and had little to show for it. The past couple of days he wasn't very well balanced at the canter and I couldn't get him to do any lateral work without a fight. We ended on a good note, but I was still a bit frustrated that all of this work has boiled down to a LESS rideable horse. I was just frustrated with my lack of ability to ride him consistently to Tracey's standard.

Dandy pony at dusk

I was also frustrated because I WANT TO SHOW! Here I finally have a SOUND horse who is working well at fourth level (well, he is now, read on) and I haven't been able to show this year yet. So my frustration with our failure on Tuesday coupled with my desire to show made me really anxious to fix all of these problems before my lesson on Saturday so that Tracey and I can come up with a plan to get us to some SHOWS!

One of the many informative signs in the forest

With this in mind, yesterday I decided that I was going to slap on the double and my big spurs, and attack 4-2 like there was no tomorrow. There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to do this test in his sleep, minus the right pirouette, which I need to accept a 4 on and stop stressing. I braced myself for a terrible ride but....

I had so much fun photographing this fire

IT WAS AMAZING! Upon riding the test, I realized that he is a THOUSAND times more rideable in the trot, I can easily keep him with me and the counter change of hand was perfect. Before it felt like I was being pulled around the entire test and that the movements came so fast that I couldn't really control him. Now it feels like we are staying together and the movements feel much slower. I feel like I could literally take that trot work into the Grand Prix ring.

I love this bridge

The left pirouette was pretty good! It was made better when I softened my hand forward so that he could stretch his neck down a bit. I want to work with this with Tracey on Saturday. The right pirouette is a shit show, made worse by my lack of coordination to the right. He seems so capable, so I'm hoping Tracey has a magical exercise that makes it perfect. But honestly, everything else was so PERFECT it seems a shame to not show this test because of ONE movement that isn't perfect. So Yarra Yarra, HERE WE COME!

A heavily edited Dandy pony

The high from yesterday made me nervous to get on him today. I decided that I was going to stick with the easy work (especially since he worked hard the day before, but also because I had to get to work). I did some transitions, working specifically on the canter to trot transition until it was perfect. I refuse to lose points on easy movements (since my right pirouette, tempis, and trot extensions are going to screw me over), so we drilled it until it was absolutely perfect! Such a good pony. So good that I took a chance and tried a counter change of hand at the canter. I'm not sure why I chose to ruin a perfectly good ride with a PSG movement. But OH MY GOD MY HORSE IS AMAZING! He literally did the movement better than I've felt on ANY horse, let alone the horse that used to gallop away in the zig zags.

Woodside forests

So this is me, eating my words about how I didn't think we were on the right track. Turns out that the work I'm doing IS paying off, and that I just need to do a bit of test riding to make sure that the movements are still good.

Overall I'm super pleased with my wonderful animal :)

My house is so weird

On manual focus!

The barn at dusk

THIS DOG

Fire

The gate lamp (arena in the background)

Such an excited dog

I love my camera!

Dandy at dusk