Balancing Short Term Goals with Long Term Goals

This spring I wasn't sure what I was going to do showing-wise and I guess now it's a moot point, but I figured I'd expand on what I was thinking anyway. 

From our trail ride with Kate

Back in late 2018, TC was ready to debut at Second level (in the old, harder tests to boot!), we had earned a 68 and a 72 at a schooling show and were ready to sign up for the last rated show of the season! Unfortunately that show was full, and then I made the decision to move back to the bay. I knew by moving back, my show budget would be destroyed. The bay is expensive and my business needed to pick up before I could afford to show as much as I was doing in the Sacramento area. 

That spring, TC struggled at the barn he hated and then I came down with mono. That summer, I had to rebuild my Second level horse and then the one show I was finally a) ready for and b) able to attend was in a FUCKING WINDSTORM so we only got around the 2-1 with an unfortunate but well deserved due to tension 65% before I scratched the 2-3 and went home. 

Coming into this winter, I had a decision to make. Do I put the changes on, continue up the levels despite not showing, and then figure out later if I wanted to go back to snag Second level scores or move along. 

Then this happened, so yes, please finish it

Right before the virus upturned all of our lives, I was brainstorming when to go back out at Second and how. Tanya told me to just pause the changes for a couple of weeks and then go for it, and I was looking at the schedule trying to figure out how few shows I could do and still snag the scores needed for All Breeds and how to plan them out in my schedule. 

Now, of course, the decision was made for me: no showing this spring, don't have to worry about pausing the changes or anything, just keep on keeping on. 

But now this virus is taking a toll on us all, right? My business is so far okay (it's actually the rain taking a toll on it this week), but who knows what is going to happen, honestly. I was already thinking it'd be a lot to go out at Second AND Third this year, gather all fifteen scores at seven different shows for All Breeds at both levels. Now that this is probably squashed into several months (need to qualify by the end of September), it's even more unreasonable money-wise I think, that's like two shows a month depending on when things calm down.

That's probably too many. So at this point I'm thinking that we may only get to do a few shows this summer and maybe one this fall, so what do I do? 

Right after they wanted to murder a bird

I'm still not sure, but there are pros and cons to going back out at Second, or skipping Second and going out at Third. 

The argument to stay at Second is this: I'd like to sell (or lease if I'm able to keep him lol) TC as a schoolmaster one day. I honestly think he could take someone from the lower levels all the way through however far we go. He's such a good boy and so consistent and so easy (well, he will be). It will look like he's less capable of doing that for someone if he doesn't have any scores at Second level, you know? Like if I'm looking for a lower level schoolmaster for someone to take through the levels, I'm looking at those Second level scores. 

That being said, we don't need to go out at Second level. Certainly not as a rider. I need a few more scores at the FEI levels to get qualified for the "R" program, I want to produce another Grand Prix horse. With those goals, there's no reason to really show at all until we get to those levels, except for fun. And if I'm being honest, I find the Third level tests way more fun than Second level. 

TC gives no fucks

So we'll see what happens. If I can swing it financially and if the shows come back early enough, I'd love to do both levels, even just one more show at Second to snag a 2-3 score or two. Either way, the decisions made aren't going to affect my long term goals. 

Amidst a Windstorm

On Saturday afternoon, I had a mild mental break down! Yay! Essentially I've just been pushing and pushing, as per usual, and I hit a wall. So you know, that was cool.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 5am and was pulling into the barn at 5:40. I had just enough time to braid and pack before loading TC and heading up to our very first (and last) show of the year, where we'd be making our (rated) Second level debut, finally.

I mean, aside from the mental breakdown on Saturday, things began to go wrong when I got to the barn and discovered that, because PG&E is a SHIT company and instead of fixing their shit so they stop causing the state of California to burn to death every year, they have opted instead to just cut power randomly to hundreds of thousands of residents. I am not one of them, at least at my home, but the barn was. Great. So I quickly loaded TC in the dark at 5:50 and we were on our way to the show.

Love that uphill balance and split behind, and this is his weak
lead right now!

As we were driving to the show, a windstorm hit us. I felt it shake my trailer with my very wind-averse horse in it. Cool, cool.

We got to the show and I've never experienced a windstorm like this. Everything was blowing sideways and literal branches of trees were on the ground blowing around. I unloaded and began braiding.

It was frigid cold and TC was beginning to freak out due to wind, so I went inside toward the arena and set him up ground tying near a mounting block. He calmed right down and relaxed a bit, so I felt less like a terrible horse owner. I shoved braids into his mane and then went back and got dressed, listening to him scream and pace and generally freak out by the trailer. I got him tacked up and took him inside to warm up.

Warm up started out okay, we trotted around and he was tense but handling it okay. Then he relaxed. Then he bucked so hard that I nearly came off. I got flung to the left and hooked my right spur on him, he bucked due to that so I went to fall right and hung my left spur on him, he bucked again and I managed to sit up. I yelled at him while he was making a good effort to buck me off "YOU ARE NOT BUCKING ME OFF FOR THE FIRST TIME AT A SHOW" because your logical brain is just OUT the window in that situation.

A bit leany but such a good pony

When I got done being nearly launched, I turned to see several people who had jumped up to come catch my loose horse and pick me up, as well as all the riders halting their horses looking horrified. All is well, people, continue your warm up, I'm sorry for the disruption. I got offered a longe line but I'm too much of a stubborn idiot to take anyone up on that. Why am I like this?

I continued my warm up and we just cantered for days. He settled a bit, but was still very tense, we did not really have a walk... Soon I was told I could head over.

I figured I'd just go see how he was, maybe he would be fine in the wind.

He was vehemently not fine, he was better than I thought, but he did keep bolting and bucking in the small warm up arena next to the show ring. I actually said the words "I need to scratch" but then kept going.

Oh hey, it's me, not scratching. Look at all those damn leaves!

Soon it was our turn and he had a good 3 minutes of not bolting or bucking, so I decided to be stupid go in. I warned the judge that I was probably going to trot around and then withdraw. I just wanted to get him around the show ring. Then he took a deep breath and tuned right in. Like he saw the court and the judge and the crowd (I think people came to watch me die from warm up) and he was like OH YES PROFESSIONAL SHOW HORSE COMING THROUGH.

We went down centerline and I felt him surge coming in, he was so excited to be back in the ring. We halted for a 7 and then went in for our first medium. I felt him want to GO and so I held him back and we got another 7 with the comment "little out behind" which like, yep, gotta fix that shit, but the tension wasn't helping either. Our transitions earned a 6 because I was so slow to start, unsure of whether he'd go to launch me or not.

The shoulder-in pattern rode well, except he got wiggly about a GIANT FUCKING BRANCH (okay not that giant but still, a legit branch) on the track, so we got a 6.5 for the first shoulder-in, solid 7 for the second. Our rein back wasn't great, again tension meant that he didn't keep his hind legs as far under him, so we got a 6.5 on that. Then a 7 on medium walk and 6 on free walk (uh, not letting go of the reins, kay?).

Not certain about this decision of mine

The canter started terribly with a 4.5 as he stuttered into it, threatened to bolt, then lost his lead behind and had to pick it up again. After that bullshit, I wasn't going to let him go in a medium so we got a 5 with "unclear"

BUT then we got a pair of 8s for our circle and counter canter and a couple of 7s for our transitions after that. The medium canter the other way also started out with him considering taking off with me, so we got a 6 saying "show more difference" yes judge, yes.

We got another 8 on the next circle "good balance" yay but then a 6.5 on the counter canter on the left lead because he got crooked, mostly because I felt him want to change so I swept his haunches a bit. Another 4 on our right lead canter depart because AGAIN he went to bolt through it but I stopped him "disobedient"

Then we ended the test (!!! we finished!) with 6.5s on our medium and transitions and a 7 on centerline.

Turn off centerline, all our trot pictures were very tense, that's
the gait he shows the most tension unfortunately

Collectives were a 7 on gaits (so respectable given how he was that day AND moving up a level), a 6.5 on impulsion (I bet suppleness of the back and engagement is a big deal there), a 6 on submission with (attention and confidence, as well as acceptance of aids, circled), and I got 7s on both rider position and rider effectiveness.

Comments said that he was a lovely horse who was a bit distracted, but that we were a good pair who works together nicely.

It's blurry but I was so glad to get through
the test that I gave him a hug, he is skeptical

I walked out and decided to scratch the 2-3 if my score was at all low, then decided that I just fucking DIDN'T WANT TO SHOW IN THE FUCKING WIND so decided to scratch anyway. There's no way we'd have walk pirouettes in there and those were supposed to carry the sometimes questionable counter canter pattern in that test for us. Not worth it.

I went to collect my score, a 65.81%, totally respectable for our very first time out at this level! I'm bummed that it was such a stressful day (and weekend) but so glad that he held it together despite being so nervous. I really think he loves showing and that the show ring itself helped him calm down and get focused. And I'm glad I made the decision to scratch the 2-3.

And that's a wrap! Easiest show year ever, just one show, one test, one... insane windstorm. Hopefully next year is a bit better, I think we're on our way to being able to kill it at Second level. Woohoo!

Applying the Fire Hose of Information

I returned late Sunday night from the L program. I was not in a good place physically, and honestly not all that good mentally either. What I thought might be allergies all weekend turned into a full on unpleasant cold at the PHX airport as I waited for my late flight to take off. As I flew my ears started to hurt and I was so miserable the rest of the night. 

I worked from home on Monday to save my coworkers from my illness and so I got to ride TC for a normal amount of time. I did feel better that day and at this point, I just have a lingering cough. 

Absolutely bursting from knowledge over the weekend, I actually did manage to have a good ride without completely flinging myself off our pathway. I rode in the covered arena and there were things that I really liked and things that I realized were going on that I hadn't noticed before. 

Best pony

New realizations:

TC doesn't want to connect to the left rein, but I think he is connected because I pull on it so much. I started to really notice when he was connected vs when I was just filling in the gap in the connection by taking back on the rein.  

TC's lazy leg isn't his left hind, it's his right hind. It doesn't want to push as much and so it pops off the ground early. At the program, the instructor REALLY emphasized the need for two even hind legs (crookedness is apparent in all movements, so I'm basically giving away a point per movement, that's 10%!). I've known that TC has that unevenness in his pushing, but this is where it really needs to start going away. 

LOOK AT THIS CAT, he's so cute

All the tiny little bobbles need to go away. It makes a huge difference in each movement AND in the collectives if TC doesn't need bits of communication like a slight wiggle of my inside ring finger or a poke with the spur to keep him on the left rein. A 9 is attainable even for horses who are 7 movers, we just insist on riding too much to earn them. 

Along with that last note, I began to notice all the weird shit I do to keep things together in the harder movements. We are not showing ease of movements in the simple changes or the counter canter. He labors a bit and I move my body around to accommodate him. It's not ideal and I need to continue to build his strength. IMO we're coming into this show with very weak canter work. I'm not expecting more than a 6 on either of those movements. We are weak at this level. I'm choosing to go anyway, and it's not like I'm beating him on a regular basis to get the movements out of him, but this is borderline unfair to him and he's going to get himself a lot of sugar and maybe a trail ride or two next weekend. 

Early morning ride before I left for the program

Tuesday I also got a good ride in and I chose to test ride again. Again, I don't normally test ride this much coming into a show but I really don't know how things are going to go and it's making me nervous. Plus, I haven't had a clean 2-3 yet. 

This time we had a beautiful 2-1! His canter medium was stellar, trot medium was on point, shoulder-in felt free and steady, halt was a bit too close to the rail so hitting it disrupted the rhythm but whatevs, the transitions were all so good, the ten meter circle is easy and fun. My main complaint was that he's anticipating a lot in the walk work and ruining his beautiful walk. So we're going to walk on contact a ton this week. 

We got through the trot tour at 2-3 and through the walk work and I did the stupid thing of thinking "is this going to be our first clean 2-3?" and then he BOLTED down the long side in the canter medium. He just gets so excited about them. 

He got in trouble but we kept going, had a good serpentine and simple change, then bolted in the second serpentine and then bolted coming up centerline. Fun! It was mostly because they were working with a tractor near the arena, so I get it, but still frustrating. 

Pls don't bolt in the medium canter thx

I took him into the covered and checked on the walk pirouettes. They feel slow and sticky but they're solid. I just can't feel his hind legs, remember? So I just have to trust that they're fine and not override them like an idiot. 

Then we cantered a bit and did a ton of counter canter. I don't like over schooling it because of Third level, but I really want this to go well. He was a good boy about it. A few solid simple changes later and we walked a bunch on contact to get him to stop anticipating. Then we were done! 

Generally I love how he's feeling. I'm able to ride the canter in a way I've never experienced on him (at least, not consistently) before. His trot is active and rideable as well. I think Tracey is really onto something and I can't wait to see her after this show and throw everything I've got into transforming his gaits.

Tentative Fall Show Schedule

While I think that taking a season off of dressage isn't a bad idea, I also do like showing, and so does TC.

I'm still very much on the fence about this. On the one hand, I like showing and it honestly doesn't matter if we score badly, he was ready for Second last year, etc. On the other hand, scoring under a 65 makes me feel meh. And I like spending money on things that make me feel better than meh. Skipping a year, the year that I got sick with mono, had my horse boarded at a barn he hates, and where I haven't been taking many lessons... well, it's not a bad year to skip.

Either way, our year involves a lot more of this

In addition, I've once again got a week long trip to Michigan planned this summer to visit family, which I am so excited about. TC will get that week off to hang. I like giving him vacations, I think it helps our relationship to have some time off and it doesn't harm him in the least. After that vacation, I'm going to go to this dope-as-fuck wedding and then we tentatively (how many times can I say this word in this post) immediately jump into showing. Eek.

So all that should tell me not to do this, but I want to at least get on the lesson schedule that will set me up the best for these shows I have tentatively planned. If we don't go through with this schedule, at least we get a lot of great lessons.

Here is the tentative plan:
6/29 - Lesson (take a half day)
7/4 - Lesson
7/6 - Lesson
7/13 - Lesson
7/20 to early August - Vacation and then bringing him back into work
8/6 - Lesson (take a half day)
8/10 - Greenville
8/11 - Greenville
8/15 - Lesson (take a half day)
8/18 - ASH
8/25 - Lesson
9/1 - Lesson
9/8 - YY

Can't wait for this view again :) 

The Greenville show I *think* counts as two shows. That plus the other two, ASH and YY, are going to add up to four shows necessary for All Breeds. I need eight scores, only 2 at 2-3, but I hate 2-2 enough where I'm thinking of just doing 2-1 and 2-3 at all shows. It seems kind of weird, 2-1 is so easy now and 2-3 is the hardest test of the level. Maybe TC's zippy counter canter bullshit that's happening right now will lead me to want to do 2-2 just to escape the three loop serpentine (I mean we have to do it, but not four times).

In addition, YY is a new facility for him. It has been a great facility to me in the past (did my first GP on Rico there! Among other milestones) but I just think TC is going to hate the show arena. I'm thinking that hauling up the day before to school and staying overnight is my best bet to having a good horse, buuuut that adds so much money. Like probably doubles the cost at least. Ugh. It might be possible to go school there at some point at the end of August.

Greenville last August, hey he's way more collected in his
canter this year!

In a perfect world, we'd be ready to dip our toes in at 3-1 for October Greenville (I love that facility if it's not obvious), BUT the weekend before that show is my first L Program weekend in AZ, so we'll see if I can swing both. I have the L program pretty much paid for so it's not a money thing as much as it's a my horse doesn't have his flying changes thing.

It's Going to be All Right

This week the new 2019 dressage tests came out. I figured I'd go through some of my first impressions just for fun. I also figured I'd use Arrested Development gifs to do it because why would I not?

I'm going to just go over the major changes. There are some minor ones to some of the tests where the movements are the same but reversed or there are letter changes. To be perfectly honest, I didn't read every single test with it's old version open and compare. I just didn't.

But I totally read them enough to have an opinion though, okay?

My facebook notifications when the new tests came out

The introductory tests are basically the exact same. Same with Training 1 and Training 2. I'm supportive of not changing those tests. Training 2 is a fabulous test, in my opinion.

Woohoo less new tests to memorize!

Training 3
I do like that they added the three loop serpentine rather than keeping the loop. First, on a nutty young horse, a serpentine a) gives you more time in the court and b) gives you more time on a curved line in case your horse decides to explode. They also take away having to ride the canter across the diagonal, which is nice on a young horse with a giant canter. By far getting through that short side in that canter was the hardest part of Training level.

I do kind of think that the loop is important for riders to learn to ride... though I think given where I am as a rider, I prefer the serpentine. The next time I show Training 3, it will probably be on a nutty young horse. It'd be nice to see that loop show up in the rider test for this level. I, er, didn't look to see if they had new rider tests.

Thanks for more time in the court, T3

First 1 & 2
They kept these tests pretty much the same too. I'm happy about that as well!

I hate change

First 3
I hate what they did to this test. IMO the trot work is too easy in the new test. I think that the leg yield zig zag was a wonderful movement. If you're sitting there celebrating that you never have to do one of these, you're wrong. Learn to do this movement. Learn to do it well. Not learning how to do it properly will come back to bite you in the half pass and in the half pass zig zag. There's a reason why it was included in the first place.

LEARN YOUR FUCKING ZIG ZAG

Second 1
I think the changes they made to this test are GREAT. There are no canter to walk transitions and only two walk to canter transitions. I did think that asking someone to do a walk transition out of counter canter in the first test you ever ask for a canter to walk in was kind of asking for some shit. Most horses won't find that difficult, but riders sure fuck it up royally (myself included).

My only qualm is that maybe people will just do this test and then skip through to Third without truly learning how to do a canter to walk transition. But that happens already, so whatever. But seriously, just like the leg yield zig zag, canter to walk transitions happen for a reason so learn to be real fucking good at them. I don't know a horse with a halfway decent canter pirouette that can't do a bomb ass canter to walk transition.

Probably my favorite change is making this test more accessible
Not that TC and I had any issues with the old test, but man I can
see this being a big help toward a lot of First Level + riders

Second 2
I'm quite disappointed with Second 2. The trot work is pretty much the same, which is fine. I liked how that rode when I rode it earlier this month. For the canter work, they've basically taken 2-1 and put it into this test: simple changes in a serpentine and then just going across the short diagonal and down the long side for counter canter. I'm not cool with this. This means that 2-3 is the only test with what I'll call "real" counter canter. I mean, you can crank the horse's head to the side in this pattern, but doing a full half 20m circle in counter canter requires you to actually ride it mostly properly.

Plus, it's the same pattern as 2-1 except that now you do a canter to walk vs a canter to trot transition. I dunno, it feels repetitive if you were to ride both tests in the same day, which I plan on doing.

Literally there is only ONE test with REAL COUNTER
CANTER??????

THEN as if they want to kick me when I'm already down, they have you end with medium trot on centerline. Fuck that. I hate this test.

Why do you want to see my sad, strained face in medium trot
on centerline???

Second 3 & pretty much all of Third Level
Why change something that's already perfect?

I love you, 3-1, you're written so well (except that damn trot half
pass pattern, it's not steep enough!)

Fourth 1

There is only a minor change in this test but it makes me happy! Instead of picking up the canter right after a walk pirouette, you get to turn off the line and go to C before picking it up. I think that's really exciting. 

THANK YOU especially as someone who has
a horse who gets slow in the walk pirouettes

Fourth 2

They left this test the same, which is fine... When I had to do 4-2 it included working half pirouettes but these are much better. I'm torn between being like "if I had to do this shit, so does everyone else" and also thinking that 4-2 doesn't look so un-doable for TC in the next couple of years...

Maybe half working pirouettes?

Fourth 3

I had such high hopes for the 4-3 guys. The last time they made changes I was just fucking not having it. Luckily I didn't have to show it since I didn't have the horse to do it. 

Me about the 2015 4-3 test

This time I'm painfully aware that TC will (hopefully) be showing this test. I need to do it for All Breeds, I need to do it if I'm doing regionals... ugh. 

When I have to do 4-3 on TC

Alright... they did do one thing I like. They took out that fucking double rein back bullshit. My horse will hopefully be the most perfect animal by then and be able to do any amount of rein backs in a row, but I'm really glad they took it out. 

Before I read the canter work

They have left the other stupid movement in there that I hate: the 10m half circle in counter canter. Look, I get that a horse knocking on the door of Prix St George should be able to do a 10m half circle in counter canter. But just fuck that movement, okay?

They also took out the four tempis and just have three tempis on a double coefficient. This kinda sucks but kinda doesn't, and it depends on the horse. Rico and I (mostly me) were always better in threes than in fours, so it'd be nice to get 2x the score for the threes and just not have the fours. BUT there are fours in PSG so why not have both or just the fours in 4-3? I don't understand. 

Where are the fours???

Generally, my feeling toward 4-3 remains the same. I hate it. And now I have to ride it. Like this particular version of it. Ugh. I don't want to do it. 

Please no

Why We Can't Have Nice Things

On Sunday, TC and I attended a schooling show! We've been to this facility once before for a schooling show in May, where we did 1-1 and 1-2. This time, we did 2-1 and 2-2. That's a lot of progress in five months.

TC wasn't quite ready to debut at Second, in my opinion. The counter canter is weak, the simple changes are hit or miss, and his medium trot is way out behind. I want to fix all of those things before we try the rated ring. But it was a schooling show and my trainer rolled her eyes at me when I said I wasn't sure if I was going to do it. So we did it!

Yeah she was right

We got there and TC unloaded well, walked quietly around the facility with only one whinny, and then proceeded to scream and rear and slam himself against my trailer when I tied him back up for 20 minutes to wait for our test. Um, yeah.

Once as I started to tack him up, he was all business though. He walked quietly over to the covered arena and had a great warm up. So great that I got someone asking me when he'd be for sale. He is totally her kind of horse apparently, not spooky, super quiet, totally relaxed. I'm like um... did you see him rearing at the trailer? No?

I love warming up in arenas with mirrors, so I finally got to look at the walk pirouettes (they look amazing) and his canter work (could be better) in person. We did some simple changes, worked on the collected canter, and did some lateral work before heading over to the outdoor arenas.

As I walked outside, I saw E!! Or really, E saw me and said hi! E is a rider at L's old barn and I had met her a few times before L moved. It was so fun to see a familiar face (a few of them) since this was another solo show for me.

Walk to canter, sometimes this is sketchy because he is still
gaining confidence in them, but yay we picked it up

In the outdoor, we continued our warm up with some medium trot and canter to try to get him a bit more forward. See, the whole time we were warming up before our 2-1 test, I was kind of having this dilemma. TC has been so reactive and terrible in new places, even this year. So when he is relaxed and quiet, I want to praise him and not get on his case about it. HOWEVER Second level is a bit beyond our ability right now so he really needs to be "on" for me to not feel like I'm hoisting him through the tests.

The perfect balance eluded me and we went into the show ring a bit behind the leg.

The test felt kind of blah. I felt like I was chasing him through it, the canter wasn't as collected as it has been, and there were some questionable moments, like the rein back where he kind of just gets hollow. BUT this was the first test in a very long time with no major shenanigans. He didn't try to leave the arena (I mean like once he thought about it okay), he didn't launch through the air, he didn't bolt... nothing. He just went in and did the thing. He did the thing behind my leg and made me work a lot harder than I'd like to, but the thing was done without any antics.

10m circle, the fact that he's even capable of doing these is still
kind of amazing to me

Our next test was 2-2 and after I reminded myself what the pattern was, I walked him straight back over to the show ring right before we were due in. My goal was to just jazz him the fuck up. Get the hell in front of my leg. He was not amused. His favorite part of the day was standing and being pet by E and by the person who wanted to buy him. Why not more of this? Why do the dressage?

The 2-2 was much better, sort of (I wish I had video but the videographer was feeling sick so had to go home). Our walk pirouettes were on point, our shoulder-ins felt much more normal, and I actually had enough trot to get a medium out of him. The canter work started out terrible. I went to put him into canter, which is a transition from trot at C. At C there was also a beautiful flower box with the letter C on it.

TC, destroyer of all that is beautiful, decided to kick the SHIT out of the flower box as he took off into canter. The flower box went FLYING and broke apart, flowers everywhere. The letter C was in the arena upside down. The box had a large dent in it.

Second medium trot... er... more of a lengthening, but he will
figure it out!

I was fucking mortified but we didn't get rung so we kept going. He did well in his counter canter, though my geometry was kind of off because I had legitimately practiced this test once. The simple changes both felt like they had one trot step in them (though the judge disagreed and we got 8s on those). Coming around near C again to the other counter canter, TC saw the wreckage of the flower box that he had kicked over and decided to get all sassy about it. Then he slammed to a halt having to pass it again in trot.

At the end, I walked up to the judge and apologized profusely for him. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to have to purchase another box, but luckily the box was made of plastic and was able to be popped back into place.

The judge had a break and we're friends so we got to chatting after my ride. She and I were at the same barn when I was riding Leo in 2011. She was also the judge at the schooling show we did in May of last year when TC was an absolute dingbat. She reminded me how bad he was there and told me that she was impressed with our progress. I didn't know my scores at this point so thought she was just being nice. I told her that he'd calmed down a lot, too calm at this show. She said he didn't look behind my leg and actually looked really good, and I was like hah I'm glad he looks better than he felt!

Medium canter, and yeah he did kind of try to leave the arena
(and then you see me pull on the left rein since THAT is the cure
for everything, right?) 

And he sure did, we walked away with a 68.788% on the first test and a 72.436% on our second test. The 72 was enough to win the open high point for the show.

I have a lot of respect for this judge, she's a beautiful rider and got her current horse as a yearling and did the breaking/all the training herself. Buuuut I still think she was WAY generous. For example, we got a 7.5 for kicking down the flower box at C and that should have been like a 4. We did get our classic 6 for submission on 2-2 though. Any time he does his bullshit he gets a 6 on submission. I was pleased to see a bunch of 8s (even if they also felt generous), including on the medium trot, a walk to canter transition, our right walk pirouette, shoulder-in right, a medium canter that I actually rode boldly, both of our simple changes out of counter canter, my rider position (yay), and his gaits (yay). Still, most of those were probably more like 7-7.5s at a rated show.

Her comments were fun. On 2-1 she said "Bold horse. Training is headed the right way" and also noted that he was holding up a front foot during one of his halts. Um. Yes he wants to paw and our halts are the fucking worst. On the 2-2, she said " Funny and bold horse! Have fun!" Which is a huge change from "GOOD LUCK" on one of our tests this year...

Despite it feeling very generous, I'm choosing to celebrate anyway because I can get myself all down about the tests feeling a little blah. But we went and debuted at Second level and hey, someone thought we deserved a 72%. There may be an asterisk beside that debut, but I'm happy about it anyway.

We'll keep plugging away to get the tests more rideable. I'm still unsure of whether I want to do the rated show at the end of this month. We'd be doing 1-3 and 2-1, so it's not like we have to do the 2-2, which is definitely a tricky test for us right now. But I have this week to decide!

Shifting Perspective

On Monday I had a lesson at my barn! I had asked the organizer if there was a way that we could get my trainer to come to my barn because TC could be a bit different there than at other places. Tanya doesn't mind coming to a barn for one person but she does mind going to all the barns in the area. So this time she taught everyone at a barn nearby, then came to do me last at my barn.

Obviously TC was the exact same as he's been, so I didn't get any of the weird wiggly behind-the-leg-ness that was going on when I requested that she come to my barn. BUT it was really nice to not have to haul anywhere. I got so much done that night!

Pictures from my first ever lesson with Tanya just because I
didn't have my shit together for this post

I started out telling Tanya that I'd schooled the Second level tests recently and that while they were definitely harder than First, they were surprisingly doable. The only major issue was the counter canter. I told her I understood why people skipped Second and went straight to Third once as you don't need the scores and she was VERY against that. I also am quite against it (and then had to defend myself a bit lol I was like I AM NOT SKIPPING IT DON'T WORRY), but it was interesting to hear her perspective.

She said that because the Third level tests are so flow-y, they ride super easily and allow you to not have to make as quick of decisions/be as effective of a rider. The Second level tests are much harder, so they're important to get good at if you want to make it to the higher levels. I definitely want to do the level, I want to be good at it. I want to lay this foundation down so solidly that he skips through all the hard stuff at the upper levels. Er, at least doesn't get stuck anywhere.

I think this was the moment where I realized he wasn't just a
backyard bred pasture pony anymore

Once in our warm up, we started with some big figures while working on my posting mechanic before doing some leg yields. I didn't really realize how much the leg yield would help us in the warm up, I almost never put it there just because, as I'll explain later, my main problem is still thinking of TC as a First level horse.

From there we looked at the canter, which looked good. Tanya wanted me to do a little more forward and back in warm up, as in both trot and canter I tend to focus on too much forward. The collection in the canter has been a little iffy recently only because of my Rico baggage- I have a long history of being encouraged by trainers to ride the pirouette canter behind the leg. So while TC is learning to do it correctly, my tendency is to still ride it more earthbound than Tanya wants it to be.

My main goal with this horse is to set him up super well for each level so that nothing comes as a giant surprise. This is a big step to getting the pirouettes to be easy. Tanya said that once we have the pirouette canter on the spot and in front of my leg, the turning part of it is the easy part.

Back when I was riding him so low in front

We looked at the shoulder-in and haunches-in. For the shoulder-in right, it needs a little less bend, which is funny because a few months ago it needed less angle. The shoulder-in left is perfect. The haunches-in is actually quite good now, I just need to settle it, which means to stop asking for a bigger trot within it. It's been so hard for him that I'm used to hustling him through it, now I just need to sit back and let him do it.

The half passes feel GREAT! I've been mostly working on haunches-in lately and really focusing on getting my mechanic correct - pushing him into the outside rein with my inside leg and having the outside rein be what guides the angle vs the outside leg. That's the same issue I have in half pass, and so the half passes were just brilliant.

The left one is better than the right, as he leaves his left hind a bit out behind him when going right. Once as I tapped the left hind under him though, damn. This horse is going to NAIL the half pass when we get to Third.

He's so much more of a grown up now and this was just in May!

Back in canter, we rode a bunch of counter canter. Tanya wanted me really focusing on riding his shoulders on the line, then pushing his haunches slightly outside the line. I could feel that the quality of the canter was lacking, but we agreed that it was just that TC wasn't yet confident enough in the counter canter. It feels more fragile than I want it to be. Though I do want to keep in mind what Tanya said at my last lesson - we don't want him so confident in it that it's hard to get a change on him.

The simple changes rode okay... I know that the better the collected canter is, the better they will ride (I got the canter on POINT this morning and the downward out of it was perfect). Tanya also wanted me to be quicker in the change - less walk steps. That's fine but it takes a second to change the bend, so speeding up the changes meant less actual changing and more just picking up the same lead. So that's a project too.

We hopped back into trot for some work in the medium trot. This shit is HARD. I'll probably dedicate an entire post to it at some point. Tanya's main critique is that he leaves his hind legs out behind him a bit too much, so we're to do a ton of quick transitions between medium trot and collected trot. My poor abs.

She had me bring him so up in this first lesson, but this is now
his warm up canter

We ended with some trot to halt transitions and that was a bit rough. There's something about this horse where this movement is so damn hard. It's always been hard for him. We experimented a bunch with changing my aids to get him to halt properly and finally Tanya seemed slightly exasperated and said the words "pull him off the bit" and I was like um okay. So I popped him up off the bit. Then halted from my seat and it was the best one yet. I think the main issue is that he dives/curls in the transition, which gets him to slam his front feet down rather than sit down behind. So we'll... try riding less on the bit I guess.

Afterward we talked about showing this fall and I realized that much of my hesitation with showing is just not seeing TC as a Second level horse. It seems so recent that we were trying to get his gaits good enough for First... so recent that the leg yield zig zag was hard vs something we now score 8s on. I know I'm putting in the time to train the horse, but I kind of expected to go through more of a slog with the Second level stuff. It almost feels too easy to have arrived at a place where we're ready to show at Second. I keep waiting to hit a huge wall and we just aren't.

I did tell Tanya that I wanted to see how the schooling show went and how much I could teach between now and when entries were due for the rated show. I really would like to show this fall, but I know that if we wait until spring, our scores will be better and I will have more money. Still, I do want to get it in my head that TC is a Second Level Horse (TM) so that I can keep my mentality on track to pushing for a solid year next year at Second and hopefully a debut at Third. TC the Third Level Horse makes even less sense to me. He's still such a huge dork.

Test Riding at Second Level

Thursday morning I saw that the covered arena had been cleared of jumps/cavallettis and had also been watered and dragged! So that meant one thing: test riding.

We tentatively have a schooling show in early October where I'd ideally like to ride 2-1 and 2-2 to see how they go. We've never ridden 2-2, and my attempts at 2-1 happened last year when he was just baaaarely able to do the test. It was like trying to ride a Fourth level test now except that I couldn't even stuff him through those because he doesn't have half the movements at that level yet.

Random soloshot pictures because I don't have anything current

Anyway, I figured that I should test ride it before I decide to show. So between yesterday and today, we rode all of the Second level tests. Here's a quick rundown of how each went:

Second 1: totally clean except that at the end of the test he exploded for no reason. Cool.
Second 2: totally clean except he thought that he'd do a lead change in the first counter canter, oops.
Second 3: again totally clean except in the first counter canter pattern he broke.

Overall I was super pleased with how easy the tests felt! We definitely have some homework, which I thought would be more interesting to talk about than to run through each test. Here are some of the things I want to really fix up before we have to do this in a show:

The best pony

Sitting the Medium Trot

This horse has a hell of a trot in general, and once you put it over the ground it becomes even more impossible to sit. What I noticed is that while I sit the medium trot just fine even on the long diagonal, I get tired enough where I tend to shut the trot down as we slow down and then it's hard to put him back up in the lateral work.

So I think I need to sit the mediums a lot more (this is news to no one) and focus on how I'm handling things afterward. The medium trot can be used to develop a much better, more cadenced trot, and I should be utilizing it a bit better so that we can come into our lateral work stronger.

I also realized that they set up 2-1 and 2-2 so that you don't have to do that much trot work all at once, but that 2-3 has all your trot work front loaded. I never considered it until I was facing my second medium trot in 2-3 and was like you know, I'm fucking tired.


Counter Canter

Obviously all of our mistakes came in counter canter, so we need to work on that the most. There area  few things going on. TC knows his counter canter, but hasn't been asked to do it in as small of a space.

TC is still learning to stay really up and in front of my leg in the collected canter, so add the counter canter to that and it's really tough. I feel like his canter shuts down a bit in the counter canter still.

The plan is to continue to school the smaller patterns in the dressage court (or in a manufactured one, I think I am going to measure out the big arena) and then also to ride larger counter canter patterns in the big arena focusing on the quality of the canter. Hopefully the two will collide and I'll be able to maintain the quality of the canter on the smaller figures.

This was from before Tanya had me bring him up

Simple Changes

The simple changes are foot perfect when I'm practicing them, but like everything, they get worse in a test environment. This is because I'll go to put him in the very collected canter and he'll get a bit slow, or he'll prop a bit, or he'll lose depth of his inside hind, and when I'm just in practice, I will push him out of it and try again. In a test I just walk from there. The transitions are clean, but that's not what an 8 simple change feels like!

The upwards are fine, but he needs confidence, he only feels confident in the upwards if I kiss at the same time as asking, so I'm going to be doing a lot more of those.


Turns on the Haunches

These are pretty damn good but I'm struggling a little bit to ride them as turns on the haunches vs walk pirouettes. Meaning I have not a lot of control over the size of them. I think my goal over the next few weeks is going to be to just put a damn good walk pirouette on him and forget about it.

Yep too downhill here

Overall I'm super pleased with how the tests rode! I don't think that it's so far out of our wheelhouse to think that we'd be okay at this schooling show. I think we're good to go for 2-1 and 2-2 in a couple of weeks and then we miiiight go to a rated show at the end of October and do 1-3 and 2-1. I don't think I want to risk too much counter canter in the rated ring just yet.

When to Move Up?

Everyone has a different idea of when is appropriate to move a horse up a level. It varies based on the horse, based on the discipline, based on the rider and their goals... it's a fairly personal decision.

Rico and I moved up to Intermediare II probably a bit before
we were ready but it was okay

Being a (part time at this point) trainer, I've experienced a lot of these reasons both in my clients and in myself. Some of my clients wanted to make sure they were really ready for every aspect of the level and others wanted to move up as soon as they had the minimum requirements (or could just get through the test) for the level. People have different definitions of what "ready" feels like and what scores are in the acceptable vs unacceptable range. And everyone has different reasons why they show, which is a whole other post in and of itself.

I've been in different situations myself. With Rico, I was chasing medals and generally not a great rider, so low scores (which I consider under 65%, others may have a different definition) weren't a big deal. Rico was a tolerant guy, didn't panic in the movements, didn't mind being wrong, and didn't turn into a basilisk very often. In the show ring, generally I got his best work since he was a bit more ON in new places and I can pull a lot of stuff out of my ass when I need to.

TC is a very different horse and I can't operate under those same directives. I am also a very different rider with different goals. So this time around is a bit different.

As I look toward Second level with TC, I've been thinking about what moving up means to me. So I wrote this post to outline what thoughts I'm having about making this move.

I think we're getting close!

The first thing on my mind is what is best for TC? I never want my agenda to harm him in any way. TC has historically been a reactive, nervous horse and through careful training we've worked through these things. But TC is still not a horse who can handle a ton of pressure, or to be told he's wrong when he's trying hard, or to be pushed and pushed and pushed. He just shuts down and starts rearing. The last time that happened was over a year ago.


To make sure that TC is well prepared for the level, I want to make sure that his mental, physical, and emotional states are all taken care of, so I ask myself these questions:

The mental: Does TC fully understand what is expected of him and seem very willing to do it every time I ride him, the first time I ask him to do it?

The physical: Is TC physically capable of performing at the standard without it being difficult for him at any point in the test?

The emotional: When I ask TC to perform the movements, does he do so without stress or frustration?

No more stretch circle = less stress for me since he has in the
past bolted in these... 

The second is the full acknowledgement that TC is not the same horse in the show ring as he is at home, and that I need to account for this. If our last show is any indication... he went careening out of the ring... I don't always have control over him and can't pull things out of my ass like I could with Rico.

It will take time before I can risk taking a questionable movement into the show ring with him. I need to be able to feel like I can recover from any antics he may pull, and as the tests get longer/movements come up faster, the harder that gets. If I push him up the levels, not only are our scores going to go down because he's not as solid at the level, they will go down because I can't recover from any bad behavior quick enough to get on to the next movement.

Rico was so solid and had smaller gaits, so bad behavior did not occur often and it also didn't usually leave us on the other side of the arena (or on the outside of it lol). 

Rico didn't do this...

The third is that I tend to be very protective over my record and my horse's record. Mine because I'm a professional and it looks good that I score well in shows. And his because he will eventually be for sale.

I only have three scores in the 50s on my record and I'd like to keep it that way. One is a 59 at First with Rico after I had been injured and then went off course a few times. The second is a 59 at Third with Rico when it was super windy and half way through my test the letters all blew into the court (I didn't know you could withdraw) and Rico wouldn't go near them. And the third is my first Grand Prix on Leo when he was lame going up to it but I decided to go anyway just in case. That's it. And that's all I want on there barring something completely unexpected.

I'm planning on selling TC, and I don't know when that will happen, so I need to protect him from low scores so that when I go to sell him, his record doesn't keep the right people from wanting to give him the best possible home. 

He is the most fun

And finally, another reason that affects my decision on moving up is my own mental health. I also haven't spoken much about my mental health on this blog, but keeping showing low stress and fun is really important to me. I have an anxiety disorder and being nervous about showing is not something I can handle.

When I was showing Rico and getting my Gold, the week leading up to the show, I'd be a nervous wreck and frequently have anxiety attacks. I couldn't be alone the day before and I was really unpleasant the day of. I could barely eat and that usually lead to me being shakier at the show than is recommended for showing at such a high level. I told myself when I retired him that I'd never let it get to that point again, even if that meant never showing at the FEI levels again or just plain never showing again.

Showing TC has been different, I'm showing because it's fun to show and I want to show vs to get medals or prove myself in the arena. Our last show was very fun and relaxing, it feels really good to get these scores and I was only a little anxious leading up to this show. I knew we were solidly capable of what we were doing, even on a bad day. And what do you know, no anxiety attacks! At least none related to horses lol.

Work in progress

So while right now I think we can get through even a Third level test without making it look totally inappropriate, I'm going to put in more work to get him feeling really confident at Second first. I'd love to spend the winter preparing him so that we can come out to do Second in April - June and then Third in August - October, but we'll see how long it takes him to feel really confident at each level. I am really in no rush. I'm just having a blast developing this horse and moving up the levels is a big bonus.