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!

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.

A Closer Look: Second Level

Ah the dreaded Second level is the topic of this continuation of my exploration of the dressage levels.

I actually like Second level well enough, but like everyone else, I'm always itching to get to Third from this level be it on my own or with students. Second is hard for a few reasons, let's go through them!

Travers

You can just see me wanting to leap off and run away 

Purpose of the Levels

To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and having achieved the thrust required in First Level, now accepts more weight on the hindquarters (collection); moves with an uphill tendency, especially in the medium gaits; and is reliably on the bit. A greater degree of straightness, bending, suppleness, throughness, balance, and self-carriage is required than at First Level. 

There's a lot here. But I want to point out a few things- they finally say the horse should be reliably on the bit, implying that First level lets a horse get away with being slightly unsteady at times. It's not saying you can run around off the bit at First and getting a 70, but they won't ding you as hard I guess. That's not been my experience with judging and training though.

Collection, in my opinion, is the key theme here. And they say especially in the medium gaits. Sure you can get away with riding what would be acceptable at First as a lengthening at Second, and you'll probably still get a 6, but the medium gaits are important. Especially as the extended gaits start showing up at Third.

You can tell that I'm really struggling with connection at this point

Look at that, Rico tipping too, he still does that

Second 1

Depending on your strengths (counter canter vs simple changes), you may hate this test or love it. Generally, for a Second level test, it's pretty friendly. There are none of the harder technical movements (no haunches-in or turn on the haunches, only the friendliest kind of counter canter pattern).

The trot pattern is nice and simple- a medium across the diagonal and then shoulder-in for half the long side, ride across the ring, and shoulder-in again. This gets people wiggling, but that across the middle bit you did in First 3 should set you up well for this. This is your first halt with rein back, and yay they threw it right in front of the judge! That's a bit mean. But with this pattern, it's the only place they can have you walk out of it, so I understand.

The canter is complicated, but the 1-3 was fairly complicated too. Some people hate the 2-1 pattern because you pick up your canter at F and immediately you're walking after the first half circle of the serpentine. I think it's a great movement for a strong horse but a terrible movement for a lazy horse. It would have been challenging on Rico, but I'm glad for this on TC (though they will probably change it by the time we make it there). The counter canter is minimal, it's just going across the short diagonal to either a long simple change (walking in the corner, canter at C) or a trot transition. I think this pattern is kind of easier than the 1-3 loop, again depending on the state of the simple changes.

Coefficients are both shoulder-ins, the halt and rein back, and the free walk.

Oh hey look, I used to tip right. Progress. Because now I tip left.

Forgot my gloves at this show, so dumb. You can already see
that at Second, I'm struggling to get him off his underneck.

Second 2

This is a decent test. It once again starts with the medium (get used to that) and then you have shoulder-in, two ten meter half circles to get you across the arena, and then haunches-in. It's a good pattern. It sets you up exceedingly well for Third 3, which has those half circles following a shoulder-in as well (but ending in a half pass, which is related to haunches-in).

The walk pattern includes turns on the haunches for the first time! These can end up being hilariously bad. I should write something about those... They put them on the line between H and M, which is good. On the rail, it's harder to do enormous ones and stay on your line, in this pattern (which persists through at least PSG) you can see lots of people do their half turn and then half pass or leg yield or just turn back onto their line. Doesn't mess you up too much.

The canter is an entire half circle in counter canter to a simple change. This can be rough- to simple change out of counter canter. I much prefer to simple change into counter canter, but that adds a level of difficulty as well, so there's really no winning if they were to change it to suit my needs.

Coefficients are both haunches-in, both turns on the haunches, the free walk, and the last medium trot before centerline. I find that last coefficient interesting. I think it's because that movement is a good test of whether the horse is truly uphill, where they can remain so throughout such a long test. Cool. Not cool if you want to ride it, but cool from an observer's stand point.

Derping along in a turn on the haunches, what the fuck am I looking at?

So wide behind omg. It would be 7 years before we got good ones

Second 3

I like this test.

The trot work is nice, arguably easier than Second 2 since the 10m circle sets you up really nicely both out of shoulder-in and into haunches-in. That 10m half circle wiggly thing can be really tough. Once again your halt and rein back appears in front of the judge, I guess that's just something that you do now.

The counter canter serpentine shows up at this test. Again it's just preference, I find it fine, I like that movement a lot. Much better than the Second 2 counter canter pattern because again I find it tricky to do simple changes from counter canter. The simple changes instead show up across a short diagonal after a ten meter canter circle (a very similar pattern to 3-1). I like that a lot, even though you have to put them exactly over the middle with no rail to help you and they're sort of more on display.

Coefficients are both walk pirouettes, both counter canter serpentines, both simple changes, and the free walk. This means that your canter work is suddenly worth a LOT more. Look at 2-1 and 2-2, at least half the coefficients are in trot. Here? More than half are in canter. Gotta get to it.

I'll be honest, I had a student skip 2-2 last spring. I just don't like the trot pattern this early on (she's doing 3-3 now and it's much easier) and the horse's simple changes out of counter canter were questionable. So she did 2-1 and 2-3.

Breathe, it's only second level. Wait, no, panic.

I used to ride so good guys

Overall

Second level gets a bad rap because it's just hard enough to be annoying and frustrating but arguably not so hard that it's fun and impressive. But the level is important and mastering the movements are part of learning the basics of dressage.

It's really apparent when you look at Third and Fourth level. You're asked for flying changes and half pass at Third, tempis and canter pirouettes at Fourth. The counter canter and simple changes are essential for flying changes (and tempis), the haunches-in and some of the patterns (10m circle and the half circles) is essential for the half pass patterns, and the turns on the haunches prepare for walk and canter pirouettes. Mastering the level is essential if you want to produce a rideable horse for Third and Fourth.

Struggling through some mediums

I think the hardest part of this level is that First level (especially 1-1 and 1-2) is an easy enough level for many different types of horses and for riders who are maybe not as serious. It's quite accessible. Second tests a lot of things: the quality of your own basics as a rider (such as sitting trot, ability to half halt), the dedication of the rider (can't really get there if you aren't riding regularly), the quality of the trainer (lots of trainers can get people to First, but Second is a different ball game), and, yes unfortunately, the quality of the horse. Some horses are just going to find this work easier than others, which takes a lot of the pressure off of the quality of the rider and the quality of the training.

But who doesn't like a challenge?