I Quit

At the horse show I had a lot of time to be thinking about what I want to do with my horses. The truth is, and I've been coming to it for a long time, is that I genuinely am not enjoying the sport of dressage anymore. 

What started it all was when my horse looked miserable, felt miserable, went miserably, and still scored in the 70s at Third level with S judges in the rated dressage ring. 

It ended with me having more fun than I think I've ever had in my life... in the jumper ring. 

I still have fun doing anything with this guy though!

I came back from the show and immediately had to prep for a dressage clinic with a new trainer. I went to pick up my saddle, which is now fitting me and TC quite well, PHEW. I did some lateral work and some transitions, and mostly just looked up at the hill and down at the cavalletti blocks wishing I could do something, literally anything, else. 

We went to that clinic and it was... completely and utterly acceptable. I didn't really learn anything. I mostly got told where to go and what movements/gaits to perform when I got there. TC's balking had come back and we mostly just worked on getting him more forward. It was totally fine. Didn't get yelled at, didn't get told to yank on his face or kick the shit out of him. I was told that he was talented, to not give up the dressage on him, that the lateral work came so easily for him and that he had nice gaits. 

I got back from this lesson and immediately was like well that's it, I quit. I don't know what I want to do with this horse, but I do not want to do dressage. It just isn't fun on him. It isn't that he's bad at it, it's that the sport as it scores well in the show ring makes him feel miserable to ride. 

More of this and less "shorten your reins and kick
him into the contact" please

How much of the fun I had at the show
was due to squeezing the shit out of
Kate's little parkour champion? Lots.

I definitely want to do some obstacle shows. That seems to be the most fun I can have with this horse without totally investing in another horse/discipline. We don't even need to practice all that much, he's just brilliant at everything. 

I also do want to see if he wants to join me in some very low level jumping just at home. If I could do a little poles course or pop him over some cross rails, I think that'd be really fun for both of us and wouldn't stress his suspensory or his feet too much. I have no inclination to really JUMP him because I want him to be sound and I also don't want to die. The horse is not lacking in enthusiasm. 

And I do want to do some dressage. But I want it to be on my terms. I want to do it the way I want to do it and not abide by any sort of rules or guidance from the USDF. I don't really want to have another lesson where I'm told to shorten up my reins and intimidate my horse when he doesn't jump off my leg. 

I like riding my horse like this, which looks so off
the bit after being around so many dressage horses!

I also just want to enjoy my horse. Not put any pressure on to get him out every single day and keep him super super fit so that we can do clinics and shows and lessons. I want to trail ride just to trail ride and not to cross train. I think I have this feeling of "oh god what do I do with him" so the obstacle shows will give me a way of feeling like I'm "doing something with him" without really needing to work hard/take lessons/stress myself out over it. 

I feel like I'm in this constant battle of why I do dressage. Like, I'm *good* at dressage, I have the medals and the scores to prove it. It's nice to do things you're good at. But do I do dressage because I love it, or because I'm good at it? Am I super passionate about dressage, or am I just a perfectionist who doesn't want to start from the bottom of another sport? Do I get joy from cantering down centerline or do I get joy from having the judge tell me that I was the best one who cantered down centerline? I honestly don't know. 

And I think I won't know until I take the pressure off of myself. I have to test my hypothesis. I feel like I have to quit the sport, quit trying to get back into the show ring, to really find out if I actually like it anymore. 

Wise words from work (I work in our Star Wars
themed building lol)

So many trainers have wanted me to shorten my
reins and to that I can now say, nah

I can absolutely see myself returning to the sport one day, even on TC! But I need to rephrase how I'm thinking about this sport. Right now I feel like I'm just constantly pushing my timeline out of when TC and I will return to Third level. Instead, I need to just throw that timeline in the trash and enjoy my horse. And if enjoying him leads me back to the show ring, so be it. If it means that I ride him bareback on the trails and teach him silly tricks and go to obstacle shows, that's great too. 

The only thing is... what do I rename this blog if I never return to the sport??

Flounder the Lead Line Horse

So, when I saw all the little kids at the show in May, I started planting the seed that my niece could do her first horse show at the October show. 

Luckily for me, the kid is still unbelievably horse crazy, so on Friday midday, my brother, dad, and older niece drove down to the show! 

LOOK AT HER BOWS

The kid was immediately in her element. She knew she was there to show Flounder and wanted to do it immediately rather than waiting the excruciating 24 hours until the leadline on Saturday afternoon.

She spent all of Friday afternoon watching the various rings, pointing out which horses looked like the horses at the ranch, and learning all about different colors and markings from me. My brother even asked some questions about the different types of sports and what was going on. And my dad was an old pro, keeping track of the horses in the hunter derby and saying things such as "I think this is our winner back for the handy, this one got an 83 in the first round, oh wait, no I think there was one that got an 87, so this one is in second place so far" um okay wow dad.

Saturday morning they came out to watch me in my classes. I got so much clapping from the kid and after every class (I had three), she got to hop on Flounder and ride him back to the barn. She whined a little bit but was mostly really good about being patient and watching the show. Luckily there were some great areas for kids, she found our Halloween decorations really fun to play with and she also got to run around in a grass field above the show while we watched it. 

Watching the hunter derby

Literally so much in her element

Eventually it was time to get her ready. She got her breeches on (which I didn't know would happen, she likes to wear patterned leggings and call them breeches, but I think she saw that everyone was wearing tan breeches), we put her paddock boots on, got her garter straps (which I had to punch holes in lol she's so tiny) on. 

My sister-in-law ordered a show shirt and bows for her hair. The show shirt will definitely fit for a long time, it was fairly big on her! We had some time so we went over to the tack shop and found a belt that matched her show shirt. The tack lady asked her about horses and I've never heard the kid so talkative to strangers. She talked to everyone at that show, told them about Flounder and her Sunny Horse back at home too. 

I have no others without her face in
them so here's me again

Look at this fish!

Finally she let me braid her hair, put in her bows, and we got her helmet on. We put her on Flounder and led her around a bit. I had my brother help my dad FaceTime my mom and my SIL (who was up taking care of her father with my youngest niece) so that they could see the leadline debut. 

Soon, it was time to go into the big jumper ring. She was one of three kids in the class and it was ADORABLE. There was a huge crowd because it was right before the speed stake. The kids got to walk around and one kid (who was older than her) trotted a little bit and immediately my niece was like I WANT TO TROT and we had to tell her no, you're two and this is not your horse. 

After walking around once or twice in each direction, we were called in to line up in front of the judge. The judge then asked each kid what their name was, what their pony's name was, and what color their pony was. 

Look at me looking for my next fence and not at
the ground where I will definitely end up one day

Definitely splurged on some pro photos!

My niece is two and a half. She was the youngest kid there and she got asked her questions first, which meant that her answers were hilarious. She didn't want to tell him her name, but she was very enthusiastic to tell him what Flounder's name was. In response to the question about Flounder's color, what came out sounded like "SunnyHorsepalominoAuntMimirideswithmeonmySunnyHorse" *deep breath* "Flounder is white and gray" 

Granted, we didn't practice Flounder's specific color so that was pretty close!

For her efforts, she got a big blue ribbon and a pink and white stuffed pony. We got a truly insane number of photographs of her AND we got video of the entire thing. My mom was so annoyed she didn't come down (it was on her, she was invited! But she thought the leadline would be boring, not like her daughter was also showing or anything...). 

Apparently when the kiddo got home, she told everyone she knew about her horse show and has been wearing her horse show belt with everything she owns. Amazing. She does her next leadline in a couple of weeks!

I love this one so much

I was going to write a third post but there's honestly not much more to report from this show! Unfortunately for me, there were no more pro classes for the rest of the weekend. But it was still fun! I stayed in the .80s and did one class both days (I was supposed to do two the first day but they.. eliminated... me...? It was fine, I got to do my second class). 

It was such a good time moving up and feeling so confident. I didn't have a panic attack, rode way better in the ring than expected, and had a blast the entire time.

The whole weekend was just amazing. I love my barn, I love my (technically not my but I like to dream) fish, I love my best friend, I love this sport, and I love having grooming! Can't wait for the next one!

Jumping Fish

WOW I am behind, so much has happened and I'm hoping I can use this week and the next week to catch up!

Catch up like Flounder and I catching up on time
in the jumper ring a few weeks ago!

It was good to be back!

Two weeks ago, we were at another hunter/jumper show! It came at such a great time, I was able to hand off all of my work and actually take a total of 4 days off of work (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Monday for a recovery day). I didn’t even bring my laptop down! 

I spent all day Tuesday preparing to hand off my projects and then managed to ride TC. Unfortunately over the weekend, my back injury got worse, so I ended up taking it easy on TC that day and then not riding him or the pony Wednesday before I left. I wanted to preserve my back for the show, but did decide to hand off the ride on Flounder to someone else if I found that my back wasn’t up for it. I have a doctor’s appointment coming up for it and am taking it easy until then. 

On Wednesday it seemed like I might not ride at all. Luckily Kate did a warmup round on Flounder (the entire barn except the two horses I was hauling got down there on Tuesday), so I didn’t need to ride him AND he got a solid trainer ride on him in the arena I was going to be jumping in for the weekend. But I woke up on Thursday feeling surprisingly good and managed to ride the whole weekend!!

He is so cute

His cute little knees, I think I fucked this one up
but he didn't care lol

I opted to just do the jumpers this time. Flounder doesn’t have a change and is just not super competitive in the pro hunter divisions. Plus, I think the jumpers are really fun, the courses are so interesting! 

On the first day I opted to just do the .70 meter jumpers again. The first class had a jump off and we were definitely quite rusty. I went way too slowly and Flounder got annoyed that I wasn’t riding him forward to the fences, so he popped a fence down to let me know that I needed to pick up the pace or risk more rails. In my second class, I asked Kate if I should go faster and she said yes. Then as I was cantering to the first fence I heard her say that I needed to go even faster. So I went as fast as I could, which ended up being a completely normal pace. 

In true amateur hour fashion, for some reason I thought it was optimum time jumpers, so I took the long way around one of the turns noticing that I was a little ahead of time. It was a speed class though (why do they have speed classes at this low of a level?!), but we still were quick enough to get second place out of something like seventeen rounds! 

This absolutely made my day and then we were done before 9am, amazing! This was our first time having grooms (my first time in like 20 years!) and it was absolutely worth it. I got to hop off, change out of my show clothes and into normal clothes, and go watch everyone in our barn ride every day. It was so great. I had a little bit of sticker shock at first but then after the first day when I had horses unloaded from my trailer, my trailer unloaded and cleaned out, and then was parking after hauling in 15 minutes before… wow, absolutely worth it. This goes in the budget for shows from now on! 

He's literally so adorable over fences, no joke, Kate
clicker trained him to jump, he was actually a failed
gymkhana horse!

Look at all of his toes!

On the second day, I asked if I could move up to the .80s for my second class because there was only one pro class per height (and then no more pro classes after that, ugh). Kate said yes and so I did! It was good to have the .70s first to give me some confidence riding more forward. I managed to go around clean and fast for a fourth place ribbon.

It was my first .80s class on Flounder but he was a star. I honestly didn't even notice the jumps had gotten bigger! We went clean and clear and this time landed ourselves in THIRD place out of a whole lot of people. Such an amazing little fish!!

Friday evening, my brother, niece, and father came down to watch the hunter derby and stay overnight so that my niece could do her very first leadline class on Saturday afternoon. More on that tomorrow!

Dressage Data: Disaggregations by Horse

Today I want to look deeper at the same metrics we looked at yesterday. This time, I'm going to disaggregate them by horse. 

I will always owe this guy so much! 

Best and Worst Test By Horse

Best Test for Rico: Training Level Test 4

Average: 67.84%

Median: 67.69%

Minimum: 62.69%

Maximum: 72.69%

Count: 5

Worst Test for Rico: Fourth Level Test 1

Average: 61.30%

Median: 61.40%

Minimum: 60.23%

Maximum: 62.29%

Count: 3

My thoughts: Once again I dropped a single low score for I2 (60.79%) since there was only one of them. Rico and I showed 4-1 twice right away after debuting at Third level and after that, he went lame. Then I came back into work with him and we went back out at the same level, scoring poorly and making me realize that I needed a trainer. Training 4 (wow that makes me feel old) was only ridden for the first half of the first year I got him and so I didn't have time to fuck him up yet. 

Baby Megan already pulling on the left rein lol

Best Test for TC: Third Level Test 1

Average: 70.27%

Median: 70.27%

Minimum: 70.00%

Maximum: 70.54%

Count: 2

Worst Test for TC: First Level Test 1

Average: 66.48%

Median: 67.96%

Minimum: 61.48%

Maximum: 69.26%

Count: 5

My thoughts: This definitely makes sense. I thought Training 2 might eke out Third 1, but it didn't. My average for Training 2 on TC was a 70.00% though! Third 1 we showed twice in 2020 and scored in the 70s both times. Despite his topline... you know what, now is not the time. First 1 was usually our first test when we were doing First level in 2018 and he was a silly demon horse for some of those shows.  

"You can't have everything" or
maybe just being embarrassed
that my phone slipped during a
test and I had to fling it off of
my horse mid canter

Best and Worst Test Movements

Best Test Movement for Rico: Free Walk

Average: 7.2

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 7.0

Maximum: 8.0

Count: 22

Worst Test Movement for Rico: Piaffe

Average: 5.5

Median: 5.5

Minimum: 4.0

Maximum:7.0

Count: 8 

My thoughts: Wow leave it to Rico to make it very clear that he wanted me to let go of his face. And leave it to this data analysis to make me want to never go past I1 again due to the piaffe. Interestingly enough, my second best movement type on him was trotting. This doesn't include lateral work, transitions, or centerlines. It does include just like... trot circles and diagonals, which mostly show up at the lower levels. At the lower levels, Rico's canter was tough for me to handle and he had a beautiful trot, so this makes sense. 

Best Test Movement for TC: Diagonal

Average: 7.5

Median: 7.5

Minimum: 7.0

Maximum: 8.5

Count: 12

Worst Test Movement for TC (tie): Rein back

Average: 6.3

Median: 6.3

Minimum: 6.0

Maximum: 8.0

Count: 4

Worst Test Movement for TC (tie): Half Pass

Average: 6.3

Median: 6.5

Minimum: 6.0

Maximum: 7.5

Count: 12 

My thoughts: I think this is just because we scored so well at Training 2. Our second best movement is leg yield and third best is counter canter. I'm not sure what that's actually telling me. Our two worst movements being half pass and rein back tracks. I hate half pass and TC hates rein backs!

I was best at half pass on Rico when I was
riding with my old trainer!

Movement Flags

I thought these might be interesting! Rico was better at non-lateral-work and non-medium/ext movements. TC is actually better at lateral work than non-lateral-work!! How is that possible?

Lateral Work

Average: 7.1

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 6.0

Maximum: 8.0

Count: 32

Not Lateral Work

Average: 6.8

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 3.0

Maximum: 9.0

Count: 410

My thoughts: Ummm I do know that he scored really well on his leg yields at First level. But half pass was one of our worst movements??? I know the horse hasn't done a lot at Second level and has only showed twice at Third, so maybe this is just skewed due to him being really good at leg yields. 

Who likes to do the sideways? You do, apparently.

Best and Worst Directions

Best Direction for Rico: Straight

Average: 6.7

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 4.0

Maximum: 9.0

Count: 90

Worst Direction for Rico: Changing directions from left to right

Average: 6.2

Median: 6.0

Minimum: 2.0

Maximum: 8.0

Count: 159

My thoughts: This is interesting to me! I know our centerlines were good, but the changing directions from left to right is interesting. I guess we were weaker going right than left so maybe the anticipation of going right was not good. 

Best Direction for TC: Straight

Average: 6.9

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 5.0

Maximum: 9.0

Count: 24

Worst Direction for TC: Left

Average: 6.8

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 4.0

Maximum: 9.0

Count:161

My thoughts: These scores are LITERALLY 0.1 points apart, I checked a lot, I thought I made a mistake. But nope, this horse is unbelievably consistent. And when he was younger, I guess he was just an equal opportunity chaotic weirdo. 

Any movement, any time, you just never knew

Best and Worst Gaits by Horse

Best Gait for Rico: Collected walk to collected canter

Average: 7.1

Median: 7.0

Minimum: 6.5

Maximum: 7.5

Count: 9

Worst Gait for Rico: Piaffe

Average: 5.5

Median: 5.5

Minimum: 4.0

Maximum: 7.0

Count: 8

My thoughts: That's interesting! Rico did have a killer walk to canter transition. His second best gait was passage to canter, third best was free walk, followed by medium walk to collected canter. Rico was definitely the not-trot-to-canter champion. Maybe, like the free walk, it was the one time I let him freaking go forward. Extended paces are way down on the list LOL. 

Definitely thought the extended trot would be one
of the worst gaits as well lol

Best Test Movement for TC: Medium walk to collected canter

Average: 7.5

Median: 7.5

Minimum: 7.0

Maximum: 8.0

Count: 4

Worst Test Movement for TC: Collected canter to collected trot

Average: 5.9

Median: 6.3

Minimum: 4.0

Maximum: 7.0

Count: 4

My thoughts: Oh wow so apparently I'm pretty decent at a walk to canter transition. I guess this isn't news, but I thought it'd be a different movement. Our second to best movement is medium walk to working trot, so I guess upward transitions are a strength for us. As for our worst movement, TC definitely subscribes to the idea that the best way to do a downward transition (our second worst movement is trot halt trot) is to just throw himself onto the ground and let gravity stop him. We also have some lower scores for our walk work, both medium and extended walk are down in the bottom quarter of the movements. I find that odd given how amazing his walk is today, but I do know that back then, he wasn't the prowling forward thinking guy he is now. 

Loves a good walk to canter transition

Best and Worst Facilities

Best Facility for Rico: Villa Rosa

Average: 68.61%

Median: 68.61%

Minimum: 66.47%

Maximum: 70.74%

Count: 2

Worst Facility for Rico: Yarra Yarra

Average: 62.77%

Median: 61.45%

Minimum: 61.45%

Maximum: 69.71%

Count: 5

My thoughts: Rico was very comfortable at VR, but they stopped having shows once I had fucked him up so we only got the one show. The second highest facility was the Horse Park, which would be TC's least favorite facility if you asked him. Yarra Yarra I've been to a TON and he really liked it there, so I ended up chasing my upper level scores there. Btw, I dropped the lowest facility because we only showed one test there. 

Best Facility for TC: American Sporthorse

Average: 69.75%

Median: 70.79%

Minimum: 65.68%

Maximum: 72.27%

Count: 8

Worst Facility for TC: CNDC

Average: 67.91%

Median: 68.59%

Minimum: 64.44%

Maximum: 70.47%

Count: 6

My thoughts: So, he was very comfortable at American Sporthorse and that's why for his first year of showing, we showed there pretty exclusively. CNDC was not a bad facility for him, honestly looking at the spread, the horse is consistent as hell across facilities. I think these scores were brought down by the one show where he basically pitched a fit in 107 degree heat. Not because it was too hot, because he was feeling so good due to me being so worried about him and pumping him full of electrolytes. Didn't worry about myself enough so I could barely ride him! Funnily enough, the horse has scored in the 70s at least once at every single show facility we've ever showed at. wouldn't have guessed that. 

This guy would never be nuts in 107 degree heat

Well, that's all I have for disaggregating by horse! Next my plan is to look at datetime variables. Do I like morning or afternoon tests? Is the first test of the day better or the second? How long between tests is optimal? We'll find out! 

Ranch Competition Champion

We'll be back to dressage data science next week! Today I wanted to catch up on another topic. A couple of weeks ago, I decided on a whim to take TC to another ranch competition playday thing. If you remember, we did this in May and we ended up winning the Novice division! After absolutely zero practice and no preparation, I decided to move us up to the Open division. 

I did us a disservice by arriving late. I figured he wasn't in the most amazing shape right now and I didn't want to be on him too long for the desensitization portion (they give you like 2-2.5 hours to go practice before the competition), then make him wait around a bunch, then get back on for the competition. Just seemed like a lot and I had nothing but my TCS to ride in, I'm a bit careful about riding too long in it given that there's no tree. 

Turns out that me arriving *just in time* to do 30 minutes of practice ended up me arriving just in time to see someone fall :( she had to go to the hospital so the ambulance came. Sounds like she is okay (she was wearing her helmet!), she was conscious, just had a bad back already and wanted to make sure it was okay.

Professional Ranch Competition Horse

So I took him on a walk while that happened and then there was an announcement about us coming in on foot and walking the course. I went over and asked if it was okay if I rode TC during the course walk. I promised I wouldn't get in the way or touch any obstacles, but it was a way to get in the ring before our competition. 

Obviously TC thought that walking around a bunch of fun obstacles with a group of people meant that he was in the circus. He kept doing tricks and then staring back at me like "they LOVE me, I can just tell" and I was trying to just keep him somewhat focused so that I could hear what the course was. 

We then left and I tied him back up to hang out while I studied the course. He pawed and pawed and pawed. If there's one mistake I've made, it's that the horse will NOT stand at the trailer. He will not pull back or panic or anything, but he will stare at you aggressively and dig a giant hole. 

It was so fun!

Finally, we were on again and he was HOT. He would not stand still, he had to get in there and show off. Look at all the people watching, look at all the people judging, there was music, there was an announcer! 

There was a ton of backing up, so I did some clicker training with reining back (I regret not bringing my neck rope, he reins back way better in that). Soon, it was our time to go in. 

TC says, pls let me go in the ring

The course was similar to the one last time, but it was much harder and there were a few extra obstacles, some that TC had never seen. 

The first obstacle was the rope gate, but instead of walking forward through it, we had to use our left hands and rein back through it. TC was perfect except wanting to take the rope from me. I said no thank you and we moved on. 

The next obstacle was an umbrella. I had to pick up the umbrella, open it, hold it over my head, and walk a circle with it. TC has never done this before, but he has seen umbrellas. He thought it was GREAT. I kind of feigned not remembering how to open an umbrella (#californiaproblems maybe?) so that I could do it slowly. He grabbed it in his teeth and I had to wrestle it out of his mouth before our walk around. 

Next up was a big garbage can, one of those big green bins that you put yard waste in. It was half full of water and you had to walk up to it and flip the lid, making a big banging noise as it fell open. I could have sworn that TC would have at least startled, but he didn't. I think he realizes that the point of these competitions is to let me do whatever the fuck I want with him and then he gets a ribbon and a lot of attention. 

Best boy

Next we had to dismount near a cone, pick up his right front foot, lead over to a picnic table, mount from the off side, then go stand by the cone and drop the reins, allowing the judge to count to ten before picking the reins up. TC has been mounted on the wrong side exactly once... when I realized I'd never done it before and so jumped on him from that side to get on for the competition. He hated it then, but he was fine in the competition. He also stood perfectly still with the cone in his mouth for the ten seconds. Ridiculous. 

After that were two exercises we'd seen before: the car wash and the belly tickler. The belly tickler is a bunch of pool noodles sticking straight up that we side pass over so that they thwap his belly. He doesn't care about either. By this point, the announcer actually said "Megan, does your horse spook at anything?" and it's like... not really. 

Garbage box thing

Instead of just walking over the bridge, we had to put two front feet on it from the side, then turn on the forehand to face it and walk over it. TC was great at that. 

Following the bridge, we had to do a very odd weaving exercise over 4 cones. We had to face a cone, then turn on the forehand 180 degrees to put the cone under the horse's belly, then turn on the haunches to put the next cone under the belly, and repeat until we went through all 4 cones. TC thought that was weird but he did it SHOCKINGLY WELL for a ginormous horse who is not always aware of how many legs he has. 

Next, we had to go put a jacket on and walk around with it. I started noticing that the one other Open rider was doing some extra stuff, so while walking around with the jacket on, I whipped it off and flung it over TC's face, who thought that was just great. 

After that, we had to walk over a small jump and then over a tarp with water on it. TC thought that was HILARIOUS and spent a lot of time carefully knocking the jump down and then snuffling in the tarp. I was like... my friend, please. People laughed though, and this is one of many reasons my horse will never jump.

You can see the garbage can in the
background

Next was to watch some silly person run around with noise makers and a yoga ball in a little cart. He thought that was excellent. 

From there, we had to walk the long way through a bunch of bottles in a rectangular space. We had to halt in the middle of it, which TC thought meant that he should paw the bottles a bit and I was like NO. 

Next was the rein back zig zag thing, which he did surprisingly well. Open didn't get to walk forward through it, but that was no problem. 

Following that, we side passed to a mailbox, opened it, took out a stuffed spider, shook it over our head, then put it back and side passed back. TC thought that was fine and I did an extra move by sticking it on his head. 

Next was walking over a garbage bag in the shape of a spider with big googly eyes. TC was great with that one last time and this time. 

Then we had to do a spiral in and out around some cones at the trot. I was half expecting this to be our downfall, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! The last tiniest circle wasn't terribly balanced, but that's okay. 

Such a nice day too!

Our third to last obstacle was rolling the barrel, which he clearly remembered from last time and he was much improved. What a dude. 

Then we had to walk around a barrel that had a pvc pipe attached to it, we held one side of it and kind of spun around. Open had to rein back the circle and that took us FOREVER. 

And finally, our last obstacle. We had to drag a full on tree branch... TC walked right up to it super confidently, but we haven't dragged that many things. I made a mistake because we got halfway to our destination without him actually noticing that it was coming with us. I could have sworn he saw it...  He did not. He spooked and went to zip off. I think I could have salvaged it by stopping him in his tracks, but I just let him go and then we restarted and he was totally fine. Woops!

The competition was tight, but we ended up winning the open division!!! We got ourselves another blue ribbon and we got a lot of praise from everyone about how amazing our connection was. We only got a couple of questions about the TCS too, so that was cool. 

I cannot wait for the next one, I think they do them twice a year. 

Such a good boy!

I think next year we may try our hand at an Equine Trail Sports competition. They have them a little north of Sacramento at a couple of places. I think TC would love to do them and I'd love to have something to work towards that isn't just dressage. I think we also may try a Trail Trial, we'll see what I can get into our calendar. 

Dressage Data Week: Overall Results

Sorry for the delay! I thought I had all these posts scheduled right after that last post but I did not. Anyways, now we're heading into the exciting part of this project: finally answering those questions I had when I started this project! I will answer some of them today, but there is so much to look at, I'll be dragging this out at least for another few posts. Clearly can't guarantee that it'll be this week though. 

"Whoops"

Before anyone gets excited about this, please note: this is imperfect data and this is just for fun. Here are some things I'm taking note of for now:

First, I have yet to take into account the fact that some of these tests were judged by two different judges for the same ride. I will figure out how to deal with that, but I can say that it's not a significant number of tests and I also think it's worth looking at those tests on their own in the future. 

Second, I do not have any kind of a normal distribution. Rico and Leo were the only horses I rode the FEI tests on, and I was very tight financially during those times, so shows were few and far between. TC has scored higher on average, but that's because I already have my medals and don't feel the need to chase 60 percent scores anymore, I've been chasing scores in the high 60s/low 70s.

Third, I was obviously biased towards show facilities, judges, and tests that I liked. There is a reason why Fourth Level Test 3 does not appear in my dataset! 

Fourth, for this post in particular, none of this is weighted! Rico's scores very heavily influence overall, because I rode the most tests on him. I decided not to deal with weighting just yet though. Mostly because I didn't want to. But also because I did ride all of these tests, we are looking at me right now, we'll disaggregate by horse tomorrow and that'll help put this into perspective. 
Now that we have all of that out of the way, let's look at some results. 

Off to the data!

Scores by Horse

The Alchemist aka TC
    Average: 68.85%
    Median: 69.26%
    Minimum: 61.48% 
    Maximum: 73.44%
    Count: 25

Larkin, who didn't have a show name lol
    Average: 66.81%
    Median: 66.41%
    Minimum: 59.44%
    Maximum: 75.83%
    Count: 22

This is Larkin! He's still kicking it at like 30+
years old too

Regentanzer aka Rico
    Average: 64.64%
    Median: 64.88%
    Minimum: 59.12%
    Maximum: 72.69%
    Count: 58

Le Mans aka Leo
    Average: 62.16%
    Median: 61.58%
    Minimum: 54.26% 
    Maximum: 67.44%
    Count: 5 [note: one test missing]

My thoughts: This makes sense! TC's aggregates of course are the highest given that my goals changed from scoring good enough to scoring well. Larkin was my first dressage horse and I rode him at Training and First only, he was a stellar lower level horse. Rico I was pursuing medals, so scores in the 60s were fine. Leo and I only showed six times (I lost a PSG test) and we were literally chasing scores the entire time except at our first show where I rode 3-3 and 4-1 to just kind of eel him out in the show ring before my pony club rating on him. 

That 4th place is his worst score I think lol

Scores by Test

Highest Test: Training Level Test 2
    Average: 70.14%
    Median: 70.77%
    Minimum: 66.15% (Larkin)
    Maximum: 74.23% (TC)
    Count: 8

Lowest Test: Grand Prix
    Average: 60.76%
    Median: 61.30%    
    Minimum: 54.26% (Leo, he retired from the FEI levels afterwards)
    Maximum: 65.20% (Rico)
    Count: 3

My thoughts: I do love a good Training 2 test! And the Grand Prix is kind of self explanatory, I only showed the highest levels just enough to get my scores. That low score was because Leo had been on and off sore (he had navicular) the week coming up to the show. We gave him that week off and then we got him out at the show and he felt great, so we decided to show him to give him one last GP and me my first one. I was SO unbelievably hesitant because I didn't want to hurt him, so I dropped the ball quite a bit. Oh well! 

Future USDF Gold Medalist

Test Movements

Best Test Movement Score: Diagonal 
    Average = 7.53
    Median = 7.5
    Minimum = 7
    Maximum = 8.5
    Count = 16

Second Best Test Movement Score: Free Walk 
    Average = 7.11
    Median = 7
    Minimum = 5.5
    Maximum = 8.0
    Count = 51

Worst Test Movement Score: Piaffe
    Average = 5.4
    Median = 5
    Minimum = 4
    Maximum = 7
    Count = 13

My thoughts: I guess I like a good diagonal?? This was news to me! Diagonal doesn't include lengthenings/mediums/extensions so I think this is exclusively from Training Level Test 2. Also can confirm, piaffe can go burn in a fire. It was not my or Rico's strong point and there is a LOT of it in the Grand Prix. 

Also, I found my most ridiculous movement type: transitions. My average score is a 6.6, median is a 7... lowest is a 3, highest is a 10. Same with lead changes, average is a 6.3, median is a 6.5... lowest is a 2, highest is an 8. Lol, love it. 

This free walk definitely lowered
our average lol

Movement Flags

I decided to flag movements as lateral work or not and lengthening/medium/extension or not. Turns out I'm better at movements that are not those. No surprise there! But maybe this will be more interesting broken out by horse later. 


Directions

Best Direction: Straight
    Average: 6.6
    Median: 7.0
    Minimum: 4.0
    Maximum: 9.0
    Count: 156

Worst Direction: Changing directions from left to right
    Average: 6.3
    Median: 6.5
    Minimum: 2.0
    Maximum: 8.0
    Count: 255

My thoughts: LOL oh my god this is HILARIOUS to me. I positively hated going right for so long and so clearly, I would start to be like "wow this is going to be the worst" as we started to change directions. We'll see how this breaks out by horse but I am loving this. I've always been good at centerlines so no surprise there. Following straight is left, then right, so honestly the issue going right was probably more in my head. But also at the bottom is changing directions from right to left, so maybe I just hate changing directions?

I love a good straight line

Gaits

Note: transitions are separate from gaits here, if a movement is working trot to working canter, it's coded as such, not as trot or canter separately

Best Gait: Working Canter
    Average: 7.18
    Median: 7.0
    Minimum: 6.5
    Maximum: 8.0
    Count: 8

Worst Gait: Piaffe
    Average:  5.46
    Median: 5.0
    Minimum: 4.0
    Maximum: 7.0
    Count: 

My thoughts: Again not very many surprises. It's easy to canter around in a working canter and I have a much easier time cantering than trotting. And once again we revisit how terrible I was at piaffe.  I find it interesting that after working canter, my next two best gaits are transitions from collected or medium walk to collected canter. Downward transitions are much lower on the list. At the bottom ahead of piaffe is the passage to piaffe to passage transition, and trot to halt to walk, and extended trot. I am not good at extended trot, or trot work in general. 

Pictured: working... canter... lol

Coefficients

I decided to see whether I tended to score better on movements that were worth 1x vs the double coefficient movements. 

Best Gait: Working Canter
Average: 7.18
Median: 7.0
Minimum: 6.5
Maximum: 8.0
Count:

Worst Gait: Piaffe
Average:  5.46
Median: 5.0
Minimum: 4.0
Maximum: 7.0
Count: 

My thoughts: Again not very many surprises. It's easy to canter around in a working canter, much harder at the collected canter. And once again we revisit how terrible I was at piaffe.  I find it interesting that after working canter, my next two best gaits are transitions from collected or medium walk to collected canter. I'm also not noticing a lot of trotting in my top movements... par for the course.

I should have counted how many times I went off
course lol here's me studying my test on Larkin

Facilities

Best Facility for Me: American Sporthorse
    Average = 69.75%
    Median = 70.79%
    Minimum = 65.68%
    Maximum = 72.27%
    Count = 8

Worst Facility for Me: Pebble Beach
    Average = 62.77%
    Median = 61.43%
    Minimum = 59.12%
    Maximum = 69.71%
    Count = 5

My thoughts: well, first, I removed my actual worst facility since I'd only ever ridden there once and got a 61%. But this makes sense. I only ever showed at Pebble Beach on Rico and only once, and I was injured for like, half my tests. And I only ever showed TC at American Sporthorse and he loves it there. 

I thought Greenville would be up there since it's
MY favorite facility, but I also went there with Rico
so I think that pushed the average down

Judges

I did look at judges but it's tough, I've ridden under a lot of judges and my top judges are all people who have seen me 1-2 times. So it's not worth breaking it out. BUT I did do a gender (note: these are assumed genders based on what was on the tests at the time, the below does not include any changes to gender identity and is unfortunately not inclusive of genders outside of what people falsely assume are the only two) analysis. 

Male Judges
    Average = 66.74%
    Median = 66.74%
    Minimum = 61.40%
    Maximum = 74.23%
    Count = 23

Female Judges
    Average = 65.70%
    Median = 66.05%
    Minimum = 54.26%
    Maximum = 75.83%
    Count = 87

My thoughts: Eh they're fairly comparable, I was hoping for something interesting. 

All judges: what horse bolts INTO the arena??? 

I think this is quite enough for one post! Tomorrow, or whenever, I'll break down some of these same categories by horse (just TC and Rico).