Scarlet Hill Cross Country Derby / Schooling Show Report

The farm I ride at, Scarlet Hill, puts on cross country schooling shows a few times a year. Yesterday was the last one they offered for this season, and I was really hoping to go. At the last minute I found out that I did not have a babysitter, so I was bummed.....

Regardless, I went to check out the course and see friend Shannon ride around the beginner novice course with Kisses. Well while I was there, I was told by 3 people to GO HOME and GET YOUR PONY and when I returned they would watch Cadence for me.....So I did just that.

After looking at both the elementary and beginner novice courses I decided that I would do the beginner novice course. The BN course has more fences, it was longer and had more technical questions on it. Most of the fences on the BN course were smaller in size, which made me happy. Shannon pointed out that because it's a smaller BN course, it was a perfect "beefy" elementary! I have been complaining the last two events that there wasn't really any good places that offer a good BIG elementary or a SMALL beginner novice. This was the perfect chance to ride a small beginner novice.

So I warmed up fine. I jumped the x-rail once and headed out. I think a lot of people would scoff at the lack of jumping I do in warm-up. I kinda figure that the horse knows how to jump, it's more for ME to get comfortable in my saddle and warm-up.

I went out and got the countdown in the box and then we were off. Fence 1 was a max-ish log and it actually rode kind of wonky. Fence 2 was a red house, that also rode wonky. I think they rode funny because Buck wasn't TRULY in front of my leg. Both of these fences are going away from the home field and he just got a little sticky. He wasn't BAD, he just wasn't forward. The stretch from 2 to 3 offered me the opportunity to get in front of my leg - and that happened beautifully. Fence 3 was a small upbank and it rode beautifully. Fence 4 was whiskey barrel planters flipped upside down. Then we were in to a field with a steepish hill so we REALLY opened up here and cantered very quickly. Then we had to make a hairpin turn out of the field and down hill to fence 5 - a stone wall with telephone pole over it. And then another 90 degree turn left over a cordwoodish pile back in to the field. We then crossed the field (still downhill here) to a log rolltop/table fence. At this point we are back in the start field and cantered off to the NEW water jump!!!! Buck went right in, but once he was in he didn't want to get out, hehehehehehe. I had to swat him a number of times to get him out. I think it was because the water was deeper than he was used to and he couldn't figure out how to move ;)

Then we were off to fence #9....THIS was the fence that I was worried about. It was a max bench set on the upslope of a hill, so it looked even bigger than it was. Because this was a schooling show, I had told Meredith that I will be going around this jump....She aptly told me that if I forego any of the jumps then I would not be able to collect a ribbon....I thought no big deal, I could careless about the ribbon.....

But when it came down to it, I didn't WANT to forgo my chance at the ribbon. So when I was cantering down to the fence, and everything lined up perfectly, I just DID IT! AND EVERYTHING was beautiful with this jump. Perfect distance, perfect feeling in the air and perfect landing. I think at this point I let out a big "WOOOOO HOOOOO, WE DID IT!" hehe.

Anyways, then we went down a steeeeeep hill at the trot, and near the bottom picked the canter back up. We cantered down to fence 11, a log roll top and it rode beautifully too. At this point we had hit our stride, and galloped up the steep hill to find Fence 12, a green and beige house. Then fence 13 was the ditch (I opted for the 1/2 ditch because I was tired at this point AND I haven't schooled a ditch since the early Spring). Finally fence 14 was a grey narrow table.

The course rode beautifully for the most part. The down hill fences felt a tad strange. I think it was because my stirrups were a tad too long. The bigger parts of the course rode the best! I am THOROUGHLY surprised by this, but it's motivation to get up to the BN level and just go with it!

I don't know how we placed - they haven't posted results yet. But we were back in 4 minutes 15 seconds. Optimum speed was 350mpm and I think we probably were just under that in most spots, plus we had a few slower spots (like the water!).....but I do believe that we have a chance at a ribbon, so we'll see :)

I was just so pleased with Buck. Once we got through fence 1 & 2 he was awesome. He doesn't bat any eyelashes at the jumps, which is such a refreshing relief :) I love having a ballsy arrogant Pony Man!

Hilltop Equestrian Center Schooling Event

So a week ago I decided that I would enter the Hilltop Equestrian Center 3-phase in Somersworth, NH. It is one of the only events in the area that I have not been to....and I am feeling comfortable at elementary level so I thought I'd give it a go.

Well then of COURSE Buck decides to hurt himself! haha. I went to a cross country schooling lesson with Shannon on Thursday (after my breakthrough lesson) and he stepped on a really sharp rock. And then went badly 3-legged lame :( I opted to give him a few days off, soak it with epsom salts and then pack it and wrap it in a poultice. Well I lucked out because on Sunday, he was sound and ready to rock.

So it's like 85 degrees on Sunday with a humidity of about 80%. haha Of course it is, it's AUGUST and we *should* have this heat, but does it have to be THAT humid?!?! I opt to wear no jacket for dressage, as per the 2009 USEF rule EV 113.8 - which states,

At Eventing Tests or when all three phases of a Horse Trials are contested over one day - Protective headgear and protective vests as above. Clothing as appropriate for the test in progress (see below), or at the competitor’s option - boots, britches, spurs and gloves - as applicable for the test being performed. Long or short sleeved shirt with collar and without neckwear, of a conservative color, neatly tucked into riding breeches.

I figure, heck, I haven't ridden since Wednesday and haven't jumped since July 28th....why bother with getting overheated so much so I can't compete for the rest of the day? Well apparently NO ONE at this event had heard of such a thing, nor had the dressage judge. I started trotting around the outside of the arena and she stops me, asks me if I am looking for cross country (as I had my pinny on - didn't realize there was a bridle number in my packet)...I tell her no, that I am opting to wear a shirt with collar, no neck wear, so that I can compete the rest of the day and not get heat stroke! She asks me if I have a rulebook that states this is correct, I tell her I don't have one on my person but I was certain the organizer of the event would have one available....She lets me ride and doesn't put up a fuss about it.

The test itself was blah. I am not sure WHAT is going on but I feel that he was wiggly and a wee bit behind my leg. Must discuss with Denise at my next lesson. We scored a 40.0 and that put us 2nd out of 3, with the first place test being a 35.

I walk the cross country course and was not impressed. The jumps were on the smaller side, the whole course a bit cramped (except for the fences in the woods which were well spread out). And everything was just a bit "ghetto". I LIKE ghetto typically, but this was very ghetto. I questioned about 4 of the fences in terms of safety (the tire jumps just shouldn't be like that because a horse can get their hooves in to them, and the green wall at fence 3 was almost falling over!). Anyways, you can see the complete course on my facebook album.

I was THOROUGHLY expecting Buck to be a bit looky and squirrely to these jumps, especially the first few since they were not inviting at all. We went in to the box after jumping the x-rail in warm-up 3 times....the starter "counted us down" and when he hit one, Buck launched out of the box like he had rocket boosters under his butt!!!! We cantered down the path to the first fence (aka trip obstacle!) and then around the bend to fence two, and I instantly knew that a. he UNDERSTOOD HIS JOB and b. we would make it home clean! AND we did. I was SOOOOOO thrilled at how well it all went. He was just "on" and looking for the next fence the entire time. What a GOOD boy!

I can't believe how good he was on cross country given the fact that the last time he even jumped was at Apple Knoll. He was very responsive but was not looky at all really. I was soooooo happy with him!

Anyways, 2 of the 3 horses in my division had stops on cross country, which meant I moved in to first.

Stadium was a terrible course. The arena was tiny - maybe 75 feet wide by 100 feet long (or a bit longer, but not by much). That's not necessarily an issue, but the course they had set was SOOOOOO technical for the level that it was difficult. They had used just about every useable space in width in the arena such that you couldn't canter to the sides of fences to pick up our canter. The approach to fence #1 was tight and yucky. Then fence #2 was set right on the center line, and on both sides of the arena at that point there were "looky" things - a white coop/wall thingie and then on the opposite side we had panels leaning up against the fence.

I didn't feel like I got the chance to get a good rhythm started in stadium, and it just did not flow for me at all. It was "eeeeky" but we went clean.

So Buck and I got to do our first victory canter ;)

I'm really looking forward to redemption at Groton House...which opens TOMORROW!

Another really good breakthrough lesson

Sometimes I think when you start with a new instructor you have a series of breakthrough lessons. This theory of mine is still intact after today's private lesson with Denise. It's ungodly hot and has been the last few days. It's also very humid. I opt to stay indoors and do a flat lesson. I really wanted to jump today but after tacking up and warming up (or rather, getting even hotter!) I rethought that and decided a flat lesson would be good enough.

So today I am riding in the new "wonder bit". It's a french link snaffle mouthpiece with a gag type ring. I rode in it lastnight and didn't consider it a wonder, but today after my ride I am singing it's praises. It allows me to ride a little less hard and get the same reaction. And Buck just understands it better - yay for the Wonder Bit!

We start the lesson by running through the exercises from the last lesson. He is MUCH better today than he was over the last few days. We move through these exercises pretty quickly and move on. Another big thing Buck does besides plowing is throwing his shoulders around A LOT. He uses it as an evasion. I ask him to sit down and collect a little more, but not to hang on the bit, and his reaction is to pop his shoulder left or right, lock his jaw and "tune" me out. These are MEAN evasions, just things he does to keep from doing things that are hard!

One of the exercises we did today was trot -> halt -> rein back -> trot transitions. These transitions help him sit more on his hind end, and it also identifies a hole. The naughty little guy isn't allowing me to half halt on his left side....he's raising his naughty little hoof and flipping me the bird. haha.

So we move on to another exercise that not only gets his hind legs moving but also gets him to accept the half halt. This is an exercise I've used before when first teaching him to leg yield.....and now it's back with a vengence. It's basically a leg yield down the long side, but face the horse towards the wall and and go sideways down the wall (if that makes sense). This is an IMMENSELY difficult exercise for a horse that won't accept a half halt on one side because it basically won't work unless you can use ALL the aids effectively. I *LOVED* this exercise! Well, it sucked to do, but the result? Wait for it....wait for it.......

Wait a little longer because this is AWESOME!!!!!


SELF CARRIAGE!!!!!!!!! HOLY MACKERAL. I could not BELIEVE that Buck could EVER be this round, straight and supple all at once. The huge difference was seen in the right canter where he was straight, and light. Light enough that I felt I had NO CONTACT, but he was still cantering in an excellent cadence.

I was pleased as punch with this lesson. It was an utter breakthrough - probably the biggest breakthrough I have ever had with Buck. I am looking forward to working on these exercises on my own. And maybe some private lessons with Denise will be in order!

First Lesson with Denise

I had decided a few weeks ago that if Denise were going to ride Buck again at an event then I should learn WHAT she is doing with him so that she can be more effective when she shows him. Woah. That was a really long sentence. Sorry about that.

Yesterday I finally got around to making that lesson happen :) Denise's schedule is jam packed with training rides and lessons and it takes two weeks out to get on that schedule. I opted to do a semi-private lesson with Loraine and Ainsley. So we decided that we would do a flat lesson, specifically for ME I needed to understand the program that she wants to use and learn the techniques.

We have both agreed that Buck is not a "normal" horse. He thinks he knows exactly what must be done and can't possibly fathom WHY he should do it another way. We're not talking about taking directions and jumping - we're talking about the shifting of weight from the forehand to the hindquarters. I found this when I first started riding him a year ago. He was perfectly happy to move forward, turn, go wherever I told him....but once I wanted him to yield his jaw to the bit it took me FOREVER to get him to just SOFTEN the jaw....And I STILL struggle with that at times. He also would continually lock his neck and not yield it. This horse was stiff as a board and didn't see anything wrong with it! haha

So the first exercise we did was at the halt. "Carrot stretches" which encourage lateral flexion, but then we also asked him to go lower with the stretch and get a little bit of longitudinal flexion. This wasn't an incredibly hard exercise to the left, but turning to the right he definitely was stuck. Anyways, we continued the exercise at the walk. This was an exercise that was frustrating to me but very necessary to get him to lengthen his sides and relax his jaw.

The second exercise was to get him RESPONSIVE to the "forward" button. Not a terribly hard exercise either - just needed a bit of a tune up. Basically I'd ask him to trot but with a big WALLOP in to it so he was more responsive to just a simple lift of my leg. I have worked this one immensely from the day I got him the first time! His natural tendency is to be lazy....and that is fine as long as he has this button installed!

Our final exercise we worked on was the one where I gained the MOST insight. Going back to the beginning, Buck has ALWAYS used his neck and front end to move forward. What I mean by this is that he can NOT stay soft in his neck and jaw in transitions because he thinks he needs to USE them to move forward. This is probably the MOST frustrating thing about this pony. It came to a huge head the other day when he wanted to GOOOOOO home while we were out on a hack. I'd ask him to stop and stay soft, and walk off softly, and he'd pitch a fit and toss his head, half rear, etc. It was pretty nasty. So we NEED to fix this problem, and Denise has a solution.

So we would start from a halt. Ask him to stay soft in the jaw, and relaxed in his neck. And THEN we take that softness to walk. His first inclination is to bring his head DOWN and plow. My job was to keep him from doing that by insisting he NOT drop his head, and to try to keep him soft in the jaw. Well, easier said than done, haha....After many tantrums, we finally got it. After getting THAT, we finally had softness.

We pretty much ended on that note. Loraine (my lesson buddy this time) and I went out for a hack around the cross country field. Fun!

Apple Knoll Schooling Trials with Denise Goyea!

So after the Groton House debacle I decided that I wanted to have a professional take Buck around a few beginner novice events this year. I felt that it would make me more confident that he'll jump stuff that is new to his eyes and that he can jump that big ;)

I employed Denise Goyea to do the task. Denise is the "other" trainer at Scarlet Hill and she has more experience taking green horses around, plus she's "pony size". Meredith looked a tad big on Buck when she rode him (she is tall and long legged!), so we all thought Denise would be a better fit overall.

Denise had ridden Buck about 7 times. She did take him out on Friday prior to the even to school cross country, but Mother Nature had other plans....in the form of a torrential downpour.

So I had entered him in Apple Knoll Schooling trials on August 2nd. I had done the schooling trials here back in April, plus I had done the one jumper show here, and TWO hunter paces last year. So it's kinda like our "home grounds", haha. I also felt that the course *should* be on the easier side, given the pre-elementary and elementary courses I had seen in April. AND the coursewalk on the Area 1 website looked simple, too.

Buck and Denise's times were respectable. 9:30am dressage time, 11:30am stadium and 12:38 cross country time. Not too bad, except we had to detour to get Meghan and Luna in Amherst. We ended up leaving the house at 6:15am. Eeek, early! We end up getting there early - Mapquest was wrong on the time! Oh well.

Denise and Buck put in a respectable dressage test. They earned 8s on both centerlines and one or two other movements. The rest of the test was 7s and 6s. They ended up scoring a 35.8 with a pretty strict judge. This put them in 4th place after dressage. Not too bad!

Stadium was a typical Apple Knoll course. Twisty, turny and a tad looky. I didn't think Buck would have an issue with anything in there....but I was wrong!!!! He actually needed to peek at the 4A fence....and whereas it was coming in to a combination, Denise opted to represent him to it, which added 4 penalty points. It was very funny because the only "looky" part to the fence was they had placed "Bloks" under the jump, which ironically enough, Buck had been jumping in schooling just on Friday! Eeeek. So anyways, 4 points added. Other than that bobble they both looked fantastic!

Cross country was a LOT more difficult that I expected it to be. It was also longer than I expected. I was really worried going in to cross country for both factors. Fences 1 & 2 are the exact same fences as shown on the virtual coursewalk. Fence 3 was the same, too, but they had painted it bright red - and it was a down hill approach coming in to the field from the woods. That was the first difficult question I thought they'd have. Fence 4 was a hanging log that was put in between two apple trees (ie: decapitation threat). Fence 5 was the 2nd scary fence on course - a big bright green rampy/table thing. It actually looked smaller from a distance but once you got up to it, it measured a SOLID 2'6" and it was wide! Fence 6 was another big fence - the Apple Knoll farmstand fence. On the virtual coursewalk it is fence #14 but they had painted it white with green backers on the steps....AND tilted it up to make it bigger. Eeek. Fence 7 was a hanging log with some brush sticking up. Then they went back in to the woods and looped to another field. Fence 8 was a natural colored rolltop. Fence 9 was a natural colored house set in the shadows of a treeline. Fence 10 was another hanging log. Then they went back in to the woods. Fence 11 was a TINY coop with an odd approach but I didn't think it would cause any problems. Fence 12 was a new colored table-ish fence with orange flowers underneath it. Fence 13 was a zigzag fence (fence 12 on the virtual coursewalk). Then they had to cross the dirt road through the woods again and back in to the starting field. The last fence was the Apple Knoll hanging log.

So, longer course. With some of the trickier fences up front. And guess what? THEY WENT CLEAN!!!!!! We watched fences 3, 4, 5, and 6....and then the last fence. It felt like they were out there FOREVER....and I was concerned that there were issues. When Denise came in she said he was pretty good. A little looky to the jump judges and spectators, and he gave the orange flowers a good look at fence #12....but other than that, he was good. Out of shape, but good!

Here is video of fences 4, 5 and 6. And here's the last fence.

The 3rd place horse had a stop at the looky orange flowers, which moved Buck up to 3rd place. Needless to say I was very proud :) It's funny because I never thought I'd have Buck to the point where he could do a beginner novice course within a year. When we picked him up on July 28, 2008, he had been ridden about 10 times. I didn't actually get him CANTERING until October 2008....and in April we were just jumping 18 inches. So it was a big FAST jump for him, and he picked it up pretty quickly. He's a smart pony, that's for darned sure :)

This Apple Knoll course was more like a USEA sanctioned event. And NOT a move up course, so I am told. The fact that they finished it, without faults, makes me very very happy. And more confident that Buck CAN and WILL jump things he's pointed at as long as he has enough engine! YAY BUCK! I'm not downplaying Denise's strength in riding at all. I am SURE that part of his confidence to jump strange things came from her. And I think I can do a pretty good job at faking confidence if needed :)

So what's next? I made the decision to have Denise ride him at King Oak in September - Buck's first USEA sanctioned event. And then I'll ride him at elementary again at Groton House Fall Classic. And then I'm going to enter him in the UNH horse trials for October. Just don't know if Denise or if I will ride him. I think I'll be okay to do beginner novice at that point, especially if Denise continues riding him....but we'll see :)

WOOOHOOOO!!!!!! Green Acres Report!

WOW. I never thought I'd "get the mojo back" so easily. And so RIGHT!!!!!

So I took Buck, Meghan and Luna to the Green Acres Stables Event yesterday. I was entered at elementary. I had toiled all week beforehand because I was worried about his breathing. I decided to keep him in the 3-phase (instead of dropping to the 2-phase), and planned that if I felt that he needed it, I would retire on cross country and ask (beg) to ride stadium.

I warmed up for dressage in the tiny arena (complete with "water jumps"). It wasn't the best warm-up but I really concentrated on getting him forward off my leg. I rode the test and felt that it was pretty good. He's still learning to come off my leg, and he's so anticipating that sometimes his legs seem to go every which way. It was an accurate test though, and his transitions were pretty good. I expected to score around a 35.....So you can imagine my surprise when we earned a 41.6!!!!! EEEEK. Overall though this judge had very high marks. This score put me in 2nd place after dressage, with the 1st place rider having something like a 38....So really, I guess it wasn't *that* bad. She did comment on the right canter that he looked "off". It's weird because sometimes at the canter he doesn't seem to want to "follow through" on the right front....plus THAT is the foot that he gives the farrier trouble with. So I'm definitely going to do some more exploring. (Going to call the chiro on Monday.)

So then I walked cross country and ofcourse I feel like I'm going to die. In the past we have had first fence-itis....and today's first fence? A BIG ASS LOG.....Now, I'm happy it was a log, but seriously, it is flagged for Novice, Beginner Novice AND Elementary???? My "thigh" test puts this fence at 2'6"....and when I had it on the course last time long time buddy Shannon told me NOT to walk too close because it'll only look bigger close up. Ugh!!!!!! The rest of the fences were all ones I had jumped before with the exception of switching out a few logs for different ones, AND THE BIG SMILIE SURPRISE. haha. The "SMILIE SUPRISE" fence is fence #9 on my course....Basically it is a bunch of stumps sticking out of the ground and then cut to look like a smilie mouth :) The middle of the jump is probably about 2'3", but if you don't hit the middle you may jump as big as 3'. In addition, this fence is about 4 strides out of the woods, and angled funny so at the exit you have to turn left hard but NOT in to the Novice/Training "house" jump....The smilie fence also had a rather large puddle on the landing, and I was worried about that.....So I obsessed about fence #1 - BIG ASS LOG and fence #9 - big ass stumps.

I get back on and begin to warm-up. I want to conserve the pony, the warm-up area is little and they only have 2 jumps - a x-rail and a vertical (with an 8' rail)....I opt to canter a bit, and then I pop the x-rail twice. That was my warm-up.

I get in to the box and tap him a few times....and then we leave the box and I tap him a few more times and turn towards the log....and he LOCKS on it. It was SUCH a cool feeling. His head came up, he sat down, lengthened his stride and we flew over it!!!!! YAY FOR BUCK!!!!! We have no issues at all for the rest of the course. He was AWESOME over the stumps. I was so exhilarated coming off of cross country. Not because of getting over the 2 scary fences, but because he was LOOKING for jumps, positive to EVERY fence and just so much fun to ride! I don't think there was a single "ugly" fence that we jumped - as in they all rode beautifully.

So what changed? I pushed him to canter/hand gallop EVERY single fence. I stayed back, I kicked in places. I TOLD him to jump every fence. Instead of praying that he did. I also remembered Denise's ride when she told me that he was almost "thinking of walking before he even jumped the fence". Obviously that's not a good thing, so I RODE hard to make sure he knew that we were going to continue cantering afterwards.

I think I *finally* got it. I trust him that he's not going to stop if I ride him positively towards every fence. I rode agressively but not defensively, if you catch my drift.

Stadium was up next. The course was held in the sand ring, and since we had a ton of rain the night before, it was SWAMPY in spots....I remembered then the lesson where there were puddles right in front of my jumps and how if I didn't ride agressively he'd stop. So I knew what I had to do - ride like I rode xc!

The course was pretty twisty. Fence 1 & 2 were coming towards home, Fence 3 was an oxer (where I asked for a long spot but he chipped in and was right!), Fence 4 was a vertical to a bending line with a red fence with "panels" underneath it. Fence 6 was a rollback from fence 5. Fence 7 was a scary "rock wall" fence. And finally fence 8 was another oxer.

I rode the course exactly how I had planned. I kicked and whipped a little coming to fence 7 - didn't want him looking at the rock wall. He jumped everything well - though he was tired, bless his heart. We were clean.

AND WE WON!!!!! The 1st place rider had a rail (or stop?) in stadium, and we slid in to take the blue ribbon ;)

I was so VERY proud of him. It wasn't all about the ribbon. It was about the FEELING I had after both jumping rounds. It felt like we were a team, it felt like he "got it"...and he liked it!!!

So we got a really purdy ribbon for the collection, and an AMAZING package of horse cookies. Of course they were gone by this AM....Razzy's Oat Swirls or something like that. They smelled delicious!!!! Buck shared a little bit, but for the most part he got the whole bag to himself. And he totally deserved it!!!!

Meghan and Luna also brought home a ribbon! They got 8th in their first ever 3-phase :) YAY Meghan and Luna!!!!

Riding with Denise

I don't know if I mentioned this in one of my previous blogs, but after the disaster that was Groton House, I decided that I wanted someone to event Buck for me at the BN level. Something about my psyche that had me convinced that it would be BETTER for him AND me if someone more experienced took him there first. At the cross country schooling day on July 1st I cornered Meredith and Denise and we all agreed that Denise Goyea would be the one to christen Buck ;) haha

The plan then was to have Denise ride him a couple times a week and then work towards a few USEA events at the end of the season.

Today was Denise's first ride on Buck. HEHEHEHEHE. Let's just say that it was interesting. Buck has been allowed to "plow" along on his forehand for far too long. Partly because I've been trying to work on me and the jumping and partly because I am still way out of shape and didn't realize that I SHOULD be expecting more out of him. So the first 20 minutes or so were a lot of kick and pull. He would get all sorts of nasty with his head, hop a bit, there were a few crow hops and one leap then buck, hehe. But he *did* get it eventually and by golly, there were some FANCY steps there!!!!! He is INDEED a very fancy little pony :)

At some point she began jumping him. She only jumped a bit because it was hot, humid and his breathing still isn't there. She deliberately made him take a few long spots. When I explained to her at the end that I felt he was hanging his shoulder and getting REALLY close the jump, she told me it was because he was using his FRONT end to get his power off the ground. So he gets closer to the base because he's using his front end to determine where to take off from. I don't know much about jumping, but THIS explanation sounds pretty darned good to me. It makes sense.

She was concerned about his fitness. I can DEFINITELY see why she would be. But I also know that he would've been MUCH better about 2 weeks ago and that the breathing issue that is very recent is causing him to seem a lot less fit than he is. I know I'm no expert, but I have been through this "exercise intolerance" issue before and once he's through the inflammatory process he'll bounce back fine. She was also concerned that he jumps and then just wants to stop at the end of the jump. Part of this I think is from the breathing because just a few weeks ago I was not having that problem. But it is true. He's a lazy horse and we're definitely going to have to work on that!

Other than that, she felt like he was a good jumper. That he is going to be a lot of fun! And he's comfortable to ride (which I already knew!). The current plan is for her to take him BN at Apple Knoll Schooling Trials on August 2nd, and then his first USEA event will be King Oak in September! FUN :)

A Set Back in the Health Department :(

Poor weenie, allergic Buck! So the ghetto barn DID catch up with him :(

Tuesday I had a lesson with Meredith and I was pleased with it. Very pleased, in fact. I noticed though that he was definitely stiffer in the right canter....and he coughed a few times, but nothing serious.

Wednesday he was off.

Thursday he got new shoes. And in the time it took for Brad to get all 4 shoes on (and the hind two tapped), Buck coughed at least 10 times and had very rasp-y breathing sounds. UGH.

So I took him to the clinic Friday morning and unfortunately confirmed what I was thinking on Thursday. He's having another flare up of the inflammatory airway disease from December :( He's obviously allergic to SOMETHING in the environment and I haven't quite pinpointed it. We scoped him, redid the bronchial aveolar lavage (aka "B.A.L") and then drew blood for allergy testing. The BAL is an interesting process where they insert a tube in to his airway, push saline in to the tube (lung) and then withdraw it all. Then they send the samples out for a cytology reading. Last time he had this done it showed a large level of nuetrophils and mast cells. Mast cells are present when there is an inflammatory/allergic reaction. We are *hoping* that THIS time we may be able to see something that he inhaled and deduce from there that it is causing him issues. Dr. Jackie Bartol told me that she once had a case where a horse had inhaled "rust" like flecks that were present in the BAL....and it turned out that the horse had a rusty salt block holder in his stall. Once they removed the salt block holder the horse was fine. Now we're not expecting anything that EASY to happen, but if they find particles then we know that it is likely related to airborne particulates and may not necessarily be ONE particular thing he is allergic to....(Which would be why my controlling of his environment - him living outside, no shavings, soaking all hay, etc - has helped him thus far!)

So anyways, we're in a wait and see pattern from that to see if we can get more information.

In the meantime, Buck had 5 days off. I rode for the first time today and he was definitely feeling alright body / muscle wise. He wasn't stiff at all, and I had some AWESOME walk-canter transitions and trot-canter transitions. I have no doubt that the shoes we put on him helped this :) Yay! Unfortunately he was pretty winded (despite being on the prednisolone for 2.5 doses). No coughing though he had a LOT of mucous being expelled from his nose.

Before the ride I opted to sign up for the Green Acres 3-phase on Saturday. We're doing elementary again. Hopefully he'll be back to himself again - or at least on the way there. I remember seeing a pretty remarkable difference in his breathing after he'd been on the pred for 5 days last time....so hopefully that'll be the case. If not I'll just ask to make my entry a two phase and be done with it!

GMHA Starter Trials

So the last event on my "schedule" from this Spring was the GMHA Starter Trials held in South Woodstock, VT on July 4-5th.

Between the Groton House debacle I had 3 stadium jumping lessons and one cross country schooling day. That's a lot of jumping, hehe! At least it felt like that's all I did when I went to ride. My last lesson, which I did not blog about, was a disaster. Mere had set-up a two stride combination and I just couldn't get the right distance coming in, and once the jumps were raised, we started having stopping problems at the first element :( So that was on July 3rd, and I was set to do Elementary at GMHA on July 5th. Needless to say this left me in a bit of a lurch, and I was definitely nervous coming in to GMHA.

We have had TORRENTIAL rains in the past two weeks, and the grounds just can't seem to soak it all up. This led to GMHA's decision to run a "modified cross country" course in the "Upwey Arena"....well I hadn't been to GMHA in YEARS (9) and therefore I didn't know what to expect....couple that with the part that I had already paid for the hotel room and I just decided that I had to go.

I was having serious doubts on Saturday about whether I should continue at the elementary level or if I should drop back and do some smaller stuff and become a stronger jumping rider. But I didn't want to give up at GMHA, and I also figured that if this weekend went disasterous that I would definitely drop....and if not, well, we'd just keep on at this level.

So this was Buck's first time overnighting at a show. He ended up becoming fast friends with the gelding behind him, which made Sunday quite interesting when both horses were in and out. At one point he hauled off and kicked the wall....and poor Shannon and Kisses got the scare of their life :( Thank Gawd the temporary stabling held up and no one was hurt....but then I got after Buck and he realized that I am FAR more intimidating than being left by his good old buddy gelding pal in the next stall. Yah. We were unfortunately stabled in the very disgusting "ghetto" barn called "Upwey". GMHA has done some serious improvements on their facility, and it would've been nice to have seen the new stalls and what not. Apparently they wanted to test Buck's respiratory issues and see if he could indeed handle staying all night in one of the dustiest, moldiest barns around. And he did make it, but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that he had Flovent and Albuterol on board. And I would've put some eye drops in his eyes too if I had brought them (the dust/allergens in the air made his eyes all gooky).

Anyways, we settled Buck in for the day, then went to check in at the hotel....I then went back to the barn and braided Buck, walked the courses with Shannon, and THEN we went to dinner. On the course walk we noted quite a few slick spots, and the warm-up "dust bowl" could now be coined the "mud bowl"....Yuck!

Sunday dawned a GORGEOUS day. Absolutely some of the nicest horse show weather I've ever encountered. Sunny, breezy and a high of about 68!

I tack up for dressage and get on. We meander through the stream over to the mud bowl, which miraculously dried up overnight and the footing was fantastic! YAY! I warmed up and found Buck to be quite opionionated, and he even threw in a few bucks here and there? Alrighty then. We went in to the test and he IMMEDIATELY dropped behind my leg and decided that he didn't need to move off my inside leg....grrrrrr.....we *did* have good up transitions in to the canter, but one of the transitions was so darned early. The rest of it was pretty bad - wiggly in spots, I couldn't get him in to the puddle down the long side so it we were off the rail about 2 feet from B to M! Nothing was glaringly terrible, but he was just so against my leg it wasn't even funny. Now at least I know what we can address in my Helen Cast clinic on Sunday!!!! I believe I scored a 42.1, which would have been the WORST score I have EVER EVER attained in my life. I knew it was bad, but I certainly didn't think it was a 40+ bad. It was rhythmical and he was fairly forward. The geometry was not great, but nothing so bad, especially after video review...

Dressage Video

So we have a huge lull between dressage and the jumping phases. Anyways, I have time to obsess about stadium...and obsess and obsess. The course is fairly fair for the level. Fence 1 is a tiny vertical away from the gate on the diagnol. Then fence 2 is a max vertical 4 strides to a smaller vertical but this fence has a YELLOW panel with stars cut out. (This line was on the way back to the gate.) Fence 4 is an OXER painted orange and blue - quite "looky" and going away from the fence....then Fence 5 is a rainbow colored fence with little green rolltops on the ground acting as a ground line. Then we come to fence 6, a natural fence with a natural brush box underneath. Then 3 strides to fence 7, a red and white oxer, finally loop back to fence 8, a purple and white fence with a brush box underneath it.

Stadium warm-up was interesting. I got him in to the canter and was easily able to adjust his stride. And we did jump all 3 warm-up fences BUT we got some really wonky distances. Thankfully I remembered Meredith's advice about "controlling the canter NOT the distance". I was able to stay about of his way. He was on FIRE! hehe

We go in to stadium, and he seems pretty keen to the game. He's learning now what his job is and how to do it. We pick up our canter and heads towards fence 1. The funny thing is that I FELT like he was gunning at it, but in the video, it appears that he was just increasing his stride length so he could meet the distance properly...>WOAH< ;) Fence 2 is uneventful, Fence 3 comes up and he peeks at it, but it's fine. I ride fence 4 (the oxer) very strongly because it could cause an issue, and he goes with it. Fence 5 was also a perhaps looky fence....he peeks, but doesn't have issue with it. At this point we come to the combination and he TROTS the first fence, and then gets 4 tiny strides in to the 3 stride combination, but hey, it works. Finally fence 8 he peeks at, but again, no problems. We went CLEAN. Which, ladies and gentlemen, is a HUGE deal for Buck the Clutz!!!!!

Stadium Video

We meander to modified cross country. It's actually kinda a cute set-up. They have a huge arena filled with natural objects. Unfortunately they have so much "stuff" in the arena that there's a lot of twisty turns, but they were able to run 5 levels of cross country in there! It's more like a derby cross for us. They have a few fences with logs underneath a pole, there are 2 coops (a natural one and a red one) and a haybale jump. The footing is FANTASTIC. Perhaps a little hard, but I'll take it.

Unfortunately we pick up the wrong lead out of the box and have to hang a hard left...so I pull him back to the trot to the first fence and then proceed to get on top of his neck. He says NO WAY, I'm not jumping like that, and he stops. Ugh. Well I turn and take a breath and represent him to it in a strong trot and he pops over it no biggee. Then we trot to fence 2, the grey coop. We had to snake way out to get the line for fence 3 and 4...then run around the start box to fence 5. Really, these 3 fences were in really yucky spots for a younger/greener horse because the turns interrupt the rhythm. BUT, fence 6 - 7 - 8 were great. Fence 6 was a red coop that we were able to canter at in a nice forward rhythm....so THIS is what cross country is supposed to feel like!!!! Fence 7 and 8 (backwards 1 & 2) rode beautifully.

Cross Country Video

I learned a TON about Buck and jumping him during this event! He LIKES to be ridden forward to the jumps. Me worrying about the distances has made me bring him back and I think he is like, "Hey, what's wrong with you????" haha

So the weekend ends with another stop. BUT a huge learning here. And a pretty big breakthrough. I have more clarity of what I want to do and what I feel I need. First of all I need to work on the flatwork a lot more. Second of all I need to do a lot more work on myself jumping wise! I am going to finish off the summer at elementary, but I'm going to have Denise Goyea do some riding and competing on him so he gets more mileage for ME ;)

A quick view of "cross country"

Getting my "mojo" back....

At least that's what Meredith said yesterday about my cross country schooling day runs! Scarlet Hill Farm ran a "Cross Country Show" yesterday in the miserable wet conditions! The idea is that they set a course and an optimum SPEED. You then go across the course and try to match that speed. The person closest to the optimum speed wins. You are expected to go over all of the fences as in horse trial but disobediences do not count. You can't get eliminated for too many stops at a fence, and if you want, you can go around a fence or choose an easier option.

The time for the "elementary" division was 275 meters per minute - which is a "strong trot". I am sort of past the whole trotting fences thing, so I was more going out to "get the flow" of the course and have a good positive schooling before our GMHA schooling trials this weekend.

The course was on the small side, but had some better questions (for me) near the end. The first fence was a pile of logs going away from the trailers/barn area. Then you s curve to fence 2 which had two options - a small log on the ground or a hanging log. Then curve a bit more to fence 3, an unsuspecting log which caused A LOT more problems than anticipating. Then we are in to the 2nd field. Snake down to another log (the "troll" log from previous schooling sessions). Fence 5 had an option - you could either jump the 2' olive colored table or a small pile of logs. Fence 6 was an up bank - maybe about 18" to 2'?, Fence 7 was a reddish colored coop, and finally Fence 8 was the tiniest little log up near fence 1.

So I go out on course. Buck goes in to the start box and says, "HEY, I KNOW what we're doing!!!" It was REALLY cute to see him perk up his ears and kinda know exactly what was going on! We head off to fence 1 with no problems, but then we get bogged down between fence 1 and 2 (and maybe there was a bit of wanting to run to the trailers???) so we opt here for the small log on the ground. Then to fence 3 - which was a HORSE EATING MONSTER!!!! I don't know WHAT his problem was, but he didn't want near this fence. With a little beating and spurring he went and then was fine to fence 4. At this point we finally have a rhythm. My PLAN for fence 5 (olive box) was to go for the olive box, but if I had had any "issues" earlier in the course to go for the log pile because I was there to build confidence. Plus the olive box had ridden TERRIBLY when we schooled in a few weeks ago in a different location. Anyways, we had a nice canter here, so I just went for it - and it was great. We trotted the upbank no problems, hopped over the coop and log. We had a clear round and I was happy with my resolve to not have a "stop" at fence 3.

Turns out that there were birds DIVE BOMBING everyone around fence 3.....and horses - even well schooled event horses were having problems there!

So we go out again on our 2nd run. This time I opt for the hanging log at fence 2. And the "Bird Log" was still sticky but none too bad. The olive table/box rode beautifully this time, and we cantered the up bank. Everything was spectacular this round and we came off the course very confident.

I had tried out some of my new jumping skills that we've practiced, and by darn it, I think he jumps better with them :) So my new mantra is "Squeeze your boobs" around the course, hahahahahahaha. I was so proud of my little pony guy....he REALLY gets it now!

So I wasn't expecting any kind of ribbon because I was going much faster than the other riders I watched. Well, apparently my "guage" is way off. I was going 252 mpm....and I ended up in 2nd place. haha! That is hysterical, but just icing on the cake of a very good schooling :)

A tribute to Dancer

Today is the one year anniversary of Dancer's passing over the rainbow bridge.
I miss him terribly at times, and at other times I am happy that we had such a
wonderful life and that I was there with him when he passed. Today I am a little
sad, but mostly I am thankful that he was in my life for so long and that we grew
"old" together. We were both very lucky in that way :)

I was originally thinking of doing an organized outing today - either a dressage
show or trail ride. But instead I chose to go on a quiet solo hack with Buck. I took
him out on the rail trail and we walked almost the entire time. I'll admit that I was
more occupied with getting him straight and supple then with Dancer's passing. We
ran in to some dirt bikes on our way home (which are NOT supposed to be out there)
and I've gotta say that Buck was so good about 2 motorcycles riding up on his bum.
Dancer would've been running away at a very quick pace!!!!

I wasn't sure how I'd take today. I thought I might be a basketcase....but I'm not.
I think it is because I chose to live in the present and not fret the past so much.
RIP Dancer.

Another jumping lesson!

I am sort of in cram mode since we have GMHA coming up and the last event didn't go so hot. So today in the heat and sweltering humidity, Shannon and I met up once again with Mere for more torture.

We spent a lot longer on flat work today, and I was glad for it. I would say we spent equal time flat and jumping, and that was good. I didn't ride on Friday and Buck was a little stiff going in. I got on a little early and walked quite a bit. I am finding that I need a little longer at the walk than most "event" riders do...I think it's a throw back to when I was doing straight dressage....I'd spend about 1/2 my ride at the walk in the beginning. I want to make sure that everything feels right before going faster, haha.

So anyways, we worked up to some canter work....and while the right canter depart is still not great, the LEFT canter is becoming AWESOME!!!!! I was cantering around and at one point I had to stop and say, "OMG I ACTUALLY HAVE A DRESSAGE CANTER HERE!!!!!" YAYAY Buck!!!! hehe. It was a VERY long time coming. I had NO IDEA that it would take THIS long to get a decent canter that I felt test worthy.

At this point I start jumping an x-rail to get us thinking "jumping". Finally, we start a gymnastic line consisting first of a 2' vertical, one stride to a ground rail and then 3 strides to an x-rail. Slowly these jumps become all verticals. I learned today that it was VERY important to keep the GAS on while going around the corners! There were more "Oh that was terrible" moments today, and I do believe they had to do more with the lack of gas in the tank! So my major take home today was to keep him coming around the corner and press him forward to the base of the jump.

Getting back on the horse.....So to speak...

Today was my first time jumping after the disasterous Groton House Summer Classic. No, I didn't fall off, but after having 5 refusals total that day I had to think long and hard about how to continue. As we were fairly certain that the stops came from him not being sure he could do it in the slippery conditions and then my crappy riding, I thought I would give it some time and a few lessons to confirm this.

So I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. On the way to my lesson I really thought long and hard about how and where I would like to see myself by the end of this season. Do I still want to event? Gawd Yes. Do I want to continue at elementary? Yes, the smaller sizes were too small. Do I want to be doing beginner novice by the end of Fall? Yes, to that too. But I actually realized a few things, too. I realized that in the past with Dancer, we'd have no problems at home but in competitions I'd get the stops...and we had a hard time re-creating them at home.

I went in to the lesson with a "game plan" in mind. Continue with me, working really hard to perfect the jumping skills on me. And then also speak with Mere about possibly riding him in a few competitions for me so I can watch him do it and love it. I can't say that she was *in love* with the idea, but I think that was more because she doesn't do a ton of competing of her clients' horses. When I asked her what it would entail for her to ride him (ie: how much money and training beforehand!), she said she needed to defer and speak with Denise (the other trainer at Scarlet hill) before coming with a game plan.

I felt better with a clearer direction. And thus, we started a gymnastic exercise. I think the BIGGEST visual I got was the "squeeze your boobs!" visual....hahahaha. I really want to jump ahead of the horse, but for some reason when I am told to squeeze my boobs together, my hands push me BACK in to the saddle and I don't jump ahead. Huh. Who'd a thunk it?! hehe. The other one that really helped was to make my self as "small as you can over the pommel" which in essence helped too. I have to say that having myself all "tucked in" like that made me feel SOOOO much more competent and less like I was flailing about!

So our gymnastic exercise was like a figure 8 that we had to canter around through and keep the boobs smooshed inwards. We had to turn left off a sharp curve and start a jump, then about 7 strides to another jump, turn hard right to another jump and then 7 strides to the last jump. I didn't have many "OH THAT SUCKED" moments! BUT, I did have one where I got ahead and wanted to jump for him - and he actually propped as if to say, "Look Lady, I thought we had an understanding....you stay back and I'LL jump first!" He DID go, but for a split second I thought we were going to have a stop. Way to illustrate a point, Buck!

I came out of the lesson MUCH more confident than going in! I'm not 100% sure where we'll end up going, but I do know that I'm going somewhere ;)

Groton House 3-Phase Schooling Event

So I guess I do need to write about this outing. I'm usually good about documenting things, especially events, but this time I needed time to think about it.

The short of it is I just should've stayed home. It was a nasty, misty/rainy day and Buck was just not his full self today.

Dressage wasn't terrible. We ended with a 34 pp which put us tied for 7th place. He uncharacteristically spooked at the dressage judge's booth as I walked him past it. Like he has never SEEN one before??? This one *was* painted like a stone wall type thingy so maybe that threw him off???? Anyways, we had good parts, including his left canter which he got nicely but unfortunately broke early on (but promptly picked it back up again). Also during our right trot circle he thought I wanted him to walk instead of trot? Apparently I must have tipped ever so slightly forward and he stopped.

We walk the cross country and stadium courses with my instructor. I wasn't thrilled with the cross country course. Everything seemed "big" to me in the beginning. The first fence was a moss covered ugly log. The second fence was a haybale jump (on the tall side of the bale) in a fence line. It wasn't particularly scary but there was A LOT to look at on the approach, including a stumpy thing with lots of "gook" growing out of it right on the left of the fence about 2 feet in front of it. Anyways, I'll get more to cross country after the stadium part, because that's what we rode first.

So the stadium course looked wickedly easy. Nothing we hadn't seen at Apple Knoll on Wednesday, and no scary stuff under the fences. It was also in sand footing, so I knew we'd be fine.

NOT. Stadium warm-up was in a grass area that had lots of terrain going on. He jumped the x-rails and verticals enthusiastically, but when we came to the first oxer he stopped. ????? First time this pony has EVER stopped, and it's at a boring oxer (it was an ascending oxer, too). Meredith tells me later that he had slid coming to it and she felt that he was worried about the footing and decided not to go. So I bring him around again and yes, we make it over. We take down the back rail, but we made it over. Meredith wants me to do it again, so I come again and he stops. At this point she tells me just to choose another fence and take it because it's now time for me to ride the course....eeek. I jump the vertical and it goes fine. So we go in to the jump round and I am CLEARLY rattled. Very upsetting for a horse to stop for the first time in the warm-up for BOTH rounds. (They ran stadium and xc back to back, so I warmed up once, did stadium and then went straight to cross country.)

I need to add a part in here about my history so that ya'll (all one or two of you readers) don't think I'm a nutso. My past horse Dancer, was a dirty, nasty, stopper. He'd "make believe" that he was going for a jump, and at the last (take-off) stride, he would just slam on the brakes, drop his right shoulder, rear/spin left and I fell off A LOT. I quit eventing last time because of this behavior. It just wasn't fun anymore and I wanted to keep my brain on. So I have some demons, and I've gone REALLY slow with Buck because I didn't want these "demons" to interfere with his training.

So we go in to stadium. Fence one is fine (it's a vertical), fence 2 is a bigger oxer and I rode the bajesus out of it - and he goes fine. Fence 3, 4 (another oxer), and 5 are fine too. Fence 6 - I asked him to trot before it because I was more comfortable and he stopped at it. I represented to it and he went....but the stopping bug is back in my brain. He jumps 7 no problem, but we got to 8 and he stops again (it's another oxer).....ugh. I represent and also ride like a bat out of hell and we get over the tiny little thang. And we finish over 9. So we racked up 2 stops and a rail at one of the oxers which added 12 penalty points.

Ugh. I go straight to cross country with these stops in mind and it just wasn't a great feeling. So OF COURSE it transfers.

We go out to fence 1 and he immediately sees it. It's cute because he kinda locks on it and is like, "I got it!". Fence 2 he did the same thing, but I got scared so I think I started riding backwards and he slowed to a stop. I represent and he goes willingly. Fence 3 is a canter through a field - and it was FUN!!!!!! We get to fence 3 and he sees it again and goes easily. Then we gallop through the field towards home. This is where it was most fun for me - we were going fast and the rain was pelting me in the face and I couldn't see a DAMN thing, hahahahahaha. It was fun! We slow down for fence 4, which is a really narrow faced coop. He goes fine over it though. Then we go in towards the Groton House water complex - I game plan to walk here because it looks a little slick and it's busy and very downhill here.....We walk and yep, he slips....but we trot off to our next fence which is a little log ramp thing. He kinda hesitated with this one, but didn't give any inkling of stopping. Then we snake around a slippery dirt path, and then in to the woods for fence 6. Fence 6 is a hanging ugly log. He hesitates but I think more because I was looking at it, not because it was scary. Anyways, then we go to fence 7 which is a log roll top-y thing, which goes fine. And so does fence 8 (red coop), fence 9 - MY FAVORITE on course, WEEE, which is a cord wood pile, and fence 10 - a REALLY narrow faced table. We finally get to our last fence, fence 11 and have a bobble, but I am determined NOT to have another stop especially at the last fence and we basically crawl over the damn thing. (This was a 1/2 house type fence with turf put on the "roof" area for excitement....maybe Buck wanted to stop and eat it.)

Over all cross country was a blast. I kicked myself at the end of having the stupid stop at fence 2. I know in retrospect that it was my nerves getting the best of me.

So I am going to be working really hard with Meredith to fix some of my defensive riding flaws - and also to gain more and more confidence. And we'll go from there.

What I DID learn was that Buck is NOT a nasty stopper like Dancer. He stopped dead on straight and just stood there as if to say, "what do I do now, Mom?". I'm actually pretty happy about this in retrospect. At least he isn't mean about it. And he also WILL go afterwards if I present the question so he understands it.

I was pretty hard on myself yesterday. I actually was bawling when I finished and ended up asking Mike and Cady to go for a walk while I untacked and put the pony on the trailer. Now, looking back, I realize how silly I was being. I kinda realized today that IF I had DANCER now and had done THIS WELL at an event I would have been ESTATIC to have done so well on cross country, haha. So I am happy to have completed. And we ended up 11th out of 23, which in retrospect isn't THAT bad. So I'll take it for now.

Fence 2, 7 and 8 in stadium

A Cross Country School

Ugh. Another crappy ride with crappy weather!

Thursday night we had a deluge, and I'm not kidding you! Lake Theroux has returned in full force with about 4 inches of water in it. Eeek. Today Shannon and I went to Scarlet Hill for a lesson with Meredith. With the amount of water we receive I went in REALLY concerned that we may not be able to school cross country. Thankfully Meredith knows how much we need to school and lets us do a few fences.

First we warm-up in the indoor. Of course I'm in my jumping tack and I just can't get my leg on him as well in this saddle with my stirrups up 3 inches! The flatwork goes pretty well, so we go outdoors in the drizzle drazzle grossness which is now called Massachusetts!

We do a few logs to start with, and Buck does the "OMG A LOG" at the first fence again. haha. Definitely planning a good spanking before the first fence at Groton House! The rest of the logs he is great too, despite the footing being grassy/wet/mucky. I could hear the sloshing underneath his hooves and definitely rode more conservatively. Buck was conservative too, thankfully!

Our next test is a small log which we are told that a TROLL lives under. I LAUGH at Meredith saying, "IT'S JUST A LOG!" I say this partly for my own bravery, but also for Kisses (Shannon's pony) to hear....hehe. Kisses gets the message, but apparently Buck listens to Meredith and LAUNCHES over the tiny log like it's 3 feet, hehehehehehehe. WEEEEEEEE. That was actually kinda fun. I'm not sure if we got that response because Buck was FOLLOWING Kisses or because there actually WAS a troll under it ;)

We continue the lesson. One of the fences is a log roll top, probably about 2'3" or so, but on an uphill approach. We try it in the canter and the first time he WHAMS it with his hind leg. OUCH. Apparently I came back in the saddle too quickly, causing him to drop his legs. I learned my lesson there. The rest of the fences were ho hum. We walked over a 2' olive colored coop.....I didn't ride forward to it because I was REALLY concerned about the footing....so Buck decided to walk it. haha. Note to self: if you present the horse to the jump, you need to RIDE to the base and jump it with him. Duh.

I really felt icky about this lesson though. He jumped everything the first time, but it felt all wrong. When we canter fences he is getting SOOOOO close to the base of the jump that it is scary! Meredith tells me that he is being SMART about his spots because a pony of his size NEEDS to get to the base of the fence to get across some of the wider stuff. She says it's appropriate especially when fences slope away from us and have a wider base (such as a coop or rolltop). She also told me that I need to LET HIM choose his spots and stay back. I'm going to have to get used to all of this, because it's new!

Buck was really conservative with the footing. Meredith thinks he slipped on the take off when he hit the roll top, so it maybe that he really wanted to tone it down.

I am hoping that the footing on Sunday is better than it was today....and that maybe we'll be able to get in to a groove again out on course so he can gain confidence once more!

Apple Knoll Jumper Show

Ugh. Well at least I learned a ton!

So we land early enough for me to do a warm-up round. I go in and do a bit of walk and trot, and then go to pick up the canter. I go for fence one, a pretty simple vertical and Buck slows and then HOPS over it from almost a stop....Woah? What happened there?!?! He's been doing this a bit lately, like he can't figure out what the hell to do with his legs on take off??? The rest of the warm-up round was great. He didn't hit anything, we got the one stride in the combination and that was that.

Well I should've quit while I was ahead!

Our "real" round, I go in and pick up a nice bouncy canter. The good news is that NONE of these jumps look scary or big anymore! Bad news is that Buck feels this way too and feels like he can clobber them. We get in REALLY close to fence 2 and I think I must have been too far ahead of him, because he basically rearranges a few rails in between his legs. Time stops and I brace for a fall....well thankfully he finds his 5th leg and we kinda both stand there dazed and confused for a second. WTF just happened??? Well, we must go on. We regroup for fence 3, about 4 strides out and the rest of the course goes okay. He feels sluggish, but he jumps everything else clean. In particular fence 5 to 6 ride GREAT and I was VERY pleased with that. Fence 6 was on the short side, so we had to bend the line from Fence 5 to 6. Fence 6 was a fan oxer, which Buck had never seen before and it rode wonderfully. Fence 7A & B were a one stride, which we ended up trotting in and then getting two strides (hehe).

So the things I learned was that perhaps he might be a little more "surprised" at the first fence....I think I'll start beating his butt at the beginning, as that has gotten his attention in the past. I HATE starting that way, but it may be my only way to get him in front of me??? Also, I shouldn't be jumping 10 fences in my warm-ups, plus I shouldn't school the course before riding it in competition!

I also brought Cady with me and she rode in the leadline class. She did pretty well but ended up 2nd out of 2. She was pretty good though!

A ROLF (saddle) moment....

So I had a dressage lesson with Heidi this evening. It was pretty low key. I have a BIG event coming up on Sunday, so I wanted to get in with her and just work on some more canter.

His canter is really coming along, but I wanted eyes on the ground to confirm what I was feeling.

Well, he was MORE than ready to show me what he had tonight! hehe....I went to do the left canter. Heidi says, "when you have your trot, then ask him for canter...." So I prepare and I go to ask for canter in my usual fashion. Leg yield out and tap with the right leg.....Except I didn't get to tap - I just LIFTED my right hip to tap him and he went.......Insert hysterical giggles here for about 1/2 the 20 m circle we were working on.

When I got Buck he was not sensitive AT ALL. It about took a freaking 2x4 to beat him in to moving his barrel over, and forget flexing his neck and softening his jaw. Now he is so sensitive that he can feel me just releasing pressure. Pretty cool beans. I just can't believe how far he's come in such little time.

I was really worried about dressage for this weekend, but now I'm thinking I need to CHILL and just keep the outside aids active at "A".......

Doing what he was meant to do!

We originally bought Buckingham to be a leadline pony for Cadence. He was sooooo green when we bought him though that I needed to ride him and put some miles on his brain....

So today was Cady & Bucks 2009 show debut. They did do 2 shows last year - one at a tiny barn that was holding a tiny show (complete with stick ribbons) and the other at a bigger show.

Cadence is tiny and she's still young (5 on Tuesday!). Many of the kids in leadline classes are upwards of 7 or 8, and can post on the correct diagnol plus steer at the same time. So we've dealt with green ribbons every time Cady has shown (except one time last year when she got lucky and beat someone at egg & spoon!!!! hahahaha)...

Today was a bit different. She was *STILL* the tiniest one out there, but she was able to ride much better. This show required leadliners to trot around the indoor arena IN A GROUP for about 1 1/2 revolutions....and she did it! It may not have been pretty the whole time, but that was the longest time she ever had to trot :)

She still didn't win or come even close. But she was 5 out of 6 in both the leadline equitation and the leadline suitability (and I'm sorry, but I can't see how a jiggy, chomping on the bit, hot looking horse is suitable for a child, but I digress).

Buck was a star. Didn't flinch the whole time and put up with Cady saying, LINE UP NOW BUCK. Or TURN NOW BUCK as in she didn't have the patience to let the turn come around....haha. Sounds a bit like her mother!

Anyways, we got this joyous occassion ALL of video and pictures. And then the damn camera had an issue and LOST all of it. I was so mad. The OLD me would've said there will always be another show...but I know all too well that that one picture you take may be the last one ever taken of your beloved....horse or human. So I sulk.

But with any luck there WILL be another show. And Cady and Buck will be practicing for it :) And they will rock because I say so!

Okay, maybe Scarlet Hill is the place to be!!!

This is an aside from the original reason for the post, but I've got to say...EVERY TIME I go to Scarlet Hill Farm for a lesson I always either meet really COOL people OR I reconnect with really COOL people from the past! Today was no different. I ran in to Tori from UNH, circa 1999 (?!). We used to board our horses together up there, and while we had different majors and really never saw eachother, we did see eachother enough to know eachother 10 years later....And THEN there was Lesli, who I did Kingsbury Hill Adult Camp with in 2000....Both of them have horses at Scarlet Hill, and I met up with them again. It is so funny to see old faces - I love it!

So anyways, back on track. Shannon and I had another jumping (stadium) lesson with Meredith this afternoon. The lesson didn't look too promising when we first got there - the arena had recently been dragged and all the jumps were in a heap. Not to worry though - Mere's working students SWIFTLY created a jumping ring that anyone would be proud of, haha. Shannon has an event this weekend, so it was her turn to set the bar for what we worked on. She wanted more scary stadium stuff, and that she got!

I want to make another brief aside to tell a little more about Shannon, as it really pertains to this lesson and blog entry. Shannon and I go way back - 1999 - I think is when we met. She has always been an incredibly beautiful rider to watch - she has great rider's conformation AND she is graceful. She got "Kisses" about a year ago after he had some "naughty" issues at his old farm....and she's been reschooling him ever since. Shannon has always said he has a naughty stop in him, but I am HAPPY to say that I have only ONCE seen it (and that was at a ditch)....but every other time she proves herself wrong. I know that's ONE time that someone doesn't mind being wrong - since I've been there and done that myself! Anyways, that little pony of hers is QUITE the cute little jumper!

Anyways, back to the lesson. So I've been working Buck now in the KK Ultra French Link bit (whereas we were in a french link boucher a while ago). I've also been working with the DQ down the street....So today I decided that I would jump in the KK bit, but use the Figure 8 bridle, and see what happens.

Well, WE HAVE A WINNER. We started the ride today with a bit of walk/trot/canter warm-up, as always. Buck felt very soft and supple. Yay for Buck. We then started our jumps - first a x-rail, then a x-rail two strides to a vertical. Then a vertical two strides to a vertical. We continued the same line, and Meredith started adding "filler" for the jumps to test our ponies and their spook factor. We started making courses out of all of the jumps they had set.

I'm not going to begin to try to remember the sequence of all of our little courses, but I'll describe some of the lines we did. We typically rode a line to another line, to sometimes a stand alone jump, and then changed the flow to add or subtract or move something...if you get my jist.

Our first line we always started with was a gymnastic line. This one always rode funny for me because of the end part. We trotted in over a small x-rail, one stride to a 2' vertical, and then two BENDING strides to another vertical. The bending part was the part I had problems with. It wasn't that the horse can't bend, but it was hard for me to get my brain around trying to RIDE and jump that quickly. It was great practice, and thankfully by the last round I *think* I got it right.

We also had the two stride line - one fence was a flower box and the second fence was BARRELS. Now barrels were not a huge deal for Buck, as he has jumped other "barrels" before (mainly whiskey barrels, haha!). But this was a HUGE accomplishment for Shannon. Apparently last summer she couldn't get Kisses NEAR barrels, let alone OVER the barrels on the FIRST try!!!! YAY Kisses!!!

Another line we had was maybe a 5 stride line - brush box to a vertical (which in the end Mere made a 2'4.5" oxer, hehe).

Finally we added the dark blue "Scarlet Hill Farm" panel jump and a SKINNY vertical!

Buck was VERY good to almost all of these jumps. The parts he got in badly were rider error. The, uh, rider had some technical difficulties at one point CIRCLING because said rider LOST HER STIRRUP?!?! That NEVER happens, so why it happened THEN was beyond me, hehe. If we were in competition I would've gone for it and we would've been fine, but no need to kill either one of us. We did pull 2 rails at some point, but again I think it was more to do with crappy riding and learning when to walk the fine line of putting the pedal to the medal vs just cruise. Both rails were when I misjudged and just tried cruising.

The overall and most EXCITING thing I took home today was the feeling of ADJUSTABILITY I am FINALLY getting in Buck's canter. There were many spots today where Buck either had to lengthen or shorten his stride to jump properly and by far and large, he did it! I have had days where I thought I would NEVER have that kind of ride on him, and to have it come so quickly was really exciting. I think a lot of this comes from a. me remembering how to ride, b. me trusting him more and c. his strength building so it's easier for him. Oh, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he is soft in his jaw and neck - which makes it EASIER for me to ride him!

Our final course was the gymnastic line to the panel, to the barrel two stride line, to the 5 stride line with big ass oxer, to the skinny and then Mere had me add back the yellow brush box. This would've been a bending line from the skinny, but when I landed I didn't feel I had the pony to work the bending line, so I decided to jump it on an angle - which went very well!

Interestingly enough, that last course was, I think, the best course we have done to date. Also the most technical, the most looky, and THE MOST HUNTER-ish he has been to date as well! Now I'm not aiming for a hunter pony. But I would like one that knows his job, does it with relative ease and enjoys it. I had that today, so I'll take it!

I was originally going to take him to the Apple Knoll Jumper show tomorrow....but I think I'll scratch that idea. He was fantastic today, and I want to reward him by not tiring him out too much over the jumps. He felt a little tired today - and I need to buy more oil for his feed because I think it makes a big difference.

A Dressage Lesson

I live down the street from a dressage boarding facility. The owner, Heidi Venuti, dabbles in teaching as she has a full time job. I decided a few weeks ago to take a lesson with her because "something just wasn't quite right" and my regular eventing instructor, Meredith Scarlet, was not able to schedule a lesson during my free time.

Our first lesson revealed how VERY locked in the jaw Buck has become. Or was. It wasn't anything I didn't already know, I just couldn't figure out WHAT he was doing and how to fix it. Heidi rode him that day for about 45 minutes, just working his jaw and getting him soft.

So after that lesson, I was able to maintain the softness (thank goodness) and am now able to focus on other things.

Today's lesson was more of the same, but we worked more on my position and what I do that affects his way of going. One of the main things I found last week is that he goes much less "hectic" when I've removed the spurs. Heidi also added today that perhaps I am using TOO MUCH leg and that I should just drape them (and not nag) and either "BAM" him to get him forward OR use whip....but NOT both at the same time. This discussion led to also experimenting with my upper body and what it does to him. When I slouch, he wants to stop. When I sit up, shoulders back and relaxed and let HIM move my hips he strides much more through. Woah. This BIG guy is MUCH more sensitive than anyone could ever imagine such a "lug" being!

In addition, we discussed my NASTY habit of constantly grabbing the inside rein. I don't think I did this as much with Dancer, but with Buck I have always felt kinda like I lack steering. In an effort to maintain the circle, I've taken to pulling on the inside rein. Now we ALL know it's inside leg to outside rein. I've ridden this way, and I've taught this way, so WHY it is so hard to leave alone is beyond me.

So my homework until the next lesson is to leave the inside rein alone. Also use less of a nagging leg....and to continually work on slowing the canter down. It is *almost* there tracking right....but tracking left is much harder for him. I believe this is a strength issue, and I know his right hind is weaker. Hence the problem being in the left canter.

Anyways, we were both very satisfied with his softness and self-carriage in the trot. He was nice and relaxed, and that was a wonderful thing.

It is hard for me to remember that this little Pony is still only 6 years old. (He'll be 7 in August.) He is so very smart and willing to please. I am so lucky :)

Green Acres....is the place to be!

So with our previous successes at Weenie and Green levels, I decided to up the ante and see what this pony is REALLY made of. Up to this point I didn't really have any goals, but I did want to compete in the Groton House Summer Classic - which only offers Elementary level and Beginner Novice level divisions. This meant that I would have to be ready to jump 2'3" courses, and rather than make a fool out of myself at Groton House, I opted to "try it out" beforehand.

There is a local event that runs a series....This event, Green Acres Stables Event Series, has a bit of a groupie following. Seriously, some people live and breathe for this event. Before signing on to this event I did attend a cross country schooling clinic taught by Nancy Guoyotte. I found the "pre-elementary" jumps to be too small for where we were at in our training, so I decided to just GO with it and do the elementary division.

Now this could've been the biggest mistake in Buck's training. I figured it was kinda risky considering that on May 17th we'd done the 18 inch division, and then by May 31st we'd be doing 2'3" division. That's a pretty large jump in a horse's training....but we had previously been schooling up to beginner novice (2'7") heights. Plus Buck is no "ordinary" pony. He's very laid back. Is happy to do what I ask (most times) and doesn't get rattled with excess traffic and excitement. In short, he acts like a 20 year old pony who has been there and done that....but in reality, he had NEVER been off the farm (or on a horse trailer) until I bought him.

So anyways, the week beforehand I panicked. I stayed up all night long (kinda like tonight!) and I rode hard. Not only was this a move up in terms of jumping, but this was also a move up in dressage as we had to actually ... CANTER ... in a dressage test. WOAH NELLIE.

Finally the day came. Before I knew it I was at the event and ready to puke. Okay, I'm not really the puking kind of rider, so I didn't almost puke....but I was edgy and just wanted to get the SHOW on the road already! I warmed up for dressage and he was WONDERFUL. Very light in the hand (relatively speaking), responsive and ready to go.

Well somewhere between the warm-up ring and the dressage ring something happened. We got in to our test and it all but fell apart! I suspect that most of this has to do with the fact that when Buck is nervous he locks his jaw and basically communication stops there. EEEEEEk. The first canter transition is basically blown as he attempts to pick up the wrong lead. I correct him quickly and we manage to SOMEHOW stay in the arena. This test is an EVIL test because ALL of the trot and canter circles are to be done at "A"....which JUST so happens to be where the break in the arena railing is....HULLO. WHO designed this test for green horses and riders???? Anyways, this would be one of my least stellar dressage tests EVER, but we still manage to score a 37.8. The Video shows that it was not nearly as bad as I had feared. In fact, my overall feedback for my own test is SLOW THE TEMPO DOWN, DINGBAT...whereas in the arena I felt that we were REALLY lazy.

Anyways, with dressage down, I am now free to concentrate on cross country - the real scary part of the day. So after waiting forever, I am FINALLY in the start box and it's time to go. Our first fence on course is a wee little brown coop (which we jumped at the xc schooling clinic) and to my surprise he actually offers to STOP at it!!!! I say, "LIKE HELL you are stopping at the first weenie fence on course" and he jumps it. I beat him with my stick once between fences and he gets the idea - go forward or else. The second fence is a largish log (maybe 2'?) with a nice inviting large face. We have no problems with this fence whatsoever. That beating helps. Our third fence is another LITTLE log, but the approach is downhill. The downhill evens out just before the log, but the landing is a bit of a drop. He jumps this with no problem.....and so we canter off to my "bugaboo" fence on course. Fence 4 is a max (2'3") brown rolltop. Not a BAD fence but the face of it is about 8' and there is NO wing on the right side. Buck definitely gets behind my leg at this fence - if I even had my leg on...haha. Anyways, it jumps terribly, but we get over it on the first try. Phew. Fence 5 is the same log as fence 2 (just going at it backwards this time). It's fine....and then we come to a BIG ASS LOG in fence 6. YIKERS. This is the one that AWESOME friend Shannon tells me NOT to walk too close to when we are walking. (The theory being that the closer you get to it, the bigger it looks. I have tested this theory before and it is definitely true.) Anyways, this fence actually jumps really well, phew. On to fence 7, which is a set of whiskey barrels with quite a bit of "munch factor" in it.

(When I say munch factor I mean that someone forgot to use the weed wacker around the base, and therefore the grass here is as tall or taller than the jump, haha!).

Whiskey barrels jump fine. Now we are to fence 8 - which is one FREAKING wide ugly log, with a downhill approach, very narrow face with mega run out factor to the right. The log is doubly yucky because the left 3' of the log are larger and bumpy, which gives you about a 4' area of optimum jump factor. Right, this one jumps fine, too. Phew.

We continue down the hill and bang a left in to the other field. We go around a bunch of jumps and go to fence 9, which is - SURPRISE - another log - a small one - maybe 18" but also with a drop on the exit. I trot this one. Actually, I trot *most* of the downhill portions. Buck is ALREADY built downhill, there's no reason to further handicap him! After this point I walked a few seconds. Yes, I walked. I had planned to walk at some point in the course. I needed a mental break, and I was really worried about Buck's fitness and breathing. We are still battling the breathing issues AND this is the longest, most terrain and biggest course we have ever jumped.

The walking actually didn't last for too long. It just didn't feel "right" and Buck agreed. We trotted down the rest of the hill and jumped fence 10 - a BIG jump. This one was haybales with a telephone pole suspended over them. I did actually walk right up to this in my course walk - and yes, it was between Beginner Novice and Novice heights. There is NO WAY this should have been on an elementary course - BUT it rode beautifully, so there.

We had to snake through a bit of a mucky area....we may have walked a few steps before regrouping for fence 11 - an ugly railroad tie type oxer thingy. Fine. Then we cantered back towards home and jumped fence 12 - a max red coop (and Buck actually HIT this one, so I know he's feeling tired at this point). Continued up the hill screaming, "YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT BOY, JUST ONE FENCE LEFT!!!!".....

Haha, fence 13 is a small loggy type thing that jumps fine....and then, as I'm cantering to the finish lines I see....wait, ANOTHER FENCE!!!!! haha. On the course map there were 14 jumps, but when I walked I only saw 13. Well thankfully I was paying attention enough to see this one last minute log thrown in for good measure. This one jumps fine, too.

PHEW. We went clean. And then, I am brought to tears. I realize how so very thankful I am for Dancer bringing Buck in to my life. I have ALWAYS firmly believed that Dancer brought us together because we found Buck just 3 days after Dancer passed....and while our life with Buck has been interesting (with the breathing issues), it has also been very exciting. I am FINALLY able to say that I am an eventer. (Yes, it's still not a USEA recognized division, but we will get there....)

One more phase. The stadium course is Buck's nemesis. He could really careless about stupid PVC rails, and he also knows exactly where they all are. The course has a few oxers - which we haven't jumped since December - on it, plus a rollback turn and a bending line. Should be interesting. I go in with instructions to RIDE YOUR PONY you idiot! hehe. And I do....except the two jumps with PVC rails - we clip them and they come down. Well, the rest of the course was pretty good, so I'm happy with it.

FINALLY I check the scoreboard. I was 3rd after dressage, but ended up dropping to 4th after the rails in stadium. I am still TICKLED with this result. More tickled that we had no stops on xc!!!!

This feels like a huge victory in my heart and my brain. I don't think I'll EASILY get over Dancer's naughtiness....but I am finding myself trusting Buck more and more, which allows me to ride better. How cool is that?

So our next event is Groton House Summer Classic. And I will not make an idiot out of myself because now I can CONFIDENTLY go in to the event knowing that if I ride, my pony will jump it! And that's all I need to know for now :D

Cross Country at Green Acres
Stadium at Green Acres

Everyone else is blogging....

So I guess I'll join in the fun! Seriously, it seems like a great way to capture the daily excitement...plus it makes it easier to scrapbook later.

I don't intend to write in this thing every day, but I do intend to keep it eventing adventures related....so if you're not in to horses then this blog is NOT for you! I do have to say that I'm a bit self concious about this whole thing because a few of my friends are EXCELLENT writers...and me? I just kinda tell it like it is with no fluffy words or descriptions. So there you have it.

Since I am starting this soooooo late I guess I need to put some background in to this blog. Sort of catch you all (haha!) up on where life is and what not.

In a nutshell, I have little to no experience in "eventing". I have experience in "trying to event" in that the horse I had before (RIP Dancer) was a naughty, NASTY stopper. So I'd try to event and sometimes I'd suceed, but most of the times I'd end up wasting the entry fee. Serioulsy it would've been better for me to put all my money towards buying a new horse, house or even just saving it! haha.

Dancer died in June 2008....which led me to buying a Welsh Cob pony, Buckingham, for my daughter....He was green broke - maybe 10 rides on him - and none of that was faster than a walk (and one trot when I test rode him!). And his job was to be a pony club / leadline horse for my daughter....but somewhere along the way I realized that I am having FAR too much fun with this little guy. At the end of August 2008 I popped him over some ground rails and he never said no....So I entered the little bugger in a 2-phase "Derby" competition at the end of September 2008.

Buck's first foray in eventing was at Echo Ridge Two Phase in Lee, NH. We won the division. Now mind you the jumps were 12" tall....but there were certainly things he had never seen before, with all sorts of terrain to deal with as well....so we were off to a good start. We went back to Echo Ridge in October and won the same division again. Alright, this is too easy, so I enlisted in some help and decided to "go for it".

Fast forward through a VERY FREAKING LONG WINTER....

We had some breathing issues in the winter, and then some soundness issues in the Spring. I ended up entering him in his first 3-phase at Apple Knoll Farm in Millis, MA. I believe they called the division Weenie. Oh, wait. That is what I called the division. I think the max height was 12-18"....I wanted a good outing and this was the first time that we had done cross country in competition. We got 2nd place at this little event - and would have won had it not been for a LOUSY rail in stadium over a 12" cross rail. Seriosly Buck, pick up your damn feet!

Dressage at Apple Knoll
Stadium at Apple Knoll

The next event we went to was another small one at Groton Pony Club in Groton, MA. We entered the "Green" division which had 18" jumps. Moving up in the world! Well, we got the GIFT of a lifetime in dressage with a score of 23.5. Seriously. Who gets those scores??? Certainly NOT an old plow horse used to hay fields and what not....but on this day, the old (young) plow horse DID get that score and the competition was ours to lose. But we didn't lose. We had a rail in stadium but we still won.....

Dressage at Groton Pony Club
Stadium at Groton Pony Club
Cross Country at Groton Pony Club

And now, I will post our first OFFICIAL event report in my next entry....