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.
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.
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
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