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"