Day 3: First Class

Ah, so now Day One of the show (day three of my trip) is behind me, I can breathe a sigh of relief that Delight did not blow up or leave the ring or buck me off or any of the other myriad naughty pony moments that could have occurred.

Oh'dark thirty at the Rolex Arena

Of course, this being a horse show, the day started around 4:30. Ouch, right? But of course with two rides for Team MacDonald, both had to be before 9 am...

Sambuca Extra and Courtney in their first Grand Prix test of the show

I watched my sister ride at 7:45 in the rolex arena then had to rush to get on my horse and down to the Dressage Complex (looong walk, remember?). I was running a bit behind schedule, even though I didn't have to get changed since I wore my 'dressage whites' under my clothes to start the day (planning ahead for a change), so I only had about twenty minutes of warm up.
The warm up with the lower levels riders is, in one word, terrifying. In my twenty minutes I was nearly run down by worried juniors and white faced ammys more times than I care to count. Deli-pony was NOT a fan...

However, we managed to pull a decent test out of thin air. It was much more relaxed than our Wednesday warm up, but not as relaxed as ideal. There was quite a bit of room for improvement... So imagine my suprise when I actually placed with a score of 69.6%.... Only three percent out of the lead. There's hope!

Of course, after wrapping up the our classes for the day before 9, we untacked the horses then moseyed over to watch a few tests (with Sam who stopped by for moral support!) and follow the grand tradition of horse people and critique and comment on the warm up and classes going on, then took the dogs on a little walk on the cross country course....

What's a visit to Rolex without a course walk?

At the end of the day, Team MacDonald took the Bucky and Delight out for a little ride to stretch their legs... On the cross country course. Delight took (most) of it in stride while Bucky was not impressed with the jumps. Or driving horses. Or paso finos from the store next door.
.... And after a little hand galloping, I can kind of begin to see the allure of eventing. It was FUN.

And dressage horses can go out and do just fine.

Days 1 &2: Travel Time

So, the Championship Saga has started. On Tuesday my mother and I took off to head to Kentucky. Loaded up the 15 bales of hay, 8 bales of shavings, saddles, bridles, show pads, schooling pads, a bag of feed, dog crates and food…. The list goes on.  We were ready, set and off!

Six hours or so into the trip, I received texts and phone calls.

My horses were out. CRAP.  Why, after six months in their own field, would they choose the weekend that I’m already stressed and heading out of town to stage a coup?

Fortunately, I have some great friends/clients who corralled my ponies, restrung the fence and righted all the other wrongs. I continued the last 300 miles of day 1 with few(er) concerns.

The good news is that after 560 miles, we stayed at a great little place that I found on horsemotels.com. (Lone Pines Ranch outside of Jackson, MI… two thumbs way up).

Day two of my drive, we made it the final 350 miles (whew). Of course, I received a text that my three ponies at home had gone feral… But out of sight, out of mind.

Be still my heart... One chain restaurant down, one to go

I pulled in to the Kentucky Horse Park around 5:30, got a little lost looking for our stall in Rolex Tent 3, then bedded down a stall and brought Delight in. She made that 900 mile trip none the worse for wear (whew).

There should really be an award for the furthest traveled at this show. I'm pretty sure I'd be a strong contestant...

Team MacDonald... All settled in.

I was lucky that my sister checked me in and had picked up my number and info packet…. So off to the warm-ups! This is a BIG park! It’s got to be a 20 minute walk from the Rolex complex (where Courtney is showing and near the ) to the Dressage complex (where I show)…

Stay tuned for Day 1 of showing….

Final Countdown....

Good news: We survived the first snow fall of the year. The horses were blanketed and tucked safely into their barn. I did have to wipe the snow off of my truck... Too bad there's no power to the barn, at the moment. Damn...

Your colorful moment of Zen has been brought to you by the UP

Anyway, I'm sure that everyone realized that it's the final countdown to the GAIG USDF Region 2  Championships... My first ride is at 8:37 Thursday morning for my training level warm up. T Minus 3 days....

The look like show ponies, don't they?

My championship class is 5:21 pm... last ride of 40 training level horses. I sure hope the judge likes training level. No pressure, right? On the bright side, as of 6:50 Friday (after the awards ceremony, if I should be so lucky), I'll be able to claim that I've pulled off my first successful year as a pro. Yay me, right?

Whew... so much to do in the next 6 hours. Then 16 hours of driving. Followed by four days of activity and show tension. Followed by 16 more hours of driving. Followed by hibernation.

The boys don't get why I'm stressed.

Tis The Season....

That's right folks, it's that time of year again...

The days are getting shorter. COTH is starting it's Secret Santa (which reminds me, I should sign up...).The colors are changing. The temperature is falling. The snow is coming...

Wait, What?!?!?!1

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Yep, snow. London is not going to be a fan... Good thing that the driveway is finished and I can get my horses back into the barn!

Ooooh.....

Ahhhhh.....

Of course this driveway job was supposed to be done in August, but now that it's actually in, who am I to complain? AND i now have running water in my barn! How amazing is that?

Of course, before I officially welcome winter with open arms while whistling christmas carols, I have to say that the fall colors are/were amazing!

Isn't that bridge picturesque through the fall foliage?

 Look at all of the pretty colors....

Tilly and RC came over to see what I was doing.

Work?!?!?! We're outta here!


Bring on the snow... I'm in the holiday mood.

New Niche for RC?

So the Dressage bulletin boards are just abuzz with the new "Rider Tests" for Training, First and Second levels.

Evidently these tests will be added to the shows so that the rider, not the quality of the horse, will be judged.. no scores for gaits or submission.

"How can we compete against THIS!?!?"
"Oh... we're not? Whew"

Which is all well and good in theory, but really, how does one separate the horse from the rider... especially in dressage? There's always a huge outcry of "they just won because their horse is fancier"... which I find is true only in rare cases. Because, let's face it... don't we do dressage to improve our horses' gaits? Ergo, the better rider will be on the 'fancier' horse because s/he can get more suspension and cadence out of that horse than a weaker rider. Conversely, a horse with natural cadence and suspension will look less talented/frustrated/uncooperative with a poor rider, where a talented, more advanced rider may make the horse look brilliant.  So we can conclude, in the end, that dressage scores aren't based solely on the quality of horse that you're riding but the quality of riding that's occurring. Makes sense, right?

Now, I rather like the idea of adding what is effectively an equitation class. I want to know what position mistakes I'm making and this could be an effective training tool. The training and first level tests are well written and more challenging than the existing tests (which would be perfect practice for the championships, am I right?). The second level test is written a little bit like the author has never actually ridden a dressage test, but no biggie.  And, in my opinion, if you have more horse than talent... just skip this class.

Of course there's some internet squawking about using these rider tests to initiate a 'qualifying system' to prevent the unwashed masses from moving up the levels before they are ready. This is America, Land of the Free, where we hate it when people try to tell us what to do. Just look at the ruffled feathers over the helmet rule when it was imposed. Now no one thinks twice about trotting down the centerline in their helmet.  Moral of the story: Change is hard, right?

Of course, I'm not undualy worried about a qualifying system. I have scores in the mid to high 60's through third level, and if that's not good enough, Delight's tearing up the levels earning high 60's to low 70's. We can qualify, no biggie.
But what of people who have done their time in the trenches, so to speak, and don't have a TL-2nd level horse available? Will they get grandfathered in? Would that be fair? Life is so hard...

Obviously, the biggest question here is how fair would it be for me to ride RC in these classes? I mean, this class was designed for him! A horse with average gaits who is easy to sit, obedient, calm and very well schooled... We could rack up some serious points in these classes.
And are there any year end awards for this?

That's right. Just send that ribbon this way....

"Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore'..."

OK, I know it's been a while... But I've been busy.
I mean, I too some students to a show in Wisconsin (which was successful yet exhausting), then had a week long soaking rain (in which London has sulked for another week because his Highness got chilly) and then I caught the flu (or a cold, either way it's not my best weekend).

12 first's, one second, Open high point and Jr/YR high Point

But I'm back. Kinda

I took Tilly out for a ride this morning since she's been so terribly neglected for the last week or so. Of course, she kind of like her rain soaked work free vacation. It gave her a little time to relax and reflect.. and grow a new winter coat. She is now a puffy pony version of herself...

So during my ride, where I attempted to convince Tilly that what she really wants most in life is to be the bestest Dressage Pony Ever, I became increasingly aware of my least favorite of the local fauna.

The crow.
Uh, your title says raven. Crows are not ravens.
Fine, you find a literary reference to crows. Have at it....
... I see your point. 

I mean, who likes crows? They are loud, ugly and - let's face it - creepy. This one chose to settle down in the corner of my arena to eat what I assumed was some sort of disgusting carrion. I was wrong.
As Ponita and I careened by the crow in what is becoming a working canter, I notices that the crow was not, in fact, eating a piece of road kill. the crow had chosen to bring something even worse into my little dressage haven.

the crow was picking apart a wasp's nest.

The wasps were not fans of this.

Tilly and I exited stage left... And I dearly hope that the crow flew off taking it's dinner with it. Otherwise, I might need to go buy some wasp spray.

The Fall

 I know, that title got your hopes up for an exciting post about me parting ways with one of the ponies, didn’t it? Well stop that. Stop that now.

Also, thanks for the vote of confidence.

I was actually referring to the changing of the seasons; what with labor day come and gone, the warm days of summer are waning, giving way to the icy grip of winter.

Stop being so flippin’ dramatic. It’s autumn. Suck it up.

Fair enough. It’s just been one of those weeks, you know? You may have noticed that it’s been a while between posts… That’s because I have had absolutely nothing nice to say in the last week. I’ve been cranky and tired and my horses are trying to self destruct, evidently.

In the last week alone…

London has tried to off himself on something out in the pasture, during the day. He came in Wednesday with a two inch gash on the inside of his right forearm above the chestnut and three punctures on the inside of his left forearm. I walked the pasture up down and around looking for a stick or fence post or one of RC’s lost shoes (I swear they end up in Narnia). Nothing. There wasn’t so much as a a twig that London could have used to hurt himself.

Note the one bell boot on RC. Protecting that last shoe...

RC lost a bell boot and a shoe. Off of different feet… Explain that one to me. I had been so proud of how long he’s gone between lost shoes, even though he did lose a bell boot last shoeing cycle- but he kept the shoe, which was the important thing (and had to wear the Pink Bell Boots of Shame and Sparkles until I can replace the cheapie black ones). Of course he’s due to have his feet done in a week, so if it were any other time, I’d just say screw it and let him go around one shoe short of s full set (it’s a metaphor for his life…), BUT I have a student who would like to take him to the schooling show in Wisconsin this weekend. Who hasn’t ridden him since the last schooling show…. Which is a whole other source of stress for me.

Tilly has developed a girth gal, so she’s had a few days off until it disappears and I can stop feeling like a terrible trainer. Poor pony…

In retribution for the girth gall, Tilly evidently then decided to give Delight a haircut. A week before the schooling show. She chewed off half of Delight’s mane at the unbraidable length of ½-1” long. For half of her neck. There just isn’t time for that mane to grow back to a neat and braidable length before the championships. So I roached the mane off of my sport pony.

Look at the damage Tilly inflicted...

I’m going to repeat that so that everyone can absorb the true horror of what happened.

Immediately post roach.... I'm tearing up.

I roached the mane off of a Dressage Sport Pony.

The shot that explains why just doing hunter braids wouldnt work.
Look at how much pulling that mane would require.

I need a drink. And might possibly cry. I felt a little like those women on TLC’s What Not To Wear who have their hair cut for the first time in 35 years and can’t handle the change.  I just have to keep telling myself that by next spring she’ll have her annoyingly full mane back for that I can show her in lovely little braids.

Of course on Friday and Saturday, a cool front blew through and it rained – Poured, actually. So no riding. I needed some saddle time!

The whole herd takes a run...

But when I turned the horses out in the 50 degree weather, they had a grand ol’ time, which was fun to watch and made me smile again.

Name this move.... RC style

"I'mma Cutting Horse!"

The boys... 

"Whoa. No one saw that..."

My favorite part of this picture is RC just out of frame...

Of course, when I brought the horses in for dinner I discovered that during all of their fun and games, 

London lost a shoe.

Why of course he did.