No tests on Sunday- of course that doesn't mean I didn't look! I checked out the regular 1-3 test that day and there were scratches and very few entries... so technically I could ride and come home with a ribbon maybe! But nope, Penn and I were done, and happy to be done.
Instead, I headed down to one of the championship rings to watch the First Level Freestyles. Some were good, some were meh, and some were cute as can be (Chincoteague pony riding to Mario music!). The judges absolutely could not agree on these tests though- they had some of the biggest score ranges (72/59% on the same test) of the weekend.
It got too late to do Saturday, so in the morning before we headed home, Karen and I got a pic with the ponies in front of the regional champ sign:
But here's what it really should have looked like:
9th place ribbons with green 6th place middles because we're bad pilots.
Of course their 5 minute interaction made them BEST FRIENDS and Hampton totally took Penn under his wing since Hampton is the guard dog of his turnout.
Husband snagged this one on our way back to stabling.
The white and blue tent had tests and ribbons... and treats. Karen held our wild stallions while I ducked in and got each of them some peppermints, an apple, and a carrot.
Staring at Husband, ever watchful.
Staring at Husband, ever spooky. I swear, this is deer in headlight face.
Penn decided to make the morning WAY too exciting. I set him up with a full hay net and went to get smoothies with Karen. Husband stayed behind at the stall. Penn somehow got his head stuck in his hay net, pulled back against it (because that's how he rolls), kicked the walls, then busted out of his stall through the stall guard. In the process of busting out, he opened the net, flung hay everywhere, and managed to connect with the bottle of molasses that I've been using to make him eat his grain. It splattered EVERYWHERE. On the stall fronts, fans, and on the dog sleeping peacefully next to his stall front. Glass, molasses, and hay everywhere. He then trotted out to the space between barns and got distracted by the other people and horses. Husband did great in catching him- some nice horsey strangers helped keep Penn distracted while Husband came over with his halter. He seemed lame on the right hind, but otherwise unscathed. Husband called me to tell me and I came hurrying back and helped clean up- we tossed all of the hay just in case there were pieces of glass that we missed. I checked Penn's hooves for glass and jogged him when I got back, and he seemed fine. He must have just stung himself.
I finally noticed a problem- he managed to twist his right hind shoe enough that it was pulled back on the hoof by a solid inch. At least the clips were still on the outside of the hoof wall and not in the sole. Off we trekked to the show farrier, who promptly pulled the shoe and pounded it flat again, and tacked it back on. I only had one super concerning moment during this, when the farrier picked up the hind leg to take the shoe off, Penn leaped out of his hands like he'd been stung. That made me worry there was other damage to the leg, but Penn settled right after and was a gem. I've only used a show farrier once before- Mikey pulled a shoe in his stall at an event and the farrier tacked it back on. This guy did a good job and charged A LOT to pound the shoe and put it back on... like almost what I pay my farrier when he resets all 4 shoes using the same shoes.
When Penn and I got back to stabling, he and Hampton exchanged loud whinnies. I swear, five minutes together and they were attached!
Penn was SO THRILLED to be wrapped up to go home.
We had a less exciting drive back home (OMG thank goodness for that. I've had enough excitement, thank you very much!). We made it back home with the guidance of our truck pig, G-Force! (named that way because if he moved on the dash, that means there's too much g-force on the trailer and Penn). Barn owner happened to have him in her purse when she brought the truck over, so we were like, let's keep him in the truck and rub him for good luck, lol.
G-Force and some Pittsburgh skyline.
All in all, this trip was wayyyyyy too exciting. Truck dying, spooky Penn, forgetting my test, Penn tweaking his shoe. Did I get all my bad things all in one go? Did it have to pick this particular show?
But there were so many great things- meeting Karen and Hampton and getting to celebrate their ticket to Finals, meeting Cob Jockey, and making a great finish in a large class despite errors and a terrible prep test. We got home safe and sound too, which is both exciting and very good, haha!
After Friday's debacle of a test, I got my head together and wrote up my entire 1-3 test in notepad on my phone. I wrote out every movement, a plan for that movement (where to aim to make it accurate and how to avoid 4 beat canters). I had "The Plan".
Writing it out helps.
I also went to Walmart Friday night and bought myself a digital wristwatch. I used to wear one all the time, but I got away from the habit with the popularity of cell phones. I checked my phone for the time, why would I need a watch? How about to keep track of the time when you can't have your phone out?
Penn got out for a walk and graze Saturday morning, I put fresh braids in him, and got 40 minutes of MiniPhaser in. I didn't score check before I rode. Tack clean, boots clean, and everything was ready to go on time for my 10:36 ride time (a real watch FTW). Got to warm up with 12-15 min to go (which made the ring stewards very very nervous because they thought I'd be a no show).
As I swung up on the horse at stabling, I thought, "I should read The Plan over one more time. Nah, you got this." **foreshadowing**
Penn's Topline crown and my bronze pin!
I just liked that his feet were off the ground. I'm pretty sure this is just as he fell out of the canter, lol.
Warm up was good. I kept my hands down and elbows in and remembered to ride and not sit like a useless lump. Karen gave me feedback on halts and no 4-beat canter and connection. I checked my watch for the time to make sure I didn't overdo it and that he peaked right when it was our turn. Penn was much more relaxed on Saturday. I rode much better. Warm up went well, and then it was time to go in...
And then I forgot my freaking test. **GP Trainer: You'll be fine, just make sure you... know your test.**
Karen was kind enough to video, and give excellent commentary!
This was the 20th time I have ridden Penn through 1-3. I made it through the test 19 times without forgetting that stupid 15m circle. And I chose this day to forget it. Afterwards, I reasoned, it's only 2 points out of 340. That's really not that bad. I crunched it out later and it's worth more than I thought. It amounts to losing 0.588% from your end score. When there's 45 riders in a highly competitive championship, it could mean a place or not. I laughed after the test because I wasn't aware it was worth so much, and joked that I'd be super pissed later if it cost me a place. **foreshadowing**
How about a bunch of pics from the test:
Halt looks square from here! But blurry, oops.
I just like the activity in his hind legs.
Stretch!
This halt looked awesome from A, and I suppose C. I see why the judge at B gave it a 6.5 instead of 7!
Handsome.
Cantering past A, without doing a 15m circle.
Re-approach to A, before actually doing the 15m circle.
Needs better connection but this lengthening seemed to whoosh!
I feel like this final halt had a lot of promise with all that hock bending. It didn't pan out, haha.
Overall, I was super happy with the test. I had a listening horse. Penn nailed the halt with the double coefficient. Actually, all of the double coefficients went very smoothly.
The only real hang up spot (besides my rider error), was when I asked for the first lengthening canter and then added inside leg to lift his belly into the working canter (I don't think I mentioned that in my post for my last GP Trainer lesson), and the snarky creature decided I was asking for a flying change. Nevermind that I have never asked for one on the long wall, or from true canter to counter canter. Penn blew through me with his flying change snark face.
When we started the the next shallow loop, I knew I had to be explicitly clear with my aids that I absolutely did NOT want a flying change. Penn started the diagonal ready to give me the snarkiest change ever, but quickly understood I wanted nothing of the sort. Apparently that discussion really worked for the judge at B, because that was one of her few scores that matched the judge at C (7.0). He ended up with a ton more collection and better balance because he was ready to do a flying change man!
Obligatory photo in front of the Region 2 Championships at Majestic Farm sign!
Obligatory awkward horse leg placement too.
My championship class ended up having 45 entries of the 76 AA riders who qualified for the championship. That meant these judges went through first level hell (I'm fairly sure that's a thing). First Level AA Championships went from 8:00 am until 3:45 pm. That's A LOT of first level.
When I checked my score the first time, I was tied for second with a 65.221%. It would have been a 65.809% if I hadn't had my error (and I would have sat in first place for a while!). About a third of the horses had scores by that point, and I was still tied for second.
The scores were interesting, it appeared the judge at C was being a lot more generous, and the scores had up to 4-5% differences between each judge. I had a 4% difference - a 67.206% and a 63.235%. The judges disagreed on a couple early movements, but then the judge at B consistently gave me a half point less on each movement, so the tests weren't all that different. This weekend in general had some HUGE differences between judges - the biggest I saw was a 72 and 59 for the same freestyle. I did get to see that freestyle, it didn't look like it should have been sub 60.
By the time Karen and Hampton went and rode their exceptionally nice Third Level Championship test, I think I had been knocked down to a tie for 6th. Karen really did an incredible job- their test was nice and relaxed and very, very solid. Definitely something to make a goal for myself!
While I waited for the day to pass, I also got to meet Jen from Cob Jockey! She snuck in some great pics of Penn and me. She was super nice and fun to talk to.
I hid in his stall to escape the sun. It's almost like he's guarding me!
PC: Cob Jockey
Right around 4 I learned from my phone that it was over- I had ended up tied for 9th, bumped down by one of the last riders. Again (remember last year how I ended up 9th too?). The horse I tied with had the highest first level average this year of the horses that entered the class (I may have looked up everyone on a whim one night when I was really bored), so there's no shame in tying with them! I think the judges were a bit harsher in the morning, and got a little lax in the afternoon, and then toughened up again. All of the horses who were in the top 8, except one, had incredible scores all year long, and had much better averages than Penn and me. I did catch the one's test and it was quite fussy, yet she ended up 4th. That combined with me tying with a horse with a first level average for the year of over 70% (with 8 tests ridden I believe), makes me think the judges relaxed a little in the afternoon.
I love this picture. Maybe Penn knew I was upset, but he came in for a snuggle while I was sitting in his stall. He pressed his face up on me, not the other way around! My love for this horse grew several times over at that. Ribbons are nice, but the love of the horse is so much better. He really reminded me that that is what's important, not the ribbon.
It was a really hard pill to swallow when I did the math and realized I would have tied for 6th if I hadn't forgotten that circle. It's still bitter as I write this 2 weeks later. However, we competed against really good horses and riders that day. Losing to the high caliber of rider and horse that showed up is nothing to be ashamed of. They had a better day than I did. And 9th out of 45 horses and riders is not bad either!
Top 11
I thought it was interesting that these judges didn't agree very often. 11th place had a large percent spread like my score.
Once the sun started to set, Karen and I hid in the shade on the other side of stabling drinking (she too made a rider error that cost her 6th place. We commiserated together.).
I'm pretty sure this is when I melted my brand new Higher Standards Lavender soap- it was in my blue grooming bag and the sun was HOT.
Karen and I commiserated together over missing a placing due to rider stupidity. Part of getting a ribbon means getting to partake in fancy prancing around an award ceremony and doing a victory lap. We decided we'd have to hold our own fancy prance in a back field somewhere!
Another hard pill to swallow (but no where near as bad as losing the place due to my own error), was not earning the wildcard score for Finals (68%). I felt better than no one in the class did either, other than the people who earned their trip to Finals by being first and second. I was actually ok with not going- Husband, Penn, and I were kind of burnt out on showing.
There was an AMAZING competitor party that night. One of the ladies in our stabling group had two horses, so she got two wristbands for the food. She gave one to Husband, so we all got to engorge ourselves on really really awesome food.
I lost 12 pounds for championships, and I felt no shame in eating almost all of this delicious food!
Overall, we had a good test that would have been right up there without my mistake, my horse was great, I got to spend time with some great people, and ate great food, so it must qualify as a great day anyway!
Next is part 4, our departure day and the excitement never ends!
Day 1 of test riding dawned much too early. I had an 8:16 am ride time, which while that was amazing to avoid the heat of the day, it was a rough start. We arrived before dark to graze the horse.
Oh, hai. There's a horse in the dark.
I took Penn back to the stall to braid (I was going to do that the day we arrived. Ha. Hahaha. I opted to go to bed instead). I handed Husband my folder of health forms and told him to take it to the show office to check me in, and they could root through the folder and keep any forms they wanted. If they questioned anything, he could call me and I'd answer over the phone.
Squee!
Penn seemed pretty chill despite his late arrival. I planned on giving him a longer than normal warm up since he spent so long on the trailer and didn't really get to stretch his legs. I was planning on walking for a while, then doing our normal warm up.
Things didn't really go as planned. Warm up was a clusterfuck. They had 3-4 rings warming up in my warm up area. It's a big ring, it shouldn't be too bad... There were designated championship warm ups blocked off in the warm up ring (Warm up ring seemed to be about 60m by 80m: 3 side by side 20x60m rings - 2 blocked off were champ rings - then one 20x60m that ran the length of the other 3 rings), and either people weren't using them, or everyone was warming up very very early. Either way, everyone seemed to be warming up in the single 20x60m that ran the length of the other 3.
I was on before the show started, and there were horses everywhere. I walked for as long as I could, then trotted a bit and got the last dregs of Penn's coughing out. Then he proceeded to be 'turbo-Penn' like he was a few nights before. I thought the best course was to let him trot it out, so I did. He felt superb. Light with suspension, albeit some tension. I hit as many things as I could with traffic and limited steering, and it felt pretty good.
Of course, Penn ran out of juice. He peaked in warm up, which is totally rider error. Sigh. *cue flashback to our last lesson with GP Rider, "Don't warm him up for 35 min"*
I headed over to my ring to ride my test, and Penn just felt tense. We never got our issues sorted out, and had probably our worst test ever at first level (60.735% for 8th/16). It was our second worse scoring first level test- his very first recognized test was worse (58.971%). I'm pretty sure this test was much much worse than the one that scored 58.
Yupp, we sucked the big one. As the fog cleared during our test, he seemed to finally see A, and spooked hard at the flower pot. Seriously? I let him "stretch" for his stretchy trot, and when I came back to normal trot and went back to sitting, my core objected. It was sore from warm up. #howyouknowyoudidtoomuchwarmup
I was so upset at the score and how everything went down. The judge seemed to take pity on me in the last half of the test and just gave us straight 6s. She seemed to know we were capable of more (I like to think because of the pin!), because she wrote "Quite unsteady in connection today" under the submission collective. She rightly nailed us for all that fussiness and irregular canter. The test was atrocious. I just didn't ride like I could have.
I may have panic texted Austen about how everything is horrible, I can't school my own horse, he's being a tense spooky bastard, and I'm riding like shit. She was great and told me to get my shit together and brush it off. Tack him back up at the end of the day and take him for a relaxing fun walk around the grounds when the show is done for the day. #onpointscolding
We got some liquids while we were out.
Husband and I trekked off to IHOP for me to be in misery over there, and by the time we got back, Karen had arrived! Hampton is HUGE. And stoic as hell. And I want to ride him and absorb all he knows. Karen is amazing, btw. So super chill, taking things as they come and dealing with it. I should have taken notes. Her 4-1 test was incredible. So relaxed. I hope Penn and I can be that relaxed while doing 4th someday!!
Of course I showed her my nervous nellie tendencies right away- Penn laid down for almost the entire afternoon. He was down when Karen arrived, and still down when we came back from her afternoon test. He just doesn't do that.
So tired.
Flat out sleeping.
He didn't seem distressed, and he wasn't rolling. He was just... tired. He did this shortly after I bought him- he did a schooling show and then a hunter pace all in one weekend. He just laid down... a lot. By evening he had perked up and was eating a ton of hay and drinking, but I decided not to tack him up. Instead, I took him for a hand walk to the show ring we'd be in the next day.
There was much staring.
I was watching some horses school, which was super super neat. There was an upper level horse schooling pi/pa and pirouettes. Penn was staring majestically off into the distance, so I tried to take a picture.
"He is beauty, he is grace... oh wait, no he's not."
Just like our test that morning.
After that, he got bored and tried to eat the sand. Then he tried to dig a hole. I decided he wasn't spooky anymore after that!
"I wanted to eat the sand."
I tucked him in after his walk and we hit the road. I signed him up for night check, and I'm glad since he was a bit weird that afternoon. Someone would be checking on him every couple hours, it made me feel a lot better!
Wahoo, we've ground through the pre-championship posts in the queue, time for the big show!
Before we get there, I had one last ride before packing it up for champs. And it was horrible. Absolutely dreadful. I worked inside to use the corners and arena walls, and that might have been my biggest mistake ever.
#freakingoutoverallthethings
I had walked Penn around and was gearing up to trot and start tuning him in to my leg... when one of the horses who was in for dinner lost her ever loving mind and tried to claw up the stall wall. They got her out of the stall, but she was hell bent on leaving and leaped out into the indoor, directly in front of Penn. She was very very disturbed, and her abrupt appearance really spooked Penn. Like, legit scared him. His whole body shook with every heart beat. I could feel it in my leg and seat, and see it in his head and neck. The horse was terrified. He wouldn't go forward, he wouldn't go towards the far end of the arena, he wanted to stop and spin. He took a bunch of nervous poops where he just stood there and trembled.
I tried my best to encourage him forward into his fears, and to try and salvage a basic ride that could hopefully end with some relaxation. He did not need pony club kicked anymore. He needed to chill and turn down his turbo. He seemed to get more and more freaked out the more I tried to package him. So I stopped trying to. I sat the trot and let him trot as big as he wanted up into the bridle. And boy oh boy, he went to town. I offered him nothing except a steady rider and he just kept going and going. After a good bit of "excessive big show trot" he was finally ready to take some input and relaxed a hair. I did a little bit of canter, same idea, big big canter. He was a bit squirrely in canter (bodily out of control and he could have easily dumped me), but we got some work done.
I was horrified. He has worked much, much harder than I wanted, and none of it was what we needed to work on. The Perfect Impulse guy was out, and I told him he might need to spend a bunch more time on Penn the next day at his treatment because today was a shitshow. :(
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Thursday morning dawned rainy and hot. Irma had finally made it to my neck of the woods and brought tropical humidity with her. Fortunately, she had lost most of her rain and wind by the time she reached us!
Husband and I got to the barn right on time, got packed up right on time, and left the farm, right on time around 10:45-11:00am. The goal was to be at the show outside Cincinnati by 4pm. Ha. Hahahahaha.
My truck had other ideas.
No oil pressure means you pull over before you turn your engine into a hunk of useless metal.
About 15 min after we left, the truck's oil pressure dropped to zero. The truck did that before to Husband, but he pulled over and turned the truck off, let it sit for 5 min, then turned it back on and it was back up on pressure, no further issues.
We pulled over and turned the truck off. I texted my barn owner that shit might be hitting the fan. Husband hopped out, checked the oil level, added some since it was a hair low, but everything else seemed fine. We got the truck started again, and the pressure was normal again. We decided to keep going, and stopped for gas about 20 min later. Everything still seemed fine, so I texted BO that it seems ok, Husband is 99% sure it's an electrical gremlin and the gauge was bad (we've had other gauge problems). About 20 min after that, we were going up a long steeper hill on the way into Pittsburgh when the oil pressure dropped like a stone and the truck lost some pulling power. We managed to limp the truck to a commuter parking lot and popped the hood... and when Husband pulled the dipstick, it came out smoking.
Fuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkkkkk.
I called barn owner immediately... but no answer, so I left a message. I then texted M (BO's daughter) and was like, "I need to get a hold of your mom, we're stranded with the trailer). Then I texted Dressage Trainer- she was heading to Championships that day too. I messaged another person I knew was going to champs. I messaged everyone I could think of as I tried to formulate plans B-Z to try and get the horse another 5-6 hours to the show. DT was already in Columbus (way far away) and once we were back on the road, one of the other ladies said she had an extra trailer spot if we were still in a jam.
While I called everyone I knew, Husband called AAA. I was actually kind of sad I didn't get to use US Rider, but we were still within an hour of the barn, and only 15 min from my house, so I didn't need to call strangers.
This horse is a fucking rock star.
He stood in the trailer without making a peep the entire time we were sitting in the parking lot.
BO was great- she called back and agreed to let us borrow her truck for the weekend. She set her stuff in order and drove out to meet us. While she did that, AAA was on the way too. So were my parents. We arranged for the truck to go to a local dealership for them to look at whenever they had time and my dad would follow it there to make sure they got the right information down. Mom drove my BO back to the farm.
It seriously took a village to get us to this show. Horse people may be a crazy breed, but they are the most helpful people too. I could not have gotten to champs without the help of a bunch of people.
This made me very, very sad.
Also, this is the biggest truck this flatbed can take, haha.
It also took us like, 10 hours. Not kidding. We left sometime around 10:45am, and arrived around 9pm I think (no earlier, for sure). The trip was supposed to take 5 hours and 30 min. We figured 6 or 7 hours since we had the trailer. Between the stops we made (the first sitting on the highway, getting gas, stopped a second time for a couple hours, stopped again for diesel for the second truck, and stopped again because we we just beat), and the sheer distance to travel (308 miles), we took enough time to get there that I could have driven to Region 1 Champs in NC. The whole point of going to Region 2 Champs was to avoid the 10-11 hour drive. Sigh.
It may be 10:00pm in this pic, but we made it!
Karen was wonderful- she was my go between to the other members of our stabling party, and she got me the combination for the tack room so I could dump all my stuff in there after everyone else left. I promise guys, I may not have met any of you yet, but I won't steal your stuff or miss locking the tack room :-) An 8am ride time meant I had to get my stuff in there the night we arrived or face an even earlier morning.
Sunday night was the only night that Penn did not do well- I think there was too much activity on the property and a lack of horses near him. We got there and he had churned his stall up badly. I fed him breakfast and packed up the last couple items in his stall (hay net, alfalfa bucket, one of the water buckets).
The farm crew had been hard at work long before we got there. They had managed to clear out two of the barns by 7:30am and were working on Penn's barn when we arrived. They were very courteous, even stopping and turning off the machines when brought Penn out to load him up.
Loading to go home.
The drive home took a bit longer, 11 hours, because we hit some pretty bad rain in VA that made seeing difficult. Leftover tropical storm I think? Either way, we made a bunch more stops than we did coming down. It was uneventful, which was very nice!
Home in time for evening feed!
We got back to the barn at a normal hour, just as they were bringing in to feed for the evening. Husband helped me get stuff out of the trailer, and I actually unpacked the whole thing and cleaned it out, and reset it for next time before we left! It took no time at all. We were on our way home at a very decent hour.
These furballs missed us!
As I said in the Day 4 post, I spent some time being very disappointed and I needed to find some perspective... which was hard. What I came up with is this:
I've only had Penn for a year and a month.
Penn NEVER showed before coming home with me. He was barely an Intro Level horse when he came home. He has been showing First Level for five months and is pretty much ready to move on.
I brought him along myself with Trainer's guidance, but I did the bulk of the riding (99%).
This is the biggest show I've ever competed at, and I kept my nerves in check. I was a valuable partner for Penn so he could keep his own nerves (if he had any, I'm not a mind reader!) in check.
All but one of the horses that placed in the top 8 were already showing at Second Level, some of which were in the top 8 in the Second Level AA Championship the day before.
9th out of 29 people at championships is nothing to sneeze at either!
We got awesome scores in a competitive weekend!
This is just our first visit to champs. There will always be another year!
So, 9th out of 29 horses, in a large competitive region, at a high participation level, AT CHAMPIONSHIPS, on a very solid test, is nothing to be upset about. In fact, he came to work that day, ready to play. There was a lot of atmosphere from people packing and leaving, in addition to the atmosphere of a big show. I really wanted to go to finals, but oh well. Instead, Penn is learning his flying changes instead of spending more time at First Level!
_______________________
Trainer looked over my tests from championships at my lesson last night. She was looking for a trend in the tests for what went wrong... And couldn't find anything that was wrong. Mistakes yes, but they were all green horse and rider error, not "you have a gaping hole in your training." The trend of needs better connection and more steadiness in the bridle is something struggle with at home, yet it all came together for the championship test. She was very pleased that I brought home such solid tests with no glaring holes. She got to see all the videos during the show- I sent them to her for distance coaching!
_______________________
Oh, and durrr, this is actually something important that happened at championships!
Penn finished his First Level Horse Performance Certificate!
He needed just one more score (darn that 58% he got in his first recognized test, or he would have had it before champs), and he got it on the first day of competing! I've been keeping track of it off on the right hand side of my blog, but here's the recap:
USDF First Level Horse Performance Certificate:
Score 1 - 62.500% (5/21/2016 - Vogel)
Score 2 - 62.206% (5/22/2016 - Vogel)
Score 3 - 69.063% (6/5/2016 - Schmitt)
Score 4 - 68.971% (6/5/2016 - Schmitt)
Score 5 - 68.750% (6/11/2016 - Vracko)
Score 6 - 64.412% (6/11/2016 - Schneider)
Score 7 - 62.794% (6/12/2016 - Vracko)
Score 8 - 69.063% (9/4/2016 - Lees)
Score 9 - 67.941% (9/4/2016 - Malone-Casey)
Score 10 - 65.469% (9/16/2016 - Hyslop)
Different Judges: 7/4
Different Shows: 6/4
From 1-3: 5/4
Complete!
I went with the first 10 scores, not the best 10 scores (since he had it after the first 10 anyway, the last 3 don't really matter much). The scores don't get recorded anyway, I just apply and USDF checks to make sure he met the criteria, then I'm sent a neat piece of paper. Now I can send in his First Level Horse Award with my First Level Rider Award money!
We got to the show way early again for my 11:38am ride time. Penn needed to eat, go for a walk, be braided, get a good curry, walk again, then I needed to get ready and get him tacked up. Ahhhh, the to do list!
A friend I haven't seen for ages lives about 2 hours from the show, so she came up that morning too to say hi and meet Penn and watch some tests and see us go.
One of the championship warm-up rings.
I gave myself a half hour again to warm up for the Championship test. The first thing I did was stretch him low and make him super connected to unlock the base of his neck. I did a little overbend right, overbend left to help unlock his jaw. This had another interesting side effect- he focused on me and not on the clearing out show grounds. I kept his feet moving to maintain the focus I found. There was a scratch or something before my ride, meaning they had an empty slot and I could go early if I wanted. I told them I'd keep them posted, but for now I planned on keeping my time. Penn warmed up like a champ. He had adjusted well to the show by now, and the atmosphere of the championship area plus the atmosphere of people packing and loading and driving off really made him sharp to my aids.
I used the blunt, very square edged spurs too, which gave Penn a different sensation and he was quite prompt about everything, especially the leg yields. I really like those spurs! I'm going to keep them on hand as "show spurs" or something ridiculous like that. He tends to either be 100% on or ignores me a bit when we're in public. Warm up that morning could have gone either way- I think the combination of a new spur sensation and the extra effort I put into making him super connected really paid off. I can't use them at home all the time or else they won't be a different sensation anymore, and I don't want to revert to the smooth rowels I got. Penn is much too sensitive for that.
I gave the ring steward a heads up that I'd like to go early- Penn was so ON that I wanted to get him in the ring ASAP. I was careful to keep him trotting and cantering right up until I went over to the show ring (something very key in keeping him ON- make sure he's always focusing on something). I even remembered to flag husband over and give him my whip nicely instead of throwing it at him or tossing it on the ground (carrying a whip in a championship test is a no-no).
We walked past the judge at C, down the long side a little to the judge at B, turned around and walked back past C, then walked back and forth a bit while we waited. The bell rang, and off we went.
First off, I don't care that this isn't our highest scoring test ever. It felt like it was. Penn was available and willing and on task and better connected than he had been all weekend. Yes, we had mistakes, but I don't care. Anywhere else, I think this test would have been over 70%. Except this is championships, a level 5 competition, so the judges were super picky. It's just annoying that my test the previous day, that was not as nice, scored slightly better (one of my judges from this test was the same as the day before!).
I distinctly remember as I rode my 20m trot circle, "OK, be careful you don't make it too big. It's usually on the outer edges of 20m, even though no judge has ever said you made it too big. OK, where is the 20m mark? Before or after R-S? Umm, how many meters are there from the corner to R... Oh f-it, I can't do math right now, we're making the circle even with R-S." Guess what? I had a comment that I made the circle too small, whomp whomp. The most common thought going through my head during this test? "Don't screw up." That's not exactly an 'on task' thought, haha.
66.029% - 9th out of 29
I was so ecstatic about our test (I still am, I love watching it). I thought we had gotten the 68% we needed to go to finals or at least should be in the top 8 (and therefore eligible to get satin and participate in the victory gallop!). I was all tears and things after it. So many emotions running on high, and then doing our best when it counted.
Needless to say, when I looked up the scores and saw it was a 66% and 8th place, I was a bit upset. I was still sitting in 8th at the lunch break, and there were 3 horses left to go. I was excited about that, (I just wanted some satin at this point), but I looked at who still had to ride and realized there was a good chance I'd end up in 9th. One of the riders who had yet to go had been winning for most of the weekend and I fully expected them to score better than us... whomp whomp, she did and moved into second place (go her!) but that bumped me down to 9th and out of the ribbons.
It took me a while to find some perspective (which I'll talk about in the final post of this series tomorrow), but I did eventually find some and then set out to hug and praise Penn even more and enjoy the rest of the day. Getting my tests back and watching the video really helped me- there were only one or two things I could have actively done better (actually making my 20m stretch trot circle 20m for one thing), but there really wasn't any one thing that cost me the points. Out of all the marks between the two judges, only two were sub 6, which I thought was fantastic. Penn felt fantastic, came to work that day, I could have concentrated a little better, but I wouldn't have changed anything in how I rode the test (except that 20m circle). I wasn't about to push his trot lengthenings into canter like I had been doing. I wasn't going to push him for more ground cover in his one loops- I haven't really worked on counter canter with him and I didn't want to put him off balance and lose even more points. We did our best, and for once, that's good enough for me.
It helps that most of the people in the top 8 also rode in the AA Second Level Championships too... and scored well in that class too. Penn is not ready to ride Second Level yet. I don't know how I feel about that- coming in to this weekend I didn't think it was quite fair to be able to compete in more than one Championship level. I feel bad for the horses and riders in the lower level who aren't showing both levels. But it's not my call, and definitely no judgement on anyone who does that. Competing in two levels is great!
So I was a bit pissed about the pictures... I paid for my photos at the start of the show... and I thought that meant the photographer would have someone at all of my tests... nope. They decided not to shoot the CHAMPIONSHIP RING on the final day of the competition. Dafuq???? That was the only thing that really bothered me about the photographer. They took pictures of every rider, as they should... however I think if you have customers that paid already, you should make a point to get to all of their tests, you know? Anyway, I took screenshots from the video my husband got, so here you go!
Coming back from the first one loop.
Let's talk about this uphill canter.
Height!
Reach!
I was so happy with the canter-trot transition at the end of the test!
Salute.
Smile like a fool.
Hug the horse and tell him you love him.
And scare him just a bit.
I grabbed a couple pics Sunday afternoon with Penn and our two ribbons for the weekend, then took out his braids and gave him lots of love. The show was over by that point and people were hustling to get out and on the road. Husband and I were not in a hurry as we planned to stay over one more night (umm not driving 10 hours home starting at 2pm or later after being up early to show!).
Obligatory (gorgeous) head shot.
What you don't know is I'm wearing sweatpants instead of breeches.
Instead, Husband and I found a pirate themed indoor mini-golf place that made homemade pizza a short distance away, so we went back to the hotel to change...
... and found this. Husband named him Steve.
Common garden spider is not a malicious enough name for it.
Leg tip to leg tip was about 4" long.
We took a ton of pics of Steve then went off to play some golf! We had fun eating pizza and playing golf, then went back to the barn to pack up.
By this point, everyone except the one other overnight horse had cleared out, so we pulled the trailer right up to the door next to Penn's stall and parked it for the night. We walked into the barn and went "Whaaaaaaa!"
The great Mucking.
The farm crew had gone through every barn and mucked the stalls into the aisle, where we guessed they would come back with a skid steer and scoop them out.
We emptied the tack room and left the bare minimum hanging on the front of Penn's stall, tucked him in, and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before the long drive home.
