2018 Goals

 

I again copied my headings and pictures from last year because I am apparently highly unoriginal and like the format. Once again, my main and stretch goals are all competition result oriented because that's how I am. End of story. I hate that I am lost without a competition goal, but it's how I find purpose in what I'm doing, and to be honest, it's how I make progress towards my end goal, Grand Prix.

Attempting to keep this in mind.
Hopefully I'm better this year than I was last year when I started.

2018 Main Goals

• Start working in the double and get comfortable with it - We're working 3rd/4th, let's do it!
• Complete Centerline Scores 1* Rating - I have 6/10 points towards it already.
• Complete Centerline Scores 2* Rating - I have 3/10 points towards it already. Needs 1* rating.
• Complete Third Level Horse Performance Certificate - If all goes according to plan, we'll compete at third more than enough times to make this happen.
• Qualify for Region 1 Championships at Third Level - Go there and compete, and do it well (top 10 or 62%+).

2018 Stretch Goals

• Show 4-1 at a recognized show - GP Trainer actually OK'd this!
• Earn two Fourth Levels Scores towards my Silver - OMG progress on my silver!
• US Dressage Finals at Third Level - Because Finals is ALWAYS on the table.

2018 Other Goals

• Go swimming in GP Trainer's pond again.
• Take Penn to herd cows.
• Give Penn some kind of vacation mid-year or near there to give him a mental break.
• Ride a horse that is not Penn at least 5 times.

I decided to add the "Other" category to offset my competition focused goals... and these would just be fun. But looky, 12 goals!

Such a sweet face.
PC: Austen

Main Goals:

• Double Bridle Comfort: I started working Penn in the double at the end of December. Austen lent me her NS Thoroughbred Weymouth, and Penn seems to have taken to it well. I'd like to work in it once or twice a week, and possibly show in it.
• Centerline Scores 1* Rating: (Click here for more info about the ratings) 10 points at second level. I am ready to be done with second level, so I'm hoping to knock out those last 4 points quickly. It'll take me at least 2 tests, and hopefully at most 4 tests.
• Centerline Scores 2* Rating: 10 points at third level + 1* Rating. I'll be riding third level a lot, so this shouldn't actually be too much of a problem even if it takes me 7 more rides to get the 7 points, assuming I can finish the blasted 1* rating.
• Third Level Horse Performance Certificate- 10 scores at 60%+ from at least 4 different shows and 4 different judges, where at least 4 scores need to be from the 3-3 test. This "should" be easy to obtain. Penn needs 8 more scores, 4 of which need to be at 3-3. Based on my proposed schedule, that shouldn't be a problem.
• Qualify for Region 1 Championships at Third Level- 2 scores at 60%+ in 3-3, from 2 different shows. This will be a make it or break it thing. The qualifying score is 60%, which means you're either satisfactory at 3-3 or you're not. I'll certainly be riding 3-3 enough times this year, but hopefully it doesn't take too many tries to qualify. Going is of course dependent on Penn's health, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should be going.

Competing = Fun! Right?

Stretch Goals:

• Show 4-1 at a recognized show: GP Trainer actually thought this would be doable by late summer 2018! I hesitantly mentioned it to her when she was here for the clinic at the beginning of December and she was like, "For sure!" I've got my eye on riding it at a schooling show in mid July, but we'll see how that goes.
• Earn two Fourth Levels Scores towards my Silver: If I'm going to ride 4-1, I'm hoping to get above a 60%, so let's try to ride it twice with scores above 60%!
• Third Level Finals: Top 2 or 65+% for a Wildcard invite. Finals will always be on my radar because it's the biggest show of the year, but I'm not expecting or planning on it. We aren't even working 3-3 properly at the start of 2018, so I'm not sure how doable the wildcard score of 65% will be.

Being "off-task" is fun sometimes!

Other Goals:

• Swim in the pond: Swimming in GP Trainer's pond is simply fun. We'll be there enough times to be there in the summer when it'll be the most fun!
• Herd cows: I think this will really help Penn's self confidence, and I found a place that keeps cows and chases them with their dressage horses!
• Vacation time: Penn went on a short vacation at the end of December because of the super cold temps. I didn't ride him, I came out a couple times to rub his face and give him some treats, but that was about it. His anger levels seemed to drop and his body soreness went down, so I need to remember to give him some horsey time without training or even trail riding.
• Ride different horses: I used to ride different horses all the time, but not anymore. I've only ridden Penn for the last two years. Sure, I rode a couple horses once or twice, but I need to start riding different horses as they become available to me to use. I've been passing up opportunities lately to ride other horses out of a lack of confidence... so let's ride some other horses!

2018 Small Goals:

Per the usual goal post, I've planned out the shows for the year too so I can start budgeting money and vacation time in addition to ensuring I have a plan for getting my goals done. This also lets me book hotels in advance. Who knew that booking the hotel for champs almost a year in advance would mean I had slim pickings? There were only a couple rooms left at my first choice hotel.

"O" in yellow is a slot I could technically fill with another test, but don't want to.

If we go along with this schedule (which is up for debate/changes):

• 5 Schooling Shows
• 2-2: 3 rides
• 3-3: 3 rides
• 4-1: 2 rides
• 9 Recognized Shows (over 6 weekends)
• 2-2: 3 rides
• 3-3: 10 rides
• 4-1: 3 rides

That's 11 weekends over 8 months, and Penn only goes showing two weekends in a month in May, July, and August. That's much better balanced than past plans have been (show heavy schedule in May and June then nothing until September). The recognized shows with more than one test on the first day worry me a little- Penn was not OK with this at the end of last year (I mixed 3-1 and 2-3). I think he'll be in much better shape by May, and I'll have a good handle on it with the schooling shows too.

I'll have 3 shots at finishing my CL 1* rating (I need one test to be 65+ to finish in those 3 tests), but if I qualify for championships earlier than anticipated, I can swap a 3-3 for 2-2. Hopefully I don't need 5 or more rides to get the job done! I'll have plenty of opportunities to qualify for third level champs, which should leave a few rides for 4-1, and if I'm successful there, that should boost my confidence in 3-3.

So that's the plan for this year. If it actually pans out, it'll be one hell of a year!

9/17/2017 - Championships, Part 4: The Final Day and Drive Home

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!

9/16/2017 - Championships, Part 3: Championship Test

So handsome!
PC: Cob Jockey

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!

Link to YouTube

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!

9/15/2017 - Championships, Part 2: Practice Test

If only the test was as pretty as the setting.

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.

Link to YouTube

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!

Next time, the championship test!

9/14/2017 - Championships, Part 1: The Long Ass Drive

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. :(

__________________________________

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.

Next, a very, very early first ride.

9/10/2017 - Schooling Show

Aka, "That time the baby dinosaur stuck in a tar pit was still a big fish in a small pond." (shamelessly stolen metaphor from Emma)

Thank you everyone for the condolences. My grandfather was 98 and had an incredible life. He retired at 55 on an incredible pension. He and his late wife spent their years of retirement visiting over 100 countries on incredible trips. We traveled to NJ to lay him to rest in a Jewish cemetery next to his wife. We sat shiva for the rest of the week.

After the disaster that was 2-3 at the recognized show, I needed a confidence boost before championships. I entered 1-3 at the local dressage venue after making sure the secretary could work with my limited schedule (a shiva service was in the afternoon of the show), and off we went.

While I was doing funeral things after the recognized show, the vet was out to give Penn his fall vaccines, write up a health certificate, and check out Penn's coughing. He had a normal temperature, no abnormal lung sounds, and she agreed it was probably allergies. She left him antihistamines, which he started getting the Thursday after the recognized show. Penn's coughing was much less by this adventure- it was mostly sneezing and he was able to tolerate stretching down and back up with no coughing or sneezing fits. So I think in the future, I'll be getting him some seasonal allergy supplements to try to head this off before it gets this bad. He seems to have coughing issues each fall and spring. Of course, this particular antihistamine is a USEF banned substance (as are they all), and not only is it banned, I need to fill out a drug declaration form when I check in at Championships because it can still show up in his system if he received it within 7 days of the blood/urine draw (even with the 24 hour withdrawal period). By the way guys, feel free to call the USEF drug number- they are super helpful. I've called a couple times now!

Anyway, Penn got his warm up cough and sneezes out, and I should have put a little more effort into making him hold himself up. He felt stuck, but I didn't put out the effort to unstick him because I was worried about making him tired, and I thought part of the problem might be the deep footing.

Anyway, off to the test:

Link to YouTube

My first thought after, "OMG, we are completely screwed for championships. That was completely insufficient and thank goodness I didn't ride third here, because it would have been the shittiest score ever." Not only was he heavy in the hand and tense and resistant, we had made 3 major blunders. Cantering in the first lengthening (seriously, wtf? How long has it been since we've made that mistake?), bungling the trot change into scrambled eggs (I pushed him down the diagonal and then said sit and come back and he told me to f-off), and then him breaking to trot at the end of the second canter shallow loop. On top of those, he felt like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit- he needed more oomph and I wasn't finding it.

Well I know what lesson he's getting before we go to championships- the legs off, pony club kick lesson! That way I have a back up plan for if he peters out on me- take a leg off and he'll dig a bit deeper without the kick. That and a metric shit-ton of canter-trot-canter changes. And paying extra attention to connection.

I was honestly surprised at the 69.411%. Really? Was she blind? Did she not see my baby dinosaur mucking about in the bog? Four 8's, seven 7.5s, eight 7s. 19 of the 27 marks (collectives included) were 7+. The 5 on the shallow loops (double coefficient) hurt the most I think, but I think she was a bit too generous even with a 5. I mean, the loop was great, and he broke at K. I donno, maybe I'm being overly critical? I look at it and go, "That was not third level quality" and my basis for first level quality is now super super skewed.

It was of course the highest scoring First Level AA test (and Open/Jr/AA First Level test if you want to know). Cue the: "OMG you got pretty satin, just be happy already!" I think that's how you know you're really after the score and how things felt I think. Win blue and tri-color ribbons and it's still not good enough!

Though I have to say, it's pretty darn cool to have a meh feeling test score a 69%.

I was still quite nervous- this judge was a bit generous with everyone I think. I know I am expecting 3rd level work in a 1st level test, because in reality, that's what I need to do really well at championships. However, my championship test is being judged by two people I've ridden for in the past and I found them quite fair, if a hair generous. Between the two of them, they've given me a 69.063, 68.971, and 68.088 at first level. I haven't seen the one since last year, and I saw the other in June. They both seem to like Penn and reward steady connection.

 

Next up in my stream of posts, Championships!