Unexpected Lessons

I managed to finagle some lessons from an unexpected source- Megan! She was in town the first week of October so I was like, "Hey, I'm royally sucking at riding, want to come yell at me?"

I described a dead air feeling in the bridle- he wasn't leaning on my hands, but he also didn't feel connected to the bridle, but he also wasn't consistently on or off the forehand, and it felt like a fake connection. The left lead had suddenly turned to scrambled eggs again too.

Megan basically told me, he might be lighter in your hand (not leaning on the bit) but he's leaning on his shoulders instead. That's why he feels on and off the forehand. Oh.

Ok guys, Megan is incredible. She outputs a lot of information at once (I really need audio recorded so I can just play it back during my schooling sessions. Or while I sleep. Either or.), but she is more than happy to reiterate all the things as many times as you need. I was a bit on overload (think computer with not enough RAM for what you're trying to do), but she made everything so much better!

Penn's OMG face is appropriate for what we're learning.

Walk/Halt/Walk/Halt/Walk/Trot/Walk/Halt/Walk/Trot Hell

Or as we'll call it, "Penn's life for the next 3 months".

Megan did something similar with Rico, but it basically amounts to being extremely scrupulous about the hind end engagement and every single transition and every single step. If it's not improving the horse, go back and redo everything.

She talked a lot about changing the rhythm of the horse (ie, walk/trot/canter) without changing the speed of the horse. She had me keep the walk and trot very slow, but active. He could not disengage his hind end for any reason. He could not lean on my hand (something I did an ok job starting before our lessons!). He could not surge forward in upward transitions. He wouldn't flop down in downward transitions. He couldn't flip his head. He had to maintain his engagement (ie, keep bending those hocks dude). I had my own list of things to do: continuously test the connection- brief releases of the reins to make sure he's going to maintain the current rhythm/speed, no hanging on the rein, every cue must come from the seat. Thigh with slightly raised seat to collect, release the thigh to allow forward. The desired result is that I ask for a transition and release into it and he puts himself even more into the connection.

The biggest thing I took away was in Penn's collected/medium/collected trot transitions. He could collect, medium, then somewhere in the medium he'd lose his balance. When I recollected, he would plop on the forehand. Megan stressed making the medium steps not as many (quality over quantity), and trying a pattern of 4 steps medium/4 steps collected. I really found his balance point is not strong enough to maintain a medium trot, simply because he can't come back from a medium trot and be ready to go again (see 4-1's first diagonal). I have to fix the collected trot first, then we can go again. That isn't how it should be done.

She said he's holding his tension at the base of the neck, so everything we do has to be to make that stretch without him leaning on me or his shoulders. She also said this whole exercise is much more difficult on the rider than the horse when the horse is like Penn- they're a bit downhill already, we want to help them, and it's easy to get talked into helping them again.

Bend those hocks!

I need to remember all of the following: (I hope I am remembering these correctly)

• Think about giving my hands forward in the downward transitions. It must come from the seat.
• Give my hands forward in the gait briefly to check that Penn will stay at the same rhythm/speed/connection.
• I can use my hands to remind him he can't put his head in the air, and that he can't lean on the bit (I give the rein a wiggle). But I can't hang.
• Any resistance in the upward, go back and repeat (resistance = head flip, rushing the first step, diving down to pull himself up, disengaging a single hind leg, anything that isn't stepping semi-politely into the new rhythm at the same speed).
• Any time he disengages, go back to the previous rhythm (med trot to collected, collected trot to collected walk, walk to halt).
• Anything that does not improve the horse, go back to prior rhythm and find the hind end again.
• Transitions, transitions, transitions!

Partway through the walk/trot/walk/halt hell in our first lesson, a switch flipped in Penn's head. He suddenly went from quiet resistance to outright tantrums. I asked for a halt/walk and he reacted by hopping his front end and flipping his head (no real danger of rearing). Megan said he's just testing out new ways out, and to keep going like I was. He tried surging through the first step of the transition to disengage his hocks. He tried being "zoomie." He tried growing roots through his hooves into the sand. Every time, we just asked again. In the second lesson, we added rein back to the halt. Not flying backwards, a very controlled, one step at a time rein back. He had to bend the hocks and not drop his shoulders to use them to push himself backwards. This helped when he would halt and disengage. I could re-engage and then he wouldn't drop out from under me.

By the end of this work in the first lesson, he was much much better in the contact/connection at the trot, and I had my hands further forward than I usually do, but it wasn't a struggle for me to keep them there. He was light in my hand, had a real elastic connection, was stretching his neck forward, and I had contact again. It was great!

In lesson 2's halt/walk/trot hell, we attacked a bit of his tension to the right- he sometimes comes out one direction bending like a 2x4. I respond by digging into his rib cage and shoving his haunches in (because he's pressing his rib cage against my inside leg and the haunches trail out). That usually results in haunches in or the inside hind crossing the outside. Megan had me keep the outside leg on to only stop the outside hind from leaving our circle (Penn uses lateral moves to evade sometimes), but then the inside leg asked the inside hind to keep stepping up very actively. In order for the inside hind to keep moving up, the stifle needs to keep moving, and Penn will be forced to shift his rib cage out to make room for the stifle to keep coming forward. It was extremely tricky, but worked extremely well. She said to focus on keeping his hind legs close together since he uses the lateral moves to evade, so it might seem a lot like bouncing his hind end from leg to leg while he figures out the walls.

Playing in water is so much more fun than training.

Canter

I described the canter as being irregular again. I wasn't sure how to fix it, it was just bad. The first thing we had to do was get him working again after our little break. I went back to walk/trot/walk/halt hell, and in the first halt, he voiced his displeasure by halting with his head up and parking out. We got that sorted, and off to the canter.

It wasn't nearly as irregular as it has been, but it was irregular. She said the mechanic of the canter has a downward step and no matter what, the horse is going to be downhill. Instead of trying to lift him in that step, lift him even more in the uphill portion of the canter. It's a very fast half halt in the uphill portion, and a quick give in the downhill. Then once the uphill/engagement has been properly established, add energy slowly to improve suspension. Bam, no more irregular canter. I had a canter I could do something out of. He wants to be earth bound in canter because it's easier than bending his hocks. Earth bound = irregular.

Penn was most displeased by these findings- he gave me all the warnings before finally bucking to disengage his hocks. We started over from the walk/halt/walk, and he grumbled about cantering, but we started having much better trot/canter transitions. He pinned his ears very threateningly for the transition, but each time I did less and less fixing the canter immediately after the transition (re-engaging the hocks) before moving on to timing the half halts. By the end I had a canter I would have been happy to try changes or half pass out of. It still needs to be much better though. We talked about how the lack of suspension is why he's hopping so much in the changes. He consistently hops first, so he's trying to create the suspension that allows him to do a clean change.

In our second lesson, he did not want to be on the bit as much as he should be- Megan said this is ok. He can't keep the uphill balance and be fully on the bit. Give him some time.

Excessive hopping to create suspension to get the changes done.

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Megan warned me it will get worse before it gets better. The first couple rides are great- he's working out what I want. Then he starts to realize this is hard and he's sore, so he starts looking at ways out. That's when the rides start to go downhill. GP Trainer told me the SAME THING. She likes having horses in for training for 3 days or 3 weeks- the time in between sucks, is frustrating, is difficult, and everything looks pretty bad. I am glad I got to ride once between our two lessons- Megan got to help me through some of the suck that is to come.

Suffice it to say, we've got a seat far away from the door on the struggle bus. Penn has decided being on the bit is terrible. He also oscillates between zero activity and running away. I have to be so much clearer with my seat with what I want- any little drop back sends him gushing forward. We hit a 12/10 on the frustration scale the other night.

So... one week down, 2 to go? And then another month or more? I'm looking forward to the horse I'll have on the other side!

Since Champs

Ok, so what have we been up to since Championships?

More on this below!

I spent the first two weeks after championships trying to resolve all the bad feelings I've had about being able to school myself, while also feeling very lost without a short term goal. I still haven't totally resolved those bad feelings, but I suspect they'll come and go in the next few months. Since we didn't make it to Finals, show season was a wrap, which left me a bit directionless. Though, I think everyone wanted/needed a break.

I decided to take some regularly scheduled lessons with Dressage Trainer while I'm in trailering limbo (can't go see GP Trainer without a functional truck!). Of course this hasn't panned out yet- she's out every other Saturday, but I missed the first Saturday because I was doing a road rally with Husband, and then the next time had to be changed from Saturday to Wednesday, but I had other plans that day too. I need some structure in my riding again, and I miss having lessons every other week like I was used to with Event Trainer. I did get some really great lessons though, from an unexpected source! More on that in the next post. ;)

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A week after its hauling disaster, the truck was given a non-diagnosis from the dealership we had it towed to (PISSED). They basically said they could not reproduce the problem and offered us an engine rebuild for $3700, plus the cost of whatever parts they find out are bad. Uh, no. We paid the $122 for their "check" and attempted to drive the handful of miles home. We had to stop halfway through the 10 min drive home because the truck'as oil pressure had dropped to zero. We waited about 20 min, and then drove the rest of the way home (it was back to zero by the time I backed it into it's space). Husband left the dealership a bad review, and they ended up refunding us the entire $122, which is nice since we weren't any further ahead.

Husband did some research, but couldn't fix the problem with what he has available to him at our home garage. He thinks it is a bad oil pump, but we either have to take the engine out (uhh he doesn't have a lift big enough), or he has to drop the suspension and axle to get to the underside (uhh he doesn't have those capabilities at home), so off to a shop it goes. Not back to the one that handled its original "diagnosis." It's going to another shop that told us flat out that they don't repair engines, only replace them. Husband said we didn't want a replacement yet, so they offered to diagnosis for $60. We'll see what they say, but they seem more willing to talk possibilities than the original dealership.

___________________________

Anyway, on 9/24, I got my mom to come out and video one of my early morning rides because I have had zero feedback for what I'm feeling (no mirrors, eyes, or video). I ran Penn through a bunch of transitions between walk and trot and trot and canter, with the goal of him being lighter in the bridle each time. I lost some of the connection since he's so used to a heavier contact (so he didn't have true connection before). He seemed to remember being lighter from our last ride where I did that (yay!), and then I moved on to the fun stuff:

Trying to teach Penn to piaffe!

It's very much the blind leading the blind. All I have to go on is GP Trainer saying she teaches it by frustrating them in the walk until they offer piaffe as an answer. I tried to find the rhythm of the walk with my legs, lighten my seat, and tickle his haunches with the whip. I never get more than a good step or two, and nothing so far has been as good as what he offered in the above gif (which is obviously still a baby horse response and it needs more sit in the good steps and less muddled steps). I'm still happy even though he spends a good amount of time taking muddled steps- they're at least in diagonal pairs! He's getting it though. This was my third ride working on it, with basically no feedback whether he was right or not. I need some instruction before I do something wrong though. He started giving me some real sit with attempts to leap into canter towards the end of the practice, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, so I stopped there and haven't really revisited it since.

The next thing I worked was his counter canter. I want to do more of it since he's fairly confirmed in his changes (even if they're not always clean), since it'll make his canter better. I want to start making the turns in CC smaller too, so I mirrored the 4-3 pattern a little (10m half circle to 10m cc half circle, down the next wall, flying change halfway, repeat 10m half circle, 10m cc half circle, flying change, corner). I skipped the flying change parts in this ride (I did the middle one the other day), so that I could loop 10m half circles on the same lead, only they aren't 10m, they're more like 15m.

I ended up turning these half circles into a counter canter figure 8. Or rather, I tried to; Penn kept breaking on the left lead cc. I did manage to finish the ride with a figure 8 with straight diagonals, with cc on the round edges and flying changes near X. Super super happy with the work. His canter got much better, and his changes quieted immediately- no hopping. He did one clean one and a bunch of late behind, but it doesn't bother me. He's been clean or late up front in normal changes, so I think it's a footwork/strength problem.

I knew he had talked me into not sitting as much as GP Trainer wants, but I didn't realize how much!! I need to practice cc without perching!

Link to YouTube

If you're interested, the full 25 min of work is here. The first bit is warm up (walking, transitions), then messing with piaffe, then around the 20min mark we start the canter.

Link to YouTube

I'm looking forward to more lessons this fall!

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!

"What Would George Morris Say" Blog Hop

*I didn't get my champs recaps written this weekend, so you get this instead*

I'm making my own blog hop! The recent unicorn bit contest that SB and Topline Leather held brought up a ton of fun fails. I found this great series of me riding like a schmuck and submitted it:

Mikey needs some features on here that are not #fail!

I remember reading mock George Morris critiques of jumping fails many years ago. They were hilarious plays on obvious rider error and recommended that riders should take up goldfish keeping instead of jumping because they suck so much (or something like that).

So have at it everyone, take a fail pic of you and your horse jumping (or get creative if you don't jump!), and write up your own Faux George Morris critique!

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"This rider has started off well by keeping a 90 degree angle in her knee. However, her base of support could use some attention. Her seat is much too far forward and out of the saddle. She should strive not to duck and to keep her heels down. Harry de Leyer's heels up position is not one to emulate in the equitation ring. Despite her poor base of support, she has her hands pressed firmly into the horse's neck with generous loop in the rein in a long crest release. Her dull partner does not seem to have any aptitude for jumping. While I am not a fan of bright colors, she is correct to dress in red - it will hide the blood stains in the oncoming train wreck." - Faux George Morris

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. :(

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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.

Next, a very, very early first ride.