I'm Depressed Lately

Obviously I haven't been blogging much lately, and it's for too many reasons to list. Short version of the past nine months: going grad school in epidemiology, trying to decide between vet school/med school/doctorate program, & Royal is now semi-retired.
I made the decision to retire The Fuzz from recognized competition after Otter Creek HT. Long story short we came in last after middling dressage, one rail in stadium, two refusals & a heaping helping of time penalties on x-c. It didn't help that I was going through a combination of panic attack & meltdown that weekend, so I wasn't at top form mentally. I really tried to get us around x-c with no refusals, but we had a stop at the up bank & a very simple brick-and-blue jump. So, that was surprising. Royal loves up banks, started doing them before I even thought about eventing him. He's never hesitated at an up bank before, so the whole thing caught me off guard. But the other reason I've decided to retire him from recognized competition is his lungs. Since he normally lives outside 24/7, he's not used to the dust from a stable. And the barn I bought him from used sawdust instead of shavings as bedding. He lived there for 3 or 4 years, so all those years of breathing sawdust anytime he moved seems to have affected him in his old age. He coughs whenever the weather changes, especially when it gets really cold. He never seems to be distressed by it, just coughs a couple times & goes back to whatever he was doing, but he coughed constantly at OC, to the point of me nearly scratching him. Luckily he coughed himself out, but it was still worrying. Even more so when the cough stuck around for a couple days after we got back & he was not longer in the stable. Of course, he's 19 now, and I think his age is starting to catch up with him. But now I'm definitely reluctant to stall him for any non-emergency reasons. Obviously I can't know for sure that his breathing problems played a role in our OC weekend, but I can't help but think they may have. And it's a sucker punch to the gut to know that you might done something to cause your horse discomfort. So, I'm not willing to risk it. No overnight shows for us anymore.

If were in Area I or II, we'd have a plethora of one-day HTs where we could show out of the trailer. But those simply don't exist in Area IV, and the last non-stabling HT, my beloved Steepleview, is no more. OC and Roebke's Run both require stabling on show grounds, and everywhere else is too far to go in one day. So, that's it. We're out of options. We can still do a few schooling shows next summer, but I'm not very focused on those either. At this point, I'm too busy with the quarter-life-semi-crisis of WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE?! to focus on shows and such. But still, it's sort of depressing to no longer have that in my life for the time being. I used to love planning out the summer with shows and outings, and it's just not going to be the same without a Big Show goal at the end of it.

The other reason I'm depressed can be summed up in one handy-dandy graphic:

The competition world, while admittedly never really having horse welfare at the forefront of it, seems to be ignoring horse abuse more than usual lately, and it's rather pissing me off. People suing the USEF because they got caught drugging their horses, people getting pissed because they got eliminated for spurring their horses hard enough to draw blood, and this shit:

That's eventer Meredith Little, and that is blood on the mouthpiece of her DOUBLE TWISTED WIRE GAG BIT IN THE MOUTH OF HER HORSE WHICH IS STRAPPED SHUT WITH TWO CHAINS! God damn, that is a horrible bridle and I am stunned at this absolute lack of compassion towards her horses. Absolutely stunned and horrified. Incidentally, that was the first of two, TWO!, incidents where her horses were bleeding from their mouths and competition official did both 1. Jack and 2. Squat. I can't improve on the The $900 Facebook Pony's post of the subject ( http://the900facebookpony.com/2015/10/23/when-does-control-become-abuse/ ) but let me just say that this travesty goes beyond Ms. Little and her depraved indifference to inflicting injuries on her horses. At both these competitions, officials looked at her horses (plural!), who were BLEEDING FROM THEIR MOUTHS, went

and let her keep competing. That is a staggering display of lack of concern for horse welfare. Absolutely unbelievable. And those same people had the gonads to be offended when other competitors and spectators expressed concern over the fact that someone who made their horses bleed from the mouth on two separate occasions was not disciplined in any way. Let someone who injured their horse keep on trucking: meh. Express concern over aforementioned horse injuries: HOW DARE YOU!

In a world where almost everyone is carrying cameras at all times in their call phones, you'd think equine competitions would be very concerned about making sure the sport is absolutely squeaky clean with nothing that could be sent to the press or PETA showing blatant horse abuse, but you'd be very wrong. When you stand by while bleeding horses go undefended, you have no moral high ground and no standing to complain when someone poles their horses or puts shards of glass in their boots. You are no better than they are.

Can you tell I'm mad about this?

So, eventually I'm going to get another horse. Most likely an ex-racehorse or a retraining project. And I'm going to have to decide if I want to compete in recognized competitions or not. The fact that I'm even waffling about that saddens me. I love showing, especially eventing, but the thought of having my money and time go towards support organizations that actively aid and shield horse abusers is sickening. And the USEF has basically rolled over and licked the boots horse abusers because MONEY and MEDALS. Ms. Little can brutalize her horses around x-c courses and place well in shows, so she can pretty much do whatever she wants with impunity, it seems. It's common knowledge that pretty much all high level hunters are on drug regimens that would make Lance Armstrong do a double take, but their owners are rich, so nothing gets done. We can't implement true safety rules, like mandating a full medical evaluation after you crack your helmet falling off on x-c because then the pros may not be able to ride a dozen or more horses every other weekend. Hell, half the sessions at this years annual USEA convention centered around how to make sure the pros could make as much money as possible. Never mind that adult amateurs and juniors make up at least 80% of entries in any given recognized event (or any USEF recognized competition of any discipline, for that matter). Never mind that amateurs buy the horse gear that makes it possible for pro riders to get sponsorships. Never mind all the GMOs that would collapse if all the AAs and JRs took their money and time, and went home. Nope, AAs and JRs barely warrant a mention in the eyes of the USEF and all the sport specific orgs.

I did not renew my membership with USEA, but I did renew it with the Central States Dressage and Eventing Association. I'll still do a handful of local shows with Royal as long as he's still got fire in his feet and spring in his step, and I'll do that with my next horse when they're ready, but I'm not showing in anything that involves the USEF or USEA for the time being. They're going have to work really hard to get my support back.

Steepleview Horse Trials 2012 Continued

 
Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I had another week where I was out of the house almost all the time, and when I was home, too tired to write. Hopefully that phase is behind me for a little while.

Anyway, Saturday started off with a surprise. After walking the XC course (and taking picutres) on Friday night, I had stayed the night at my sister's house so I could get going right away. But one of the other horses, namely Bandit, had other ideas. He'd gotten out sometime in the night, and was pacing up and down the fence line trying to get back in. So I had to go fetch him and lead him around to the gate, which was made harder by the fact that he was all amped up. I get him back in with the other horses, hooked up the trailer, loaded Royal in (who could tell right away that I was NOT in the mood for any nonsense), and we headed out. It took about an hour and a half to get to Steepleview, but traffic was light.

After I unloaded Royal, we went straight to the lunging arena, which overlooked pretty much the whole facility. This gave Royal plenty to look at, but he was able to run most of his adrenaline off. We went back to the trailer and I got him cleaned up and attempted to start braiding him. I say "attempted" because we were parked really close to the XC course, particularly Training Level jumps 4 and 5. So while I tried to get him all nice and braided, he kept moving his head to get a look at the people walking the course and later the horses and riders on the course. Obviously, this did not make for good braiding. I kept trying to figure out where best to position him, but each place had something he couldn't see and he kept trying to move to see it and everything else. So I had to move with him, muttering under my breath that I am going to blindfold him next year. Or roach his mane. Or both.

While trying to braid Mr. Wigglesworth, I ended up slicing my finger on my scissors. Which had nothing to do with Royal and everything to do with my own clumsiness, but it started bleeding very profusely. No problem, I thought, as I usually keep a travel pack of band-aids in my purse. Which I opened up to find completely empty. I searched the truck for a first-aid kit and asked the people at the trailers around me if anyone had any bandages. No one did, so I had to improvise one from Vetrap, which didn't help a lot, but it did stem the bleeding. I finished braiding Royal (which only looked like a tipsy monkey did it, instead of a completely drunk one, like I usually do), tacked up, and headed over to the dressage warm-up. The bit check lady wad very nice and even tighten my girth a smidge for me. And of course the warm-up was completely chaotic. Royal and I had to navigate around bucking and balking horses, people just standing around looking off into space, and shrieking trainers going "REMEMBER TO PUSH! INSIDE LEG! DON'T FORGET TO SMIIIIIIIIIIIIILE!" We were able to get to a quieter spot, but the chaos was making it hard for us to keep a rhythm. He would be going along holding the contact really nicely, and then we have to stop or slow down to avoid crashing into someone. It was really frustrating, not to mention that my finger really hurt and I could tell blood was soaking through the wrap and into my glove. It was such a relief when it was time for my test.

Overall, I think it was the best test we ever did in competition. 75% of the time, Royal held the contact fairly steady. He was mouthing the bit quite a bit out of nervousness, and we had a few blips of dropping the contact, but I felt really good about it. He wasn't too keen about getting close to the flowers, but that will come. But all in all, I thought he was fantastic. The judge, however, disagreed and gave 45.7 penalties. It seems her theme was connection with a bit, and any small loss of such automatically gave you a 6. As we had little blips in almost all the movements, we got pretty much all 5s and 6s. No 4s, and we did get a 6 on our free walk ("needs consistent stretching w/relaxed ?sides?") and 7 on gaits. Apparently Royal shows potential, but needs to be more constantly connected with the bit. Which, hey, I agree with. Pretty much everyone scored lowly under this judge, so I know it's probably just her style.

After get Royal untacked and getting him some water, I peeled my blood soaked glove off and went in search of band-aids. I had to go all the way to the EMTs, who asked me very sternly when my last tetanus shot was, to find one. Finger bandaged, and a hot dog later, I got Royal all unbraided and ready for XC. They were started us off every 2 minutes, so I had to make sure we could get all the time we needed. I instantly loved the warm-up steward when she kicked all the superfluous people out ("If you're not a coach, get out of the warm-up ring NOW!") and Royal and I could warm up in peace. He popped over all the warm up jumps without hesitation, and we were able to mosey around before we had to go to the start box. Just before we were supposed to start, Callae, the person who owns the stable where Royal stays in Bayfield, came over to say hi. She'd brought her horse down and was competing in Training. Then it was "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!"

The one in the middle is the BN/Starter jump. The white part was a little sign saying it would be lowered for Starter, and it was still there on Saturday. I like the fact that it was in the middle this year, since it made run-outs difficult. Royal peeked at the white part, but hopped right over. Then it was up the hill a ways and a right turn to...

This also got a look, but he popped over. We kept going down the hill to...

The Return of the Scrabble Jump! Yay! This jump is just made of awesome.  He peeked at it a bit, but again went right over. We kept going downhill and swung slightly right to...

This one was easy. He barely looked at it. We then had to turn left to...

He sort of hesitated a bit at the entrance, but then I reminded him of Lake Superior, and he trotted though. It was then on to...

This one was tricky. You could either go around a big tree and take the long approach, or go between the big tree and a line of little trees for a shorter approach. I choose the short approach, which ended up being a mistake and Royal didn't read it as a jump until we were pretty much on top of it. He skittered to the left and we circled around and popped over with no problem. This is something we need to work on though. We're so used to jumping in big open fields or arenas that Royal is not used to seeing things behind trees. So, definitely have to work on that for next year. We swung left and up hill to...

This was the down bank last year, but we jumped up this year. You could also take a long or short approach to this one, and the short one ended up working well. I felt the hill was easier to navigate that way, and Royal leapt up the bank like he was Superhorse. It was straight to...

He kind of peaked at this one, being that it was sort of in shadows, but went over. We turned leftand came out of the woods to...

This was at the top of the hill and rode really well. We went down the hill to...

I felt this was a sort of half-coffin. You can see the ditch in the background, and there was about 6 strides between them, and no room to circle. I was unsure of how this would ride, since Royal sometimes doesn't realize a ditch is in front of him until it's too late, and then he puts on the brakes. We ended up trotting this and dropped back down into a trot before...

He jumped it, a little bigger than necessary, and, as I realized later, one of his hind boots slipped down to his hoof. He took a few stutter steps, but I couldn't feel any lameness, so we continued on to...

Again, no problems. We continued straight, following the tree line to...

Boing! The skinniness did add a bit of a challenge, but Royal and I are used to that. So we turned left around the trees to...

There was a jump hiding in the bushes on the the approach to this one, which Royal spooked at, but he refocused and jumped this one well. We went up the hill and right to...

He spooked a bit at the flowers, but went right over and down the hill to...

The last jump! We powered right over and through the finish flags.

It was awesome! We went home tired but ready for Sunday's stadium jumping.

Sunday also started early. We arrived fairly early so I could watch Callae's round, and she ended up get fifth! Good for her. The Novice divisions flew past and before I knew it, it was time for us to get ready and warm up. They'd gotten new stadium jumps this year and they were BRIGHT. Really really bright. Almost everything was shiny and colorful, which would make thing interesting. After mounting up, I took Royal to a more isolated part of the warm up and let him hand gallop for a bit to get his feet moving. He seemed ready to go and soon it was our turn.

I really had to hold his hand at the beginning, but soon he realized that the shiny jumps were still safe and we ended up with a DOUBLE CLEAR round! I was so proud of him, and we ended up in seventh place, getting our first ribbon at a horse trial, recognized or otherwise.

It was awesome. He was just wonderful and I could not have asked for more from him. We've come a long way.

Carriage House Schooling Show 2012

Carriage House is interesting. Last year we had a dramatic week before with face wounds and attacking horses. This year, the weather played a staring role. Starting Wednesday, we had pretty much a thunderstorm a day, and they weren't little ones either. I was only able to play with Royal a little bit in the field OnLine Wednesday morning, and on Thursday, the skies opened and we got flooded. All this meant the field was completely unusable (Royal was sinking almost up to his knees and hocks and we gave up and got out after wading 50 feet in) and that we had no jumping sessions other than Tuesday's brief one. I had no idea how we would do.

Sunday started ridiculously early. I worked until 10pm the night before and had to get up around 5am. I somehow managed to get all the stuff I needed in the truck and get up to Royal's place with no issues, He loaded pretty well and we were off. Traffic was really light, being early Sunday, and we got there easily. And ran into our first issue: one of the parking areas had been flooded with all the rain, so they were packing us in as close as possible. I decided to leave Royal in the trailer while I registered and walked the course. That way he couldn't get into mischief with the horses less than 5 feet away on either side. The jumper division had two classes per height, and we had to jump the fences in a different order (for instance, one jump was #2 for the first class and #7 for the second). The courses seemed particularly challenging this year, with lots of doubling back and sharp turns, and the ground was sort of slippery. I would have to be careful.

After unloading Royal, I let him walk around a bit to get used to the place, and I think he recognized the place. And I saw something horrible on a shirt: the logo of Third Reich Stables! What?! I thought schooling shows were beneath them, since less expensive local shows mean less money to mooch off of clients. And then I saw... her. The trailer at Third Reich Stables, hereafter referred to as Psycho McCrazypants. Psycho McCrazypants was yelling at her students/help near the warm-up area, although she wasn't calling any of them "stupid pig" or "worthless idiot", so perhaps she's mellowed out since we escaped. We managed to scurry back to the trailer to meet my parents, and get Royal all cleaned and tacked up.

We got to the warm-up area and it was NUTS. Just insane, almost unnavigable with people going every which way at all gaits and horrible slippery mud everywhere. Psycho McCrazypants had left but other trainers were still there, and yelling conflicting advice to their students. I almost didn't feel safe to do anything but walk, since we were constantly dodging people. Multiple times, I would move out of the way of someone who was cantering at us and into the way of someone who was cantering towards us from the other direction. And a few horses in particular were being particularly rambunctious, constantly having near misses. Then, all of a sudden, almost all the horses disappeared and it was just us with four other pairs and no trainers. Hmm, how interesting. But that meant we could actually do stuff without having to worry about crashes. I still didn't want to canter (too slick) but trotting went well. With a little bit of trepidation, I pointed him at the little teeny cross-rail (He has a tendency to refuse warm-up jumps) and he hopped right over! Good boy! He also went right over the little vertical, the big vertical and the oxer, all completely confident. So we plowed through the puddles and to the jumper ring, and I realized why the warm-up area had emptied out: all the trainers were jockeying for position on the call list, so those of us who came late were just going to have to sit and cool our heels. So I let the poor hassled ring steward know we were read, and she let me know it was going to be a long wait.

So, we waited. The horses who had been difficult in the warm-up were pacing around the in-gate area, which got Royal kind of tense. But I just hopped off, clipped my reins to his noseband, and let him eat. No point getting him all worked up when we wouldn't be riding for a while. I got to watch a lot of rounds, since the trainers (Psycho McCrazypants among them) kept haranguing the steward with "My client has to ride in the dressage/hunter ring soon, so s/he needs NEEDS to do their round next!" so those of us without "connections" just kept getting pushed back. I was very annoyed by what I saw as a power play. I mean, really? They just realized that the client was competing in another ring soon and unless they do their round NOW, they'll miss it? Come on. The ride times for dressage were available before the show, and the hunter ring is fairly flexible. There were no scheduling surprises, and no need to constantly muck up the jumping order. It really reminded me of a horse who constantly nibbles at you, trying to see what you'll let them get away with before you back them up to the end of the line and make them stay there. I could never be a ring steward at a h/j show: the instant a trainer tried to pull that crap with me, my response would be "Too bad. Next time, plan ahead. For right now, Suzy is still fourth in the order. If she needs to do dressage/hunters, she can do her round afterwards." And I would get fired within the first hour. So, it's not a job I'll ever volunteer for. But I digress. I saw a lot of very unprepared people, and all the horses were barely in control in the warm-up and the in-gate were absolutely horrible in the ring. There was a lot of balking and bolting (with one person rocketing around the ring like they were being chased by zombies. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they finished unscathed) and a couple horses refused to jump anything altogether. But after about 45 minutes of waiting (during which Royal tried to steal someone's hamburger. Naughty boy. :) ), it was our turn!

I memorized courses through walking them: I retrace my steps from walking, remembering to turn right after the yellow jump or left after the blue oxer. So, when we started the first round, I jumped the first jump (Royal popped over with no hesitation whatsoever) and turn right instead of left, heading towards the #2 jump for the second course. Oops. I realized my mistake about halfway there and had to double back to the correct #2 jump. The rest of the course went very smoothly. Royal looked a few jumps (especially the bright yellow double combination) but went over everything without stopping, giving us our first show-jumping round with no refusal penalties. Unfortunately, my little brain-fart gave us a bunch of time penalties, but the judge was nice and let us do the jump-off round anyway. I somehow managed to remember the jump-off course (1, 11, 3, 4, 12, 8, 9) and we rode clear, even up the little bank.

We then had to wait another 45 minutes ("She has a dressage ride in 20 minutes! We NEED to go next!"), and then it was our turn again. My dad got video of it:

The course started well. I knew we would have to jump the bank so I rode Royal up to it, going "See? It's a bank. You know how to do banks." The whistle blew, and we were off. The first jump had some scary filler, so I decided to trot it. The related line went really well and he went up the little bank like he'd been doing it all his life. #5 was a new jump and he went right over. He drifted a bit over the combo and you can hear him tap the B element. 7 and 8 went well, even with the sharp turn and then the bank. I wanted to give him the opportunity to figure it out, so we trotted it. I never felt him waver or wiggle; he hopped right up. We just had to tackle the related line to a clear round! I looked at the in-gate and saw the next person trot in. So, no jump-off? Did we knock the rail down? The judge stopped me, told me I was clear and that I could do the jump-off. She told the trainer to get her student out (guess who the trainer was? That's right, Psycho McCrazypants.), and I started my jump-off. It was really well (other than a bit of head shaking between the first two fences), but he got a little strong on the bank-to-oxer line, and I didn't think I could get him rebalanced for the back. If there's one obstacle I never want to tackle unbalanced, it's a bank. So, just a little circle, re-balance, and give a shot. As you see in the video, no problems with the bank or the last two jumps! Yay! The video ends with me talking to the judge. She told me she would have to give me 4 penalties for the circle, since I crossed my tracks. I agreed that was fair, and she gave me some nice advice about how to circle without incurring penalties. And, here's the best part, said that Royal and I looked good out there.

!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe she said that to everyone. Maybe she was just trying to be encouraging for everyone and give everyone something to be happy about. But I was ecstatic. A judge, who obviously knows her stuff, told me that me and my horse looked good! At a show! Yeah! I was so happy.

All in all, it went much better than I could have ever hoped. Our first jumping show with no refusals at all. Not over the warm-up jumps, or in the competition ring. I think taking him to lots of different facilities has really increased his self-confidence. We keep going to new places and jumping strange jumps, and he keeps improving. I was so incredibly proud of him.

It was such an awesome experience.

Braiding

...That's what I've been doing this week.

Royal and I are entered in a dressage schooling show tomorrow and it's only two weeks until the Steepleview Horse Trial! I can't believe how fast the summer flew by but now I have a lot of prep work to do.

Like learning how to braid. Other than the fun-n-giggles casual braiding, I've never really braided a horse. And Royal, to my knowledge, has never had to stand for a braiding before. So it was a learning curve for both of us.

The first attempt was a little rough. I used too much water to wet down the hair and had no feel for how much hair to use for each braid. As a result, it looked kind of uneven but okay for a first try.

Halfway done.

All done.

The next day, I tried it again and it looked much better. Not perfect, but the braids were more uniform and pretty. After that, we practiced both the USDF Intro Test C (what we'll be doing at the schooling show) and the USEA Beginner Novice Test A (what we'll be doing at the Steepleview H. T.). He did fairly well, except for his tendency to drop his shoulder while cantering in a circle to the left. I lifted up my inside rein to help him balance himself and eventually he did. And then could canter with my reins in their normal position. It was a good day.

Royal bored with all this picture stuff.

Wednesday, he was acting like he was on the tail end of a mild colic so no riding. Lots of trailer loading and shipping boots practice instead. Today was jumping, which both of us really liked. I put up the cow panels on the oxer for the first time, which Royal wasn't too sure about, but ended up popping over. I aimed him at the fence with a "We are going to jump this jump" laser focus, and he did some wiggling, but still went over. Then it was on to mini-courses like a three-stride line to the oxer and back to the cross-rail. And the oxer to a trotting figure-8 around the line then over the line. Lots of stuff to keep him interested and alert.

Tomorrow should be interesting. It will be my First Dressage Show Ever, and, presumably, Royals' as well. Here's to hoping we have fun!

Unmounted "Intro to Dressage/Eventing" Clinic

I've mentioned before that I would like to try eventing with Royal this summer. Most of our major issues have been worked out and the remaining ones are being chipped away. Or, they were before the weather took a detour to Crazy Town. I haven't been as eager to play with Royal lately since the opportunities are so far and few in between and it always feels like I'm just trying to get him to use up all his energy instead of teaching him new things. Especially while riding. Right now, I'm just trying to get through February so we can start having more regular sessions.

Luckily, a lot of Minnesotans and Wisconsinites are in the same boat, so the Central States Dressage and Evening Association is holding a bunch of "unmounted" clinics. These are more informational seminars than riding clinics, but still useful. The one I went to today was all about preparing for shows, what the judges are looking for, how to fill out your entry form, etc. It was out in the woods of Stillwater at a very nice facility. I found most of the sessions very helpful.

The first one was the least helpful. It was all about bitting and choosing the right bit for your horse. The first half went over the structure of the horse's skull and the various types of things that can go wrong. Bad things like arthritis, malocclusions, and loose teeth. This was mostly stuff I already knew, thanks to the equine courses at the U. The last half was downright WRONG. The presenter described a study they did where they used a fluoroscope to examine how various bits sit in the horses mouth and what their actions are. But, in order to test this, they put the horses IN STOCKS and pulled on the reins! And, as anyone with a cursory understanding of horse behavior could guess, the horses started chewing and fussing with the bits. WELL, DUH! You put a trained horse in a confined space where it can't move more than a step and put tension on the reins, IT'S GOING TO START CHOMPING AT THE BIT. You're telling it to stop or back up, and it's already stopped and can't back up. I understand that you can't exactly attach a fluoroscope to a horse's head and ride around, but this research showed nothing useful. Only that confused horses chomp on the bit. Whoop-de-friggin-do. And how the horses chew does depend on the bit, but also on the horses emotional state. The more emotionally tumultuous, the more frantic and frenetic the chewing. People, this is not rocket surgery. This is basic horse behavior.

Then the presenter went on about fitting a bridle, and they mentioned crank nosebands as a good thing. I despise cranks. You might as well put a big sign around your neck that says "I have rough hands, and will strap my horses mouth shut so they can't give me feedback about it." Hate hate hate cranks and damn near every English bridle has them. I was very displeased to find my show bridle has a crank-like noseband, but it's very mild and I will never put it too tight. Two fingers or bust, people.

The other sessions were leagues better. There were two concurrent sessions: one about saddle fitting (which would have inspired more exasperation from me) and one about entering your first event or dressage show. This was very helpful for me, and apparently, there's going to be a recognized event in Delano, which is in the Twin Cities area! Yay!

The third session (for the whole group) was given by a dressage judge who talked about how to ride the dressage and eventing tests, how the tests have changed, and what the judges see. The main things I took away were: 1. practice your halts, 2. don't get flustered by mistakes, 3. Judges are eager to give high points if earned, 4. a horse and rider score much higher if they are in harmony. The judge was very funny and inspired me to start practicing.

The fourth and final sessions was about Things That Can Go Wrong and How To Laugh About Them. Take-away message: don't take everything so seriously and don't forget to have fun. All in all, a mostly good experience, and I feel better informed about how prepared Royal and myself for showing. Prior and Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance and all.

So, right now, the plans are to try some private x-c schoolings at local barns, do some open schooling days at the Delano barn, compete in the Carriage House schooling show, and Roebke's Run HT in July and Steepleview in September. If the private schooling don't work out, that's okay. Royal's farm has a big pasture with lots of logs and an area that turns into a mini-lake if it's wet enough. And, given the amount of snow we've had this winter, I think the mini-lake will be around for some water crossings. But, first the snow has to melt and the weather has to be a bit more consistently comfortable. Until then, Royal and I rest.