Steepleview Horse Trial: Long Version

I got a good night's sleep Friday night, and woke up sort-of early Saturday to head out to the farm. I braided Royal (which he was most confused about), hooked up the trailer, Royal loaded in no time, and we were off. We got to the show grounds around 11, and I made a stupid mistake. I had thought that Royal would react to the new place the way he had all summer, which was to go "Huh. New place and horses. Interesting. Eating grass now." But that turned out to not be the case. I walked him around a little bit, then tied him to the trailer while I had to go to the Secretary's Office and ask a few questions. It was a long walk back and forth, and by the time I got back, Royal had worked himself up into a MAJOR right-brain fit. Sweating and pacing and whinnying and pooping like a crazy horse. At that point, I knew I was going to have a major challenge on my hand. I was all by myself (again) so I had to wrestle with him to get him groomed and saddled. I tried playing with him on the 22-foot line in the arena, but that only worked while he was moving. As soon as I left him to change into my show clothes, he started flipping out again.

To make matters worse, as I got ready to mount up, it started raining! And I mean pouring at a 45-degree angle, which made neither of us happy. I rode over to the bit check, hoping that the person doing it wouldn't be stupid enough to just walk up to Royal and stick their fingers in his mouth. Luckily, she wasn't, but a discussion ensued over whether my Comfort Snaffle was okay for dressage. "It IS legal." I protested, nearly in tears. She checked the rulebook, and it was indeed legal, but now I was REALLY frazzled, which only made Royal worse. It rained on and off all through the warm-up while we had to keep dodging shrieking trainers and their students. "Right leg! Left rein! PUSH PUSH PUSH!!!" all while the student is coming towards us at a fast trot. I got yelled at for going too close to the empty dressage ring and Royal nearly tripped over one of the practice markers.

All the while, it's raining and I am cold. The rider before me had a beautiful test on a gorgeous horse, all while Royal is pacing and pooping. Our test did not go so well. Royal and I were tense and disharmonious. There were pretty much no positive comments from the judge, only things like "tense" "shying" "not responsive to leg". We got mostly 5s and 6s, and a 4 for our free walk when Royal decided to do his best giraffe impersonation. We did, however, get a 7 for gaits, so there's a ray of hope. My parents arrived at the show during my test, but went to the wrong place and missed the whole thing.

I unbraided Royal, got some lunch, gave him a bunch of treats, and then headed out to the cross-country warm-up. This was much more civilized, surprisingly enough. Everyone was a lot more respectful and Royal felt asleep. He sauntered around at all three gaits and lazed over the jumps. We did have one miscommunication at the telephones and a run-out, but otherwise I was pumped. When it was my turn, I headed out to the start box, somehow calculated the countdown just so we started walking through the box at T-5 seconds, and had enough time to thank the starter before heading out.

We had another argument on the way to this jump. He wanted to canter, I wanted to trot, and he couldn't get his feet sorted out in time. We had a run-out, but circled right around and popped over it, a short distance from...

We trotted this and jumped it well. He never wiggled or even felt like he was contemplating a refusal. We then continued up the hill to turn left to...

My favorite jump. He got a little bug-eyed, but decided to be brave and hop over it. We turned left again and went downhill to...

This he didn't ogle. He just sized it up and leaped over it. We went further downhill to...

I felt him sink back ever so slight before this one, but I gave him the tiniest of squeezes and he jumped with no more hesitation. My dad managed to get some video from the top of the hill which I'll post later. We then had to swing right over the land bridge and behind the trees to...

A slightly skinny log. I really focused hard on it on the approach and we sailed over it and drifted slightly left to...

Boring. No problems there. But our nemesis was lurking right around the corner and over the other land bridge...

The ditch! The exact same one that we had so many problems with during the schooling day. I had a laser sharp focus of "WE ARE GOING TO JUMP THIS DITCH!"... and Royal sailed over it like it was barely there. I was elated, as we continued uphill to...

A nice little tiger trap. He ogled at it slightly, but hopped over with no hesitation. A right turn continuing uphill took us to...

I dubbed this one "The Christmas Jump" and thought Royal might look askance at it. But I was wrong: he never thought twice and leaped right over. It was a short distance to...

The bank. Now, I took these pictures when I walked the course Friday night. By the time I rode on Saturday, they had added gravel to the approach to the ditch and Royal was not fond of that. It took some gentle persuasion to get onto the gravel, but he leaped off the bank without too much fuss. We swing right and downhill out to the tree and back into the open field to...

A nice little vertical, though Royal spooked at the Novice chevron jump next to it. I had to focus him a bit, but once he realized we were going for that one, he went over with no problem. Next was...

the water! They did an interesting thing and didn't mark a BN entrance to the water but had a little BN log less than 10 feet from the back edge.

That was as much as I could get in the picture standing at the edge of the water. As we trotted up to the water, I could feel Royal start to hesitate. So I said out loud, "Royal! You've been in Lake Superior! We can do this!" Either he understood me or he realized there was nothing to be scared of, and he plowed through the water and popped over the log. We turned right and cantered to...

No hesitation as we flew over it. It was a mostly straight shot to...

No problems. And another mostly straight shot to...

Boing! And then to...

The finish flags! And we were done. Both of us were full of adrenaline and excited. We had trotted a lot and the refusal cost us a lot of time, so we finished with 10.4 time penalties and 20 jumping. I didn't care. We made it through and it had been fun! After cooling Royal off, we headed back home to get some rest for Sunday.

Sunday arrived bright and early, and after going through the same routine minus braiding, we pulling into the showground around 10:30. I got Royal out of the trailer and could feel him grow about 4 hands. This time I was ready. I got out my 45-foot line and proceeded to help him get his brains back, with he thankfully did. We were parked close to the show-jumping ring, so I let him graze (furthering driving the RB out) while I watched a few round. It wasn't too long before it was time for me to walk my course and after that, I saddled Royal up, got dressed, and we headed out to the warm-up ring.

That had it's own special moment. He was so lazy on the flat that I wondered if he was kind of stiff from yesterday. He crawled over the cross-rail, but surprised me completely by deciding the vertical was full of demons. He over-jumped it sort-of sideways and I nearly fell off. I managed to stay on and it took a few more tries to help him realize that it was a non-demon-infested vertical. The rest of the jump went without incident, but most people stayed clear of us. Gee, wonder why. We were 3rd from last in the placing, so we were the 3rd to go in out division. First two jumps went okay, but we had another disagreement as to how to the third jump should have been approached and had a run-out. Oops. Circled back around and jumped it, and the rest of the course had no problems. As I said before, no ribbon and we finished something like 3rd to last. But I was so proud.



I'll go into what I learned from the experience and where we'll go from here later. Right now this post is long enough and I need to catch a bus. But, I'm very glad we did it and had the experience.

Steepleview Horse Trial: Short Version

Well, we did it! :D

No fancy ribbons or prizes, but that doesn't matter. We got a score! The final results haven't come back yet, but I think we came in 3rd or 4th to last in our division. We had to do dressage in the rain, so both of us were tight and tense. Cross-country was in the sun, but we had one run-out and 10 time penalties. Show Jumping had an interesting warm-up, where Royal decided the most boring vertical ever was going to eat him and I nearly fell off, but we only had one refusal and no time penalties in the actual round.

For our First Event Ever, I'm very proud. Yes, it would have been nice to win a ribbon or something, but my main goal was to complete it. Get an official horse trial under our belts, figure out what we need to work on, and try some more next year. I'll write more later about it and what I learn, and also post some pictures when the professional CD comes in. Neither of my parents took pictures of me competing, but I got a few cute ones I'll be able to upload tonight.

Now I'm back at the U, hanging out between classes. It's going to be an interesting and math-filled semester, but I'll always make time for The Royal Fuzz. I was so proud of him this weekend, and we'll have a nice laid-back winter to get ready for next year.

Royal last winter

Tomorrow

It begins.

Course walk went well, including the one with champagne. It's a fairly straightforward course, with a few things that could make Royal all bug-eyed. I'll have to be aware of those, but he's been jumping so well lately, maybe I won't have to worry. We'll see. I took pictures of all the jumps, will post them later.

For now, the trailer is packed, Royal is fit, and I am PUMPED. No matter what happens, this will be a great learning experience for us.

Who's excited? Me!

Preperations

Steepleview is this weekend! I'm a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

Currently, I have just finished packing my show clothes and cleaning all my tack so I can put them in the trailer tomorrow. That way they're all ready to go Saturday and all I have to do is get me and Royal there. Luckily, my ride times are late so I don't have to get up early. Dressage is at 12:57 and cross-country is 2:54. So, I should be there by 11:00 and I have plenty of time to go to the farm and get Royal all braided up before heading out.

The last couple of weeks, we've been training like there's no tomorrow and Royal is doing great. All our jumping sessions have been fantastic and he's getting the whole dressage thing down. Still wants to go above the bit if he gets tense, but is get a lot better at relaxing. And I'm more proactive about not letting him get too tense. I can always give a tiny Suspension Rein or Partial Disengagement and he starts to relax. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of North Run. He even did well with a Soft Feel when the fallen trees were being cut up with chainsaws. Less commotion than that used to make him melt down, so he's made great progress.

I've got all my clothes ready to go. Already had my boots, vest, polo shirt, breeches, helmet, gloves, and socks. I got my jacket and shirt/tie from St. Croix Saddlery, who have really expanded their inventory and I am SO happy about that. Not only was the jacket very nice fitting (which is hard to find. I am apparently indescribably tiny as far as clothes manufacturers are concerned), but I didn't have to buy a shirt and tie. They had this bib/tie combo that you can wear over a t-shirt and stay cool. I love it and it helped me save $30, which is awesome. I look fantastic in it and my stock pin with the royal blue jewel gives it a nice bit of color.

Tomorrow I'll get the trailer all ready and walk my cross-country course in the evening. The facility is hosting a "champagne course walk" and, while I have no idea what that is, I'll be very interested to find out.

This is going to be fun!

North Run Farm Schooling Show

Always with the drama.

Early Saturday morning, I headed out to the farm buzzing with excitement for Royal's and my First Dressage Show Ever. We had parked the trailer in a new spot so I decided to see if I could get it out before I loaded Royal, and it turns out that I couldn't. I cranked the steering wheel all the wheel and still couldn't turn it sharp enough to miss the trees. So I had to go left, drive down to the barn and try to turn around amongst the tree. It started off well, until I scrapped the front of the truck against a telephone pole. Oops. I was able to get the rig turned around and parked it in the driveway. I put some hay in the haynet, got Royal, put his shipping boots on (he wasn't too excited about that), loaded him up, and off we went.

About 2 miles down the road, I hear a "pop". Wondering what was broken, I pulled over, turned on the emergency flashers, and checked the trailer. Everything seemed fine in the trailer (although Royal was kind of confused as to why we were stopping) so I headed back to the truck cab. I then noticed the blinker light hanging out, still blinking just fine. I figured it must have popped out when I hit the telephone pole. But, as it was still working, I kept going.

We arrived at the barn safe and sound. I left Royal in the trailer to check it, then got him out so we could explore. The barn had a nice indoor where the show was taking place, a nice barn, a big outdoor arena with lots of jumps, and many horses that Royal wanted to say "hi" to. I let him trot around the outdoor for a while, then tied him back up at the trailer so I could watch a test. Poor Royal was all by himself, as all the other horses were in the barn. But he coped fine. After watch a beautiful palomino doing a Training Level test, I saddled up Royal and we headed to the outdoor to warm up. He did so EXTREMELY well, so we headed to the barn to wait our turn.

We did Intro Test C and got a 57.000%, which I think is pretty good for a pair of rookies. We started off well, then Royal got a bit frazzled at the first canter circle and took a while to settle down. We got point marked off for being above the bit and tense, but the judge was very encouraging. She said Royal was a nice horse who needs to learn to relax. Which was nothing new, but I still appreciated the feedback. We loaded back up, drove home, and I put the trailer in a different spot. One that will be (hopefully) easier to get out of.

Royal says "Dressagin' is hard work. I need to replenish my calories."

The big thing I took from the experience is that I need to make sure Royal is familiar with the dressage test. He got frazzled because he was confused and had no idea what to expect. So in preparation for Steepleview, we doing the BN Test A every single ride. We've done it three sessions in a row so far and he's starting to get it. And so am I, although I still get somewhat confused. I really want it etched in both our brains so even show nerves can't get it out.

Plus, it's fun to be on the same page. And a lot easier for both horse and rider.

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!

Bayfield

Sorry for the teaser and running away. I've had a crazy busy week with lots of ups and downs, but no time to blog. But, now that I've taken the GRE (and, if the scoring remains accurate, kicked its ass), I have more time and I can write about our fantastic week up in Bayfield, WI.

Going up to Bayfield (a small town near the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior) has been a tradition for my family for the past 16 years. We always stay at the same place for a week and generally have a good time. But, for a long time, it was kind of boring for me. Swimming, sitting on the beach, and small-scale hiking only hold my interest for so long. So, when we bought the horses 8 years ago, my parents decided to see if we could bring them with. Luckily, there is a stable close by that is used to temporary boarders, and Royal has been to Bayfield every year since then.

This year, we accomplished some great things. Royal traveled well up, settled in nicely, and we had a relaxing few days playing with some dressage and jumping. On Thursday, I put my plan into action. I hooked up the truck and trailer and brought Royal to the beach where we were staying to see if he'd go in the Really Really Really Really Really Big Puddle, a.k.a. Lake Superior.

First, I had to see if he'd even be willing to go near the water, and he was.

Then it was time to put on my shorts and toe-shoes, and try some riding. Royal was skeptical at first.

But after a little patience and approach/retreat, he waded in. And discovered he liked it!

The water was so clear and not as cold as in the past, so he splashed and splashed. I was feeling so confident that I decided to see if he would go around the dock onto the main beach.

He seemed to like that, although he wasn't too sure about the waves on the beach, so we headed back. By this time the battery on the camera was dying, so the pictures weren't that great.

We ended up doing that twice more, with Royal becoming more and more confident with each time. It was a good day.

The next day, my mom came out with me to the stable. I decided to try out the mini-cross-country course in the field to see what Royal thought. And evidently, he's a cross-country machine.

He even powered over the little ditch, probably because I'd been having him jump over that Online all week. By then it was no big deal and he just skipped over it.

All in all, it was a great week and I'm very happy I had the opportunity to take him up there. He seemed to enjoy the experience and I think it was great prep for the Steepleview Event.

Teaser!

Guess what Royal and I did last week?

More to come soon!

Steepleview Schooling Day

Minnesota and Royal always keep life interesting.

When Royal stayed sound with his boot off, you'd think I'd be able to quickly get back into riding and doing other fun things, right? Wrong. The weather took a turn for the insane, with temperatures in the high 90s and ridiculously high humidity. So, any sort of barely strenuous activity was completely out of the question. It would be mid-to-high 80s and humid at 7:00am, and I would feel completely crummy going out. I got some new fans for the barn, which the boys enjoyed immensely. My cat, on the other hand, enjoyed the weather and spent a lot of time lounging on the porch.

The heat wave broke on Thursday and I did some riding/jumping on Friday. It was still quite warm and humid, so I decided to take it easy. Royal was a bundle of excitement, and even tried to take off with me after a jump. A one-rein stop put an end to that nonsense rather quickly and we jumped some more before ending on a nice fluid jump over the purple vertical.

Saturday say thunderstorms for most of the morning, so I mainly focused on cleaning up Royal's mane and ears. He was okay with the mane, but not so crazy about the ears. Which I understood and let him have all the time he needed to get used to it. I didn't clip the whole inside of his ears, just the tufts sticking out, and was able to do it at liberty. I also packed my trailer with most of the stuff I needed, as it started to look full.

My lesson started at 1:00pm on Sunday, so I was able to kind of sleep in and leisurely get out to the farm. I hooked up the truck and trailer on the first try (go me!) and was able to get Royal brushed off before loading him and heading to Steepleview. Royal loaded and traveled well, taking in his surroundings easily.

Royal says "Are we there yet?"

We got there in plenty of time and mostly hung around until we had to meet in the warm-up area, where I made a bunch of big mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not getting to the warm-up area early enough to let Royal get used to the surroundings. There were horses everywhere on the various parts of the cross-country course around the arena, and Royal being who he is, wanted to keep track of them all. Which was impossible and he started to freak out.

Mistake #2: Doing big circles and "going places" before Royal was ready. I had been assigned to be in a group of three other horses and riders at the same level (green bean) and an instructor. The instructor asked us to move our horses out so he could see how the horses were. Which meant big circles around the big warm-up area at a solid trot and canter, which got Royal REALLY revved up. To the point where he could. not. stand. still. And was sweating all over, including around his eyes.

Had I been thinking, I would have explained to the instructor that warming up with frequent transitions and small circles/figure-8s has worked the best for us, and I could do that and stay out the other riders' way. Again, stupid mistake and I had to live with the consequences. Warming up over fences went okay, as the instructor realized asking me to get Royal to boogie might be a bad idea. A single cross-rail, a cross-rail to a vertical, and then a pile of logs all went fairly well. Then we headed to a different part of the course, all of which was beautiful.

The next exercise was a downhill roll-top, which then morphed into the roll-top to a right-hand turn over a bridge, and then into the roll-top to another roll-top a ways away. Royal drifted left to run-out at the second jump, which was my fault. There was another jump there, and I didn't focus enough on the jump I wanted. He got confused and split the difference by going between the jumps. I tried again, focusing hard on the jump I wanted, and he popped over it no problem.

Next was the ditch, which became Royal's nemesis. We've had our conversations about ditches before, and he did okay over the ditch at the Derby Day, but this was a different story. Two of the other horses went before him and they both had cows. Like, prize-winning-bull-at-the-Iowa-State-Fair cows. So when it was our turn, Royal was convinced that there had to be demons in the ditch, and being invisible made them worse. He LAUNCHED over the ditch and I nearly fell off when he bolted and nearly wiped out an innocent bystander. The second attempt had a lot more dithering in front of the ditch, and another gargantuan leap. But this time I was ready for it and threw in another one-rein stop before he got out of hand. The third time was a lot better, although he still over-jumped it.

Then it was on to the banks, which Royal tackled like he's done them all his life. We started with the little 6" bank, then went on the the bigger ones. By now, Royal was starting to settle in and be calmer. After that, we tackled a mini-course of a small log to the bank to a curvy ramp. Royal cantered around that like nothing, soaring over the ramp like he had wings. Then another mini-course of the ramp to a small tiger trap and up the bank. We stuttered up the bank, but escaped unscathed.

And finally, the WATER! Royal hesitated a bit at the entry, but splashed straight through, having a great time. Then we cantered through, splashing everywhere. Next it was time to try banks into water. He was a little suspicious, but dived in. The lesson ended with us jumping off the bank to the water, canter through and out, and over a coop. Fluidly and harmoniously.

We walked back to the trailer, I unsaddled Royal, loaded him up, and we went home. Tired and happy.

It was a good day.

The Boot Is Off

On Wednesday, seeing as Royal was sound and healthy, I took his boot off. I'd been able to keep the hoof covered for two weeks, and it showed. The sole was somewhat squishy and the heels were not looking good. The ground was firm, but not hard and I figured it would be perfect for letting his hoof get back into shape.

And so far it's been good. The sole was hardened right up and the heels look fantastic. And now I have to figure out how to get the rest of him in shape. Three and a half weeks of light work have helped his topline disappear and he's lost some stamina. But now it's supposed to be in the high 90s the rest of the week so I don't know how I'm going to accomplish that before the cross-country clinic on Sunday.

In the meantime, I got a set of shipping boots for Royal and while they look nice, he's not so sure what to think about them.

I let him get used to them in the round pen, and he eventually adjusted to them. No clue how he'll travel with them yet. We'll see next week.