So miss Funbuns showed up today and proved herself quite the professional!
We had signed up for the Ashland Show and moved up to Novice. Originally because the dressage was going to be abyssmal no matter what and I didn't think the novice test was any harder, she was jumping training level stuff with ease, it's Ashland so it's home base and tends to be easier within the level than at other places (like Chatt or stableview) and... honestly, ha ha... I didn't want to compete against Karen with her low 20's dressage tests. Hee hee. Not really the last one, but it was a nice bonus! But then I looked at the novice test and... uh... it's a bit more intense than I thought! But... it might be good for her to have to focus more and do "more things". She's kind of an overachiever anyways. And, it was a good choice.
I gave her some magnesium this morning and gave her a bath. Then once we got to Ashland I put the bemer on level 1 (parasympathetic engagment) and did her back and poll. And she was so chill sitting at the trailer chomping hay. I was originally thinking we would go in the back forty and warm up and avoid the chaos of warm up but I didn't quite give myself enough time. So once I got on I thought that we could hack around the little lake as a warm up. So we started over that way and Funny stopped and was like "no mom.... the show ring is that way". Um... okay... Miss professional! But you have to behave like a show horse then. She may or may not have rolled her eyes at me. But we marched over to the warm up, which luckily was really quiet! And we had the lower arena to warm up in vs the grass area. It was just me, Karen, and some guy on a feral thoroughbred. (way more feral than Funny if that tells you anything!). And maybe one other normal horse that left to go into the arena pretty quickly. We were just walking and Jacel showed up so we walked and talked a bit and she was actually quite chill, even on a shorter rein. Then we picked up the trot and it got quick and rushy. So Jacel had us do ten meter circles, ten meter figure 8's, and had me focus on riding her shoulders in and her haunches out. Ooohhhh, that made a big difference. Funny was really throwing my body around so that I was ending up with my inside shoulder very far forward both directions. So.. instead of her "guiding me", I had to guide her. NOT with my hands... with my body! And it freakin' worked! Mostly. We had some better moments but it was still quick and runny, so then I had to find a way to get her slow her roll without 10 meter circles. So... we tried shoulder in and we tried squeezing with my thighs on the sit. Then I even tried sitting the trot. And... it all worked... we even got some really nice sitting trot shoulder in work... like... 2nd level maybe work! She was much more collected and balanced. Wheee!!! Okay, so... no reason I can't sit the trot in the test. We did a few canters and did 15 meter circles and then worked on leg yielding slightly into the downward and then shoulder in immediately. Then we took a breather and then went back to the trot. It got quick again so we went back to the sitting trot and shoulder in and she settled nicely! Wheee
It was our turn next so we headed up and watched Karen's nice test! Ooof, that's gonna be hard to beat. Granted, she was in BN, but ... a hard test to follow. But... holy cow! We had such a nice test!!! I was soooo proud of her! She went in fairly straight and balanced.... she did all the things... she was actually quite ridable and only mildly fussy in the bridle. She wasn't really through or on the bit but she was much less erratic and inverted than before. And she didn't jig in her medium walk or free walk. I was shocked really! Even the judge, who has judged us before, commented "wow, she's growing up!". Yay! We ended up scoring a 33.1 (I think!)!!! Yeah girl!!! Granted, we were 3rd of 4, but still! And she got a 9 on her stretchy trot! It was a damn good stretchy trot! :)
She got untacked, rinsed off, and then hung out at the trailer eating hay quietly and calmly while I went up to walk stadium. Then we got tacked back up and headed up to stadium. As we were heading towards the arena a big black snake slithered past up ahead of us and Funny stopped and stared! She was scared but she was brave and I got her past him when he slithered off to the side. Good girl! Jacel wasn't able to make it up to coach us because of her other students ride times, so we just did a little trot and then trotted the crossrail and vertical. She was nice. Then we cantered the vertical and oxer and she was super! Then the other riders showed up and they raised the jumps so we jumped the oxer and vertical again and... she felt good and wasn't escalating so... we quit with that! We headed to the arena and we were the first to go in our division. So we headed in. And she was good! She was calmer and more ridable than usual. Although she was a bit distracted by the "crowds" and was looking out of the arena as we approaced fence 4, the gate. I think that I may have also half halted too much, because she chipped and we had a rail. Doh! And then as we came around to five, an oxer, she spooked and bucked at the photographer and squirted sideways. I pulled her back onto the line and she cleared the oxer, but took it at an angle. Which... was kind of cool because I knew that's what was gonna happen but also knew she'd be fine to jump it without much "warning" and prep. The rest of the course was fine except the last two oxers she took giant flyers too! Ha ha. Whoops! I got left behind over one of them horrendously. Sorry girl! I did get too high in my hands too, but it wasn't as bad and wasn't the whole time. So... bummer about the rail, but... overall, quite pleased with her.
Then we hacked down to cross country and chatted with Caroline briefly. I opted to not wait on Jacel, because I wasn't sure she could make it anyways, and... there wasn't anyone else down there so I figured she might be less resistant to leaving the startbox if there wasn't a bunch of horses at the start box. (Last time she was very "drunk" leaving the start box at first because she was herd bound). So we headed out! She was pretty super. We had some tight spots because I think she was more ridable than I was used to and I might not have been quite as giving with my elbows as I should have been. I remembered to stay light in my seat though and I definitely softened the stride out, but I may have held a tiny bit too much before hand. Although maybe not because she wasn't fussy or running. We were doing well and she was a little squirrely to the two in the woods that I thought she might be. They were from light to shade and then a tight approach but she jumped them fine. Then we came around and did the brush and then as we were cantering towards the rolltop Caroline yelled "You forgot the ditch Holly". OOOPS!! Darn it! (Technically she wasn't allowed to tell me but... it's a schooling show... ). So I turned around and took her to the bank which had the banana jump on a bendy line after. She was a little scrambly because I got scrambly and we took a flyer at the bank. Eeeeeks, not the safest move. And she bucked a little and unseated me enough that I lost my right stirrup. We coudn't quite get it together for the B element so we had a run out. So we circled around and did the bank up again (much more of a normal distance this time) and jumped the banana and then carried on. We jumped the rest of the course nicely and with ease and she was quite ridable. Maybe even a little tired by the end?? Oh, and she cantered into the water too without coming to a trot! She hesitated a tiny bit but only backed off a hair and didn't squirt sideways! Yay! I couldn't remember if I had jumped the next jump after the bank before I circled so I didn't know if were eliminated or not. But Caroline was nice and didn't eliminate me and I apparently didn't jump the next fence... she caught me and told me otherwise before. :) So... we ended up 3rd of 4... because the first place guy fell off after the water when his horse jumped BIG and then bucked. So... not the best results on paper and I'm irritated at myself for causing the rail and the run out and forgetting my course, but.... I'm so proud of her!! And honestly... it's still better than our last two outings with two runouts. So yahooo!!
Good girl Funny!! Good Girl!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment