Our Entry is in for Dressage Finals! And a Recap of Regionals!

The BHB will be competing in the US Dressage Finals in both the first and second level AA freestyles! We are excited to head back to Kentucky in less than 3 weeks! Entries seem to be much better this year than last, but I'm sure word got around that the show was awesome last year. I'm lucky that this year my classes will both be in the indoor Alltech arena, so no cold/ wind/ frozen/ precipitation to deal with! I'm trying to stable in the heated stable this year since the shedrows had constant noisy wind last year and the BHB needs all the quality sleep he can get at this show. A tack stall was not in the budget for this, so unless I find someone near me who got one and wants to share, I'll be trying to figure out how to best contain my mess in the aisle.

As far as Regionals, we started off with riding possibly our best first level freestyle yet in a VERY soupy arena. Hilda Gurney was one of our judges and gave us a 69% and told the BHB on the way out how adorable he is. Yay for another awesome judge in the BHB fan club! Unfortunately, the other judge for that class tends to score the BHB a bit lower and give some odd comments, so we ended up with a 67% average. Good enough to qualify for a wildcard score to Nationals in a huge (25 people!!!) class.

We got to ride our second level freestyle in the big Rolex ring under the lights (at 7:46pm) while drizzling. We were off to a great start, but we picked up the wrong lead in the first simple change and I was so surprised that we went WAY off course counter-cantering for like 15 seconds (with choreography that provides no room for error) and then I just tried to get all of the required movements in my test. The test ended with me going to centerline for my final halt and realizing I was facing A! So a quick loop around and we halted about 10 seconds after our music ended. But we got all of the required movements in! And the judges were feeling super generous to give us a 68% without too many comments about my frantic all-over-the-place mess of choreography. This put us in 8th place, and although it was high enough to give us a wildcard score, we were the second highest placed adult amateur, so ended up with a Finals invite based on placing. 

We made the exact same major error in our second level championship class. We picked up the left lead instead of the right in the simple change! And those simple changes are double coefficients, so of course it eliminated any chance of doing well. Although several of the people who placed had flying changes in their counter canter and still did well, so who knows. A few other minor bobbles took place (as usual) and we ended up with a 62% score and placed somewhere right in the middle of the class of 45. 

By Sunday, the BHB was completely exhausted. He spent 3 nights partying with 140 other horses in the tent stabling, so was trying to catch a nap any chance he had. I used a whip warming up for our first level championship to help rev him up, but by the time we walked from the warm-up to the arena and had to wait for our bell, he had fallen back into slug mode. So I tried kicking my adorable slug around the arena, and we were given a 66% for our efforts to place in the top half of the 65 horse class. After this class, I was glad we weren't going to be competing in too many classes at the Dressage Finals, since he wore out by the fourth day there, and I probably couldn't afford to enter that many championship classes anyway.

My mother is currently hoarding all of the pictures and videos from Regionals, so nothing to post now. But I did see that one of the photographers at the show got pictures of the BHB medium cantering through the slop with all of his feet well up in the air and his ears pinned back. I thought it was adorable!

USDF Year End Awards!

USDF year end awards are in the process of being finalized. Here's how the BHB did. Not too bad considering the big issues we faced while showing this year (sore feet, extremely hot weather, back to back ride times in extremely hot weather). We probably could have done really well if we rode the extra 4 first level tests to qualify for a First Level Musical Freestyle Challenge, but I didn't really want to spend money going through the same tests Mark memorized last year.

Bringing Home the Awards

Last night I went to the GDCTA (my local USDF GMO) Awards Gala to receive the BHB's awards from last show season. The GDCTA puts on an awesome annual awards banquet with a huge silent auction, raffles for barn baskets, and an art exhibit with pieces for sale. Of course I also have to mention the great food buffet and ever-popular drink stands too. 

I took home the 3rd place ribbon in Training Level Adult Amateur and 8th place in First Level AA. It was great to see my barn mates and Amber taking home ribbons too! Going to awards banquets really motivates me to improve my riding. More importantly, I get to reflect on how much fun I had showing in the last year!

One Giant Training Level Ribbon

I organized a barn basket this year by buying stuff and begging barn mates to give me things for it. The (not at all unique) theme was items that any Dressage Queen would love. I donated the white version of our favorite dressage pad, white polo wraps that I sewed a felt heart with crown applique on, a blingy picture frame, and the actual basket. Some other items in our basket included a facial, a bottle of wine, wine charms, and (of course) a tiara. It was quite awesome! 

Who wouldn't want to win this?!

The weather was a marvelous 60*+  for today, despite 10* temperatures and snow 5 days prior. I schooled the BHB on the flat and talked over some freestyle choreography with Amber. The BHB had a fantastic jumping day last week before the freeze, so will be doing quite a bit of jumping in the next few weeks to keep him entertained while I'm off travelling for work. His canter and body control over the jumps has reportedly improved tremendously with his dressage training. We may even enter some jumper shows this year to try earning some $$$ to pay for his dressage showing!

We're in the USDF Connection Yearbook!

The article I was interviewed for during Dressage Finals has been published on page 41 of the USDF Connection Yearbook sent out digitally to USDF members this morning! 

Here's a low quality screen shot as a teaser!

Of course Amber received a well-earned shout out in the article :). She's been paramount in the amazing training progress Mark's made. We also have mentions in the Region 3 Championship results and the IDHSNA All-Breed Awards. I didn't have a decent dressage picture to submit in time for the deadline for the All-Breeds Awards, so we don't have one on there this year. Although, now that I've purchased some awesome ones, we'll get one in next year!


Here's a link to view the actual publication: http://connection.epubxp.com/i/247063


When I receive the hard copy in the mail, I'll have to cut it out and add it to my bin of pictures I still need to frame. Maybe I'll be inspired to make the BHB a shadow box with photos and awards from this season. I think his favorite "award" from this past show season were the free treat bags Seminole handed out at the Region 3 Championships:

The BHB would like me to buy these in bulk.