Step #1 to Preparing for Dressage Finals= Back to Basics

With two weeks remaining until we compete in the US Dressage Finals, you'd think we'd be working on perfecting all of our movements, but drilling movements over and over just pisses off the BHB. So what are we doing? We're going back to basics, and for a very good reason.

Mark is not a fancy warmblood. Theoretically he's actually bred to be a farmer's horse, so he couuld be considered a "blue collar" horse. Now, contrast that to the fact that thoroughbreds were bred for the "sport of kings" and warmbloods were bred to compete in sports that a farmer could never afford the entry fee for. Yet, Mark does a pretty darn good job fitting in on the "dance floor" with high-bred society. He's a very consistent "7" horse, so we have to really work on not giving away a single point of that 70% performance we're quite capable of producing. Points tend to be "given away" in very basic elements of dressage like connection, bend, and balance. So in order to get that 7 (or even 8) we know we can get, we're focusing on those very basic things. This past weekend we worked on polishing our outside rein to inside leg connection and not much else. We also have plans to work quite a bit on other basics like square halts, improving the balance in downward transitions, and getting the proper angle in lateral work.

We may not get any scores above an 8, but you can be sure we're not going to be throwing away points for missing our basics!

Championships on a Budget!

Competing in 4 championship classes at an out-of-town Regional Championships can add up extremely fast! Just my entry fee alone is cringe worthy! So I tried everything I could to cut down the expense of this competition. If I had been able to share a tack stall it would have been ever better! I definitely won't get a tack stall if I go to Nationals unless it's shared. Just too expensive at Dressage Finals costs!

Cost Breakdown:

Competition fees: $751 ($300 in class fees, $61 in office/drug fees, $175 each for my stall and tack stall—I was expecting my barn mate to go and share but she isn’t going, and $40 in meal tickets for my trainer and mom)

Food: Raid pantry to bring protein bars for breakfast and some snacks/drinks for the tack room. Two dinners are included for competitors (Thursday and Saturday).Volunteering 1.5 days gets me 2 lunches and 1 more dinner in exchange of giving some much needed help to the show during my downtimes. We’ll stop at fast food places to eat while travelling. We should be able to spend less than $25/person in extra food.

Hotel: Book $45/night decent motel and share. Total cost for 3 nights= $135 ($67.50 each)

Trailering: Trailer my own horse with my somewhat rusty trailer, and then I’ll have a vehicle too. Estimated fuel cost=$250

Golf cart: $67 a day for a gold cart rental?! Heck no! I’m bringing my bike!

Parking fees: Volunteering gets me a free parking pass at the KHP to save $15!

Total expected costs (for my mom/videographer/groom/motivator and me combined, but excluding trainer fees and her much more expensive hotel): under $1200-- which is still quite expensive, but do-able for a Championship.

The 2014 Region 2 Dressage Mega-Championships

4 days, 8 rings, 13 fully-occupied barns, couple dozen completely sold-out hotels in Lexington, 50-90% chance of rain each day, 680+ horses, and 1750+ rides. Those are just some of the numbers from the 2014 Region 2 GAIG Dressage Championships! It's definitely the biggest horse show I've ever been to!!!

I’m sure the poor organizers are overwhelmed with this monster show. The Championship class entries are exponential considered to any of the other Regional Championships this year. Training level AA has 70 entries! And first level AA (that I’m riding in) has 65! Even one of my freestyle championships has 25 entries—which is absolutely unheard of for non-FEI level freestyles.

 There are only ribbons for the top 8 places, so those ribbons will be elusive for the majority, and well-earned by the few who manage to snag them. Fractions of a point are bound to separate placings at the lower levels. I rode in a class of 50 last year and didn’t manage to place, even though 2^nd place was only .2% above me. I’m wishing I went to the Region 1 Championships in NC this past weekend, because those were nice small classes that were much easier to place in!

My chunky blue-collar horse and I are definitely planning on bringing our A-game to this show, especially since he’ll thrive in the busy atmosphere. We’ll have to compete against pros on fancy warmbloods in our freestyle classes and then against other amateurs fiercely batting for a $2 ribbon (they’re the neck ribbons, so more expensive and prestigious than the regular $.50 ribbons we attack like a TV in Walmart on Black Friday ;)) in the Adult Amateur classes.

The BHB at a couple months old showing his well practiced game face! It's still the exact same today, just a smidge less adorable!

I’m volunteering to help run the show between my classes and strongly encourage any other competitors to volunteer any extra time they may have. And if you’re bringing a husband or parent, you’re pretty much required to volunteer them to keep them occupied ;)

10 Days Until We Leave for Regionals!

Yesterday was the first body clipping day of the winter since the Regional Championships are in less than two weeks! The BHB hates getting his legs clipped, so another epic battle of wills (and carrot bribery) took place. I’d like to think I won since the legs did all end up being fully clipped, but the BHB may have won a bit of an edge since they aren’t the prettiest. We’ll be battling it out again next month.

Freshly body clipped! I miss his richly red colored coat already!

The past few weeks have been pretty easy on the BHB— lots of jumping and trails interspersed with dressage sessions a few times a week. Cross-training is great for a horse’s mindset, especially one bred to be versatile. Mark has been really enjoying the variety and has ended up putting even more effort into his dressage work. I’m sure the cooler weather has had a positive effect on his work ethic too!

We can’t wait to go compete in the extremely large (580+ horse) Regionals competition in Kentucky. Until then, we’re working on some of the areas we tend to have issues in. Today we did a bit of drilling on simple lead changes and adding energy into our lateral trot work, as those currently our biggest downfalls. We’ve also been working quite a bit in counter-canter and on getting great 10m circles.

I’m a bit worried about our second level freestyle still since the choreography is very difficult, but the judges should really reward us if we can do it well. The stickiest area right now is the medium trot to travers since the BHB doesn’t always want to come back from a big trot. Our class time for this is after 7pm on Friday, so I’m also really worried that the BHB will decide he’s done for the day after his 11:30am first level freestyle class and not bring his A-game to this one. I haven’t figured out how to prepare for this yet!

The BHB had a vet appointment today to get his health certification to travel to KY, along with a teeth floating and his fall shots (since he doesn’t typically have much of a reaction to them). My father is getting my trailer and his truck ready to haul to Kentucky, since my trailer is currently with him at the farm. My poor trailer is in dire need of re-painting and some other cosmetic upgrades, so be on the lookout for an ugly trailer with some rust! At least everything else is great shape on the trailer—except the tack room skylight is quite leaky despite multiple attempts at re-caulking. And well, the BHB decided to customize the rubber padding around the front slot when he was younger =/.

Teeth Floating Time!

And the drugged exhaustion after. He needed his stall to hold his head up :)

Regional Championships are Approaching!

I saw the entry list for Regionals today, and WOW there are lots of entries! Just as I expected there would be. My first level Adult Amateur class has 68 entries!!! It’s going to be even bigger than the ~50 competitors I competed against in my classes last year.

The BHB better be amped up, because it looks like he’s one of two horses that are entered into 4 championship classes (based on my brief scan of the enormous entry list). Hopefully stuffing him full of alfalfa, carrots, sugar cubes, and cookies will help keep him energetic through the weekend. At least he's not going to be entered in any extra classes at this show. I’m sure the cooler weather there will help some too with energy levels.

We have the 2 freestyle classes on Friday (with 23 and 9 entries), Second level AA on Saturday (with 40 entries), and will finish off the weekend with the giant (68 entry) First level AA class on Sunday. 

Body clipping is on the schedule for 2 weeks before Regionals. The BHB would probably be a fluffy pony by Regionals if he wasn't clipped. He doesn't have much extra hair right now, but he can put on a Shetland-thick winter coat practically overnight! 

I'm a bit bummed about missing the IDHSNA annual breed show this year since it looks like it will be awesome. Mark could finally be able to compete in the hunter classes he dreams of doing with all the other chunky-built horses! It's the weekend before National Finals this year and in New Jersey, so I decided it would be way too much travelling for Mark to do. We'll go out and represent the breed in highly competitive dressage instead :). I'm still planning on having him attend breed inspections if they're close this year and on a weekend we're not off competing at a championship show. They're supposed to be in roughly a month, and last I heard they have yet to settle on a date or location for them.

Regional Championships Entered!

We're Ready for Championships!

The BHB's entry has been sent in for the Region 2 Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park in a month! It is going to be an enormous show as both of my regular classes (first and second level) have at least 50 people qualified to compete, my first level one has around 90! The qualification list for this show is astonishingly enormous, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were 500+ competitors at this show! It will definitely be the largest dressage show I've ever competed at... it may even be the largest horse show in any discipline! I entered him the the max number of classes possible to enter a horse at a Championship-- 4 classes! Two regular level classes (first and second level) and freestyles for those two level. 

After introducing some jumping back into the BHB's routine, I've had some wonderful forward rides on him. It ends up that he didn't need the vacation from riding as he was miserable and pacing the fence 4 of the 5 days he had off (I was told after I put him back into work), but I think he did need some more variety added back into his routine. I'm dying to take him out foxhunting, but after sending in a very large check with my Regional Championship entry, he's lucky he's not being bubble wrapped for the next two months! I told Heather yesterday that even if we qualify in all 4 classes for Nationals, we may have to eliminate at least one because of the cost to enter all classes (plus the $350 stabling and the likely $350 tack stall we will probably need-- or share if I'm lucky enough to find someone to split it with). For tack and feed for 4-5 days (and the bikes we take instead of a renting a golf cart), it's really almost necessary to get a tack stall to put it all in. Or else we're stacking around 3 bales of hay, a bucket of feed, all our tack, grooming tools, rider clothing, and more in the aisle way for that many days.

The BHB is back to being a rock star!

The entries to our last two shows for the regular show season to try chasing qualifying scores for our (still in-progress) second level freestyle we'd like to compete with in the championship season. In 2 weeks we're heading to the August Aiken show to spend some time training with Amber, then the following weekend we're going to the GDCTA Labor Day weekend show. Busy times for the BHB!

The BHB has absolutely been rocking his training lately! Putting shoes on really did help him, despite his naturally gorgeous hooves. He's been able to really open up his shoulders and progress on his usual fast-track in his training with less resistance. He's working on muscling up a bit more too! He's finally understanding the concept of canter pirouettes with some exercises we've added in. I've been able to try them on him a couple times, and although it feels like I'm all over the place, evidently we've been getting some decent steps. My ability riding half passes in both trot and canter has been improving quite a bit too, and now my bronze medal doesn't look so far out of reach... although I'm still not ready to play with the lead changes much until we're done with this show season. He knows how to do them really well, he just currently ignores them when I ask him and has lots of anticipation when Heather tries for them. He puts a lot more effort into his work and is quite a bit more hot/sensitive when a pro rides him, so I'm hoping maybe the chill attitude he has with me will help with the anticipation.

My birthday present of new boots arrived this week and they fit perfectly! I ordered the DeNiro brushed leather dressage boots from Smartpak and they are gorgeously shiny! For a dressage boot, they are incredibly fitted through the ankle with softer leather, yet they still have all the other qualities a typical dressage boot would have. I think they will be easier to break in than most boots too!

So excited about my shiny new boots!

Show Preparation: Our Show Packing/Prep List

Our first show of the season is in one week! I'm just finishing putting the freestyle music together today so we can run through the whole thing once or twice before competing! I'm out of town for work Wednesday-Thursday, then have a networking-type event to attend mid-day Friday. Not the ideal work week leading up to a show! On the bright side, I hear the BHB has successfully mastered his first tempi changes with Heather, so maybe I will actually get to try a real lead change someday soon!


One time I trailered to a jumper show across town, unloaded my horse and was preparing to tack up only to discover that I forgot to put my tack in the trailer! Luckily, I was able to send my dad the 30 minutes back to the barn to pick it up, but how mortifying would it be to have that happen at a dressage show when you're much further from home! Also, in dressage we have custom-fitted saddles and bits carefully chosen through trial and error, so it's not as easy to find tack available to borrow as it would in the H/J world where saddles and bridles seem to be constantly thrown from horse to horse.

When I was foxhunting, I wouldn't trust myself to pack everything correctly at 5am on a weekend morning, so I would actually tack up the horse completely before throwing it on the trailer so I could just hop out and mount up. It also helped that I didn't have to saddle a dancing horse at the meets! Now, I don't saddle up before going to a dressage show, but I do make a list to make sure I have everything before leaving for the weekend.

This is the checklist I use for going to shows. It may seem like quite a bit, but most everything should already be in one place (like the trailer) or easily grouped together.


TO DO DAY BEFORE SHOW:
 Bathe Mark
 Clip Mark
 Clean tack
 Fuel-up truck
 Put coggins, health certificate, insurance info in truck

TACK BOX (The bolded items are things that don't always live in the show box):
 Body brushes
 Tail brush
 CANTER Mane & Tail spray
 Hoof pick
 Hoof oil
 Braiding supplies (comb, clip, rubber bands, quickbraid)
 Small cordless clippers (charged)
 Shampoo
 Bathing sponge
 Sweat scraper
 Scissors
 Sunscreen
 Sugar cubes
 Tack cleaning supplies
 Adult amateur calming supplement (I.C.E. mini liquor bottles)
 Clean towels
 Polos/boots for schooling
 For championships: white polos
 Fly spray
 Schooling gloves

PUT IN TRAILER:
 Tack box
 Full hay bag for Mark to munch on
 Show bridle
 Extra noseband option
 Extra bit option
 Saddle
 Girth
 2 white saddle pads
 1 schooling saddle pad
 Thinline pad
 Blankets/sheets if cold weather
 Hay
 Grain

THINGS THAT SHOULD ALREADY BE IN TRAILER:
 Chairs
 Folding table
 Water buckets with hooks
 Feed pan
 Hose with sprayer attachment
 Muck bucket/wheelbarrow
 Pitchfork
 Shavings
 Twine (from hay bales)
 Saddle rack
 Bridle rack
 Folding step stool (for braiding and mounting)

GARMENT BAG:
 Show coat
 Stock shirt (1 per day showing)
 Stock tie
 Boot socks (1 pair per day showing)
 White breeches (1 pair per day showing)

HELMET BAG:
 Show helmet
 Hair net
 White gloves

BOOT BAG:
 Boots
 Spurs
 Boot polish

BACKPACK/SUITCASE:
 Video camera
 2 casual outfits (jeans, t-shirt)
 Schooling shirt and breeches
 Cash for concessions/shopping
 Sweatshirt/jacket
 Sneakers 
 Toiletries (for overnight)
 PJs (for overnight)

COOLER:
 Snacks
 Lunch
 Breakfast (if not staying at free breakfast hotel)
 Water
 Electrolyte drinks (Gatorade, propel, coconut water)
 Carrots

When To Step Up a Level

Should you wait for the ideal movement when everything's correct or throw yourself in with a challenge?

Now that I'm re-evaluating my show schedule this season, I've been pondering whether I should go ahead and make the jump to second level at our next show or hold off until I'm more consistent in riding the collected gaits and the canter to walk transitions. There's no such thing as "too uphill" for us either!

After that, I was thinking that we are solid at first level, but there are still some things I'd like to master before we completely move on-- such as softly bent elbows, better downward transitions, and great centerlines. We could be super competitive at first level this year with a very good chance of making it back to Nationals for it. Maybe I'll show first level until we hit a solid 70% a couple times. If I'm going to be showing at first level anyways, I should probably show in the 6 classes we need this season to get enough qualifying scored for the musical freestyle challenge at first level, which would also give us enough first level scores to earn an all-breed award and try to end up in the top 100 in horse of the year.

With a competent rider, the BHB could easily show at third level at the next show, but I have too many basics still lacking... and, well, I'm also not doing schooling all the required movements at that level :). Maybe this fall or next year I'll attempt to get the scores for my bronze medal, but I'm not ready yet!

Our Show Season is Delayed... a Few Weeks

Happy St. Patrick's day! The very Irish BHB demands a kiss (or sugar) from everyone!

Today I had to decide whether or not to enter the April GDCTA show at the GA Intl Horse Park. I had my entry filled out and ready to send in, but wasn't feeling as confident as previous entries. Mark was not yet back to a consistent work schedule due to the weather and Heather and I being out of town quite a bit. I've only had 2-3 riding lessons since the beginning of the year and Mark has only had roughly a half dozen training rides. I have been able to ride at least 3 days a week, but we haven't really advanced in the one area I would like to solidify before showing: my canter-walk-canter transitions. I know it's a small thing, but it keeps me re-evaluating whether we're ready to put together a great second level test since if that's missing, then we likely don't have the second level fundamentals down either. 

I also haven't completed my freestyle yet, so am quite hesitant to enter to show something that I don't even have complete yet. It could mean a last minute hack job putting together the music the night before the show! As the only student of Heather's looking to enter this show, I decided it would be best to delay our show debut this year until the BHB is back in peak shape, I'm confident in my skills, and our freestyle is complete (or close to it). So I think I'm going to redo our show calendar and likely reroute to the Good Horseman Foundation show at the GA Intl Horse Park in April. 

The weather looks like it's going to be quite nice during the next week, so hopefully there will be plenty of riding to be done! The BHB definitely needs to get his head out of (what's left of) his hay bale and back to work! I've already started decreasing his food a bit since he's filling out at roughly the same rate his hay bale is disappearing. 

Aiming to Ride in Not-So-Perfect Weather

David Marcus in the 2012 Olympics... competing in heavy rain!!!

I almost didn't go riding after work today. Why? There was a constant 25+ mph wind blowing everything around. Yet it was 55-degrees outside, and I realized that the weather was much nicer than I rode in at the National Finals last fall. So I had no reason to chicken out and even more of a reason to go ride. 

The weather in Kentucky at last year's National Finals was miserable (40-degrees and 15-20 mph winds) and highlighted the fact that my show clothes are more suited for the Southern heat instead of frigid cold. This year I will be sure to bring 2-3 more layers of warm clothing to wear under my show clothes!

At shows, our fancy dressage horses are frequently forced into performing in less than perfect weather conditions. Rain, wind, freezing cold, southern heat... they can all happen at a show! Unless you're willing to throw away all the money you've paid to enter your classes (assuming the show is continuing), you're going to be competing in the weather at the show.

On the drive home after riding, I was wondering why we don't ride more in the miserable weather to desensitize our horses and ourselves to doing so. Then the random plastic bag flying across the arena during your test because of strong winds wouldn't be as spectacular of an event. 

The BHB and I had a few small "moments" during my ride tonight with the strong winds blowing the bamboo and trees next to the arena around, but it was quite easy to work through. I was also able to get more practice managing a very excited and hotter BHB, which was a good experience for me. Riding in not-so-perfect weather is a new goal for this year. I'd like to be fully prepared for any condition I might run across at a show. 

Setting Goals Leads to Improvement!

I have always been very successful at setting and achieving goals. If you have the motivation to improve yourself, goals help to focus that motivation and create measurable results. I came up with this list after analyzing videos of my rides, figuring out what Amber repeats the most in my lessons, and from experimenting when I ride outside of lessons.

For 2014, my goals are to:

1. Ride between movements, don’t take a break in the corners!
2. Upper arms parallel to torso, thumbs up with firm grip on reins
3. Don’t pull back on reins-- it doesn’t do anything useful
4. No bending wrists, bend the elbows or squeeze fingers instead
5. The first halt needs to improve… don't run down the centerline!
6. Less rider movement= a better ride
7. No more rider meltdowns in the warm-up

Here is a great illustration of the straight elbows and flat, loose-gripping hands that I need to fix!

Prepping for the 2014 Show Season= Budgeting

Welcome to my blog! I will be documenting the adventures my spectacular Irish Draught, Flagmount's Trademark, takes in the sport of Dressage. There will be plenty about my struggles as a 25-year old Adult Amateur as well.

Budgeting for the Show Season

Although many Dressage Queens are currently enjoying the show season in Sunny West Palm Beach, Flagmount's Trademark (aka- Mark, the official BHB) and I have yet to start gearing up for our competitions this year. Add in a winter storm, and I suddenly have time to start writing on the blog I've been putting off for nearly a year!

I went over my horse budget last show season after showing at Regionals and the National Finals, so a show-cation to sunny Florida is not in the books this season. Instead, I've been working hard to fit a show schedule to this season's budget. At 25 with plenty of bills on my plate (including a high maintenance retired horse, HRH Blitz), it's a struggle to do all the horse stuff that I want to do. I'm still waiting for my Billionaire future husband to knock on my door and hand me a black card!

We're going to do our Second Level debut this season, along with doing a freestyle or two... once I get choreography nailed down and the music edited to fit. I'd like to get enough scores to compete for All-Breeds Awards at First and Second level, and also for freestyles at those same levels. That means we need to fit at least 20 classes into our show season since I already have 2 scores at First level from Regionals and Nationals. Assuming each show weekend is 2 days long and I don't try to completely exhaust the BHB, I'll have to prepare for 5 shows before Regionals. I also want to let Amber show off her progress with the BHB at least a couple shows, so that means we need to add a 6th show to our schedule. Adding in Regionals and Nationals, hopefully we will be going to 8 shows this season.

I love going to shows in the Atlanta area. It's the most budget-friendly for me too since I get to save on the trailering costs and hotel costs that I'd incur on long-distance showing. Three-day shows, like the August Tennessee one or even four-day shows like KDA Spring shows, are awesome and make it easier to get tons of rides in at one location.

So far, it looks like our first show will be the GDCTA show at Conyers in April. I love supporting my awesome GMO! Hopefully we can debut the First Level freestyle that's currently in the works. I can't wait to get the shaggy beast primped up for show season!