US Dressage Finals 2014 Recap

US Dressage Finals were a success! We came home with 4^th place in the second level freestyle and 8^th place in the first level freestyle! After watching the video of my second level freestyle (the $0 freestyle), I wanted to kick myself for not having a round/on the bit horse, but I decided that I’ll just have to wait until next year to redeem myself in that! The BHB was a riot in the awards ceremony—his fieldhunter nature kicked in and he was all “I’ll catch up to them so we don’t get left behind” when we were supposed to be doing a trot lap for awards—so I was pretty much being run away with at a giant trot in both awards ceremonies. I’m hoping to get back to the hunt field this winter where catching up might actually have a benefit.

Posing with our very expensive ribbons!

Just like at Regionals, we managed to keep costs down to a near $1K budget for this trip, although I still don’t know what my trainer’s travel costs will add up to. I actually came in a day early for the show to allow the BHB to settle in, and it was definitely much needed here since he doesn’t tend to travel as well by himself and took a day to get back to normal. Now that horse show season is over, I can replenish my saving account! We may not be showing for awhile since we went a bit over budget with the 2 out-of-town Championship shows this year.

Entry fees: $286

Stabling: $350! For real!

Meals: approx. $50

Hotel: $118

Fuel: $230

T-shirt: $16

Bale of alfalfa hay (the BHB refused to eat regular hay for 2 days so I felt like he needed something): $20

Trainer fees and travel: currently unknown

I had my first post-Championships lesson last night and I think the BHB is excited to get back to the tough stuff! He was quite the firecracker during the entire lesson and was probably quite miffed we didn’t do any medium or extended gaits. We’re working on doing some basic passage to help him figure out how to lift his front end a bit more at the trot, as he is not a natural uphill mover. We’re getting back to the half-passes too, which are really one of his strengths—especially at the trot! I’m sure we’ll get back to establishing a decent pirouette soon, and then maybe I’ll even get to see if I can get him to do lead changes for me! We’re hoping to move up to third level next year and earn a bronze medal and freestyle bar, but we need to get some half-decent lead changes first!

Heading to the US Dressage Finals Tomorrow!

We leave tomorrow morning to head to the US Dressage Finals in Lexington, KY! This week the BHB got a body clip, new shoes, and a health certificate. I’m just hoping I manage to pack everything I need for the trip since I seem to be forgetting everything lately. I plan to get to the KHP by 5pm tomorrow so I have time to get the BHB out for a slow hack/trail ride around the park to stretch his legs. Then on Friday Heather comes up and we’ll do a schooling session on-site before we compete on Saturday morning. Our Saturday morning ride (2^nd level AA freestyle) will be live broastcast on USEF Network if anyone wants to watch him go. I just really hope I can master the second level freestyle because I really love the choreography and music! You bet I’m going to try my hardest riding that thing this weekend! We could REALLY use that $1100 first place prize money (my bank account hates me for doing 2 big out-of-town shows in 2 months)! And the BHB still hasn’t won his own prize cooler yet, so that wouldn’t hurt either ;). With only 2 classes this weekend, the BHB should have plenty of energy to nail every movement.

Last weekend the BHB was officially approved into the Irish Draught studbook and he’ll be sporting an IDHSNA breed society saddle pad during our classes/awards ceremonies. The Irish inspectors liked him, although they said his but was not voluptuous enough to score super high. Oh well, at least it more than serves the purposes we need even if he’s not “all about the bass” like many other Irish Draughts. He proceeded to show them his most plodding gaits ever during the inspection, much to my dismay. I just wish I could have shown them his gaits undersaddle when he actually can be coaxed to giving effort to his work. 

Riding the "Big Trot"

I think riding the big trot may be the nemesis of many adult amateur riders. I'm lucky that I don't struggle as much as others I know, but I'm definitely no master! It has definitely been something I've been trying to work on since I have a horse that's extremely talented in the big trots.

Heather, expert on fancy dressage horses, believes the BHB could easily score 8's and 9's in his medium and extended trots if “I” can push him enough and manage to keep him balanced at the same time… without flopping all over the place myself! In order to keep myself from bouncing around in a big trot, I have a tendency to tense my entire body, which is definitely not the correct way to ride it. It seems to be something you have to ride over and over while experimenting to get it right. Here is what has been helping me so far in improving “big trot” riding:

1. Shorten reins before even thinking about adding impulsion
2. Take a deep breath and sit deep with correct rider position
3. Add collection to help lift the front end and rev up the back legs
4. GO! Loosen the upper thighs while squeezing the calves (and heels if necessary)
5. Keep fingers closed (no spirit fingers!) and slightly pulsing on reins (not hanging!)
6. Keep squeezing with calves and adding some heel/spur if necessary
7. Almost to end, so take another deep breath, pulse calves lightly instead of squeezing to keep impulsion, and add half halts to slow back down

Sounds easy, right? ;)

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!

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!

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 ;)