Videos From Last Weekend's Show

I finally got the videos from our show last weekend uploaded onto youtube.

Our freestyle video. Hopefully next time we show this I won't have to do as many improvisations to stay with the music! I also really need to figure out how to make the one trot music transition a bit smoother before we ride it again!

Here is the first level test 3 in which the BHB checked out of the arena mid-way through. Other than that, it was a relaxed and accurate test.

My fingers are still in the process of healing from some massive blisters I got the week before the show while trying out some glove-rein combinations. I may end up going back to my leather gloves and give the Roeckls a break!

Good Horseman Show Recap

Our first show of the season was a big success, minus one thing. We scored a 71% on our first attempt at a freestyle with finished music that we only ran through twice the day before the competition since I was out of town for work most of the week! We brought home the reserve high score freestyle ribbon of the show too! Once I figure out how to edit one of the transitions to make me happier, I think it will be all set for Regionals and hopefully Nationals with the $2 freestyle! I found through this that I'm pretty good at improvising to stay with the music, and decided on a couple more changes in choreography that I'd like to aim for. Video to come later :)

Here I am with the BHB's ribbons from this show

We made an attempt at riding second level tests on Sunday. The BHB was pretty tired and lazy, so it required much more kicking through than it should have, resulting in gaining the usual "needs more uphill balance" comments. It's not easy to have the necessary uphill balance for dressage when your horse has short legs to begin with, so it's even worse when they are feeling lazy! We still scored a 62% for 2-1 and 65% for 2-2, so I'm extremely happy with our first efforts. Now I know that we need to schedule the harder tests the first day of a show when the BHB has the most energy.

Now for the thing I'm not so happy about. The BHB decided during our 1-3 test that he was going to duck out of the arena at A without any advance warning. He's NEVER offered to do this before and better never ever do so again or the judge will need to close his/her eyes for 5 seconds to break a habit from forming. I heard from the show manager later that the judge was very surprised about it too and that no one saw it coming. The judge was nice enough to let us come back in the arena and score the rest of the test. We were eliminated of course, but at least the BHB did not get the break he was looking for when he ducked out. We were putting in an awesome test that would have garnered right at a 70% too!!! I think the BHB is just not getting enough mental stimulation at first level anymore after riding this test around s dozen times last year. He's ready for much more than I am! I think I'm going to let Heather show him at least once this summer. She thinks she could do 4th level with him, he's so much further advanced than I am!

We have 2 new horses in the barn that are going to join us in showing, so hopefully we'll have a summer show schedule in place soon. Right now I'm not sure which of several options we'll head to next. I'm very excited to try out our freestyle again and try to get all our 5-7 more qualifying scores for Regionals!

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

Happy 7th Birthday to the BHB!

The little troublemaker has grown into quite a respectable horse in the last couple years. The most difficult thing about having a very smart and stubborn horse is that they will find ways to entertain themselves if they are not provided with entertainment. This may vary from crawling under fences and taking down all the electric fence insulators to opening gates and terrorizing pasture mates. Luckily, having a job and an irrigated pasture to graze keep the BHB entertained on most days now.

The BHB's first glimpse of the world

To celebrate his birthday this week, I sent in our first show entry for the year. We'll be showing at the Good Horseman show at the GA Intl Horse Park April 26-27. We'll be debuting our currently unfinished first level freestyle and try out 2 second level tests.

Link of the day: Tips from Carl Hester (worth a read!)

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.