An end to an amazing show season

Sunday September 15th was the last SMDA dressage show of the season as well as Otis and I's last show of the season. I was hoping to do the Pipestave event in October, but work just gets too busy this time of year, and I don't get to ride enough.

Otis had been having some left lead canter issues the last couple of times I had ridden him so I was thinking our last show of the season might be a bust. He just didn't want to canter in that direction at all, and when he finally would it was horrible. I even squeezed in a lesson the day before the show and he wasn't any better. He is usally a perfect angel at our lessons, so I started to worry that there might be something physical causing him to not want to pick up the canter. I figured I had already paid my money, so there was no point in scratchinig, I would go to the show and see how it went. We had done SO WELL all Summer, it would be okay if we had a bad show.

Otis was on his best behavior at the show, and was a really good boy in the warm up. He picked up the canter much better than the last few times I rode him, so I figured we might actaully do okay in our tests. He was great for Intro C, not the greatest canter transitions we have done, but not horrible either. We ended up winning Intro C!

He was just as good in Training 1 with the same okay canter transitions. There were quite a few people in Training 1 so after I got Otis untacked and everything packed away, I went to the ring to watch some tests. I saw a girl put in a flawless (to my eyes) Training 1 test on a beautiful buckskin horse and I knew she would win it. I was right, she placed first, and I placed third. I'm not sure who placed second, I didn't see her go so she must have gone while I was warming up, or while I was untacking.

Overall I we did MUCH better than I thought we were going to. We actually finished the year the same way we started, with a first and a third. I am hoping the canter issues were just Otis' typical fall naughtiness and that he doesn't have a physicall problem. I haven't had much time to ride him lately but when I do he seems fine and he has no problems running and bucking in his pasture. I want to start taking lessons ASAP next Spring so if the problem resurfaces we can get it taken care of right away.

Otis and I are really having fun learning about dressage and competing. I am very happy with what we accomplished this Summer!

Yee Haw!

After competing in five two phases since we started eventing in 2011, I finally felt ready to try another three phase horse trial. Our first horse trial in 2011 didn't go so well. Otis and I both got VERY nervous in the cross country phase and ended up getting eliminated due to too many refusals. Competing in the two phases and practicing at home, our confidence level has really gotten better.

The horse trial was August 18th at Hilltop Equestrian Center. This is the same place we did our first horse trial, and have competed in a two phase there as well. It is a really nice venue, and I always enjoy showing here.

I arrived at the show a couple of hours before my dressage time becasue I wanted to be able to walk the cross country course before they started the cross country rounds for the day. There were 14 jumps on the course, 7 of them were in the field, 5 of them were in the woods, and the last two were out in another field. There were a couple that looked a little scary. Fence 5 we had to come at from up a hill, so it looked bigger than it was, and fence 11 looked much higher than the 18" max of the pre-elemenary division, but I told myself we woud be fine. When I jumped the course though, I was surprised to see that they had taken the top log out of the fence and it was MUCH smaller than when I walked the course. I recorded the course on my new CourseWalk app so it can be seen here. The course itself was easy to remember, but it was nice to be able to look at pictures of the jumps in the order that I would be jumping them. I think this app would be even handier for the higher levels with more complicated courses.

Otis was very good for the dressage warm up and our test, so I was feeling pretty good about the day. Once we were done with dressage I changed my clothes and changed Otis' tack so we could get warmed up for cross country. While I was getting changed they announced that the dressage scores for my division were being posted, I resisted the urge to go look at them so that I could get ready in plenty of time for cross country and not have to hurry.

Otis was really good in the warm up for cross country. No crazy deer hoping over the jumps! He did look down at the practice log when we jumped it the first time, but went over it fine after that. I felt really confident and ready to go when it was our turn. We were counted down and off we went! Otis was a little nervous/excited as we headed down into the field, but he jumped fences one through four no problem. He tried to refuse fence five, which is the one I thought looked a bit scary, so I guess he agreed. It was a small enough fence, so I just kicked him over it. This worked him up a bit so he jumped fence six a bit bigger than he needed to. By the time we reached fence seven, he was okay and jumping great again. He got a bit worked up as we heaeded into the woods for the rest of the course, but we just cantered along like we would on the trails at home. He got a bit squrimy as we approached the fences in the woods, but I kept him between my legs and he sailed over them no problem! We finished the rest of the course no problem and we galloped through the finish cones up the hill to head back to the trailer. It was SO MUCH FUN!! I had goose bumps when we finished! I was so proud that we not only finished the course clean, but we did it well, and improved SO MUCH from the first time we tried cross country.

We had a couple of hours before our stadium phase, so I untacked Otis, hosed him down and let him have some hay and water. I walked up to look at the dressage scores and we were in the lead!

It was finally time to tack up for stadium and Otis was still feeling nice and relaxed when I got on. I jumped him over a few of the warm up jumps and he was still being awesome. I decided to give him a break and just walk around the grounds while I waited for it to be time to jump the course. Stadium was running a bit behind so we had to wait a lot longer than I had planned. When it got closer to our turn I jumped Otis over the warm up fences a few more times just to wake him up. He jumped the course great. We were both feeling sleepy from standing around in the sun so we could have done better, but we went clean with no refuslas and no knock downs. This meant that we kept our first place stanidng and got to take home a blue ribbon!

My main goal for the day was to be successful in cross country with no major mishaps. Not only did we accomplish that goal, but we went clean in both cross country and stadium, and received an excellent dressage score. Otis and I were both pooped by the time it was time to go home, but what a fun day! If I thought I was hooked on eventing before, I deinitely am now!

A sleepy Otis proudly displaying his ribbon!

Southern Maine Dressage Association August Show

What a beautiful day for a show! Sunday August 4th was the third Southern Maine Dressage Association show that Otis and I have attended this season. It was an absolutely gorgeous Summer day with sunshine and very little humidity.

After I had gotten Otis and I ready, I got on and started to walk around the grounds before we went into the warm up arena. Not a few steps past the trailer, and we run into our awesome instructor Judy! I was excited to see her since a flat tire ruined my plans to take a lesson with her the Friday before the show. She had trailered a horse in for somebody, and was going to be there long enough to see my Intro C test. I had a fleeting moment of feeling the extra pressure to do well for Judy, but that quickly went away. I thought it would be great to see all of our hard work put to use, and also give us some things to work on when we finally can make it back to her farm for a lesson.

Otis was great for Intro C. Our trot to walk transition wasn't the greatest partly because I didn't properly prepare him, and the other part is Otis is lazy and can't wait to walk, so he is very abrupt in is transitions. He has also started doing his "nose wag" thing again, which Judy said we could work on in our lessons. Overall he was very good, with great canter transions, and a very willing attitutde. We ended up placing first with a score of 68.75%!

We had almost two hours in between Intro C and Training 1 so I tied Otis back to the trailer and loosend his girth so he could have some hay and water.

I was hoping Otis would still be nice and calm after his long break, and when I got on him to warm up for Training 1, I was happy to find that he was. He was just as good for Training 1 as he was for Intro C. He got a bit strong in one of our transitions from canter down to trot, but his trot to walk transition was much better this time. We were the last to go in the Training 1 division before lunch break, so we didn't have to wait long to find out that we had won with a score of 67.71%.

We ended up improving on our scores in both tests as compared to the June show, and that is always my main goal, to improve my scores. Otis and I are really getting into a partnership at shows and it feels really good to have all of our hard work, sweat, and tears pay off! We only have two more shows in our calendar for this year, a horse trial in a couple of weeks, and the last SMDA of the season on September 15th. I am kind of sad about that... I may have to find more ;-)

Pipestave Horse Trials

Otis and I competed in our first event of the season on July 7th at the Pipestave Hill Horse Trials in West Newbury, MA. We entered the "Grasshopper" two phase division since we have not yet had a chance to school cross country. I really want to do some schooling before we enter another three phase.

We trailered in with my friend Liz who was in the beginner novice division so we got to the show grouds a while before our 11:00 dressage time. It was going to be a super hot day so we parked the horses in a shady spot near some trees and I set Otis up with his hay net and some water.

Otis had never been to this venue before, so I walked him around the grounds a bit and then walked him over to one of the dressage rings to watch Liz and Dreamy perform a lovely test.

Once it was time for us to get ready for dressage I peeled on my breeches, tacked Otis up, and gulped some gatorade. Otis was a bit tense and disctracted in the warm up, but otherwise very well behaved. I walked him over to the dressage ring to wait our turn, and got to see Liz and Dreamy jump their final jump in their cross country round. Otis was very good for our dressage test. He was still a bit disctracted looking at all of the sites and sounds, so it wasn't one of our best tests, but he was very good. We ended up in first place at the end of the dressage round!

We had three hours in between our dressage and the scheduled time for stadium but I noticed they were running about a half hour ahead of schedule so I tacked Otis up early so if we got the chance to jump early we could head home earlier than planned.

He did a pretty huge bunny hop over our first practice fence, but was really good for the rest. It was so hot out, so I didn't want to over do it in the warm up. I told the ring steward we were ready to go, and waited our turn. Otis was awesome for the staduium course. He bunny hopped the first jump, but did the rest of them really well. He was getting a bit crooked in between the fences, but I was able to straighten him out in time to make it over the fences. I think he was just getting really excited everytime he landed that he wasn't really paying attention to where we were going next! I exited the ring with a big smile on my face! What a fun round!

With our clean stadium round we were able to stay in first place and take home a blue ribbon! Despite the heat we had such a fun day, and I am defintely ready to do some more eventing this summer! There is a cross country and stadium schooling day coming up in a couple of weeks at this same venue, so I am hoping to attend that, and hopefully enter a three phase in August!

Otis showing off his ribbon!

Boot Troubles

I am going to venture out of my normal horse show blog posting to share some tips I have found out when you have boot troubles.

The Wednesday before my last horse show the zipper broke on my tall boots. The shoe repair place takes a week to replace a zipper, so I was kind of in a panic! I posted to my Facebook to see if any of my friends had any suggestions for a temporary fix. One of them suggested electrical tape, and even though I was afraid the stickiness might be hard to get off of my boot, it was the best thing I could think of... UNTIL... I thought of black vet wrap!

I bought some black vet wrap at tractor supply and used it to secure by boot around my leg. The only draw back was it was pretty sticky and stuck to my saddle a little to good. It made it hard to properly cue Otis as to what I was asking, so we had a few baubbles at our show. I did find that rubbing a bit of show sheen on the vet wrap help that issue a little bit.

Now that my boots have been dropped off to be repaired, I needed something to ride in while they are gone. The only other boot I have are my western boots. These are pretty much every day shoes for me, but they don't work very well with an english saddle because they are not tall enough, the saddle flap gets stuck in the boot. Enter the least expensive half chaps I could find. They fit over my western boots, and voila.. I have "english" riding boots again! My english spurs even fit on my western boots!

So hopefully this post may be of help to someone that finds themselves in the panic that I found myself in just days before a horse show with broken boots, because there was no way I was going to scratch and lose my entry fee over that! I was prepared to try and do my dressage test with western boots on if I had to..Ha ha!!

Movin' On Up!

Sunday, June 9th was the second show of the season for SMDA at the Hollis Equestrian Park. I entered Otis and I in Into C and Training 1.

Otis was a VERY good boy all day long. He didn't have any naughty moments at all. We went into the warm up ring three or four times through out the day and he never had an issue. I think he is finally starting to realize that it is just easier if he is good ;-)

Otis was awesome in Intro C. He was really paying attention to me and wasn't nearly as tense as he usually is. We had a couple of mistakes that were completely avoidable, but they were 100% my fault. A couple of days beofre the show, the zipper on one of my boots broke, so I used black vet wrap to hold it together. The vet wrap stuck to my saddle so well that I had to keep moving my foot too much to get it unstuck, and Otis mistook this for a cue to do something. When we were going across the diagnal he thought I asked him to canter, so we got a 4 on that movement for having a few canter strides. He also started trotting too soon when we went from walk to trot towards the end of the test. Even with these mistakes we still received a score of 67.5% and a first place ribbon.

Training 1 was next, I was excited and a little bit nervous to finally try Training Level. Otis was again awesome for this test. He took the wrong canter lead in our first canter circle but I corrected him immeidately, so we only got a 4.5 for a score on our first canter. I got a little too worked up I think about making sure I didn't forget my test that I was hurried when asking Otis to do the different movements. Had I calmed down and taken my time we would have done much better. I can't fault Otis for trying to figure out what the heck I wanted, he was just trying to listen and be good. I was a little mad at myself when I left the ring after Training 1, Otis was SO GOOD, and I let him down by getting too nervous and not fully preparing him for what was coming up next, but it was still a good ride and I felt pretty good about our first time doing the test.

When they announced the scores I realized that maybe I had been too hard on myself, we placed first out of five riders with a score of 65.83%. I was so EXCITED! To place first in both tests, one of which we had never done before felt SO GOOD. I think I am going to stick with Intro C and Training 1 for the rest of the season, that way we can really work on each movement, and get really good at each teast and then next year we can do Training 1 and 2, or maybe even 2 and 3 depending on how the rest of the year goes.

Otis and I with our ribbons

Starting the Season off Right!

Sunday May 5th was the first show of the season for Otis and I. We went to the Hollis Equestrian Park for the Southern Maine Dressage Association's first show of 2013.

My goal had originally been to do Training 1 and 2 at this show, but Otis and I had kind of a rocky start to the spring, so I entered Intro B and C instead. The fact that Spring seemed to take FOREVER to arrive gave us a late start getting ready for shows, so I opted to do testes that I am familiar with for our first show.

When I got on Otis to warm up for Intro B he seemed pretty calm for our first show of the year. Last year at our first show, I couldn't even warm him up at all is was so wound up, so I was very happy with this improvemnt. I walked him around the grounds for a bit so he could see the sights, and then headed for the warm up arena. On our way to the warm up a small child ran up behind Otis, which scared him a bit. That combined with some people playing lacrosse down in the cross country course kind of unsettled him a bit. I took him out behind my trailer and rode him around there for a bit and he calmed right down. I am very happy that he is starting to realized that it's okay to be scared, but that it's also possible to recover from being scared and get to work.

I was feeling pretty good when it was our turn for Intro B. The judge rang the bell just after I passed A, so I turned Otis around to head into the arena. Just as we were rounding the corner for A, he spooked at "something" and I thought I might fall off for a split second. Thankfully we were able to pull it together before we passed A and started being judged. Otis was REALLY good for the entire test. He was a little bit tense, and the judge told me I needed to make my circles rounder and less egg shaped, but other wise I was VERY happy with our test. We ended up with 3rd place out of 6 people and a score of 69.38%.

I got some really good canter transitions in the warm up ring before Intro C, so I was feeling pretty good as I entered thing ring. Otis was even better for Intro C. I actually got so excited thinking about how good he was being that I almost forgot my test! I was just trotting along grinning like an idiot, when all of a sudden, I realized... DUH your doing a fricken dressage test..20 meter circle at B!! Luckily I snapped into it just in time, and didn't go off course! As we were heading down the center line to finish our test, Otis tripped just as we were halting and he pulled the reins out of my hands... so not such a great end to a wonderful test, but he tripped, can't fault him for that.  We ended up with 1st place out of 3 people with a 71.5% for that test!! Even with a 5 on our final halt, we got a 71.5!

Needless to say, I decided it was time to try Training level in June. I signed up for Intro C and Training 1 for the June show. I figure Intro C will be a good warm up/relaxer for us before we try Training 1 for the first time.

Wating our turn. He's so cute with his braids.

Our third place ribbon from Intro B

With both of our ribbons

Otis with his fro after I took his braids out! Love it!

I'm Back..

So I had moved my blog over to WordPress becasue they have an iPad app and Blogger did not. Well Blogger has an iPad app now, so I'm back to Blogger :-)

Recap of 2012 and Goals for 2013

I would have to say that 2012 was a great year for Otis and I. We tried a lot of new things, we had a lot of ups and downs, but overall we had a lot of fun! I always say what's the point if your not having fun?!

Otis made a lot of progress during the 2012 show season, he went from acting like a complete crazy horse at the UNH two phase in April, to a perfect gentleman at the September SMDA dressage show (our last show for 2012). Not to say that there weren't some bumps on the way (can't forget him dumping me off in the practice arena at the July SMDA/SPHO dressage show...) but I am really happy with how we have both progressed. I think it is safe to say that we even improved a bit in the stadium phase of eventing. Otis isn't launching himself over the jumps as much, and I think I have improved a tiny bit on my looking down problem.

We even won some year end awards to remember this year by! We received Reserve Champion in Intro Dressage from the Maine Horse Association, Seventh Place in Intro B and Fourth Place in Intro C from the Southern Maine Dressage Association, Third Place in Intro Dressage and an American Paint breed award from the Maine Dressage Society. It was really fun to go to all of the awards banquets and get big pretty ribbons for all of our hard work. ;)

I have a few goals for the 2013 show season. I want to start taking lessons as soon as possible, as I would really like to move up to training level at the SMDA shows this year. I would also like to take some jumping lessons, and do some cross country schooling. I really enjoyed doing the two phases last year, but I am dying to do cross country again. I do however, know that Otis and I both need to gain some confidence before we try another competition.

Our 2012 ribbons displayed on the mantel. To me these ribbons signify that we placed in every class we entered, and did not get eliminated once!  ;-)

These are our 2012 year end awards