WFL Open Horse Show

Look at us, we went to a second horse show this year!

you can take us out of the dressage court,
but you can't take our white breeches

There's a local open show series that management decided to quit on last year, but one of my former barn mates rallied to take up the helm and keep it going this year. We weren't able to make the first one because we were at Houghton (sooo busy showing this year, look out!), but we really wanted to support her efforts so myself and two others from my barn made the point to attend this one. 

Even though we had no idea what we were doing.

me: hello, nice lady. "quarters" has been explained to me 100x and
i still have no idea how to do them
opie: hiiiiii, would you like to give me some scritchies?

This was an english/western show, which means it was not a hunter show, which means our dressage tack and apparel were thankfully acceptable. Because while I have a single pair of tan breeches stashed somewhere in my house, that's the extent of anything hunter I own anymore. We only knew this because we checked with our friend, DS.

DS gave us our showmanship clinic over the spring, and she was generous enough to come over during her lunch break last week to give the three of us a crash course in how the show was going to run for our classes. Thank fucking god, because it was a lot more crashing than coursing. THERE ARE SO MANY RULES TO SHOWMANSHIP. Like, she gave us the absolute bare minimum to not embarass ourselves and it was just the tip of the iceburg.

here i am not carrying my lunch tray and not looking up

We entered the entire Open division. Our first class was conformation, which when explained sounded very easy. Walk to the judge, and then trot around the ring to your spot in line-up where you wait for the judge to come and inspect your horse.

how i should have stood him for the judge

how i did stand him for the judge, looking much more awkward

Out of 8, Opie didn't place at all in this class. She definitely liked the Quarter Horses and that western-type build, but I didn't help his cause any.

Our second class was showmanship where we had to do the world's simplest pattern. We ran through it three times a piece with DS on Wednesday and while I felt better about it, it was not coming naturally to me lol. She told us we needed to carry our hands like we were holding a lunch tray, no touching the horse, walk towards their shoulder to back (lining up their RH with the judge's left shoulder), walk towards their jaw to pivot, to look at the judge as we approached her, feet at a 45 degree angle to the horse's shoulder, never be in the same quarter of your horse as the judge, AND ON AND ON AND THOSE WERE THE BARE BONES BASICS. 

We didn't place in this class either. I don't think I did the quarters right and Opie was super wiggly this time trying to get him to stand up so I finally just called it when he was close enough so as not to waste the judge's time.

We had a long break before our riding classes. Opie was fucking feral once I got on and we had a nice long trot in the grass field before they opened the ring for warm up.

and then we had a nice long canter

The first class was Command, and if you thought we knew what that meant you are wrong. Fortunately DS was around to continue helping us, and she cheerily informed us that it was like a game of Simon Says--but listen closely because if the judge says to sidepass off the rail, don't sidepass back because that might be your next command. To which we said, "Sidepass?? Wtf kind of class is this?!"

It ended up feeling more like an equitation flat class. We got asked to do an extended trot each way, and to halt and back our horses and then trot out of the halt. 

yeah we crushed that

Opie was a lot more settled at this point and while he has twice the stride length and cruises around naturally more forward than every other horse in the ring, he was not in a racing mood which was a delight. He was a gem for this class and got second behind the horse that ended up being champion for the division. 

The second riding class was Pleasure which was a simple w/t/c each way. The judge wanted heads on the ground with long, low necks, but I kept Opie in his dressage frame because that's what he was happy with and I wasn't going to mess with it. We were here to support, not win things! He was otherwise perfectly pleasurable, and we ended up 4th out of 7. 

cute, but not a pleasure frame

The final class was equitation which is what we thought the command class was going to be. Surprise, it was actually another pattern we had to do. DS walked and talked us through it until we knew it like the back of our hands--which we should have because it was very easy.

Hi, I'm here to tell you I still did not remember it!

i'm just here for a good time, not for a winning time lolol

We started at A. Backed one horse length and then walked back up to A where we trotted off in sitting trot. Halfway down the ring, turn right and do a small circle in posting trot. Turn left and canter a larger circle. Trot down the rest of the length of the ring on the right posting diagonal. 

We did the first part. The sitting trot was, uh...not our finest work. And then I forgot to go into the rising trot. Our canter transition was shitty, and then I have no idea what diagonal I posted off on. #notaprofessional We placed 6th. Out of 6. 

is good at trotting around on the rail tho

Overall it was super fun. Our three horses were annoyingly attached to each other the entire time, but we stayed together pretty much the entire time so it wasn't the worst thing in the world. But the competitors were all absolutely wonderful and DS and her staff ran everything flawlessly. They ended up with a great turnout so very promising for them for next year!

Timing

Oh, hey, welcome back. The entire month of August was booked and busy, but I still have two lessons to recap!

Lesson 1:

This was a follow up to the last lesson I wrote about where we touched on the changes for two seconds at the end--except this time the entire focus was changes. 

For the l-r, the main theme was patience. It's easier for me to get him straight and forward this direction, so I just need to put the aids on and wait. It's okay if he buffers for a few strides and has to process what I'm asking. As long as he stays straight and quiet, I'm not allowed to panic and start doing weird things with my body in an attempt to throw him onto the new lead. 

For the r-l, things took significantly more brain cells on my part. For instance, what is straightness? Don't ask me, that's for sure! I kept arguing with MB that I felt like Opie was bent into a C shape to the right as we came across the diagonal, and she kept insisting that this was false. Either way, I didn't feel like I had a single stride where I could fairly ask for a change so I would turn him back to the right before we got to the end of the ring and come around again. And again. 

We eventually decided on a putting a pole on the diagonal so I had a straight line visual. Aim for the pole, aim to be as straight as the pole as we ride alongside it, and then use that straightness to ask for the change. This did help with getting the feel of straightness on my end. It didn't help eliminate the weird karate chop that he does with his front leg in the change. 

MB wanted me to try asking with my left leg instead of my right. That way the right leg got to stay on 100% of the time because Opie's most favorite thing is getting me to take my right leg off. It took awhile to get the canter built back up to big and jumpy enough, but we went in with the new plan and...he actually changed half a stride early behind, but! The front end did nothing weird! So we ended right there, that was a big win for him. 

Overall a 10/10 lesson. A lot of troubleshooting, but for the first time it felt like a horse learning changes instead of a horse panicking and guessing about everything and flinging his body everywhere instead of giving us the chance to help him. 

has been doing a lot of hard work building his grass belly

In between that lesson and the one yesterday, we've been doing actual fitness work (because he's been sound and coordinated enough to motor on out on the trails in both the trot and canter!), but mostly a lot of work on the basics. 

We spent one whole ride working on bringing back our perfect halts because the EPM has really fucked with the RH. He's most comfortable with it parked underneath himself/in front of the LH. Standing square genuinely got hard for him even just out and about in the wild. I've done a ton of posture work--and obviously strength work--and it's improved when he's not under saddle, but we still have work to do. 

The RH has also gotten worse from the EPM as far as how he travels in general. From his conformation he's always brought it under his midline too far, but now--unless he's walking 2mph--it's waaay under there. To the point he has to be ridden in a pastern wrap or he hits himself so hard he starts bleeding. My farrier has done what she can to keep everything rounded off, but it's definitely a mechanical thing. Every step is thinking, "Can I push the RH out even more?"

I did one more ride on the changes by myself with one change asked for each way. The l-r was a stride late behind, but straight and patient and had good jump so that's a win for where we're at right now. The r-l was straight and way less weird than usual so also a win! Mostly I've been working on the transitions in and out of the walk from the canter. In the up, don't hang, but don't chuck the contact away either. In the down, patience again (clearly not a virtue Opie or I naturally come by). It's okay if it takes three-plus strides of collecting the canter before the walk transition comes. Better that than being like, "We transition down NOW" and then it just pukes into the earth. 

Lesson 2:

I had MB ride Opie for this lesson. I got back from vacation on Monday and Opie decided my right leg is actually fine, it's my left leg that he has no interest in. I was able to bully him through that a little bit and ended on a good note. The next ride was good, but then Wednesday's ride was A Thing. 

My original plan was to work hard on the trot because we've been doing so much work on the canter lately. Once I got on, he was super stuck in the shoulders, so the ride developed into loosening his front end up. At the walk. With a lot of following a big open left rein around like a 2yo. 

The frustrating thing was, he did everything right. And it made him so upset. Every exercise I asked for, he was bang on. I'd go to tell him what a good boy he was and before I could finish he'd be like, "I HATE IT IT'S HORRIBLE!!!" Like, bro, what is horrible? Doing a good job and getting praised? It's not computing. I got stuck in this cycle of, "Let's try this exercise. Wow, you did great! Ope okay doing great and releasing just made you mad and lock up again. Let's try this exercise now. Okay, so good! Ope, nevermind." 

I ended up getting off and sticking him on the longe for a quick spin just to have somewhere to end because I didn't have a solution. Thus MB doing the ride in hopes she could figure him out a little better. 

Her theory was that he's so used to working with tension that he would freak himself out letting go and didn't know how to do the work without that as his safety blanket. She also called him a contrarian which is an incredibly apt description of this horse. He'd really rather explore his options and ideas first before trying yours. You can get him on your side, but there's a lot of negotiating to get there. 

I got the report that he felt sore in his right neck and shoulder from our PEMF lady which explains the resistance to stretch his neck around to the left, and both MB and I felt that as well under saddle, so he's going to see our massage lady Monday to hopefully release anything he's got going on there. 

swamp ass of the head

In the meantime, his other main focus is on not melting all his hair off. The humidity this summer has been next level and everyone's bodies are over it. Opie is now sans fly mask and hind fly boots because the sweat is leaving rubs. He got a rub from his saddle pad and the reins yesterday. The day before I left a big spur rub on him which I've never ever done before. I swear he's at the point if I look at him wrong his hair falls off. Yay for light colored thoroughbreds.