Plantation ST - N

I'm giving myself another mental high five for this event, even though--once again--the results don't look all that pretty on paper. I managed to have a really fun time despite coming this close to backing out of the cross country after I'd walked the course because I was pretty sure we were going to die. The wins totally outweighed the fails though, and I got to hang out with some awesome bloggers!

post finish posing with alli and niamh!
had a ton of fun hanging out with these ladies!

Dressage

We ended up running half an hour behind schedule leaving the barn, so when we pulled into the show I only had thirty-ish minutes to grab my packet, get Bobby unwrapped and tacked up, and warm up. And pee. I had to pee so badly. Fortunately, Bobby is turning into an old pro at the showing game and he went right to work.

a grey horse followed hubby into the warm up area and bobby was blown away.
not sure why grey horses are so amazing. 

I had to really work to get him moving forward, but focusing on that in the warm up paid off once we got into the ring. He was moving out while remaining relaxed and focused. We've been working really hard on not anticipating the trot or canter coming out of the free walk and he nailed that. I still let my reins get a little long which is really easy to do when your hands are just hanging out in your lap, but overall it was a  much better test than at Burgundy.

The judge was also feeling the relaxation and energy because she put us in second with our new lowest score of 22.6! She also made a point to lean out of her car window and tell us it was a lovely test afterwards which she didn't do for anyone else. Bobby is just a celeb. He can't help it.

that's what i like to see when picking up my test!

Stadium

I was a nervous wreck before I even got on for the jumping phases, thinking about all the terrifying things in the first half of the cross country course, and I kept trying to think of reasons that would justify me backing out. Bobby didn't let me wallow in self pity though. He was too busy being a serious pest. He was pawing and dancing around until he got yelled at to stand still. Then he played this fun game where he literally tried to climb into the chair with me. When he got yelled at for that, he decided he could just stand there with his knees pressed against mine and played another fun game where he tried to reach everything in sight without moving his legs.

dangling knees, but it doesn't matter when you jump a foot over the rail like a looney

I finally forced myself to get tacked up and right as we walked away from the trailers I spotted Niamh. Perfect timing! She walked up to the warm up with me, and I was too busy talking to her to vomit all over. So that was good.

As soon as we hit the warm up ring, Bobby started jigging so I just sent him right off to the trot. We did a lap each way before picking up the "canter" and bombing around at mach speed for a bit.

much thanks to niamh for snapping some pics of us!

Hubby wanted me to try to wear him out some more, but I was more concerned about my legs having enough juice left to get around the long, hilly cross country course than trying to get the crazies out. I'm a weakling, I won't lie.

fence one, photo by niamh

Plantation's stadium ring is massive, so despite Bobby's typical freight train behavior, I actually wasn't too worried about getting him settled between fences. We laid down probably one of our best stadium rounds to date. Yes, he pulled me to every fence, but he let himself be mostly rated between jumps, and he didn't lock onto to jumps between lines in a rude way.

Rails were dropping left and right in every division, and we did pull one when Bobby rapped it with a hind foot.

into the double

from another angle, by niamh

out of the double, also by niamh

I also had one total blonde/didn't walk the course moment where I was watching the riders before me come into one of the outside lines head-on from the warm up. It looked like they were coming in crooked and I was all, "What are you guys doing?!" Then, about three strides out coming up to that line, I realized the first fence was set up as a sharp bending line. I already had Bobby lined up to take the line straight over both jumps so we just angled that bitch and he jumped it like an old pro.

we do what we want.

Cross Country

Dudes, this course was legit. The first two jumps? Psh. Nothing. The third was the first of three benches on course (HATE. BENCHES.) with a downhill landing into the woods where the ground was torn to shreds from probably a hundred horses going over it Saturday. We survived that, fence four was nothing, and then the fifth was the jump into oblivion back into the woods.

out of the faux sunken road

Bobby's brakes failed for the first time after four, and while he finally deigned to come back to the trot to approach five, he jumped in big before seeing in midair that the landing was on a steep downhill and he carefully put down the landing gear and easily got us down without trouble. I was just happy to be alive, but what I thought was the scariest jump on course was right ahead.

It was our second bench (HATE. THEM.) straight to a big drop. Now Bobby's pretty sane about drops, and I'm starting not to mind them because of this, but running at the base of this drop was a water filled ditch. I had visions of Bobby refusing, or catapulting off to clear the ditch and me catapulting into the air. I managed to wrangle him back into the trot right before the drop, and he happily started to slither down when he noticed the water. He adjusted to jump clear of it without fuss before carrying on.

I was so pumped I'd survived that I blanked for a second and forgot where we were supposed to go after the up bank. We had a disagreement about the distance to the produce stand, but made it over. Bobby took a look coming up to the steeplechase fence, and I got a little too gung ho and had him take the long spot which resulted in an awkward jump.

The sunken road rode perfectly, and then we had our first real problem approaching the final bench. You had to come off of a really sharp turn to line up to it, and Bobby was on racehorse cruise control. I had zero brakes and zero steering. After a Come to Jesus, I got him reorganized and lined up and headed off to the water.

The water was a tiny fake trakehner with a stride before entering the water. Bobby gave me the finger and ran out twice before I was able to bully him over it from a standstill. He went into the water fine, but I think he just got overwhelmed with the thought of jumping into it. I have complete faith that with one schooling through water, he'll be right back to giving zero fucks about it. He just hasn't had a chance to school it in a full year, and we no longer have access to the trails that take us to the creek to play in water every day like we did last summer.

Now for the helmet cam! Be sure to keep your speakers low as this one is filled with yelling and cursing and much whooping.

When we were done, Bobby had a prance back to the trailer with his head cranked around, dragging me along and walking Niamh into parked vehicles as he celebrated his return to being a nutty racehorse that also got to do the jumping. Niamh gave him his special ordered Mountain Dew while I sponged him off. The two stops on cross country dropped us from second to out of the ribbons, but fucking A--we finished with a number, not a letter!

We hung out and talked ponies for awhile before Alli and her friends joined us, and we talked ponies some more. And also how benches are THE WORST EVER.

Behind the scenes fail pics at trying to get Bobby to pose:

"oh hey new best friends. what's going on here?"

peppermint wrappers didn't produce forward ears.
waving arms were waaay more interesting.

The biggest takeaway of the day is that Bobby has lost his hackamore privileges. I'll still school him at home in it, but I just can't control him at shows in it anymore. As Niamh pointed out, we went from being too slow to being to cray. Time to find that happy medium!

RtR Blog Hop: Very Superstitious

A great blog hop from Racing to Ride on exposing how horse people are even bigger nutters than the rest of the world already thought we were!

if every upturned horse shoe was lucky, bobby would have had
the best. year. ever. last year. he left a trail of shoes behind him!

What superstitions do you have when it comes to your horses, riding, and/or showing? Do you have any good luck items/charms? 

Like Jodi, I second the name change superstition. I've only ever owned OTTBs, and none of them have had truly awful names so this hasn't been hard to do. That said, Bobby's Jockey Club name is not the same as his USEA name. He's JC registered as Mightybobbymagee in an ode to his sire Mighty Magee. His show name is shortened to simply Bobby Magee as he was intended to be named until our Thoroughbred boss at school added the "Mighty" to...try to suss up business for our old, bat shit crazy stallion when Bobby went to the Derby? That's as far as I'll ever take name changes though. 

the face of a future champion?
clearly.

I'm not big on changing barn names either, and it makes me a little squirrely when girls at the barn assign names to new horses that come in. (S)he has a name! (S)he doesn't need your stupid one! The one (s)he has is stupid enough already! >twitch<

As far as good luck items, I don't really know if I'd consider them good luck, but they go with me in my show box to every show. One is a thinly braided bracelet of Red's tail hair because, well, Red Pony. He was the best. I know he's always there cheering Bobby on when things start going south. There was nothing Red Pony loved more than a good tantrum. 

The other is a pair of bandage pins. They just hang out at the bottom of my box, doing nothing but very slowly rusting. And there they will remain for eternity, and it's one of those weird things I won't even begin to explain.

bandage pins, tail hair, one seriously stained collar that can probably be tossed,
bell boots that i no longer need, pinny holder, and a lot of hay. someone should
clean this filthy thing out.

That's about it for superstitions. I do have a couple of random habits/routines like pushing down my helmet before I leave the start box. The more times I do it, the more nervous I am. I'm not sure I think that accomplishes, but there you go.

Riding without spurs

I failed to mention that last week at our gaming show, I snapped one of my spurs in half. Now you may be thinking, "What in the holy fuck did you have to do accomplish that? Are Bobby's insides spilling out of the hole in barrel?" But really, they were cheap plastic POW spurs I've been riding in almost daily for the past ten-ish years. That they've lasted this long is amazing.

However, that still leaves me without any pokes on my boots, and while Bobby may have moments of raging lunatic he's mostly a plug--especially on the flat. With one of the goals this month being an increase in impulsion and general forwardness, the lack of my little helpers is apparent.

"yes, hello. enough with the pictures. there are cookies to be had."

"these cookies here. i need them. all of them."

He warms up peppy and in front of my leg. After we take a little walk break, I start to ask him to come up a little more and really put his tush to work. That's when he begins to alternate between "Can't do it" and "I can always go one gait faster than you want me to!"

Me: Okay, time to pick up the reins and see if we can push this walk out more.

Bobby: Oh, thank god. Time for trotting. Things were getting so boring.

Me: No, Bobby. We need to work on a bigger, more relaxed walk.

Bobby: UGH. FINE. I'll walk.

Me: Right, but gnashing at your bit isn't really relaxed.

Bobby: What if I do chin touches to my chest?

Me: Yeah, no. Also not indicative of relaxation.

Bobby: What if I do both at the same time?

Me: Just fucking trot already.

Bobby: Ughhhhhh, my butt is soooo tireddddd.

Me: Please. Please trot like I know you're capable of doing.

Bobby: I....can't.....even.....

Me: Will you wake up with a canter? Bobby? Hello? Did you not feel my legs?

Bobby: What now?

Me: My legs! The legs that are pressed against your fat sides with everything they're worth! Holy fuck, canter!

Bobby: Oh, geeze. So they are. Alright, I guess I can canter a bit.

Me: Alright, let's try the trot again.

Bobby: CANTER. CANTER ALL THINGS. CANTER YOU INTO THE WALL. CANTER IN THE WALK. CANTER IN THE TROT. CANTER IN THE--HOLY SHIT THERE WAS JUST A PERSON WALKING DOWN THE DRIVEWAY!!!!!!!!!

Me: Remember when we did this fun exercise called bending around my inside leg doing a 20m circle to the right? Let's do that. At the walk.

Bobby: Back to bit chomping and neck curling. Good idea. That's my favorite go-to exercise, too.

I swear I have the most schizophrenic horse on the planet. It's like I get to ride a different horse not only every day, but every five minutes. 

Blah blah

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I've been all, "I'm going to write a post about something!!" and then two seconds later, I don't even know what day of the week it is or what the hell I would write a post about.

But there have been so many things happening, and before you get too excited, not a single one of them is interesting. Well, unless you're going to count that my birthday was Monday and when I opened the mail box I got all the things. My One Horse shirt, my Higher Standards soap and conditioner, and three birthday cards with birthday monies!

I'm planning on prancing around Plantation in my new shirt so you'll just have to wait for the weekend for pictures of that fanciness, but I did do a full assault on my tack with my new leather cleaner. Of course, I did the worst job documenting before and after pictures, but I will give a brief rundown of my thoughts.

first of all, it's pig dog taste test approved.
second of all, don't let your dogs eat soap. she wanted to smell it, and immediately started licking it.
there's a reason she ends up at the vet so often. 

I ordered the Vanilla Lavender smellums, and while you can definitely smell the lavender (and no vanilla), it's not overpowering. It's not a super lathery type of cleaner which means you're not forever wiping excess soap off as you go. You also don't need to use a lot which is perfect because I'm cheap and want things to last forever.

I'd wiped down my jump tack of all the dried on sweat from my last show before I'd gotten this soap, but I went over it again when it came. While it didn't make my tack magically glow after use, it did remove a fair amount of dirt that I hadn't even noticed was on there.

My jump saddle, however....

it was legit shiny!

After a good scrub with the soap (my saddle was filthy) and a coat of conditioner, it looked the best it's ever looked since before I even bought it off of O. So pretty!

The soap stayed in my locker at the barn for every day use while the conditioner came home with my for show use. Much thanks to Karen for hosting the contest!

In other news, Bobby has shifted his sneaky "I'm a little off....but only for one stride....no, I'm not off at all...okay, maybe for a second...." from his RF foot to his LF. Last time it turned out to be an abscess, so that's half how I'm treating it now, and half as general foot soreness. He has gotten no feel good candy at all this time around because Plantation is a more intense course, and the show jumping isn't on grass. I don't want to mask any unevenness only to get down there and have him be uncomfortable.

buttercup head surveys his territory.

He is getting ridden in the meantime. He's not lame, and he goes to work with a happy attitude. On Monday we had an easy dressage school in the outdoor, Tuesday he had off (but still got his foot soaked), and today we did another jump school around the same course from Sunday.

I'd knocked everything up to 3' to get us in the mood for this weekend, and Bobby responded by also ramping up his speed demon side. He was getting the distances, but in that semi-awkward in-between stage where it's not exactly the right spot, but it's not wrong either. It was throwing me off a bit, and while I was able to focus on the next jump, it was more my memory kicking in and knowing where to turn than actual preparation.

It's frustrating when surviving a course seems like a win. I want the course to ride smoothly and easily, not like a jumper course. But that's essentially what a stadium course is. If I want a hunter round, I need to buy a hunter horse. Bobby doesn't do slow and steady. Bobby also goes no matter what, and he doesn't pull rails. I have to appreciate what I have and stop being pouty that it's not perfect.

perfectly giant and awkward, always!

And finally, to wrap up this rambling post, I've had three different people at the barn tell me to think about putting shoes back on Bobby. To which my immediate response is "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

How many months did this horse sit on the sidelines doing nothing to get him barefoot? I'm not throwing away all that hard work and how much his hooves have changed for the better to have him be sound on piles of shale for a week before he rips a shoe off and starts the whole downward spiral again.

This is his first spring and going into his first summer of being barefoot. His little tootsies have to adjust to the harder ground. He's not uncomfortable in the arenas or on grass, and he's in solid work. He'll get to the point again where he can trot up and down the driveway without taking the occasional ouchy step on the gravel.

At least that's what I keep telling myself. Trying not be a defeatist here.

Oh, you know. Just being hunters.

HA.

We are not hunters. Bobby and I played a little game called "Will Bobby lose his shit jumping in a bit since Carly left all her jump tack at home?" And then I added on to that with "Let's go ahead and put a standing martingale on to match this fancy stitch snaffle bridle, and we'll call you a hunter horse for blogging purposes."

But mostly it was just that I forgot my jump tack at home.

not coming to a hunter show near you.

Bobby put in a very good dressage school Saturday, and he was forward and relaxed while flatting Sunday. I went into the ride fully prepared to quit after one jump if Bobby showed any indication of being put off by the bit. However, he didn't seem to mind it, only getting a little fussy in the mouth between fences.

We warmed up with a 2'9" oxer a couple times, and then added in a 2' vertical on the diagonal out of the corner.

maybe it was 3'? didn't look massive in any case.

I actually shamelessly stole a course from Pony'tude (Direct link to said course that was stolen. Thanks, Alli! :P)

We jumped two or three more fences on their own before running through the whole course.

Bobby jumped around supremely calmly (for him), and I actually managed to keep my shit together the entire time. Doing course work is so important for me because my main issue lies with not being able to move on from one jump to the next. I have to ingrain it in my head that I have to ride the entire course and one bad jump isn't going to kill me...unless I get hung up on it and stop riding the rest of the jumps.

the two stride was set very low (like maybe 2'3")....

...which was obvi a good reason to just go flying through it. 

The turns were just tricky enough not to cause panic, but to definitely have to think about how to ride them. If I can make my fucking brain relax at shows--and, also, make my horse relax--stadium will not be such a cluster.

Stupid brain.

We did the course one more time for video's sake:

And then called it quits after that since he was such a very good pony britches.

I won't be getting rid of my hackamore anytime soon, but I was really happy that he's finally trusting me enough now not to whack him in the mouth that he went around in his dressage bit.

May Review, June Goals

May goals recap:

1. Don't ride differently at shows than at home. With the stipulation that I could ride differently if it was for the better, this is an easy one to cross off. I rode cross country better than what I school over our little jumps at home, and I stayed focused in the dressage. Stadium? Well, that's not very good at shows or at home.

2. Improve the sitting trot. Much better. Still need to work on my own fitness to go for longer periods of time, but I no longer feel like I'm a swinging, bouncing moron. The new dressage saddle was a massive help.

3. Plan June shows. Plantation on the 8th, another dressage show on the 21st. Just a reminder that all scheduled shows and show recaps can be found on the sidebar to your right.

4. Drive the truck and trailer myself. Like. A. Boss.

so fit and shiny.

June goals:

1. Push for a more active, engaged trot and canter during tests. I've gotten at least one "flat" or "quiet" (and not in a good way) comment on every single one of my dressage tests so far this year. I know Bobby's capable of adding some "bounce per ounce" as Sally O'Connor would say, but I let him get away with being a slug in tests because I'm so happy he's not throwing a temper tantrum. 

2. Be aggressive with leg yields. Also on the "don't incite a Bobby riot" train, I'll get one or two straight, correct leg yields out of Bobby and quit. Then I get to a show and he magically forgets how to do them. I know he can score well on these if I force us both to ride them for real. 

3. Be more present when jumping. Last event for awhile in a week, and I'd like to not put in a stadium round where I'm not sure we're going to stay in the arena. I just have to force myself to move on from one jump to the next, and make instant fixes. So. Hard. Sooooooo hardddddddddddddd.

4. Buy things!! Ha, who doesn't love putting that on a goal list? I need new tall boots, and my birthday is the second of this month. 

WRC Gaming Show

A summation right off the bat:

We came. We saw. We conquered.

Or, in horse show terms....

I got the trailer turned around without taking down any important buildings. Bobby finally got in touch with his ex-racehorse side. We took home all the ribbons.

"you finally tied me loose enough to graze, and now you want me to pose?
there better actually be a peppermint in that wrapper you're crinkling."

I'm so glad I ended up going last night. I was kind of bumming myself out that nobody would go with me, and was like, "Meh, maybe I just won't go either." But then I was like, "Fuck all you bitches, I want to go play fun games and this is only costing me $50 between gas and entry fees." So I got the trailer hooked up, Bobby once more dragged me to the trailer and walked right on (Is there anything better than a horse that self loads? No. There isn't.), and I made the hour trip up to Williamsport all by my lonesome--while silently applauding myself for not dying on my first solo trailering  adventure. Eventually the novelty will wear off, I'm sure, but it still makes me do a little grown up horse girl dance.

I got there with about forty five minutes before the show started, and once I got my number, I took Bobby for a brief spin around the arena to stretch his legs. He couldn't have cared less, and ambled around on a loose rein until we got back to the trailer where he spotted two riders racing their horses back and forth in the parking area.

"what are they doing?!"

He watched them with a lot of interest while alternately eating his hay and seeing if he could mooch as much trail mix off of me as the dogs were. Does any of this rambling have a point? Psh, just trying to brag about how I have the best show horse ever. Haters gonna hate.

"cookies for me too?"

Okay, enough bullshit. Let's get some recaps going on here.

Pole Bending

Bobby ended up getting no poles practice. Surprise! I'd done poles before with Red so it wasn't like we were both going in blind, but I wasn't expecting much. There were only 3-5 people in the youth divisions, so I figured we'd be coming home with a ribbon regardless of how poorly we did. Then the announcer called for riders from the Adult division to get to the gate, and this herd of horses started pouring in. I ended up with about 15 riders in my division which quickly put a damper on ribbon hopes.

However, Bobby apparently has this hidden gaming side to him where he picked up on the technique right away. Every time I shifted my body to swing in and out of the poles, he'd swap up front to keep himself balanced. He hugged the turns at both ends, and while he did his customary hind end stall out while it got caught up, he set right off again once he was straight.

Total rock star. It doesn't look like much from the helmet cam perspective, and I really wish I'd had someone there to video, but at least it's something. And, though the speed doesn't carry over either, we were good enough for sixth out of some legit gymkhana horses. His great big body might not be the best for tight turns, but his great big stride can lay it out when asked.

Keyhole

This was the one event out of the three we did where I was confident we'd sneak into the ribbons. All I had to do was actually ask Bobby to go as fast as he's capable of in such a short stretch and we'd match the speed of the other horses. I flubbed the turn a bit, getting a little cocky and not slowing him down enough just before the cones, but he went fast enough to get a fourth.

Barrels

This was the biggest class of the night with people coming in just to run the barrels. If Bobby can keep his back end up to pace with his front end, he's capable of being really competitive, but he's not there yet. I also miscalculated how far out we were at the start--as you can see by the other horses tracks in the video--and my path to the first barrel was out wider than everyone else's. Between that and the extra second for Bobby's other half playing catch up around the turns, I didn't think we'd get into the top six.

I took him back to the trailer after he got pets from his fan club who recognized him from the dressage show earlier this month, got him untacked, loaded up my stuff, and went up to the office to hand my number back. Just as I was about to go in, they announced the results. One Bobby Magee snagged another ribbon! I was so proud of the dude. He was a total boss in the ring, then calmly stood there with a hind leg cocked watching the other horses go the rest of the time.

Srsly. Best pony ever. Where's the next gaming show?

Also, while picking his feet out this morning, I found an abscess hole in his RF! That explains the occasional ouchiness he'd had last week, and why he suddenly felt sound again with all the soaking and wrapping. I didn't even notice it pop. He'll get the next few days off to let it close and toughen back up again, then he's in event horse boot camp for Plantation next weekend.

Bobby Magee. Doing all the things.