Heart of Texas Working Equitation Show 2/11/17 - Sort of!

Last weekend was the first Heart of Texas WE series show. There are four or five of these shows, three or four of which (can't remember....!) need to be shown in in order to gain points for year end awards. I planned on showing in all of them that I could, as I wanted to qualify for year end awards. I couldn't secure a pet sitter for the weekend, and Future Hubs couldn't be home either, so I decided I would just trailer in and out. The show was held near Waco, which is not quite two hours from here. It wasn't too big of a deal to trailer in and out.

On Friday, I went for a pre-show hack around the neighborhood. I wanted to put a fly bonnet on Dylan, which I usually don't do - the new rulebook states that fly bonnets are legal now, as long as they are checked by the steward. I love this, as I don't have to mess with a forelock braid or hairy ears. I prefer ears to stay hairy but I love the clean look of clipped ears - this is my compromise, everywhere I can do it. Dylan was sort of shocked by this new addition, and spent a few minutes with his face crinkled up and ears flat out.

Hooman WTF you do to me

At some point he realized I had not pinned his ears to his head, and perked up.

He's a weirdo. That's all there is to that!

On Saturday, my ride time for dressage wasn't until 2:20. EOH and Speed were being held on Sunday, and dressage and the course walk were on Saturday. I had everything prepped and ready to roll by Friday night, and it was nice to actually sort of sleep in for a second on Friday. On Saturday, I bathed and braided Dylan without any particular rush. I am still horrible at running braids, much to my dismay. There is a video going around showing how to do buttons on a long maned horse, and I tired it on Dylan - total failure. His mane is too scraggly and thin and short to make it work. I braided and rebraided the running braid a few times, sprayed it with enough hairspray to create my own hole in the o-zone, and then headed out, making really excellent time on our way to the showgrounds. Once there, Dylan was super chilled out, content to nap and hang out tied to the trailer. Sometimes he can really be hot and spicy at a new place - perhaps I just trailer him enough that he no longer thinks much of this? But, he trailered a ton with K too, so who knows. Perhaps he was just in a good mood that day. 

Zzzzzz

I've had trouble at the last two shows with my relaxation. Dylan hears the dressage bell and he jerks to life. He can get so hot and so strong that it's hard to keep him relaxed in a test where you canter in, halt, and then go right into a bunch of walk work. He expects to trot or canter away again, and he's not keen on keeping it under wraps. My goal at this show was to keep him mellow, which I think I've more or less figured out by now. 

He did not disappoint. He was so mellow during our warmup that I actually was glad when the steward came over and asked if we would like to go early. He stopped dead and held still in his first halt, which was amazing - then he stopped again after I had asked him to walk and he considered trotting off. That first transition out of the halt obviously didn't score well, but after that he walked off relatively quietly, while still keeping his walk pure. He scored a solid lot of 6.5s for all his walk work, which was impressive considering how poorly they went the last two times. I need to focus on keeping his shoulders first, as he prefers to lead with his haunches in his lateral work, which is not correct. His trotwork scored some 7s and 6s (haunches leading in lateral work again), then his canter work did the same. There are three flying changes in this test - the first two we scored 6s, the second he completely botched, changed twice, cross cantered, flailed, and did I don't even know what. I think he had jammed my left leg hard during the change right before it, and as such I just didn't have him set up before the following change. I also forgot where I was supposed to halt - it was at G, but I couldn't remember if it was at X or G - so I sort of just slammed to a halt somewhere between the two without a lot of preparation. Ooops.

If I can get a few movements to be a bit smoother, we will score better and better every time. As it was, this was the quietest and most accurate test we have had so far. 

Foooooooof

I'm super disappointed that I didn't get to go to the second day. The EOH course looked fun, albeit a bit cramped in that arena. But oh well, I got a baby horse out of it so that's okay! March has two FEH shows for Pax, which I will write about shortly, and one regular dressage show for Dylan!

Deathstorm Season is Here

Texas Deathstorm Season has arrived here in earnest this year, and early. Last week I had all sorts of blogging plans, yard plans, riding/driving plans.... aaaaaand then it rained solidly for a week and a half. Literally every day it poured and/or stormed. We had 5 tornados last week, and then another one this morning. Trust me, getting jarred awake at 6:15AM on your only day off because of the tornado alarm isn't really a fun way to wake up. Not to mention the fact that crappy satellite internet dies every time it rains two drops, so I've not been able to do anything important like blogging or, you know, taxes or silly things like that. 

Instead, I rode. I rode the pants off Dylan last week, I rode all week long and it was awesome.

Since my pastures are basically underwater at the moment with all the rain, I've been trailering to WD a lot. Last week in particular, we worked on trying to put together the dressage tests for Novice and Intermediate working equitation. I feel like I am actually starting to look like I belong on a real horse instead of a carousel one now... like my body is FINALLY starting to cooperate. I am finally starting to be able to sit the trot again without feeling like my ankle is going to break in half, our changes are coming much cleaner (since I am better able to sit them in all their enormity). The Intermediate tests have walk half pass, leg yields at the trot, flying changes and simple changes through the walk at the canter, and circles of varying sizes - all things we are capable of. Now it just needs finesse. 

I've been seeing my physiotherapist about every two weeks, which is expensive but effective. It's a slow process, but I am starting to feel like my body is actually working properly, and riding has become a lot less painful.

The first WE show around here is in mid-April at the Texas Rose Horse Park. It's just a schooling show, but the following weekend has a B-rated show somewhere else. That's not very far away! Entries for the first schooling show close on March 28th, so now I am left with deciding which division I want to choose. I need more practice with the obstacles, which will require either building them or seeing if I can trailer out to use some of them. I think it's perfectly doable to build several of my own things - putting down sidepass poles and the like will be super easy, and it won't be that hard to construct a gate, a barrel with a garrocha, a table with a jug of water.... etc. It's just finding the time to do these things which is proving to be difficult. Hell, I barely have time to blog much less do anything else! 

Muddy beast

It's been Hormone Acres over at my house this week. The mares are in heat, so Dylan is naturally going absolutely bonkers about it. He's back to stalking the fence and screaming instead of eating, which is driving me insane. He's dropped a bunch of weight in an extremely short amount of time, so I had to triple his feed in order to try and get ahead of it. I totally get why he was shut up in a stall all the time - because he literally does walk the weight right off of himself when he's in that kind of a mood.

Looking suddenly more svelte today, although the angle of this photo thankfully hides it for the most part. Shall we name it Fencewalking Fit?

To make matters worse, not only has it been pouring rain (which means I've been unable to work O at all), but yesterday O scraped up one of her back legs doing god knows what. She's in blazing, roaring, flaming heat, which also means she has been on a hunger strike (she literally can't function like a normal horse when she is hormonal). The scrape on the leg exploded today into a HUGE fat sausage leg, which is blazingly hot and super tender. Aaaaaaand we have a show on Saturday. Naturally, right? It figures. 

Are you kidding me

I'm about 50-50 on the fence about scratching from the show. She's not lame, and the only reason the leg is huge is because this is exactly what happens EVERY time she gets the most minor scrape or cut. I'm convinced this poor mare is made of paper and glass, seriously. A lot of the marks you see on the leg are old scars from previous small injuries, but you can definitely see the fresh ones. BUT, Sunrise Ridge is only two weeks away, and that's a big and important show. I don't know if I want to risk taking her, but I also feel like if I don't take her we will never get a really good warmup before the show. This small show was meant to be a warmup! Just like last year, I feel in no way prepared for Sunrise Ridge. Same as last year, she has scraped her leg up this month and given herself a fat leg, and had to have time off. Same as last year, it's been pouring and I've been unable to work her at all. It feels like deja-vu all over again!

I have a few things left to prep for Sunrise Ridge. My ear bonnet isn't finished yet, although it should be soon. I need to find an appropriate colored polo shirt for myself and for B2, who is navigating for me. I have gloves ordered that aren't in yet, and I also have ordered a wicket basket that is supposed to 'dress up' the carriage a little bit for dressage and cones (and also carry my spares). 

I have more to write about all of it but as usual I should really be in bed instead of sitting up writing! I have a full day of work tomorrow - really, really super full - and then when I get home I have to decide about the show. If I am going, then I'll need to stay up late trimming O, unloading my truck box, winching the carriage in, cleaning harness, cleaning horse.... then leaving my house at about 4am on Saturday to get to the show. It sounds a bit less fun when I write it out like that...! 

Oye. Between Dylan and O's hormonal problems, being tornadoed away every 5 seconds, working until I'm exhausted, and not ever being able to catch up with everything I need to do... I think I need a vacation! 

Sterling Custom Bonnets

Let me tell you about the most gorgeous bonnet I have ever owned!

Awhile back, before Sunrise Ridge, I was searching for the perfect ear bonnet. I have a bunch of them already, including some navy ones, but I wanted to find one that was *just* right. I needed to find something that perfectly matched my show outfit, in my perfect colors. My show jacket is cream with gold flecks, and my cart is a rich and deep navy. i wanted to find something to bring the whole package together - but it would have to be custom, and perfectly matched.

That's where Sterling from Sterling Custom Bonnets came in to help me. I described my outfit to her, and told her what I had in mind - and she did the rest. She whisked off to pick up yarn, and was in contact with me when she was picking it out to make sure she found the right match. The bonnet is deep navy with a gold braid and cream trim. The cream is flecked with gold - it all flows perfectly. (I originally picked gold because my harness had brass and I was changing the hardware out on the cart to brass as well - obviously that was a giant failure, but the outfit still came out great!)

Sterling did an AWESOME job picking out the perfect yarn:

And no annoying string on it! Strings are out! 

Perfectly matches the coat!

The ensemble came out awesome at the show. We even scored a 9 on our presentation! Everyone complimented the outfit and the bonnet. And we took it on the marathon as well, where it perfectly matched our wraps/bells color combo.

I LOVE this bonnet. And I can't wait to take it to the next show!

If you're interested in Sterling's bonnets, find her on Facebook at Sterling Custom Bonnets, or on Etsy! And tell her I sent you! Thank you Sterling!