Onward and Upward

The 2012 show season is over. Two of the three championships we attended I can count as successes! The first one I wrote about in my last post Quiet Laughter...that was clearly not one of the successes. Next we were onto the CBLM Championships held in Lexington, VA. Any fall show at the Virginia Horse Center is going to be one of my favorites. I grew up showing at this facility but there's something about it in the fall that makes it perfect. The leaves are beautiful in their wide array of fall hues, there is a crispness in the air and I get the chance to eat at all my favorite local digs! But I digress, back to the show...besides the terrifying drive over the mountains, everything went seamlessly. Buddy was positively lovely to ride. He was soft, adjustable ad forward in all of our schooling both inside and out. He  went into his practice class and had a BEAUTIFUL ride with only a small spook earning a 2nd place in a large class. This pumped me up for our Championship the next day. My ride was in the very middle of the class so we were lucky the pea soup fog had finally subsided by my ride time. We went in with the same mentality of keeping it quiet and forward. The test was going  SO WELL that I took at moment to sit back and back in the glory of it...and then we broke out of the canter! Ugh! No biggie, I can fix it on the other side...and it happened again!!! Really?!?! So I opted for trying to make up for some lost points by driving the last medium trot home. The score wasn't awful but it knocked us out of the placings for a respectable 12th place of 27 riders. Not bad but not the best. Performance wise, I was super pleased after having quite a few difficult rides this season with Bud. We had a blast with our friends from Beech Creek Farm and overall the show was awesome!

Two weeks later we made the trip down to the last show in Williamston, for the GAIG/USDF Region 1 Championships. This particular show made me a little more anxious than the others because of the test. Second 3 has been giving me problems all season. I haven't felt confident with our balance in the canter  let alone the counter-canter teardrops, but we were going to try our hardest anyways. The week leading up to and into the show was a tough one for us anyways. The weather was very rainy (preventing any riding), Buddy sprang the corner of ones of his shoes the day after the farrier came (Friday). I  knew my farrier was unavailable so I called another who told me he was too busy, I called a 2nd farrier who was unfortunately out of town. So, Monday came and my farrier was able to put the shoe back on. I rode Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday it went to hell in a hand-basket at work so no riding and Thursday we left for the show. I get everything settled with Boo in the barn (we were stabled with all of our friends from NSTC and Beech Creek was right down the aisle) and go to check in. I had left my Coggins at home on the printer. Commence full freakout mode! I called my vet's office but they were closed for the day. I ended up calling the Emergency number and luckily the vet on call was headed back to the office and would fax me a copy. 1 hour passes and no fax. I call the vet back and she says she's been trying to fax it but there is a busy signal (i.e. the show's fax machine is busted). UGH!!! The vet says she will attempt to email it. Another hour and the email finally comes through, EUREKA! We get our numbers and fly back to the barn. By this time it is 6:30 and the rings close at 8 for riding. Our championship ride was going to be in the Coliseum (which is not one of Buddy's favorite places to ride) so the first night, the next night and the following morning either included a ride or hand walk in this fear inspiring building. I get him all tacked up for the first warm-up ride in the Coliseum and boom, left front shoe is missing. Cue the tears. I try to collect myself and find the show farrier, wouldn't you know, he has left for the evening. I call and plead for him to put this shoe on and l  he begrudgingly agrees and will be there in 5 min. I run back to the barn to get my horse and go to bring him out of the stall where I proceed to break his etched wood show plaque. UGH AGAIN!!! The day was just not a good one! I get the shoe on and run to the Coliseum for a 7:15 ride. It was full of spookiness and tension but I decided to call it quits on a decent note since I was pretty sure I was the problem and not him. We started the next day anew and it all went up from there. We had a super ride for our practice test and ended up 2nd in a large Dover Medal Class behind a friend of mine. We went to dinner with friends from the barn then came back for a hand walk around the Coliseum. The next day was the big one...and I was the first ride of the championship class. I went in and rode my tail off. I came out of the ring in tears and my mom asked what I thought of the ride. My response was, "That was the ride I was waiting for all season!". I wasn't sure if the judges would agree but at that point I didn't care. To make my very long story a little shorter...I sat in first place with a 66% for the next 12 rides. The last three bumped me down but by only tenths of a %! We got to victory lap with the other placers and I wore a stupidly big grin the entire time! It was a perfect ending to a rather frustrating season.

Now, the boys and I are enjoying a little down time with lots of fun strength building rides including gallops through the back pastures, flying change schooling and cavaletti pole work. Buddy's changes are coming along quicker that I expected and DJ is just working on not being so strong in the mouth. I think we are going to have a real winter this year meaning actual snowfall. It may put a little dent in our ring work but who doesn't like a good gallop through the snow?!? Until next time!

NCDCTA Labor of Love...A Real Labor of Love

The NCDCTA Labor of Love show marked the end of this year's show season. With lack of money and schedule conflicts from my paralegal class at UNC, I don't really have time for another show. With that being said, I had to make this one count and boy did I work my tail off to do so!


This horse show was meant for experience since Buddy and I have already qualified for Sport Horse Nationals and GAIG/USDF Region 1 Championships. There was just one more goal to be obtained...the elusive USDF/Dover Saddlery AA Medal! All Season, I have come in 2nd in the Medal classes, narrowly missing this achievement each time. I wanted that Medal BAD!!! But I planned to make this a productive training weekend as well as a successful showing.


We arrived Friday around 2 and set-up pretty quickly because Lynn got a tack stall which most of her students ended up sharing. After settling in and checking-in at the show office, I decided to take Buddy for a hack/school in the covered and indoor arenas since that is where we would be competing. My light and stress-free ride did not really go as planned...Buddy was EXTREMELY tense and a little spooky in the indoor which lead to very difficult canter work including a concrete neck/mouth and dropping out of the canter regularly. With that came frustration, stopping, backing and head swinging, ugh!! I ended up getting off and checking his bridle just to make sure that nothing was majorly wrong.  Nothing was, so I worked on getting him soft on the ground then remounted and tried again. He seemed to relax enough to get through some canter work without fussing and did some nice counter canter loops as well, unfortunately the simples were still lacking but better than when we started. I decided to end it on a good note seeing as how we had early ride times on Saturday. Back to the stalls we went to get dinner and a bath for Buddy. Home was the next destination since ride times were mid-morning and Bud needed braiding.


I'm not gonna lie, the next morning I was a little nervous. I was praying that we would not go through the same warm-up we had had in the coliseum last night during the test. But I gathered my nerves trudged down to the barn and started the normal morning chores trying to be positive. I just have to add that I love showing in NC for many reasons but one of my favorites is that at most shows, you can get a nightwatch for your horse. Which means someone checks him multiple times a night, leaves little notes on the report card stapled to his stall and gives breakfast! But, I digress, the first class I was on my own for warm-up since it was 2-2. Warm-up was MUCH better, he was calm and soft and adjustable. We went into the test and completed a nice test with forward impulsion and some minor tweaks like softening his neck in the canter, 10m circles were a hair large and centerlines...ugh! But anyways, it was a successful test and the judge thought so too, a 65+% with a  1st place ribbon. I was stoked! What a great way to start the day! The 2-3 test was about an hour later and this time I had help from Lynn. Apparently, when I go into the warm-up I tend to forget how to ride my horse but I am quickly reminded what my purpose in the saddle is again (especially when Lynn is on the other end of the microphones!). We had the BEST warm-up I have EVER had on Buddy. He actually felt like a true 3rd level horse, eek! I went into the test feeling confident of our amazing work. Too bad Buddy had some other ideas. The ring that our second test was in was by the road and of course this weekend happened to be the first NC State game of the season, so the road was filled with game-goers, tail-gaters and "pre-gamers". Buddy immediately became super tight and lost all of the good juices we had gotten in the warm-up. The judge saw it and gave us a 61% with a 4th place. Not bad but not really what I was hoping for. Buddy was unbraided, bathed and put back in his stall in front of his fan...he was a happy camper. I spent the rest of the day with the other members of NSTC cheering on rides and listening to Lynn coach. Overall it was a fulfilling day. Everyone went to the barn party that evening and had a good time with some good laughs :)


The next day was the crucial day...Dover Medal class at 1PM! I was nervous, excited and focused...maybe too focused. I (Me! Can you believe it?) was very tight because of the pressure I was putting on myself and it showed in my riding. I had trouble keep him soft and loose and swinging. But Lynn kept trying to get me to get him to relax. She had to leave me early because she had another student in the ring at the same time who needed her more than I did. We went into the indoor to do our test (where we had had the bad warm-up on Friday) and started off pretty well, all until we got to the halt. Next was the back-up...I said back-up.....oh, for the love of pearl, I said BACK-UP!!!! That was what it looked like and there was no, zip, nadda back-up. I tried walking a few steps forward and tried again but it just was not happening and it kinda went downhill from there. The simples were done through the trot, the canter was tense and boy was he strong! I came out of the test very disappointed but the judge did stop me at the end of my test to tell me that "those things happen, just keep going and make up the points in the rest of the test". What a nice guy! Dad waited around for the score since I was the second to last one (and he loves to surprise me with my score/ribbon, always has!). I was not hopeful at all and became a tad mopey since I blew my chance at the Dover Medal but I was already planning ahead for my last test (at 4PM...UGH!). My dad came back with the test, I took the test from him and noticed the paper was funny. I opened the test and inside this is what I found:

HALLELUJAH! I actually managed to best my field of other amateurs to get this beauty!!! Granted the score was a 61% but Mr. Schmutz, the judge, was very positive and said overall the test wasn't bad except for the halt and to keep working! I was so excited I marched the test down to the warm-up where Lynn was schooling another student to show her. Needless to say, there was lots of smiling, hugging and squeeling :) I stayed to watch my barn-mates do their last rides but had to head back to get Buddy ready for his last ride. I went into this warm-up with confidence renewed that we could get through this. The warm-up was short and sweet to conserve the last bit of Buddy's energy and off we went into the test...to the ring beside the road. If I thought the first test was tight, boy was I going to be surprised at this one! Buddy managed to find a water drain next to the ring that he managed to miss in the  first test. Let's just say that was all he could think about and he was CONVINCED it was going to suck him up... 

Giraffe and Camel are what come to mind for that test! It makes me laugh now but I was just exhausted after the ride and I really couldn't be mad at him since we did get the medal. It was the end of the show and he was genuinely scared. On a good note, Kay Meredith LOVED him! She gave him some really super marks and comments, not so bad all in all even though the score was a 59%. Overall, not a bad way to end the show season!