WW: Rocking Horse Pro XC Pics

Don't know what conversation I'm having with him here

Fall Rocking Horse: Day 2 AKA The JOMPIES!

Sunday morning was equally leisurely with a touch up bath, alfalfa into the hay net, and then loading up. The trailering did take place during his morning nap time. I was delighted when I saw that after chowing down on alfalfa for an hour, he backed up slightly and took a full on nap standing up in the trailer. His old owner shared that he takes his naps very seriously and at away shows was always either eating or flat out in his stall. I absolutely love that. To have that degree of relaxation no matter what the setting? So sweet. It also made me glad that I had given him the box stall for the weekend journey. He travels fine in the straight load set up, but I do think he appreciated the freedom of the box stall since he rode angled most of the time. 

We arrived in time to watch our friend head out onto the prelim course to have a stellar XC round. Then JT and I walked stadium. 

Stadium: 

The rocking horse ring is a good bit smaller than POP and Majestic, so the instructions were ones we've had before - get a canter you like and then add one more notch of energy and forward to it. He warmed up really well, although with some bucking, which may just be his way of expressing his show excitement? Another trainer asked her if he was for sale in the warm up. NOPE. 

Then we headed in and did our thing. The first seven were great. Photos by Xpress Foto.

I missed to the third fence, and he took the gappier spot, so I did catch him in the mouth over that one (with lovely photographic evidence of it too, sorry dude). 

After seven he kinda started playing in the corner. I said the words "you're not done yet" but didn't back it up with a leg-on firm half-halt. So the last few we did not jump as well. We came around the left hand roll back to 10 and I thought "crap, I don't have enough canter and that's a small vertical" and sure enough, he tapped that rail. 

Oops. But like dressage, I know exactly what to do to fix that. Sometimes with Ben, the rails were a bit of a mystery - the times we jumped things very poorly (like 3 strides in a 2 stride) he wouldn't touch the rail, but the times things felt great, we'd tip one out of the cups. 

Cross Country: I shot a lot of distant pictures, I think because for once at Rocking Horse I was struggling a bit to find the next fence. So no close up views of the jumps. But most of these should be pretty familiar at this point. 

1 - our standard, friendly yellow cabin

2- Log on box 

3- Triple X (they've stopped calling it that, but I always will...) - not visible from 2, you had to carry on and then make a right hand turn, these fences were behind some trees from the view from 2 

4- Red bench, a left hand turn from 3 

5- Hanging log

6- cabin hanging out in the tree line near the T/M and P trakheners. When Ben and I jumped the one that modified and training share, I definitely blacked out and just heard JT with "leg on, hands to the fence". He jumped it fine, but it is scary AF looking cantering down to it.   

7AB- coop at top of a little hill to a bending line to B. This combo was the source of all of the problems in the novice division on XC. 

View of 7B from 7A, you can't really see the terrain, but you had about 1/2 a stride on landing then a significant but short downhill

8- Brushy roll top

9- Right hand turn from 8 to a water crossing

10- second water crossing, you can see 11 out of the water, slightly right

11- our fave ye old corner 

12- Left hand turn and a bit of a gallop from 11 to Big Red

13- triple bar then a right hand turn through the sunken road, which I guess I didn't photograph

14- up out of the depression to the hanging log. You could certainly go around the depression, but it would put you on a bit of an angle to 14. We went through, the more terrain questions we ask now, the better. 

15- right hand turn and a gallop to the mushroom table 

16- another bit of a gallop to the "Feeder"

17- finishing over a table 

We had 50 minutes between stadium and XC. I should have spent more time at the trailer, but we thought potentially they would let us head out early. 

"you should've let me eat more!" 

Not the case since everyone ahead of us was ready and waiting for their times too, so we walked for a while, really getting his steps in this weekend! Once we were three out, we jumped the starter coop, a BN cabin, and then a N hanging log in the warm up. He didn't quite step up to the spot I saw at the N log, so he got tapped and then we came back around. That time when I closed my leg, he moved up. JT said "now he believes you". Then we moseyed over to the start box and chatted with the starters. One commented on how relaxed he was. Yes, he is, and it is so lovely. 

Video of the 3rd and 4th and then last fences, courtesy of JT. We had so much fun out on the course. The only question mark was 7A where he was scoping out the terrain behind the fence and the coffin to our left. I was glad we had practiced jumps with a downhill landing at Naked Horse. That practice was useful in two ways: I knew he might have a bit of a question about the downhill landing AND I was confident that we COULD do it just fine. He hesitated a bit a few strides out and then didn't necessarily go when I closed my leg, so I gave him a solid tap off the ground, and he stepped right up to it. 

They had not moved the upper level jumps out of the water crossings, but he slowed to a trot and let me show him the clear path through the water. I could imagine both Goggles and Ben sight seeing and spooking respectively, so it was really nice that he was confident and allowed me to direct him. We jumped the corner squarely in the middle of the front face of it, but even the widest part is narrower than the cabins on the course. 

He handled the terrain between 13 and 14 really well, but I didn't establish enough of an uphill bouncy canter on the way out, so our jump over 14 was unimpressive. From there we had just a few long gallop stretches and then we were home. Seeing the video I still need to work more on the "new" galloping position and staying out of the tack and off his back. 

Finished and so happy! 

Celebratory snacks for him

And me 

We finished up 7th out of 14 on a 37.1. One of my goals for us is the medal program. I would like to aim for the gold medal at novice, but this gave us a qualifying silver medal score. I'll take it!! 

It was such a fun weekend!! Butterball is just the most pleasant creature to be around and have as a partner. We have lots to work on, and I'm going to enjoy every second of that journey. Cross country felt like a great mix of questions for us, so I know we'll continue to learn with each schooling session and competition. 

Fall Rocking Horse: Day 1

My times for the weekend were the most civilized: Dressage at 2:29 on Saturday, Stadium at 2:23 on Sunday, and XC at 3:21 on Sunday. I won't rehash the factors that go into the decision to stable or haul back and forth, but my plan was to just haul back and forth. I also decided not to braid... which meant that I had a very leisurely morning and left my house at 9 AM and still had time to equiband lunge Goggles before getting Butterball ready. 

I bathed him to within an inch of his life, including scrubbing his stockings, and then let him eat some grass and dry a bit. 

Hi Ben! 

Didn't love his bath. Loved eating grass in the sunshine

I stuffed a flake of alfalfa into his tiny hole hay net and then loaded him up. The camera was hilarious, he was SO driven to get the alfalfa out and ate the whole drive there. 

Enjoying the fancy box stall life 

I picked up my packet and then watched a bit of the modified stadium. It was a pretty twisty turny course with a full 10 fences. We'll get into it in the next post! 

Then I headed back to the trailer and fully brushed out his tail, embarrassingly a first for me. I had washed it for the POP shows, but not taken the time to comb through it in all the glorious thickness. It was pretty satisfying. 

Then I got tacked up WAY TOO EARLY. I wasn't sure how Butterball would be in this new environment, so I figured more time for walking would be good. I was wrong. I got on 45 minutes before my ride time; I think he needs about 20 minutes. One walk loop and then to work and then into the ring. So between my timing, the decision not to carry a dressage whip, and the slightly deep footing in the arena, our test lacked a bit of enthusiasm. At least that was my feeling, the comments are actually really interesting with regards to what I was feeling vs. what the judge wanted to see. 

I'll be honest, there are a few (such as the stretchy circle) comments that I cannot interpret. It also took me longer than I'd like to admit to sort out the ">" meaning greater. 

So overall the judge wanted more softness over the topline and more bend. I've been hearing the more bend from JT. The softness is interesting because in my last dressage lesson with JT, she emphasized not pushing him above his natural tempo. I got so focused on not letting him dink along like a little pony that I think I pushed some of that stiffness into him. Interesting and something to focus on for sure. I guess like Ben and Goggles, I can ride with the metronome app. Then focus on bend, which will bring about that softer topline. 

I was pretty pleased by the consistency of the scores though - our canter work did not score worse than the trot work this time. But since we got roughly the same final score as our last novice dressage test, that actually means we scored worse on our trot work. However, I'm taking it to mean our canter work is improving! His free walk loop was really lovely, but it still felt like there was more stretch and overtrack we could show. This leaves us room for upping that already nice 8.

Overall our 33.1 set us 11th out of 14. A bit of an ouch, but we're new together and at this level! And between the way I felt about the test and the judge's comments, we have lots to work on to improve that score. 

I sponged him off, let him graze for a minute, then popped him back into the trailer to go walk cross country. After I walked it twice(ish), we headed home. 

October Wrap Up

 

	Ben	Butterball	Goggles
Training rides	0	1 – Dressage	10
Lessons	0	4 – 1 XC, 2 jump, 2 dressage	0
Hacks	1 - Ponied	8 – 1 in hand, 6 bareback, 1 with Goggles	1 – with Butterball
Ground work, lunge, long line	4 – 2 lunge w/ Equiband, 2 lunge	2 lunge	2 – 1 lunge w/Equiband, 1 block 1
Flat rides	3	5	7
Conditioning rides	0	3 – Watermelon pond trot and canter, 2 aquatred	0
XC school	0	2	0
Shows	0	0	0

 

Ben: On the 31st, his barefoot trimmer and I came up with a new plan for him. He's only been keeping wraps on for a couple of weeks, which is frustrating for everyone involved. After the wrap came off, he had chipped up his left front toe beyond the point she said she would have taken it back to. But he did have enough heel that for the first time she had to remove a tiny bit. Overall we both feel like we're making progress. He isn't lame at the walk at all anymore, and back in May he was VERY sore without the wraps and lame at the walk. But he's about 90% when they're on and about 70-80% when they're not. 

Right front, has come a loong way from May 

Left front wanting to be a teeny tiny foot, but still a much better shape and with more foot than back in May

After chatting with her, we decided to forgo the wraps, start Copper Sulfate spray on his front feet 2x a day for a few days and then Hoof Armor, and try hoof boots for riding. A loooong way down the internet rabbit hole, I decided on Scoot Boots and have pictures in their app, waiting for them to tell me what size to order. 

He saw his favorite sports medicine vet partway through the month and she was quite pleased with him overall. She isn't normally a barefoot person, but she understood my frustration this spring and said it was worth a try. She feels like it is working pretty well for him because his condition and muscling look great. And other than the feet, everything seems to be good for him these days which is great. 

So October wasn't really the month he returned to three or four work sessions a week. Instead we averaged two. Partially because if anyone is going to get pushed by lack of time, it's him, and partially because he had better and worse days and I am not pushing him to do things if he's not feeling great on his feet that day. 

Goggles: Kiddo was fully launched back into a program this month and spent two weeks down at JT's with AT doing 2 days on, 1 day off. He had a few trials and has been a perfect angel for each one. The type of people who think they need a five year old TB is absolutely wild, but I'll leave it at that. 

He's headed to the recognized event at Majestic on November 9th to put a second USEA event on his record. After that we'll just continue plugging away at things as we would have if he weren't for sale. A mix of training rides and me riding him, XC schools, etc etc. 

His coat is looking absolutely lovely right now 

The "arena" is this area. The woods provide lovely shade in the afternoons. But they also house a LOT of animals right now. And it is breezy. And everything is rustling. There were deer for the entirety of my 30 minute ride with Butterball a week ago. They finally went crashing away at the very end. Least helpful, thanks. Shocking no one, Ben is having the hardest time coping. Slightly shocking, Goggles is actually doing the best. Butterball contents himself with tilting his head and trying to counter bend whenever we're close to the woods. But Goggles is pretty content to trust me that it's fine and just work. Good boy! 

Butterball: As shown on the chart, we did a looooooot of hacking this month. He's gotten a few compliments on his fitness, so I think it is paying off. And as discussed, hacking him just delights me. He had five days off in October, which fits with the six day a week schedule I was told worked best for him. His activities this month have definitely been the most written about, so I don't have a lot to add. 

Most tired. Schedule should be one day a week, you heard that wrong. 

He slept like this for quite a while. I shooed away flies for him. It was so sweet. 

Looking so handsome! 

After Rocking Horse this weekend, the rest of November will bring more of the same as October - lessons, XC schooling, and HACKS! 

Hope you all had a wonderful October!!