Thoroughbred Transformation Expo - Day 3 and final thoughts

Saturday evening we got the tentative schedule for Sunday- stadium 930-1130 and then dressage 1-230. The stadium course was VERY straight forward. No related distances, the closest was a bending 9 stride line from 5-6. There was a roll back from 4-5, but plenty of space to make it a casual roll back. 

I did the hunter thing and walked him to the arena in his halter. When the first two novice horses had gone, I put on his bridle. I then rapidly found myself in an empty arena, I think there were a couple of scratches because there were supposed to be about 10 novice horses going. A bystander was kind enough to set an oxer for me. He knocked it the first time, but pulled out his measuring stick for the second go. Then we went in and did the thing. He tried to pull his Stable View move of acting like he'd never done this before, so I wacked him at the base of 1. After that he got himself together and it was pretty lovely. He spooked at 6 as we were headed to 8, so we pulled the last rail. I just didn't get him focused with his shoulders up quickly enough. Still, it felt like a confident, fun round. The kind person who had set jumps for us commented on what a lovely shape he made over the fences. Good boy, Ben. 

Then he got sponged and tied to the trailer to dry while I cleaned tack. He can't be trusted not to wallow when he's wet, and I had braided, so I wasn't interested in trying to fix rubbed braids full of shavings. After he was dry, he got to eat his lunch and chill in his stall for a little while. They posted dressage times and we went in the middle of the pack. 

He warmed up soft and lovely again. And then they started playing polo during the rider before me. I don't have a picture, but the polo fields are quite some distance away, but not far enough for the horses to not notice like crazy. He gawked a bit in warm up, but went back to work. But the warm-up ring was slightly further from the polo than the dressage arena. He balked and hopped some having to go into the arena area at all, and then was totally on fire the whole test. Our free walk straight up was not (the score was generous) - he made it 3/4 of the way of the first loop and then lifted his head and turned to stare straight over at the polo fields. Then he jigged during the second half of the loop, twice. Our canter depart was exuberant and our canter lengthening was really a hand gallop. But this did push us squarely into the category of MORE shown. And we actually ended up with a 68%; scores were markedly less consistent, but we did have a few 8s sprinkled in this time, including for the canter lengthening I called a hand gallop. I guess that is a good metric of what the judges actually want to see vs. what it feels like on his back! The 68% set us in 4th in the open division, sadly juuuussstt out of the prize money. But we got a pretty neck ribbon and gigantic wall ribbon for our trouble as well as a gift certificate to ACE. 

The dressage judges were encouraging and understanding of his tongue habit the whole weekend, and I am so grateful. We got some great feedback to take to our dressage lessons (YAY! Someone has been coming to the farm, I just am behind in writing!) and to move forward with. 

Staged photo the next day since it was starting to drizzle as they were handing out ribbons on Sunday

Overall, we had a great experience at the Thoroughbred Transformation Expo and, schedule allowing, I'll be back next year, potentially with both boys. It was a lot of fun to hang out and watch all the disciplines, especially the freestyle. They have great sponsors and prizes, and being able to win prize money is pretty awesome. One downside is that the levels are a bit limiting - ideally next year Ben would be solidly doing second level work and toying with the idea of modified, although let's be real, we'll never be too good for training level and they do offer 3'6" show jumping if we wanted to go that route. It was also run a lot more like a hunter show (I think) in that ride times were not necessarily available days before hand (we got Friday dressage times on Wednesday evening) and sometimes (ie show jumping part of eventing) you just got a general gist of when you might go. It was small enough though that this flowed pretty well and just required a bit of paying attention. Everyone was super friendly and helpful and it was great to meet a few more people with TBs.