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. 

Thoroughbred Transformation Expo - a short day 2

I would walk the course in photos like usual, but sadly we didn't get to do it all. He warmed up great, was jumping fantastically, had not done a single chip and squat, and then we got to the up and down bank, #8. 

The up bank went fine. But the down bank landed in the shadow from the mound itself. And Ben thought he was jumping into a black hole and stopped. The judge in the chase cart let us school down another but then told me to "ride at it like your pants are on fire" and yelled at me that of course it wasn't going to work when I didn't do that strongly enough. The attempt led to him running backwards rapidly, which is really not great on a raised mound. It's also 100% not the way JT has us ride down banks. You don't need momentum to drop down a bank, so we do them in a super relaxed fashion, go off on a loose rein. According to her, and I believe it, this is how you keep them from doing dramatic launches. Sure, if I'd approached it with spurs DUG in the first time, we might've gotten off it, but after that riding it aggressively wasn't going to fix it. 

Sadly then, that is where our day ended. Unlike our run out in April our first year together, this was a legitimate fear. Dude had been DOING IT until that point. He knew his job and was out there doing what we've worked so hard to train him to do. This was just... A spooky horse, an amateur rider, and some tricky shadows. I was half bummed about our score and half bummed that we didn't get to play on the rest of the course! 

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching. Ben is such a pleasant horse to hang out with, he's a bit like a golden retriever. I did tidy up his mane a bit as well to make Sunday's braiding job easier than Thursday's.

I put Ben up and sat in the bleachers for the freestyles. There were some truly incredible performances. One fire fighter themed performance complete with fake smoke, rescuing a dog, pulling a stretcher, and jumping through a "ring of fire" (colored sparkly streamers around a small picture frame jump). Another drove and did flying changes and crossed a teeter totter and sliding plank that rolled forward (in a controlled fashion) as the horse stepped onto it. Overall incredibly impressive. I joked with JT that Goggles would do one next year that featured him as a barber. He's been doing some... Trimming of Waffles' forelock and tail (Sorry Libby!!). We're still not sure how Waffles is letting Goggles get this close...

Thoroughbred Transformation Expo - Day 1

The Thoroughbred Transformation Expo is kind of a local version of Retired Racehorse Project. It is open to all thoroughbreds though and is divided into open and restricted divisions. Open is horses >3 years from their last race. You could enter two of the following disciplines: Hunter, jumper, eventing, dressage, working ranch, or freestyle. It was a reasonable price ($400 for two disciplines and stabling the whole weekend) and there were promises of prize money and division prizes. Ben and I entered eventing and dressage. 

Friday morning Ben and I hauled down to the Horse Park, mostly in the dark. It was a chilly start but by the time I was tacking up it was warm enough I swapped the long sleeve show shirt for the short. I had braided him the night before and tested out his slinky and fly sheet combo overnight for the first time. It worked quite well. My braids left a little to be desired because I slacked on pulling his mane, but the slinky held what was there in place well.

Wonky braids and Christmas lights. We listened to Bach piano inventions while I braided this time.

Pretty sunrise

Ben warmed up really, really well. I felt a bit like he was maybe too relaxed and soft and maybe a smidge lacking in power. However, with how our lengthenings had gone on Thursday in the cold and wind (very little trot lengthening shown, lots of other things though!), I was okay with that (I was also correct). 

We did first level test 2 first. Man are straight dressage tests LOOOOOONG!! We were doing first 2 & 3, but I just ran through first 3 twice at home and then tried to dump it from my brain until I needed it again Sunday. We were supposed to have a 30 minute break between first 2 and training B, and I was going to refresh myself on the training test at that point. But the dressage ring was late and the eventing ring was on time, so we went straight from one to the other. I'm happy to report I did not go off course and only had one moment in training B where I thought "What the fuck am I supposed to do next??"

The first level test was overall super nice. He was soft and pleasant and accurate. We got some great feedback and things to work on in the comments. 

I wanted to hug her for the comments

Then we moved on to training B. Other than one lengthening that just plumb didn't happen, it was lovely as well. Ben, bless his heart, felt a bit confused going from one dressage test into another, but never got nappy or cranky. But that might've also contributed to the lengthening that wasn't. I also didn't set him up in the corner well at all.

The judge said to me at the end "I'm sure you know, but I have to take a point off each movement for his tongue. But he is absolutely lovely". I thanked her and thanked her for commenting on other things. 

We are nothing if not consistent, a 67% equivalent in both rings. 

Then we (Ben) set up Ben's stall by spreading shavings. He got some hay and water and his braids pulled and then got to chill for a while. 

Loves to wallow 

And rehydrate his hay 

I took him for a walk in the afternoon, and he spent a solid 3 minutes staring around. Not in a spooky way, I think just trying to figure out what TF came next. This was already weird, two dressage tests then a stall. But there's cross country in the distance...

Frozen mid step trying to sort it out

More pondering

Other than getting a little freaked by the trail horse obstacles, he was much more mellow at the horse park than he was at Rocking Horse when we stabled there. I caught him mid nap in the middle of the day when I got back from walking the cross country course. 

We ended up with a 3rd in the open dressage division for the day, which was good enough to move us along to the finale class on Sunday. The top six horses in each division (restricted and open) got to go on. For dressage all the open horses did first level and the restricted horses did training level. For eventing, only open horses could do training level, but otherwise it was a mix of starter through training with all horses doing all three phases unless there was an elimination. Ben and I were actually the sole training pair though. We got a fifth place for our eventing dressage test in the open division. I could really get to like this ribbon for each phase thing.