Butterball and I went to Majestic Oaks on Saturday for the schooling show. A coworker was kind enough to switch with me so that we could practice stadium (and XC!) once before heading up to SC for Oktoberfest.
He got socks and tail bathed Friday afternoon
I dressaged at 8:28, jumped stadium at 11:15 and then headed over for XC right after that. Since Majestic Oaks is very, very familiar to me, I opted not to go walk the day before. We loaded up in the dark, Butterball and Mr. GY's horse, and headed out. We arrived around 7:45 and I slowly got dressed and tacked. In dressage warm up I discovered that Butterball can actually form significant attachments to other horses. He was bound and determined to call for his buddy every minute or so. Ms. GY kindly took his friend further away and he kept a lid on it in the test. I only did about 15 minutes of warm up because, let's be honest, we were there for the jumping.
And the judge, while scoring rather generously, called us out on the "more" of everything that was needed. More consistent tempo, more bend, more balance, etc. I don't really like Novice B and did almost lose my way once, so I'll consider it a win that I didn't get lost. Our 31.9 put us in 9th/11 with the first place score being a 26.4.
Stadium featured a course with a number of related distances - 8 strides between 1 and 2, 9 strides between 3 and 4, and 7 strides between 5 and 6. Then it finished on a two stride oxer to vertical, exactly what we had not executed at Stable View.
In warm up I remembered my wandering eye that I noticed over the summer and focused on keeping my eye ON THE SAME SPOT on the fence. Wouldn't ya know it, it helped. I'm still not honestly sure of the balance between micro-managing him that EM was trying to fix and acknowledging if our spot will be tight or long so I can add leg or wait a tiny bit accordingly, but I decided in warm up to ride him the way PW had me riding him successfully in May and June. My friend came and set fences for us and when I almost turned back to jump a larger than Novice oxer in warm up, she said "You're not going to gain anything by doing that. Just ride him forward and keep your shoulders up with your leg on, no matter what spot you get to." Turns out that was just the advice we needed because we went in and did that.
I used the corners to try to take EM's advice (and every trainer before her really) to not let him get behind my leg through the turns. Leg on, surge forward, then softly balance before the fences without sitting deep and driving his back down. We got 10 strides between 3 and 4, I needed just a bit more leg the first two strides of the line and then it would have flowed nicely. And then we got an ugly chip stride in to the oxer at 9A. But I sat up and believed that my very capable horse could get out and we put three tiny strides in and then jumped the vertical just fine. Which, truly, if it had just flowed over the oxer I think I would have gained less confidence.
After lots of pats for the pony we went over, got booted and vested up, and headed to XC.
Warm up went well. The course was so-so. The first few jumps I was anxious and DEFINITELY shoved him past the actual spot and got rewarded with two chips at the base. We mostly fixed that by the end of the course, aided by NOT fixing it at the fence before the down bank which was right before the trakehner. The trakehner here has made me nervous ever since I was jump judging when a horse had a rotational and had to be euthanized. So I have a good amount of respect for it and actually channeled it appropriately this time by creating a nice bouncy show jump canter that got us at an appropriately slightly close spot so he could bounce right on over.
Fence three where I first got it together a little bit
Fence five - corner
Looking towards the half coffin. He's SO CUTE
Rails towards the ditch
Getting the trakhener right
Second to last
With our two clear jump rounds we moved up to 4th
Huge thank you to my friend/coworker and Amanda and Hillary for the media and support. My coworker said after XC she felt like BB was maybe not as comfortable as he could be behind. He's definitely not lame, but now that she knows him pretty well, she felt like he wasn't quite himself. I had the same thought out on XC: He wasn't changing cleaning right to left, and left is usually his preferred galloping lead AND he had a couple slightly crappier than normal jumps even when I did my part. I *think* what happened is I bruised his feet again. We did some canter sets on the edges of dirt roads near the pond we've been swimming in. And around here those dirt roads sometimes contain lime rock. I could hear the hardness change as we went and then saw new bruises pop up on his feet a few days later. It would also explain a lesson last week where he was *not* particularly helpful about leaving the ground. I'm going to see about putting him in pads behind. And also haul down to what I know is softer footing for our canter sets. I do plan on supplementing those canter sets with our water treadmill days as well, which should be nice and easy on his feet.
If you'll recall, I pulled Butterball's hind shoes in early January. I had major doubts about the farrier I was using and figured there was less to screw up if there weren't shoes involved. We had a mostly great January after that, including joyfully bouncing around Majestic, feeling like we could just pop right over anything I pointed him at. We did have our blip at the horse eating pink roll top, but that felt like green horse + spooky jump + leaning adult ammy rider combo going wrong, as it will sometimes. Then Hillary and I went back to Majestic on Friday. And it wasn't as much rainbows and sunshine as it had been on our prior trip.
He was a very good boy, but was just kinda weird. Spooky to jumps he has been fine with in the past, including the tires where he said no freaking way about 30 feet out. So basically very not himself.
We were thinking hind foot soreness was the issue because his hind feet had worn A LOT. I think he definitely CAN go barefoot behind, but he'll need an adjustment period where he only does light work and potentially some hoof boots for the road hacking we do. Fortunately the farrier was coming on Monday. Later that day I also remembered that he had run out of his Relyne GI about a week prior and because I'm an asshole I had not gotten around to ordering more yet. He's not a particularly stereotypically ulcery horse, but he does do a TON of travelling and competing, so I've had him on it since I got him and being off of it coincided with new spooky behavior. Alright, then hind feet? Tummy? Both are fixable, yay!
I started him on 1/3 tube of GG daily until I could get him back on the Relyne. He had Saturday off, but then Sunday when I groomed him, he had muscle spasms in his epaxials basically any time I touched from mid-barrel up to the muscles themselves. I palpate his back EVERY TIME I ride him and had not gotten any soreness leading up to that day so felt very WTF about everything. He had also just gotten drenched with a slightly chilly rain, so I considered my options. I ended up taking the front shims out of my mattes pad in case that was dumping too much weight on the back part of it. The fitter had told me that the panels were too long for his back but it was probably temporarily fine since I'm not that heavy. Then I tacked him up and we did a nice, loose, stretchy 15 minute ride. After I untacked I palpated all over again and got absolutely no spasms. So whether that was the rain, the shims, or some other freak thing, it seemed better.
Monday he got his hind shoes back. The farrier barely had any foot to trim, soooo yeah. Not great. We did a little dressaging on Tuesday. Today we headed over to Majestic for the schooling show. Our dressage was... meh. I'm tired of saying the same things about the canter, so see prior posts. I was a bit bummed about the centerlines because I had scribed for this judge a couple of weeks ago and thought I was being SO DEAD ON. Apparently my dead on is to the left. I was very pleased with the final halt though. The day prior it had finally occurred to me to trick train it with the click and treat. We started working on it on our hack so that there was minimal pressure to feel like we ARE WORKING ON HALTING NOW DAMMIT, I'M GOING TO TENSE EVERY PART OF ME AND ATTEMPT TO SHOVE YOU INTO A BOX. I breathed out with a light "wooahh" and then just tried to close my upper thigh and softly halt. If he stayed square and straight he got a click and cookie. If he wiggled into it but halted there was a pat but no treat. This worked like gang busters and honestly worked a bit too well down the centerline which was part of our not getting to G. If I'd found the centerline though and made it to G it would've been a much better halt than any prior test.
Stadium was an experience. Parts of it were absolutely great. But I forgot that the outside line was a 5 to a 2 and tried to make it a 6 to a 2, which led to a great chip for the 6th stride and then 3 strides in the 2. After that fuckery on my part, he opted out of chipping to the base of the next oxer and ended up stopping, knocking rails, and kneeling in the jump. He paused for two seconds on his knees, I think assessing the situation, and then pulled us back upright. He was actively shaking, so I patted him a few times while they reset the jump. I trimmed the actual crunch into the jump out of the video because nobody needs to see that. We then picked the canter back up and carried on, with one other weird windmill jump. I think that one was him just trying to be careful from a weird spot with a bit of a shake to his confidence. Afterwards, we felt him all over and nothing palpated sore. I added studs since it was wet and I was unclear exactly what the refusal had been about, then headed to warm up. JT instructed that if he felt weird then I was to pull up. But if we were going, I needed to be committed to going. Y'know? Don't half ass it and question every single step leading to bad jumps that knock both of our confidence, but if he's doing weird things then stop.
He warmed up great, so we headed out on course with her and my friend who had shot his rads in the chase cart. The course was pretty long with an optimum time of 5:09.
1- Honestly this was the weirdest one. He was quite spooky and it took a tap on the shoulder to get him to commit to the jump.
2- Bench, Canter it, jump it, don't do anything weird
3- Boathouse that can be quite spooky, but was not for him
4- Ramp
5- Wagon
6- Water
7- Table
8AB- Brush rails to corner, these were not at all related really
He jumped the SNOT out of this one, but because of the shrubs his front half was immediately cut off, so you get a take off picture
I was unsure of what spot we were getting to this and rode it a bit in the backseat
But at least gave him the reins
9- Chevron
So cute!
10AB- half coffin
11- Roll, shared with BN
12- Cabin
13- Cut out cabin
14- More rails
15- Down bank
16- Trakehner
17- Log and box
After the water the whole course felt pretty great. We did of course chip the final fence, but y'know, other than that... He was responding to my half halts with my body and felt light and pleasant over things. The verdict from JT and my friend was definitely hind feet though, he was reluctant to take the spots where he really had to sit and push. He got his feet packed after and will get Equioxx as well as a few days off.
The moral of the story is don't screw with things that are working. Keep his hind shoes on, keep him on the Relyne.
Edited to add these because I don't know when/where else I'll post them, but lookit the speedy pony! Also I posted the heart rate because I found it hilarious it dropped from the start. I wouldn't say I'm nervous before leaving the box, but I guess my heart rate disagrees. I think the low point towards the very end was a glitch.
Butterball and I tackled the Florida Horse Park POP schooling show this weekend and had the best time. We're headed for Stable View this weekend, so figured we'd better get a run in at novice at home.
It's finally gotten a tiiinnnny hint of fall here and the poor dude was very non-plussed by his 7 AM bath. But he doesn't hold grudges, so he was a happy pony again by the time I loaded him up on JT's trailer with his two buddies. We were all laughing about the fact that the 15.2 hand connemara x TB was the biggest horse of the three on the trailer that day. My BIL wanted to work on finishing up the paint job on mine, so it was easiest to just have BB ride the party bus.
Dressage: I tried to remember my dressage time incorrectly AGAIN this time and thought it was 10:40, but fortunately checked around 9:30 and realized it was 10:30 instead. Sheesh, not something I normally do, don't know why I was trying to short myself a warm up two shows in a row. Dressage was decent, the canter still needs more work, but overall I was a more active participant this time. At home schooling we can get really nice canter work... eventually... so when you have a transition, one 20m circle, and then 2/3 of a long side, we're barely getting it nice by the time it is time to trot again. I also *forgot* the left lead canter and was planning on doing another short diagonal, so that canter transition was never going to be a good one, oops! We're riding the same test again next weekend though, hopefully it will stick better.
Still, not upset by a 32.2 for our first time at this level and a month in to our partnership. Afterwards he got hosed off and then put back on the trailer to chill in front of the fan.
Stadium: We had 3.5 hours between dressage and stadium, so he chilled on the trailer and I wandered around, watched a few friends go, and ate lunch. It was pretty warm by that point so there was a definite afternoon slump feeling around noon. But BB and I both managed to wake back up to go jump!
The course was the same as the last time, but I RODE the whole time, and he rewarded me with a clear round. We met a friend of his old owner who was manning the in gate. She was so sweet, and he had a whole cheering squad when we finished the course.
Why yes, I am perfect!
As JT pointed out when I ride him like a horse not a pony then he goes so well and feels like he's got so much scope in there.
Cross Country: I walked before dressage, so these are early light shadows, not the ones we had at 2 PM. We headed over from stadium, popped the brushy roll top in warm up out of stride and headed to the box.
Out of the start box. He was actually a bit sticky and bucked once. I think *most* of the problem was the saddle, we were in one of JT's that has longer panels than he likes and he threw in a few expressive lead changes in stadium too, I think for the same reason. He is certainly more motivated when headed towards home in the course though too, so that likely played a role as well.
But he popped right on over one no problem and landed with his mind on business
Two - bench
3- cutout cabin, from his back the training fences don't actually look big... he jumped this great
4- another cabin
5ab- the villages - this walked as a 6. I screwed it up and did zero half-halting between so we did 5 and a bit of a scramble over B. Sorry bud.
6- another cabin thing
7- water then left hand turn to a corner
8 - I hate corners. JT told me to go into the water close to the right hand flag and then make a smooth left hand turn to the corner "go get it buddy". I think I've shared before how much I like wedges, so I asked her if I could ride it like a wedge, she said sure. I picked the point on the face of it that she said to aim for and rode that like the tip of the wedge.
Go get it buddy!
Best boy!
9- Sometimes riding BB feels so easy that it really feels like cheating. However, he is still only 7 and new to this level, and I felt him question for a second on the way to this jump. But the same way he gives me so much confidence, I closed my leg, and he responded with more confidence and headed right over
10- cut out cabin
11ab- half coffin
You can see the wedge of 12 in the distance
Wedge, I felt him wiggle a tiny bit coming to this, but he was good and honest
13- Brushy roll top
14- Wagon, we were headed back towards home at this point and he was GAME!
15ab- water, left hand turn again to a wedge
We took a little chip at the base of this, but it wasn't a confidence issue I don't think, just me botching the stride
16- log, jumped it right out of stride and we were DONE! 11 seconds under optimum time
We ended up in 6th! I finally used my Garmin to count up instead of screwing around and tediously setting it to count down. We averaged 15.9 mph for the course, how fun!
TOUCH! Refusing to pose with his ribbon. It was a long, warm day, and he was just super for the whole thing. I was about to turn him out when I tried to snap this, so I gave up after one attempt and let him go be a pony with his friend.
