Aiken Spring 2024: Part 4 | DQ goes airborne

Final installment! Lucky you. haha

Day 8:

After a day of lessons, we had another "f-around day" on Wednesday and decided to just stay at Jumping Branch and see what trouble we could get into.

You KNOW there was shenanigans when the dressage gal puts on a XC vest!

Another group of Louisville eventers had joined us at JBF and we had a BLAST just being horse girls with our horses. There was so much fun and laughter and truly that is what this is all about.

Hampton played professor and did some changes and piaffe for a couple of friends. I did some twos and ones up a slight incline in the field which really helped me open him up because he was pretty much forced to jump "uphill." 

But my FAVORITE part of this day and one of the most awesome moments of the trip was hopping on a friend's event horse (he goes Modified but barely has to try at that level). It turns out I am actually not the chicken I thought I was about jumping. This horse gave me so much confidence. I ended up jumping some BN jumps, a tiny drop into water and then a girthy monster Training level table which to many is probably not a big deal but people I do not jump things these days and it has been PROBABLY A DECADE or more since I jumped much above 2'3 or 2'6.

My stirrups felt SO SHORT. haha. Thank you Eli for being a unicorn!

The point is ... I think my next horse is going to need to be able to jump because I fell back in love with it. 

Day 9:

On Thursday we had one more day of lessons with the S judge. Another solid lesson where she really got after me about keeping my left leg forward, and more specific and clear with my aids. Hampton did start to feel tired this day, which I mean SO WAS I.

More takeaways -

• Lead with your inside hand/rein in the pirouettes
• "Settle" before starting the turn
• Accuracy when starting half passes
• Let go of outside rein in halfpass sometimes
• No indirect rein on outside rein. Keep hand away

We worked a bit more on piaffe/passage and Hampton was more than happy to show off his Spanish walk skills. Pretty much all the time. lol. He was like "Bitch, which party trick to you want." I don't know whether it was the right thing to do to teach him this or not, but here we are. 

Yet another amazing, exhausting, stupidly fun trip to Aiken. So grateful I was able to go and am in a position to do this with great friends and the horses that make it possible.

And thank you Jumping Branch Farm for being such wonderful hosts and such a lovely play to stay for both humans and horses.

Aiken Spring 2024: Part 3 | Into the deep

 

My ego took a small hit at the dressage show, but clearly Hampton's did not.

Day 6:

After a weekend of emotional trauma horse showing, we decided to make Monday a lazy day and took two of the horses to Sandy Hills. This is such a neat place where you can do just about anything you want to - schooling in dressage areas, school stadium or XC, use the sand track, hack around or swim on the pond. 

As responsible horse girls, we of course chose to venture into the pond.

(View from Eli's ears) About the deepest we got. 

The pond is reasonably shallow unless you head out toward the dock area. It was my original intention to get Hampton all the way and hang on while he swam, but after some "What if" thoughts, we decided to chicken out and just wade in to about the horse's bellies. I didn't want to risk any horse or human getting injured, or running loose around this nice farm and getting us banned. 

No one got dunked either!

An interesting thing happens when one gets reasonably deep in water. All power steering and leg aids really cease to work. I felt like a rank beginner grabbing mane and trying to "shoo" my horse along. I don't know if that's just me or? But it was pretty hilarious.

Hamp enjoyed a fun splash

Hampton waded around, got in to about his belly and we just had a very relaxing, no stress hour letting the horses play and soak in the water. We hacked around the track a little bit too before heading back to home base. 

View on the track with H and Eli.

Day 7:

Tuesday it was back to work and we went to visit my favorite S judge for a lesson. Some takeaways:

• I am too tight and rigid
• "Pressurize" the horse in front of you, instead of pulling on the rein
• Hampton needs to be more round, "in a shape"
• Don't warm up in such a flat canter
• Left leg too far back
• Don't let him run! many many half halts to rebalance

Overall a really productive lesson. She will give the cold hard truth to you, which I love because then she makes it better. The level of skill and sophistication required is kind of overwhelming to me at times. This must be how our horses feel when we give them 10000 different directions and then get irritated they "aren't listening." Sorry Hamp! haha

And one of the biggest lessons I have learned in dressage, and learning to ride in general, is that you will hear complete opposite directions and ways of doing things from different people. This is normal, and you just gotta take what works for you. 

One more Aiken installment to come!

Post-lesson selfie
Hampton over my shit.

Aiken Spring 2024: Part 2 | Speed traps

Day 3:

After the Stable View schooling show and a really great Thursday lesson, the weather gods pretty much forced us to stay put on Friday. We had planned to go to Hitchcock Woods for a walk, but it rained pretty much all day. 

We found a brief window in the rain and went on a little hack just around Jumping Branch. Still ended up getting rained on though. 

Obviously we spent much of the day going to tack stores. 

Day 4:

The weekend was the rated dressage show, back at Stable View and the rated debut of my Grand Prix Freestyle! Hampton warmed up SUPER on Saturday but unfortunately I was in a very rushed and stressed headspace and decided to CHANGE MY PLAN at the last minute which, as we all know, you probably shouldn't do at a horse show. 

I marched right in the ring and proceeded to run poor Hampton right off his feet. He became unbalanced and frazzled, resulting in mistakes in the pirouette, the ones and then the trot work because so bobbly and unbalanced the judge eliminated us for being too irregular.

While somewhat embarrassed, I thanked the judge and gave Hampton many pats. He did nothing wrong and didn't knew we were kicked out. I knew right away it was my riding that was the problem, but did jog Hampton when we got back to home base just incase. He jogged out sound and fine.

Day 5:

We had a morning ride for my freestyle on Sunday and I took the truck and trailer just me and Hampton and was able to remain calm and focused this time. Again, Hampton warmed up super. He LOVES the Attwood footing I swear.

Pre-freestyle game faces

This time I went in and tried to go SLOW, swingy and remain accurate with in the test. It paid off and we scored a whopping 67%! In A Grand Prix freestyle! What?! Including an *8* on the left pirouette! I got just a tick ahead of my music a couple of times, but things will smooth out and I was really happy with Hampton and much happier with my riding.

Lesson learned. Slow the F down.

Hamp got a new halter!

Part 3 coming soon!

Aiken Spring 2024: Part 1 | Schooling and Fluffing

 

Ok so 2024 is starting to redeem itself a little bit after absolutely kicking my ass at first.

We had another fantastic spring Aiken trip! 10 days of nothing but horses, horse girls, shopping, showing, good food, a little booze, lessons, and more horses results in many moments of laughing, joy, stars in my eyes, a little guilt for the money I spent, emotions, exhaustion and dehydration. However, I would do it again many times over. 

Day 1:

Our first day in Aiken featured a lovely little middle-of-the-week dressage schooling show at Stable View. This was the perfect opportunity to 1) Loosen up Hampton from the haul the day before and 2) Do a run through of our Grand Prix freestyle with no pressure. 

Stable View schooling show

I got a little bit off my music, but ended up getting a 71% from a "r" judge and many great comments.

"I got to Grand Prix through blood, sweat, tears and Emotional Trauma"
heh heh. No, but really though.

Day 2:

On Thursday I hauled Hampton over to one of my favorite Aiken instructors, SD. This was THE lesson we both needed today. I spent a good deal of our warm up up in half seat just letting Hampton stretch out and briskly canter around. Sarah's objective was now that he is trained in the movements, we need to focus on "fluffing him up" and adrenalizing him so that he offers more of his own energy.

"Now that you are at Grand Prix, we get to the good stuff," she said. But, it's all basics. Basics get you to GP, and they also make it better.

We worked on throwing in some changes as well, working on getting them airy and open and not so stuck. This resulted in both of us losing our balance at times, but it's good homework. After each little burst of work, right back to half seat and forward and "galloping." 

We touched on some passage as well with the same idea. Ask for a bit of work, then right away forward and stretching. He really started to get lofty and offering passage on his own. It's not the easiest for Hampton to do, but he was really trying!

I think sometimes I get stuck in "being perfect" and too regimented that it's ok to let the horse gallop and maybe get a little playful. Then USE that energy for more expression and lift. It was such a fun, playful lesson!

Also, I bought a new stock tie and here it is:

Part 2 coming soon!