The Art of the Unbothered

Hamp and I took a Friday evening off and decided to try our Grand Prix freestyle at the Kentucky Horse Park. Frankly, an opportunity to show in the Rolex arena should never be turned down. Haha.

Behaving at the trailer.

We had a relaxing afternoon getting ready. Got there in plenty of time. Human and horse were very relaxed. I had caffeine and food in my stomach. Absolutely an ideal lead-up to a show.

Hamp warmed up great, absolutely no problems. Weather was gorgeous.

Sprucing up the Porkchop

We went in the ring and ... just ... things went to shit.

Right out of the halt I do a canter half pass zig zag. MISSED THE CHANGE at the change of bend and was ummm half passing on the wrong lead? I guess that's what you call it? Just right off the bat nothing went right. Missed a bunch of ones, screwed up the twos on a circle. Passage way too trot like. 

I have no idea what happened. We got a generous 61%.

Of course I went back to the trailer and HATED MYSELF for about 20 minutes. Shouldn't be doing this. Definitely not good enough to go to Regionals. We don't belong at this level. Sloppy. Out of our scope. Absolutely shit test. I am wasting my money.

But then I remembered some advice I heard in Wisconsin.

"You have to not let it bother you."

I think this might be one of the most important characteristics of the top riders. Because they "fail" just as much as anyone. Except they keep going. They are unbothered by crappy tests and bad scores. Of course they go home and work on the weak points, but one has to remain unbothered.

I haven't quite mastered the art yet. But for now, we move forward!

Picture of Sylvester and Obi demonstrating how to be unbothered.

Cheese and Dancing

Beautiful Wisconsin

I really enjoy new-to-me shows and facilities and decided to head on up to Wisconsin last weekend for Dressage at Sorensen Park. It is a bit of a haul from KY, but making Aiken trips has really broken me in to longer hauls and it doesn't bother me much anymore. Hampton seems to handle it fine as well. We did break the Wednesday trip up by making a pit stop in Indiana to impose jump on the trailer with the BFF.

Thursday

It was really nice to have Thursday as just a relaxing schooling day. Hamp and I got a tune-up from one of our favorite Indy trainers, and got some of the best passage I have ever felt. Can I replicate that without her on the ground? No. No I cannot.

So the couple that runs this facility is a very nice, older couple. They were LOVELY and very very kind. But also, the music for the freestyles was a CD boombox plugged into speakers. Did I have a burnt CD with my music? That is a negative. I believe the rules state you SHOULD have one, but I have been emailing my music for several years now. I did not think of it.

So off we went on a wild goose chase. We ended up at Best Buy where I purchased a portable CD drive/burner to plug into my work computer. I am ASHAMED to admit I had forgotten how to burn a CD. I am a Napster kid for F's sake. But after about an hour we did figure it out and rushed to give the CD over for the soundcheck. It worked! 

Show arena

We went to a cute bar inside a former bank for dinner. The cheese curds in Wisconsin are life changing. I will never be able to eat kentucky cheese curds again.

Friday

Friday morning was our freestyle and as I passed the sound guy, he warned me that after I raised my hand he would press play but it takes a minute for the music to play. This is what happened Thursday night during our sound check. So I made a plan on the fly to raise my hand about 5 meters before I usually do. That should give time for the delay to happen.

Good memories! I saw Phish at this venue back in the day!

Well, I raised my hand and the music played IMMEDIATELY. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch back up and was behind my music until almost the walk tour. This was my error, I SHOULD have just stopped and waited for the music at P, which is where I normally raise my hand at the canter.

And because I was rushed, the one's got all funky and the trot half passes were total shit. This was not Hampton's fault, he was like "oh shit lady ok ok ok I am going!"

Professional photos by Melissa Franke

We scored a 64% and some change, just short of the 65 I need for the Gold bar. Story of my life: Good, but not good enough.

After showing all morning we took off and got pedicures in Lake Geneva. What a gorgeous little town! 

Double pirouettes in the freestyle

View from dinner on Lake Geneva

Saturday

I chose to do an I-2 test on Saturday since I still need one more score for Regionals. Hampton warmed up great, but during the test he sort of puttered out. He was very obedient but I lost the energy and the piaffe and passage was pretty weak. But, this time we were good enough and scored a 62% and some change. I will take it! Punched that ticket to Regionals!

Hampton trying so hard for me

Nerd alert

The drive home was thankfully uneventful until I went to unhitch my trailer and the damn coupler would not let go of the ball. At 10 p.m. Major props to the barn owner who rescued me, otherwise I was going to drag the trailer back to my condo. hahaha. no.

I would 10/10 go to this show again. The stalls were nice (with mats), plenty of lush grass for grazing, great food choices, nice footing and pleasant show staff. 

My hair has long ago said F off bitch. You can't control me.

Thank you Sorensen Park! 

Now to try and get that last freestyle score ....

... saw this on the road.