Panic at the Desk(o)

"Oh hei photographer lady!"

Octoberfest entries are SENT. Holla! I've decided to do Training Level tests 1 and 3, and then the Green As Grass combined test. That's max 18" height. Of course I also signed up to school cross country, which is probably what I'm most excited about.

This show will be our last horrah for the year. And maybe for a long while. I've been having such a friggin good time this summer with my horse and my horse friends, that I sort of pushed reality away. Well, it all came crashing down on me tonight at work. When I realized that come April, I won't have a job anymore. Cue panic attack. Cue meds to stop panic attack. Yay.

But I really should save some money up in case I do end up unemployed in the spring. So, no horse shows and no expensive clinics. A couple of lessons here and there, sure. I really thought I would have landed a new job by now ... but it hasn't happened. I refuse to let myself feel like a failure, or not good enough. That's not going to help. But for crying outloud - someone hire me!!

I've got one training horse at the moment and he's super cute. His owner is a very good friend of mine from grade school. She found him at a random auction in Missouri and sent him to me to have some buttons installed. My friend says he's a pull Percheron, but I don't really believe her. He's way too typey, and only about 16.3 hands. But I could be wrong, I know some Percherons are on the smaller side.

Sampson says "Why you put
this torture device on me?"

Anyhoo, his name is Sampson and he's still in the "oh yes we lunge in side reins and you do what I say" stage of training. This week I'm hoping to climb aboard. So far he's been quite sane, although a little worried about me and what I may do to him. This isn't a bad thing in my book.

He does sound like he has allergies or something because he wheezes - even at a standstill. I know it could be a million things, but his owner says it is mostly seasonal. Poor guy.

So that's what my week looks like. Work during the day, and try to work 2 horses before the sun goes down.

Oh yeah - and start packing up my sh*t to move to a new place. Good grief.

'Nobody makes us wait'

Because of some weird alignment of the planets, I had another day off work today. (Oh, don't get too excited for me. I now work the next 10 days in a row). Soooo I decided to haul Hampton over to Forrest Hill for a dressage lesson.

We got some great homework to focus on. Hampton was on his best behavior and worked his butt off for me. Almost literally. By the end of the lesson, his poor hocks were all wobbly and tired and he was sweating on his stifles.

Here is are some exercises we did:

• Walk. Block the forward a little, then sidepass. Yes, not leg yield. Not half pass. But sidepass. This is a tool that I haven't really used. I had thought it was mostly a western tool for trail classes, etc. Turns out, it's also a great stifle and hock strengthening exercise. At first, Hampton thought this question was a bit obnoxious (and hard!) but in the end, it really improved his trot and leg yields.

• Inside bend, but turn the shoulders with the outside aids while keeping inside bend. I have great control over his shoulders, but have been using counterbend to get that. Now it's time to keep the inside bend, but still turn off the outside aids. This went well at walk and trot, a bit more difficult at canter.

• Leg yield wall to center line. Pretty good at the trot. Canter is a bit tough, only made it to the quarter line. I think it's more coordination on his part. It will come in time.

• Leg yield head to the wall. Again, another tool I have neglected. Not anymore - this is a great exercise because it forces him to really cross his hind legs and step under, but I don't need to use a lot of rein because the wall acts as the barrier. He also thought this was hard but we worked through it. I need to remember to ask for more haunches.

• Trot lengthenings. I was blown away by what I saw in the mirror. Four months ago, he would just go faster. Probably break into the canter. After all this leg yield work, I pointed him across the diagonal, fluffed the reins, slid my legs back and POW he goes. I looked in mirror and actually said "holy sh*t" outloud. Helllloooo there sexeh floaty lengthened trot (which I will make into medium trot over the winer!). I wish I had that on video! Do I smell First Level for next year?!?

Overall comments were that he is way ahead of schedule for a 4 year old. My instructor said his canter was lovely and balanced, which made me snort because if she had seen his canter 2 years ago she probably would have told me to buy a different horse. I need to keep trying to ride him up in the poll. He's round, he accepts the contact, but now he needs to raise his poll more. Also, the "eggbeater" canter I speak of sometimes comes from stiffness in his stifles and hocks. He doesn't want to flex them very well, which leads to a downhill appearance sometimes (even though he is not built downhill at all). But the exercises she gave me should help with that. Basically - build strength.

I love lessons with her because she A) works both of us hard and B) gives me excellent homework. She's having a dressage camp mid October but I think I'll have to pass because of money. It's a lot to ask of a 4 year old anyway as there are 2 lessons a day. Perhaps in the spring we'll go.

And on another note, I've decided to go to Octoberfest for sure. Peer pressure. :) Dressage and a combined test ... and cross country schooling. Holla!

***

On other news, I found this video on YouTube. Look out young David Letterman is?!? LOL! Also, this band rocks. Don't care what anyone says.




My favorite Counting Crows song ... perhaps in my top 10 fav songs evah. The acoustic version will give you goosebumps. There's no video to this, just music. Enjoy. Beautiful!

Now what?

Hampton charmin'

I have finally emerged from my sickly, cold-medicine-induced haze.

I'm still have a minor horse show hangover. You know, when your muscles are really sore and you still want to sleep 12 hours a day. I have yet to unpack my trailer, too. Bad me.

I'm not sure where to go next. I am still eyeing Octoberfest, but there are a couple of shows closer to home that I could go to instead. That means less money to pour down my gas tank. No matter where we go, we'll do another combined test and a couple of plain dressage tests. Hampton has proven that he's not only confident about crossrails, but he likes it. The good thing about Octoberfest (at the Hoosier Horse Park) is that you can school on the cross country course.

Maybe this is a lofty goal but ... next year I really want to do a recognized horse trail. At beginner novice.

My long term goal - inspired by fellow blogger and friend Amy - to run a Novice 3 day event.

Of course it all depends. My job search situation is still a friggin hot mess. It seems like I can land interviews, and even second interviews ... but I'm just not good enough to land the job. I may have to start looking out of state again (I don't want to, I have good things going for me here ...). And we all know how moving and new jobs can thwart your horse show plans.

Good news is that I am moving Oct. 1 into a different house. It will be cheaper for me (yay!) so I'm hoping I won't have to struggle so much. I'm hoping I can have some extra cash to invest in lessons over the winter. I also need to go to the dentist.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out which "need" I'll pay for first.

My mind is foggy. Oh wait.

Here's a photo from the early morning dressage tests. The farm is beautiful in the fog.

I also have to give map props to Kate over at The Adventures of Lucy.

A month or so ago, I asked her to customize a saddle pad for me. If you are not familiar with her work, please go check it out! Sadly, I didn't get any photos that really captured the saddle pad from the show. I showed Hampton in it on Saturday in all of our classes and I will now consider it a good luck charm.

Anyway, here is a close up (not on a horse):

Show summary

Prologue: Down with the sickness

Friday before the show, I go into work for a few hours in order to finish the special 9/11 anniversary section for Sunday. During work, I start to feel more and more sick. At first I thought it was allergies, especially since the newsroom has zero ventilation and is gross and moldy. But by noon I knew I was sick as a dog. Great. Just great.

Yeah, he was in my nose. Havin' a party.

After work, I ran out to the barn. Got the trailer packed and both horses bathed. We drove down that night, tucked the horses in bed and spent the night at my Steph's parents house. At this point, I can't breathe through my nose at all and am pretty sure I'm running a fever.

Saturday morning we get up at 5 am. I hadn't really slept because I felt so sick, but oh well. I was going to suck it up. I go to put my contacts in and discover that one of them has a friggin hole in it. SHIT. In a moment of panic I thought I may have to either 1) only wear one contact all day or 2) Show in my glasses. Thankfully, I had packed an extra contact in my overnight bag at some point or another. Whew.

We get to the farm around 6:30 to feed the boys breakfast and make our plan of attack for the day. The schedule is pretty decent - we would be busy, but not scrambling. Up first was Hampton's two dressage tests at 8:16 and 8:27.

that little Haflinger in the background was naughty!

Dressage: uhh huhhh it was gooooood

For a schooling show, the judge was sort of hard on the riders. Not mean, but most of the scores were pretty low. When I went to look at the scores, there were very few people who even hit the 60s. I found this to be a little unusual.

So when Hampton got a 65% I was friggin thrilled! We had a solid, relaxed test. I felt that I was bending him much better through the corners and much more accurate with my figures than I have been in the past. It paid off. We even got an 8 on one of our 20m trot circles! The other test was just as nice, except he decided to yell and throw his head up in the air at the end of one circle. 4 year old moment ... she dinged us with a 4 for that little issue. 62% for that test. Both scores were still good enough to land us in first place for the combined test AND event derby as we headed into the jumping phases. In fact, we were quite a ways in the lead from the other riders.

JJ = so adorable.

As far as cute little JJ, the reining horse I brought along, he was just as wonderful as you could ask. I really give him a lot of credit. Here he is, at his first horse show. With a weird lady on his back, weird tack and a strange place. I just showed him in Intro and he trotted around like a little champ. We ended up 4th in one test (out of 8 horses), and then in 7th our of 9 for the other test. As a reining horse, he is very used to halting, then backing up right away. Well ..... X halt salute, he backs up. *sigh* So that cost us. But it's not his fault. He is cute as a button and has the most willing attitude. I loved showing him. Perhaps I will horse-nap him again for another show someday. :)

The jumping: a leap of faith


So both courses were really flowing and easy to remember. This was good because I was sick, and now drugged up. I was somewhat concerned because a couple of the jumps looked intimidating to me. All we have to jump at home are rinky-dink PVC pipes and a couple of solid white poles. And now I am going to ask Hampton to jump multi-colored crossrails, PLANKS (he has never seen one), and a small gait (again, never seen one). *gulp*. The cross country jumps for the derby I felt a little better about. It was nothing we hadn't seen out on trail rides. Also, I have not jumped a course since college. That would be 2003, people. On a similar note, I haven't jumped much of ANYthing in several years. I knew I was rusty. But Hampton needed me to be confident and show him the way.

So ... I decided to our stadium round first. To my shock -- we go CLEAR. And not only that, by the 3rd or 4th jump, he's actually pulling me to the fences. Ok, so I got jumped out of the tack a couple of times (my mother took a video of this round - I will post the hilarity if she figures out how to upload it). But he was honest and so game about it. It was as if he was like "Ok, I get this game!" I was also thankful I did not braid because I was grabbing mane after his first leap.

Weeeeeeee! (yup, I have a fistful of mane)

I stayed in the ring and went straight out for our derby class. And again, he was pulling me to the fences. Ironically, we had a refusal at the smallest effing jump on the property. A lame, 2x4 on the ground. I laughed, booted him and we trotted over. We also walked over the rolltop. Fine by me! But only 4 faults for the stop. Landing us in first place for the derby and the CT!!

Warm up.

so much fun!

I cannot even tell you how proud I am of him. Not only did we win, but I felt he came away with more confidence about jumping. PLUS our dressage was relaxed and much improved. He did whinny a handful of times but it's not nearly as bad as it was in the spring. We have come so far this year. He has truly brought the fun back to showing for me and I love every moment of it.

So sorry if this post was rambly and long ... I'm still a bit drugged up and drowsy, but on the road to recovery. :)

Good horse.

so. tired. :)

We made it back in one piece from the show. It was awesome!

But I did get slammed with a nasty head cold ... plus horse show exhaustion ... so I think I shall write tomorrow about how things went. Right now I only want to sleep. zzzzzz

But here's a preview!

Time turns elastic

Ride times are in for Saturday's CAF show. :)


I will be a busy girl!


8:16 a.m. Hampton dressage (Green as Grass Combined Test)

8:27 Hampton dressage (Green As Grass Event Derby)

Somewhere between 11-11:30 Hampton jumping (CT and Derby)


1:40 JJ Dressage (Intro A)

2:22 Hampton Dressage (Training Level 1)

3:24 JJ dressage (Intro B)


My plan is to braid the boys Friday evening and put sleezies on them. I think that will be fine since the nights are cool now. I'm going to trailer them in Friday evening, maybe get some schooling or lunging in and wake up at the butt crack of dawn to wear Hampton out school Hampton Saturday morning.


Thank goodness I have a half day tomorrow at work so I can get all of this done! 


I'm pretty excited. No matter how things go, I really enjoy horse shows, the early mornings, hard work and spending time with your horse.


I will report back with photos and results. :) Have a good weekend all!