Secret's out!

I've been keeping a secret for a few weeks because I didn't 1) want to jinx myself and 2) announce anything that hasn't been "officially announced" yet.

But hey! I am a top 10 finalist in this awesome - AWESOME - Dressage Today contest!

I'm not sure what the judges are looking for, but I had to write an essay and submit a video.

Fingers crossed!

Recognize that bay on the bottom right? :)

No, you can't excuse yourself.

Old photo of Hamp and I at the KHP in 2013.

So here's an interesting situation that came up at the recent KDA/Pony Cup Show at the Kentucky Horse Park. I went down to watch some friends show on Saturday, and ended up meeting a gal who had the following happen to her.

The judge is an extremely well-known judge. One I have shown under several times. She is generally well-respected.

The exhibitor goes into show 4-3. The trot work goes great, but when she starts the canter work she starts to feel her horse is just not quite right. Once she attempts a pirouette, she is now positive the horse is off so she stops to excuse herself.

The judge says no. You have to continue.


.... so this exhibitor, knowing her horse is not right, goes off course numerous times in order to get eliminated so that she can stop the test. Eventually the judge says "That's it!!" and eliminates her. The judge basically accuses her of score chasing, which is why she refused to excuse her when she asked.

We all know score chasers. Those who excuse themselves when they know they aren't going to get a score they deem good enough. This girl is not one of them. But even so, does a judge have the right to just say  no?

If you had been in this position, what would you have done?

Adventures in trail riding

Heading out on the trails!

A couple of friends of mine suggested we head down to Shaker Village (near Lexington kind of) for a trail ride on Monday. Of course I semi-invited myself. I had never been to this particular park and pretty much anywhere in Kentucky is beautiful to trail ride.

I thought briefly about bringing Royale, but since the other two horses going were also green beans, I decided to bring Hamp since he is a veteran and would lead the other two across sketchy areas of need be. Plus it's always good to haul him somewhere and NOT drill him in a dressage ring.

So we hit the road shortly after 10 am and arrived about 1130. The park appears quaint, quiet and has a "people area" where there is a diner and museum. I learned quite a bit about the Shakers. An odd cult they were. No wonder they all died out. That happens when you don't have sex with each other.

Most of the West trail was this wonderful mowed trails where you
could trot and canter. That's Hamp's big butt up front.

Anyway, we were tacked up and on board fairly quickly. We hit the West trail first. Which was the shorter loop. It did not take us to the creek, but it was a good ride of nicely maintained and mowed paths along rolling hills and fields. PERFECT for a little conditioning. We did trotting and cantering up and down hills. I was pleased that Hamp did not turn into a dragon like he did on the hunter pace a few years ago. He was reasonably rate-able and was fine with following and leading. (Don't get any ideas, still not planning to EVER take him on another hunter pace).

After we finished the West loop, we went back out on the Shawnee Run trail - which would take us down to the creek and pond. These were slightly more rugged trails - fairly rocky and several places where you had to cross rock. The green mare wanted to slip and panic on the rocks, so we took our time with her. While as Hamp knows to walk very slow and put his head down.

Hamps: "I splash this for you."

After about 3 hours we FINALLY make it to the creek for a quick little swim. The bottom was a little sketchy, and I did not realize that there was a massive drop down. Hamps, trusting me like he does, ended up stepping down this bank and quickly decided I had made a bad decision. For a minute his front end was down and his butt was still up on the bank, up in the air. hahahaha. Smartly, he backed up out of the deeper water. No worse for wear. Harper, the green mare, actually jumped up that same bank/drop.

It was starting to rain so we left - passing a lovely waterfall on the way out. Then it started to pour, so as soon as we were out of the woods we picked up a canter and hoped we would get back to the trailer soon. Thankfully it was only about 10 minutes away. Not that it mattered, we were all soaked. Didn't really care though as it was still 85 degrees.

We had almost made it back to Louisville when ... dun dun dun .... POP. Tire blows. On the Gene Snyder highway. During rush hour. We ended up pulling over right in front of the most dangerous merging point on that highway (I71 merger).

Shit.

Ok, we got this.

Sarah started working on the blown tire while I got the spare unhooked and ready to go.

Slight problem.

3 of the lug nuts were stripped.

Hmm, ok. So thankfully Sarah's dad fixes jets for UPS planes, and he was on his way out. Certainly a trailer tire would be a piece of cake for him.


Wrong.

After multiple trips to Lowes and Auto Zone, and a variety of tools purchased, he could not get those %&^(%* lug nuts off. It was clear we would need a specialized power tool for this.

So we called AAA. They won't work on a trailer with horses on it. And UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was I taking those horses off that trailer. Way way too dangerous. Tried multiple other companies. No dice.

Finally - FINALLY Goodyear came out and saved the day. However, the lug nuts were so stripped that two of them got stuck in the lug wrench he used. So, we had to drive home with 6 lug nuts instead of 8. Good thing we only had about 8 miles to go.

TIRE OFF FINALLY. Damn you lug nuts.

We were on the side of the highway for more than 3 hours. NOT ONE PEEP out of the horses. They slept and ate hay. No pawing, nothing. The humans were far more stressed out than the horses. They were thankfully tired from our trail ride and seemed content to stand and nap. Thankfully it has cooled down by then so no one was even sweating.

A friend was amazing and brought us pizza ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, too! LOL! Holy crap that tasted so good. We were all exhausted and hungry. However our clothes were all dry finally. ha.

Pizza party on the interstate people!

This experience makes me seriously consider a membership to US Rider. Very thankful that everyone made it home safe. Hamps seemed just fine Tuesday morning for breakfast.

I am sure he thought it was just another adventure with his moron of a human.

HOME at 10 pm!!! 12 hours after we left!
Hamp is like "omg please put me back in my field"

The big 1-0

OMG I am terrible. I forgot Hampton's birthday!

His actual birthday is June 20, I think I remembered a couple days later.

not funneh you forgot birfday lady

Not to fear though. Here is what Hamps got his birthday week:

MagnaWave treatment
New shoes (farrier adjusting his shoeing. He thinks he may be slipping behind)
Haircut
Sheath cleaning (I was very thorough. He is the cleanest gelding on the farm right now. ha)
New bell boots
Updated SmartPaks (Vitamin E and DMG)

Hampton is 10 this year. TEN YEARS OLD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PORKCHOP!

Photos by Aimee of course. :)

Stop polishing your saddle.

Raise your end if you have ever been told any of the following in regards to cantering:

"Polish the saddle with your seat"
"Don't let him pull you out of the tack"
"Anchor in that saddle"
"Hips like a whore"

I have been riding for 30 years ( christ ) and after watching a webinar by Mary Wanless, I think I may be sitting the canter the wrong way.

HERE is the webinar. It's about 7 minutes, but it's enough information to get the idea of what she is talking about. Worth the watch.

I'll wait ...

So question. Do you guys know of anyone who ends up sitting  way too far back during the "down" beat of the canter? If they are, they are essentially pushing the horse more on his forehand. They are emphasizing the "down" on the front legs, instead of on the hind legs.

Oh maybe this was just a bad moment in time ....

Nope here's another one

And another. Could you  bury your horse any more Karen?

and yet another. In the same class!

Oh I have plenty of examples. Don't test me. I am way too far behind the vertical in a gazillion canter photos. It's pretty horrifying.

Don't get me wrong, they are most certainly times when you need to sit the hell back, and get in the back seat. No doubt. And Hampton is croup-high already, making it quite tempting to sit back in order to counter that feeling.

But in general, instead of rocking back during the down beat, then at vertical during the up - you should be rocking forward during the up and at vertical during the down. Basically I have been thinking "sit with your hind" with my seat during the upbeat, almost pushing back with my seatbones. Think of pushing his hind leg down with your seat.

No more "polish the saddle."

Same down beat, better position on my part.
Now if only I could keep my horse's ears up.

This is not going to be fixed in a day. Or even a week, but I have been thinking of it when I canter and trying to re-do 30 years of muscle memory. Hampton responds well to this. Infact, the first time I tried it he did a canter-walk. No worries, he at least responded! This technique is quite helpful in the pirouettes especially, when I need to really feel where that hind leg is and keep it sitting.

And this concludes this installment of "I've been riding 30 years and yet still do not know what I am doing."

Until next time.

IDS show wrap-up: We conquered.

So Kentucky has turned into the hot depths of hell since we returned from the show. I'm so glad this awful humidity waited until Sunday to try and melt everyone.

Anyhoo, so what a show! I think this show has been a long time coming for me and Hampton. All the pieces finally fit together and we got the scores I have always known we were capable of. About damn time, Karen! I know, I know. I took the easy road and showed in 2nd and 3rd level, but it's not the level I was concerned about. It was show ring ridability. And THAT is why I am so thrilled with Hamp - he let me ride in the ring!

Warm up included a little piaffe before we went in the ring.
Poll too low but story of my life.

By no means was it perfect. In fact the first test, 3-3, was rather tight and sticky. I rode in the double and once again Hampton started diving on me, resulting in some seriously downhill moments and loss of connection because I was desperately trying to keep his F---- head up.

I think he overpowers in the extended trot, resulting in loss of balance
and thus going downhill.

I did a lot of this "Pick your head up horse!" throughout this test

No really, ears UP!

After that, I scrapped the double for the rest of the weekend. He goes so much better in it at home, but clearly in the show ring the snaffle is my friend for now. Because he does not dive in the snaffle. He's just much more heavy and bracing in the jaw. Soooo I guess I pick my poison. I think the judges would rather see him more braced, than with his nose in the damn dirt.

Always so easily entertained

Saw a deer during our sunset grazing time. = very alert porkchop

I am also quite pleased with our fitness levels. Neither one of us ran out of gas at all! I was careful with warm-up, making sure to conserve his energy and freshness but also making sure that back was loose.

We are starting to have 8s peppered in our tests now! It really pays off to pick on those technical movements that do not require a fancy horse to score well on. For example, we got 8s on our reinbacks and simple changes. Don't need a Valegro to score well on those! Also nailed our changes especially on Sunday scoring 7s on each.

Judges comments were more of the same. Needs more uphill balance, etc. etc.

Yes, yes he does.

Love his happy expression. As you can see I totally abandoned my curb rein! lol

This show also included several other adventures including:

- Helping Jen and Connor move in to the horse park. I am sure Jen will post her own view, but she was quite sick and in spite of me basically arguing with her to GO TO BED, she insisted she get her horse moved to the show grounds. Talk about a rally. She is a tough betch! :)

Chillin with Jen and Connor. Love these two

- My temporary tooth falling off before my class. (stuck it back on like a hillbilly.)

- Awesome vendor food

- Volunteering in between classes. (If you think you know what goes on behind the scenes, you probably don't. Was quite alarmed at a couple of incidents during the show ...)

- Sketchy errands with Liz.

- Watching some of the rodeo on Saturday night. Good times though.

Getting some side eye from Hamp

Sunrise at the hoosier horse park

And now I have a dilemma. Do I move up to PSG in August? Or do I stick with 3rd level and aim him toward some breed awards?

Weeee!

----

I have an excellent post in the works about how I am re-learning how to canter.

So stay tuned!

Good job, horse.

Well that went well.

So this weekend's show was full of adventures. I am exhausted and need to go through photos and type up a show wrap up. But, I'll just spoil it for you:

Saturday
3-3 : 61% (2nd place)
2-3: 67.9% (1st place)

High Point Second Level Champion
Dover Medal winner

Sunday
3-3: 64% (1st place)
High Point Third Level Champion

GO HAMPTON!!! Could not be more thrilled with him.
Will write later! :)