First: We spoil the horse

Oh hey kids. Don't try jumping this big in a dressage saddle mmm k?
#LowerlegFAIL

How do you all prepare for a major championship competition?

(I mean besides randomly jumping your horse through grids?)

I'll be honest. I have never competed at USDF Regionals before. And the last time I competed at anything close to this level was probably in college when I catch-rode a horse at the Morgan Grand National and World Championships in OKC.

I think it's important to treat Regionals as "just another horse show." Because it is. No use in putting extra pressure on myself or my horse.

But it is pretty special to be there, so I am doing extra things here and there to help us prep.

THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE IN MY CLASS
OH SHIT.

Spoiling the horse

Hamps is getting two magnawave treatments (he LOVES magnawave. After freaking the F out during his first treatment, he now thinks it's the bee knees)

Fresh shoes. Had my farrier do tiny adjustments to help Hamp have more traction in his hind end. Very minor, but makes a huge difference.

New DSB boots. Got him a fresh pair of white DSB boots to school and warm up in.

Nexium. So this is interesting. I started Hamp on Nexium - yup the same OTC med I take - to see if it would help some of his random spooking and teeth grinding. I toss in 3 pills a day for him. Now, it could be a coincidence but his spooking is GONE and the teeth grinding and chomping now only occurs during high pressure training. Interesting. So, I'm keeping him on it through regionals. I should buy stock in Nexium. Between myself and the horse, we go through about 2 bottles A WEEK. I will also have some GUT on hand, and probios for closer to show time incase he gets the nervous poos.

Clipping. Will be going all out for clipping. Hind socks, cornet bands for sure. And the usual under the jaw and general tidying of his ear hair. His tail has already been dyed.

Next up: Spoiling the rider
What do you all do to prep? The horse and yourself?

#RoadtoRegionals

We've been taking it easy the last week and a half. I am still riding the post-silver-medal high, and Hampton seems to know that he is kind of a big deal now. People know him.

I've been going back to basics, working on suppleness, throughness and transitions. Then Hampton went head-bobbing lame on Thursday. Hurricane Harvey remnants showed up Friday so I didn't ride then either. And then Saturday Hamp was sound so .... VERY FUNNY JOKE HAMPTON HAHAHAHAHA. Guessing he just grabbed his heal or had a little stone bruise.

I'm turning my focus to Regional Championships now. I am super excited as this is the first time I have ever gone. We are going to do a 4-1 warm-up class, and then the Third Level AA Championship is on Saturday.

I don't expect to get a ribbon (um there are 40+ people qualified!), but I do need a 65% to get a wildcard invite to Nationals. I'm making the elusive 65% my goal. Either way, it will be a fun experience in a big atmosphere. I'm proud of Hampton no matter what. He has been a superstar this year.

Time to make 3rd level super polished if we are going to compete in the big leagues.

Let the #RoadtoRegionals begin!

PSG Part 2: Vindicated

Again all photos by Jen S.
Love that early morning light!

Our ride time was 8:30 Sunday morning. Which I was fine with due to the heat, but it meant I was at the barns braiding by 5:30 am. Starbucks is not open that early *shakes fist in angry manner* so I stopped at the gas station for giant Mt. Dew. #ashamed

Hampton warmed up really well. He felt loose, pushing and was reasonably supple. I didn't want to waste his energy, so I did a lot of work at the walk and then would just touch on movements here and there and then immediately rest him.

Good boy Hampton for staying straight in the change while his rider
throws her body to the side. UGH

I felt calm going into the ring this time. I knew we could do this. We were old pros by now, right?!

I think perhaps this is the best test we laid down all year. I cleaned up a lot of the changes, and overall had him more uphill than the day before. He was right there for me in all of the movements. Never backed off, never dove down in the bridle. Still not a perfect test but I would say it was 100% on par with the level at which we are training. Which is all I can hope for! I came out of the ring thrilled.

Staying more uphill!

Hampton knew he was a good boy. He seemed proud, and relaxed. Many sugars were stuffed in his mouth.

I was pretty sure we had pulled off a 60, but you never know sometimes with judges.

It was about an hour before the class was posted (there was a break in the middle) and once I spotted the scores I saw that 63+%!! Plus we had WON the class! And we were not the only ones in it!

What an amazing horse he is!

I high-fived my long-time coach who happened to be standing there, then high-fived Liz who squealed (no cheering in dressage!!). Then I sort of stood around in shock for a while.

There it is. My USDF Silver medal! And Hampton was now an FEI horse! A green one, but I'd say those scores are pretty darn impressive!

There is sugar in your pocket. Don't lie, bitch

.... yeah gimme

He was right. There was in indeed sugar in my pocket

I'm still processing this achievement (along with a number of other things that have happened in the past few days. WINE EMERGENCY SOS) ...

I want to thank everyone who sent messages, texts, etc. I feel so loved! What an amazing community horse people are. It made things extra special to have Liz and Jen (and Bryn!) there with me to help celebrate. They also kicked ass on Sunday with their horses, too. I'll never forget this show - it was SO fun.

Jen and Conner 

Hamps got home safely and I gave him 4 days off because he darn well earned it.

Now it's time to regroup for regionals. Which is going to be huge. And out of our league. But I don't even care, it's all about having fun with your horse. The journey. Friends. Life is short, do what you love.

#sap

... back to your regularly-scheduled sarcastic Karen posts. Apologies for the sappy post.

Fluffy is the new good luck charm I think
... and BOOZE WATER

PSG Part 1: Getting our toes wet

All riding photos by Jen S. THANK YOU!!!

It has taken me several days to process the weekend and what just happened.

After you work for such a big goal for so long, and then you finally reach it - what a feeling it is! But also, I have had moments of "Now what?". (Obviously aim for the Grand Prix, Karen!)

I'll split the weekend into 2 posts so you aren't reading a total novel.

FRIDAY/SATURDAY

I dropped Hampton off early Friday at the horse park and made a quick trip north to see my parents since they would be unable to come see me ride.

I got back in time to give Hampton a jog around the arenas. He felt fine, maybe a little tight but that's normal for him. There was some mild bucking and leaping when I tested a canter pirouette but I think I just had him too behind the leg. I fed him dinner and put him to bed.

Sunset ride in pink polos. #realman

I stayed with Jen S. all weekend and let me tell you that she and her husband are the bests hosts ever. I cannot thank them enough for giving me a 5-star suite to stay in and DELICIOUS food. I was probably more quiet than I usually am at their house because I was stuffing my face and also chugging wine. Classy.

I was up early Saturday to go feed Hamp and help Liz with her obnoxiously early rides. I also hopped on Hampton at about 9 am and took him for a light walk-only hack, making sure to loosen his back up but not waste energy. This really helped him I think. When I got on for my actual rides, he was already loose and felt pretty good.

In warm-up

Right before I went in the ring (for my first PSG) he was a little rigid, but I just told myself that it went downhill like it did in Ohio, to just excuse yourself. Don't let it become a hot mess and ruin confidence again.

In we went and the test itself went pretty well! No real disasters. I had some late changes, and a botched walk pirouette but the test was good enough for a 62.4%!!!

I was SHOCKED by this. But it also gave me a big confidence boost. Maybe we are more ready than I thought we were? But I also didn't get my hopes up. That judge was the more generous of the two for the weekend.

Down centerline

Got a 7 on this canter pirouette!

Extended canter!! weee! Go horsie!

At the end of the day I rode 4-1 just to get back in the ring and school a bit. Hampton was running out of energy just a bit (it was pretty  hot, but we are used to training in death-inducing KY humidity so we were able to handle Indiana heat pretty well). He did keep trying for me though. And even though I HAD A READER I went off course and forgot the line of tempis at the end. Total dumbass moment on my part. Anyway, the score was good enough for a 61% and some change. Which also earned us high point 4th level for the day!

Dry cleaner did not have my short coat ready in time, so thankfully coats
were waived this weekend. So I ditched it.

Baking in 4-1

Extended walk was a welcome break.

It was a really great day for our little group at the barn. We all had fantastic rides (see Jen's blog for her round up - boy have these two come a long way! Knock knock second level!) and we did some celebrating with booze water (it's a thing) and more booze later for dinner.

We had an early ride time Sunday so after shoveling another mouth-watering dinner into my face, I crashed into bed.

to be continued ....

!!!!!

I couldn't think of a proper title for this post.

But.

We did it.

Photo by Jen S.

62.8% and a 63.4% in our PSG tests.

Which means I am now a Silver Medalist.

And Hampton is an FEI horse.

More to come, I am still in shock. 

But what an incredible show.

If we go down, we all go down together

SO SWEATY.

Hamp and I hauled over to Flying Cross Farm for a school in their arena this morning. It's a more accurate size than our arena at home, and I thought it would be a good prep for this weekend.

My coach kicked my ASS, and it was a bazillion degrees humidity out so I nearly died but Hamp was game. We ran through the entire PSG and she picked on me about the details I really need to pay attention to. If you screw up one movement, there really is no time to recover before the next one. No more f-ing around. You have to ride every stride.

I think I may have also said that about 3rd level. hahahaha. Oh wittle baby naive Karen.

The Tempi changes are not as confirmed as they need to be, but I'm just going to do what I can.

No, I don't expect to get a 60. But high 50s would be nice!

My goal is to ride the test like I would at home. As if no one was watching. Because the only way I am going to learn how to ride at this level is to actually do it. Scores are just going to have to be damned for now.

I did also throw in a 4-1 test on Friday more more schooling opportunities. But if he does end up being brilliant in the PSG (that test is first), then I can always scratch.

Frankly, the fact that I am not terrified of the PSG test, and actually feel somewhat confident it won't be a total disaster (green, yes, but a hot mess, prob not. God I hope not) - is really telling on just how far we have come this year.

Time to put on my Mean Trainer Pants. And get it done.

Bridle follow-up

Guess whose two nerds got featured on Horse Nation IG?

This is the second time Hamps has made Horse Nation Gram of the day. lol. I mean how lucky did I get with this photo? Derp level achievement unlocked! 

Anyhoo ... onto more serious bizz-nass!

Snaffle Heritage bridle. Still kickin!

Check out this bridle post from Aimee first.

Earlier in the year I did buy Hampton a Premiera bridle from Hypostore. I really loved the white padded, patent leather noseband and the sparkly browband. Plus, I thought Hampton deserved a bridle upgrade.

You know, at first I was not disappointed. The leather needed oiled, and broken in, but seemed acceptable.

But from the moment I put it on Hampton, something just wasn't right. I was using his same bits, and even had my coach look at the bridle thinking maybe I didn't have it fitting quite right.

Heritage double bridle. Also, still kickin!

Then, against my better judgement, I took him to that April show and showed him in it.

And we all know how that went.

He was awful. AWFUL. Gaping mouth, against the bridle, not even on the bit for most of the test (that's not ok in 4th level). Really irritated and not wanting to play.

Now, of course that could have been his back or hocks bothering him. Or ulcers. Or my terrible riding. Or any other number of things that just made him not want to play that weekend.

The Hypostore bridle

I put his original bridle back on when we got home. And he was much improved.

So whatever the reason, the Hypostore bridle just had bad mojo for me now.

So I took the browband and put it on my old bridle. There, much better. Maybe it was just the noseband that would not sit right? Or was pinching? Who knows.

And then the browband crystals started to fall off.

This is some bullshit right here.

Like several of them.

I'm not abusive to browbands, people. So I can't give this bridle a good review now. I give it a C.

BUT!

In adding to Aimee's list, if you are looking for a nice bridle in the $100 range, both of Hampton's bridles (his double and his snaffle) are Heritage bridles. You can find them on eBay for about $100 for the double. The snaffle I got when Hamp was young for about $60. The leather is supple, breaks in wonderfully, and both have held up to several years of use. And admittedly I am not a tack cleaning nazi so ... sometimes they go awhile between good cleanings.

Hamp modeling Aimee's Eponia bridle. Looking into one of these possibly?

I was going to update Hampton's double just because I think he has earned it, but perhaps it's best not to go fix something when it's not broken. But ... but ... Eponia is so pretty ....