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.

Changing of the Guard

The loss of Buckley was agonizing and I still miss him daily.

Sidenote: I have some seriously wonderful, kind friends who sent the most thoughtful gifts and messages. Or just listened. Thank you!!

But - the empty condo was just too quiet and lonely and Buckley would have wanted other souls to enjoy his kingdom. (I think haha).

So after I returned from Aiken, I picked up this little menace:

Meet Sylvester, or "Stretch." He is named after my grandfather. Sylvester came from the streets of north/central Indiana and was pulled by Hamilton County Humane Society as a "second chance" cat from another shelter/pound. After treatment for a URI, and a good old chop chop of the trouble puffs, I welcomed him home.

He is a heat-seeking little menace cute, active little guy. He is obsessed with lounging on my trachea and has the cutest, kitten-like little meow. He is a 12-pound little potato. 

Dear Temptations: Please sponsor me

But make no mistake, Sylvester might actually be part cat, part varmint. 

About a month with just little Stretch, I decided maaaaybe he would like a friend. I started casually looking at shelters hoping to find an orange kitten. Suddenly, my car steering wheel went AWOL and it drove right to the Kentucky Humane Society parking lot. 

I didn't find an orange kitten, but I took one look at a 4 year old tabby named Obi-Wan and it would have been sacrilege to leave that shelter without him.

How was I supposed to leave him there?

Photos do not do him justice

He is 17 pounds of MAGNIFICANCE. I did shorten his name to just Obi. He was a owner surrender because he was beating the shit out of their dogs. hahahahahaha. I said I will take him.

After arriving home, it was clear that these two were going to need a proper introduction. I have been spoiled because I could literally throw any cat in with Buckley and he would just roll with it.

Not these two.

Found this fucker guy in my DRYER one day.

There were a couple of pretty bad fights. Fur flying, screaming fights. But I went way back and followed the advice of Jackson Galaxy and now these two little shits fine gentlemen seem to be getting along with the exception of some face slaps here and there. They MIGHT play one day even.

I think you all can probably guess which cat is the MENACE to society, and which one is the Most Beautiful Boy in the World but ... might be a little smooth brained.

In reality they are both really neat cats and already have me laughing. It's really nice to have company again, and Obi has even taken to claiming Buckley's old window throne. 

A changing of the guard.

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!