First Three-Phase

"Aw, beat out by half a point!"

Ruby decided to behave and load on the trailer for our Riverdale show (thank God!). This was our first time ever being judged in a dressage class. Since we have not worked much on cross-country, we decided to enter in the tadpole 3-phase (USDF Intro C, 2' stadium, 2' XC).

For the dressage: not our best performance. Mostly from nerves on my part- our warm up was absolutely beautiful, but once we were in the ring I started getting overly anxious. This resulted in messing up a cue for our sticky left lead, so we picked up the wrong lead for that canter circle (ouch).

We scored a 73% with scores at:
1. 8
2. 6.5 (not deep enough in corner)
3. 7.5
4. 6.5 (awkward circle)*
5. 6 (abrupt)
6. 8 (very good rhythm)
7. 7.5
8. 3 (picked up wrong lead)
9. 4 (still wrong lead). Didn't fix it, so my bad haha
10. 6.5
11. 5 (needs to stretch down more)
12. 7.5
13. 7 (not straight but beautiful halt)

*awkward circle- I practiced my tests at home in a full (large) dressage arena...which  means I was missing a whole circle in there and had to do some interesting calculations quickly.

Collective remarks:
Gaits 7, Impulsion 7, Submission 7, Rider Position 7.5, Aid Effectiveness 7, Geometry and Accuracy 7.

Overall comments: Very nice test; circles and bends very good. Need to pay attention to your corners.

Not too shabby for our first time :)

The stadium jumps were fairly straightforward. Very simple hunter course with an outside line, two diagonal lines, and another outside line. The first jump was the most difficult/spooky since it was a plank. I had Ruby trot in and canter the rest of the course. Clean round.



Thanks to Dan for the pictures!



I did not get any pictures of the XC round because Dan had to leave (to make me dinner!). Since we have only ever had one XC lesson at Debi's I decided to start out trotting all the jumps. By about jump 7, Ruby broke into a nice quiet canter so I figured, why not? Completed the course like a champ!

From an artistic standpoint, Dan snagged an interesting shot for me (which I tweaked a bit with my "I am too poor and cheap for PhotoShop alternative, Picasa").

Next show is on June 6th at a new venue: Chatt Hills. Can't wait to see how that goes.

Trailer Failure

"Well, guess I can go back to bed"

Nothing is more frustrating than having a horse that doesn't load...especially when the issue arises out of nowhere!

Debi trailered Ruby to a show earlier this season with zero issues, so when I scheduled Ruby for her next Riverdale show, loading was one of my last concerns. I was more worried that I would forget my dressage test! (This was to be our first dressage show).

Here is the interesting thing: Ruby walked on the trailer fine. She would go in, get up to where she was supposed to be, and have an exceptional panic attack resulting in her 900 lb (eh, give or take a few) pony body flying out backwards at ten million miles per hour. Yeah, okay Ruby, let's decide to be a serious safety hazard shall we? In this situation, the key was to get Ruby in, calmly stand there, and back her out quietly. Debi had me walk her in, stand, praise her, and keep contact off if she bolted back out; once out, we immediately walked back in. The first few times were terrible! At one point, I went under the escape bar thinking if I were in front of her she would, I don't know, chill out. Except instead, she bolted and I couldn't do anything but let go of the lead rope...

Que Ruby's catching issue.

Chased her around the property both confusingly fearful and yet almost hoping she would run into traffic and get hit by a bus. Really not pleased with the pony at this point- the only reason I caught her is because she stepped on her lead and jerked on her own face- we did have a chain on her.

Back to the trailer to try again. This took quite a few tries before she settled down. She never got quite where we wanted her to be, but she got on and waited for me to ask her to back out without killing anyone, so we called it quits at that point and decided not to take her to the show.

Debi met me at the barn on two other occasions this week to practice some more, with much better results. We are schedule to go to another show this Sunday- we will see if we make it there!