1. Advance Horsemanship WTC Adult – 1st of 2
2. Advanced Equitation WTC Adult (no Pattern) – 1st of 2
7. Pleasure Horse or Pony WTC Adult – 1st of 2
All riding classes with Sultan’s Miracle Man.
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the ever-stellar Sam.
When you’ve spent the week burned out from a horse show, what is the most logical move? Another horse show! I meant to be sensible, really I did. Then I found out Sam was available. Was there ever a question?
The fun part of Winter Tournament is that I show in the Advanced class, against suit riders. Not their fanciest horses, who are on winter break, but young, green talent is good competition for a student on a lesson horse. Unfortunately, two barns stayed home, so I ended up competing against another Adult Academy rider. Nice woman, nice horse, but I compete against them all year long.
Winter Tournament is also for practicing new things: new horse-rider matches, new moves, new patterns. I asked Coach Courtney what we should work on. Kick it up a gear? Practice suit-quality maneuvers? She said she wanted me to work on staying up with my head/eyes/chest/hands to the point that she didn’t have to remind me every time I passed the ingate. Basics? Consistency?! That’s so not sexy.
Being the ever dutiful student, I buckled down and tried to stay up. (English is weird.) Sam makes a good equitation mount because he gets on with his job and leaves me time and space to worry about my form. I assume I was somewhat successful since I didn’t hear a lot of yelling from the sidelines. OTOH, that may have been from a more relaxed attitude on the part of a coach at Winter Tournament than from my dynamic riding.
I was also moderately successful in keeping the pre-ride meltdown under control, including firmly smacking my mental demons when they dared to raise their heads. I’m not usually an advocate of violence, but seriously, Sam? At Winter Tournament? There is no excuse for nerves. OTOH, I was gasping and moaning on the drive up. My innards were still annoyed with me from Nationals.
While I was successful with the new, I managed to completely flail at the old. In the first class, the announcer called for walk. So, I walked. Right there. Six years of saddle seat and I totally forget about finishing my pass. Fortunately, it took me less than half a step to realize what I had done and boot Sam back up to a trot.
During the trot in the second direction, I looked down and realized I was posting on the outside leg. That’s wrong. Switch. No, wait. I was right the first time. Switch back. Again, it all took place in 1/2 a step. In the third class, I decided to carry my stick hunter/jumper style, i.e. in my right hand the entire time, rather starting in the left and switching it. I have no explanation for any of this. Perhaps my brain had not recovered completely either.
Meanwhile, Sam was having an equally big day. He didn’t like – insert where applicable – the cold, the mud, the grill being started, the phase of the moon. He kept telling me that he was a sensitive show horse and could not be expected to work under these conditions. We’ve had this talk before [Show Report], but he was selling it harder than usual this time. I was even mildly apprehensive before my third class. Sam being that goofy was like watching your grandmother bust the latest dance moves. No one’s going to get hurt, but it is disturbing to witness. Fortunately, the morning’s work had warmed up the motor oil and we were able to fancy prance, just a little bit.
Milton chills after riding in the round pen. I got so caught up with my ride, I forgot to take a between-the-ears picture.
It’s always interesting to see how horses respond to time off.
Between horse shows (yes, plural, more on that tomorrow), weather, and the relapse to Standard – aka Stygian – time, Milton has been on vacation for the last two weeks. He’s had a few hand walks around the pasture, but serious work has been lacking. On Sunday, we loaded up and headed over to restart the process in the confined space of the Stepping Stone Farm covered ring. Husband Greg lunged and then I rode.
On the upside, no backsliding. He was pretty much exactly where we both left off.
On the downside, he was jumpy and tight in the back. Fortunately, the major bounces came immediate before I got on and immediately after. None during, although the possibility was never off the table. He got better when I asked him for more work, i.e. gave him something to think about. He’s going to be one for endless new and inventive exercises. He also reverted to traveling haunches right. That’s going to take patience on our part and and strength building on his.
I like to instill in my horses the ability to go on the buckle at all three gaits and over low jumps [Fifth Leg Training]. I don’t always get there, but that’s the goal.
Rodney finds this much freedom unsettling. He doesn’t like being the one in charge, even of himself. He’ll learn. As a compromise for now, I hold as long a contact as possible and he agrees not to curl up like a shrimp.
After some very nice long-contact trot work, I decide to ask for a few steps of loose rein. To see what would happen. Lengthen the reins. Ask for a nice, quiet trot transition. Rodney hops up into a nice, quiet …. canter.
It was slow. It was peaceful. So we went with it. We got about half a lap before the momentum ran out and he dropped back to a walk. Callooh! Callay! My beamish boy!
This was my last ride before the time sink that was Nationals, so we have not had a redo. We shall see.
In my TBR pile, but realistically so far down as to never reach daylight. Calkins appears to be a Very Serious writer, who “also published two novels satirizing the local Washington pastime of fox-hunting and socialite lifestyle: Lady on the Hunt (1950), and Calendar of Love (1952).” Wiki. Bought for the blog. I am addressing this unfortunate habit in 2019.
Inkscape. Couldn’t decide between the two designs. Text sizes. Align & center/flush right. Got confused with layers. Had to scatter and realign each time I wanted to edit a lower object. Probably not the ideal method.
Coach Courtney’s caption on Facebook: So this just happened…. 6 years in the making.
Winner
Adult Pleasure WTC National Finals
National Academy Championship Horse Show
~~~
This is the more to say that I mentioned earlier [Show Report, That Elusive Sunday Blue]. I will try not to be obnoxious about this on a regular basis. After today. For today, you get all of it, from the outrageously negative to the outrageously positive.
~~~
First a huge & public thank you to everyone who helped. From coach to supportive husband to dad with a towel who wipes off the toes of our boots before our classes. From tacking up to in-ring advice to taking victory photos, one travels in crowd of people whose collective goal is to help you do your best. Everything I said four years ago remains true:
You and the horse may be in the ring alone, but you can’t do it alone.
~~~
Back to me.
How does it feel one week in?
Awesome.
~~~
The voices lost no time. Most of these, I heard on the way home. A few came along later.
Voices: You didn’t win the second final.
Me: I won one.
Voices: In fact, you rode fairly badly.
Me: Thanks for the reminder.
Voices: You didn’t even get asked to do the pattern. That never happens. Patterns are your thing.
Me: You have to equitate well enough on the rail to be asked to do the pattern. I didn’t.
Voices: The win was a fluke.
Me: Fine. Makes up for the times I lost on flukes.
Voices: You kinda slacked on the equitating during the victory pass … it was just Academy … all that time and money could have been put toward the goals with Milton that you claim to have … it was just one class … a horse show is hardly world peace, or universal sanitation, or …
Me: Do you EVER shut up?
Voices: No.
~~~
I won the Pleasure – i.e. showmanship – Final and resoundingly lost the Equitation Final. Has the time on Milton made me more aware of how the horse is going than of how I am sitting? Is my equitation fading to be replaced by riding better? Is this a bad thing? Of course, both would be nice.
~~~
You would think that SIX Reserve National Finals titles would come close to having the same weight as ONE National Championship. They don’t. [That Moment When …]
~~~
One issue with Nationals is that it takes place over three days, and the classes within each day are separated by several hours. Throughout the rest of the year, Academy is two classes, wait for the Championship, done. It’s not even all-day showing. A handful of classes in a few hours can be survived on stress and adrenaline. For six classes over three days, one needs to have developed coping mechanics for stress and food and sleep. I do not have/have lost said mechanisms. Didn’t affect my rides, but I paid for it every other time of the day. My system took almost a week to recover from the mistreatment.
~~~
From outside looking in, you expect the day you win to be a coronation. You and your equine partner will lay down a flawless performance that reflects your months/years of patient training together. The crowd will gasp in amazement. The judges will toss accolades at your head.
If it happens that way, that’s fantastic.
Maybe it’s a convergence of factors. Maybe you are on a borrowed horse, who you rode for the first time two weeks ago, and your round feels as if you are figuring it out on the fly. Maybe you are the one in the right place at the right time when the favorite has a bad hair morning, and the numbers on the judges’ card are so scattered that you slide into first even though one of the three judges doesn’t even have you in the ribbons.
Still counts as a win.
A win, any win, is simply one competition. It is not the final referendum on you as a person, or the talent of your horse, or the quality of your training. It is one moment on one day. However, it is much, much easier to parade this enlightened attitude with a blue clutched tightly in one’s hot little paw.
~~~
Someone asked if I felt I had earned it. I had trouble processing the question. I was in the ring. I did everything they asked. They called me first. I guess that means I earned it. What would be the alternative?
~~~
In 12 Finals, I have
6 seconds
3 thirds
2 top ten (4th & 10th)
1 first
~~~
Videos of my victory pass are over on the SSF Facebook page. Along with many other happy ribbon snaps.
~~~
There was discussion of the possibility that helmets might have been a contributing factor to lower that expected placings. Helmetless wins & high placings were noted in a few classes. Could easily have been coincidence. *IF* that happened – not saying it did – that’s a hit I will take all day long.
~~~
Has winning been everything I hoped it would be? Yes.
~~~
What actually happened in the second class on Sunday? Watchers on the rail said the first trot was good. During the second canter, horse got tired/excited. Ditto rider. Tigger got heavy in the hand. Instead of sitting up and finessing. I got sucked into a pulling match. The horse always wins those. Thundering around is bad enough in a hunter flat class. It looks even worse in a saddle seat class when the rest of the competition is dinking around at a dainty, teacup canter. Plus the rider heaving and flapping like a loose sail in the wind.
Or perhaps I inflate my errors. Coach Courtney still thought I was going to be asked to do the pattern. Five of the 12 were.
~~~
To be fair, the claim leans heavily on the terms “SSF” and “rider”. This year, we had a guest rider on an SSF horse who won five of their six classes, including one of the finals, a SSF rider who took 2rd & 3rd in the finals, and an Academy driver who won a class.
So, in a technical sense, I am the highest-placed SSF Academy rider. In reality, I’m tied for the title.
~~~
I call this section, Whinings of a Lotus Eater. I was a neurovore for most of the show. I was so over it. I say that every year, but not usually during the show. Every day, before the first class, I was a hot mess. A sniveling, hysterical hot mess. If I could have found an honorable way to leave, an excuse that did not feel like sour grapes or bad sportsmanship, I would have been on it in a New York minute.
As soon as I mounted up, I was fine. Even in warm-up, I wasn’t anxious, particularly when it was clear that it wasn’t my weekend (Yeah, I know). The nerves are horrible beforehand. They clear as soon as I sit in the saddle. I know this will happen. It helps not at all.
~~~
Will I go back next year? Well, this year the Alabama Hunter Jumper Association year-end show was the same weekend (ironically, 45 minutes away in Franklin TN). They have a .65 meter (~2 foot) jumper division. Just sayin’.
~~~
I haven’t talked about much about my fearless mount, mostly about me & my riding. I sat on Tigger for a few minutes at SSF [Talking Back]. Then, I warmed him up briefly on Thursday at Nationals. I was still figuring out how to ask him to canter in our first class together on Saturday (hint, don’t pitch forward and throw him on his forehand. Saddlebreds do not respond well to this.) The first final was the fifth time I had ridden him.
There wasn’t time to hear the story Tigger had to tell [Sam & Natalie, Dottie]. I had to let him do his thing while metaphorically running alongside and hoping to keep up.
~~~
Of all the rides I’ve had in Miller Coliseum, this is the one that wins? Bugs Bunny was correct. One never knows, do one?
~~~
Tigger is The World’s Greatest Horse. Other horses who wish to vie for the title may do so by winning big, fluffy ribbons.
~~~
National Champion. Nothing can take those words away. Not even me.
SSF Home Show Costume Class, one of the most hotly contested classes on our show calendar.
Photo by MegMcKinneyPhoto by Meg McKinney
~~~ Low Key Photo Challenge
Process Notes
None. Top, not my photos. Bottom, phone snap.
Procedure for Low Key Photo Challenge
1) I post photo(s) on a given theme.
2) You comment below with a link to your photo(s) on that theme.
3) We all click over to see what you have.
That’s it. No prizes. No rules. No submissions. For more explanation, see [Inaugural Edition].
Classes 2&3. Open Pleasure, Open Pleasure Championship. 3&4/5
Thank you to Lily Cofield & the Cofield family for Bel Cheval’s I’m Joanie
The weekend before Nationals, we had our annual in-house show. Joanie was not pleased at the commotion. Unlike Dottie last year [Show Report], Joanie did not recognize this as a show and saw no reason to rise to the occasion. I figured her attitude would improve at a real show. (It did.)
Our canter transitions were better but I had trouble holding the canter. I was staying off the rail to a) show the horse & b) stay out of the muddy bits. This narrowed our flight path, and I needed to support her more on the turns. I figured we would improve in the wider ring at Murfreesboro. (We did.)
The classes were held back-to-back, so I’m not sure which ribbon I got in which class.
Milton’s Meanderings
Milton came along for more non-compete experience. He did great. As soon as Joanie was done and put away, I tacked up and got on. We walked and stood for the rest of the show: up the driveway, around the barn, up and down the aisle. I combined directing him with letting him wander at will. One time, I swear he walked behind the barn to see why all the cars were parked in a place where they usually weren’t.
Milton came along for more non-compete experience. He’s not over it yet. He’d stand for a while and then move off. Even if someone was admiring him, he’d amble away. None of it was fast or anxious, but he will usually stand forever to bask in adoration.
Since an barn open house was being held in conjunction with the show, all of the horses got new stall signs. Milton got his.
Virtual Brush Box 