Me: It’s such a loooooong drive.
Voice of Reason: You had a nice ride and good company.
Me: We had to get up soooooo early.
VoR: Nap in the truck.
Me: We were the cones division.
VoR: The course was set up when you got there. You didn’t have to take it down. You had to place the marker balls on the cones. That was it for set up.
Me: We had to measure and change cones and time and judge and … and …
VoR: You had help.
Me: We had to make microscopic adjustments to each set of cones for (almost) every driver.
VoR: It was 8 entries.
Me: It was hot.
VoR: They fed you.
Me: We had one entire obstacle to do all by ourselves
VoR: Think of it as cross-country with wheels.
Me: Our knowledge of marathon judging is largely theoretical.
VoR: Schooling shows are for training volunteers as well as competitors
Me: I don’t like being in charge. I don’t like the responsibility.
VoR: To quote Dr. Hofstadter, “Well, you should work on that.”
Me: I only have a moderate interest in driving to start with. When Husband isn’t driving, my interest drops quickly.
VoR: So you spend the day helping other folks realize their dreams. This is a problem?
Me: It’s a lot of work.
VoR: People did it for you last year.
Me: Bitch. Whine. Moan.
VoR: Suck it up, Buttercup.
The Saddle Seat World Cup is focused on the equitation division. For people who are not familiar with Saddle Seat or who are just not as familiar with equitation, here is my guide to equitation.
Any new comer to the sport of saddle seat needs to be introduced to Equitation discipline. Equitation can be defined as the art and practice of horsemanship and horse riding. Let’s think about that statement for a moment. The “art” of horsemanship… Watching a rider gracefully maneuver their horse across the ring, while maintaining perfect form is elegant and absolutely breathe taking; it’s poetry in motion. Equitation riders not only have to show their horse to the best of the horse’s ability, but they also have to make it look effortless. If a rider can master the art form of Equitation, then they have set themselves up to be an expert horseman.
When watching an Equitation class for the first time, the beginner spectator must know what to look for when observing. The exhibitors are to be judged on their ability to ride the horse, not on the horse’s athletic ability. Although the horse is not to be judged, the rider will be judged on how well he or she is showing the horse and how well he or she looks while doing it. Is the rider riding the horse to the horse’s potential? To show a horse well, he or she should show their self to the best advantage. A rider with perfect form that hides quietly on the rail may be penalized for not showing proper horsemanship and taking command of the show ring.
Proper form. The rider’s hands should be held above the horse’s withers. The height of the hands should be determined on where the horse carries his head. The rider’s hands should be parallel or slightly above parallel to the bits in the horse’s mouth. The hands should appear soft and show control of the horse at all times. The rider should sit comfortably in the saddle. The rider’s seat should not be too far back where they are sliding off the saddle nor too far forward where there is excessive saddle space showing. There should be a slight bend in the knee and the stirrup irons should be directly under the ball of the foot. The rider’s heels should be down and the foot position should appear natural. The toes should not be pointed out or rotated too far inward. While in motion, the rider should have a slight elevation when posting at the trot. Posting should be a fluid up and down motion and never appear mechanical nor should the hips thrust forward or backwards. When cantering, the rider should not rock their upper body, but their seat should move with the horse.
What to wear? It is not mandatory to have a multi thousand dollar suit, but neatness is required. Regardless of the material the riding habit is made out of it, proper fit is key. Equitation suits are not meant to be flashy. The rider’s suit should not distract the judges from the rider’s ability. The Equitation division has stricter rules on attire versus other Saddle Seat divisions. Equitation suits must have a jacket with collars and lapels of the same conservative color with matching jodphurs. The conservative collars include black, blue, burgundy, green, beige, or brown. There are no exceptions to this rule. After 6:00pm, riders are allowed to wear formal, tuxedo-type, habits. Any rider that does not have a matching jacket and pants or has a habit that is not a conservative color will be penalized.
I have shown in the Equitation division for over 20 years. It is my passion. I love that I am in complete control over the outcome of my class. If I do not have proper form, if I am too conservative in my ringmanship, if I do not execute my workout properly, then I will be penalized. In other Saddle Seat classes outside of Equitation, you can practice all you want but sometimes there is still a nicer horse out there that will beat you regardless of your hard work. With Equitation that is just not the case. The more time and effort you dedicate to the sport, the more you perfect your form, the stronger you become, the more in sync you become with you horse and your ribbons will reflect this hard work. This is coming for a trainer’s kid that never had the expensive horse and still found success in the show ring beating the nicer horses. The equation for Equitation is hard work + passion + dedication = success. This math has been tested and will work every time.
For World Cup, I won’t be competing on my horse and am required to compete on horses I have never ridden before (with the exception of the 5 minutes of warm-up we are allowed). So, practicing equitation for World Cup does require slightly different preparation. I will not been practicing to became in sync with one particular horse, but will be practicing on as many different horses as possible.
~~~
Much of this post originally appeared in
“Equitation”
by Reagan Upton The Equestrian Guide
Published June 12, 2017
Publisher Caitlin Reason
pages 30-31, photo p32
Available at Issuu.com
Home Team, Random Tidbits, Adventures in Saddle Seat
Instead of letters, Coach Courtney has placed markers of laminated colored paper around the inside of the covered ring at Stepping Stone Farm. Trot to purple. Stop at blue. Walk to yellow. Great idea for little saddle seat kids who may never have seen a dressage ring.
Yes, I am riding Milton. No, I’m not announcing any plans for him. Last time I did that [Milton’s Show Schedule], he decide to have major surgery instead [God Laughs].
I am edging slowly into collecting Year of the Horse stamps. The subject is small enough to be feasible as a back-burner hobby. Year of the Whatnot stamps are issued every 12 years. The USA & Canada started in 2002. Asian countries have been at it longer. The earliest mention found in my rudimentary research is Japan in 1966. So, that’s a handful of stamps per country. OTOH, the area is large enough to keep me occupied. As best I can tell, 65 countries issued Year of the Horse stamps in 2014.
Mostly, I like seeing how the same idea is interpreted by so many different countries.
“According to Gaiman, ‘I had typed the name Caroline, and it came out wrong. I looked at the word Coraline, and knew it was someone’s name. I wanted to know what happened to her.’ Wiki: Coraline
Go to barn to get helmet. Get talked into hay snack by residents. Leave barn. Go back to barn to get helmet. #horselife
First content tweet. As with Instagram [May 2018: Better Living Thru Chemistry photo], this started as a message to a friend, an amusing moment to share. Hmm, do I really need to bother them? Hmm, this would fit on Twitter. And here we are.
No specific plans for this account. I may post every so often. I may never post again. I will not become a high-volume tweeter. For those of us used to the gentle, pretty pictures of Instagram, Twitter can be … um … strident. On Twitter, I feel hectored by hundreds of tiny soapboxes. Even if one only follows a handful of people, they retweet. More soapboxes. Ten minutes on Twitter has me despairing for the state of the world. I get enough agita from the voices in my head. They don’t need help. But I digress. Twitter seems to work for some folks. More power to them.
In theory, I could pull up Twitter, post a blog Tweet, poke around the blog account, and not check my personal account. Let’s be real. That is as likely as logging onto Facebook to post the daily blog link and not looking at my feed. The only winning move is not to play.
Update, Sept 2018. Since my Twitter vacation appears to be easing toward permanent, I am archiving my lone straggler from July here.
Lieutenant. One of those words were you throw down a bunch of letters & say spellcheck take the wheel.
This was a test of concept. Many places that have enough space for cross-country or marathon courses are a long way from civilization, or at least the nearest cheap hotel. With a half-hour drive, checking on a horse after dinner becomes an hour-long project.
Set-up was simplicity itself. Pulled up next to a spigot. Attached the hose we brought. Rinsed the back. Inflated the air mattresses with our electric pump plugged into the truck. Lay them down. Threw down sleeping bag/blankets. Done.
Food was a combination of eating out of coolers and eating at restaurants. Still a work in progress.
We had a blast this time. We’ll see how it goes.
Pro
Location. Being able to check the horse early & late. Napping for a few minutes after lunch. Getting up early. Sleeping in.
Money. Saved.
Weather. We totally lucked out.
Packing. Everything is always with you. No unloading at the hotel. No deciding what comes with you to the show & what stays in the hotel. When you leave, no repacking. Simply shove everything back in the trailer.
Independence. We didn’t have to move lockstep for eating, sleeping, or horse-checking.
Con
Lights. The parking lot lights stayed on until 12:30 am.
Electricity. Battery operated lights for living. The problem was charging our devices. We had to remember to do so during the day.
Weather-preparedness. We had none. Hot. Cold. Rain. Our main back-up plan was to scamper to a hotel. In fact, we had purchased the air mattresses for Milton’s Tennessee driving show [Not a Post]. Then we found out the forecast was for below freezing. That’s a big nope.
Meh
Things that should bother me but don’t.
Sleeping where my horse poops. Meh. I’ve slept in worse places.
Walking through the barn in my PJs to the shower. Meh. T-shirt & sleep pants. While the outfit was obviously sleepware, it was as decent – and cleaner – than what I had worn the rest of the day.
Seeing other people sleeping on the grounds in fancy RVs. Meh. Good on them. A separate rig would mean two drivers. Coming home on Saturday evening it was nice to have two people in the truck. Particularly when we finally lost the rain lottery and Greg found himself piloting a trailer, in the dark, late at night, in a downpour.
Virtual Brush Box 