Show & Clinic Tweets: SSF, Chelsea AL

retweeted by Wheels Down, an airplane/airport account.

Found this on my phone along with another unsent Tweet. Guest Tweeter? Phone randomly sending out old tweets? Whatever. I was tickled (and very hot). So, I added the question mark & sent it out. Or tried to.

Between the mystery Tweets & trouble contacting the mothership from inside the barn, the phone & I got confused. Second guest Tweet disappeared. Thinking back, it may have been one from Nationals about the leadline class. ?

She said she could hardly tell I lost my stirrups. My leg never moved. So that was nice.

Losing a stirrup in equitation is like hitting a rail in hunters.

Show Report: SSF Chelsea AL

ASHAA Summer Fun Show I
June 7, 2014
Stepping Stone Farm
Chelsea, AL
2013 Show Report & Ringmanship
2012 Showing in The Sun

Academy Pleasure WTC Adult, 3rd of 3
& Academy Equitation WTC Adult, 2nd of 3

Well, that was a first.

I completely and utterly failed to get the left-lead canter. Oh, I’ve blow a lead before, but always corrected before it was too late. Not this time. Had it been a dressage test, I would have gotten a 0 for the movement.

Trump and I had problems with that lead in our last lesson. As soon as I sat up & asked nicely, he was cool with it. I wasn’t worried about the show. I should have been. When he failed to execute upon first request, I descended into bad habits. Previous Horse was an ex-racehorse. He would canter by telepathy. I got in the execrable habit of pitching my shoulder at him & letting him plop into a flat canter. Saddlebreds do not move in a neck-out, nose-first hunter frame. They certainly do not move in a neck-out, nose-first, on-the-forehand, bad hunter frame. Trump was all kinds of confused by what I was asking him to do. When in doubt, he racks.

I did this in both classes. I have no idea why I wasn’t last in my second class. Third place must have had an even worse day.

Wait, that’s not all.

In the first class, I lost my stirrups at the canter, the one in the second direction that we managed to achieve. I never have trouble keeping my stirrups. First, I lost one. I had about two strides wherein I could be slick and pick it back up. Instead, I lost the other one. At this point, I had the choice between fishing for my stirrups or steering the horse. I hunkered down, hung on, and waited until we walked.

When one is learning the sitting trot, it is often easier without stirrups. I’m told that eventually one can sit equally well with or without. I never got this far. But I did spend a lot of time trotting and cantering without stirrups. No biggie. I’d already blown the class anyway.

Otherwise, at the four trots & the one canter I didn’t whiff, I was stellar. I was tight with my upper body and piloted flawlessly with my hands in the ideal saddle seat position.

Or not.

Apparently, I was moving all of my body parts to various unsyncopated rhythms. Not as bad as Dixie Cup [Show Report: GIHP], but nowhere near the improvement of Mid-South [Show Report: MSSP].

I’m stumped.

I ride one way. I get good ribbons. Smiles all around. I ride what seems exactly the same way. I lose. Displeasure is voiced at various decibel levels. I do not doubt that a difference exists. However, I really and truly cannot feel the difference. If I can’t feel it, how can I fix it? It would be asking someone who is colorblind to pick out drapes.

I’m not that good a hunt seat/dressage seat rider. I’ve done a lot of both, had fun, and been blessed with great moments, but no results that would raise eyebrows if listed in The Chronicle of the Horse. I’ve just accumulated sufficient muscle memory to screw up the saddle seat. Yes, I am annoyed with myself today.

(It is possible to be a lovely, sympathetic rider without ever competing: educating greenies, galloping racehorses, trial-riding retirees. Not me. Winning was, and is, my goal. With a happy, working partner, but winning.)

Afterthought: Trolling through the archives reveals similar sentiments expressed back in September using close to the same words [Show Report: UPHA]. When I was still in Walk-Trot, the problem was intermittent. I won more classes than not. Now, my lack of saddle seat equitation has become more obvious. I suspect because a) hunter/jumper/event showing is mostly at the canter, therefore more muscle memory & b) cantering is closer to jumping, therefore more Cowabunga!

Rodney’s Progress, or Approximation Thereof

At the advice of my Groundwork Exercise Designer, we are using standards instead of cones for Rodney’s weave poles. The better to see them. Rodney is doing exceedingly well with this exercise. We will spend 10-15 minutes dragging the standards/poles into a new pattern or to a new location. He will nail it on the first go. We often use a short dose of weave poles when he needs a victory.

He is also jumping low fences on his good lead, walking a short way up a steep hill, and trotting straight lines, all in hand. Activities have kept me from doing the riding thing again. Perhaps next weekend.

On the other hand, Rodney gets overwhelmed by jumping on his bad lead or trotting anything other than a straight line, e.g. a circle or over a pole. He is unappreciative if not overwhelmed by going all the way up the hill in the pasture. Of course, he grazes on this hill all the time and will come galloping down it at mealtime. Ask him to walk it with me on command, not so much.

Rodney now has a TENS unit. Seems to like it.

Even if he never sets hoof in the show ring, Rodney is not the sort of horse to be put up on blocks. He needs to be engaged and entertained. Since he is here to stay, he needs to work. I try to gauge his sessions by the improvements he has made, not by the distance from my original goals. As long as he continues to be gorgeous but useless, I will continue to be frustrated. However, I am attempting to cultivate an outlook that will keep despair to a minimum.

Rodney’s life journey does not affect welcoming a new horse. We are fortunate to have the space and funds for Rodney to be a scenic lawn ornament for the rest of his days. (Whether I can cope with that is a different question.)

The sand that is grinding my horse hunting gears is the appalling quality of horses we have found to date. Seriously, you would not believe the lamenesses we have seen. Our record is 10 strides. We drove for 3+ hours. The horse walked for that many minutes. I turned to my Buying Consultant and said, Okay, how do we get out of here gracefully? Yes, there was a video. No, it didn’t help.

That was the past. Onwards!

Home Show 2014

Today is the annual local show at our barn.

Trump at the 2013 show. Photo by Barry Alvis.
Trump at the 2013 show.
Photo by Barry Alvis.

Guest Foto Friday: Trump

Let’s hope I cover myself with more glory than last year, “It’s a bad sign when the judge comes over to tell you the rules …” [Ringmanship]

2013 Show Report
2012 Showing in The Sun

Also, clinic this weekend. My first since … memory fails.

Foto Friday: Equipment

Remember the unsuitable camera that threw me into such a tailspin last August [I’m Baack: Precipitating Cause, saving throw]? Well it’s back.

black camera

I had asked my shipping department to perform pack and return services. He decided to keep the camera for himself. The suitably-sized one that I bought instead

camera 1

does not have the different shooting modes [Towel]. The nasty, big one does.

black camera knob

I still find it oversized and overweight for a pocket camera. However, I can play with the buttons until I decide whether or not I wish to spring for a “real” camera.

Next Friday – pictures, finally, I hope.

New Equipment: Weights

weight side wm

1lb weights to build up my fingers and wrists, per new riding paradigm [MSSP]. Riding does not require brute strength. I don’t wish to yank on the horse’s mouth with Hulk-like fists of doom. Riding requires endurance. The longer I can survive making subtle adjustments, the less likely I will be to start waving my flippers about.

No, I did not need to buy something to achieve this. A soup can would have done just fine. However, they are cute, colorful, and confer a sense of progress.

weight end wm