Why Wup?

The delayed explanation of Sunday’s post.

To provide a Christmas gift to each student without breaking the bank, Stepping Stone Farm made ornaments with a variety of fillings. ornament SSF croppedSome riders chose the name of their favorite horse. Others chose an upbeat motto.

In saddleseat, riders are allowed, nay encouraged, to use their voice.
Wup Trot – an abrupt expulsion of breath, similar to “hup”. Said to initiate the trot, or to further animate an existing trot.
Whoa Walk – to get the gait and to settle a horse who would prefer move on to the next gait.
Canter
Line Up – There is no command for this. The horses know what happens when they get pointed to the center of the ring, to the extent that circles can be difficult because horses stop to line up as soon as they cross the center line.
Plus a wide variety of clucking, chirping, and kissing noises. I’ve had lessons that have worn out my clucker.

In dressage, riders are penalized 2 points for every error. Errors of course are mistakes in the pattern. If the mistake does not put the rider off track, i.e. cantering a letter early, the judge merely makes a note. If the rider diverges from the proper track, the judge blows a whistle and makes a correction. Four errors of course equal elimination. Errors of voice involve talking to the horse, or producing any noise that could be considered communicating with the horse.

Can you see where this is going?

There is no limit to the number of voice errors one can accumulate in a given test. Four errors does not equal elimination, just a drastically plummeting score.

After all the saddleseat I have been doing lately, I’m convinced that I will wup-trot my way through my next dressage test. Rodney, or whomever, will execute a flawless test. We will achieve an arena record for high score. When the errors are subtracted, we will achieve a second arena record for the first negative dressage score.

This is my ornament:

ornament trot

Silent Auction

When I first go thru a silent auction, I put a few low bids on small, useful items. I’ll even put a ridiculously low bid on something fancy a) to start the bidding and b) in the off chance that everyone else at the banquet has lost their minds. The ASHAA awards banquet last weekend was no different. At a saddleseat function, small useful items included a hair bow that matched my vest (which I didn’t get) and a pair of jod straps (which I did). The larger item was a beginner watercolor set, which quickly went out of my reach. I came home with these:

auction jod straps
W Peas card trimmed

Saddleseat pants drag the ground when one is off the horse. Elastic straps gather the extra and keep it off the ground. Colorful elastic straps add a note of perky.

Then the bar opened. I don’t drink much these days. I decided to make an exception for the festivities. After that, I went along the auction table again. An item I admired was slowly climbing up by $5 increments. I laid down a bid with a large enough jump to shut up the other bidders. And this followed me home:

Dana's Doodle

It’s a framed print of Dana’s Doodles Saddlebred Horse Victory.

Drinking and bidding do not mix.

Awards

ASHAA 2013 hp ribbon top
Surprise!

I was the 2013 Highpoint Academy Rider for the American Saddlebred Horse Association of Alabama. I had something else planned for today, but I just had to tell you.

I was kinda, sorta sure that I had won both of my divisions: Academy Equitation Walk-Trot Adult and Academy Showmanship Walk-Trot Adult. Even through my horse show haze, I knew I had not been seeing the same faces from show to show.

I was NOT expecting the overall.

The barn also had a good night. All the show horses won, except Lola who took second to Alvin: five-gaited, three-gaited, equitation, and a variety of pleasure divisions. Three other SSF Academy riders took their divisions: two WTC teens & a WT munchkin.

My instructor’s daughter, Reagan Hughley, won several performance divisions and took Highpoint something. I was too busy beaming to hear exactly what it was. A third, non-Stepping Stone rider, joined us for the presentation photos. So SSF took two of the three rider Highpoints.

Stepping Stone also took Highpoint Performance Barn and Highpoint Academy Barn.

Four of five Highpoint awards! Go us!

As winner of the Performance Highpoint, SSF nominated a person for the state Hall of Fame: a well-known mom who had been a long-time supporter of Saddlebred showing in the state.

As winner of the Academy High point, SSF nominated a horse for the HoF: Alvin Ailey. During his praise poem, it was mentioned that he could do performance, driving, and academy classes … in the same show. This last fact merited a genteel gasp of interest from the audience. If they only knew! He not only does all three, he wins all three … at the same show. At Mid-Summer [Show Report], Alvin won the Natural Country Pleasure Championship, the Academy Pleasure Driving, and three Academy Walk-Trot classes, including the championship. What a horse. I got a little damp around the incipient crow’s feet.

Then photographs. Lots and lots of photographs, as each barn gathered in front of the presentation panel for their group shot. There is a properly formal photo with us looking at the camera, but this is me fumbling three ribbons & two trophies. My charming companions, Assistant Trainer Melissa Croxton & Head Trainer Courtney Hughley, are holding barn awards. Photo by whichever kind soul grabbed my camera.

ASHAA 2013 trainer

Snide me: The overall highpoint is an indication that I spent WAY too much money on horse shows on 2013.
Happy me: SQUEEEEE!

Update from my instructor: Reagan won the Adult Country Pleasure, Adult Equitation and Overall Highpoint Amateur Rider award. We didn’t get the Overall Highpoint Juvenile Rider Award.

In the State Pleasure Horse awards given by ASHA, we won the Juvenile Country Pleasure, Adult Country Pleasure, Country Pleasure Driving, Juvenile Five-Gaited Pleasure and Adult Show Pleasure. We did not win the Show Pleasure Driving and the Juvenile Show Pleasure. In my defense, we did not have anyone showing in those classes and also did not win the Adult Five-Gaited Pleasure. Did not have anyone in that either.

Don’t forget our rider who won in Leadline! OK, everyone won in Leadline, but it still counts.

First Impressions

In the summer of 2012, I reported on my first visit to the saddleseat barn [Riding Towards Random]. I was struck by how little my soon-to-be instructor asked about my riding experience. Last year, at the end of our long show season, I asked her about that day.

I had shown up after a day of summer camp. She was exhausted. She tends toward quiet when she’s tired. After I left, she thought, ‘Well, I messed that up. I’ll never see that woman again.’
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Gratuitous Cat Picture

Bungie
Bungie
SSF barn cat selfie