Steps forward, steps back

Last month I had a clinic with Dani Moguel. I totally planned to do a full write up, I do have lots of footage, but I got super busy. The footage isn't great because the Pivo was misbehaving, and blogging fell to the wayside. The cliff notes? She really liked Mia and she really liked my riding. We weren't as fit as I hoped, but we were close. Mia and I jumped about half as much as the other rider in my group because Mia was nailing it #Winning I am very glad I chose to do the Novice/Training division, it was challenging but completely within our capacity.

Dani clinic!

One of the best things that happened in the clinic is that I was able to pull our training from 2020/2021 out and tap into Mia's power. Developing her power is something I haven't done since her Lyme diagnosis and it was super cool to see that we could still do it. We struggled with keeping the power up mostly due to Mia's fitness and my lack of practice, but it was so fun to tap into after all of this time. I really enjoyed the clinic and am going to sign up for the next one in July.

More injuries

Our big take away from the clinic is to stop focusing on finding a distance and instead focus on creating a good rhythm. Mia will figure out the takeoff spot, getting and keeping the rhythm while also keeping the power up is what I need to keep working on. Mia and I got back from the clinic ready to work on it all when the barn cats knocked my (only) saddle off of the top of a 3 tier saddle rack and suddenly my saddle started squeaking. After bringing it to a saddler, we found the gullet plate was cracked. Thankfully the tree will be replaced under warranty by County, but there is a 9-12 week turn around and I was told I should not ride in the saddle. *sigh* 

Such a cute snoot

I immediately bought another saddle, almost identical to mine, but didn't even get to ride in it when Mia came up lame with an abscess. It took 2 weeks to pop, deciding to do so while I went down to LRK3DE. 

Where has the year gone?

 I had big ideas for blogging in 2023, where the heck has the year gone? How is it already March? Hopefully with the plans that I have in place, I will have so much to tell you about that I will take time to talk about it. So...where first?

When I left off, I had finally recovered from the Covid lung issues that kept me from doing virtually any work. Thankfully that has not returned. January and February were really hit or miss in riding due to the weather, but I have made some excellent progress in dressage. I am quite comfortable with the Novice level tests and we have played with the Training level tests and while not perfect, I am not hating my rides. I have started riding in my jump saddle for dressage and while it works, I don't love it. It is a jump saddle for a reason and it really wants me forward. Perfectly place where I need to be over a jump. *sigh* 

What is all this?! 

I tried my dressage saddle on Mia back in January and even when free lunging, she refused to go forward. She doesn't like it. In February I had the saddle fitter back out to see what she thought. She is of the opinion that the saddle fits perfectly and looks like it was made for Mia, so she isn't sure why Mia doesn't like it. We then tried all models of saddles that she had in her car to see if Mia liked any of those, Mia did not. There were models Mia liked better, but she wasn't super happy with any of them. Whatever has happened after the Lyme ordeal, Mia is no longer a fan of the Trilogy saddles. Back to the drawing board I go, I really do love my dressage saddle too. If anyone is shopping for a MW 18" Trilogy Verago, I guess I now have one for sale.

We finally started jumping again in late February and right about that time I saw something that caught my eye. A clinic with 5* eventer Daniela Moguel. About an hour from my house. On a weekend I have open. With the incredibly annoying inability to find a trainer who can travel, I have been needing a serious kick in the pants to get working again. So I made the extremely impulsive decision to enter the clinic. It gave me exactly a month to get fit enough to jump 3' consistently, because I also went "all-in" and chose the N/T group. Nothing like setting a huge goal to get my butt in gear.

Mia's happy place

Things have been going mostly okay since I paid the clinic fee, even though I feel like I am waiting for the disaster to strike. I have ridden at least 3x per week, even with the very persistent snow/ice storms that have hit us 3 weeks in a row. I have successfully worked up to 3 sessions of 3 minutes of two point and am going to bump that up to 4 minutes at my next ride. Mia is comfortably jumping 2'6" and we are bumping that up this week as well. We have only 2 weeks before the clinic and I am determined to get us there!

Jumping stuff! Then the wheels fell off the bus

 I have been doing some jump schools with Mia in prep for our show. The first time riding outside, I rode in the pelham so that I would have emergency brakes if needed. Mia has a tendency to....shall we say decline to yield in requests to slow or collect at times. Almost always at the start of a ride, and they aren't bad in comparison to other horses. She isn't bolting, she isn't taking off, she just declines to believe I am the driver for a few minutes at times. Since she hates any curb pressure with a heated, fiery passion, the pelham works great to fix that!

She was looking good

Our first ride was over stadium jumps with some of the small xc logs/jumps thrown in at the end. Overall? Mia was amazing. She was beyond happy to have real jumps to go over again after a winter of dressage! I was able to meet all of our distances but one, AND Mia is showing off our new ability to change leads over fences (!!!) that we developed apparently by magic. It was something we started doing in 2020 and it just happens. I never actually taught it. Ha!

The first ride required me to use the emergency brake three times. The last was the most amusing, as we were 2 strides from the ditch jump and I felt Mia's change. Because yes, I can feel when she decides she is going to not listen. We jumped the ditch and landed in a flat gallop. Except going straight means going down a semi-steep hill. Going right means going through thick woods/brush, and going left is the only option. I pulled her up with the pelham while circling left and it still took 6 strides, I was seriously wondering if she was going to jump the fencing into the outdoor arena! We came within 2 strides of the that fencing, that is about 3'6" high and not an actual jump. That's not for jumping Mia!

Happy mare

The second jump ride was much better. We did the same routine but with the stadium fences up to 2'9". Mia was, again, great and I only needed the emergency brake two times! The third ride was even better,  I only needed the emergency brake once! That was Apr 11th. We were 2 weeks from our show and I was feeling really good. The saddle swap and jump school had settled all of my nerves, I was feeling great about our chances at the show. I was feeling so good, I even entered the show on the the 12th! I always, ALWAYS wait until the closing date to enter because of the randomness of Mia but I was committing, we were doing it!

On Tues the 13th, she had her second chiro and acupuncture treatment. The first, in January, had made a HUGE improvement in her movement, I was hoping to replicate that. On the 14th she had her monthly professional massage. On the 15th I came out for our lesson and things were all kinds of wrong. Mia ran from the end of the pasture (ran past me of course) and went up to the gate after I called her. When I tried to get her, she played a game of keep away so hard, I legit thought I wouldn't catch her. Assuming she was still high from her run, we went in the barn and got ready for our lesson. 

New saddle before being fitted

After a quick brushing, I put the saddle and pad on. I went to grab the girth and Mia set back in the cross ties, broke loose, and ran out of the barn, dumping my saddle at the doors of the barn. I ran out to try to catch her and she wasn't having it. A came out to help, abandoning her lesson student, and we both had a hard time catching her. A finally got close enough to her left side to swing a rope over her, and Mia still tried to jet off. The hell?!

The loss of topline in 3 months. Left in Jan, right is Apr

After some examination, it appears Mia is extremely reactive on her right side. From her shoulder clear up to her poll. We gave her bute for a week with no change. I have tried massaging her right side, and while she seems to relax during it, afterwards she gets much worse and impossible to catch. And thus, this is the story of how I have lost 2 weeks of riding and missed my first show. The vet comes out today (I called last Fri, this is the soonest she could come out) to see what she thinks. I talked to the chiro and she is coming back out on the 7th, but doesn't think Mia's issues are related to the adjustment. The only thing that has really changed is the farrier, as mine stopped traveling so far so I had found a new one. After not being thrilled with the trims, and A thinks this may have started with the angle changes that happened too fast, I switched again this week. Fingers crossed we get some answers and she starts feeling better!

Lesson 8 and 9 - before the world spun into chaos

I had a bunch of words typed out, but they were all no longer applicable. Talking about our show plans, what we were working on for our April 19 show, and our plan of attack to kick ass doesn't apply anymore. And then the world fell apart with Covid and quarantine. So....updates?

When we left you last, Mia was lame. After a week of rest, the farrier was out and didn't see anything despite my waffling on if I DID see her being lame or not. So we went with the "ride it until it is good or breaks" mentality and Mia has stayed sound. We did a short week of fitness before we had lesson 8.

Lesson 8 was very good! We were really focusing on power and control and that carried over into our first jump lesson with A. I warned A before the ride that I had have had tons of jump lessons and I haven't had one that was worth the $ since the early 2000's. I always fell like I have a babysitter and am simply paying a jump crew. I told her that I was really looking forward to A's lesson bc her dressage rides are SO informative. She took that as a challenge, set up a grid and worked us! It started as a small one stride to a two stride to a 3 stride.

A has changed so much about our rides in dressage, it was no surprise that she changed our jumping. I ride 90% in two point when jumping. I drive with my seat at some of the bigger jumps, but otherwise I am in two point all of the time. Freedom of movement for the horse, she can balance herself at all times, I am not in the way. A wants me to sit the canter more, 50% of the time at least. Her argument was that I can't control Mia's tempo with my seat bones if they are out of the saddle, I would have to rely only on my hands and/or weight/balance. It should easier to simply use the skills from dressage to control her canter when approaching her jump bc that is what we have been working on. Anytime I am near/can see a jump, I should be sitting down to control Mia's tempo. Makes sense, but it was SUPER hard for me to do. Fighting muscle memory is legit hard!

The jumps stayed small, nothing over 2'9", and the two stride was taken out so we could work on pacing. We worked to get Mia's canter size changed between the jumps WHILE I am sitting down between the jumps. While it wasn't a perfect lesson (I blame the severe rust on our skills), it was definitely worth the money and I am now looking forward to taking another jump lesson!

Lesson 9 was a dressage ride and it was a much more laid back ride than normal. We really focused on getting power, straightness, and getting it faster and with less fuss. We discovered one of my habits of throwing my connection away during a down transition has come back so I have to focus on not doing that. We also worked on a cool "butterfly" exercise that I have done a couple of times since. We ride the centerline and turn to the rail, do (something), turn up centerline 1/2 to 3/4 down the arena and ride back up the centerline doing (something), turn back to the rail and continue.

Sounds easy enough, right? I thought so too, until we are doing things like lengthened trot on those straight sides. Or leg yields, counter canter, haunches out/in, collected trot, collected/lengthened canter, etc. When you only have about 25m to do the movement before getting control back to make the 10m circle, it gets interesting and difficult fast! We can only fit about a stride and a half of lengthened canter before we are pulling back up, but actually getting it and getting it back is a great accomplishment.

We were already under a stay-at-home and social distance order for lesson 9 on March 10. On March 13, all non essential business was shut down and all lessons were cancelled. Then all shows were cancelled. Then only life essential businesses were allowed to be open. *sigh* You know. You are in it with me.

It took me several weeks to get back to riding with purpose again, as I went through a mini depressive state. I think everyone did. Since then I have done some fitness rides and I jumped some of the XC jumps! We didn't jump any of the biggest ones, but we jumped all but 5 of the XC jumps at the farm. Mia was fabulous, as expected, and seemed to really enjoy the change of pace. Our last dressage ride on Monday made me super happy. Mia didn't fight, she changed her gait speeds via my seat, she picked up/dropped gaits via my seat, and felt straight in her canter in both directions. If the ONLY thing we accomplish this year is having a dressage test that doesn't say "haunches in" under the canter section, I am going to be so proud.

Check this out - video!

It took a while to get everything set up, but I finally got it together with the help of SO. I have some helmet cam! Wonder what it is like to jump over something pretty damn big and it doesn't feel like....anything? Well now you can. Introducing the Mia4000.

This is a super cool video bc it was the only video SO took of the entire schooling ride and it was the most perfect jump. You can see it from both the saddle and from the ground. But look at the helmet video. It doesn't even look like she JUMPS. There is no big effort, no big elevation in my height, it is just be bopping around until I am on the other side. She can jump y'all. She can really jump.

I have even more, I have 1.5 HOURS of helmet cam video to edit down. Let's see if I can do it before this post goes up ;)

Training Level Horse Trail debut - Check!

After getting up at the ungodly early time of 230a, I left the barn with MR at 445a. I had forgotten they made one of those, a 230a to wake up to. I mean, I've seen a 230a to go to sleep to, but to wake up to? Totally not appropriate.

Note all pics are taken during the XC schooling, not during the show

The drive down was uneventful, which was nice. It was already 70 with high humidity, but at least the sun wasn't beating down! It got up to 90 degrees by the time BN was starting.

The dressage test was decent! There were comments like "tightness in the back" and "Needs rounder connection", but I expected them.

All the knees

The pluses? Mia was pretty good! I am really happy with her work except the stretching trot and freewalk, in which she did not stretch down for either. Usually she drops down quickly bc it is her reward, weird that she didn't for either part.

All the trots

The negatives? Uh....her rider was horrible. Again. I don't know what it is about her rider, but she really needs to step it up or give it up. I went off course in the dressage course. *sigh* Yes, again. At least in dressage this time so it was only 2 points and not 4. #progress

Max Splashes

I didn't ask for much in the canter lengthenings. The trot lengthening was nailed for going faster more than lengthened. I could have pushed for more points, but the actual forgetting of my course apparently threw me enough that I didn't push.

XC schooling

I really need to get over this "forgetting my course" phase. This is not cool.

Jump 1

The stadium was the 2nd ride and it went double clear. She was sticky to the first couple of fences, which as weird. I thought I had her set up properly, but she wasn't crisp and actually hit a pole on the first jump.

Jump 2

We were super lucky in that the pole stayed up, and she made sure to not touch any poles after that. The rest of the course rode so cleanly and fast, I looked and counted when I passed the start/finish because I wondered if I missed a jump.

Jump 5

I was even tempted to ask the judge if I was clean, but figured they would have blown their whistle if there was a problem. Much better than the show for the Combined Test a few months ago!

Jump 6

Last was cross country. I was beyond happy that we had been schooling the weekend prior, the first 12 jumps on course were ones we had practiced over! We walked straight from stadium to the other side of the property for cross country. I was disappointed that there were no warmup fences for XC. Not a single XC fence to get the juices flowing, nor a stadium fence.

Jump 7

Next time I will def ask if I could school jump 1 of the BN fence. We jumped stadium, gave them a 15-20 min hack and immediately go jump T fences? Give me something to get things going again people!

Jump 8

Mia was actually sticky to the fences again?! Normally she locks onto XC fences and drags me to them, and while she wasn't really TRYING to run out, she was adding strides or drifting for about half of the fences. Fences 1/2 she was sticky at. Fence 4 she couldn't figure out how to canter in a straight line, but locked on about 4 strides away. Fence 5 she drifted enough I was actually afraid we would have a run out, but she jumped the bench very honestly, as well as the 2 stride bench of 6 after it.

Jump 9

We trotted down a very rocky path, since she didn't have shoes, before going over 7 and up the bank of 8 and the table of 9. Looking back, we should have galloped to 10, but I thought we had plenty of time. 10 was great, as was 11 into the water.

Jump 10

A sharp 180 degree turn and we went down the steps of 12 and over the trakehner of 13. 14 was a rolltop at the bottom of a hill and Mia dropped to a trot, she wasn't super happy to go down the hill but jumped beautifully once we she got to the rolltop. We galloped back up the hill before coming back to a canter and over the Training level half coffin. Which Mia did BEAUTIFULLY!!!!

I will forever be grateful that my barn has this unfinished ditch that we practiced over for every ride until she stopped caring about ditches. #Win At this point, I realized we were going to have time faults and let her fly. Mia flat out galloped that last 2 fences and took them beautifully. We still ended up with 5 points of time faults. Womp womp.

Put it in the bank! Mia loves banks!

I bet myself up pretty good on the walk back, but got Mia iced and cooled down in no time. If I could figure out how to properly keep my head in the game at a show, I knew we could do better. And time faults? Since when do we have time faults!?

When they posted the preliminary results, my jaw dropped. We went from last place of 5th to 2nd place. OMG. We made up HUGE points during the jumping and XC phase, and not a single horse had gone double clear in XC! Someone did challenge their XC score so I ended up 3rd of 5, but still. OMG! We did it. We actually did it. We successfully finished our debut in Training Level, and did so in a manner I was proud of.

Could things be better? Sure. I don't know why Mia wasn't locking onto all of the jumps, but she sure did at the end of XC. She literally drug me to the last 3 fences and I was just a passenger.

She got a good solid 3 days off to relax and hang out before having a quick hack. We were then part of the "OMG We are dying" heat and humidity over the weekend, so she got 2 more days off. And then last night was the farrier. The farrier was there late enough that I didn't ride, but let Mia run around and she looked fabulous. I won't be able to go out tonight #lifeproblems but I will be riding tomorrow.

Snacks are a requirement. At all times. Snacks.

Time to get going again. I am toying with the idea of another HT next month, and if not in Sept. I want to get this figured out so we can stop having these stupid mistakes!

3rd place baby! 

And stay tuned, I have even more goodies for you.

The show that wasn't

I was super excited to go cross country schooling to put Mia over some larger fences and to make the final decision on whether I could put her in her first ever Training level horse trial, or if I should bump down to Novice for the first HT of the season. Decisions, decisions. On one hand, I KNOW we could do it. Mia's dressage is really good (when her rider does the crap that needs done) right now. Our jumping is very good too, I have successfully fixed my brain (I think anyway) and I don't have anxiety when looking at a 3'3" jump. Our fitness is just about where it needs to be, and we were ready to go. The concern? Why did I want this litmus test? Because we haven't done a horse trial in a long while. Last year's show season was basically non-existent due to the weather and schedule, I never went XC schooling at all last year. Would it really be FAIR to put Mia out so...unprepared?

On Saturday we started with the farrier. App was not helpful, as discussed in the last post. Thanks to him, I was about 25 mins later getting out than I wanted but it worked out well enough. I was SO lucky to have the daughter of one of the boarders be willing to come and be a ground person. SO was out of town and I could find no one else who wanted to haul down. The fact she was willing to just come and walk around? I was so extremely grateful.

We made it in about 2 hours and the ground was oh so wet. Not as wet as when I was there a few weeks ago for the CT show, but pretty damn close. In addition to being extremely wet, there were no large jumps set up at all. The cross country fences were still stacked in storage and the only jumps set out were some starter/BN jumps. I was annoyed because I had emailed the facility before I came to ensure they were open, advising I wanted to school Training fences to prep for the show. When they responded, they didn't say a word about there not being any Training fences up for me to practice over. Grrr.

We jumped everything set out. We also found the 3 biggest, permanent fences in the entire park and jumped them too. She is such a good mare. The biggest, which I suspect may be a Prelim fence, she was hesitant going up to it, but after jumping, she was every eager and forward. She just needed that confidence builder, apparently, and I threw it at her towards the beginning of our ride lol. She was such a good mare, she only biffed a fence once because she wasn't listening. She tapped the log and it rolled off of its stand. It was also water logged and had NO chance of going back up, even with the 2 of us trying to lift it. Oops...

I came away from the schooling confident we could probably do Training level, but now I had a bigger concern. The footing was horrible, really horrible. I wasn't able to gallop a single time because the entire grounds were swampy/in standing water. I really don't want to chance going at speed towards Training level fences if I don't have to. And then it rained for 2 days straight, plus off an on again during the week up to the show. The last time I rode in super crappy weather at a show, spring 2014, while it rained the ENTIRE DAY, the footing was actually fairly solid. And we won first place! There was no solid footing here, everything was squishy and waterlogged.

In the end, I couldn't do it. I really, REALLY wanted last weekend to be our first ever Training Horse Trial. There was only one other horse entered in Training and while they went double clear, they had a 38 in dressage. I think I could have beaten the score. I could have won our first ever Training Hose Trail. But the more I debated it, I realized if I am struggling this much, it is obvious I KNOW the footing is dangerous and it isn't worth it. So I didn't enter.

I need to try to find another show, I am traveling in June which eliminates the next Horse Trial. There is a jumper show in mid-June I may try because it is close. I am super disappointed that I didn't go, but I know it was the right choice. And that's all that really matters, right?

Progress is progress

With new plans in place, things have been going quite well. In jumping, I first bumped Mia's jumping down to 2'6" and she literally trotted over everything before I realized this was stupid and considered that a warmup. I then put things back up to 2'11" and even those looked small. Fences are now back up to 3'3" and Mia is happy and I am happy. Next week I may put a fence or two back up to 3'6", but I'm not pushing it. No need to break my brain again, no need to rush.

We actually jumped last night and Mia really was a rock star. I really don't deserve this horse. She didn't knock a single fence down, and only touched 2 rails over our entire ride. We started with fences at 2'11" to 3'3", ending with everything at 3'3".  Even when we had a couple of disagreements, she soared over jumps, found a way to get to the other side, and jumped beautifully. Our lead change is still broken and she is now landing over 90% of the jumps on the left lead, even when we are going right. She is, however, starting to give me the lead change 50% of the time again, so there is that. I'm not sure why she is landing on the wrong lead, I've tried changing my weight and paying close attention to ME but it hasn't fixed anything yet.

What else is going on? A lot actually. I had a lesson! It was really good in that my only homework is to stop riding like an newb. Huh. Okay, point taken. When I ride my dressage pattern, the moment things go awry or I get distracted, I ride my pattern. Instead of riding the horse. Meaning instead of squeezing every single point out of every stride, I get hyper focused on making sure I don't mess up the pattern. Which, yes, helps from getting eliminated but I am a much better rider than that. My homework is to instead hyper focus on riding every stride. Asking Mia to supple at least every other step. Wiggling the bit. Bumping her with my leg. I should be asking for a shoulder in, change of speed, half halting, changing direction, anything and everything so that Mia is asking me "Okay, what now" instead of going into "cruise mode". 

This makes 100% sense, but I think my brain thought that cruise mode was the goal. It's not, and I know this, but maybe the lazy part of me wanted it to happen? So once we "got" it, I would let Mia "cruise" instead of constantly micromanaging. But it's okay, we have new homework and we are working on it. We were also told our lengthened canter was non-existent. We have to feel like we are galloping. Hmm. I'll try it at the next show, and I guess I believe her, but it feels way faster and flatter than I thought it should. I've been watching some dressage to try to figure this all out, but I just have to ride it and trust the instructor!

Mia also had a massage and it was the first time she had no knots. She typically has knots in her neck, back and/or withers, but she just had some slight tense spots. Progress indeed! Now if *I* could have a regularly scheduled massage.... Instead I am dealing with shoulder pain. The nagging issue I have had for 2+ years is finally growing up, it now wakes me up at night. So I had the x-rays and am waiting to see the specialist. Who has an 8 week wait to get it *eyeroll*. Fingers crossed it will be quick, easy, and just some drugs to get right as rain, I just have to wait until mid-June to find out.

Finally, my plan is to go XC schooling on Saturday after the farrier visit. If all goes well, I am going to *gasp* enter our first Training level HT on the 19th. I am actually excited about it, I really want to redeem our crap ride from last time. We just need to get over Training level XC jumps, because we haven't been over many XC jumps period and it wouldn't be fair to introduce her to those jumps during a show. So cross your fingers, I will know on Sunday if I am checking the N or T box on that entry!

XC schooling!

By wonders of all things, the venue actually opened the cross country course for schooling after the show. It was perfect timing, because we hadn't gone xc schooling since last year and it is far, so I don't get down here often to do it. It was super wet, and getting wetter as it was raining, but I am so glad we did it.

Our new XC bit, just a little more whoa

Confidence builder

I started out with some really small stuffs, I really wanted to make sure I rebuilt some of my lost confidence but I was worried for nothing. Mia was totally ready to go and apparently solid objects don't bother me. Or my brain had finally reset itself after surviving the stadium round? Either way, things were good.

Warmup!

Trakehner? No problem.

The highlights? Mia was weirdly spooky at the woods until she got a couple of spanks from the crop. Then she got down to business and didn't flinch at a single thing. Up a bank out of water? Easy. Down banks? Good. Down banks into water? Fabulous. Little logs? Big logs? Easy peasy.

Blind landing!

Fun in the water

I am really glad we swapped our bit over to the 4-in-1 because Mia was often questioning my decisions for half halts. And collection. And slowing down. I understand, this IS in fact the first time we are out running for the entire season, but training is training and she can't let herself get so excited that she forgets she HAS training. She still has a job and she still has to apply that knowledge!

All the pretty things! Collection up the hill

Big logs are no big deal

The only thing she had issues with were the "roller coaster" jumps, but we went over them until she got it. They are a set up for a sunken road. There is a jump on top of a hill, you go down the hill, back up a small hill and over another jump. The one set is pretty easy, but the other two are significantly more difficult as they both have a blind landing. Mia didn't care about the blind landing, however she needed a reminder that the downhill ride does not mean faster.

Learning to not run downhill!

Tires are easy

The happiest moment? This picture. The last xc schooling we had in MI had this as a question and Mia was not okay with it. I knew it was just a matter of time, and apparently she has surpassed the confidence needed to question this type of jump. A log on top of a drop. I didn't even show it to her, we trotted up to it and she popped down the jump as if it was NBD. Training and confidence FTW!

Log on a drop? Easy!

We finished up over this huge log, it is UP a hill, and I think it would qualify as a Prelim question because of the hill, but Mia locked onto it after the tire jump and had no cares so we went for it. After an awkward jump, bc newbs, she got it on the 2nd try and we called it a day. We were soaked, she was getting tired, and I had my confidence back. It made me feel much better about the day and our abilities.

So much photo filter required to be able to see through the dark, misty rain

Big ol log on a hill, attempt 1. 2nd attempt wasn't captured

I am hopeful I can go schooling again before the next show, I would LIKE to go to a Training HT but most likely I will do a Novice HT first to confirm our training. I would hate to push either of us too fast, especially since we have done almost no Training level cross country jumps to practice. We will see though, the year is young and I have lots of plans!

Psyching yourself out- a Training CT recap

Before I get into the Training CT recap, I wanted to talk about confidence. And what it is like when you lose it. I am a pretty hardcore person. If I make a decision to do something, I put on my big girl panties and Get. It. Done. I don't have anxiety issues and I am not often nervous. For this show? I was a nervous wreck. Legit nervous. Thursday/Friday/Saturday I had trouble sleeping, I made myself sick on Saturday. I was actually literally shaking on Sunday. I couldn't eat breakfast. I didn't ride effectively in my dressage. And then I figured it out. It clicked. I realized why I was acting this way, when it is so abnormal for me. I had broken my confidence.

Fuzzy video screencaps FTW!

To prep for this show, I went from about 3', which we have been working on for the past few weeks, to 3'3" for one day and then immediately to 3'6". That ride on Wednesday went well, except for the end where she wasn't listening and was running to the jumps. But I was nervous and forced myself over it. And while it ended well, it shook my confidence because she wasn't listening. I figured I would power through like I always do, but apparently I didn't. I was suddenly put off of the large fences, she had knocked down those fences at the end bc she was running, and I think my brain could only see us bringing everything down in a total failure.

At least we looked cute!

So yeah. Sunday was not the show I had hoped. I really didn't ride effectively in dressage. I missed the canter lengthenings we have been working so hard on. I couldn't find my whip so I rode without it, but didn't then keep my inside leg back to keep Mia's haunches behind her. So almost every canter element on the test sheet has a comment about her haunches being in. She had no desire to stretch in our stretchy trot circle, an aspect I expected big points for, and she also didn't want to push during her free walk and instead meandered. Another big points loser. *sigh* The good part? We were sitting in 3rd out of 4 with a 36.4%. Not too shabby considering the state of the rider!

Position love!

 At least it was at this point I realized why I was having the anxiety. And you know what? After I figured it out, I felt so much better. I actually was able to eat, I was able to relax a little, and things were better. Mia warmed up well for stadium, though a bit fast. I actually regretted not getting the bit I tried last year for cross country, which did not help the anxiety that was trying to build. And, in reality? The stadium round went really well. Mia listened, she didn't knock anything over, she mostly collected when I asked, she even went over the triple combination with as much caution as I asked. Wonderful you say! What also happened during stadium? My anxiety made me lose my focus and I ended up off course., went WELL past our fence and had to double back, which gave me 4 jump penalties and 2.5 time penalties. GAH!!!!!!

Last jump of the triple, she was amazing

So we ended up 4th. We would have been a half point from 2nd if I hadn't had my course error, but oh well. Mia was AMAZING and had no idea why the hell I was such a wreck so I am happy. The plan is for ME to go back to 2'11" and then go up to 3'3" and  THEN stay there for several sessions before trying 3'6" again. I need to set myself up for success, mentally, because Mia is totally fine about all of it. She gets today off, and then I am giving myself some serious homework so we can try this again. But that's not all that happened on Sunday....

We are doing this - Oh and we are not hunters

**Edit - I had this set to go up last Thursday, but apparently I scheduled it for THIS Thursday. Oops. So...enjoy!**

Boing!

Our debut in hunter land was good! In that Mia was foot perfect, had zero spook, zero hesitation, was super quiet and happy, and had good rounds. Unfortunately the judge must have been able to tell that we were blatantly not hunters as we placed last in both over fences classes, and 2nd to last in the flat class. But hey, what can I say. I didn't even really clean her, I forgot to clean the trailer rub mark on her butt off before we went in, I didn't pay attention to how the courtesy circle is supposed to be done, I wasn't trying to win. We were literally going to knock rust off of our jumping. And it was a success!

This is not a hunter canter...

Our first round was good, though I biffed the distance on one of the jumps. It was a long spot, Mia waited instead and ended up putting in a half stride. Oh well. She also didn't swap her lead, something she has been doing more and more of since we started working on counter canter. Hmmm....this needs to be addressed. Our second round was actually pretty perfect, save for one lead swap that didn't happen. I was very happy with our second round, and thought if I was going to place, that would be the round! Spoiler alert, I still got last place HAHA!

All the trot

Our flat class I was really happy with too, though it was super obvious that we aren't hunters. In the canter, Mia had this nice, collected canter and everyone else was long and low. Oops... That's okay, it was all for experience and I was actually really happy with how the day went. It was a close show, we were back at the barn by 11a, and the day was good.

This is also not a hunter canter

Then I actually did it, I entered us into the Training level CT for this upcoming Sunday. I have ridden the Novice dressage test and it is easy. I have ridden the Training level test and it is doable. I have ridden some of the Prelim level and it is too hard, Training is the right place to be dressage wise. It's just....intimidating and I keep psyching myself out. This will be the first time to ever show at Training. App and I jumped 3'3" and 3'6" but never at a show. Mia has jumped up to 3'9" (once, a couple of years ago), but this is the first time jumping this big at a show. I have been jumping up to 3' the past few weeks, but this past week I stepped it up. Last week I jumped 3'3" and last night I bumped it up to 3'6". And Mia couldn't have cared. The rider was trying hard to not have a damn anxiety attack. Apparently my lady balls are not as big as they need to be, and while 2'9" doesn't look big, 3'3" looks respectable, it turns out that 3'6" makes me weak-kneed. **Edit-more to come on this**

What did Mia do about it? Nothing. I don't deserve this mare. She couldn't have cared that I was all nervous but riding with determination. She jumped over everything like it was fun, even the bounce combo that was set up. I had a short panel fence at 2'6" and a vertical at 2'9" as a warmup, then an airy vertical with a ground line at 3'3" (moved to 3'6" after a couple laps), a 3'6" gate fence, and another 3'3" vertical with a barrel under it. She never even thought about touching anything until the very end, when she felt that running up to the jumps was a better idea than collecting and compacting to the jumps. Spoiler Alert. It is not. I may need something other than a copper eggbutt if she continues doing this, but I am going to try reminding her more before bitting her up. Fingers crossed?

Kinda a hunter-ish trot?

We have our Training CT to get ready for, cross your fingers we survive!