Congratulations

...to Anna and Fame who won Spiller's Cup today!
Anna is 16 and is riding Fame twice a week.
Spiller's Cup consists of two shows where one is show jumping and the other is dressage.
(Such a nice idea to have a cup that combines both, don't you think?)

I was cheering them on from the side of the arena with a nasty cold *croak, croak*
and was of course childishly proud of them both.

Wrong delivery

After all the work throughout the week I took Fame for a relaxing trail ride on Saturday, in nice weather.

We had a good time.

This time we took some smaller paths through the forest.

On Sunday it was our next show.

And on Sunday I regretted the calm ride we had had the day before.

I should have taken her on some tough canter interval training instead.

Had ordered: A relaxed, co-operative, nice dressage horse.

Got: A fearful antelope with too much energy. The type that always has to be on watch, and teleports three metres to the side. Knows how to run, but has difficulties to bend.

Aaaargh.

Adding spice to the stew they had mounted a tape band (you know the type that the police uses on TV at crime scenes) as a separation between the warm up and the show arena.
The wind came in strong gusts and suddenly that tape (three rows of them) came alive and attacked.

Yes it did.

An antelope must always look out, and stay alive.

The antelope's rider, however, was close to a heart attack.

My daughter on the other hand (we started in the same class), kept cheering me up in the warm up pen with comments like "Charlie feels SO fine today" and "He is quite nice on BOTH reins"

And the black cloud over my head kept growing.

Helloooo? Anyone wants an antelope today? They are on sale? No?

A daughter perhaps?

Needless to say, our performance at the show was not one to be remembered.

My daughter?

She did her best ride ever in that class (LA) I believe, a very nice program with a relaxed, but attentive horse.

And won the class!

I was a happy and proud Mum, and rode my antelope home.

Late update, and Friday's entertainment

Last Sunday we arranged a dressage show at the stable.

Saturday was needed to arrange all things for the show, print startlists, protocols, purchase what was necessary etc. (in addition to taking a fab trail ride with Fame, lol)

I have got some help with Fame lately.
Anna, who is 15 and earlier shared my daughter’s pony, is going to share Fame with me and ride her twice a week.
I thought she could start Fame in the class where the club championship was to be hold (LB) and I could start her in LA, same as last but this time with a saddle. Nice.

Just outside our "office" we got a new friend.
It was such a cute mouse youngster (are the spieces called shrews in English?)

He was not afraid at all, and kept wandering around us in the grass.
He finally decided that Elisabeth's leg was a nice place to be, so he started there.
Kept climbing though, so in the end he ended up under her sweater.
Elisabeth kept giggling, but was quite pleased.
I was a bit sad, because I thought to myself that he wouldn't last long, being so unafraid with the cats around.

And two days later, we had a present in front of our entrance door...
I know the cats are just doing their job, but sometimes I wish they could let be.

We have had a lovely Indian Summer lately, sun and warm weather (but cold at night) so we needed to irrigate the arenas on Saturday.
Shouldn’t have done that.
Of course it started to rain Sunday.
We had quite a lot of participants, first was 9 am and last was 3.30 pm, so it was a long day.

As we are a small club everyone has to help out and do their share of work.
Half of the day I wrote for the judge.
I find that very interesting.
I can compare what I see myself to what the judge is commenting and how it is marked.
As I often write at our shows, I also have the possibility to compare how the different judges are evaluating the rides. There are differences.

There were some huffpuff this time about the judge being strict.
Maybe she was, but that is how the sport is.
She was very strict about the correct execution of the exercises, and also that the horses should not be behind the vertical.
I appreciated that she was strict about the latter; I am frustrated to see that riders get remarks about the horse being too open in form when horses going behind the vertical is not commented, which is a more serious fault.

We had a lovely day in the rain.
My daughter won her class, and was Club Champion Pony.

Anna won her class, and was Club Champion Horse.

And the Geriatric rider remembered the program this time, and won her class too!

If the weather’s fine I will take an early ride on Fame and then watch the SJ show that is arranged at one of the other stables in the valley.
Sunday they arrange a dressage show, so guess where I will be?
And hooray, as it is the same program, I might remember it too!

Jimmi, the Danish trainer, is coming from Wednesday to Sunday next week.
Which will make me broke, but happy.

I wish you all a very nice weekend!

And at last, Friday’s entertainment.
You guys over there think you know what country music is.

Duh.
Check this.

Busy week

You know, I really like our new view!

The week has been a hectic one.

Last Sunday we went to a dressage show with our daughter, and at the same day our club arranged a jumping show at the stable.

I was supposed to participate in the dressage with Fame, but she came in lame on Wednesday.

It was most likely due to a sore sole as a stone was stuck in her hoof when she came in. She was fine on Friday, but I gave her free over the weekend to be on the safe side.

But before going to the show we had some heavy hair dressing to do...

If you scroll down to previous posts you can see how wild the mane on Charlie had grown during the summer.

Can't have that on a dressage pony now, can you? Hehum.

So Saturday it was down to work, as we were leaving early Sunday morning.

I had to trim the mane before starting braiding.

Charlie is a good boy, and stands still while I am sweating over his mane and braids...

And voilá - Jungle Jim has turned into a dressage pony!

All left now was to cross fingers and hope he did not scratch all of it off during the night...

Some redecoration was necessary on Sunday, but not much and we left on time.

My daughter made a good ride, and ended 2nd in her class, but placed first in the Regional Autumn Dressage Cup as the rider placed first was disqualified to enter due to high percentage in FEI classes at national shows.

Happy rider, strong wind, blind horse.

(Isn't he the sweetest, just standing there?)

Returning home, it was straight to work at the jumping show.

We are not a large club, so all hands were needed.

Now here are some old friends: Tarzan and Hjalmar!

They did two nice rounds, and Tarzan was a good boy and jumped all obstacles this time!

I have had a very busy week at work, and as our club is arranging a dressage show this Sunday where I have the main responsibility, time has been a bit short, lol!

I wish you all a nice weekend!

Shhhhh, don't tell the mice I'm down here...

Dressage show with a redneck twist

The pony girls from our club at the show, excluding the geriatric, overaged one

My goal for this spring was to start one class higher than last year, which here is called class LA.

(I am sorry but I do not know what the English/American equivalent is called, but the program contains exercises as canter-walk-canter transitions, walk pirouettes, leg yields, medium and extended walk/trot/canter and counter canter.)

My daughter's pony Charlie was diagnosed with a minor tendon problem at Easter time, so he has had free from shows and training since then, just slowly building him up again until he was cleared by the vet beginning of June.
I could not start when my daughter had an injured pony, so I waited with shows until they were fit for fight again.

The D-day was this Saturday, and I was happy to see that Fame's cut on the back had healed nicely so I could put on a saddle again.

Not.
I came home on Friday afternoon, only to find new wounds at the same place, right where the back of the saddle should lie *sigh*

My daughter's pony who is as kind as can be to us, is definitely not kind to Fame.

What to do?

I had postponed the start for so long, and this Regional show was at a neighbour stable too, so we could just ride over.

I really wanted to ride that program to get a check that we are on the right track, and Fame needed the training of a show atmosphere - she has only started 3 dressage shows outside our own stable in her whole life.

(Yes, I am a training nerd, not a show nerd!)
Hm.

The new cuts were also behind my seat if I rode her bareback...

I called the judge and asked for permission to start without a saddle, outside competition.

Which I got!

So comes Saturday morning, I happily start to braid my horse and prepare for show.

When ready I overviewed the result.

It was not that bad? I thought when my daughter came round and commented:

"That wasn't too smart"

"What?" I said.

"Braiding when riding bareback?"

"Oh...."
Hadn't thought about that. Nothing to hold on to.

But what the heck, should I ride bareback in the show at least I could do it with style.

A year ago, last time we participated in a show outside the stable, I had a fast and tense giraffe horse in the warm up, totally unconcentrated on me to begin with. I had to ride her a bit tired to get her to settle down and concentrate some. As a consequence she was somewhat pluggy when riding the program.

I was happy to see that this time - even if initially a bit tense and looking around - she concentrated on the work and kept her focus on me. She was a little bit strong, so we worked with leg-yields, transitions and circles to improve things. After a while I could also introduce some supplying work in a longer and deeper frame to loosen her back.

As I had helped my daughter at her warm-up, our time was a bit short, and suddenly it was time for us to enter the arena.

Every time when I am to participate in a show, I curse myself for not starting the show training earlier, as all the flaws become very visible when I two days beforehand try to ride through the program *headdesk*

We did not do well enough on the walk piruettes, halts and rein-backs.

Totally my fault, we should have trained more.

I had to laugh at myself on Sunday as I read Carl Hester's book of dressage where he commented something like "the dressage rider always has to train on square halts, rein-back and walk piruettes."

Duh.

Look! No saddle!

How it went?
We placed 5th out of 17 riders.

Had the geriatric rider remembered the program we would have placed 3rd...

I was very happy with my horse.
She tensed up a bit when entering the arena and saw some ghosts at two places - but relaxed when I spoke to her and did a good job.

The canter work went well, we got nice marks for the counter canter (which we have been training on).

She got a bit strong and slightly deaf when I tried to get the half halts through (probably due to a bit of tension being on the show), and it is more difficult to use my seat to get her back to me when riding bareback.

Due to this I safed a bit when it came to riding some more engagement into her; I was afraid she would get too strong.

But all in all I was happy that we did not make a total fool of ourselves, my buddy Fame and me.

Hey, I even stayed on the horse!

I must confess that I had dreaded the Very Tense Zigzaging and Jumping Giraffe, but luckily it did not show up today.

My daughter?

She did a very nice round and placed 3rd in the same class.

Rode better than me, as usual.
(But we are catching up... Beware of the evil Bareback-rider sneaking up from behind, Bwa-ha-ha-ha!...as long as we can remember the program, that is.)

My concentrated daugher on her lovely pony Charlie, who is now out by himself during daytime.
He can munch on hay instead of on Fame, evil thing.
As you can see he doesn't need any extra proteins.