Queen of Jompies @ Loch Moy

Happy Monday, friends! And welcome to another epic rundown of Doozy's introduction to the sport of eventing -- a year in the making! It's been a slow process, not gonna lie, but this weekend brought some big rewards!

serenely grazing at the exact intersection of active show jumping, dressage rings, and the xc finish line

Obvi not everything was "perfect," and we only barely snagged our first (possibly only?) point toward year end awards bc another horse withdrew... But Doozy was legitimately incredible, and somehow pulled a literally flawless show jumping round out of thin air. 

most of the test didn't look like this, but we're getting more 'better' moments, more often

You may have noticed we've been doing a lot of prep ahead of this event --- nibbling around the edges of all the various components that go into a successful day at a horse trial. Including pre-exposure to the venue, lessons, schooling, all the things. And it really paid off! 

high headed and stiff. but doing the thing, good girl.

Doozy was very calm right off the trailer -- despite some big differences from our visit 3wks ago. We parked in a different zone next to the xc course, and the dressage and show jump rings were swapped to accommodate the previous week's Area Championships. Plus, obvi, a LOT more horses and activity. It was all good tho! 

I had enough time for a pre-ride, but opted to hand walk / graze instead. Doozy was cool as a cucumber, so we got to just relax, hang out and watch my friend Katie jump around!

finishing the test on that weird little broken center line move. 

Obvi Doozy got a little more amped for our dressage warm up. I budgeted about 40min and spent most of that time walking / stretching. But she was good, and it felt like I actually rode the way I would have at home and was better about asking Doozy to step up and try for me. 

emma: "hm, i feel like i should be doing something with my hand right now... how about petting the pony??"

The test itself was less good than warm up, and at first I was actually frustrated to do basically the same bad test despite getting better at home. Still so much tension, ya know? Except, I stopped myself bc this was legit the first time I had any reason whatsoever to even hope for better. 

judge: "actually, you were supposed to salute....."

Doozy actually was completely different for this test. Sure, not observably by scores (yet), but in very very important ways. She was completely self contained. No explosions (tho still distracted by horses passing ringside). Not so fragile that I couldn't touch her. And again, the warm up was actually... Almost like a normal real ride for us. 

link to full video should you be so inclined

So these are all good and important things. Like, we'll probably continue to score in the 40s until I can get Doozy to consistently soften her topline through the test. And ya know. That is gonna be hard for me too LOL, let's be real. But for now, I'll appreciate the improvements in consistency, reliability, and rideability.

moving on to our best phase of the day, show jompies!!!

Bc it ain't a dressage show, guys! And Doozy showed up ready to jump. I did a light jump school the day before the show, which included a "big" (for us) fence that made me feel squicky but was probably about 2'5 (.75m). And Doozy was literally perfect for the school. Idk how many more times I can say "literally" in this post, so you're just gonna have to believe me LOL.

i watched like 3 horses in a row get a half stride to this fence. not Dooz tho!

We spent a long time walking in the show jump warm up bc basically the whole division arrived at the same time while the judge was still resetting the course. No rush, right? Once we got going tho, Doozy was... say it with me now: literally perfect, omg. 

you can pick me apart if you want, but to me, this course was perfect

We sailed over a couple warm up fences (cantering now, bc that's what Doozy wants!), and then got in line at the gate. Doozy was calm and patient and not at all spooky, tho we also had the luck of going after a horse who had a couple rails -- so we got a few extra moments in the ring before they rang the bell. I mostly just took a slightly meandering walk toward our starting position, passing by the faces of the few oxers on course. Doozy didn't care tho.

need to change the standards to say "Queen" please!

And once the bell rang? It was Go Time! It was a short course -- only 7 jumps and no truly related distances. But the whole thing was like sweeping twisty serpentines traveling up the ring. Long bending lines from one fence to the next, with some tricky rollback landings.  

looking ready to absolutely nail the tricky roll back landing

And Doozy just ate it up. We figured out in a recent lesson that she really wants me to stay connected and strong for her, not just sorta leaving her to figure it out herself. So I kept strong leg / thigh pressure and rein contact all the way around. 

And Doozy rewarded me with a lovely canter rhythm -- every jump out of stride, every lead landed (or auto-changed), landing in the same canter she jumped from, and omg -- no rails!

this round is instantly in my Top 3 Favorites Ever

link to video here

Honestly, there isn't a single thing I would change about this ride. Not one thing. I am just so proud of this little mare! It's like it just clicked for her, like, "Yep I know how to do this!"

woot woot -- doozy's 3rd time out the start box!

Legit such a great feeling!! Esp going into cross country, which, for some reason, has historically produced a lot of angst for me personally. For reasons unknown and likely irrational... but that's just how it's been. Not on this day, tho -- I was excited!

loch moy has the best jumps -- generally stout enough (for the level) to feel like you're doing something, but with inviting profiles. doozy jumped this fence back in february

The course looked great -- lots of simple well presented fences that looked solidly within our comfort zone, but enough environmental activity to keep us honest. Like the roll top above -- a great fence, but what you don't see is the gaping chasm of the intermediate coffin complex immediately to the left. I've seen that ditch distract and spook countless lower level horses before, so it was a good reminder to not take ANY jumps for granted!

tho, uh, there are a couple weird ones too! we did *not* jump this one in february haha

Doozy left the start box feeling so confident tho -- kept that same great rhythm and cantered boldly to everything! After the first line of 3 jumps, the course turned downhill to a really nice little faux combination situation. Like, obvi I hate jumping downhill and made Doozy trot the approach, but jump 4 was a simple log, which Doozy aced, then uphill to this weird rail fence. 

doozy didn't seem to care either way tho!

This fence was actually positioned on the left side of lower level fence -- whereas the previous fences had the opposite arrangement. Given that Doozy's runout typically lives to the left, I figured that if any fence was gonna catch us, it might be this one. But no! Doozy was great! We actually had probably our least perfect distance of them all to this fence (and it honestly wasn't even that bad, just a little close), and Doozy made all the right choices, good girl!

all the same, when you're doing the littles classes you can expect a lot of logs no matter what!

We continued the loop up the hill, catching another eminently pleasant roll top before arriving at the water option. I really hemmed and hawed about whether to try for the water... And ultimately decided to just do the log. I just wanted the good experience, ya know? Doozy will figure the water out eventually, but it's going to take more practice. 

cruisin over the finish line!!

Anyway, from there we had another steeply downhill line to some coops, which I intended to trot but accidentally achieved walk instead lol. Well. Maybe it wasn't an accident for Doozy -- she doesn't want to trot these courses apparently -- walk or canter, those are the options in her mind lol! She picked the trot back up, tho, and then cantered the last few steps to the coop, and then had a lovely little run up the final hill toward home!

link to video of the course, there's helmet cam too but i'll post that later

I'm just so proud of this mare -- what a good girl! It wasn't really that long ago that I couldn't even imagine cantering her out in an open field. Well, real talk, it was only just last spring when we were struggling to ride in the unfenced dressage ring at the last place. 

the little star herself <3 <3 <3

The horse is really figuring things out, tho, really starting to understand the game. And the jumping phases just seem to come so naturally to her! It's a great feeling <3