Well the festivities have finally concluded for MDCTA’s annual recognized event, and follow on unrecognized Jenny Camp Horse Trial. But just because the party’s over doesn’t mean the fun stops, amirite?
There was still jump painting going on right up through the day before the starter trial, and in fact a couple more got done afterward too. It’s so much easier to get them painted nicely when they’re out in the field vs stacked up in storage, ya know? And some of them were pretty desperate for attention…
taking the club into the digital age with an actual database for the jumps, complete with printable reports!
I’m not the world’s best jump painter, tbh — I’m a little too fast and sloppy and not as disciplined about the scraping and prepping as some others… But I *am* good at compiling, cataloging, and recording information into usable data and shared information hubs. So I finally took pictures of everything and made a digital jump inventory!
From my experience as a volunteer, storing and sharing information centrally is so much more efficient than having everything residing inside key individuals’ heads. Not that there’s anything wrong with key individuals who generally know all the things, but… ya know. Being ‘key’ and all that, they’re typically busy and doing a million things. Much easier to just have a list.
That way, when some of the country’s most amazing volunteers show up ready and eager to beautify our precious jumps, everything is ready to go for them! And voila! More jumps get painted, less time is wasted tracking down busy bees, and everyone is happy! By my count, something like 17 jumps total got painted for this event!! Amazing!
the club receives grants for introducing new groups to eventing — here’s a set of actual small children, apparently accomplished steeplechase riders, warming their race horses up before schooling xc
The schooling week in between horse trials is always a big hit too. I don’t know the final numbers on how many folks came through, but it was a LOT. Such a great resource for the local community to have full competition courses available to school so close to home!
what goes up must eventually come down: unflagging is the least sexy task
I’d personally love to see the club offer more events at Shawan Downs throughout the calendar year. It’s apparently more feasible than I dared hope… but ya know. It’s a LOT of work, especially for a skeleton crew of board members and volunteers, almost all of whom are either retired or working full time jobs on top of, ya know, having lives and stuff.
new flexible pipe flag attachments recommended by the xc builder were a solid win!
But there are some ideas bumping around. Including opportunities to streamline some of the fussier tasks and chores — like this new method for flagging the fences, recommended by the cross country builder. Sure, it takes a little time to install each tube, but once it’s set, the flags go in and out, no muss no fuss, no friggin zip ties, AND — this style counts as frangible for narrow jumps and corners!
Only trick is to buy the right type of tubing, bc the really flexible stuff will completely relax and lose its shape once you cut it open. Ahem. Cough cough. Ask me how I know….
everyone knows hypothetically about staking jumps… but few spend much time thinking about unstaking jumps… blergh, 2 stakes + ~4 screws per fence x ~100 fences…
Anyway, tho, for many tasks, there really are no shortcuts. Like staking the fences. Sure sure, plenty of facilities out there get away with leaving jumps unstaked. And sure, plenty of oopsie rolled fences don’t result in major accidents — like that time Charlie and I rolled a house at Windurra.
it’s a fun way to get intimate with the local bugs — meet the Click Beetle, a gigantic native bug i’ve somehow gone my entire life without ever seeing before
Buuuuuuut…. when there ARE accidents, they can be legitimately catastrophic and fatal for everybody. Thanks but… no thanks. The few hours spent staking and unstaking is cheap insurance, as far as this club is concerned. It’s just hours that need to be accounted for in planning any additional events.
if bugs aren’t your thing, here’s cats instead, in a very good box
The neat thing about accounting for hours, tho, is that it’s all just numbers at the end of the day. If you know what things need to get done, and how long* those things take to do, it’s just a matter of assigning tasks, budgeting for paid professionals where feasible, and working backwards from a date, right? In theory??
(*And I mean the REAL time things take — like including the 20 minutes spent looking for the drill bit you dropped in the grass, or the extra trips to the hardware store bc you bought the wrong material — not the ‘aspirational’ guesstimates LOL)
anyway tho. doozy. she’s still a weirdo LOL
Well. In theory, all things are possible LOL! Like, maybe in theory, if the club decides to host a fall event at Shawan, mayyyyyybe Doozy will be fully rehabbed by then?
and we’re still tack walking with friends!!
I still honestly don’t really have a sense of timeline for that, and am trying not to set any expectations, consciously or unconsciously, even as I may or may not be trying to manifest opportunities LOL.
do we look happy? <3 <3 <3
But we’ve been tack walking for a couple weeks now, and have started introducing little bits of trot, one long side of the arena at a time. Well. Ahem. And the occasional accidental canter step, bc Doozy is who she is.
ain’t a bad way to spend an evening!
The mare feels like a million dollars tho… A million feral dollars LOL, especially compared to all those nice obedient well-schooled dressage horses I’ve been taking lessons on haha. Like. Doozy, some horses just ya know, do the thing without all those feelings and opinions!
oooooooh but the rehab continues!!!! (not pictured: lots of feelings and opinions! oooh, or cohesive color coordinated outfit choices LOL #dontjudge #allthebluesatonce #andalittlegreentoo)
I have this beautiful fantasy that perhaps we can use this rehab period to maybe polish over some of those little rough spots in our schooling… Ya know, like, if we have to be walking and doing lots of transitions bc we’re only doing littles bits of trot at a time… might as well make the practice count, right?
Seems like a nice idea LOL, we’ll see how it turns out in the real world tho. As long as we come out the other end with a happy sound horse ready to go run and jump again, I’ll be happy regardless!
So… yea. Lots of wishful thinking going on at the moment — hoping and wishing for more fun club stuff, and hopefully a happy sound horse to do the things with! Now that the club stuff is wrapping for the spring, it’s time to get serious about that other part!
I’ve continued along with my bi-weekly dressage lessons with Trainer C, and have since had two more lessons with her homebred Shep.
This horse is such a character — will apparently eat literally anything, including rubber feed pans, blanket buckles, and even his own brushing boots, right off his legs. But he’s a massive sweetie, and insanely generous under saddle.
Shep has an extremely sweet face <3
I believe he’s schooled most of the way through 3rd level, minus the changes, and is confirmed enough in all the things to basically carry my ignorant ass through some pretty cool movements — most of which have been firsts for me.
he’s also prettttttty fancy
For example, in our lesson a few weeks ago, we rode proper dressage-y walk pirouettes, which was interesting bc I’d literally just scribed a couple 2nd level tests the weekend prior and that’s one of those ‘make or break’ movements in the tests, it seems.
And, we practiced the three loop canter serpentines, with canter-walk-canter simple changes of lead over center line. It was somewhat hilarious too, bc while Charlie was a walk-canter savant, we never quite perfected the canter-walk.
forgot to bring my tall boots home with me from the barn, and felt underdressed riding such a nice boy in just my country boots!
So when Shep just like… walked, immediately, my brain straight up buffered for a second like, uh, now what? At which point Shep sorta nudged me, as if to say, “Psst — it’s time to canter again!” And then struck off on the new lead, ready to repeat again for the next loop. Wild stuff, guys LOL.
holy crap, emma’s riding a half pass!
In this most recent lesson — from which trainer C actually nabbed some trot work on video, omg! — we practiced more lateral stuff, including leg yields (familiar territory), but also half pass, a first for me.
Obvi I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t really walk and chew gum at the same time, and that’s a bit of what riding these movements feels like to me. And it’s clear to see in the video that our angles are a little wobbly, change of bend a little rough, rider position slightly wonky haha.
look ma, we did it again!
But we did it!! Possibly bc Shep just knows the drill, knows the routine, might even be literally voice trained (lol), what a good boy!
We also did some shoulder in — something that actually I did work on with both Isabel and Charlie, and that Doozy has edged toward with simpler exercises like shoulder fore etc. But obvi Shep is a bit, er, next level in his schooling compared to my animals haha, and it was really cool getting the right feeling.
literally no idea what i’m doing but there Shep goes in a shoulder in!
Bc naturally, being such a good and generous horse, he was willing to humor me even in my muddled and nonsensical aids, which occasionally directed him to just drift wildly away from the wall, or happily cruise around with his haunches on a completely different track, bc that’s what his pilot said* to do! (*unintentionally, oops haha).
SI the other way too
Not on video but part of the lesson was a bit more canter work, particularly with a little collection and counter canter. I’m actually sad to not have video too bc it personally felt really informative for me. Like, both Charlie and Doozy have (had, in Charlie’s case, sob) quite nice canters naturally. Our issues in that gait aren’t for lack of talent on their part.
With Shep, I needed to think about not driving so much, letting him maintain his own canter, and even trying to collect and contain it a bit — but with my thighs, not hands. Bc tightening with my hands tightens everything up my arms into my shoulders, making it harder to have a following contact and more likely that the reins would slip longer. And the longer my reins got, the lower he got up front, the more strung out, etc etc, a vicious cycle.
video of our trot work — with literally the most generous horse haha
So I needed to be thinking about holding and collecting it together with thighs, not hands, and not driving, but also maintaining enough forward support bc he was likeliest to break gait when it was hardest (ie, when he was most connected collected and on the aids).
And meanwhile, all of this was made easier if I could hold my position taller and more upright, and really sit deep in the saddle — a feeling that was surprisingly easy on Shep (and yet another reason why I wish there was video so I could see if it looked the way it felt).
just an unassuming dreamboat, nbd
So far, these lessons have really been an incredible experience. Almost like Trainer C is kinda just throwing us into the ‘dressage gauntlet,’ letting me try my hand at all these fancy movements bc she knows that
1) her horses are confirmed beyond my ability to screw them up in a single hour, and
2) they are the most perfect teachers bc they are just so reliable in their responses to the aids.
Whether the aid is intentional or otherwise, they give a clear predictable response. If I’m gripping but then I release? Immediate change in the horse. If I’m a bit muddled but giving the basic gist of the right aid? They go forth and do the thing. The more I refine, the more crisp they become.
It’s hard to tell how much will actually translate to Doozy when we’re back at it. Old habits die hard, ya know? But so far, the biggest takeaway for me is that I actually can deliver a good clear aid and release, I am able to do more or less the ‘right’ thing, and maybe the next step for Doozy will be actually giving her a little more trust and breathing room, to give her space to become reliable and predictable in her responses too. Maybe, lol.
On one hand, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind around these parts. On the other hand tho… We’re still just kinda marking the passage of time with Doozy.
just me ‘n my formidable creature
I started doing a little tack walking about two weeks ago, and it’s been absolutely lovely to sit on my favorite girl again.
She’s a feisty beasty tho, and despite my cautiousness about keeping things civilized under saddle, she’s definitely been, ahem, unruly in turnout…
And I admit to spiraling a bit after she’d clearly been up to no good outside:: telltale mud sprockles around face and belly were the first hint that she’d been tearing it up. Second hint was the teensy tiny little pinky-nail sized wound on her left hind. Ya know. Her cellulitis-leg.
new hackamore plates from nunn finer! i *almost* got the biscuit style bc obvs! except it looks a little too western-y for me.
And naturally it blew up like a stove pipe and everything.
Luckily it did NOT escalate into full force cellulitis again, and was back to normal after a day or two… But still. I did a little pity-party shopping for myself (new hackamore plates and fancy rubber reins from Nunn Finer!), and otherwise went full bore into total immersion / distraction with all things MDCTA planning.
Fortunately, as with any recognized event put on by a grassroots skeleton crew, there was plenty to do! And fun opportunities too — like getting to be a fly on the wall for the prelim course inspection, conducted by none other than Captain Mark Phillips.
Mostly tho, it was the normal chores list. However long you think it takes to flag for an event… double it.
don’t worry, i’m a professional
And brushing up the fences. Tho, uh, we were… ahem, a little short on brush LOL!
whew ok, we’ll call that “passable”
Setting up dressage arenas isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but that needed done too.
And painting. So much painting. Some jumps just needed some work on the leading edges and high points — like the above two — while others needed full on facelifts. Probably still more to do there before the starter trials next week too… Makes for some long nights!
these kerrits paddock boots have held up shockingly well for the last two years, and are super comfortable. considering my blundstones were riddled with actual literal holes after the same amount of time, i’m officially a convert!
Eventually it all paid off with two good days of horse showing, with perfect weather, great footing, and lots of happy riders!
apparently a fox wanted to make sure i didn’t miss picking up this decorative straw ground line…
Thennnnnn straight back to the ‘salt mines’ of cleaning up after the event — we take down the P and M courses right away since those levels don’t run for the unrecognized trial, and obvi all the decorations etc need to get picked up too.
kittermission picture as a palette cleanser after the poo LOL
It was definitely nice in a weird way to be a little too busy to even really feel guilty about not riding Doozy. Sure, I still made it out to groom her, check her legs, scratch her bug bites, etc… but mostly it’s been a couple weeks of just cruise control.
Finally, tho, with the event behind us, I started tack walking again this week <3
Doozy is fresh AF and sizzling like a steak on the grill. I swear this horse just vibrates with energy omg.
aerie is a stalwart supervisor <3
And I opted to cut one of our solo hacks short when we got out to the hay fields and the guys were all out there in the middle of cutting and baling and all that and Doozy thought that was all VERY EXCITING OMG lol…
Luckily we had proper supervision for our next attempt and enjoyed a lovely (tho still extremely energetic) hack out to the woods.
Idk how long it’s going to take me to not feel nervous about the next steps in rehab, tbh. We had a single ride where I trotted exactly two long sides of the indoor arena… And the very next day she got that little wound on her cellulitis leg, and I instantly got cold feet again.
I’m sad to miss out on riding and showing and all that, and obvi eager to get Ms Thing going again. Except, more than anything, I reallyreally want durable long term soundness.
Obvi there are no guarantees with horses. A large part of Doozy’s recovery will depend on how well she treats her own self, ya know? Tho, by all accounts she appears happy healthy and SOUND frolicking around in her field. And the leg is looking good too.
It’s that most shawanderful time of the year again, when my local riding club the MDCTA starts gearing up for their annual recognized USEA Horse Trials at Shawan Downs!
I love this event so much — for honestly a lot of reasons. It’s inexorably connected to my eventing history, as home of my earliest volunteer and competitor experiences. And it’s super local for me!
Mostly, tho, my interests center on the eventing aspect. Especially bc it’s super easy to get involved with the club too! Their current competition calendar just uses Shawan Downs for the big recognized event and a follow-up unrecognized starter trial. So it’s always a big push for club members and volunteers to get everything set up!
trying to make sense of the annual jumble
All the portable cross country jumps are piled in an adjacent field for storage throughout the rest of the year, so it’s always a bit of a mystery puzzle sorting everything out — seeing what maybe got a bit broken in the transport, or perhaps succumbed to nature over the winter, vs what’s ready to go for the new year.
making a plan!
Generally it’s a multi-day job for the builder to move jumps from storage out onto approximate locations on course ahead of the final set with the designers.
and from the woods emerge…. jompies!!!
Presumably this is the same just about anywhere, although at Shawan the storage field is a bit far so there’s a lot of time spent driving back and forth with the trailers and loaders. This year fortunately we had two trailers, so it went a little faster maybe.
however long you think it takes to move all the jumps from storage to the course, double triple it
It’s super satisfying seeing everything take shape tho. And for whatever reason, things are well ahead of schedule this year too! All tracks are officially set out with just some building (repairs / blocking / staking), mowing, painting, decorating, flagging, roping, etc, left to do.
and voila! a combination is born!
I mean, obvi that’s still a lot of work left LOL! Tho generally that’s how most members knock out their year-end awards eligibility hours, so it always ends up getting done.
I personally love getting to see more behind the scenes “how the sausage is made” eventing activities. It’s not that it’s all that complicated or unexpected, but it is A LOT. A lot of time, a lot of work, a lot of hands involved. Especially activities like mowing or flagging or painting, it all just takes the time it takes, ya know?
But it’s such a nice change of pace from my normal desk job haha. Honestly not a terrible way to spend a day!
So ya know, if you need me, that’s where I’ll be for the next few weeks LOL! And if you’re local and interested in getting involved, come join us and sign up to slap some paint on a jump!
