Bali impresses at BN!

So I entered Bali in our farm's schooling CT. Mostly just for shits and giggles - but also figuring it would be a good schooling opportunity for him. He's competed in these events with lesson students in the past... sometimes to borderline disastrous effect.

got to the barn SUPER early to get all the horses fed before our go-time at 9am. bali takes SO LONG to eat tho - started eating in pitch black.... and was still eating after the sun came up haha. 

My understanding (heard second hand rather than seen with my own eyes) was that he was hot and unmanageable at his last event while warming up in the field for dressage. Granted the field has goblins in it - this is a known fact that Isabel fully corroborates - but he was still pretty bad. Trying to bolt and buck and generally being such a tool that he ended up falling on his ass with a rider. No good, Bali. No good.

'i'm cute tho. cuteness negates being a tool.' - bali

We were the first riders of the day tho - so I had plenty of time to give him a quiet warm up free from tons of distractions (other riders didn't arrive until we were essentially finished warming up). I also opted to warm up INSIDE the dressage court. This is kinda... probably... against the rules. But eh... I wasn't competing against anybody else - this was really just schooling for baby.

see our tracks through the dew?

The advantage of warming up inside the court was twofold: First, it provided an opportunity to familiarize him with the size constraints and get him used to the fact that, no you can NOT jump out of the arena, while also giving him a clear visual border (tiny tho it was) for our path so that he wasn't overwhelmed by the huge open space of the field.

i am confident that this will eventually be a very pleasant trot. but OH MY GOD THOSE TEEEEEEETH

And second, we were able to break up the morning dew a little bit. The grass was WET - but fortunately not too slippery. We've had so much rain that the ground was soft enough to give his toes a good bit of purchase without actually ever slipping. Reassuring!

so shiny, much tail <3

He warmed up pretty well. Started SUPER tight through his back, with these ugly mincing walk and trot steps. The key to loosening up his back is to canter... but it's a delicate balance bc when he feels tight and uncomfortable, the canter can be a touch, erm, explosive. But we managed to walk that line and he eventually opened up his step and started swinging more. I did a bunch of figures through the arena and practiced transitions as they are in the test, then called it a day and walked around outside the court until the judge arrived.

pictured: left lead canter histrionics

Then it was test time! I am so pleased with him - he was mostly obedient and stayed inside the arena. I'll take it! Upward transitions were prompt, figures were mostly accurate, and he was mostly soft-ish on a light contact - tho he did get to snaking his head around a bit through a couple movements.

not sure what i'm doing position-wise, but the colors are pretty!

There were a couple moments of fussiness - he tripped in one circle and wigged out like he was afraid of falling again. And we misfired into the left lead and he got expressive about it... but recovery was pretty swift in both instances. He also broke into canter on our center line and my downwards transition to halt was not exactly elegant... plus the halt took a while to develop lol.

this looks acceptable to me. 

And actually - I'm quite pleased with how the judge scored us EXCEPT for this halt. We squirmed around for a few seconds before I could get him straight again. Then came to a full halt, I saluted (and counted to 3), then pats for a good boy. So I was a bit surprised to see a score of 3 with the comment 'moving.' We very clearly came to a full halt before I saluted... so idk. Wasn't expecting a great score, but thought it was better than 'fairly bad.' Oh well!

lots to like here. i see potential!

Mostly tho, the judge encouraged me to push for more and be less conservative. She liked our tempo a LOT - but wants to see more engagement, connection, impulsion, etc. Admittedly I really haven't been pushing for much on the flat - given his history of being balky and nappy about the leg. I've just been satisfied that he moves forward off the leg. But then I watch videos of us jumping wherein I *do* push him up into the bridle - and he softens over his top line and responds with a truly lovely canter.

video here, complete with scores/notes per usual

So yea... I need to flat him like I jump him haha. Because the jumping.... ahhhh, man I just LOVE jumping this horse. Loooooove. Omg. I am SO smitten with this horse! 

so much blur, very few fucks given haha

Unfortunately my phone told the kid taking video that it was dying (lies, iphone, LIES) so they recorded our stadium round on their phone then emailed it to me... and the quality suffered mightily. This is seriously tragic to me, you have no idea :(

i love this horse!

This stadium round.... how to describe it? Perfection, I think, is the word I would use haha. Call me biased if you want. But this horse just goes exactly the way I like to go. The video stills obviously don't do it justice bc... well... they are pixelated garbage. But the video is clear enough to get a good sense of how Bali goes.

jumping my brush boxes!! (still without brush lol)

I set the fences myself so most of them were 2'6" with one or two at 2'9" (many of our standards have pretty wide gaps between pinholes, so we end up choosing between 2'-2'3" and 2'9" on a lot of them). And I set two fences lower (one at 2' and one at 2'3") for warming up since there's no space outside the arena for that.

not so blurry that you can't (sorta) see his cute knees!

And he was just perfect. This horse steers REALLY well and has such a nice half halt. I set the lines on a fairly open 12' stride, so he occasionally landed in a very strong canter - but could easily be brought back into balance in the corners. Right hand turns are a little harder for him - his weakest link is the left hind and he fishtails a little bit going right... but it's not awful.

wheeee oxer!

He also seems pretty handy and lands on both leads easily - especially over the diagonal he understood that he had to land left. Which is good because despite a solid half halt, the brakes for a downward transition are a little soft so the simple change can take a few strides to happen lol.

video here

But wow I just really love this horse guys. He is so much fun to ride!! The flat work needs work, sure, but I think it'll get there. Plus the barn manager said the farm would reimburse 50% of the costs to get him adjusted next time my chiro is here, so that's definitely happening.

happy boy got to enjoy some grazing while spectating the stadium arena

He just makes everything so easy!! And these rides only reaffirmed my wish to take him to a couple lessons so somebody will kick my butt into riding him better lol. I'm also hopeful that working more correctly will build up his strength and make him more comfortable. He's got some physical issues but a lot of it seems to be related to plain old weakness (and needing an adjustment...). We will see!

still suck at selfies... still trying tho haha. how do you get the horse's whole face in the pic?!?