MDHT: Dressage & Stadium!

So this is going to be a week of many MANY pictures on this blog... Hope y'all don't mind that I essentially use this space as a photo album lol. In any case, so many thanks to Austen for all of these amazing photographs. She caught so many lovely moments and I am beyond grateful to have them to look back on!

smile for the camera!

But of course you probably want all the corresponding details too, huh. So onto the full story. Our dressage time was around 1:20, but we actually arrived at Loch Moy around 8am for B & Wick's division (she started around 9).

And by the way, B and Wick had a GREAT day - setting another personal record in the dressage court and cruising through the jumping like nbd. In fact, Wick looked for all the world like he wanted to go for a second xc loop after he finished - he wasn't ready to be done yet! Good boy :)

the warm up ring was a touch busy...

All that meant that Isabel was hanging out in and around the trailer for quite a few hours prior to our go time. We had our first frost overnight too, so it was pretty chilly. I tried to get her out and moving and grazing, and had borrowed Kaitlyn's BoT mesh sheet to start warming up Izzy's back well in advance... But still ended up with a VERY cold-backed horse.

i love all the fall colors in these pics too!

As I braided her mane and tacked up, Isabel became more and more wound up - pawing and dancing and generally being a pest. Trying to get on her was even worse - she hasn't been that bad in a long time and was chomping violently on her bit and hinting at rearing. Then had a HUGE hump in her back once I was on. So much so that I actually hopped back off to try and readjust the saddle (thinking it was on her shoulders and thus causing discomfort). But nope, it wasn't the saddle - just the mare...

so much to like about this pic. engaged and connected, but alas, a bit btv. a theme for the day.

She chilled a bit once we reached the warm up area... but was still very uncharacteristically tense. I'm sure a large part of it was feeding off my own stress, and I tried to be very aware of my own self as we attempted to smooth things out.

i love her trot!

I'm also a little suspicious about my 'dot every "i" and cross every "t" preparation tour' - it was perhaps naive to schedule cross country for the final lesson. Next time I front load all three lessons in like that, I will make sure to finish with DRESSAGE, bc after that cross country lesson we had an incredible canter/gallop for jumping... but our smaller more collected canter had flown the coop. Literally. Oops.

'zomg go fast flick alll the tooooesssss' - isabel

I also should have rethought my warm up plan a little, considering how long Isabel had been sitting idle (and the drop in temps). I gave us 20 minutes and that was, erm, NOT sufficient. Plus the show was running ahead of schedule and they called me 10 minutes early. Normally I'm all about going early, as Isabel normally warms up quickly and beautifully, but this time I had to decline that option lol.

is it just me or does she have the best tail ever?

We had pretty much zero bend, the canters were super rushy (mare actually bucked and kicked out a couple times - wth?!?), and the downwards from canter to trot was fugly. Plus that whole breakthrough feeling of 'pushing the mare up into the contact' was nowhere to be found either.

i'm very slowly learning to sit up better

Instead of pushing nicely into the contact, mare was very reactive and hot to the legs and ducking behind the bit. In so many of the pictures my inside hand is jacked wayyyy up trying to lift her up a little... And I also ended up ditching the whip right before entering the ring.

mare maybe resentfully acquiesces to cantering normally instead of kicking out again

It's a shame too, bc she was actually starting to work pretty nicely - really stepping under herself and trying - but at this level the judges really do not want to see the horse curled under like that. This is a constant struggle for us anyway - not really aided by Isabel's conformation. Oh well.

ahhhh, but she does like to turn it on for the judge! 

But good mare that she is, she still dialed up the wattage once we entered the ring. It wasn't anywhere close to our best test, but it felt like a really solid effort all the same.

does this count as inside bend? (also that's the xc start gate behind us)

Since she was so hot to the legs we weaved a bit down the center line (very unusual) but I felt like our geometry was mostly pretty good. Even those E-B turns!

at least she's very focused

Our canter transitions weren't really any better than normal, tho the left lead was actually a little worse. Unfortunate since we've really been seeing improvement there.

i'm kinda almost sorta sitting - progress!

All the same, tho, there was a LOT to like about this test. The mare wasn't exactly her normal professional self, but she really was trying. She was very obedient (for her lol - submission is never exactly our strength!) and never got distracted by the horses jumping cross country right behind us.

freeeeeeeeeee walk ftw!!!

Tho she did see something in the warm up ring that was apparently fascinating - right in the middle of what was otherwise a very nice free walk. Figures lol. This is why we like the short diagonals!

oops, wait, spoke too soon lolz

But I was pleased with myself in putting her back together *before* K for our transition up to trot and then center line. It didn't end up being a stand out score anyway bc we weaved a bit down the center line, but I felt like the pieces fit together much smoother than in the past.

pretty sure this does *not* count as inside bend lol

So yea. It was a dressage test that happened. Lots of nice moments to be proud of, and then, ya know, a few other moments too haha. But generally I was pretty pleased with it, tho it was pretty clear it wouldn't be super competitive.

halt, salute, and briefly consider swinging that haunch out

That's ok tho - I know Isabel has the talent to be very competitive in the dressage ring. And when she's her usual self, it's pretty easy to show that off to the judge. The flip side is that when she's running a little hotter, I don't have the skills / ability yet to bring her around. When she's good, she's great and SUPER easy to ride. But on a day like this, it falls on me to pull it together and... well I'm a little unreliable haha.

I didn't get my test until the end of the day (we only had an hour between dressage and jumping) and was a bit surprised by the score - a 33.8 seems generous. And it's a sea of 6s and 7s, not really what I was expecting! Of course the true story here is that this fairly respectable score put us in 11th so... yea the judge was a little charitable haha. The first place score was around a 20, I believe.

video here

So.... I could end now and break this show into individual posts for each phase.... but eh whatever. Marathon post it is. Hope you're not tired of looking at pictures of Isabel yet!!

how could you not love that face?!?

Like I said, there was just an hour between phases, and while Isabel was finally back to her normal self after dressage (ie, QUIET) I still didn't want to take any chances with the warm up. So we didn't exactly switch immediately to jump tack, but we didn't laze around for ages either.

wheeeeeeeee warm up!!!

Plus we parked way out in Timbuktu below the dressage warm up area and had to hike over to stadium warm up. So I was up and away in what felt like record time. It seemed like a good thing tho - a leisurely stroll across the show grounds was definitely a good way to start the warm up.

flying over the warm up oxer. what a horse!

Then some quick trotting and cantering, then up and over the fences. Trot the cross rail, canter the cross rail. Canter the vertical. Canter the oxer. Check, check and check. Isabel was ON POINT. We normally have at least one ugly warm up fence, but not this time.

mare looks ready, no?

Perhaps it would have been better if we had. Ya know, a gentle reminder for mare to pick her feet up, and for me to ride correctly.

how pretty is this ivy oxer?

As it was, the stadium round was a little sloppy. Actually not terrible, just littered with all those little familiar mistakes that I am so likely to make. Pulling to the base, backwards riding to the chip stride, unbalanced canter... ya know. The usual.

balancing for the long straight approach to a diagonal. one of the ones we *didn't* demolish lol

So we had a couple rails lol. Starting with fence 1, actually, which I'm still a little unsure about that one. We hit it pretty nicely, but I guess a little flat. And Isabel just rolled it ever so slightly with a hind toe. Cheap. Oh well.

made it ok over the in oxer. did not make it out quite so well tho, womp womp

The other two rails were DEFINITELY my fault tho haha. Without a doubt. I've got excuses tho, obviously lol. Namely, I didn't get to walk the course and there were two related lines that showed three stride deviations in what riders were getting in them.

The outside (yellow) line seemed to be riding in a 7-8, tho one soul fit in 9. I expected to get 8, especially after a particularly tardy simple lead change, but didn't really balance soon enough and Izzy took the rail with her front legs. The 8 really should have been fine - it was a good plan, just poor execution.

buried mare finally decides she's done knocking shit down (after 3 rails) despite my shenanigans

The other line... I was definitely less sure about. I saw riders get 5, 6 and 7 in there and just... didn't have a clue lol. No plan. No plan is bad plan, Emma! And that line went to hell pretty quickly when we took the rail at the in jump, then just barely squeezed in a 7th stride (above pic) on the way out.

we NAILED the in and out tho

The next line up was the two stride in-and-out that seemed to be riding a little long, but also was NOT going to be three strides. I knew I had to commit to making it happen in two, and finally actually engaged my riding brain. So that went well for us.

boom. two strides and out. easy peasy! (also note the knocked rails in the foreground)

Then a quick cruise around to the final fence and we were all finished! And only 3 rails down, womp womp.

video here

Seriously tho I don't think it was a terrible round. It's the same mistakes I always make (ie, burying the mare by trying to squeeze in one last step) but I was actually really impressed by Isabel's sense of humor and handiness. I was riding really tight and put her in quite a few awkward spots and she figured out how to get over anyway. Good mare!

And in a twisted way, I actually felt way more relaxed leaving the ring and heading out to cross country. At that point I hadn't yet seen the dressage score, but felt pretty sure it wouldn't be competitive. Add on another 12 penalty points, and... yea haha we were NOT hunting for ribbons. So it actually alleviated some of my tension and stress - we could just get out on cross country and take it as it came. One jump at a time. Stay tuned for the recap tomorrow!