a class all her own!

The combined test series at Thornridge is definitely among my favorite local schooling events for many, many reasons. 

It's a gorgeous facility with seriously good juju, everyone is super friendly and encouraging (it's supposed to be fun!), AND -- classes are usually pretty small, esp at the lowest levels where everyone might be selecting different combinations of dressage tests and jump heights. With the added bonus that Thornridge is *not* stingy about handing out blue ribbons haha!

this farm is legit the prettiest!

Don't get me wrong, I like going out on horsey adventures for the experience, not the satin. But... I also love the satin haha. Esp when Doozy finally won a pretty blue ribbon for her efforts this weekend!! Namely, being the only horse riding both the USEA Starter test and jumping 2'... But we'll take it!

doozy was slightly confused to be schlepped into a paddock instead of her normal turnout, but at least her pony compatriot Truly was entertaining!

It was nice to get out to a show with longtime barn mate Amy and her gelding Punky, too. She and I normally do all the Saturday morning barn chores (feed / turn out / mucking 26 stalls) and unfortunately weren't able to find anybody to cover or swap shifts with us... 

But eh, we're resourceful and determined, right? So we arrived at the farm way earlier than normal, got all the horses fed and turned out in record time (I'd also dropped hay in all the paddocks the night before to save time), then hit the road for our show! Then were back home just after 11am to finish with all the in-barn chores. Not bad!

even the parking at this farm is lovely!

Even more importantly -- we'd managed to get through all that without feeling rushed hurried or frazzled, and were basically in good relaxed spirits by the time we arrived at Thornridge!

show jumping is down a gigantic hill, so we usually try to arrive early enough to walk first, then get on with all the riding

Times were a little tight -- but warm up was more or less uneventful. Well. Sorta lol, Doozy did manage to breakaway from the trailer after Punky left... Strutted her stuff around the trailers for a minute or two before a good samaritan grabbed her, whoops. 

pictured: getting on with the riding!

But she settled down enough to get tacked up alone at the trailer, and then hand walk a few laps around the indoor to familiarize before I got on. Warm up was a little tough bc it's always a bit of a crap shoot who you're sharing the ring with in the lowest levels, right? Sometimes it's an experienced rider on a green horse, sometimes it's a green rider on an experienced horse... and sometimes it's green on green. 

cantering -- on purpose!

But Doozy did pretty well at keeping a lid on things and didn't rile up any of the other horses or freak anybody out. Tho I did warn folks when we would be cantering at one end just in case they wanted some space away from that noise haha! 

more or less managed to maintain most of our trot!

Then it was test time! We rode the USEA Starter test, my first attempt at this pattern. And I think I like it! It's basically a lot like Intro C except you walk in between showing gaits in each direction (vs Intro C where you get all your trotting and cantering done first before walking), and the canter is carried past the circle and halfway up the long side instead of needing to up and down transition all within one 20m circle. 

"trotting is boring... snoooore!" - doozy, probably

So I hoped the test would suit Doozy a bit better -- give her enough space to travel forward, but also give her that little walk break in between the speedy parts!

It also helped that she'd been in this ring before, and that (again) this farm just has good vibes. The judge was welcoming and kind (and more than a little generous in scoring** haha) -- but whatever the case, Doozy put together a very reasonable (for us) test!

(**Our 31.0% for this test is a bit less representative of where we are compared to the 45.5% we got at Fair Hill!)

(Also, no your eyes do not deceive you -- we are wearing our martingale and boots in this test. Bc #schoolingshows <3)

"rawr!" -- doozy, much happier to be cantering lol

We still need to work on keeping our shoulders square in front of us (something that would crop up in the jumping as well). And ya know. Doozy still thinks trotting is stupid and pointless lol. In her mind, we should either walk or run!! Anything in between is irrational. 

video of our test here.... 

it ain't perfect but finally not so abysmal that i'm not afraid to post it

(pls still be nice tho!)

But I was happy with the experience. And the judge wryly noted after we finished that she was pleased to be a part of "the start of our journey" lol.

Anyway, Amy had managed to get all her jumping prep done in enough time to come watch our dressage, and then we went back to the trailers to grab Punky and ride down to the jumping together. My plan had been to just stay on Doozy the whole time, but actually given the level of activity and expected time before my round, I opted to dismount and let her graze for a bit.

onto the jompies!! hope you appreciately this lovely framed up shot of us haha

The jumping area down below was all new to Dooz - and includes the adorable little grass ring bounded on 3 sides by woods and dense shrubbery, and the warm up in a more open field. It can be a lot to take in, with horses in paddocks on the hillside above, horses moving back and forth from the warm up to the jump ring, and horses coming and going from the hill. 

we had some bloopers attempting this 2-stride combo. nbd tho.

Doozy did really well tho! Kept a lid on it and wasn't particularly inclined toward leaping about. And was very civilized when it was time to get back on (tho I enlisted the help of a nearby spectator just to be safe). 

And then she warmed up pretty decently! It's so funny, we really don't have a lot of experience on grass or terrain yet, and the whole area kinda keeps sloping down and away from the hill. Doozy figured out pretty quickly that turning sharply while going pretty fast on off camber ground was... not a great feeling. Yep, that's part of the learnings, mare!

was good over the panel -- it's got lettering on the other side and sometimes that confuses horses

The courses at Thornridge are always a little.... different from what you might expect at a horse trial. It's a small-ish and decidedly not-flat bit of grass, and they've figured out over the years where to put the jumps for best effect. So the tricky part is drawing a track from jumpable spot to jumpable spot in new and interesting ways. 

what a big girl!

They almost always have a nice 60' line up one of the 'long sides,' but this time surprised me with a 36' two stride. 

Doozy started her course quite nicely, agreeing to mostly canter in a steady rhythm (vs making a bid at the first two fences), but that little in-and-out combo from 3 to 4 caught her a bit off guard and she squirted out the side at the last minute, whoops. Oh well, nbd, we represented and she jumped through fine, tho squirreled around enough to fit in 3 instead of 2. 

Which like, fine, right? That's kinda a big distance for 2' fences, and plenty of other green horses fit in the 3. I was just happy to do it! Then we had another little blooper on the way to fence 5... All in the video mind you (with added sound effects for comedic relief..). Doozy is in season right now and has basically redefined the term, 'standing heat' lol. When she gets stuck, she's STUCK, and no amount of kicking makes a difference bc she's kinda freaky like, 'oooh yea, kick me harder!' It's.... really something.

was really solid to a lovely flowery finish!!

Ahem. Anyway. We unstuck ourselves and made it over five, and then had a nice little tour from 6 to 7 to 8, all in a nice sweeping "S" shape across the ring. And she did great! Actually really paid attention to each of the jumps, and seemed to have a lovely draw up to the final fence to finish. 

video of the show jump round, complete with bloopers lol

It felt really good to have a course that we mostly cantered, with jumps that were interesting enough to hold Doozy's attention (without being totally off-putting, 2-stride combo not withstanding). I want to be able to keep challenging the mare, but in a way that feels comfortable and that builds on her natural interest in the game. 

This felt really educational all around. As far as I'm concerned, every horse and rider will make all the mistakes eventually -- it's unavoidable. The nice thing about this event is that... It's not an assembly line of rider after rider. There's time and encouragement for each pair to resolve any little issues vs just having to pack it up to try another day. 

So we made it through our little dressage test and show jumping round, with two very happy and proud horses (Amy and Punky had a lovely dressage and jumped clear for 2nd place in their larger class!). To me, that's definitely a blue ribbon sort of day <3 <3 <3