First Year Event Horse

With the competition season winding down and holidays looming large on the horizon, it feels like a good time to pause and reflect on Doozy's first year as my event horse!

It's been a long journey with this mare... Lots of ups and downs... From flunking her 30 day performance review to absolutely winning me over in her first jumping lesson, and everything in between - and that was just her first 3 months with me, last year's news! 

So today, I wanna keep it high level -- focusing mainly on the big training milestones and competition landmarks, with a representative photo and brief memory of each ride. And obvi links to the original post should you be inclined.

sweet doozy, it's been quite a year!

Starting back in January 2024, with a decidedly ill-advised Dressage Clinic with Lauren Sprieser. I say "ill-advised" bc we were in no way, shape, or form ready to truly benefit from this caliber clinician (recall, we could barely trot a normal circle) and it was very expensive. 

Buuuuuut... It was at a lovely facility close to home, with a friend (who **really** wanted the clinic to fill so she could ride in it) stepping up to help ensure we had a successful first trip off property. Verdict? #WorthIt

 

i tried to choose a single representative photo from each big ride this year. apparently pickins were slim from this clinic LOL

Living through that first experience shipping out to lessons with Doozy gave me confidence to sign up for our next adventure, a Jumping Clinic with Sally Cousins (slightly farther from home). Again, we needed a lot of help from very capable friends, plus a full hour of hand-walking before my lesson... But again, it was so worth it -- this lesson was a huge boost in believing Doozy might really be the horse I hoped/thought she was.  

legitimately one of my favorite pics of this mare like.... ever -- pc Niamh O'Connell!

It was still slow going, tho. The flatwork in particular with this horse was (is?)... challenging to me. And we had a somewhat frustrating go at an at-home Dressage Schooling Show in February.

trying hard to do the thing, stupid white gloves and all <3

We persevere, tho, amirite?? And anyway, I serendipitously got home a day early from a trip to California (Ram Tap - loved ya!) and managed to snag a seat on the bus to XC Derby Schooling @ Loch Moy!!! Holy cow, guys, this was a great day! Sure, it took something like an hour of wandering around all the rings familiarizing before we could actually attempt to do anything "real." But once Doozy was like, "Oh, we're jumping?" We were JOMPING, MA'AM!

wherein doozy blew us all away by being an absolute rockstar

What a horse, guys. Next on the agenda was a perfect playdate with friends that, for me? Really encapsulates the types of formative experiences that are so beneficial for green horses (and nervous riders). We went to the Blue Goose Schooling Dressage Show at the Stables at Fox Crossing, wherein we completed two dressage tests (completed them quite badly, but did in fact complete them) and then headed out for a lowkey play in the adjoining xc field. 

None of it was perfect, but all of it was fun.

this day really encapsulates my approach to bringing doozy along

So I tried to remember that feeling bc the very next week was, OMG, Doozy's first real "show" - Hunt Club Farm's Starter Trial!! We just did the combined test of dressage and show jumping... But still. I was pretty nervous. And probably didn't ride very well. But it was fine -- better than fine. Doozy was so so so good. Like. Ok. Hard to ride in the warm up rings, an enormous handful when she first came off the trailer... But she soaked it up, sucked it in, and was a solid citizen when it counted.

holy crap we did it!

So obviously, the next key milestone was figuring out that third phase, with an XC Clinic with Sally @ Windurra! Not gonna lie, I was mostly just hangin out on the periphery while my two friends had more advanced lessons on their N/T horses... But we jumped some stuff, played with banks, got in and out of the water, and generally learned the rhythms of an xc lesson with horses coming and going, often at speed. 

Similar to the Sprieser clinic, we probably could have accomplished this at a lower cost than Windurra... But, eh, it was a great day so #yolo

we didn't jump much or particularly well, but it was a lot of fun <3

Anyway, it was around this time we started semi regular dressage lessons with my longtime trainer C. I'm not going to link to all these posts, esp bc I didn't even write about them all, but do want to emphasize the impact these lessons have had on us, esp when framed by our overall journey and timeline.

lessons <3

Tho. Lol. It's still me and Doozy we're talking about, here, so the impact in terms of performance at actual competitions will take a while to see!

But we proceed with the competitions anyway, bc we wanna!! And by late April, Doozy attended her first 3-phase Starter Trial at Fair Hill! What a day, guys. Soooooo much hand walking. Doozy was a huge handful. I thought more than once about scratching. But I didn't scratch, and am so glad for that. Doozy just went out and jumped her jumps -- esp the xc phase. It was literally the easiest part of our whole day!

holy crap we did it AGAIN -- this time ALL of it!

Sooooo. Ya know. It was starting to become apparent that, maybe this horse might actually really like this whole jumping thing. Not to mention that she was growing up and maturing considerably with each big trip off farm. We finished April with another low key reaffirmation -- a CT at Thornridge that had some bloopers but was overall another solid experience.

chaos normalized

It was around this time that I sensed we were getting into a phase I remembered from Charlie's early days. That phase where the green horse thinks they know everything. When. Cough cough, they absolutely do not. This phase, in my experience, usually involves going very fast over jumps that suddenly feel very small. Case in point: another lesson at Kealani with Sally, where we kinda had to break it down again for the mare. 

doozy started getting pretty big for her britches lol

Sally encouraged me to still keep getting out and about, tho, that it was just a phase and exposure would be the cure. So we kept it up, including more lessons with Trainer C.

starting to figure out the game along the way

Because the biggie was still ahead of us. By May it was clear we'd be moving farms after having Charlie at the last place for 7 years. So all my focus shifted to orchestrating the barn moves and planning big "Last Hurrah" adventures with my longtime friends and barn mates. Including a lovely evening spent  schooling the xc courses at Shawan with Amy!

had a last hurrah schooling adventure with our longtime friend Amy

In a way, I'm grateful that our next show - the MCTA Jenny Camp @ Shawan Downs - had this sorta larger external framing, bc on its own it was a pretty hard show - esp given we moved up to the 2'3 level. Doozy was almost unrideable in dressage warmup (and we had a decidedly not sympathetic judge), and extremely strong bordering on frantic in show jumping. We also had a little trouble getting out the start box on xc. 

Knowing that it was an important day in terms of closing a very important and deeply meaningful chapter in my horsey life helped me keep my perspective and not get too bogged down in the difficulties of the rides themselves. It helped that the xc was downright wonderful tho, yet again. Are you sensing a theme here from Doozy? 

omg we did it again AGAIN! was a little wild tho

So anyway. A few days later, we unloaded at the new barn. In retrospect, this was fortuitous timing. The move gave us space to slow down, reestablish our basics and partnership, and untangle everything Doozy had learned about jumping from the somewhat frantic feeling that begun creeping in to our jumping.

and then everything changed. for the better.

Moving barns also helped/forced me to take a fresh look at our coaching landscape. And as luck would have it, a summer clinic series with Dom Schramm popped up close to home. These lessons were hugely influential for us -- Dom had a heavy focus on reaffirming flatwork fundamentals within the jumping that made a huge difference for helping Doozy slow down, take a breath, and regain her confidence. Lessons one two and three linked here.

embarked on a summer series of clinics with Dom, and really figured a LOT out

Those lessons also served as an effective launch pad for getting back to my own privateer roots. As much as I'd love to completely immerse ourselves in a program, it's not realistic and I can't just wait around for someone to have time for guiding me through every activity I wanna do. 

So. Armed with fresh skills, we embarked on operation "Put Together a Fall Season!" Starting with, naturally, a self-guided XC Schooling @ Tranquillity in early September. Our first time out xc since Jenny Camp. And it was a good ride. Not perfect. But good.

got serious about creating our own xc schooling destiny, #PrivateerStyle

Tho we did enjoy some proper coaching at our next outing - a Schooling Jumper Show @ Swan Lake with trainer Kelly, where we did a round at .70m in the pouring rain. Doozy was again LIT UP in all the atmosphere at the show, it was a big ask for her. But I had a plan to help her settle and feel prepared for when she entered the ring. And Kelly gave us a really solid warm up, so that by the time it was our turn? Doozy was honestly very good. Very green, but very good.

dipped a toe in HJ land in the pouring rain

If Swan Lake felt like a LOT of work for a little ride, our day at Loch Moy in late September for the Pick Your Test / Jumper Rounds was kinda the opposite. I knew we needed more exposure, and wanted to get Doozy back to this facility before the next starter trial, so we came back for a quiet day to run through our test and an easy (and tiny!) show jumping round. It still wasn't easy, but it maybe wasn't as hard?

this day was more about preparing my own head space than anything else

Anyway. I made some adjustments to Doozy's mgmt in late September, including introducing more gastric support esp re: trailering and training, and a body work session that quite possibly helped Doozy release an entire year's worth of tension from her muscles. Bc her next dressage lesson was legit lovely, and she's kinda been a new horse ever since. 

doozy saw her body worker again and magically melted off months worth of ingrained tension

We went back to Tranquillity with a friend for another quick xc schooling trip before kicking off our Fall Season in earnest, and Doozy was just.... perfect. Like I still made mistakes and stuff, but she's just really starting to get it.

casual xc, nbd

And at our next big show? The Starter Trial & MDHT Loch Moy Farm?? Well. Doozy was just spectacular. This was clearly a horse who knew what to expect from each phase, and knew how to do it nicely. Well. Ok, not "nicely" for the dressage, but that's more a reflection of her trainer (me!) vs the horse herself! This day was better than it had any right to be, and I'm still so over the moon with how it went!

Queen of Jompies, Knower of Everything
(the mare, not the human!)

So obviously no rest for the weary, right? It felt like a lot of what went right at Loch Moy was related to the routinized schedule and preparation. Doing the things makes the things easier to do, and all that. We therefore hit up the Combined Test @ Thornridge Manor, but this time at BN, to keep the momentum going and also give the mare a bit more of a challenge. This was without a doubt our best dressage test yet, and the jumping was honestly quite good even tho they were bigger fences and I made a couple mistakes.

jumping slightly bigger sticks <3

We snuck in a final trip for more xc at Tranquillity again at the beginning of November. Not necessarily bc the mare needed it, but bc it was clear that this routine has been benefiting my own headspace and anxiety too. Honestly, we should probably be doing this every few weeks or every month for as long as the ground can take it, bc it's just been SUCH a good routine for us!

routine preparations

And that brings us to the conclusion of Doozy's first year as an eventer -- finishing the season at Waredaca a week or so ago! 

what a mare

Virtual cookies if you actually read this far LOL! 

For real, tho, I'm so proud of this little mare. She's come so far, has become so consistent, settled so nicely, that it's easy to forget how tricky the early days were. But this actual eventing 'job' seems to come quite naturally to her -- and the more she learns about it, the easier everything else seems to get! 

There's always more to come -- and plenty of fun off season adventures hopefully on the horizon. But for now? It's nice to sorta step back and feel appreciation and gratitude for it all.