finally, a feast! loch moy recap

A few things definitely worked in our favor to help produce a successful experience at Loch Moy this weekend. Aside from the weather, obvi, the heat and humidity were super unpleasant — but at least manageable.

Our ride times tho were straight up princess stuff haha — I was the penultimate rider of the day in every phase. Meaning I didn’t even need to arrive at Doozy’s barn to bathe and braid until 9am. Fairy tales, guys, the stuff of fairy tales LOL!

grazing around the rings pre-ride (but post-hose, dear lord it was so hot we were constantly hosing and sponging off…). she looks civilized here, but moments later lost her sh!t and had grazing privileges revoked, instead going back to the trailer to shut up and eat forage lol

Later times meant we’d get quieter warm up rings too, and I could be less psycho about watching the clock bc if there were horses around, they were virtually all going before me lol. 

Ooh it also meant prime parking, as trailers were already leaving by the time we arrived. All the better to conserve steps on a hot day! And easy access to the public wash stalls + hand walking / grazing options. Tho, uh, not gonna lie. Doozy had a bit of an unpleasant explosion on our little hand walk / graze — including spinning and rearing and screaming and all that. Instantly making me worry whether any of this was gonna play out at all, ugh. 

pictured: stuffing her face with forage while i tediously snip out the braids. these puppies def weren’t coming loose on their own LOL

Somehow, tho, by the time I was ready to get on and warm up for dressage, Doozy had returned to earth (helped, presumably, by keeping her face buried in that Triple Crown Stress Free forage Carly recommended a while back).

And our warm up was honestly fine. No little explosions or anything, tho I also really didn’t push any buttons. I’m still working on understanding the balance between asking more of Doozy — and risking increasing tension — or keeping a lid on things. Honestly? I don’t think there’s really a “right” answer at the moment, at least from a judging perspective. Kinda a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.

So on this day, I prioritized Doozy’s feelings over our function, let’s say, lol… and ultimately was super proud of her efforts. She stayed with me, didn’t slip into canter (although we came verrrry close once or twice), was still able to release in her free walk, got all her leads, and basically just went forth and did the things!  

disappointing tho not unfair scores
click for full size

There is literally zero media at all from dressage tho (sorry!) so you’ll just have to take my word for it. And my perspective is, I dismounted telling the mare how proud I was of her, and believing that we were gonna have a good go at the rest of it <3 

show jumping was back in the center ring, on the new footing with iconic Sugar Loaf Mountain in the distance

So ya know, all that was left to do was actually have a good go! 

I recently watched the Dance Life mini series on Prime about an elite professional dancing academy in Australia. In the season finale, a dancer describes her nerves ahead of the big graduation performance, in which she had a leading role, and said, “I wanted it, I got it, so now I just have to do it.” And idk about you all, but that’s an empowering perspective, ya know?

the course was super twisty with some unexpected turns

Like. Doozy and I *have* done our homework, even if you’d literally never believe it by watching us go in the dressage ring LOL. But in the show jump ring? Mare knows what’s going on in there. She understands the assignment haha. 

it actually suited doozy nicely!

We warmed up decently well and relatively briefly, and then just watched the course while waiting our turn. I didn’t get to walk the course, but there wasn’t anything related — a couple bending lines that were going on variable 8+ strides.  

this high contrast oxer going toward the parking lot caught a couple horses out

The course was literally all S bends and changes of direction — like, jump-land-turn!, over and over again. Which honestly suited Doozy decently well, especially with all the practice we’ve been doing with using lateral bend to adjust balance and speed instead of pulling straight back. And also all our work in lessons about straightness etc.

if anything, tho, the ‘lookiness’ of the jump helped doozy stand off just enough for a great shot 

Like you can still see moments where I don’t have her shoulders totally squared to the fence — like the brown Kings jump in the gif above — but more or less we got through the whole course with minimal ‘ears in face’ moments! That’s definitely a win in my book lol!

you can see that she was clearly a good girl down this line to the last, but a little more rider input in waiting might have saved us the rail. c’est la vie!

Our pace was a little fast at times, a bit hurried still — we may or may not have had the fastest time of the division, oops. But especially as the course went on, it felt like I was able to sorta stabilize 3-4 strides out and get decently steady rhythm to the jumps. 

show jumping video!

It was a bummer about the rail at the last, but ya know, that’s also the test haha. Like, a whoooole bunch of riders had that same rail, and all for the same reason: letting the horse get increasingly strung out throughout the course. No biggie, just more to work on!

patient biscuit at the start box <3

And anyway, we wasted no time getting over to cross country — where they were sending riders out quickly and efficiently. These volunteers did such an amazing job all day long in the scorching conditions. And many of them had been there for all three days of the show!

then set off like a champ!

I didn’t love the selection of warm up fences for starter — there was a too-tiny coop, and all the rest were slightly larger than what we’d see on course. I knew Doozy was gonna be fine for the jumps tho, just wanted to give her a chance to orient her feet to jumping on terrain, so we just trotted the tiny coop once and called it good. 

And it was good! Doozy waited patiently in the box for our turn, then walked out politely, picked up a pleasant trot, eased into canter, and blissfully jumped the first two fences positively and confidently! Then a fun longish stretch uphill toward the woods where I let her run a little bit for once haha.

then straight into the woods!

The course itself… I can’t tell if I liked or disliked it LOL! Obviously the lowest levels get the short end of the stick when it comes to the best pieces of ground etc — considering how many levels ran at this show. But they did a nice job of placing our jumps in intuitive spots. Even when you couldn’t see the next jump, you knew it was gonna be right where you expected it. 

i never let my guard down about these little garden gates lol but doozy jumped it fine!

Most of our jumps were actually in the woods too — a ballsy choice given that the original forecasts suggested huge hits of rain this week. Tho, given that it ended up being so hot instead, the shady woods proved to be a good call. 

Tho I’ll never forget advice from Dan ages and ages ago about the transition from jumping in a field to jumping in the woods: he counseled that many horses back off and get behind the leg going into the woods, and that you need to be proactive.

you literally can’t even see the down slope we’re about to go down, it’s so steep. you just see the edge and then the far side bottom lol… also note that black car center top in the pic — that’s up by the water

Doozy did indeed back off — esp given that the finish line was in the same spot and a horse was coming through right as we approached jump 3. She was a bit distracted at first, but then locked on kept going. I tried to be proactive in not taking anything for granted, especially with again some funny turns and needing to steer around higher level jumps, but Doozy was honestly great!

Tho my least favorite part of the course was that they sent us straight up and down the hillsides between the woods and the fields twice. I opted to trot Doozy into jump 6, right before a steep descent, to help keep her balanced and make walking down that hill easier. 

back up the hill to the fun little array by the water!

Obvi she then blasted right back up the other side for the next little section. I liked how the water was set up on course — not flagged, very much a ‘choose your own adventure’ sort of deal. But obviously much easier to get from jump 8 to 9 by passing directly through — which Doozy did remarkably bravely, good girl!

good girl literally just walked right in and picked up her trot! also, see the black car by the tree in the top left corner? we’re looking straight back across the gulch to where we had just come from lol

Then we went straight back down the same hill we’d just come up, to make a weird 90* turn to a spooky roll top. I opted to again trot the off camber hillside before getting straight to the fence — so it’s pretty easy to see how I got time faults. But eh, it gave Doozy time to think through and understand each jump. 

then straight back down into the gulch for this tricky little cut out roll that caught a few people off guard — esp with the spooky jump judges down in the shady hole to the left

Sometimes the mare’s feet move faster than her brain, ya know? And like, she’s not a dumb horse, quite the opposite actually. But she’s reactive and her instincts are usually to move first, think second. It felt like she was thinking the whole way around this course, tho, and making great decisions at every opportunity! 

no rest for the weary, tho, it was straight back up the hill again back into the woods to our final two fences!

She blasted back up the hillside into the woods to catch our last two little jumps on course, and then through the finish lines! 

cross country video!

What a good girl, I really cannot say how proud I was of her, and how fun the ride was — not just after it was over lol, but actually in the moment! 

crispy biscuit ready to eat her cookie and go home <3 <3

The results on paper really don’t do the horse justice, especially compared to some of our earlier outings this year. But ya know, at the end of the day, nobody is going to care more than I do, right lol?? So we’ll keep working on the details and the training and all that… But for now I’m just happy and relieved to feel like we’re finally starting to put it all together!!