2017 Two Point Challenge: Winning!!

November is here. Fall is in full swing, with winter undoubtedly on its heels. All this to say, the annual equestrian blogger challenge 2ptober has come to a close.

It's been a hell of a ride, with quite a few riders laying down monster times. Quite possibly with a few record breakers thrown in there as well. And while we can only award four final winners, it's worth taking a moment to celebrate the group as a whole:


Stats & Accolades: 

- 17 Riders doubled their baselines or better
- Average longest time spent in 2pt position was 8 minutes
- That's quadruple the average baseline time of 2 minutes
- Total sum of all riders' longest times was over 3.5 hours

Those of you who gave the challenge a shot this year deserve a major pat on the back. And esp those of you who kept on working, week after week, burning muscles and all, toward your own improved strength and ability as riders -- Y'all are basically heroes. Well done!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	8:00	2,082%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	8:12	1,868%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:51	383%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	0%
Emily Frank		5:38	19:40	249%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	1:03	800%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	6:03	198%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	40:14	1,912%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	9:15	125%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	21:49	734%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	43:20	700%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	8:00	167%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1,115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	5:46	168%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	23:26	402%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	4:38	769%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	8:40	400%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

For your efforts, please right click on the below Participation Ribbon Badge to save it for upload and display on your blog's sidebar or in a post!

We'd also like to take a moment to congratulate the Top 5 Finishers for each division:

Longest Time			Most Improved
Rider	Blog		Rider	Blog
Nadia	3day adventures with horses		Megan	Phoebe the Freebie
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles		Fig	Topaz Dreams
Emily Frank			Sara	The Roaming Rider

Congrats to you too - and please grab the below Ribbon Badge recognizing your extreme prowess at holding your two point position for longer and longer times!

And finally, we'd like to congratulate our 2017 Two Point Challenge Champions and Reserve Champions for Longest Time and Most Improved:

Longest Time			Most Improved
Rider	Blog		Rider	Blog
L Williams	Viva Carlos		Alex	TheHorseDream
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic		Amanda	Bel Joeor

Champions and Reserve Champions - each and every one of you laid down a very impressive longest time! My hat is off to both L. Williams and J. Alexander for lasting a muscle-melting 40+ minutes, you're both winners in my book!

And special congrats to Alex and Amanda for proving why this practice is so valuable by blowing your original baselines out of the water to finish with very respectable 8+ minute finishes. Way to go!

In addition to your Ribbon Badges, please get in touch with Allison from PONY'TUDE on her contact page or FB to claim your real life omg so awesome prizes!!!!!

Thanks again to all of the 2017 participants for sharing in on this excellent community challenge to be the strongest riders we can possibly be! I hope you enjoyed following along, and especially hoped that you maybe found a few new blogs in the process! Be sure to check out all of this year's participants linked in the table above!

mean ol' dressage: Charlie edition

At the close of each season, I often like to reflect on where we've been and what we've done. You may have noticed that there has been a bit of a "recap / summary" theme to a lot of posts lately.

There's a couple different ways to slice and dice, to measure progress and plot Charlie's growth and development as an event horse.

handsome dressage horse

Today, I want to look at dressage. Charlie's final show of the year was by far his strongest. Over the course of the year he showed nothing if not steady improvement. Sometimes incremental, other times by leaps and bounds.

Overall, tho, what did the entire picture look like?

Test Ridden	# Tests	Average Score	(Penalties)
USDF Intro B	3	64.8%	(35.2%)
USDF Intro C	2	59.9%	(40.1%)
USEF BN A	4	58.6%	(41.4%)
USEF BN B	3	61.2%	(38.8%)

looking the part is half the battle

Well? I reviewed the scores from the 12 judged tests* we rode in the past year. Directives from all the tests were categorized by gait and combined where possible, tho naturally some movements are scored meaningfully differently in different tests. Like, for instance, where the walk-trot transition score is combined with the score for turning down center line in USEF BN B.

I did my best tho to organize movements in a way that makes sense and can provide insight on Charlie's strengths and weaknesses in the dressage court, and how and where we've seen improvement over time.

*This excludes the first tests from Charlie's first ever shows: the Nov 2016 and March 2017 schooling dressage shows, where we rode the same test twice in a row. I only included the second test from each outing since the first tests were.... often more about just existing in a dressage court. 


Also worth noting: The trend lines below are not exactly in chronological order, as we switched back and forth a little bit between tests. It's close tho.

Findings:

Overall:

We enter well and set a good first impression, then fall apart a little bit. And life was decidedly better in USDF tests where our center line entrance was scored separately from that tricksy turn at C, instead of combined as they are in USEF tests.....

Usually by the end of the test, we're a little frazzled and just trying to survive in once piece. Strong collective marks suggest judges think we could do better tho.

Trot Work:

The left circle average is artificially suppressed from that one time we got a 4 (#stillbitter) but generally our circle scores are stronger than transitions.

The walk-trot transition is particularly an area for improved focus. That's a difficult move for us since it typically follows a free walk and shines a bright light on Charlie's resistance to me picking up the reins. This same aspect is then reflected in our submission score in the collectives.

Diagonal changes of rein are a strong spot and provide a nice boost to otherwise indifferent scores.

Walk Work:

Best score here naturally is one that doesn't get scored separately in eventing tests -- the medium walk. In eventing tests that score is often combined with the free walk score.

Charlie's got a great walk but we haven't been able to show it off to much advantage in these tests. I'm thinking it's still due in part to tension that arises when I go to pick my reins up after a free walk.

The free walk score itself is fine as a 6, but considering it's often the coefficient score in many eventing tests, it would behoove me to bring this score up. The horse has a good free walk -- we just need to brighten it up more. More march, more over step. Looser over the back.

Canter Work:

This is another area where Charlie's natural abilities haven't really been shown to their full potential. The horse has a great canter. But he's big and the small court called for in low level eventing is... small.

The scores stabilized and improved over the course of the season as the horse became stronger and more able to carry himself around 20m. Downward transitions merit more attention tho (the upward transition score was marred by some instances where we picked up the incorrect lead).

Collectives:

Charlie's gaits have always scored well (much to my surprise!) and most judges give me a reasonable rider score (tho, not all).

My impression from the collectives is that judges often think we haven't shown our true potential or ability in the dressage ring - that they think Charlie's got more to give.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see our average scores get closer to Charlie's gaits scores. Suggesting that the horse is executing each movement to the fullest measure of his own ability.

future elegant horse, right?

The big #1 finding from all this? Well? Charlie is pretty freakin' average as a dressage horse. He's not gonna wow the world. He's basically a solid 6, 6.5 on a good day.

But there are 7s lurking below the surface if I can tease them out. And, likewise, the 5s (and, ahem, 4s) are hiding in there too. We'll earn our best scores and continue to see improvement overall if I can focus on riding Charlie accurately and correctly through each movement and gait.

Over the course of this winter, I'd like to keep on plugging away at the work we've been doing. And looking forward to next year, I'd like to see more test scores that mirror Charlie's gait score. Meaning, if he gets a 6.5 on gaits, I'd like about a 65% on the whole test.

To that end, more movements from each test will have to reflect his best possible way of going, without interference by resistance to the bridle or tension over his back. We can dream, right?

****

Important Note: To all 2017 Two Point Challenge participants -- Final times are due by midnight tonight!! Do not forget to leave a comment letting me know your longest time! Winners will be announced before the end of the week!

tick tock: week 3 2ptober is closing!

Alright everybody, I'm starting to get a litttttle bit concerned by the lack of two point times rolling in!!

Thanks very much to those of you who have been so diligent in your reporting. And actually - despite the low turnout in terms of participation, those of you who are making it happen are really laying down some BIG times!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	1:53	414%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	5:35	1240%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:41	339%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	0%
Emily Frank		5:38	13:58	148%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	0:31	343%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	5:42	180%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	11:01	451%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	9:15	125%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	8:31	225%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	20:25	277%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	8:00	167%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	4:11	95%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	6:15	34%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	1:22	156%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	8:00	362%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

We've seen a pretty giant uptick in the average longest held 2pt time - pretty darn close to 5min now! That's a huge improvement from the starting time of 2min. Congrats everybody!

Naturally there are a few who stand out among the crowd, with a bit of a shakeup in the leader board since last week.

Top 5 by longest time:

L Williams

Emily Frank

J. Alexander

Kaity

KC

The most improved category keeps on chipping ever onward too, with the placings held fairly steady since last week with just a little bit of reshuffling.

Top 5 by most improvement:

Amanda Megan

J. Alexander

Alex

Teresa

There's still time tho to get your time in and make it count! Final longest times are due by next Tuesday Oct 31, by midnight. And remember, we've got some serious prizes on the line for those who are willing to really go for it!!

you're gonna need that aspirin lol

Blogger-shaming Edition -- No change shown:

Aimee

Anxious Eventer

Bee Tea

Britt

Chelsey

KateRose

Megan K

Nicole Sharp

Olivia

SarahO

SarahW

Tracy

****

So don't forget: Just one last weekend and a couple days left to make a final push for 2pt Champion 2017!!

2ptober: halfway there!

Happy Hump Day, everyone! Hard to believe October is already halfway gone.... But the days are in fact getting shorter and the air most definitely has suddenly turned crisp and brisk. Fall is here, winter is coming, and 2ptober is shifting into the home stretch!

Thanks all for reporting your times so far in our fun little rider challenge contest. We've done our best to collect all your info and report it here as accurately as possible, but please look carefully at the table below to ensure we've got your most up-to-date longest held 2pt time!

Rider	Blog	Baseline	Max Time	% Improved
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13	2:13	0%
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22	1:53	414%
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25	3:32	748%
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36	2:36	0%
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00	3:00	0%
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23	1:41	339%
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04	5:04	0%
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47	2:47	-1%
Emily Frank		5:38	6:15	11%
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07	0:31	343%
Holly	Marescara	2:02	3:48	87%
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00	8:37	331%
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07	4:07	0%
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24	2:24	0%
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37	5:02	92%
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25	12:04	123%
Laura Anne		1:11	2:05	76%
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15	3:15	160%
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00	5:40	89%
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20	4:03	1115%
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13	3:13	0%
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09	3:43	73%
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40	6:15	34%
Niamh	Misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43	3:17	21%
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58	1:58	0%
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17	1:17	0%
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32	1:22	156%
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05	2:05	0%
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00	2:00	0%
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44	7:40	342%
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45	1:45	0%

The color coding indicates where you stand among the group in both categories. Deeper reds indicate longer times or greater degrees of improvement, and paler hues show where there's more work to be done.

A note on the percentages: An improvement score of 100% would mean that you have doubled your time (a 100% improvement on your baseline).

The contest for Longest Time is already starting to heat up. L Williams currently holds the lead, but J Alexander and Teresa are closing in, with Emily Frank and Nadia close by in the hunt.

Megan's currently got an edge in the Most Improved category - with Amanda vying for the reserve position. Alex, Fig and Teresa have all posted impressive gains however. And if we know anything from years past, it's that the Most Improved division is anyone's game until the very end!


Of course there are still quite a few of you who have not yet submitted a time for the first weeks of October, which is basically akin to automatically absenting yourself from the "Most Improved" game. And, it turns out, the Longest Time game has gone on ahead and gotten past where anyone could win on their baselines anyway.

So if you want a shot at those sweet prizes (custom embroidered saddle pad plus a bath bomb and some pain pills to ease your aching muscles lol) you've gotta put in that time!

Of the 31 participants, the average longest held time is 3:45, and as a group all your longest times add up to nearly 2 hours of sustained two point position while riding. That's really impressive. Nice work!! Keep it up - two weeks left to really push yourself for the longest, most improved position!

but where are the 2pt times??

Reminder everyone: We are officially half way through the month of 2ptober! This means you must be reporting on your longest held times per week to get in on that sweet sweet swiggity swag!!

alpacas outta nowhere

Please remember to leave a comment on your longest time of maintained 2pt (ie jump) position held during the past week. And keep in mind this means no leaning on the hands, no seat touching the saddle (otherwise you must restart the clock!).

so fluffy, so sassy

Should you still be working on building out your time, here are some tips and tricks:

Warm yourself up first. Before getting right down to trying to hold your position for as long as possible, spend a little time practicing finding your balance and warming those muscles up.

wait those are Velvet ears, not alpaca ears!

For instance, if you are practicing at the walk: try posting the walk as if it were trot. Then start holding the "up" of your post for a couple steps at a time, slowly increasing the duration - such as 5 steps up, 3 steps down for break, 5 up, 3 down, etc etc.

oooooooh but that tunnel looks mighty familiar!

During this practice, experiment with your balance as it relates to lower leg position (forward and back) and hip position. If you keep tipping forward, your leg may need to come forward or your seat move farther back. If you keep falling back into the saddle, your leg may need to come back more underneath you.

there's that Freebee horse again!!!

Also check in on how your entire leg is resting against the horse's side. Are you pinching in your knees? Overly tight in your hips? Is your back soft or rigidly arched? Any of these things will affect your position and how long you can hold it comfortably. Experiment!

and for no other reason bc this made me giggle

We are half way through the month of 2ptober so you should have a pretty good idea of how this whole thing is working out. But keep practicing!

horse shows abounded this weekend!!

Not only are those awesome prizes at stake (remember, we're awarding FOUR distinct winners!) - but also your golden opportunity to be the strongest, most secure rider you can be!

posing pretty!

So get your times in asap, as I will be reporting on everyone's progress midweek.

aaaaaand a honey bee bc why not

In the meantime, hope everyone had a great weekend!

2017 2ptober: Meet the Contestants!

Phew ok, everyone! As Allison announced this morning, the clocks have stopped, everyone must put down their pencil and return to their seated position. Entries for the 2017 Two Point Challenge have closed!

Y'all logged some monster times tho - color me seriously impressed! I'd have to go back and crunch the numbers from past years, but we might actually have the highest average (and median!) baseline times in a while.

All told, we've got the following stats rounding out the baseline competition -- with well over an hour of total 2pt held by competitors as a group:

# of Participants	31
Total Minutes of 2pt	71
Longest held 2pt	5:38
Average 2pt	2:30
Median 2pt	2:06

As for the individual competitors, please take a close look at the table below to check that we captured all your information correctly. If you believe you logged a baseline but do not see your information here let us know in the comments!

Rider	Blog	Baseline
Aimee	SprinklerBandits	2:13
Alex	TheHorseDream	0:22
Amanda	Bel Joeor	0:25
Anxious Eventer	Anxious Eventer	2:36
Bee Tea	Riding to B	3:00
Beth	A Truby in Tucson	0:23
Britt	A House on a Hill	5:04
Chelsey	Horseback Writing	2:47
Emily Frank		5:38
Fig	Topaz Dreams	0:07
Holly	Marescara	2:02
J. Alexander	It's Cosmic	2:00
Kaity	The Repurposed Horse	4:07
KateRose	Peace & Carrots	2:24
KC	The Pilgrim Chronicles	2:37
L Williams	Viva Carlos	5:25
Laura Anne		1:11
Maddy	CTR+Halt+DEL	1:15
Mandy	The Everything Pony	3:00
Megan	Phoebe the Freebie	0:20
Megan K	Go Big or Go Home	3:13
Molly	One Bud Wiser	2:09
Nadia	3day adventures with horses	4:40
Niamh	The misadventures of a girl and her OTTB	2:43
Nicole Sharp	Zen Baby	1:58
Olivia	DIY Horse Ownership	1:17
Sara	The Roaming Rider	0:32
SarahO	Autonomous Dressage	2:05
SarahW	My Red Mare	2:00
Teresa	Journey with a Dancing Horse	1:44
Tracy	Fly On Over	1:45

Additionally, even if you're not participating in the challenge this year, take a close look above to see if there are any new-to-you blogs. This list has been updated since we last published it and there are new entries!

 

Finally, some notes on reporting your progress each week:

• Allison and I will have reminder posts up either over the weekend or on Mondays to report your weekly progress
• In the comments, let us know your longest time each week
• This will be tracked in posts throughout the month
• In addition to reporting on the longest times each week, we'll also be measuring improvement by rider
• Also keep an eye out for tips and tricks to make the most of your practice!!

Happy 2ptober everyone!