Happy Monday, y’all!! Who is ready for this month’s episode of “Emma and Doozy Go Eventing!!”?? I know it ain’t exactly Burghley around these parts (lol) but we’re having fun so it’s all good!
got to hitch a ride to the show for once, given my truck’s current power steering predicament!! so doozy got a friend <3 <3
Tho we had a slight switch up in plans at kinda the last minute. My truck has been doing …ok with keeping the fluids topped up while we awaited our appointment (it’s finally in the shop now tho, whew) but idk. The leak is definitely getting worse and I had visions of a full blown power steering failure.
So ya know. It just so happened that a barn mate and I were going to the same show on the same day, and she had an unexpected open trailer spot. What a luxury!
they were very good traveling partners but also didn’t get overly attached. love it!
And idk what it was about this show, but there was a definite sorta vibe going on. We called it the “tan pants” vibe. Maybe it’s bc the weather turned cool and damp (at least in the morning, the afternoon was lovely breezy sunshine!), and horses were frisky, but by my unofficial count at least half the competitors were in tan (vs white) breeches — including both me and my barn mate, without any prior discussion lol.
slightly dicey start to the day when an early rider had a very scary accident in trailer parking — possibly while putting studs in her horse’s shoe? she was wearing a helmet tho, which by some accounts maybe saved her life — and EMS decided to airlift her out. obviously hoping the rider is doing ok, and also grateful to the level of professionalism at loch moy that made it possible for her to get such immediate attention without delay while also somehow not really impacting the show schedule at all
It is an unrecognized schooling event, after all — you can wear basically whatever you want. But also, it seemed like everybody on the grounds was determined to enjoy themselves while not taking it too seriously.
Which was maybe the right call given there was a little bit of drama and carnage throughout the day — with a very scary early morning accident and then periodic rider falls / loose horses throughout the day. If ever there was a day to keep things in perspective, this was it.
anyway. nicer pics. no media from dressage but here is a representative photo of the princess herself from our lovely school the night before
Anyway, as it was, my barn mate and I had pretty great times. Not too early of a morning, not too late of a day. Times close enough to see almost all of each other’s rides, but not a long drawn out affair. Perfect!
And, my barn mate went first so Doozy got plenty of time for hand walkies and familiarization. Tho no hand grazing sadly, as there have been a few reported bugs going around and bio security is one of those things you usually don’t regret minding.
focusing on relaxation seems to be paying off!
We also got to walk over together when it was our dressage turn / their sj turn, as we were in adjacent rings. I think Doozy appreciated the friendly company! She was honestly very good in warm up. I stuck to my guns about prioritizing relaxation, and not fussing with the mare.
We walked for a long time. Then when I went to trot, she immediately wanted to canter. NBD, we just went straight into canter and did some work there. Then Doozy was able to come back to trot and find a nice balance. Rinse repeat — walk break, canter, nice trot work again — then it was our turn.
click for full size
The test itself was a little less good. Doozy was still clearly very tense, plus there were like 4 back to back porta potty doors that slammed behind us right as we were circling the ring. That’s obvi just an excuse, but it didn’t help Doozy find her zen. We cantered a couple circles before trotting in at A, and the test proceeded in some ways similarly to past tests.
We still had significant loss of rhythm in various movements that at a rated show would be called “canter” lol. But in between all that, I tried really really hard to look for opportunities to let go and ask Doozy to lengthen her neck. And Doozy did, omg!
next up: show jumping!
Like. Not perfect, far from it. And from the outside looking in, it’s maybe still the same bad test. Tho I will say, this judge seemed willing and able to look past the tension and see the good moments. Compared to tests where we’re kinda fighting the whole way around with a tight constricting rider and short-necked inverted horse, there’s really no silver lining there for even the most generous judge, ya know?
So I’m feeling like, for at least our own personal purposes, this slight change in tactics might be our best path forward for now.
it wasn’t our best ever course, but i’m actually really happy with how doozy went
Anyway! We watched our barn mate jump sj and xc after our test, then had about an hour before our own turn — having already walked the courses earlier upon first arriving. Doozy was super relaxed in the break, eating hay and drinking water and basically just being chill with her barn buddy. #LovedIt
she was honestly super chill — to the point where i probably needed to actually participate slightly more LOL
Then we were fairly chill for the sj warm up, given that SJ was about 20min behind schedule. Probably we were too chill in my tactics, but I had my reasons and kinda was in more ‘science experiment’ mode vs ‘competitor’ mode.
we got around no muss, no fuss, tho two silly rails
There were literally a ZILLION horses ahead of us when we arrived, so I stood around for a LONG time at the in gate just chillin and watching the course. Then when we were about 10 out, I started walking around, then eventually picked up to start work, and then jumped some fences.
All of that went reasonably well, and I was satisfied with our jumping efforts. So considering the ring kept filling and filling with more horses and riders, I opted to call it good and spent the last 5-7min waiting at the gate. When Doozy better understands the game and the pattern, I probably will prefer to not spend quite so long standing, but on a day when I wanted to maximize relaxation? Eh, fiiiiiiine.
who cares, tho, look at me actually letting the mare travel forward! and look at the mare doing so in an almost relaxed manner lol
took forever to get around the course, tho, lots of weird long turns
Tho she did sorta wake up as we went along, and did have a few moments of running. But all in all, it was the kind of ride with a slight lack of rhythm that you’d typically attribute to the rider not enforcing a good balance in front of the leg. Which like. HELL YES, normal technique problems!! Kinda a vastly different question than just getting dragged careening around the course, amirite?
eventually tho we made it all the way around!
Obvi it would have been cooler to ride better and not have the two rails, but like, hey, that’s the type of problem I WANT to have. So honestly even tho it was kinda an uneven effort with a few “bleh” jumps… Eh, I’ll take it! It was a MUCH better feeling for both of us than Waredaca.
finally a proper sj video, not just helmet cam!
Anyway. We took that feeling on over to cross country. My goals for the day were basically to try to make it as smooth and flow-y as possible. We’ve had time penalties at both our rated events this year, for what I believe were good and intentional reasons — trotting and cantering specific areas etc — but ya know. We’ve certainly been doing this level long enough, maybe let’s try to make a smooth go of it.
doozy was excited to leave the xc start box lol — those nostrils OMG
It was a nice course too — the first three jumps were a little funny, wrapping around the warm up space in a down hill loop that we opted to sorta take with patience. In fact, Doozy came back for a little jiggity jog over both of them, which felt like a useful and timely reminder for her to be patient.
started to get into a nice rhythm around jump 4
After which we settled into a quite pleasant rhythm for the rest of the (very short, ~850m) course. We had a nice little sweep through the midfield with fun semi close together jumps, and I worked very hard to focus on not snatching back or throttling down the mare, and instead let her carry a forward balance.
then just cruised around the short course!
Next was the water — a quite nice little option, too! There was a dry route riders could take that had an extra jump, which imo it would have been cooler if you could manage to get the extra jump AND get the water, but alas it looked a little awkward so I just went for the water.
imho this is quite a nice water option for the level!!
Doozy’s clearly been ready to proceed at speed thru the water for some time now, but I’ve just been a little hesitant. This would be our day, tho, and Doozy boldly cantered thru — straight ahead to her little cutout roll top! Good mare!
and doozy cantered through like a pro <3
Next was a ditch option, which obvi we chose the ditch. It’s a super friendly obstacle — properly dug out, but slightly filled in the middle, with a very easy to read approach for the horses.
**finally** got to jump this sweet little ditch!
Doozy was obviously aces, obviously. Then nothing left to do but gallop up the hillside toward the finish line!
very short course but very fun!
Again, I did my best to allow her to carry on for a bit before carefully and gently reorganizing. And she jumped the last great!
what we’ve all been waiting for:: XC!!
So pleased with this mare. Nothing can ever be quite easy with her, it seems, but the moments that are good are great. And on this day, imo we had some exciting moments in all three phases.
chowing down at the trailer before packing up for home
What I really want at this moment in time are smooth reliable experiences where I can focus on riding proactively and Doozy can work on recognizing the “game” itself (especially re: dressage). I want it to feel easy enough that we can just nitpick the details, ya know?
Or, uh, perhaps finally move up a level without worrying about blasting a hole in the bottom of our fragile little DoozCanoe if she has a frantic moment and things are a little harder.
lol she apparently resented that i didn’t want to wait around for our own pretty pink 5th place ribbon too <3 but hey — after a season of shaky scores, we’re finally into the points for year end awards!
All in good time, tho. On this day, we enjoyed our fun carefree outing (and first actual points scored for the year with our 5th place finish, yay!) — and Future Emma can appreciate the relatively easy laundry load lol.
Doozy and I made it to our second full 3-phase event of the season this weekend, woo hoo!! And another recognized show bc #yolo I guess haha.
why is it that show days are always the hottest days??
No real rhyme or reason at this point between choosing rated v schooling shows, just kinda doing what I want bc I can. Sure sure, some might argue that, just bc you can doesn’t mean you should… Especially when you consider our dressage results haha. But. Eh.
semi-related — new gear! added the ThinLine Perfect Fit half pad to try to resolve some nagging fit issues… more on that in another post!
We had a good lead up to the show, including another lesson with our new 5* trainer that finally included actual jumps, multiple in a row approached in canter omg. And our ride times were pretty pleasant, all things considered, tho it would be a long day with jumping scheduled right for the hottest part of an already-very-hot day.
snapped a quick braid pic in between spinning / rearing / sniffing while on walkies before dressage
Doozy was better on the grounds walking around than she had been at Loch Moy last month… Tho, she was worse in the warm up. Which was disappointing given how notably relaxed she’d been at this venue last fall.
This tension issue remains immensely challenging for me, and clearly for Doozy too. It’s like this impenetrable iron wall between me and whatever actual training I’ve managed to impart upon the animal. When she’s that worked up, legit none of that training is accessible.
post-dressage expression lol…. me too, mare. me too.
Some how, some way, we need to work on the ‘wall’ itself, developing some sort of key or method for backing her off the edge instead of ricocheting off every sound / touch / sensory input in a chaotic doom loop. Ahem.
Anyway, tho, as it was, we were in the chaotic doom loop in dressage warm up. And given that I don’t currently have particularly useful exit strategies, I accepted our fate and entered trotting cantering at A determined to at least stay present and active for the full test.
slowly getting ready for the jompies
‘Twas not a good test, with a few 3s earned presumably for cantering through all the trot work… Still got 6s on our walk tho, go figure lol. The actual canter circles flew by in a frantic flash, geometry was iffy, and the mare was just basically #NotHavingIt. Womp.
jompies!! they were… not our best LOL
And that feeling stayed with us through to the show jumping warm up too. Tho, notably, the mare was stellar for all the intermediary time, including going back on the trailer for a spell to escape the intense midday sun. It’s just the ridden part, she’s consumed by explosive anticipation.
the course did not suit us — this crazy line bumped you into two different jumps before even being able to present the intended fence (and this was after they’d removed more jumps from higher levels), but honestly that was the least of our problems lol
Tho in my defense, the warm up ring at Waredaca is a little tricky and she had trouble with it last year too. It’s lined on one long side by food trucks and vendors (all of whom always seem to have loud buzzing generators), and on the other side the actual show ring (divided by string).
They only permit 5 horses into the warm up at a time since the space is so narrow, and this tricks riders into rushing thru their jumping bc nobody ever seems to realize how long 10min actually is for jump warm up. So then horses end up clustered and congregating at one end, rendering the already-small space even smaller still.
jumping straight into the string divider for warm up, yay
That’s legit all excuses tho LOL. Bc I’m pretty sure with the horse I was sitting on, none of it really made a difference anyway. Doozy was explosive and bolt-y, and I opted to be satisfied with a couple decent enough efforts and just wait our turn with the rest.
good shot over the last tho <3
And our turn was… Well. More of the same. Less like Thornridge last week or Tranquillity last month, and more like St Augustine earlier this spring. It was a weird course with unintuitive turns that tempted the horse into locking onto the wrong jumps, then only seeing the *right* jumps at the last moment, lots of weird turns, oooh and one super long straight related distance.
i’m never sure how well the ‘frantic feeling’ comes thru on helmet cam
We went ahead and got it done, tho. Clobbered the first rail for no real reason as far as I can tell, tho took the 2nd too when we rushed up underneath of it. Didn’t touch anything else after that, but were sorta all over the place.
onto the ‘easy’ part — xc!
Not gonna lie, I was tempted to call it there… Except history tells me that cross country is Doozy’s strongest phase — lots of opportunity to settle into a rhythm and work together. Plus, she was honestly jumping reasonably well in her body (rushed distances aside, obvi) — no crazy deer leaps like at St Augustine.
i really liked this course! really flowy from one jump to the next — you can sorta see our next fence to the right on the ridge
And guys — this cross country course looked fantastic omg. It looked like **exactly** what I had hoped for from this well established multi generational eventing family farm. They have tons of terrain, but not so aggressive that lower levels end up squeezed onto unfortunate lines (which was sorta the case at Loch Moy last month) — so every track gets its own space and character.
trotted the little road crossing mostly to prove that i could
They also rotate the direction of the xc courses, so this event’s track started at the opposite end of the farm out by where they hold the steeplechase for the 3 Day Classic, then looped back around the pond in the opposite direction from what we did last fall. And like last time, they seemed to ‘pair up’ the starter fences to keep you focused and riding in between jumps.
cute little bending line from bebe ditch to coop! also for some reason all the screen grabs are super low-res compared to the video, sorry
All that to say — this was what we came for. So off we went to go do it! Doozy left the box a tad, uh, explosively, but settled decently to the log at 1. But then rushed a bit underneath 2 and I got more serious about enforcing a pace and rhythm.
Which naturally meant the lovely little midfield cruise they built for us went swimmingly, even tho 4 was at the top of a ridge and 5 was after a sweeping downhill turn. We trotted the road crossing anyway, tho, mostly just to get a nice 90* turn to the ditch option— animated above.
properly stout for starter!!
Then came another nice sequence of fences turning us back toward the pond, including a chunky table that definitely wasn’t on last fall’s unrecognized course. We got a great shot, tho Doozy landed in basically a dead run downhill toward the pond and our little up bank (straight ahead in the pic above, same bank we came down toward the camera last year).
trotting the dam… probably overkill but also probably the most trotting we did all day LOL
Idk what triggered that little episode, but I definitely over corrected for it by making the mare trot across the dam. In retrospect, I wasted a fair amount of time with the trotting and Doozy maybe would have gained more from being allowed to continue cantering, but c’est la vie.
look how friendly this water was flagged!! can pass thru the flags on dry ground, then school as you like without penalty (aside from time)!
As it was, up next was a lovely little water option that let us walk through the flags clearly on dry land, then ease into the water no muss, no fuss, no risk of 20 penalties. Again, I probably took more time here than was entirely necessary — tho, again, schooling these features is literally why we came, and imo Doozy definitely benefits every time she passes pleasantly through a water feature without stress or drama.
actual pillows on the bench lol
And with that, we were just about to the finish line!! First with an adorable and nicely sized bench — with actual real pillows on it omg. I worried they’d be spooky but obvi Doozy couldn’t have cared less — she was up and over and already on her way up the hill haha.
barns at the finish line!
Then came back to a properly pleasant canter balance to finish the course in good style, good mare! A few little blips in there, but basically all decent jumping efforts and A+ navigation of our bebe ditch, bank and water! A few time penalties too but, eh, that’s on me and my choices right?
the day’s highlight <3
All in all, another lived experience lol. We certainly did it. Didn’t, uh, do it particularly well, let’s be honest. But I’m still glad for it.
There’s plenty to unpack in terms of takeaways, homework, planning next steps etc. For example, it’s increasingly clear that a lot of what we work on in lessons seems entirely unreachable when Doozy gets so worked up. Whoever put “rhythm” as the foundational step before “relaxation” on the training pyramid has clearly never met Doozy lol.
We also have some routinely scheduled wellness appointments coming up too, so I’ll have a chance to pick more holistic brains about anything that might be triggering poor sensitive Dooz.
looking serene among her ponies the next day <3
In the meantime, tho, I’m allowing myself to continue feeling proud and grateful for this tricky little mare. Bc at the end of the day, there was literally never any doubt whatsoever that we could get around and probably enjoy ourselves while we’re at it. Which, we did!
And at this point in my riding life, being able to 1) do the thing and 2) keep learning while doing basically sums up my entire horsey pursuit <3 <3
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!!
