xc clinic @ waredaca!

We’re kicking off the ‘winter bootcamp’ season in style, starting with a super fun destination xc clinic at Waredaca, for one of their ‘expert days’ with Allison Springer!

just a little lakeside cantering! trying to remember to bend my elbows lol

Actually, tbh, the entry page on Strider didn’t really specify whether it was intended to be an xc day, or show jumping. Given the time of year, I mostly presumed it’d be sj… but didn’t really care either way. 

I was just excited to ride with Allison, somebody I’ve admired for years as a spectator and ring steward (where I’ve witnessed her many times, and her good riding students too!).

trust me, there’s a little log back there <3

Naturally, as is always the way with these things, our forecast for the day was the nastiest most wintry day yet this year by far — sharply cold with a blustery wind that would not quit.** But the ground was good and the jumps were still decorated from the past weekend’s starter even. And so we carried on.

And actually, in some ways, the tricky conditions (ie, wind blowing **directly** up the horses’ butts) proved to be the perfect platform for Allison to really zero in on our warm up flatwork.

(**The same cannot be said for my helmet cam battery, which found the cold unbearable!) 

snapshot selected bc of those epic moody wintry trees

Which, go figure, wasn’t about petting the pretty pony and whispering soothingly into her ear that “everything was going to be ok!”, even as literally an entire giant herd of horses galloped around like lunatics for actual minutes on end right next door. 

Like, ok sure — whisper soothingly etc. It does help. But also, ride the horse. Bend her. More. Put your leg on, push her off that leg. Bend and push and disengage the hind quarters. If her ears are pricked like a statue fixated off into the distance, she is ignoring you. Change that. Now. More round, more bend, more leg.

also, jompies!! landing pic snapped here bc my phone was being annoying about pausing on exactly the right frame.
plus. not gonna lie guys. our winter boot camp this year will be all about helping doozy’s technique

And it will actually shock you to learn that this technique worked for Doozy. In fact, it worked for the full duration of the ride!

Remember how I wrote about our recent Windurra schooling that Doozy could “get a little stuck and behind the leg and snarled up in a pretzel every time we pick up for our turn”?? And remember how the xc warmup at the Area Champs was probably our hardest moment from that show? And remember how I literally just wrote about the uncertainty of knowing which phases etc would be on grass contributing to my decision to scratch Plantation?

more lakeside cantering, bc i love it

Yeeeeahhhh. Bc it turns out. This has been a big hole in our training for… ever, basically. And I’m not going to act like we fixed it in one random clinic. But somehow, some way, Allison imposed a new directive that made a difference. 

Tho I also suspect that the “new directive” is also only really made possible by Doozy’s maturation and improvements in overall schooling from the past year.

i always struggle a little with the downhill approach to this line of jumps
this is also a nice example of where Allison would prefer to see more “chin up”

Anyway. Having achieved a warm up, we started in on the jumping. First by trotting a nice friendly log a couple times, with each iteration still requiring the same flatwork to start. 

Then we just sorta moved through the whole field, jumping each jump on its own before stringing together a little mini course.

being brave about this kinda spooky “brewery” log. note the uneven push from behind + less-than-classic front end technique lol

Right away Allison zeroed in on a few positional habits of mine:

- I need more bend in my elbows and shorter reins, vs my tendency to kinda lock my arms straight

- BUT!! I still need to be able to soften the contact, especially at the fence

- Chin up. But seriously. This was a biggie for Allison, and in my mind is reminiscent of my “chest up” directive, having found that “shoulders back” isn’t really enough to truly unfold my torso.

- Stay back and own our distance, no matter what

snapshot selected bc of that epic moody wintry sky <3

That last directive was a bit of a new one for us. Mostly because… Obviously this height is new(ish) to Doozy. But so is jumping from a more steady canter stride. Doozy and I have gotten pretty far in life with letting her raw momentum and athleticism and bravery carry us from one side of the jump to the other. 

But ya know. It might be nice to have a few more ‘tools’ at our disposal, especially when it comes to Doozy’s technique in the jumping. She has a tendency to get a little jittery in her take-off — launching the front end before the hind end quite knows what to do with itself. 

no problems whatsoever flinging herself into the air LOL

None of that mattered much for smaller jumps, but especially as we start introducing spread, it’ll be important that Doozy can organize her hind end up under her for an even and strong push off. My sense is that getting her stronger behind will also resolve some of her less-than-picturesque front end moments too.

Allison also advised, on a related note, that if we landed from a fence super disorganized — she’d prefer we throw in a trot transition, vs spooling out on a circle. She felt like the trot transition would do more to get the horse back on the aids, back on her hocks etc, than just whipping around a small turn.  

one lesson at a time, tho, and she was a super good girl for this one <3 <3

Anyway, Doozy never ended up needing that particular advice bc it turns out you land in better balance when you jump from better balance. And you jump from better balance when you establish the flat work first. Groundbreaking stuff here, guys! lol…

The horse also certainly feels plenty athletic — and made pretty easy work of the various BN fences we tackled throughout the ride — including a fairly tall step up out of the water!! Sadly not recorded bc of cold helmet camera problems, le sigh. 

But all the same, her bravery has always been among her most redeeming qualities. Helping her feel stronger in her form and technique is basically an insurance policy, as far as I can tell. 

even tho it was cold + windy AF dear lord. good girl, little biscuit!

So ya know. Hurray for clinic + bootcamp season! Every week there are new educational activities springing up on the calendar, including a couple future opportunities that might be exactly tailored toward refining technique!

Winter is *not* my favorite, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun and make the most of it anyway, amirite?

horse trials @ Waredaca!

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

wonderful Waredaca

Area II eventing is just about wrapped up for the year, and Doozy finished her first season as an event horse at the Waredaca Starter Trial! And it was a really fun, really great day!!

all dressed up and ready to go!

Lucky / unlucky for you, there is exactly zero media from our dressage test. Which is just as well, it really isn't anything to look at anyway haha. I will say: Doozy was very good in warm up. Very chill even tho it was a somewhat chaotic ring -- on grass, an odd shape, uneven (and very hard dry) ground, and LOTS of ponies and horses. 

literally the sweetest critter <3 no photos from dressage, you're welcome LOL

But Doozy just went about her warm up, was obedient. Did the things, and I'm more or less happy with my riding. The test itself (in the arena on footing) was... not good. But not bc Doozy was bad -- she was actually totally fine! No accidental canters or anything! 

plenty of jompies media tho!

Just... Not good yet lol. Doozy was pretty strong, we were late for all of our down transitions (including the final halt -- almost ended up in the judge's lap!), our ring craft was pretty bad in terms of line of travel -- falling in off the rail, not getting into our corners, etc etc. 

takeaway from the day: #Jomps2Small

I'm happy with how the horse felt tho -- not frantic or stressed. Just, really green with a decidedly middling pilot LOL. She just did literally what she thought the test should be. Our homework this winter will be to get into as many dressage courts as possible to really sorta normalize that it's just another regular ride in there.

literally cantering largely lol

Anyway, the judge gave us a very generous 35.0% - knocked back to 36.3% bc I got an error for use of voice WHOOPS lol. That penalty put us in 7th of 7, which, ya know. Yep that tracks LOL. 

Nbd, tho, it's not news that I kinda suck at riding dressage, and my sweet little mare reflects that. But what we lack on the flat, we make up for over fences!! Sorta!!

occasionally i rode to a more impressive distance lol

For real, tho, the jumping phases are definitely stronger for us haha. Tho ya know, we can't *always* be perfect like Doozy was at Loch Moy last month! She warmed up a bit stronger than she's been lately -- stronger than she was at Thornridge and Loch Moy, and definitely more amped than she's been at home.

but eh, i don't mind the casual easy feeling tbh even tho the rails are expensive

So I rode her a bit more connected and held together than maybe we've been trending, but it worked out for us. She had more of a draw in one direction across the ring vs the other, and we had two basically identical rails when she kinda just blew past the distance and just cantered over the jumps.

such a good girl!

We've been jumping BN at home for the last few weeks and suddenly these fences are feeling very small. Which, ya know, fine by me! The casual rails are annoying but ya know. I am who I am as a rider and I think I prefer the ultra casual vibe to the ultra careful. YMMV.

she did all auto-changes around the course, except for one sorta longish loop where she comfortably held a balanced counter canter

For her part, Doozy is getting really good at landing in a better balance and making quick turns after fences. She also took full responsibility for all our lead changes in this round. I literally don't even think I checked once -- a testament to how balanced she feels. 

video of show jump round here

So, with show jumping completed, nothing was left but to stroll over to the cross country field, pop over the warm up fence, and then wait our turn at the box!

chillin in the box

It's interesting bc I walked Waredaca's starter course after volunteering at their recognized event in May, and thought the jumps looked huge. But on this day? Everything looked basically perfect for us. It was a short-ish course, only 9 efforts over about 1100m, so I guess it's possible they didn't use their biggest jumps for the level... But honestly I think Doozy has just grown up so quickly!

then it's Go Time! guys, Waredaca is stunningly beautiful -- even when everything is dry crispy brown

Our course was one big loop around the gorgeous centerpiece lake, with lots of terrain up and down. The first two sets of jumps were basically the same as Charlie's last time at this event, in 2019 and I distinctly recalled being very annoyed at myself for letting him cannonball down the hill to jump 2 and subsequently make an icky feeling mess of it lol. 

So I promised myself that I'd ride Doozy down every hillside intentionally and in balance. And go figure! It worked haha -- she was perfect to every jump at the bottom of a hill!

i did my job riding downhill to jump 2, and doozy rewarded me with a very pleasant effort!

I also recalled from past visits to Waredaca -- both as a volunteer and rider -- that a LOT of horses, especially at the lower levels, have surprise stops at jump 3. My guess is that riders get complacent when the horses carry them easily down hill (and back toward the trailers) over jumps 1 and 2, without realizing that turning UPhill, back away from the trailers, and toward the unseen for jump 3 might produce a VERY different feeling in the horse. 

And Doozy kinda had that feeling too! Jump 3 kinda emerges after a long uphill pull and she definitely was sorta like, ''oooh where did that come from?" But we were on a good line and in good balance well enough in advance that her brain had enough time to process the jump's appearance, and she was fine. 

the course was kinda arranged in 'twos' - which was really fun!
these two lakeside jumps caught out about half the division, across all splits -- a tricky downhill approach with a lot of environmental distractions (ie, the lake itself)

Jump 4 was close by, sorta a long bending line from 3 -- a palisade style fence right at the top of the hill before running down again. The whole course was kinda like this too -- sets of jumps in pairs that kinda gave us a lot to think about, but then long runs in between.

Jumps 5 and 6 produced the most issues on course. I suspect riders kinda tore down the hill along the road -- which took you pretty far to the right -- then had to careen over to the left toward the lake to get to this line. If the horse was looking more at the lake then the jumps... Yea, that might be a problem lol. Doozy was great, tho, and was able to stay in balance and get on the right line for the jumps plenty early enough to stay very straight and centered.

holy mother of dog, we had a down bank on course...!!

She then took it upon herself to trot across the dam, which I totally get bc it's a lot to look at -- basically a raised path right up against the lake. Plus, I was glad she wanted to trot bc our next jump... Well, it wasn't a jump at all. It was a friggin down back oh my god. 

True story, guys. Somehow in all my years doing lower level eventing, I've NEVER encountered a down bank on course. Like, sure, Charlie was plenty schooled to them. But we just... Never saw it. Doozy schooled the banks at Windurra that one time.... But again, never in my mind did I think we'd see that question at this level lol, so I didn't even bother practicing at Tranquillity last week (even tho we practiced banks up!). 

So. Yea. I was unsure how it would go LOL. But Doozy being Doozy, she just stepped on down and proceeded to the next jump <3

water wasn't flagged but we seized the opportunity for a little practice anyway

What a mare, guys, omg. With that question behind us, we continued on with a little detour through the water. Just to practice, ya know? I'd opted to take the option instead at Loch Moy, since we really haven't had much chance to school water (and it's SO DRY everywhere lately). 

But, eh, this was a perfect opportunity, so we took it! Doozy took a little persuading but then just stepped in and walked through. Good enough for now, and we'll practice more later! 

lololol the goodest most casual girl over the last!! these little jumps are too easy for her!

Then just a little canter over to the finish line -- a small barn jump that Doozy basically just loped over LOL. And that was it!

link to full helmet camera video here

I'm so stinkin proud of this mare. She really seems to get it now. Seems to understand the game, and wants to play. She wasn't even that strong out on the xc course -- was more thoughtful and intentional to the jumps despite occasionally wanting to get strung out on all the hills. But even then, it felt like she was learning as she went along. 

through the finish flags <3 <3 so pleased with this critter!

And I'm happy with my own self for getting out there and doing it. Looking back on my years with Charlie, there's a pretty clear trend of being a little too hard on myself for rider mistakes and imperfections. More than a few times, I was disappointed with how an event went bc I thought I should have done better as a rider. 

In retrospect, that all feels pretty self-defeating, like I robbed myself of the pleasure of just... enjoying my horse. Like, let's be real.... Who is really going to care more than I do about our performance? None of this matters for literally anything, except for what it means to me. 

strutting like the champion she is <3

So with Doozy, I'm trying to keep it really simple. I want to keep learning, keep pushing myself and developing myself as a rider. I want to get better. But most fundamentally, I want to enjoy it and feel fulfilled by the experience. 

And days like this one are just the ticket <3 

volunteering in 2020

So anybody who's been reading for a while knows that I've gotten heavily into volunteering at events over the last couple of years. It started early with my entrée into the eventing scene, as a way to familiarize myself with this new-to-me sport. But kicked into overdrive in 2018 with Sara's Volunteer Challenge. 

volunteering takes on a new meaning when it's your only ticket in to spectating at the big FEI events! picture from when i helped clean up at Great Meadow

And ever since then, I've utilized the USEA Volunteer Dashboard (no membership or prior experience required!) to seek out new fun exciting and intriguing volunteer opportunities. 

Because, it turns out, there are literally countless ways to get involved with the sport, should you be so inclined. (hint: you should!!!! it's fun!! and a great stepping stone to improving access!!!)

pro tip: setting up dressage courts well is 100% harder than you might expect

This year 2020, tho.... Well. Everything kinda got turned upside down this year, right? Especially when it comes to interfacing with group activities like horse shows. 

Turns out, the coronavirus pandemic had a pretty big impact on my volunteer habit too -- in two very distinct ways. The result has been that I've played very different volunteer roles this year compared to literally any other year. 

this wire-based kit was ingenious. it was a very long set of continuous wires with various tags and rings secured at fixed distances, and a very dense little packet of instructions for how to use it to set up perfectly square small and large courts. see the little tag indicating where the letter should be?

Like, sure. I've still spent some time stewarding warm up rings --- bc let's be real, that's one of my all time favorite volunteer positions. But I've also shown up to events only to be shuffled around to the areas of greatest need (like bit check --- one of my least favorite positions**). 

Because.... It turns out, in the Time of Corona, volunteers are in extremely short supply, and event organizers are pretty desperate for whatever they can get.

(**mostly bc this is an area where amateurs and pros are treated differently and I straight up refuse to hassle an ammy about something pros are routinely let off the hook for -- like skipping bit check. no thank you very much, I'm not into that)

learned a lot about the realities of square on this day lol, and i say that as a friggin mathematician

And events are hard up for volunteers at basically every stage of the game. For me, this year, this has meant getting more involved in the earlier stages -- particularly the behind the scenes and administrative type roles. 

The biggest example is in event preparations. This is frequently a task you can find on the USEA Volunteer Dashboard, tho it's typically very very vague and scheduled during weekdays. 

I've given it a few shots this year, tho, and have thus gotten to learn more about the finer points of setting up dressage courts (hint: it's actually pretty fucking infuriatingly precise work, best done with a large group) and decorating xc courses.

did you know: fence decorations take up a shit ton of space??

I'm getting ahead of myself tho -- bc, like I said before, there have been *two* distinct ways in which my volunteer roles have changed. And those can be pretty well divided by whether the events were recognized, or smaller local schooling fandangos.  

So let's talk about the small schooling stuff first. It's worth saying straight up at the outset that I don't ever necessarily see myself as an event organizer. For various reasons. But.... I *am* interested in learning how to use every part of the buffalo. Or, in other words, I want to understand the entire show administration operation. 

virtual cookies to whoever can guess the number of straw bales dedicated to this single fence

This year's limited volunteer coverage has proved useful for testing deeper waters. As such, I signed up to be "Secretary" for the first time, at a very small local schooling dressage show. 

We had ~30 total entries for a single day show. Due to coronavirus concerns, we kept the ring sized to a large court all day -- which allowed running any test at any time (vs scheduling lower and higher level tests according to ring size) so we could keep people moving in and out.  

however long you think it takes to flag a course, double it lol

That made for easier ride time calculations (hint: excel is your friend), tho feedback from the judge was that Intro riders needed longer time intervals since it took literally forever for them to get around that enormous ring haha. 

Other roles and responsibilities included keeping tabs of entries, payments, signatures, forms, and on the day of, scoring tests and awarding ribbons. For some reason, I kinda love scoring dressage tests -- there's something super satisfying about punching all those numbers into the calculator haha. 

So.... on that note, dressage scoring is another volunteer role you could pursue too -- if overall secretary sounds like a bit much at first blush.

the orderliness of this picture pleases me intensely. see that clever flag cart??? wish i got more pictures of it, it was so nicely designed

Other roles I've played for the first time this year at small local shows are cross country starter, and course designer. 

The event where I was xc starter was..... kiiiinda a hot mess, and way too big of a job for one person. It basically amounted to xc volunteer coordinator too, in that I had to give volunteers the orientation spiel, assign them to their fences for each level, and organize score collection.... Plus, ya know, actually start riders out on course (and jump judge the first two fences). 

Ugh. What a cluster fuck that day was haha... A perfect example of how this extreme shortage in volunteers can have a direct impact on overall event success and safety.

tho ya know, if your flags are just straight up sticks, maybe you can get away with less lol

On the flip side of all that, is the other way in which my volunteerism has been impacted by covid. Superficially, it might not look all that different since it still revolves around the activities before and after the event itself. But.... It turns out, operations tend to run quite a bit smoother at the larger more adequately funded recognized and FEI events. Who woulda thunk??

This part of my volunteerism in 2020 is less about organizers in urgent dire need of help, and more about.... Well.... I love spectating at the big events. And spectating just isn't allowed during the pandemic. So.... If you want in, ya gotta earn* it!

(*or pay for it. cash money works too, apparently!).

i'm sure i took this picture for a reason. probably something to do with fence repair on the fly. this type of screw is called a timber lock

So, as a means of granting myself access to some of the biggest local FEI events -- including Fair Hill, Great Meadow, and Plantation Field -- I've signed up for volunteer roles such as course decorating and clean up. 

And.... Wow it turns out, I actually really like these jobs! So far I've had the privilege of being paired up with people who know, intimately, inside and out, the job at hand and/or the venue itself. And most of them have been pretty open to questioning about the whats and the whys of setting things up a certain way. 

staking fences is kinda an enormous subject, it turns out. these are spirafix ground anchors, i think. most fences are fine with just cement form stakes tho. the 2' length allows 18" below ground, with 6"exposed to screw in to the fence itself

I already wrote a bit about the 'art and science' of course decoration from Fair Hill, but there's so much more than just that. Often times the people working on these days are the same folks who designed the course (or even built the actual fences), and they're actually pretty open to discuss details and explain their methods. 

Like why a fence is shaped the way it is, or what goes into building a frangible table, how different styles of fence require different types of ground stakes, and even the rules governing what types of flags must be used in different circumstances. 

oooh i learned how to stuff brush fences!! 

Which, ya know, is fascinating stuff, it turns out. One of the highlights from this particular experience was being allowed to tag along for the ground jury course walks at Plantation Field on the 3* and 2* courses. 

Like... can you imagine? Here was this group of 5-6 massively experienced and accomplished horse professionals, walking along the course and commenting on it as they went, giving feedback to the course designer with every step. And, along the way, happily explaining their thoughts when I asked. 

this jump literally looks like a gallows when naked, but hang some cedar and *boom* gorgeous crescent wedge!!

Obvi those level courses are well beyond my ken, so a lot of their feedback was not particularly applicable to anything I'm personally likely to experience or work on, lol, but.... It was a pretty cool experience.

Which... Is just sort of another reason why these "preparation" type volunteer roles can end up being so different from your standard fare "day-of" jobs. On the event day itself, everyone operates within their narrowly defined roles against a relentless clock, to facilitate the smooth operation of the overall event. 

But on the prep days? It's a smaller group of people and an entirely different type of schedule that somehow seems to lend itself better to those sort of "in between" moments and glimpses into how the sausage is actually made. Does that make sense?

more words for the wise: takes a shit ton of cedar to make something like this

So. Overall, it didn't end up being a banner year in terms of hours logged against the USEA Volunteers of the Year leaderboard. But... Honestly, I'm pretty excited and energized by some of the experiences I've gotten. And even more so by the connections made and people met. 

For my own personal long term goals --- it's not particularly realistic that I'll ever ride at the top of the sport or anything like that. But I do love horse shows, particularly the small local stuff that can attract and be accessible to larger swaths of the horsey population. Right now, all this volunteerism kinda feels a little bit like doing my homework for some sort of future plan. 

I guess we'll see tho, haha. If 2020 showed us anything, it's that plans are.... ehhhhhhh, best written in pencil lol. All the same tho, it's also shown us the importance of being involved and active in the activities we love the most. Have you volunteered at all this year?