Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. It's been extremely hectic between getting a new position at work, friends and family outings and of course, riding both J and Radar.
The last show at Silverwood was such an eye opener for me, which resulted in a very positive change in our training. I realized that J was simply not holding up his end of the training "bargain" and he needed to be more accountable for himself in our daily rides. I became extremely focused on keeping proper position in the saddle and insisting that J work to adapt to me instead of him "talking me out of" it and allowing him to be lazy. See, J has a way of making me think that he cannot possible stay forward, round, straight and pushing off the hind end if I am sitting on my seatbones, keeping my shoulders back and a constant elastic connection in the reins. So I start to cave my upper body, lift my hands and round my shoulders, which gives me no power in my core to half halt and remind him to work off his hind end. So since the last show, I have been not giving away an inch in my position and even when J throws a hissy fit, I won't budge and I still keep my position and wait it out, teaching him that no matter how he tries to change the subject, it's not going to work anymore. These hissy fits have become less and less and he has learned that it is now a pointless release of energy for him. I've also been working on positioning him, not being satisfied if he is round and forward, but now asking him to bend through his back and weight his inside hind, which allows for more engagement and push. It seemed like such a huge endeavor at first, leaving me physically and mentally exhausted, but after two weeks of really not giving an inch, the change is nothing short of dramatic. And now my rides have been much less physically tolling on me because he is actually carrying himself and being more responsible in his own movement. It is such a wonderful feeling!
So I had a show at Silverwood this past weekend, showing 1-2 and 1-3 on Saturday and Sunday. Shelley was not able to coach me, but I was confident that I could do well on my own. He had an acupuncture treatment on Wednesday, where the vet was very happy with his progress and stated that he didn't have much work to do on him. Loren (the vet) immediately noticed that I had been diligently doing stretches and leg pulls with J, as he was very flexible and pleasant about the adjustment. J was a little sore in his hind end, but nothing abnormal for a horse doing the kind of work he is doing. On Friday we schooled at Silverwood, I didn't drill anything, just kept it very relaxed and to the point. He did a great job and sauntered around the showgrounds like an old pro. On Saturday we had test 1-3 first, which was a big class of 12 competitors. My goal was to earn my second (and last) qualifying score for championships, so the score had to be above a 62%. Since the class was so large, I wasn't concerned about trying to win the class or anything, as that seemed a bit unrealistic. He was a bit lazy in the warm-up ring, just being TOO relaxed, which I would have never guessed three years ago! I got into the ring and went to work, having to push him harder than I had wanted, but it was still a decent test, capable of earning at least a 62%. I later checked the scores and found that I had indeed gotten my qualifying score with a 63.226%, however I had also won that HUGE class as well! The judge scored fairly low, but was low across the board, so I was happy that it was all fair. I was thrilled to get my qualifying score and to win that class, which went far beyond my expectations. I showed 1-2 later in the day, where I decided to wear my smooth rowels instead of my knob spurs. It proved to be a very wise decision, as J was much more responsive and worked beautifully. The test went well except for a small issue in the free walk where I asked him for more impulsion without half-halting first and he had a couple steps of jog. I wasn't upset, as it was correctable. The judge (a different one then the previous test) had positive comments and scored us a 65.946%, which won us the class. I was so proud of my golden boy!
On Sunday we showed 1-2 first, under a very forgiving judge who tends to score high. I wore my rowels again and J warmed up really nicely. Again, we had improvements that could have been made, the largest being that he threw his haunches to the inside while I was bringing him back from the canter lengthen, so I tried to correct it and while doing that, he broke to the trot. I got him straight back into the canter and finished the test without any issues. J scored a 67.938%, but did not win that class, which was not a disappointment. I showed 1-3 later that day, although I had strongly considered scratching the test for a couple of reasons. First off, I had already earned my qualifying score, so riding that test wasn't truly necessary for championships, secondly, J had been so great all weekend and I didn't want to push him for no real reason behind it and take the risk of ending on a negative note, and thirdly, I had checked the judges scores for the day and couldn't help but notice that she was giving out pretty low scores. Now I know that it is not necessarily the best policy to scratch a test because of the possibility of getting a low score, but when year end awards depend on averages throughout the show season, those things must be taken into consideration. It's the nature of the beast of competition.
In the end, I decided to show him. I felt that both he and I should push ourselves and it would be more practice at a test that I would show at championships. I took J into the warm-up 20 minutes before our scheduled ride time and he was simply amazing- felt like I hadn't stopped riding him since the morning ride and required NO warm-up. I then realized that I had 20 minutes to waste and I didn't want to ride him too much as I didn't want to use him all up in the warm-up arena and have nothing left in the show arena. So I walking him on a long rein for quite awhile, keeping him marching and working over his back, but not doing much more then that. As the last rider was finishing her test, I got him back up on a shorter rein and back into the trot and canter. He had a really nice test, his leg yields were probably the best he had done to date. We did have a couple mistakes, we missed the first attempt at our change of lead through the trot, which was my fault as I didn't change his flexion before asking again. I corrected it though, which was noted on my test. We also had an issue with the second canter bending line, where he tripped, fell out of the canter, but we got ourselves back together and continued on. Keith noted that the lengthened trot was some of the best he had seen us do. So I was a little shocked when I found my score to be a 59%, although more shocked to see that some of the competitors that had scored higher then me were noticeably lacking in correctness. I was most surprised to read the judges comments, which did not seem to match my ride at all and were comments that I had not received all year long from any other judge. At first I was a bit disappointed, but I texted with Shelley and she gave me great advice and helped me to get over it. It's only one judges opinion, and fortunately one that seems to be out of the norm for this season. So we will keep trudging along and doing our best!
J will have today off from hard work, although I will probably walk him around, riding bareback in a halter, as we have terrible thunderstorms in the area today and he did not get to go outside, so I want to make sure he doesn't get stiff. Then we will get back to work tomorrow, getting ready for our next show on July 30th and 31st. Then we won't have another show until regional championships in Mason City, Iowa on September 9th-11th!
