Olde Hope Evening Shade III Schooling Trial (full report) -- lots of photos and silly blabber to follow.

Olde Hope is a wonderful venue not too far from us in Maryland close to Fair Hill and St. Augustine (I know, we are spoiled in Area II). They have a very friendly atmosphere and it's really designed to help inexperienced horses/riders get a real feel for eventing in a very comfortable environment. They run a lovely little series in the summer that hosts the events in the afternoons which makes for a much less rushed prep day!

He's always happy to get in the trailer!

We arrived to the barn with plenty of time to got our boys ready (Emily even has time to ride one of her other horses while I pulled Riley's mane and combed out his tail -- ooh and trimmed the top with clippers to look like more of an event pony). He got a thorough bath where I tried my best to get his sock white again and since I had plenty of time I decided to BRAID! I be fair, it's been at least 20 years since I've braided, but he's a great sport and I only had to re-do his forelock once since he had no idea what the heck I was doing fooling around between his ears. I wrapped his tail with an ace bandage to try to tame it a little and he spent the remaining time in his stall trying to rub it off -- butthead. We headed out right on time and picked up some adult beverages on the way to keep our helper (Emily's bf) happy and to hopefully celebrate after our ride!
We checked in and went off to walk our courses. I was terribly nervous about the giant teepee that was directly next to the first jump on the stadium course! Everything was really inviting (and very small), there were a few fences on stadium that I was a bit worried about including a mock brick wall and two gates. Both stadium and XC are on hilly terrain which was definitely a bit of a problem as many horses were slipping. The XC course was pretty interesting with a bank option (which I took!) and a few looky jumps, but I knew we were ready!

!!!!!! Olde Hope Evening Shade III Schooling HT !!!!!!

I still need to update about my great jump school last Wednesday, but first...

2nd Place at our second event!

So proud of my boy!!! (And how cute does he look braided?)

SO BUSY!

Well, prep week is in full swing as I figure out how to get ready for our little event on Friday evening. I had a busy weekend dog-sitting, cleaning up the house, doing ALL THE LAUNDRY, and finding time to ride! Saturday I worked both shifts at the farm and took Lucy and my trainer's dog Bandit out with me for the day. Little did I know my boxer Hugo was completely pissed off and managed to not only escape his crate but create mayhem in the basement while we were gone. Ah well, his nickname isn't Houdini for nothing!

Look at my fancy show horse:/

Riley was not too thrilled to be yanked from his stall in the middle of second breakfast and his mid-morning snooze. I took a little trip to Bartville after I fed and turned everyone out where I picked up this blue halter for him. He gets rubs from his leather turnout one so he gets to look snazzy in this instead (and yes, it has a leather crown piece). I wanted to take him out into one of the big fields and do some trot sets and a few gallops in the Berny Bros. to see if I was in love and it was fantastic! I felt incredibly secure up and out of the saddle and Riley was well-behaved coming back to me every time. He definitely was huffing and puffing a little during the trot sets (which he thought were really stupid), but we powered through and his fitness (and mine) and my legs will thank me later. We kept it fairly simple 2 mins. trotting, 2 mins. walk. 2 mins trotting. Rinse repeat. The terrain is slightly hilly which is even better. Our canter sets were more like 1 minute canter, 2 minute walk, repeat. Then we walked to the very hilly part of the field and walked down the hills and cantered back up about a half a dozen times. He's feeling much stronger behind and I am so thankful to have hills to turn him out on and work him on! I made an offer on the saddle and I'm still waiting to hear back! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but it matches all my tack including my leather perfectly! My bridle is still a little lighter than I'd like but I picked up some neatsfoot oil so I can darken it when I clean all my tack this week.

Horse heaven.

Giving me some serious side-eye during our intervals.

He got a well deserved bath in our new wash stall! Yay! He's all beat up from his herd mates and he had a big swollen spot on his shoulder that was a bit worrisome, but he's also really sensitive so I know a few days away from the bachelor party will help his skin recover quickly. I would feel terrible brings my horse to a show with cuts and scrapes everywhere! I used some of the Absorbine massage foam that they sent me and I loved it. I think I had as much fun massaging it into Riley's muscles as he did. I scrubbed his sock in hopes that I could remove some of the dirt, manure and whatever else was on there so it wouldn't be so challenging to clean this week. To be fair, he's hardly had more than a hose down post-ride these days, so he got a thorough bathing Saturday! I still need to pull his mane and comb through his tail (and bang it again), but he should be looking very cute this week. I very, very tempted to braid him for the show even though it's just a little schooling show because it happens to be in the evening and I'll be at the farm all day. Plus I could really use the practice. I'm not gonna go crazy if I do though and I'll stick to rubber bands for now! I think turnout is really important and I'd love to see how he looks braided... not to mention his mane is wild no matter what the length!

Next up, I had the honor of riding one of Emily's horses! I had my choice between her super fancy mare Prima, or her gorgeous Two Punch baby Brody. I was a little short on time, so I opted for Prima. I haven't ridden her since maybe November but I've watched her blossom under Emily's training and boy is she fun to ride.

Equally enthusiastic.

My new saddle fits her pretty well so it was pretty great to try it on another horse to see how the balance felt. Prima's gaits have much more suspension than Riley's and I realized that it's been wayyyyy too long since I rode another horse than my own. *Note:I need to do this more often, preferably once a week or more. She's such a dream to ride and is has so much to teach me about sitting up and riding like an athlete instead of a passenger. We did lots and lots of serpentines at the trot and one of my favorite exercises which is making 10 meter circles in each corner of the arena, she moves so beautifully off the leg and it was so nice to ride a horse that reacts to that and lets me truly ride her from inside leg to outside hand (Riley is just starting to gather this concept). We cantered each way a couple of times and my God her canter is to die for. it's so uphill and fancy, she feels like a little sports car underneath of you. I got up out of the saddle in a light seat for one lap and then sat deeply and rode some really nice circles with her. She's all to eager to show off her changes and when you cross the middle of the ring you can already feel her setting herself up for them! Emily has been getting some tempis across the diagonal (3-4 changes every 2 strides), so the mare could certainly excell at pure dressage. I wish someone else had been at the farm because I would have LOVED to jump her, but I didn't want to take the risk. Plus, Lucy got loose in the middle of my ride and all of a suddenly I had her chasing me around the ring, I honestly wasn't sure what she'd do if she saw me riding a horse so I was ready to pull up and hop off if needed. Prima spooked once, but Lucy has a healthy respect for horses and just kind of hung out while we finished our ride. What a good pup!

Barn dog behaving herself in the ring.

This post took me a few days to write due to some unexpected changes in my schedule, so I didn't get to ride Monday or Tuesday! Whoops. Tonight, I'll have a jumping lesson with Emily and tomorrow I'll flat him in prep for Friday. I still don't have my ride times but I know it's between 3:30 and 6:30pm so I can always ride him a little in the morning if I feel like it. I still need to pull his mane and clean his tack but I can always bring his tack home with me Thursday evening:)

Here's a few cute photos from dog sitting over the weekend. Ruff life indeed for these three:

Bandit is a hound and tends to chase things so I thought Lucy could teach him the ropes of running loose at the barn. This worked remarkably well!

While I generally don't let the dogs on the couch it was a little hard to resist late Saturday night and then this happened. Cute overload!

I got a new laptop so hopefully my posts will be more timely!

Berney test ride, day two.

Due to my unexpected whiplash on Monday I was in a great deal of pain yesterday. A visit with the chiropractor was in order. I was all out of whack and I had one of the most painful adjustments that I can remember. I'm feeling greatly improved only a few days later and I was feeling stable enough to ride last night. Emily and I thought it would be fun to set up a mini combined test so I marked out a rudimentary dressage arena while she warmed up her lovely mare Prima. She was also test riding my new saddle on Prima as she runs a bit wide too. Emily thought the saddle was really nice! She ran through her test and I set some jumps for and then I got Riley ready for his ride. I opted to ride in a thinline pad to see what kind of difference that would make with the saddle. Unfortunately, Riley managed to scrape himself all along his ribs and was quite sensitive to the touch so I hoped it wouldn't pay into my thought process on the saddle fit.

Our event next week is pretty low key. From what I can gather from their previous evening event, there should be about 10 xc obstacles, 6 stadium jumps and my test is USDF Intro A. We practiced the test a few times and Riley felt pretty great... except I forgot just how hard it is to ride in a 20 meter x 40 meter rectangle! I won't bother trying to post the video because it's pretty boring, but he was bending really nicely, kept a pretty consistent contact and was lovely and cadenced. It felt rushed to me, but watching the video it looked very fluid. I am going to work on our transitions quite a bit between now and then as he has a tendency to come above the bit during them. Our free walk needs a lot of help too... the walk itself is nice and forward, but he's giraffe-ing around instead of reaching down into the contact and really stretching his neck.

Centerline!

Looking cute as a button. I sit up so much straighter in this saddle!

Bending nicely and stepping under himself beautifully.

The big takeaway from the ride was that he really understands proper contact now, and I'm starting to think the Dr. Bristol is a bit much on the flat for him. I'm going to try him in something slightly milder to see if he will stay at the vertical. He's not curling to evade contact (if that makes sense) but he also is forward enough that bumping him into the contact doesn't prove to be very useful. I have been giving him little half-halts to sort of pick him up so he doesn't get too deep.

We set up a little course with a few tricky bending lines, one related distance (four strides), total of 6 jumps with the option to jump a few twice if I wanted. I'm still struggling with my overall balance, but he did realize that he's just barely trying over these crossrails and that doesn't help me in the slightest. When he really jumps (and respects the fences, I ride a lot better). My position is a major work in progress but this saddle keeps my leg rock solid and I couldn't be happier about that.

Actually jumping for once. Not sure why my toe is so turned out (that's never been an issue), but in the video my leg stays in perfect harmony with him. I have got to learn how to crouch more over the fences though -- I'm getting there!

Grrrr, it won't let me upload the other video. Stupid jerk blogger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow he gets a trainer ride (a little dressaging, a little jumping) and Staurday we do trot and canter sets on the hills.

Also, he's not spoiled or anything:

Fresh from the garden at the farm.

He makes me weak in the knees this one.

Love. Love will keep us together.

Berney test ride, day one.

I managed to sneak away early from the office yesterday to meet with Emily and try out the new potential saddle. It was MUCH nicer in person than I expected and it has clearly been well loved. Middleburg does a great job of vetting their used inventory so you don't have to worry about things like shoddy repair work or broken trees etc (which is why I am terrified of buying a saddle on Ebay). The leather is supple and soft with minimal wear. in fact, I could only find wear marks on the billets and the edges of the cantle.

I was nervous, to be sure... Riley as I mentioned, is difficult to fit... and he's opinionated when he doesn't like a saddle. I tossed the saddle on him bare and like what I saw right away.

Really like the balance from front to back. I put a pen on the saddle to see where the center of balance was and it was perfect.

Overall, I liked the fit along the front of the flap. There was a slight gap toward the bottom but I knew that would change one it was girthed up.

Great clearance around his withers. He doesn't have protruding withers, and since he wears a wide it's important to make sure the saddle doesn't crowd them.

We decided to tack him up in just a simple pad to see how the saddle settled in once I was up (I usually ride in a half pad of some sort). Riley is the kind of horse that will really let you know when he's in pain of any kind. As I girthed him up he was licking and chewing and happy. No dancing around and no grumpy looks. I stuck my leathers on and realized that they match perfectly (so does my breastplate -- bonus!) and got on.

Whoa.

I felt like I was sitting INTO my saddle instead of perched on it. My leg felt locked it place and it was immediately super comfortable. I was very excited to go play around on it. Initially Emily was worried it was a tiny bit small for me (in the seat), but I could fit my entire hand behind me and she agreed it was just a completely differently style from my old saddle.

Now for more pictures (which is really all I am good for these days as a blogger):

Loving the position of my leg and weight in my heels for once! *just after a jump

Comfortable enough to find my own balance again.

Riley was VERY distracted by the cows off to our right and felt like myabe he should veer us into a standard as a way to escape them.

My leg is still slipping a bit, but my balance was much better.

I posted this one so you could see his cute expression, oh and my super talented way of climbing up my horses neck.

When I picked up the canter, he felt the best he's ever been and Emily commented on both of us one stride in. The difference in this saddle is remarkable.

And, then there's this... homeboy loves a stretchy trot.

Back swinging and happy.

We picked up our right lead canter first try from the walk and Emily was very excited for us! Jumping was a bit rough as it was a whole new feel of balance for me and not wearing spurs was not a good plan for such a hot day. But I needed to know how he felt over fences so off we went. Sadly, he gave me a serious case of whiplash after the last oxer by over-jumping and stumbling upon landing, if I had been in my other saddle I would have come off for sure!

I went on a nice hack after our ride and he was terrific. I hope this is the last saddle we'll need for awhile! 

And Blogger is being an a-hole so no video for you! Tomorrow, Emily and I are going to set up a little combined test for ourselves to run through our dressage tests and do some jumping! I'll let you guys know how day two in the saddle goes!

Oh yea, one last thing:

Entered!

Saddle woes and wins.

I have mentioned in the last few posts that I was going to be looking for a new saddle. I didn't want to give it too much thought yet because I don't have much of a budget, Riley is really hard to fit, and I pretty much need the size/style of saddle that everyone is looking for so I knew it was going to be a bit of a hunt. I've ridden in a few of Emily's saddles and while she's much taller than I am, I really like the balance of the Berney Bros. I thought it would be interesting to post some recent photos of me jumping in both saddles so you can see what I mean (these shots were roughly a week or two apart).

Current saddle. Heritage jumping saddle. Fits both of us well enough. smaller knee block and no thigh blocks.

On the flat, my position is quite good in this saddle, but you can kind of see here that if I want to put my stirrups up any higher I'm going to be in trouble with the knee rolls.

Case in point. The balance of this saddle doesn't allow me much security and I am thrown forward, pivoting at the knee.

I'm still jumping ahead, but my leg is staying firmly at the girth and underneath my body for a better overall balance.

When I am balanced, I'm able to give Riley all the freedom he needs. Having a saddle that gives me this kind of security allows me to find my own balance without throwing him off.

In between fences, love how my leg is in this photo, right where it should be.

 So, with Emily taking a trip down to Virginia for the WEG trials, I begged her to make a stop at the Middleburg Tack Exchange (aka, heaven) to look for my white whale of a saddle. She took a current wither tracing with her, my non-existent budget, and some parameters of what I was looking for.

In case you were wondering where I was instead of going to the WEG trials, I had a super long wedding to shoot on Saturday. While I was in the middle of shooting the ceremony, I got a couple of frantic texts from Emily saying that she found A 17" BERNEY BROS. IN WIDE. What!?! I was able to sneak away during the communion portion of the mass (there were also two other photographers) to go outside and make a call. She said she literally looked at hundreds of saddles and felt like it was a lost cause. None of the saddles fit Riley's wither tracing (did I mention he's hard to fit?) and she was starting to give up, when she saw on the top shelf a lone Berney Bros.

A small cross section of the used saddle inventory at Middleburg Tack Exchange

She pulled it off the shelf half-heartedly and nearly died when she was the size and shape. And then, this:

Like a glove.

Beautiful used condition. Love the balance of the seat and the more forward flaps than my current saddle. I don't have super long legs so I don't need a really forward flap.

Exactly what I was looking for, nice knee block and a small thigh block.

So I made the call, gave them my account info and it's mine on trial for a week. If I like it and it fits us both, I can make the seller an offer against the suggested retail price (all their saddles are on consignment).

So, fingers crossed for us that I have found something suitable! The very kind British woman who works at the shop mentioned to Emily that the Berney's never last more than a few days because everyone wants them and they last forever. What a score! I will post my current saddle for sale if this one works out to recoup the money!

Ps. I got a 17" because Berney's tend to be a bit generous in the sizing and don't usually come standard in half sizes.

Pps. Based on all of these photos its clear I need to do lots of two point work to lengthen my leg and stretch down into my heels. Sadly, I will never be one of those riders whose heels look super flexed (years and years of gymnastic has given my ankles early arthritis!)

Jumping all the jumps... and other adventures.

Riley and I had a busy weekend...

Thursday he got a trainer ride and was apparently a total butthead. Locking his jaw, bulging his shoulder and pretending to spook at the cows he's seen a million times (and is turned out next to). Eventually she was able to get some good flat work out of him, but I think he thought a few days off meant he was now retired. They worked on a lot of transitions and of course, his right lead canter.

Friday I had farm duty in the evening, and I wanted to fit in a flat ride in Emily's dressage saddle. It fits both Riley and I really well.We started off doing lots and lots of sitting trot (he has THE BEST trot for sitting) and he actually moves better while you're sitting the trot for some reason. Serpentines all over the ring using my leg and set to change the bend in his body. he finally getting the concept of moving off my leg instead of leaning on it. One exercise I worked on was walking down the quarter line, leg yielding to the rails, walking a few steps then yielding back off, walk a few steps and then back on the rail. This really got him moving straight and it helped set him up for success at the canter. he was very forward on Friday and the first canter depart was a little explosive, but he picked up the right lead first time after my little leg yielding exercise. We did the same thing again and we got another perfect depart (from the walk) on the correct lead! Hooray! We cantered some more in the other direction and he felt great. I really like riding in the dressage saddle as it really allows me to lengthen my leg and open my hip angles. My plan is to flat in it once a week and do some no stirrup work in my jump saddle every ride.

So Apparently.

Hm, I've tried leaving comments on several blogs over the last few days and for some reason none of them are working! I just wanted to let you guys know that I have been reading and commenting!

I'll post a real update soon. Lots of riding to come over the next few days (even some time in a dressage saddle) and a trainer ride today.

Epic three-day weekend

Side note: I got to see this at a Drive-In theater Thursday evening. BEST.

Riley is back in full work and I couldn't be happier. Our ring is finished! Woo hoo!!

He got a training ride Tuesday and was a superstar. Emily wrote about him on her blog, you can read it here. I'm actually quite surprised as to how straight and forward he feels in the new ring. One of the best things about it is that the owner choose to put the perimeter fence about 10 feet away from the edge which actually forces the horses to go straight and carry themselves, or at least you will know just how crooked they are as they cannot "lean" on the rail. His right lead canter is coming along wonderfully. Emily really worked on that Tuesday and when I rode him Friday he picked it up rather easily. He's still quite counter bent in that direction, but he's learning to move off the side leg and right now I am more concerned with the transition, getting the right lead and maintaining impulsion rather than forcing him to bend. With time and strength that will come too. We are working on some baby lateral work at the walk and he's starting to get it.

Finally.

Saturday I jump judged all day with my trainer Emily at Fairhill Starter Trial. We were assigned jump #2 which couldn't have been a better learning experience for me. The first fence coming out of the start box had you heading back towards show jumping and warm up, then you had to make a 90 degree turn to get to fence two which for all levels but elementary, was a sizable red coop of varying heights... then you cantered away from all things familiar and down a hill to a ramp. This was nearly the same type of scenario I was faced with on Riley at St. Augustine so it was incredibly educational to see how everyone navigated it. There were a few takeaways from watching 200 people go (yes, 200!!!). Those that had a sticky jump or a run out at fence #2 nearly ALWAYS had a run out at at #3. The horses that were shaky coming through the turn away from stadium were distracted and really needed a positive ride. I saw a few riders who could feel their horse bulging toward stadium or not paying attention that simply brought the back to a trot and refocused them before heading to our fence. There were a ton of young riders on brave ponies that gave really good rides. It made me want to channel my inner pony girl and get out there again! There were also a couple of riders that seemed completely over faced either with their horse or with their level. One girl in particular was on a bratty grey pony that refused twice at our fence and got eliminated at the next fence. Because it was a starter trial they let her continue but she nearly fell off at our fence and #3. We listened on the radio as it took her at least 4 tries to get over every jump and was overtaken by at least 4-5 riders. I think that someone should have pulled her off course, one because she wasn't going to teach the pony anything new and two, because she was becoming a hazard to the other riders. I have no idea how far around the course she got, but by fence 8 she had at least 20 refusals. There was another girl on a huge black horse that seemed very keen but she was a tiny, wisp of a rider and I would have to guess she was maybe 10-11 years old. The horse was very athletic and they jumped around stadium well, but he had a sticky jump at our fence and he DUMPED her at 3 and bolted. I have never seen a horse bolt like that in my life and he was headed straight for stadium. it was really scary, he was caught pretty quickly, luckily, but it was hairy to say the least. There were some other great rides as well, including Jane Sleeper on a few of her youngsters (she was literally the only person that came off the first jump on the appropriate lead) and Courtney Cooper on some really nice looking horses. All in all it was a really fun day, but it was blazing hot and I am going to have a permanent tank top tank for the rest of my life. Best part? We get a free xc schooling out of the deal! Woo hoo!

Sunday I finally rode Riley as his old paddock was ready again and riding him to and from his field was a royal PITA.

I made a super awesome diagram to show you:

The light blue line is the path I took yesterday. That has you going through into the woods, through a stream and past the cows, around Riley's usual turnout and back to where the new ring is. The green line is the path I normally take when going out for a hack. Both of these are roughly 1.2 miles. So I drive my car and tack over to Riley's old field (marked with a star), grab him, brush him off and pick out his feet, tack him up and ride him to wherever I want to school on the property. It's a bit of a hassle, but I am really not complaining, I promise. *Though I do hate having to mount from an overturned feed bucket. Having 140 acres to ride on and now a lovely ring is pretty incredible. We have even started putting in some XC jumps near the woods including a coop and proper ditch (yet to be schooled).

Also, the red arrow on the left of the diagram is the view I captured in this photo:

Chester County loveliness.

Riley was really good for our ride despite having two weeks off, save for one lunging session where he tried to kill me. The only problem was mounting. He's still doing this thing where he will move sideways as soon as I put my foot in the stirrup and I just cannot tolerate that. he knows how to stand quietly. He got a pretty severe reprimand the first time he did it and stood stock still on the second attempt (thank you jockey whip). Don't get me wrong, I don't like to get after him that much, but again, this is a dangerous habit and he's beyond this stage in his training. Anyway, we had a lovely hack where he was awesome about leaving his buddies. We trotted through the woods and the stream up a hill to where the cows are. As you know, he likes to pretend he's afraid of the cows so I figured that trotting him wayyy before the cows would help keep him focused on me. They were all piled up under a tree and he definitely kept one eye on them and one on me, but he was very brave. We hacked back to barn mostly trotting along the sides of the fields and headed to the NEW RING!

It was such a delight to ride on footing again! I think a few more rains on it and it will feel even better, but it's beautifully level. I also like that the owner decided not to put the fence line right up against the edge of the ring because I feel like that tends to give horses something to lean on instead of truly going straight. We did some trot work which is still challenging tracking right, and some canter work. I got a lovely walk-canter transition and even a few 20 meter circles! He felt really nice! We cooled out in the adjacent pasture and I let him have a nice long drink in the stream. Such a good dude.

Being the bravest.

So, he's back by the barn now and he's coming in during the day and out at night. He had more bites on him then I would like and was starting to get a bit hive-y. So I think the night time turnout will be the best thing for him. He'll get ridden hopefully by Emily one day this week and with me on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and we're thinking about going XC schooling Sunday! Vacation is officially over, mister! We can start jumping in the ring this week and I cannot wait to start making some plans for him.

So much to say, but just this for now...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Footing is IN!!!!