Championship Mindset

So here we are, already a year since we were last at Region V Sport Horse Championships! I can’t believe how fast a year went by! So last year at Regionals our age group (2 year old fillies) was small, but competitive. This year, since Halo is a 3yo we had to step up and show against the big girls (aged mares), which means we would potentially be showing against mares who were working the upper levels of dressage and actively showing at open dressage and hunter shows. What this also means is said mares are going to, by default, generally be more fit than Halo.

 

Since Halo isn’t under saddle yet, and because I don’t believe in working them into the ground as babies, she really only got light lunging, usually with no side reins as her work. So needless to say, she was NOT fit going into Regionals. Also, she was currently butt high!

 

I have to say, all that hauling to schooling shows, and doing Regionals and Nationals last year really paid off in a big way as far as her settling into a new place quickly and happily. It was HOT at the show. Like we hauled in and it was 90* and my poor Princess got sweaty on her 10 minute haul to the show grounds. Oh, did I not mention that we have one of the top show grounds in the state for Dressage shows right in our backyard? I didn’t? Well let me just let that sink in, hehe!

 

So we get to the show, I unload Halo into her (enormous) stall and bed the crap out of it with fresh shavings (I pre-bought two bags since she is grey, and a pig), hung up her slow feed hay net, filled two buckets with water (one of which she drained in a matter of 30 mins or so), and proceeded to unload my tack trunk and other belongings from the trailer. I opted to leave my hay in the trailer, as my stall was on the end of the aisle, which sloped down and made it hard to have a nice place to set the hay. It worked out ok though, because I just left it in the parked trailer and packed a new net every feeding time and packed it over in my car.

 

So anyways, she did her usual rear up and look over the wall antics, then settled right into her hay net.

 

So I went on over to the show office to get signed up for my classes. So the cool thing about this show, is it is a qualifying show, and then championships in concurrence. So you can haul into one show, in essence and qualify for regionals (or not) and then show in the regionals classes (or not). So I went ahead and entered her for just the Sport Horse Celebration classes for now, hoping we’d qualify for Regionals since we’d not shown at any other shows this year. I entered her in Arabian Mares Sport Horse In Hand Hunter Type ATH and Arabian Mares Sport Horse In Hand Hunter Type Open, as well as Arabian Mares Sport Horse In Hand Dressage Type ATH and Arabian Mares Sport Horse In Hand Dressage Type Open.

 

If you’ve never watched a sport horse in hand class at an Arabian show, it is somewhat molded after the DSHB shows where they show young horses in hand and get graded on their suitability toward competition types, as well as conformation. At the arab shows, they have two types—hunter and dressage type—and often people will cross enter their horses (most just because they can) which is what I did because as a young horse not under saddle yet, I’m always interested to see what the individual judges (depending the type, the judge will be a judge whom has judged at open dressage or hunter shows, so has a preference for that type of horse) think my girl is suited to.

 

I’ve attached a video below of one of my goes for a dressage judge. This particular go was not great, it was our last go of the day and she was tired and bored. You’ll see me lengthen my stride across the flat side of the trot portion and she just sort of lagged behind me. I should’ve tapped her with the whip once if I was smart!

 

When I run her for the hunter judge, I try to keep her head low her gait slower and less animated, and her disposition as calm as I can. When I run her for a dressage judge, I generally try to get her a tad hyped up first as they like to see a bit more fire and Halo tends to be lazy behind, so that helps her track up under herself.  It’s also just good solid training in general, asking them to move their body parts, rate their speed, be polite, and stand quietly for a good look.

 

We call showing in hand, showing on the triangle, or running the triangle, because essentially that’s what we are doing. You start at the point of the triangle and stand your horse up in “open stance” so the judge can do their walk around judging any conformational faults. They check tack (halter for yearlings and two year olds, bridle with hunter or dressage legal bit for 3 and up) as well. Open stance is just a way of standing up your horse so that their feet nearest the judge are at an open angle, and the ones furthest are closer together in angle, so that all 4 legs are visible. If you know your horse and practice right, you can learn to stand them up so that their faults aren’t quite so glaring, but for the most part, the judges are pretty savvy to that sort of thing.

 

The next portion when you are excused to the triangle for judging is to walk off clockwise straight away from the judge, then you make a turn to go to the flat side of the triangle where you extend the walk (can be difficult with a young horse because they like to go faster, as opposed to stretching out and lengthening the stride), then you turn the corner and come straight back to the judge. As you come around the point of the triangle again, you do the same thing, only at the trot and at a longer distance. Some handlers like to bust around the corners at the trot so as not to lose momentum, I personally like to slow around the corner and regroup for a straight line, and build the extended trot along the length, the hardest part is getting them back to you around the last turn. You won’t lose any points for letting your horse blow this turn a bit. It’s better to have a nice trot, than a good turn. I like to have both because, well, we are little and we can.

 

So anyways, now that you’ve seen a properly (while not ideally) executed pattern, you can try it on your own!

 

So our placings on Friday at the Celebration were 2^nd in Hunter Type ATH, 3^rd Hunter Type Open, 4^th in Dressage Type Open and 6^th in Dressage Type ATH (this was our last go, from the video above and she was just feeling downright lazy).

 

So this qualified us for Regionals in all 4 classes, as all we had to do was beat two horses in each class.

 

Unfortunately this meant we had to just hang out until Sunday for our regionals classes! So in the meantime, we took walks, lunged, grazed, chilled, got a bath, and had lots and lots and lots of hay and water.

 

So Sunday rolls around and my awesome friends Coral and Kat (who also happens to be my awesome coach/cheerleader/braider/hairdresser) plus my lovely mommy were on hand to help. We got Princess all ready to go and went up to the arena to get our show on. Of course while we were waiting Halo managed to scratch one of her dressage braids out with her rear foot. Seriously. Like it looked ridiculous and we were next. So Coral was awesome and managed to fold it back up and throw my (blue) hair tie in to fix it (note to self: keep matching bands up at arena JIC). I went into my dressage type goes (we just did one after the next) totally frazzled, but managed good triangles (the last one, Open, felt meh because she broke to a canter). Then ran over to the hunter arena, braided her tail, switched bridles (yay 3yo baby horse—did this in the wide open with no issues) and ran our two patterns in there.

 

We hung out the rest of the day checking for results and generally just enjoying spending time with friends. Gavin came to pick us up, but we hadn’t gotten our placings (and therefore ribbons) yet so we just hung out, had a nice lunch. Did I mention that the previously discussed very nice dressage farm 10 minutes from home also has one of the best cook shacks I’ve ever been to at a show? I mean, a bacon, swiss, avocado burger? At a horse show? With a fountain and music in the background and covered porch to eat on? You can people and horse watch, shop the vendors and eat all from a cool, shady spot. It’s top notch.

 

Anyhow, as I’m picking up my lunch, a fellow competitor who happens to share my name AND have a cute grey mare we competed against in hand tells me congrats. I’m like thanks! For what? Oh, you didn’t know? You won. I was like, oh I won like, 2^nd or???

 

No you guys. We freaking won the OPEN dressage type. In that class, many of the other mares were run by the trainers and hired handlers. We beat some REALLY nice mares. REALLY nice. The judge from that class was the dressage type judge that would be judging at Nationals (wayyy over in North Carolina this year, sadly) so that was like DOUBLE cool. Now the classes weren’t as large as they are in years when the National show is on the west coast rotation (somewhere between 7 and 10 horses), but it was still a huge accomplishment. Even cooler? We went Reserve Champion in the ATH, and Top 5 (3^rd & 5^th) in the two hunter type classes! I mean, I was over the moon excited.

 

It’s funny, for all the success we’d had (even SHN Reserve National Champion) the win in this class at our little Regional show sort of felt like a landmark. We hadn’t ever WON a class, and now my baby horse was a National Reserve Champion, Regional Champion, 2x Regional Reserve Champion and 2x Regional Top V. I mean, that’s truly not bad for a 3yo. And totally worth every cent and minute we spent getting it done.

 

The best part? Save for ONE open class at our first Regionals…we did it on our own. With Kat there to guide us, of course. I’ve certainly had my meltdown moments…but boy have they been worth it. I love this little horse. Went back to the stall, loaded up the Regional Champion Princess Punky Pants, and off we went…ten minutes to home ;)

Give Me A Shot

So my ultimate goal with Halo is to someday have a great trail horse that I can also show in dressage, or western trail, or haul to team penning events or whatever else it is I so choose to do that day. Basically a good minded horse, that is also pretty. To do so, you need to get said horse used to many things.

 

 At her first home she learned the basics from birth, some clipping, grooming, being led and tied and just basically handled.

 

When I moved her, she got used to being out with new, bigger, more dominant horses. She learned how to lead politely, and not run me over when something was scary. She learned about scary things like garden hoses (going to eat her), BBQ grills (might jump at her), and straight load trailers(who cares, sure I’ll get on). She learned about fireworks (the place was within ear and eyeshot of a huge reservation where they have a large group of fireworks stands and nightly displays).

 

When she went to Cascade she got to learn about kids who run, ride bikes and bounce balls (these were scary at first, and eventually she became a grumpy old woman about them). About kids toys sitting in random new places (arenas, near the hot walker etc), and about how it’s not a big deal to leave the fenced in area and go on a walk down the road. Even when dogs bark at you. (this took some strength accomplish safely a few times!)

 

When I moved her to be at home with me, she learned about goats, and mini donkeys (these seemed to be things to chase). She learned about fierce wind and thunder storms (she doesn’t care at all about these things). She learned about teenagers hanging out in the barn and doing crazy stuff with their horses (which was cool because sometimes she got treats out of the deal). She learned about getting tied to a trailer (oops, accidentally actually…Gavin thought he’d just tie her up one night while he fed her).

 

The coolest thing she’s learned while living here though, is courtesy of my best friend, and next door neighbor Sarah. Sarah has three horses with whom she competes in barrels, western dressage and mounted shooting. She is equally good at all of them, but I think she really enjoys the mounted shooting. So she rents the house next door on 20+/- acres but she can’t keep her horses there (that’s a whole other story) so she boards them about 15 mins away. But because mounted shooting is a hard sport to practice in a public arena, she hauls her horses to her house and uses the pasture to practice in. Because of this Halo has become nearly totally broke to gunfire (I can’t tell you for sure if that is the case if I were to say, fire from her back…but alas). Here is a video of her reaction to said gunfire.

 

This was taken after I decided that day I needed to practice running her in the bridle for Sport Horse Regionals which was coming up quickly. Yes, I waiting until 2 weeks prior to the show to run her in a bridle for the first time (2 year olds are allowed to be shown in a halter, so that’s all I’ve ever practiced in!) Here are some photos of her looking very concerned about it. Also, the photo of her in the field is the same day as the gunfire, and she is looking after a herd of bike riders who rode by during a bike race. She was totally non-plussed by them….but don’t ask her to stand like that if they ride by on the road while we are out walking!!!

Also as a bonus, here she is two weeks out from Regionals...a good two inches higher in the rear..of course!

Here We Go Spook – De – Spook!

So since there was no western rotation of Nationals this year, I decided Halo needed to get out and do something that will make her work her mind before we tried to go to Regionals again. So we signed up for a de-spooking clinic at Highpoint Equestrian Center.

 

Some of the obstacles were to walk over a mattress, to get used to an umbrella, or a water box, or walking over a tarp and poles with empty plastic bottles in it. There were also poles setup where the horse had to walk through pool noodles, shredded plastic, poles with balloons on them.  They also had to wear and/or drag a tarp.

 

So we get there, and my filly is full of herself, prancing and whipping her head around looking at everything. If there is anything I’ve learned about this filly, it is that anything goes, as long as she has food. So I usually let her graze a tiny bit anywhere new, and that seems to reassure her. So we did that.

 

Then we went over to sign up for the clinic. I tied her to the hitching post (eek, I was a little nervous here!) and left Halo in the very novice hands of my boyfriend. He of course thinks I’m being silly for worrying that she will pull back and slip on the concrete and mangle herself, but any of my fellow equestrian worrywarts will fully understand.

 

So anyway, I run inside, sign all the forms and take a quick peak at the obstacles and instantly my heart starts racing. Small dark arena? Multiple horses? Stuff everywhere?! Just about the time my eyes were welling up with tears and my heart was getting ready to climb up my throat I mentally thought, “Okay, time to quit being such a baby. Your horse has a good brain, she will either be fine, or the trainer will take her and help you. Quit being a baby!” And so I went outside and got my baby horse. We walked in the arena with a very slight snort\, and big round Arabian eyes (you know, the kind that look like their brain could fall out of them at any moment?).

 

So anyways, we go stand in the corner of the arena (our very wary Arabian butt facing the railing behind which people were standing, constantly tucking tail and considering scooting) and listen to Tom, the trainer, explain that we are to take obstacles one at a time, leave safe spacing between everyone, and be vigilant of other horses in the arena so that there aren’t any wrecks.

 

Then he turns us loose. So I decide my first order of business is to walk around the arena and look at stuff. I immediately walk up to a balloon on the ground and kick it thinking it would spook her and get her to realize this was no ordinary walk in the park. Instead the toe of my boot popped it, and she didn’t even blink, just kept walking.

 

Wait. What? Um, okay. So we went ahead and walked up to the pool noodles on the ground and walked through those. Squeaky sounds commence. Aaaaand here it comes! Nothing. Just walked on through.

 

Soooo… did my horse’s brain ACTUALLY fall out her eyes and she now has the brain of the 30 year old paint a few pastures over orrrr…??

 

So I decided to try something a bit harder. Let’s go through the “car wash” (a sort of doorway that has strips of clear tarp hanging down that looks like a car wash). We weren’t THRILLED with this. She really didn’t mind putting her head and neck through, but anything rear of her withers was an excuse to spook. Clearly some patterns were showing (we don’t like things where we can’t see them). I took her through a few times until we were decidedly less flinch and moved on.



Halo says, well I can totally put my head through!

The next obstacle we tried was the jump standards with balloons taped to them so when you walk through they brushed your horses sides. She didn’t love it and went a bit quicker than I would’ve liked, so we concentrated on that for a bit. Eventually I was able to walk her through, AND back her through with very little flinch.

 

Then we went to walk through the empty pop bottles on top of a tarp. Nothing.

 

Then we went to walk over the high visibility orange plastic emergency/snow fence laid on the ground. It sounds crackly and even I hated walking on it. While she attempted to avoid it, she didn’t really care about it either.

Bridge was easy. Umbrella was a non-event (we wore it, we stepped on it… you know whateverrrr…). Walking over the mattress was a little exciting, she went to walk over it like it was a bridge and realized as she stepped on it that it was NOT solid. So we sort of launched off of it. After that it took a few times to get her over it without getting worried.

 

Raindrops aren’t falling on my head!

Then came our one sticking point. The one I was most convinced she was going to avoid. And avoid she did. The water box. We worked that thing for like 10 minutes before Tom came over and worked her through. Once she went she was quite calm about it. It was clearly a stubborn “I don’t want to get wet, wahhhh” Thing, as opposed to an “Oh boy, that’s awfully scary” thing. I was able to get her through a few times more.

 

Then since time wasn’t up yet, I upped the ante and went ahead and threw the tarp over her and walked her through the pool noodles. Nothing.

 

And lastly was the noise portion. We were to walk our horses around near the speakers where they played car horns, semi air brakes, clapping/cheering, dogs barking etc. None of these phased her.

 

Then came time for the flashing light and smoke machine. This was a little worrisome and probably the most reaction I got all day, but eventually it wan’t an issue either.

 

Interestingly, the worst part of the day was when I tied her to the arena wall to eat our boxed lunch that was provided. HELLLLOOO hole to China!

 

When all was said and done, we hopped right on the trailer and had an uneventful ride home. And she was happy to have some grassJ