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 ;)