A long overdue show post

I’m sorry for neglecting my blog and neglecting you, lovely readers. I have still been writing for Dominion Vet Labs, and I posted a quick show summary on domvetlabs.wordpress.com. This blog, however, deserves a detailed play by play of the Victoria Day Show.

This is Panda. When he shows up at ring side, people literally stop to take his picture. He is a legend because he has been out performing giant warmbloods in the jumper ring for years.

BlueBear brought three horses to this show: Moe (Mojito), my coach’s own young horse Dexter (Full Circle) and legendary pony jumper champion Panda (Dr. Seuss). The forecast was calling for rain all weekend, but fortune favoured our team. We had an excellent schooling session around 2pm on Friday, and almost all of us made it back to the barns before the rain started – Panda and his rider got a light shower while waiting for the jumper ring to open for schooling.

It had been exactly one year since I last competed at the Manitoba Horse Council show grounds in Birds Hill Park. In 2012, Moe was relaxed, rhythmic and completely cooperative. But a year had passed, and Moe had proven himself to be a bit strong-headed at the Red River Exhibition show grounds in Winnipeg and the Keystone Centre in Brandon. I had no idea what kind of horse I would have this time around.

Turns out, Birds Hill Park has a calming effect on Moe. I lunged before climbing aboard on Friday, but it was completely unneccessary. I jumped around the hunter schooling ring on a loose rein. Moe was enthusiastic and forward, but also rhythmic and cooperative. As you can tell from his expression in the pictures below, he was just happy to be out enjoying a day in the park.

Thank you to Christine Budzak for the beautiful photos. Christine is an exceptional equine photographer, and for hunter/jumper people, she knows how to capture that magic moment at the pinnacle of a jump. Visit her page on Facebook to find out how you can hire her to capture your big moments.

Saturday morning dawned overcast but dry. The ground was firm despite the previous night’s rain, and the forecasted showers held off just long enough to accommodate the BlueBear team once again. Moe and I only had three classes on Saturday – Open 2’3″ hunter, Junior/Amateur 2’6″ hunter and Junior/Amateur 2’9″ hunter. I earned the blue second place ribbon in my 2’3″ and 2’6″ rounds, but was off course in 2’9″ and did not place.

On Sunday, the ground was slightly slick in the morning. We put two small square corks into each of the horse’s four shoes. Corks are little metal studs that screw into the heel-end of a horse shoe. They work like a soccer cleat, giving the horse traction on wet grass. I thought Moe really shone on Saturday, but he outdid himself on Sunday. We had the round of our lives for our 2’6″ JA Handy Hunter. We were completely in sync. We had the perfect pace on the wet course, found the perfect track to almost every fence, got the correct striding in each line and got all our lead changes. The judge awarded us a first place ribbon in a field of talented competitors.

Moe carried me through a very taxing day – three handy hunter rounds and three under saddles (flat classes). We placed in every class, and even earned the high-point champion award for our Evergreen (2’6″) JA Hunter division. When we got back to the stall, Moe took a big drink of water, had a pee, scarfed a flake of hay and then went straight to sleep. He was completely out until it was time to climb on the trailer and drive home.

So how do I think I did? I was very impressed with my horse. He has a great attitude. Even when he’s hungry and tired, he still puts in a good effort on course. I think I’m riding the perfect split of classes right now. The 2’3″ puts us in the right frame of mind to excel at the 2’6″. Our 2’9″ is still rough – we get a lot of half strides at the base of the fences. I need to do a better job of seeing my distances and giving Moe every opportunity to jump with a nice bascule. I think fatigue is also contributing to those chippy fences, and as we increase our fitness, we’ll have an easier go of things. My under saddles are really coming along. I’ll never have a fancy trot, but Moe no longer tries to race the other horses in the ring and he’s starting to relax out there. Hopefully by the end of the season, we’ll be able to carry the long, low frame we practice at home into the show ring.

Moe and I will be back at Birds Hill Park on June 22 and 23 for the Summer Smiles show.

 

This is what progress feels like

If you ride and train your own horse, you know how rewarding it is to receive compliments from your peers. Moe and I had a really good lesson with Sheryl last Tuesday. One of the other girls from the barn (who I value and respect as a rider and a friend) had been watching, and after the lesson, she flew into the barn, sought me out, and told me how impressed she was with the progress Moe and I have made. She hadn’t seen us jump in a few months, and she couldn’t believe how beautifully and consistently we were handling the bigger verticals and oxers.

I think as riders we can obsess over the small hurdles we face everyday. Moe insists on throwing a square corner into a right lead canter circle at A, and he struggles to cross his hind legs in a leg yield at the trot. These things drive me crazy, and I’ve been trying to fix them for months. So when I receive praise like I did last week, it really throws things into perspective and helps me appreciate the big improvements we’ve already made.

This weekend will mark the one year anniversary of me and Moe’s first show together. We did extremely well last year in 2′ and 2’3″ hunters, and I’m starting to put a lot of pressure of myself to earn those same kind of results in the 2’6″ and 2’9″ divisions. But the reality is, I’ve already won – I’ve got a super horse whose made incredible progress is a short amount of time. I know he’s ready. I just need to sit tall and enjoy the ride.

Thanks Jason for the beautiful picture.

 

Electrolytes - why you should never leave home without them

Reblogged from Dominion Veterinary Labs:

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Picture this: it's day three of the horse show and you still have three jumping rounds and one flat class  to ride. In the last 24 hours, your horse has consumed about eight litres of water when he should have consumed 30. You have no electrolytes in your tack trunk. It's Sunday, and the local tack and ag stores are closed.

Read more… 466 more words

Here's my most recent post for the Dominion Vet Labs blog. It's pretty interesting (if I do say so myself) and elaborates on my show experience in Brandon in February. Give it a read and comment with your thoughts on the effectiveness of electrolytes:

 

Maintaining soundness while increasing fitness

Reblogged from Dominion Veterinary Labs:

If you compete in the hunter  ring, we're probably in the same lesson/training program right now. Your coach is likely moving away from the highly-technical gymnastic exercises you worked on over the winter, and is instead focusing your lessons on hunter-style courses of eight fences. Eight big fences. My coach's goal is to improve our fitness and fine tune our course work for our first sanctioned show of the season - …

Read more… 502 more words

Thanks to Jason for the beautiful photo. I wonder if wildflowers will be blooming at this year's show?

 

My new blogging opportunity

Dominion Vet Labs – the same company that sent me all the samples - has engaged me to do some blogging for their company. So if my Prairie Nerd in Paddock Boots posts seem infrequent, you might want to wander over to the DVL blog and see what I’ve got cooking there. I’ll be reviewing DVL products, sharing my horse-ownership experiences and drumming up horse care tips. I may also reblog some my DVL posts onto this blog – if they’re relevant. This blog will stay honest and objects in its product reviews.

Moe and I have been working hard at building our fitness over a full hunter course. Our next show is just a few weeks away, so lessons have transitioned from highly-technical gymnastic exercises to hunter courses comprising eight big fences.

Right now, I’m the fittest I’ve even been in my life. I’ve been attending Barre method classes at Moksha Yoga for the past eight weeks, and my core has never been stronger. I’ve been able to keep up with the increased lesson workload and still feel great. Moe, on the other hand, needs a little extra help.

Watch for my next DVL blog post, where I’ll be sharing my ideas on keeping a horse sound while increasing the workload.

 

No Moe, big problem

Since 8am Monday morning, I’ve spent 30 hours in the office. Work is really busy right now, and for me personally, the writing isn’t exactly glamourous. I’ve had to cancel my Tuesday night lesson two weeks in a row now. My old riding coach Diane Fitzgerald used to say that when life gets busy, you can’t afford not to ride. You’ll go crazy. As you can imagine, I’m bordering insanity.

Sheryl is extremely accommodating and has been able to work with me on weekends. Two lessons ago, we worked on our bounce exercises. Moe and I have been trying to build our skill and confidence in gridwork and gymnastics. Sheryl set up four jumps down the centreline of the arena – bounce in, one-stride, bounce out. Moe did extremely well and didn’t try to sneak out until the very end of the exercise. I think it was more fatigue than lack of confidence. Private lessons are a lot more tiring than group lessons because you’re always “on.” They’re really a great fitness builder. We finished off that lesson with a baby triple bar.

Thanks Bert for the great photo!

 

Recharge and refresh at the barn

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime developing a TV commercial for a client at work. This client signed a sponsorship deal with the Winnipeg Jets, so we can only film, photograph and record their chosen player between home games. I spent Friday night writing a shot list, Saturday morning creating props for the shoot, and Saturday afternoon filming the 30 second spot at MTS Centre. Once the commercial is ready for broadcast, I’ll share it here on my blog. And I guarantee you will be very jealous of my job.

The only compensation I get for overtime is the satisfaction of a job well done. That’s not really unusual in advertising agencies, but it sure leaves me feeling worn out. I spent most of Sunday recharging my batteries the only way I know how – hanging out with my horse.