WEG Part 2

Like I mentioned in the last post, everything on Sunday got moved to Monday so there was nothing for us to do that day. We had a lazy morning and ordered pizza to our room for lunch (a novelty for us because we both live out in the country where food doesn't deliver to). We tried to buy wine at the grocery store down the street but discovered we couldn't because it was Sunday. Crushed, we decided to do some exploring even though very few businesses were open on a Sunday.

We ended up finding Overmountain Winery pretty much right down the street from the TIEC. The owner was super nice and she had tents erected for the rain so that people could sit outside. We had a nice time wine tasting there, talking with the owner and eating brussel sprouts from the food truck on-site. One thing I love about the Carolinas - you can get brussel sprouts EVERYWHERE and they're delicious. If I could only pick one veggie for the rest of my life it would be brussel sprouts lol.

Noms

After that we made it out to Farmhouse Tack. They had a nice store with a great variety of tack. I didn't find anything I had to have, but it was nice to see it in person. On the way back to our hotel we passed a little shop called Horse of Course (I think) and it was adorable. I almost bought some artwork but that would have required I ship it home which would have been a little bit too much work for me.

Everything horse themed

We went to a great taco place for dinner - Willy Taco. Highly recommend for people in the area this week!

Such good tacos

Monday we got to the TIEC early again since it worked out so well last time with zero wait time to get on a shuttle and into the grounds. They moved the parking so we didn't have to worry about our tiny rental car having to get towed out of the mud at the original parking site.  The organization was a little better - they had the metal detectors set up and were screening people but still not checking tickets. Again, no one was open even at 9 o'clock so we headed to the arena to get our seats for jumping. We were crushed that musical freestyle was canceled, especially my mom who is not a horse person and really only wanted to see the "dancing ponies". But luckily stadium was just as fun to watch!

Love when riders are so excited about their rounds

My friend PR was doing a vet externship at the games so she met up with me to hang out and watch jumping

Horses were pulling poles left and right, time penalties everywhere, there was a refusal, one horse took off and his rider could not pull him up - he jumped some greenery decoration and plowed into the next rider's horse who was entering the arena. Oops. I was so crushed for Ingrid Klimke when she pulled a rail at the final fence but Ros Carter had a gorgeous round so she definitely deserved it.

My haul - PR even managed to snag me an autographed picture of Lynn Symansky and Donner - go TB's!

Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day

We FINALLY got to do our shopping after stadium was over. Pro tip - park your mom at a shady table and feed her alcoholic beverages so you can get all your shopping in. I managed to not do too much damage - Arista had some great sale items, including a whole rack of tops at $30 each so I got one of those, I got a non-official WEG shirt, a cool belt, a wine glass, and a hat. I drooled over the La Mundial boots and found out they have a rep in my area which is awesome! Now that they have supposedly fixed their production issues, I really want a pair, but we will see...

Yes please

*grabby hands*

Pretty new Le Mieux

I talked to Dubarry about my boots. They recently sprung a leak in the bottom of the boot somewhere which is a huge bummer. I was hoping these boots would last me forever. They're at least 6 years old at this point. Basically they told me that they couldn't fix it, it wasn't a defect that was their fault, the Goretex is still intact so it really is the bond between the rubber sole at the Goretex liner that is coming apart, and it was time to throw them away which made me sad. I was really hopeful for such an expensive product they would have something they could do for me since I really don't have any desire to drop $500 on a pair of non-riding boots, especially when I take care of them really well and they don't last me at least 10 years (I'm cheap and I want things to live forever!)

Otherwise I just had fun looking at cool products - I'm not a huge shopper because I want everything to be on sale but it's nice to feel things in person. I decided on which boots I want to buy Maisie now that I got to compare them all in person at the Dover store, I found some gorgeous new Tredstep boots that I want, etc.

So pretty

It was a really fun day and we ended it by going to a fancy restaurant called Level 10 overlooking the town from the 10th floor of a hotel. Then I dragged my mom to a brewery because that's what I do and it was really good! I always think it's hard to find good IPA's outside of my state but I loved all the ones I tried on this trip.

Gorgeous area

I had a great time at WEG - it was definitely a different experience than in 2010 but it was a gorgeous area and besides musical freestyle, everything worked out perfectly. I'm glad the hurricane weather didn't dampen our experience (pun intended) even if we did get a little wet. I did end up coming home with a sunburn after all.

Pure Chaos - WEG Part 1

Despite all of the hurricane warnings and drama surrounding the World Equestrian Games, we decided to brave the rain. My parents surprised me with tickets for my birthday, though my mom would be traveling with me. I'm not sure if I ever blogged about it but I went to WEG in 2010 in Kentucky by myself because my friend flaked out after I bought tickets. Long story short I got stranded downtown after midnight half an hour from my hotel, I couldn't flag a taxi down, my cell phone died, and they kicked me out of the bus station which was the only place with a pay phone.

As the title suggests, the best descriptors of WEG 2018 in Tryon, NC was pure chaos. It was incredibly unorganized in some ways and the facility was still obviously half built. But I still had a great time.



We got in on Thursday night around midnight resulting in my first experience with Waffle House. They were the only place open and we were starving, I found it entertaining that they didn't have french fries, just hashbrowns.

Our hotel... was not ideal. We stayed in Spartanburg as they were the only place I could find a hotel for the dates that we were there. I am a really cheap person, hence I picked a really cheap hotel even though my parents were paying. It was too cheap it turns out - there was mold on the walls, the air conditioner had some sort of terrible smell coming from it, the swimming pool was bright green, etc. My mom ended up sleeping in her clothes on the bed and she decided we needed to switch hotels the next day. Oops!

Friday we spent the day finding a new hotel, then touring around and figuring out where things were. There are some great restaurants in Spartanburg - Friday we ate at the Crepe Factory for brunch and Cribb's Kitchen for dinner - both were amazing.



Saturday dawned bright and early and in our excitement to make it to the equestrian center before the crowds we ended up at the spectator parking at 7:30am. The WEG website said that shuttles would begin 2.5 hours before the start of competition for the day, which with an 11am start time for cross country meant that we still had to wait 2 hours. But, that proved not to be true. The shuttles were up and running so we took one from the parking lot to the equestrian center (there was also one taking people to the xc course, but I wanted to look around the equestrian center and maybe do some shopping first).

We got dropped of at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) and just sort of followed people in since there were no signs where to go, no one to check tickets or bags. We wandered into the vendor village after 8am (when it was supposed to be open) and it was a ghost town. There were no vendors open and just lots of trucks and golf carts flying every which way through the courtyard. We sat around and waited for the shops to slowly open then decided we should get to the xc course. There were lots of signs and we had read online the day before that shuttles would be taking spectators from the end of vendor village down to the xc course. We followed the signs and reached a volunteer who said that there were no shuttles, we'd have to walk. Come to find out later in the day that they were only doing shuttles from the parking lot to the course. Even though the signs said otherwise. Fail.

Hawley and Jollybo!

It was a long walk downhill and we followed the course backwards. We got to the main area where a lot of the fences were and someone finally looked at our tickets but pretty much if you didn't want to pay you would not have had to. You could have been in the TIEC, shopping, watching the end of the cross country course without repercussions. It was ridiculous and weird. We ended up sitting by the Longines water complex with our cheap Walmart folding chairs we bought the day before - it was perfect. I loved getting to watch the competitors walk the course (it was hilarious how many people walked the course barefoot!). And I got excited when Hawley Bennett-Awad walked by and said hi, commenting on what great seats we had.

It was so much fun watching everyone go in person - interesting to see how tired some horses were half-way through the course, which riders took the option to go around the water, how someone almost whacked their head on the bottom of the bridge they were going under, etc. SO many horses refused the waterfall jump (the "cascades") so it seemed like the smart people were taking the option around it. I was also really impressed with the Japanese team. I just love eventer people - everyone is rooting for all the riders, regardless of country. When someone retired after 2 refusals, everyone cheered for her making a good decision. 
  

Bummed I didn't get to watch combined driving this year!

The weather held out perfectly, only a couple light showers throughout the day. However, after xc was done we headed back to do some shopping only to find all of the vendors were closed for the day at 3pm. That was a huge bummer.

Overall, it was a great day! Cross country was fun to watch, we got to walk around the course and see these amazing horses and riders (while carrying around our $11 wine!) and neat to be right on the front lines.

Of course, everything got cancelled for Sunday because of the rain, but I'll write more on that in my next post!

Will Coleman and Tight Lines

Young Grasshopper

Trask and I completed our first eventing derby-style show! He is officially a little grasshopper now.

A facility that I used to ride at a lot growing up has now started to offer eventing derbies. I think they had one or two before this show, but it's a hard thing to find in our area and sounded low key so I thought I'd enter Trask. We haven't done a whole lot of jumping so I entered him in the teeny-tiniest division, Grasshopper.

We had two really great rides before the show. I've been trying to ride him outside more because he's perfect in the arena, but can get a little fresh and switch his listening off a bit when we're outside. The first few times I ever rode him outside I was pretty sure we had no brakes to speak of... But he's getting much better!

I think a big helper was getting better control of his shoulders. When he has his little baby meltdowns, he just runs his outside shoulder right through my aids, which is very bad if you are, for instance, on a trail ride along the edge of a cliff... Anyways, he's doing much better now that we have been warming up on a "square" where I ask him to bring his shoulders around 90 degrees in the corners. I have much better control over his shoulders now and he's not blowing through my leg as much.

We jumped our first little course right before the show. Mostly we've just been jumping one or two jumps at a time, but we strung together a tiny course of five fences. He was awesome! He sometimes rushes towards the barn, but when we were jumping he loped along without rushing, he did come in a little crooked at times, but never tried to run out and jumped very willingly. I was super happy with him!

Friday I hauled him down for the show. The one thing I didn't quite like about this show was that it was twice the cost of the usual eventing derbies we enter (one division + an overnight stall). I might not attend in the future because of this factor but we'll see. I got him a stall because they charged a haul-in fee and the stall was only $10 more than the haul-in fee. Plus, I figured it would be good for him to be ridden around the grounds beforehand since he can be a little nervous in new environments.

He was super good and we rode in both the dressage arena and outside around the course, we were allowed to jump the warm-up jumps and I got to see how the course was layed out. The course is just a stadium course of 10 jumps, then 8 cross country jumps laid out in a circle. So nothing too exciting or challenging. He absolutely loved jumping the tiny logs they had for the grasshopper division and I even jumped him over the inviting BN log they had out. We spent a majority of the time desensitizing him to the large canopy and strands of plastic flags. It was really breezy so everything was flapping in a terrifying, horse-eating way. Eventually he got used to it and I was very happy when I put him away for the night.

All the horse eating things

Of course once I looked over the course map I worried a bunch all night. The last jump of the stadium was marked as the hay bales... he's never jumped hay bales and they're pretty big for a grasshopper division!

The next day he warmed up pretty tense and worried for dressage. Of course there was a giant tractor moving the manure pile and he could see it from the warm-up arena. It was LOUD and he was distracted by it. But once he relaxed I was really happy with how he felt. My mom and bf came to watch which was fun.

We entered the arena for Intro test B.  We trotted and trotted and trotted around the outside of the dressage ring for what felt like forever. We sniffed the judge's table. And finally we just walked and walked for a while until the judge FINALLY rang the bell. We did our first halt and saluted the judge. And then stood there... and stood there.... and she never nodded back so I just went on, hoping I hadn't missed something. They had given us enough time outside the ring that he was fine with the judges booth and there was no spooking like our first show. He did his first circle, then came walking around the corner facing the stands, where my mother, in her neon orange shirt, was standing at the rail trying to video our round, and halted dead, staring at her. He started backing up and she realized what was happening and sat down. As soon as she did, we were able to continue on, I was cracking up. He is such dumb-dumb sometimes!

Overall, the test was really good. Our free walk was fantastic, he was relaxed and attentive. He wasn't 100% soft and steady in the bridle the whole time, but I was very happy with the test and it was a huge improvement over our first show.

Guess what we scored?? A whopping 80% for a second place. I couldn't help but laugh at how extraordinarily off the judging was. We got mostly 8's and a few 9's. I have no idea who was judging, but she definitely was not a dressage judge. It just made me giggle... especially the walk movement where he halted and backed up, we scored a 7 with the comment "silly horse!" I know it's a schooling show and they want to make it a good experience for the green horses, but it just made me laugh.

We had a whole three and a half hours until jumping so I put Trask away and napped in the truck. I walked the course briefly and saw with relief that the hay bale jump that I was so worried about had been parted so all we had to do was go between the bales. That made me feel a lot better. All the stadium jumps were just poles on the ground with flower boxes. I wasn't worried about the flowers because all the jumps that we've been practicing with at home have flowers and he's never cared about them.

Warming up was very hectic and Trask was pretty worried and kind of freaking out a little. "We're in a field! With other horses! OMG the other horses are cantering! In a field! OMG that horse is cantering by itself all the way over there, what's wrong?!?!?!" <- pretty much his internal monologue the entire time. He absolutely could not handle the warm up stadium jumps and I kept losing his shoulder to the left and he'd refuse the jump, then get extremely upset when I tapped his shoulder with my crop. Finally I ditched my crop as it was just making the problem worse and once we finally got a nice straight jump we just went for a walk. I tried to stand and watch the riders go before us, but he started trying to rear (sigh...) so we just walked.

Once we started the course though, the fun really began. He immediately refused the first fence... twice. Luckily the time didn't start until we did the first jump, so the refusals didn't count. We finally made it over the first jump, but then refused the second jump. When he finally jumped it, he leaped so big I hit the brim of my helmet on his neck. It was wonderful. The third jump was much the same but finally by the fourth jump he was in the groove of things and we were able to just trot around the course. Finally we got through the hay bales and picked up a canter for the cross country part. He was absolutely perfect for this part. I think he really enjoyed himself! Internal monologue was more like "This is awesome! I'm such a champion, look at me go! I'm jumping things! Whoooo!"

I was very happy with him the entire time we were cantering over the logs. He never rushed (there were some scary bolting horses out there) and he never hesitated over the jumps. Even when we got to the very last one... it was decorated with flowers. I was like great, he's gonna refuse the very last fence. He just pricked his ears up and wiggled a little bit but didn't hesitate and popped over it. I was so proud! He easily came back down to a walk too. Good baby!

I had to leave before the final placing was done, but I was pretty sure we were out of the ribbons because none of the other horses had refusals.

I ended up getting second out of six horses! I have no idea how. The scoring makes zero sense to me, but I love ribbons so I'll take it. I picked up my ribbon the next day but I was kinda bummed since they also had separate ribbons for a TB/half TB (Trask is half TB) high point in each division, that we actually won first place in our division for the weekend. But she never gave me that ribbon, nor did we get our prize to go with the ribbon we did get (both first and second place were supposed to get prizes in addition to the ribbons). When I'm paying that much for a schooling show I want all the ribbons/prizes I can get! So I was bummed about that.

For a one-person run show, it did go fairly well. I absolutely know how hard it is to run a show from experience so she gets all my kudos for doing such a good job by herself, but hopefully she can get a few things smoothed out before I come back, namely an actual dressage judge, someone to run the office while she does the timing for jumping, appropriate ribbons, better scoring for the jumping phase, etc. But I had a really fun time and it was really good for Trask!

Mare Crush Monday

Mare Crush Monday is something I've seen horse people do on instagram to make the #mcm (or Man Crush Monday) into an equestrian hashtag so I thought why not do it on the blog! Lol.

But I finally bought a photo from the little one day HT last fall. I decided on this one despite my awful position because Misty is jumping in the most adorable way possible. I can't wait to go xc schooling soon!

over jump much?

Fun Derby

Playing a little but of catch-up with blogging. I started vet school last week, so I won't probably be posting much, not that I really was before, anyways.

I had a really fun derby last weekend with Misty.

The weather turned out perfectly for it and it was just a short drive to our favorite eventing facility. I entered Beginner Novice, as per usual.

Misty warmed up really well, though we're still going to be dealing with issues of her avoiding contact and not relaxing over her back.

Dressage went fine. There was really nothing I could complain about. She listened well and was a tad lazy, as is normal when in the dressage ring. She could have been steadier in the bridle and more connected to the bit over her back, and the comments reflected that, but I was happy with our 32.9 putting us in second place. We even got an 8 on our final halt which was awesome! Misty loves to either halt too abruptly (but very obediently!), brace in the bridle and/or not halt straight (she likes to step her hip to the left one step, oddly enough) but apparently there was no issue with that!

Since it was a derby, stadium and cross country were combined. I had been hoping that we'd get to go schooling before the show, but I wasn't about to take her with three shoes, so we never got the chance. But she was pretty good! We had one rail in the combination, but we were otherwise clear. She really sucked back before every jump as if she was going to refuse, which was annoying, but I know it's just going to take a little while before she realizes that I'm not going to grab or hang onto her mouth. I was pretty exaggeratedly throwing her the reins almost over the jump.



There was a photographer there that snapped a couple pics of Misty and I.  I didn't like any of the dressage ones (we look awful in every single one) but the jumping ones kinda turned out nice, so I'm trying to decide which one or two to buy. I kinda like the above one, even though I'm throwing away my reins. And I kinda like the one below, since it's my (least) favorite (scary) jump, but I have a terrible face and it's a little out of focus. Hum.



Overall it was a really fun little show to go to and we placed first in our division. I was so excited that they were giving out awesome prizes - I got an embroidered Kerrits jacket! Not too shabby, I definitely love my little roany paint pony!

30 Day Challenge - Explain the division you show in and why.

This a bit of a tough question because I show in a lot of disciplines...

Dressage - I am showing at Training with Misty and First with Jetta, with hopes that I'll be showing comfortably at Second level by the end of this summer on Jetta.

Jumping - I can usually be found doing classes from 2'6" to 3' jumpers. I don't do hunters unless it's just to add in some classes for experience, since I have never been competitive in those divisions.

Eventing - I've only ever shown at Beginner Novice. I'm a bit of a chicken on cross country and while I've definitely schooled Novice on Jetta, Misty and my old horse, Jazz, I still haven't gotten up the courage to compete at that level. I'll probably be one of those people who stays at the lower level of eventing forever. But then again, I hope that one day I'll make it to Prelim.

And lastly, I made a small foray into endurance riding last year, and while I wasn't able to compete this year, I really hope to stick with it. I am currently perfectly fine with staying at the LD rides at 25 to 30 miles, but hopefully someday I'll do a 50 mile ride.

30 Day Challenge - Your Most Exciting/Intense Moment at a Show

Hmm, I'm not really sure I have a concrete "most exciting/intense moment". There are so many to choose from. The first time I won a belt buckle at a timed trail obstacle race? The first time I competed Jetta at 3'? My first recognized horse trial on Jazz? When I won not one, but two dressage classes at Tux's first show, a horse that I'd trained from the beginning?

I guess the most recent one that I would choose would be completing Jetta's first recognized horse trial. I was so nervous because we'd done two combined tests previously and had been eliminated at both of them for refusals on cross country.

When we actually came off xc with only one refusal, I was so incredibly elated and just pumped that we had completed. Now stadium was a whole 'nother disaster, but in that moment I couldn't have been more excited.

Such a great feeling

Inavale One-Day Horse Trial

I had SO MUCH FUN today. I'm still so in love with this horse and I really wish I didn't have to sell her :/

In true worst-prepared-horse-show-person ever I didn't get to ride or bathe or load or clean any of my tack the day before the show. I had the best intentions, but ended up in urgent care to get an inhaler to deal with my asthma that has returned after almost 10 years of being gone... Needing to breathe is definitely high on my list of priorities though.

Got to the barn at 9am and quickly hooked up the trailer, lunged Misty and gave her a quick bath. Shoved everything I needed in the trailer and loaded up. Got to the show at 10:20 and my ride was at 11:10. I was completely calm and collected while checking in until a friend commented "You sure are calm for having only 30 minutes to tack up and warm up. You're not even dressed!" Thank you for that, cue panic attack. Misty got braided, tacked and I got dressed and memorized my test in time for a 15 minute warm up. Not ideal, but we could work with it. Only to find that they were running 20 minutes behind. Perfect! We really needed that extra warm up time. Misty was great in dealing with the craziness, but she was really not wanting to bend right or take consistent contact.

The test went ok, not great. I don't think Misty was too sure about the grass footing and it was rather uneven so we didn't maintain that great of a tempo and she was really behind my leg the whole time. I felt the judging was accurate but wish the judge gave a little more comments, though I can't blame them for not because that takes too much time when you're running behind! Mostly 7's, a few 8's and 6's. Comments mostly consisted of "inconsistent tempo" or "inconsistent contact". It landed us a fairly respectable 31.5 and 4th place.

Of course, it wouldn't be a horse show without something unexpected. The seam in my breeches, right at the crotch, split open just before I went in to ride my test. Lovely. I would love to share my brightly colored underwear with the world. Luckily there were lots of pony club moms around so I asked one if she had a needle and thread. She did! PM (who also took all the amazing photos of us) stitched it right up for me, since of course I did not have a spare pair of breeches to wear.

Additionally, I was "that person" again. Misty decided to untie herself and go for a little stroll when I went up to see the cross country course. Sigh. I really need to hurry up and buy a single cross tie so that I can snap her in and she can't untie herself. 

Stadium was what I was most worried about since we've never jumped these bright decorative jumps. Make that, "we've only ever jumped a grand total of 6 times before this show". I needn't have worried though. It wasn't pretty (my stadium round at a horse trial never is... I can do a respectable and well put together hunter or jumper round, but for some reason the stadium round at a horse trial just gets me all frazzled) but Misty didn't refuse anything or pull any rails. She definitely sucked back and asked a few times, "Are you absolutely sure we need to jump this?" But she was great and I couldn't have been happier. Need to work on straightness for sure (well, plus I need to actually ride well), but all she really needs is just some more miles over fences!

After stadium I was super excited for cross country. We'd jumped everything that was on the course before and it was a nice, easy-to-remember course, nothing too scary. The only jump I was nervous for was the very last blue barn. Anyways, she was fantastic and I was smiling the whole time. She never even tried to refuse anything and the only issue we had was sucking back at the combination and the baby trakehner (they added some brush underneath it so that was "new") and the blue barn was a little scary, but you can see that in the pictures.


It was great, there was a single turkey on course just before we left the box. It popped out of the trees as we went along the back fence and Misty stared intensely at it when it ran right in front of us then flew away. She was a rock star though! I know Jetta probably would have done a spook/blot/spin at that moment, but Misty just kept trucking on to jump the roll top!

Trolls live under this jump!

Oww. Poor pony

The blue barn jump... My fault on that one. I was nervous about it so of course I didn't ride it very well. A) I stared at it. Always helpful when convincing your horse that trolls do not in fact live beneath it. B) I crunched up instead of sitting up tall. Also not helpful. C) Kind of combined with B, but she was just too strung out, I was just intent on setting a nice forward pace to the jump, but I should have sat up and collected her a tad and got her more uphill and bouncy. She got way too close to the jump and didn't have enough room to bring her back feet up over the jump so she just kind of dragged them over. Poor pony. She had three little shallow scrapes along her hind legs and I'm sure she's going to be sore. She trotted sound, but she's going to get at least a couple days off.

The result? Second place out of 12! How fantastic is that? I am so proud of my little roany paint pony :)

"Look What I Can Do!"

I took Misty xc schooling again today and while she was still good, it was definitely a different experience from last time. Last time Misty was like, "Look what I can do, I can jump all the jumps!" and this time it was more like, "Look what I can do, I can jump from an almost standstill!"

I decided to not wear spurs this time around since she was so reactive to them last time, but I also forgot my crop this time too. I could have used at least one of them this time around!

I was a little more ambitious this time and I wanted to jump the things that I didn't last time and do it without first approaching them to sniff. We had more refusals this time around, mostly because I asked her for some bigger fences and also the whole no impulsion thing definitely didn't help.

We did get over the A-frame coop that was the Novice version of the one we jumped last time. Stuck with the small barn still, jumped the blue house/barn thing (which was really scary to Misty!), jumped the actual Novice trakehner, not just the baby log/ditch version, lots of logs and this big brush fence. It looked huge to me, but I'm sure it was still just the Beginner Novice fence we jumped at the recognized HT last year.

"Are pictures really necessary?"

Misty decided to taste test the brush. Obviously it does not taste good lol

It looks ginormous compared to little Misty. We jumped it!

Where'd the Misty go?

Also, she cantered through the water immediately with no prompting, so that was good. The one-day trial this Sunday is going to be... interesting. The stadium jumps are going  to be super bright and fun looking so they might be a tad scary considering we've jumped only a handful of times ever. Plus cross country will also be interesting because a) she's not quite in cross country shape, b) everything looks ginormous to me, c) she's done cross country twice. So yeah. It's going to be FUN!!

Love this sport