Confidence... And Lack Thereof

I have way, way too many things to post about, I'm quite behind! But we'll just have to go in chronological order.

Which brings us to cross country schooling!

Gorgeous mare

Before I left on my trip to Nicaragua, I signed us up for a derby... at Novice. Not to mention that we had only jumped once in the past year or two, and that we hadn't jumped cross country in several years. Let's just do Novice since we haven't even jumped xc that big! (where's that sarcasm font when you need it)

The night before we went cross country schooling, I schooled Jetta a couple times over a jump in our own arena, just to make sure she could still jump. She did really great and I kept jacking the jump up until it was roughly 3' and she was foot perfect, minus being a bit zoomy about it.

The next day we hauled to Inavale and schooled everything I could get the courage to do. It all looked HUGE. I don't know what it is, but a 3' stadium jump looks like no big deal, but a 2'11" xc jump looks massive and impossible to clear.

Acting like she doesn't care

But we seriously had the best cross country experience to date and I think it was one of my absolute favorite rides on Jetta. I have been thinking for a long time that maybe Jetta doesn't want to event. She doesn't particularly seem to enjoy cross country and we pretty much only have one completion at an event ever... She loves stadium and tolerates dressage so maybe those are things that we should stick with. But after our ride that day, I really think it's just confidence building and more experience that we need to be successful. We seriously did a couple Training level jumps and I didn't die!

We jumped that log into the water!

Other side of the log

We had lots of refusals, but not one of those was a dirty stop and I felt them coming all a mile away. She just needed to look at the fence and then she'd jump it. The only real issue we had was with the big bank jump down after coming out of the water, but after practicing on the little bank a couple times it was no big deal. We did a really fun bending line from a blue barn coop to an up bank, to a bigger blue barn coop. We even did this Training level hanging log jump into the water. I was blown away that Jetta would do it for me! Jetta was a little bit of a snow plow after the jumps and she did try to get away from me twice, but I never felt like I was super out of control, just that I needed to remember to sit up and half halt after the jump.

Bank we finally conquered

I was feeling a lot better after cross country schooling and looking forward to the show. Since I don't have any media from the show really, I'll just do a giant post about it too!

Can't believe we jumped this

Dressage went fairly well first thing in the morning. Jetta was a bit amped up because we tried warming up in the indoor arena while they were cleaning stall and all the four wheelers and loud noises was making her spooky so I gave up. I was expecting her to be a lot hotter during our test so I rode too conservatively. I knew we'd get comments about getting Jetta more forward from behind and over her back, but I was just happy that I didn't have a tense little fireball on my hands like our last dressage show!

I was pretty happy with our score. We got a 30.9 placing us in second place. Comments were as expected, mostly 7's with an 8 for our free walk (Jetta's favorite). Mostly about getting more bend, steadier connection and a freer back.

Our course

Cross country I was so incredibly nervous for. I walked the course and we had mostly schooled everything on there, with a couple exceptions. The down bank was the very large one which we had only schooled the small and medium ones. The trakehner was the medium sized one and we had only ever schooled the small one (also, I find them terrifying in all sizes), and the 10AB combination was a downhill combo with the first fence being a stadium fence and the second was a ditch we'd never schooled.

Trakehner of death

Overall though, it seemed pretty doable. I was nervous for the trakehner so I mentally allowed myself one refusal for it.

The first 9 fences went BEAUTIFULLY. She did refuse the trakehner, but she jumped it on the second try, so I was really happy. I thought "It's all downhill from here, the rest are easy!" Fail.

We tackled this big down bank easily!

Apparently ditches are really terrifying things and are not to be trusted. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but that ditch was a horse eating monster and we had two refusals and were eliminated. I think it was a combo of being a new jump, being the second element of a combo, and being a downhill jump that all just threw a wrench in things. I was really bummed. They let us continue so I went around the ditch to one of the big blue houses that we've jumped before... and refusal. She jumped it the second time though, so we continued to a big roll top that we had jumped before... and refusal. After we cleared it the second time I just said we were done and left. I think that was what I was most disappointed about. After our amazing confidence building schooling round, we just completely lost all confidence over that ditch. That really bummed me out.

But in the grand scheme of things, Jetta still tried really hard. She was super good about not snow plowing and didn't try to get away from me, she came back perfectly every time I asked her to, which was a huge win. I watched the three riders before me - 2 got eliminated for refusals and one was a rider pull because her horse managed to get his shoe halfway off in the middle of the course. So at least we weren't alone! It was just a bummer because I really wanted that little ribbon! There's always next time of course.

I'm hoping to get some professional pictures, but we'll see. I feel terrible saying this, but I really don't like the photographer that's there. Plus this year he's charging $20 just to look at the proofs. Which, if it was someone I liked and I had complete confidence that they'd have some awesome pictures of us I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I'm not usually impressed with his pictures, so we'll see. I'm always grateful to have a photographer at an event and I know it takes a ton of work to take and edit and post those pictures, so I'm happy to pay for them... if they're actually good pictures. Fingers crossed!

Surprise!

Well I was planning on doing my Nicaragua post today, but I have something way more exciting to share!

When you tell your best friend the news

Meet Merely Gold, by Mirabeau out of Gold Jet Away!

I am so incredibly excited for this baby. I didn't want to share it before she was confirmed as pregnant in case I jinxed it, and obviously there's still a lot of things that can go wrong, but we are part of the way there!

The embryo is irregularly shaped because it's 19 days old instead of the usual 14 day embryo. But it's there and no twins were present!

I had quite the time shopping for stallions with most of my top picks being deceased so that was interesting. But I've loved Mirabeau for a long time and he ticked most of my boxes for a stallion and I can't be more excited to have a baby by him!

I have quite a few more posts coming about the process we've been through so far, but I just wanted to share the good news. I'm so excited to raise a baby and I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that this pregnancy goes smoothly.

They always break your heart

I had to say goodbye to another original horse a couple weeks ago. Jazz and Grady were my first two horses and they will always hold that special heart horse spot for me.

I sold Jazz a couple years ago to a really nice family that had a young girl wanting to do 4-H. Jazz had been leased for a couple years before that since I was in school and riding Jetta, not having time for Jazz especially since she needed a more laid back kind of life in her old age.

I started the blog after I started undergrad, so I haven't written a ton about Jazz, but she fueled my love of Appendix QH's after Grady sparked that love. She literally did everything. We did hunters, we evented, we ran barrels and poles, we did dressage, we did western and english pleasure, we did trail, we rode on the beach and trails. She ponied all my babies, she helped me pass my Level 2 in Parelli, we rode bareback and bridleless, I ground drove her (never actually got a cart though), I taught countless beginner lessons on her. She was the horse that got me into dressage in the first place.

She was never a cuddly horse, didn't particularly enjoy being groomed and when I first got her, I really didn't like her. My trainer was the one that convinced my parents to get her for me as my show horse since Grady didn't quite have it in him to be the competitive all-around horse that I wanted. But I was so lucky to have her.

All about those carrots

Grady, Jazz and Tux all together

Her owners messaged me a couple days before I left for my trip saying that they were planning on putting her down the coming week. She'd been lame for a while and it kept getting worse and worse. The vet and chiropractor had no answers and she was on a double dose of pain meds, but still hurting. They thought maybe she had bone cancer. Luckily I was able to drive up and say goodbye. It was hard, saying goodbye is never easy, even when she hadn't been "my" horse for years. I think the worst part was knowing she was in pain and that I couldn't fix it, even after all she'd done for me.

She was still not cuddly, though she ate her 5 pounds of carrots with gusto. We spent a little over an hour with her, just giving her carrots, scritches and kisses. She still looked pretty good, though supposedly she'd been steadily losing weight. I could have spent all day just sitting in the pasture with her, so it was hard to leave her to make the 2-hour drive back home. I kissed her and held her head in my arms, even though she has always disliked that, she at least tolerated it for me. I asked her to give Grady a nuzzle from me, they always were the two horses that seemed best suited together. One of the hardest things after putting Grady down was bringing Jazz home from a lessor and turning her out in the pasture and watching her whinny and trot around looking for Grady. He was the constant in both of our lives.

Horses always break your heart. Even after 13 years of Jazz being in my life, it's still not long enough. I'm really glad she's not in pain any more, but that doesn't make saying goodbye any easier.

Noms

"Treats, not kisses, go here"

Where are the jumps?

Way overdue show report! I just got back from a 2 week trip in Nicaragua (which I'll do a little write up of later) and I meant to have this done earlier, but oh well. 

Hah. Remember that last post I wrote about how amazing Jetta is and how ready we are to try Second Level? Hahahaha. Yeah, we won't be ready for a while.

I think I mentioned that it would be "fairly straightforward" since we were only doing First 1 and 2. Nothing is straightforward when you're riding a horse that sometimes becomes a Fire Breathing Dragon.

As soon as I got on Jetta I could tell that she was a little fireball. After only one lap, I tossed my whip away as I was attempting to get some semblance of control and softness. There was pretty much none to be had. Luckily I got on early so I could spend a long time warming up. Lots and lots of transitions and if she got too heavy then she'd have to stop and back up. Basically Jetta was convinced that there should be jumps out and that she should get to go fast and jump things!

It helped a bit until we went in the show arena and all that we worked on kinda went out the window. Jetta was heavy, heavy, at times pulling me forward out of the saddle, especially in the downward transitions. The lengthenings were awful because she was suuuper excited about them, but then she wouldn't come back to a working trot/canter.

It was rough. I came out of the ring pretty disappointed, convinced that we had scored a 50% and placed last. I went back to the stall for a minute to drink some water and let Jetta get a bite or drink of water, then got back on and went right back to riding.

I decided that we'd be more conservative with our lengthenings so I wouldn't have as much of a problem bringing her back down. We worked a lot on the canter-trot transition. Luckily we got to ride in the show arena during a break and I think that helped a lot. I was pretty exhausted with how hot out it was but Jetta was still ready to go (dragons scoff at your lack of heat tolerance!).

The second test went a lot better. I was much less disappointed when I came out of the ring. It was nice that the 15m canter circles were before the canter lengthening because then I could do a nice, balanced circle without trying my hardest to multitask and get my freight train of a horse back to a more collected canter. I was also much better about sitting back in this test. My mantra the whole day was "sit your butt down" (both me and the horse) because if I'm sitting back then I can help get Jetta to travel more uphill too, it's just something I have a hard time doing on her.

Our test was a lot smoother. I cooled out and watched a couple tests then went and untacked, rinsed Jetta and my poor ruined saddle pad that got soaked with sweat and stained by my saddle/half pad/horse.

Much to my surprise we didn't place last... in fact, we placed second in both classes out of 5, with the winner being a trainer I know. I was kind of blown away since I watched a couple other riders and they had WAY better tests than mine. One girl was riding a cute little chestnut QH and they had a great test. Her horse was very obedient and soft, her geometry was spot on, etc. I'm pretty sure she placed dead last.

All of the red

We got a 64% for First 1 and a 67% for First 2. I couldn't believe it. Especially when I rode Misty under this same judge and had way, way better rides and we pulled off 59%. I hate to be that person, but I honestly think this judge just doesn't like stock horses. The first place rider had a WB, then me on my TB and then the remaining 3 riders were QH and QH/crosses and I really think one or two had a much better ride than I did. I mean, I can't really complain since I don't mind placing well, but still. So weird.

Our first test had mostly 6's, with an 8 for our free walk, 7's for our left lead lengthened canter and transitions back to working canter and trot, another 7 for our right lead canter to trot transition and a 7 for our final halt. The final comments were "Try to keep shoulders back to support the [can't read word] work. Try to support more with legs especially in transitions. Well done, a good starts at first level."

The second test had a lot more 7's and 8's. An 8 for our first halt, a 7 for our first 10 meter half circle, a 7 for our trot/walk transition, an 8.5 for our free walk, an 8 for our 15m canter circle left, a couple of 7's for our transition back to working canter and change rein to trot, a 7.5 for the trot-canter transition, a 7 for our working canter transition and a lot more 7's in our collective marks. She really didn't like our lengthenings this round, saying they were too conservative but I really did like actually having control of my horse, so I'll take it! Final comment was "Very willing horse - shows lovely moments but not quite confirmed in his connection."

Overall a very interesting jump back into competing with Jetta!

Wonder Pony

I am such a bad blogger lately, I keep meaning to blog about how Jetta has been SO good lately. I don't know what has happened, but it's just like I never stopped riding her (much less for an entire year). We have had good ride, after good ride, after good ride. Today just made me so happy because we ran through all the movements in First Level Test 3 and she did them so well. It made me sit back and think of how much I love this horse and the fact that I trained this horse! I know it might not seem like much, to be doing First Level movements, but she has never had a trainer sit on her and has only had a rider other than me a handful of times.

Love having the outdoor to ourselves

Also, let's talk about how tough First Level Test 3 is! I hadn't looked at it this year, but I was thinking of entering a show to do First-2 and 3. Holy smokes there's all sorts of new stuff that I don't remember being in first level, but that's probably because I haven't done it in a while:

• 10 meter trot circle (not just a half circle either)
• Leg yield right and then go directly to leg yield left
• Turn right at B, halt at X, then trot and turn left at E
• Canter loop
• Change of lead through the trot

Jetta did it all very well. The 10 meter circle is not an issue at all. The leg yield is a little tough because we have issues getting enough angle to our yield without getting her overbent. The turn and halt at X isn't an issue. The canter loops we've been practicing a long while, though we've never shown it. She does have a tendency to get rushy in the second half but she pulled off a couple perfect ones today, so I was happy. And change of lead through the trot is a little hit or miss. If I get her in a nice fluffy, uphill canter we can have a nice transition, though she still really wants to rush into the trot and if I half halt she protests. And a couple times today she picked up the wrong lead, but I think it's because I'm leaning forward and trying to "help" which really isn't all that helpful. Go figure.

Anyways, it feels completely doable. And I'm just really excited to be riding her again. She knows all of these things and has just been completely on point. Everything I asked her to do, she politely complied - shoulder-in and haunches-in to warm up, transitions within her gaits, etc. Not to mention we did it in the distracting and uneven footing of the outdoor arena!

Seriously the cutest

I really want to start working towards second level because I know it'll be totally doable for her, but it's a little intimidating having never done it before. For Second Level Test 1, not only do we need a collected and medium trot and canter, but also simple changes (lots of them), counter canter, shoulder-in, rein back and 10 meter canter circles. While I know Jetta can do a very nice walk-canter transition, and we've worked a lot on canter-walk transitions, the downward ones still need a lot of cleaning up. Especially since you have to do like 5 of those transitions. Geez. Shoulder-in is fine, rein back is fine, 10 meter canter circle is fine, rein back is fine. She gets a little tense about counter cantering because she thinks it's "wrong" but I'm sure she'll figure it out fast enough. Really, it's the medium gaits that concern me. Jetta has a terrible lengthened trot that we haven't done much work with because she starts to anticipate it, not to mention that we've never even attempted a medium trot. And we'll need to school the transition between medium and collected canter A LOT because she just thinks the medium canter is way too much fun and why would you ever want to collect after that?

So spoiled

Then in Second-2 we need to add in travers and turn on the haunches... I don't think I've ever asked her to do a travers or renvers which is a huge hole that I should not have let happen. Turn on the haunches will be fine. There's also a lot more counter canter, but less simple changes, so that's good I think?

I'm hoping we'll be able to take a couple lessons before school starts so we can get some help ironing out things and make sure we're actually schooling these things correctly. But I'm excited!

Meeting the new barn kitty

The extra exciting part is that we're going to a show tomorrow, so I really hope it goes well! It has been so long since I've shown Jetta. Fingers crossed that it's a good re-introduction for her. We're only doing First 1 and 2, so it should be fairly straight forward. 

Shiny post-bath