At the end of April, we went to the Oklahoma Dressage Society Spring I & II in Tulsa, OK at the Expo Center. We showed in Training Test 3 and First Level Test 3 on both Saturday and Sunday. We walked away with very consistent scores. We got our second qualifying scores for regionals in both Training and First Level, and I got the scores I needed to fulfill the requirement for First Level in preparation for my bronze medal. We got a 64.828 and 65.000 in Training Test 3 and a 65.972 and 65.000 in First Level Test 3. I had a bit of a breakdown at the end of the weekend, because I felt like our tests were getting better and better but our scores were staying the same. Marie and Chris both talked me off the ledge to help me realize that Dezi and I were both probably tired. 2 tests both days is a lot for a recognized dressage show. We are getting better and more consistent, even when it doesn't feel like it sometimes. From there, we proceeded to work on our dressage often when we schooled at home.
We went to the Liz Halliday-Sharp clinic at the beginning of May. Because of all the rain we had had, we weren't able to go out to Heritage Park for the cross country schooling on Sunday, so we did stadium at Julie Wolfert's barn on Saturday and a simulated cross country schooling in the arena on Sunday. I really enjoyed Liz's style. She focused on my rhythm on the approach to the fences and my body position with emphasis on not folding forward or bringing my upper body forward until Dezi's front feet are off the ground. The riding portion went pretty well! Dezi and I answered a lot of tough questions- she was focusing on asking training/prelim level questions at a novice height, so it was fun to see what we were capable of achieving. And on Saturday evening, there was a Q&A with Liz where we got to ask her questions and get honest answers. She talked about everything from her favorite qualities in an upper level horse, the differences in work ethic and mindset between US & European riders at the top level of the sport, and show nerves. She said that even the most professional of riders has show nerves, but it's about harnessing them, recognizing them, and finding a way to use them to your advantage at the shows. I thought that was super interesting!
Then last weekend, we went to Heritage Park for a cross country schooling on Saturday and a schooling show on Sunday. We rode with Jamie Hill, because Chris was in Oklahoma for her "L" judging program and couldn't be there with us. During the schooling on Saturday, we went through the whole novice course and worked on getting Dezi centered to the fences (not totally sure when I started jumping to the left of everything) and getting her to the base of the fences so she could get her shoulder up more easily over the jumps. The schooling show was on Sunday. We had a decent dressage ride, but I had an error when I forgot our second trot circle. However, all of the feedback we got was super accurate and things I know that we need to work on- keeping a more consistent rhythm and contact and improving our transitions, particularly from free walk to medium walk. We ended up with a 41.1 from Nancy Gorton, the judge. We got ready for stadium/XC and had a good warm up. Dezi was jumping well. We managed to keep it together and had a double clear stadium round! Then we went out for cross country- we jumped 2 jumps and then headed out onto the course. Because of all the people schooling on Saturday, the ground was pretty beaten up as we approached all the fences. About half way through the course, Dezi started really taking the shortest possible spots to the fences and then throwing her body over the jumps at the last second. I'm not sure if it was the questionable footing or possibly her being sore from jumping so much on Saturday, but at fence 9B, she pegged her front feet at the jump and I went up over her shoulder (...before her front legs came off the ground, much unlike what Liz had told us previously). I found myself sitting on the jump next to her. Because it was a schooling show, I took off my air vest, threw it into the woods, used the jump as a mounting block to get back on, and we finished the course. I rode her more confidently and drove her to the fences, and it went perfectly! We finished strong. Despite the trouble, I felt like I had some improved confidence going into our first recognized show of the season the next weekend.
And then there was Mill Creek. I took Friday off so that I could beat the rush there. I was traveling by myself, so I wanted to make sure that I had time to unload the trailer and get the stall set up the way I wanted it. It all worked to plan. But then I had quite a while to just sit and people-watch until cross country opened at 3pm. Chris was riding in a dressage clinic with Marie Maloney at 4:30, so she wouldn't make it to the park to school me until about 6:30. I walked cross country twice and hung out with lots of old friends until she texted me that she was on her way. I got tacked up and met her in the warm-up ring when she pulled in with her horse trailer, Gemma in tow. We had a really nice warm-up. Dezi was listening and on the contact and working well. Then we took an extended walk break and she must have thought we were finished. She was a nightmare to get back to work! Lesson learned. Work and keep working instead of allowing her to have a long rest break in the middle of a ride, particularly when preparing for dressage on Saturday. I untacked, walked Dezi a couple of times before the sun went down, and headed home to get a good night of sleep before what I knew would be a busy Saturday.
I got to the park around 6:30 on Saturday morning, with my QuikTrip breakfast sandwich and diet coke in hand! I fed Dezi, walked her, did the morning chores, and got to braiding. It takes me soooo long! I had a minor dilemma when I was concerned about some significant fly-aways that were leftovers from her body clipping this spring when I may have gotten too close to her mane. Oops! You live and you learn, right? My husband Anthony, Chris's husband Harold, and our friends Thayne, Wendy, Paul, and Annetta were there to support me! We had another great dressage warm up and headed straight into the arena so as not to give her too much of a rest break. I was sure to ride her past the scary "Ring 1" sign that was freaking out even the most seasoned of prelim horses as we took our laps around the ring. Dezi was pretty much a rockstar! We had a couple of rhythm issues and that damn free walk to medium walk transition was not pretty, but the rest of the test was pretty dang good. I walked out of the ring with a huge smile on my face! And Chris was happy, so that's pretty cool. Our score wasn't reflective of how good of a test we thought it was, but it is what it is. We ended up with a 33.1, but no error (like last weekend)! We were sitting in 2nd place in our division!
Chris and I took a couple moments to go out on cross country just the 2 of us to watch some of the training riders and go over some of the questions I had about the course. She gave me the confidence I needed coming out of the start box. We got ready and headed down to the XC warm up. Dezi was HOT HOT HOT! She obviously knows and loves her job, but she may or may not have gone a bit too hard in the warm up ring. We started out on course really quick! But she jumped bold and confidently. The course was really hilly, so that made fitness a true question, but Dezi jumped everything well. We hit all our minute markers spot on! The last 2 jumps were pretty straight forward, so after the combination for jump 14AB, I drooped my reins and just told Dezi to take us home, because I knew she was pretty tired. But she got it done and we ended up barely crossing the finish line clear and within the time… 7 seconds under optimum time. I jumped off, threw off all her tack and headed straight to the wash rack to hose her down until she was cool. Then I took her studs out and rinsed her again before I left her alone to relax. Our double clear XC round moved us up from 2nd to first place overnight. All my friends left and I spent the rest of the evening just chilling and hanging out with people. Dezi and I watched some of the starters on cross country, I went to the competitors pizza party, and I walked the stadium course… all left turns! Too bad Dezi is more fond of her right lead! Surely, we'll be able to figure it out! I walked Dezi around the park, caught up with some old friends, wrapped her legs, and headed home to sleep before the sun had fully gone down (after I apologized to her for leaving so early, of course). I was exhausted!
Sunday came pretty quick! We rode earlier than on Saturday (the estimated time would be 8:45am as compared to 11:06 & 1:20 on Saturday). I woke up at 5AM and I was at the horse park by about 6AM (after a bit of laying in bed calculating how much time I actually needed to get everything done by the beginning of stadium jumping at 7:30). I got there, fed Dezi, did the morning chores, and took her for a walk and a quick graze before I headed down to the arena to watch the prelim riders. The course was riding pretty well, even with all the left turns! Chris and I walked the course before the training riders went and then I headed back to the stall to get Dezi ready, because we were in the first group of novice. Dezi was not having it. She was laying down and was not OK with getting up. I was able to hang with her in the stall, attempted to groom her the best I could from her laying down in her stall, and even tried to get her halter on to coax her to get up when she pushed the left side of her head into the bedding so I couldn't attach it. I eventually got the halter on her and needed some significant force to get her up off the ground. She reluctantly let me tack her up and we headed down to warm-up. Our warm-up was pretty good and Dezi jumped well. There was a jump in warm-up that was definitely not novice height or width (probably left over from the training divisions). Dezi hit it pretty hard, but then she proceeded to jump everything else well. We went out on course. I vowed to try to keep a consistent rhythm and use my corners well. I thought our rhythm was good- though Chris says it looked like I was flying. But our corners were not great- Dezi was really falling onto her left shoulder in particular (remember, almost the entire course was left turns) and we careemed around almost every corner. We had a couple hard rubs, but we managed to keep all the rails up. Somehow, despite feeling like we were flying through the course, we ended up with 2 seconds of time penalties (0.8 points… the exact difference between me and the rider in 2nd place going into stadium). Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), the rider in 2nd place had time penalties, too, so we ended up maintaining our first place position! Woop woop! We pulled it off! I was (and continue to be) so stinking happy! What an amazing way to start our season! We definitely still have things to work on, but it's nice to know that we're on the right track!
I'm not sure when our next event will be. We're taking next weekend off because we've had a busy couple of weekends. The following weekend, my husband and I are going to Pennsylvania to visit his family and celebrate his brother's graduation & his step-mom's 50th birthday. Unfortunately, we will be missing the event at Queeny Park in Saint Louis that weekend. We've got some schooling shows planned for the end of June and July, but the next event that we typically would go to is Catalpa Corners at the beginning of August, which is the same weekend as a dressage show at the National Equestrian Center in St. Louis, so Chris and I will have to make a decision. We have talked about going to NEC that weekend because dressage regionals will also be held there, so it would give our horses that exposure if the plan is to continue on to regionals. I guess we have some time to figure that all out. I am definitely planning on going to Heritage Park and Windermere Run HT in Kansas City in October, though!
