Northwestern IHSA Show

So yesterday I was super excited for our home show. I figured I had it in the bag because I know all of the horses. I had three horses that I wanted to draw: Mr. Bubbles, Dutchess, or Cameo.

I got Mr. Bubbles! I was so confident (overly confident...) that I would win my class simply because he was a know-it-all, push-button horse. I let myself get over confident and ended up getting 6th place...the only good thing about that is that I at least beat a couple other people.
One girl on the team says that it's not about winning ribbons and that it's about having fun. I have to disagree. I mean, I'm still in it to have a good ride, but I'm especially looking to win ribbons. I guess that the "not winning ribbons" attitude only happens when you win (or maybe lose) all the time, and since I'm almost always stuck in the middle around 4th or 5th place,  I really like winning those blue ribbons.

Basically, what went wrong was that I got a little too close to the judge and picked up the wrong lead. I couldn't even tell...my mom keeps telling me that I need to stay on the rail too, but everyone on the team says "Oh, no, stay in the middle or on the quarter line, it'll attract the judge's attention." I did that yesterday and got 6th. I stayed on the rail on Saturday and got 1st. I think I'll go with my mom's judgment from now on, she was show jumping for longer than those girls were alive...She made a good point though: when you amble around in the middle you look like you have no idea what you're doing.

I have a question for all you English discipline people out there: How tight of a reverse do you do? In Paso shows, our reverse has to be super tight because the horse is supposed to be very flexible and supple at the pole. Nell's been telling me that I'm hurting her horses by reversing tight and that if I want to reverse, I'm supposed to reverse across the middle of the arena...I highly disagree with her, especially after yesterday when I reversed across the arena and every one else reversed on the rail. I'm not too pleased, to say the least.

Anyways. I was thinking of just working on the flat for my lessons, but I figured since Brie's not going to be shown too much because we only have a 2 horse trailer and 2 younger horses, I'll continue teaching her how to canter and what not and practice lead changes with her and keep using my $40 a week on working on jumping. I can't wait to go to the barn this weekend and return to some sense of a normal training regimen once football season's over.

Augustana IHSA Show

I guess all that hard work with Jimmy has paid off. Know why?

BECAUSE I WON FIRST PLACE!

Yes! I've finally won first place in the IHSA circuit! Granted, I've only been to one other show to win a first place at, but I'm so excited that I won today! And I'm even more excited for tomorrow because it's at our home barn and I know the horses. I have three in mind that I'd love to get: Mr. Bubbles (love), Dutchess (super fun) or Cameo (pretty much my twin). It'd also be cool if I got Jimmy. I feel like I owe him a good exhibition since he's helped me gain strength in my leg so I was able to win today!

The horse I rode, Trinny, was written up as "LOTS OF LEG. Crop: Yes. Spurs: Yes (over fences)" so naturally when I saw I had him and the other girl in my division had someone who's description when something like this "LIGHT LEG. Crop: No. Spurs: Definitely not" I was a little worried. But I got in the mindset of something between "Brie just stopped in the middle of the ring again. Hell no." and "Come ON JIMMY MOVE!" and did fantastically. I got a trot and a canter fairly quickly and on the right leads too! Admittedly, I did break stride from a canter into a trot right before the judge called for a walk, but she obviously didn't see me. I did get my diagonal wrong once, though, but I recognized it and corrected it just as one of my team mates yelled at me to fix it from the sidelines (discretely of course). 

And I have a confession. While I heard the numbers being called as I walked out of the arena, all I was expecting was 4th place and when my other team mate in the class got called 4th, all I could think of is that I missed my number and was called 5th OR maybe I was excused but as the judge got to 2nd place and it hit me that I could possibly be pinned 1st, I jumped up in the air super high as she called "And first place goes to rider 116, Alexa from Northwestern University! Congratulations!" I can't even explain to you the feeling of joy I felt inside when I heard that and I hugged the first person I could recognize. 

Not to mention that I got some prizes =] I got a gift certificate to a tack shop, shoe polish, and a packet of Mrs. Pasture's horse cookies, three, just enough for Harry, Brie, and Nina. 

I can only go into tomorrow with extra positive energy. I'm so thankful for today.

Madison IHSA Show - Day 2

The last day of showing was definitely better.
We had a great judge today. Our riders took high point and reserve high point riders of the day! Congrats, girls!

I, on the other hand, only got a 6th.
I have to admit, I wasn't that crushed. It was my first time competing in this discipline and I wasn't expecting much. All I wanted out of this class was to get my horse to canter without having to kick a bazillion times and you know what? I did it! The girl in the class before me, not from my school, looked like she had a hard time getting him to canter but my brother gave me a good inspiration: "Just pretend it's Brie and she stopped in the middle of the ring AGAIN." It definitely gave me the desire to show that horse who's boss.
My ride was good and I felt beautiful when we cantered, we even got the correct lead! And I never had to correct my diagonals because they were perfect today. He was just a really bouncy ride and I had a hard time sitting deep in the seat and keeping my heels down, so among trying to get my stirrups back to the balls of my feet, I stopped concentrating on keeping him cantering so he trotted...and I still never got my stirrups back where they needed to be.
I feel like as much as I would love to pat myself on the back and ride easier horses at Nell's, I need to be put on the bouncier ones that she has in order to be competitive in the next show...which is at our barn! Home advantage! I only have two lessons until that show so I need to make them count. I'm not even worried about improving my jumping right now: I need to focus on the flat that way I can point up out of there as fast as possible!

Madison ISHA Show - Day 1

This is ridiculous.
Okay so first off, I had a horrible ride. We draw our mounts out of a box and I drew probably the slowest horse ever. It makes me feel better to know that every rider did poorly on him, though. Not as bad as I did--the girl who has a weak leg because if you kick a Paso you'll die. It was a challenge to even get him to trot! It was hard getting him to canter too, even after using a crop. But apparently I didn't use my leg or my crop hard enough. Hopefully I get a better mount tomorrow. I was so disappointed, I can't even begin to tell you.

But to make matters a little bit better, the entire team didn't do so hot. Not that I know the difference, but we're "equitation" riders and the judge was a "hunter" judge. Since we all rode equitation we all placed extremely low, if at all, mostly keeping to 5th and 6th place with our senior rider taking a 4th place. As an experiment, we made our newest member and last rider, who normally rides hunter seat, ride as she naturally does. And guess what?! She won 3rd place!!

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for all of us. I really hope that I get a better mount tomorrow. I can't stand slow horses, they're so hard to work with!

Equestrian Team Day 14

Yesterday was my first lesson with the team back at school. It was a great first lesson, I absolutely loved my group yesterday. One girl's new and lives not too far from where I do. Total fun fest, we laughed the entire time driving. It's nice being back with some girls.

I had my lesson on a brand new horse! It was his first lesson too, his name's Mr. Bubbles. Isn't that adorable? Anyways, in short, he was probably the best ride I've ever had at Nell's. He was incredibly light on the bit, barely needed any encouragement on the leg, and had the smoothest canter I've ever felt. He was a little package of perfection! And he was a whopping 23 years old! Been there, done that, I suppose that's why he's so fantastic. Some horses when they're that old can be so dreary, but he was just full of life and energy. I hope I get to ride him more often. We worked mostly on the flat since that's what I'll be competing in this weekend. I took one jump at the end and he was kind of like "Uhmmmm no" and slowed incredibly and popped over the fence. I think maybe that's just a fitness issue, he is a bit of a gramps after all. I can't wait to ride him when he's more in shape, he seems like the overall perfect ride.

I'm so looking forward to the show this weekend, even if I am only competing on the flat. I only have one very small goal: beat this one girl at NIU. Even if I get second to last place and she gets last place, I'll be so happy. Wish me luck! I'll be writing all weekend and post as soon as I get back!

Equestrian Summer

So I haven't been doing regular posts like I did during the school year about my lessons with the team, partially because I've been focusing more on training.

Oh and by the way, those dressage dreams are over until I can buy a Warmblood. Apparently, you will lose a Paso's gait if you teach them dressage. What I don't understand is why the woman wrote the book on "Classical Training for the Paso Fino" if she says right in the introduction that Pasos and other gaited breeds aren't very successful with dressage. Uhmmmm kay?

Let's see. A summary of my summer.
I rode Cameo a whole bunch. From her, I learned how to keep a horse from refusing a jump.

I rode General once. I wasn't too keen on riding him when I did because his hoof looked nasty, and I told Nell that, but he was an okay ride. Very bouncy trot. From him, I learned to not work at posting and that you just have to go with the rhythm of the horse. The horse will propel you and you don't need to work your inner thighs all too much to post. Also, I learned that posting should not appear to go up and down, but rather rock back and forth.

I rode a Saddlebred/Arab cross, Dutchess, twice. From her, I learned that it is absolutely necessary to time your jumps and lift yourself up while in the air, otherwise you could possibly fall off. I also learned from her that you NEED to keep your heels down. I didn't and lost my stirrup almost every time over a jump. Thankfully, I managed to stay on. "If I go down, you're going down with me."

Today, my last lesson of the summer, I rode Two Socks. I only rode him once before when I was learning diagonals because, conveniently, he has two socks on the left side of his body.
Oh boy. I need to get a stronger leg, that's what I learned from him! I thought I had it after my adventures with Jimmy, but apparently not. My mom said she never saw a horse come away from a jump trotting...well today she did, that's how slow he was going. I thought that his trot was very nice on the flat, but apparently his "breakneck speed was that of death". I have to see if I can use spurs in the IHSA shows, because personally I find crops too hard to deal with. And with today's performance, I'm pretty sure that my next lesson will land me on Jimmy again. Fantastic.

I've already started lesson coordination. I even made a neat little form to send out as an email that will automatically fill into a spreadsheet. I'm kind of an organization nut like that. And I already have my lesson during the fall quarter in mind and pretty much secured. I'll only get one practice in before the show, but it's not like I'm going to be jumping at these shows. The points for this system are ridiculously hard! They make it so hard to point up in a year, and I'm only doing three shows. Even if I take first in all my classes, I'm still pretty sure I won't have enough points to jump next year. Oh, the frustration. So all my goal is to beat my NIU rival.

I'm all set with my show clothes. I bought a lovely new coat, all black, with gold buttons and velvet collar. My mom's was too small. Can you believe it! My mom was even skinnier than I am when she was younger! I have to vacuum myself a bit into her white breeches, but they look good, especially with her show shirt. Thank goodness it's no-sleeved. I have a beautiful pin for my ratcatcher and I tried on her tall boots today which fit perfectly. All I have to do is bring them to the shoemaker's to repair the sole a little bit, possibly add some traction to the bottoms because I kept loosing my stirrup again today, even though my heels were down.

I won't be out to train tomorrow. I have to work that football game. Go Wildcats!