Gear It Up

(The track, one of Dante's favorite places.)

Dante has been very good this past week, although I am still feeling rusty in dressage. We went to gallop at the track, which I love because Dante loves. My dressage video from Rocking Horse 3 was posted last night, so I'll probably do a post on that tomorrow. I'm also going to try and blog each day at Poplar, since I have internet connection at my hotel.

As I begin (or continue!) packing for Poplar, I realize that I must share my OCD with the world. Why? Because my OCD in terms of organization at shows makes my life ridiculously easier, and it can make your life better too!

Just kidding.

Seriously though, I am known around Gold Chip as the OCD organization person. There is nothing I love better than buying new containers that fit within other containers so that I can further organize my things.

To begin with, I have a show trunk, which is 100% different than my normal tack trunk. I love those big black Stanley toolboxes to use as tack trunks. Lots of storage, a tray for small objects, and wheels and a handle. Also only $60. What could be better?

I got into the habit of using a show trunk when I was a working student in Maryland and we did lots of one day shows. When you work 7 am to 7 pm in the six days leading up to the show, there isn't a whole lot of time to throw show things together. Having a separate trunk that was pretty much packed and ready to go at all times made my life 100% better.

So inside my show trunk I have a smaller container with all of my show horse boots, another container that holds a small grooming kit, and third that contains travels sizes of show sheen, fly spray, shampoo, etc. After each show, the grooming kit is run through the dishwasher, the bottles are refilled, and the boots go to the laundromat (since my washer has an agitator). Another container has the poultice, rubber glove, and 4 paper lunch bags which get replenished before each show, boot polishing supplies, and two more even smaller containers, one of which holds bucket hooks, straps, and clips, and the other holds tack soap, conditioner, and sponges. On top of that lives a small wash bucket, scraper, and sponge, my two helmets, and my stud kit.

Following?

Then I have two large rubbermaid containers. The short one holds my blankets for Dante (dress sheet, irish knit, and back on track) and miscellaneous items (like jacket, rain jacket, baseball cap, and sneakers for Poplar). The tall one holds my saddle pads and standing bandages, pre-organized in the order that I will need them, with my tall boots on top.

(A portion of my show gear.)

I also bring a folding step stool, my coat bag, a bridle bag, and my Game Ready. And of course my two saddles.

What I pack in my suitcase is a whole different ballgame. I used to not be so worried about the clothes I packed when I used to drive to all the far away shows. Now that I'm forced to fly, I try and micromanage my clothes so that they fit in one carry on.

Phew.

Fungus Must Die!

So one of the things I've only briefly touched on so far is the fact that most of the horses with Gold Chip picked up a fungus in Florida. Something about the sand in the paddocks, and irritation of skin, all combined to make a perfect storm of fungus that literally erupted all over Dante the Tuesday before Rocking Horse III. Except not on his face, neck, or most important not on his legs!

(To backtrack four years, the first summer I owned Dante in 2007, he had scratches (the fungus) on his legs all. summer. long. I battled and battled and battled with it but it only went away when the weather got cooler again. Since then I have never had the same problem. Pretty sure it was because I was a first time horse owner, so I was going to keep all my equipment super sparkly and clean, even if I had to scrub his boots with soap every single day. Looking back, I think the soap was a bad idea.)

Anyways.

So Dante arrives home and he looks like a sorry beast. He has bald patches on various parts of his body where the fungus had already been and was now gone. He had bumps on other parts where the fungus still clung tenaciously. He was also quite ribby. I don't think the hay in Florida did much for him nutritionally.

Ok, ribby was my first concern. We upped his grain, and most importantly, upped his hay intake to as much as he'll eat. Dante has been back in Texas for a week, and he's probably gained 50 lb already. No longer slightly hollow through his haunches. He'll probably need another 150 before I'm satisfied.

Next concern was the fungus that still clung to him. The only product I have ever found that immediately gets rid of fungus is MTG, pictured below. It's pretty gross stuff. Extremely greasy and smells strongly of bacon. You must apply it with a glove or your hand will feel slimy for the next 2 days. But the stuff works. The next day, the fungus curries right off. Of course, then you're left with a bald spot, but you can only hope for so much.



Finally, the bald spots. Well, not much I can do about that. Luckily it's shedding season, so his new summer coat is growing in quite quickly to the bald spots. He still won't be the most beautiful horse at Poplar, but by Jersey Fresh in May, he should be his usual gorgeous self.

On riding notes, we had a pretty low key week. After doing our trot sets on Wednesday, we did some dressage on Thursday and Friday, jumped Saturday, and did gallops yesterday. His gallops current consist of a 20 min trot followed by 3 x 7 min canter sets. He needs to be at 8 min before Jersey, going by my rule of thumb for gallop sets.

Ocala II Dressage Video

As promised, here's the dressage video for Ocala. I can definitely see my position contorting, especially on the haunches-in. My hands are still in my lap too. Unsurprising, considering I wasn't riding between shows! But Dante is home now, so I can improve myself as well. The angle on the haunches-in was better than at Rocking I, I could barely see any haunches-in on the first video. My extensions at the trot were a little more even, but I could barely tell on either video that I was doing medium canter! Obviously we had those two points where Dante swapped behind, I think it was because he was a bit tired, we warmed up just a few minutes too long. And of course the halt, my fault! and then the wrong lead. Apparently that was both of our faults, as Mike felt that he is a bit more reluctant to pick up the right canter lead from the walk on a straightaway. As a result, I need to make sure I really establish a right bend before asking, which I'm pretty sure I did at Rocking 3. We'll see when the video comes for that!

277-Maggie Deatrick-Divine Comedy-DR from CatchRide LLC on Vimeo.

On the plus side, Dante is home and I got to ride him today! I just did 2 x 15 trot sets, using my saddle, a borrowed girth, and old breastplate, one of Mike's bridles, and Jessica's spurs over my Duberry's. The reason for all the hodgepodge tack was because when I got to the barn, the tack room was completely empty except for saddles! Apparently Mike is now bringing all the equipment back from Florida now, and should be back in the morning. He really goes above and beyond to make sure we are prepared, both at home and at shows.

Rocking Horse 1 Dressage

So I decided to buy every dressage video I can get my hands on and Katherine Breunig at CatchRide kindly uploaded my dressage videos from RH1 and Ocala 2, even though I didn't buy them until late. I'm going to try something I haven't seen before, and I'm going to put my dressage test online, including all of the comments. I plan on studying these videos very intently. Today I'm posting Rocking 1, Wednesday I'll post Ocala 2.

65-Maggie Deatrick-Divine Comedy-DR from CatchRide LLC on Vimeo.

In a first viewing, I see right off the bat that my shoulders still aren't back enough and my hands are still way down in my lap. These are two things that, believe it or not, I have massively improved on but I obviously still have a long way to go. I need to work on more angle in my haunches-in obviously, and I've been trying to be less conservative with my lengthenings as well.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Finally, I get to update! This past Wednesday, I once again made my way down to Love Field and flew into Orlando late that night. My flight was relatively uneventful, thank god.

On Thursday, I had an 8 am jump lesson with a couple other Intermediate Gold Chippers who had flown in the day before, and then flatted at 10 am. Normally I would be strongly opposed to doing so much riding the day before Dante was to do both dressage and show jumping. However, I haven't ridden in three weeks since Ocala. My eye for jumps is rusty, and Intermediate is NOT small. So knocking off some of the rust is pretty much a necessity if I have a shot in hell of jumping respectably around the show jumping. We had an okay jump school (my eye got better for sure by the end) and an okay dressage schooling. The other problem of having my trainer ride him while I am gone is that we are less in sync for dressage. Also, my trainer's idea of light in the contact is different than my idea, because I don't have man muscles. So Dante was a bit heavier than I would normally have him, and we just weren't quite clicking.

I must say at this point that I will be so, so glad to have him home where I can ride everyday again! This not riding and then showing thing is NOT easy.

Then Dante got a nice bath using Microtek, because he suddenly became covered in fungus on Tuesday and now is sporting several large bald spots. He looks like some sort of strange Appaloosa. Apparently quite a few horses got it, but mine was the only chestnut, so he looks the strangest. It didn't seem to bother him any, but he was not the most attractive specimen this weekend.

On Friday morning, I got up quite early for my 8:07am ride time. I got on about 7:45, and this turned out to be the EXACT perfect amount of warm up time. Just as I felt that Dante and I were collected, up in the poll, and responding well to one another, the person before me halted and I began circling the ring. I have started circling the ring at a canter, because he stays more relaxed overall. I then come back to the trot before we come down the center line and his trot is much more forward and fluid.

Dante was a very good pony and we did a pretty accurate test with no big mistakes. It wasn't the most stellar test we have ever done, because we still felt slightly out of sync (and I was tired from sitting the trot!), but it was pretty good. I even got an 8 on one of my medium canters because I really pushed for it. I thought I pushed for the other one too, but the judge wrote 'conservative' and gave me a 6, so again, I need to see the video to see what the judge is seeing.

Then I hopped off and walked my stadium course once more. The course was pretty interesting, to say the least. It began with an oxer, then a rollback to a vertical for #2. After 2, it was a sharp left turn to an oxer at 3 with four normal strides to a vertical at 4. Then came the fun line. After 4, you cantered down the short end of the arena and then did a roll back to a large oxer with a liverpool at 5, six forward bending strides to the right to 6A and 6B, which were a vertical, one forward stride to an oxer. Then turn right to a triple combination across the diagonal, roll back left to another oxer, bend right to jump a vertical on the angle, right to a swedish oxer, and right bending seven to the final vertical.

The six strides to the one stride ended up by far being the toughest line. While it walked a bit forward, it rode VERY forward. At least one horse packed two into the double (while leaving it up!), many put seven into the six. The trouble was that if you put seven into the six, there was almost no way to make the one, even if it was a nice seven. But many horses had to run to make the six, and got too flat, pulling one of the double combination jumps. There were lots of falls, lots of stops, and lots of rails at those three jumps all day long, both for prelim and intermediate. To be perfectly honest, it was kind of a terrible line, but it would have ridden MUCH better if the one had been a normal 12 foot stride. Then riders could have opted for the six or the seven and put in a nice one.

Unfortunately, I went quite early, so I only saw a few people ride that line. My plan was to jump the liverpool oxer and immediately turn right, cutting most of the bend out of the line, get there in six, and jump the double on the right side.

In the end, my show jumping was better than RH1 and Ocala 2. I made decisions. I also missed a few times. After the second jump, I turned left much too sharply and all of a sudden, there was jump 3 (the oxer) with a terrible distance. I had no time to correct anything and poor Dante saved my sorry behind, packing in a tiny half stride and leaping over the oxer. Clear. Good boy! Then I wisely decided to put five in the four stride line and we jumped the vertical clear too. I got moving forward again, and then came the tough line, where my plans promptly went out the window when I found a long spot to the liverpool and got jumped out of the tack a bit in the air when Dante made a big effort to clear it. By the time I got myself sorted, we were two strides into the turn and we ended up making a nice seven. Which would have been great, but the distance in the one stride was so long that he flat out couldn't make it, and got one and a half where there was no half. So we went through both top rails on the oxer. Then jumped clean around the rest of the course. I would have been so ashamed, but my ride through there was sadly NOT one of the worst rides through there all day. It seriously was a showcase of the Bad and the Ugly through there, all. day. long.

(He's trying to steal candy. He knows exactly which tin it's in.)

While the weather had been almost hot all morning, it started to rain in the early afternoon. And rain. And stop. And rain. And stop. Finally, at 4:30, we couldn't wait any longer and we started our course walk for cross country, huddling under golf carts and wielding umbrellas. (Of course, thirty minutes after we finished the course walk, the sun came out....)

The course was pretty nice. Lots of tables and gallop fences. Gallop fences for the first four jumps, then an oxer bending right to a skinny that was either a forward three or short four. I decided that Dante and I would do it in a short four since it was still early in the course. Gallop fence, then skinny table bending four left to a corner. Gallop fence, then our first water combination. The first part was this tiny jump on a slight rise with some brush on top, then a good drop on the backside and what we originally walked as three strides direct to a wedge through what was basically a large puddle. Then trakehner (Finally I get to jump one of these in Florida!), table, and a quarry combination which was two small rolltops set on the tops of knolls with quite a steep incline and rise between them. BAT table again, then the second water, which began with a hut, turn five strides to a roll top down into the water and straight across in seven strides to another wedge. Then table, table, then to a coffin that was one to one straight. Then another table and then an interesting corner combination that was either a six or a five (depending on your bending line) from a palisade to a corner, then a forward three to an angled fence. The last fence was another table. We also thought the time was going to be quite tight, because we were short 170 m of the finish when we hit the number of meters written on the course map. Heather told us to go as fast as we could safely go, because at this level, that is basically what you need. Key word is safely!

I got up early the next morning and walked the course again with Jacob, then we both got ready to go. Heather rode the course first on Cherye's horse Maisie and we ran into her coming back. She had jumped the first water in four and the final corner combination in a short five. Now Maisie has a massive stride, so if she got four in the water, I was sure Dante would too. I decided to make a decision on the corner combo as I was coming to it, since it was late in the course when Dante's stride has opened up quite a bit.

I also wanted to make sure I rode every. single. fence. Especially the second fence!

Our cross country round was PHENOMENAL. Okay, we had two times where we were galloping up to a table, I knew we were on a half stride and tried to get Dante to add one, and Dante said nope, we're taking off HERE. So on the whole course, we had two long spots to smaller tables. Other than that, it was foot perfect. I have never had such a good round in my life.

Found our spot to all of the other gallop fences. To every single combination, I had Plan A in my head and rode accordingly, and every single time Dante responded perfectly and we rode Plan A with style. He was AMAZING. Love this horse, so much! Then, after every jump, I put the pedal to the metal and we galloped. Dante is fast, let me tell you. His stride isn't as long as it could be, but he moves like lightning. Then we would come back three or four strides before the next jump, then immediately move out again. He didn't feel tired in the slightest.

We ended up twenty-two seconds under time. Oops. Seriously though, I did not think for an instant we were going to be that much under the time. I never once felt unsafe, I felt that we came back correctly for each fence, even the two tables where Dante disagreed with me on the take-off. I asked multiple people (who are knowledgeable) afterwards if it looked like we were going too fast and they told me that although we were speedy between the fences, we didn't look at all unsafe because we set up for the fences. I would never have thought twice about it if we hadn't been SO far under the time. Sometimes though, what you feel and what other people see are two very different things, and in no way do I want to be an unsafe rider.

Heather did tell me that I need to get my shoulders UP before fences. I do have a terrible habit of not bringing my upper body back enough. I need to start working to strengthen my core because a big part of that is that I literally do not have the strength to lift it.

(Dante is bored while he's stuck on the Game Ready after XC.)

Overall, we ended up in fourth, only two points behind first place. No rail and we would have won, but oh well. We also scored in the 30's for dressage (35.6!) and even though it was in the IR division instead of the OI division, I'll take it! Still working towards jumping clean in SJ, but that's all on me, not on Dante.

So the conclusion is that Dante is a rockstar, my strong point is cross country, and I'm very glad that they will be back from Florida on Monday. In the meantime, I have a machine design exam on Monday and a make-up heat transfer exam on Tuesday. Ugh, now I have to study. But after this week, I have spring break, and then Poplar the week after! Dante and I will be going for our first CIC**!

Living and Learning

Well, to continue my concerns about the weather from my last entry, I ended up changing my flight to Tuesday evening after the forecast continued to state there would be ice and snow on Wednesday. Luckily for me, when I called Southwest to discuss changing my flight, they happily informed me that I could get one free flight change in accordance with their bad weather policy. Three cheers for Southwest Airlines! I changed to Tuesday evening and it turned out to be quite a good call, as Wednesday classes ended up being canceled and flights were delayed and canceled. Chalk one win up to foresight!

So in the end, I only missed two extra classes instead of four. I got to come out to Florida on Tuesday night, jump and do a little XC on Wednesday, and go out to Ocala on Thursday. I also missed the cold weather in Texas! Hooray.

Anyways, as I mentioned, we arrived at the Florida Horse Park on Thursday and set up. I got on Dante and did a dressage school. He was excellent. I love riding dressage when he and I are meshing so well! I also golf carted around the course with my barn mate. I had been told that Ocala II was HUGE and TECHNICAL, all in capital letters. Unfortunately, I felt it was more of a move up course. Don't get me wrong, it was a very nice course and most definitely was an Intermediate course. It was just that I was expecting one thing and got another. Ah, well.

Friday we had dressage early in the morning. It was quite cool on Friday but I was nice and comfortable riding in my Underarmour. Dante and I were in Open Intermediate-A, which I'm pretty sure was the toughest division in the show. I rode against two WEG pairs (Mandiba and Port Authority) and several others who are running or about to run Advanced. That was pretty cool, I love telling non-horse people that I'm competing against Olympians on their Olympic horses! Of course that meant my dressage was most definitely not up to par.

Dante was actually very good for his test. He has a tendency to get a bit tense in new places, but I thought he stayed very relaxed for the most part. He's also gotten to the point where he's almost too obedient to my directions. This is not a bad thing at all, I just need to adjust myself and realized that instead of needing three strides to prepare for a transition, I only need one. We made three big mistakes, all my fault; the first, I caused him to halt rather than walk through the first simple change of lead. Then, without reorganizing, I asked him to canter again. Lately we've been working on picking up the lead that I ask for regardless of which direction we're going. Unfortunately, when I asked for the canter again, I didn't stop to specify a change in lead, so we picked up the lead that we had previously been on. So that was an epic fail, and we got a three on the movement. Then, on my right medium canter, my transition from medium to collected was too abrupt and Dante lost the connection and swapped for two strides behind. Finally, on the final (very tight) turn after the canter serpentine, he lost his balance a little and also swapped behind for a stride. Those things hurt us pretty badly and we ended up getting a 43.40, placing us 16th out of 20. The comments about all of the mediums stated that the movements were conservative. When I do my mediums, they don't feel conservative, they feel pretty powerful. However, watching the test back on video, I realized how conservative they really look. I could barely see any difference in my medium canters at all. It just goes to show how valuable it is to see yourself ride so you can see what the judge is seeing.

(The sun rises over the Florida Horse Park.)

On Saturday, I rode very early in the morning again. In fact, I was the 8th rider of the day for show jumping. I got up early enough to see the sunrise, which was beautiful with the fog floating out over the polo fields. Of course it was very cold, and when I stuck my feet into my tall boots (which had been outside all night), my toes just about froze off. Who knew Florida could be so cold? I can't complain though, even Texas is colder most of the time. Just my misfortune to ride SO early!

(Ocala show jumping.)

In any case, the course was lovely, although not terribly huge. Unfortunately, I am discovering that all my weaknesses in show jumping (which I'm pretty sure I had at Prelim too) are showing up now. At Prelim, Dante could jump clear, even when I screwed up. At Intermediate, he needs me to get it right! If I get him anywhere resembling a decent spot, he'll jump clear. If I bury him under the jump, or try for the long spot that doesn't exist, he can't get himself out of the way and we deservedly have a rail. Primarily I learned that when I have a related bending distance between the first and second jump, and it walks long, I need to learn to add a stride. Dante just gets a little tense when he first gets into the ring and his stride down the first couple of jumps is going to be twelve foot, not longer. I cannot keep trying to get the long stride because he doesn't have it then. However, after that first line, I can get the long stride and we have it for the rest of the course.

Needless to say, we had two rails. The first was at the second jump (again!). The line from one to two was a longer seven or a bending eight. When we walked, Mike originally said he thought it would be better to get the eight. However the few who went before me all got seven, so we changed our mind to seven strides. Not the right decision. I got seven and a half, thought he would jump from seven, dropped him, and of course he couldn't jump from where I asked and pulled the rail. Then, I got a tight spot into four, which was then a regular five to a square oxer at five. I panicked, decided it was a long five and I should try for six, thinking of the earlier line. However, he easily could have gotten the five and we got in way too tight to the oxer, pulling that too. It was definitely not our best round, but he didn't touch another jump, and I learned a lot about how to ride him.

I spent the rest of the day walking cross country. It was pretty straight forward, with lots of single fences interspersed with a few combinations. We had a bank complex which was a table, bending five strides left to a bank up, one stride, then off the bank and a turning left four strides to a wide wedge. There was a fun quarry question involving a jump down into the quarry, a left turn up out over a jump then three strides to a pearl/egg/thing. (As an aside, who finds a giant pearl in the forest? It was definitely an egg, despite other reports.) There was a medium table with brush on the top that made it about 4'6" tall. A hanging log, then bending right 6 strides to a corner. A hanging log, bending four strides left to another hanging log into the water, then out of the water over a corner. Finally, there was a sunken road complex which was a hanging Prolog, one stride down a bank, four strides, up over a bank then four strides bending right to a wedge. I walked a couple times and it seemed very fun and doable.

(The water complex. We jumped the hanging log just right of center. I was sad not to be jumping the big bank in.)

On Sunday I went at the relatively late time of 10 am, although I was still the first Intermediate horse in my barn to go. Dante was absolutely fabulous. We had one very bad moment at the second jump, which was a rolltop. I took it very much for granted. It's just a rolltop, right? WRONG. I figured it would be a nice fly fence, so I didn't slow down enough coming to it. We got a long spot to it and I let go, thinking he was going. However, Dante was busy being occupied with the shadow on the ground line and I ended up dropping him on his face (AGAIN!) and we stumbled over it, almost eating it on the back side. I'm an idiot, a giant idiot. I will NEVER again take a rolltop or second fence for granted. Anyways, after that scare it took a little bit to get our speed up to pace again, because I was trying to be careful.

The only other sticky spot was at the bank complex. Dante launched off the bank, landing well out off its base. Which meant the turn to the wedge was not very pretty. We added a stride, got right to the base, and Dante popped over it, with very good form I might add (I put the photo of the wedge on my website in the Gallery). At Rocking Horse we had a similar complex but the wedge was straight ahead. I think that when I have a bank complex, I need to be communicating to him that we will be turning before we jump off the bank, rather than after. He can be very enthusiastic about jumping off banks.

After that though, Dante and I were absolutely in sync and foot perfect. We rode every combination 100% according to plan, he was bold into the water, I found my spots to all of the tables. He was a fabulous, fabulous pony. We had a few time penalties because I had slowed down after two and took a few fences to build up steam again. We ended up sixth thanks to nine pairs choosing to withdraw before XC (because they are all running Advanced next weekend!).

So my goal for RH3 will remain the same as my goal for Ocala II: score in the high 30's for dressage, and finish on my dressage score. And above all, jump the second jumps on course correctly! I think it's something we can accomplish.

Snowpocalypse in the South

I know I said that I wouldn't be updating this blog until after Ocala. However, as I sit inside watching 4+ inches of snow fall on the already ice-ridden landscape of North Texas, I find myself going stir crazy. This is now our fourth day of confinement, with classes canceled and a consistent layer of ice keeping me from trying to drive anywhere. I probably would have updated my blog every single day, if I'd had anything to say besides "I'm bored!" Unfortunately for me, I now have something to say.

(The view from my porch.)

Whereas before the forecast for next week was cold but clear, a wintry mix has now come into the picture for Wednesday, and Wednesday only. Which of course is the day that I am to fly to Orlando for Ocala II. And while snow or rain by themselves wouldn't cause any problems, wintry mix usually means ICE. So, so frustrating. I could possibly move my flight earlier to Tuesday (for more $$ and less convenience with classes), but it's potentially very problematic for me.

In the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on the weather for the next couple of days in hopes that it changes. Cross your fingers for the wintry mix being delayed!