Show Take Aways

Square halt! 

Now that I've done the recap of the shows for both horses I wanted to share my learnings from the weekend.  One of the reasons that I enjoy showing is that it helps me to figure out what is solid and what is not. I don't know that I would know that Quaid has trouble traveling and working in new places if I hadn't showed him. 

I thought it would be good to start by looking at the goals I set for the show: 

Carmen: 

halt at C, right before our rein back. Look at those 
relaxed and listening ears

• keep her stepping under and into a recieving hand- not so much on day one but definitely on day 2. 
• straightness and rhythm- Usually I struggle for her to not throw her haunches in on the long side, especially at the canter. I made sure I rode her straight and, other than a few bobbles (that I corrected). And, while she might have been a bit behind the leg on Saturday, her rhythm stayed pretty steady. 
• warm up to get her supple and on the aids- thank you Jane! We had some of our best warm ups. I felt her with me from beginning to end and, other than the spooking at P on Sunday she still stayed with me. What was nice was that even with the spooking we just got back on track. 

there was a time when she would not go by that window without losing it.
 I've had previous blog posts at how this window resulted in her being
'that' horse in the warm up

Carmen has become a great horse to take places and do the thing. More than one person told me how they loved my 'sweet mare'. To which I smiled and said isn't she lovely? The comments from the judge were about her being willing and how we were a lovely pair (except for the spooking lol). 

Quaid: 

riding forward on a circle

• ride him forward- still a work in progress. I can do it with Jane 'riding' me (lol) but on my own when I feel him tense up I stop pushing him in the hopes that it will prevent a blow up. I clearly need far more on this. That said, I did ride him forward in the warm ups and, in my last test, I pushed him and didn't let him decide where we were going. On our last test on Sunday he did not want to turn up the centre line (away from the ingate) I sat up and kicked him forward. I also did not settle for him halting before X but pushed him up because at this point it was not about the test, it was about the schooling. 
• be proactive and give him clear direction - I think I did better this time but there's still a lot of room for improvement. 
• use the warm up to get him focused and relaxed- I did but I also chickened out about cantering so I need to sort that. 
• make sure I have him in the outside rein- definitely better. Maybe too much (especially with my left rein). But I definitely had it in my brain and it helped with us being more accurate in our test geometry. 
• if things go wrong, regroup and carry on- I'm happy with how I did this with both horses but especially Quaid. Things would go bad but I was able to regroup and keep going.  You can't always control what the horse does but you can control your reactions.  

Me: 

• stay out of my head and remember that I actually do know how to ride. Repeat my mantras. I had momentary lapses of confidence. Especially with Quaid but I'm happy with how I did with this. I am a classic overthinker and can get lost in my head. I managed to not do this (at least while mounted, lol).  In the warm up with Quaid on Friday I was so close to getting off but thanks to Jane I rode through. She told me that she would not have asked me to stay on if she thought I couldn't do it. I knew if I could get you to listen and follow me you would be fine. And you were. 
• sit up and keep my seat in the saddle. - Yay me. I did not curl up and ride defensively. When I watch my videos I sat up for the majority of the time. And when I did lean forward I fixed it. 
• keep the outside rein, for the love of god. - yup. Although I still can do more, especially with Carmen to get her truly through. 
• Breathe during the tests- Yes! I did. I made sure that breathed out as we were going around which helped keep me oxygenated. 
• have fun - I for sure had fun. The group at these shows are a great bunch of people. This year the organisers held a pizza reception on Saturday and it was lovely to sit and chat with everyone. I always get to spend time with Paula too which is fun. 

Other thoughts: 

One win for this show with Quaid was that I was able to get  half-decent trot work with him.  Which was a real struggle in June. I am questioning if the saddle fit is playing a role. I know that there is a definite training component but I wonder if the saddle is behind some of the recent canter issues. Either way, I've arranged for the fitter to come out next week so I can at least rule it out.  He was fitted in may but he has definitely changed in shape over the past few months. 

when did he get so chonky?

back in April

Assuming that the saddle is adjusted (or fine), there is still a training issue I need to figure out. It will require me to travel any more and also put on my big girl panties and ride him through his issues. Given that Carmen was way more scary this should be doable. I think that because he was so easy going at home I didn't realise that he didn't understand that him following direction was a non-negotiable. He was good because he was good. Not that he understood that he had to be good. 

Bottom line is that it is just miles and experience and, if I handle it properly, he'll figure it out. There was a lot he was really good about this show: 

• Carmen leaving. He would call but there wasn't too much kicking
• he ate his grain and hay and drank his water
• when I'd take him out to graze he was relaxed and happy. 
• he loaded and unloaded easily

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Like I said above, Carmen has become a great traveller. She chills in her stall and is pretty relaxed when being ridden. Now I need to ask for more. It's not enough that she go and be relaxed. Now we need to show what she's capable of. I really enjoy riding her these days and never worry about being lawn darted. I mean, she's Carmen so it's not like she doesn't challenge me but she's safe and fun.  Which is cool when I used to think that it was a good ride if she only bolted a few times. 

I can't believe it's September already! The timing of the show is great for gearing up my goals for the fall. And it's without the pressure of being 'ready' for a show so that helps a lot.  I'm really hoping that the drought ends soon so we can look at hacking out more.