The great thing about being in the Novice Horse division was getting to run XC in the morning on Sunday, when it wasn’t 9000 degrees. The bad thing about being in the Novice Horse division was having to do dressage and stadium late in the afternoon on Saturday, when it was 9000 degrees. Bobby did his dressage around 11 and his XC around 2… he was 2/3rds of the way done (and in 2nd place in Open BN!) before I even got on for dressage. Grumpy and hot and ready to get it over with doesn’t even begin to describe it.
By the time I got on for dressage it was mid-90’s with 50% humidity. I’m a diehard about wearing a coat even when they’re waived, but I’d been a constant puddle for 8 hours already by that point and just couldn’t bear it. As soon as I got on I knew Henry wasn’t feeling it in the heat either, because he pretty much trudged to the warm-up ring like he was marching to his death. We trotted for a few minutes with my spurs basically embedded in his ribs before I realized I might as well just give up on the warm-up. I could either spend 30 minutes trying to get him forward and likely use up all of his energy before stadium, or I could just let him be and get through dressage with as much energy as possible reserved on tap for later. I chose the latter, because having a great dressage just wasn’t as important as having a great stadium. Not here anyway, where our mission was to finish with a happy confident horse.
Lackluster is a pretty good word to describe it. He was a good boy but he had no energy from behind and kept wanting to drop his head and fall on his forehand. For a 5 minute warm-up, I’m ok with that. Also, why is Novice Test A the longest test ever? God, even I was getting bored. But considering just a couple months ago his test was filled with the word “tense”, it was actually pretty amusing to get this test back and see “lazy” and “needs more energy” the entire way down. Our score of 36.3 (not gonna lie, that was a bit of an ouch) left us in 9th after dressage, but I was just happy to be done with it and ready to get on with the jumping.
I only had a little over an hour between dressage and stadium, so I hosed him off and tied him in front of his fan to cool out as much as possible. After a quick tack change it was back on and down to the warm-up for stadium. Henry walked in, saw the jumps, and immediately went “I’M HERE TO PLAY, BITCHES!”. Totally different horse than I had in dressage warm-up, and in fact I handed my whip to Bobby lest I get completely run away with. We trotted a couple long and low laps, picked up the canter, jumped 3 fences, then went to the shade to wait our turn. He was huffing and puffing quite a bit, having a hard time with the heat, so Bobby kept sponging him with cold water which really seemed to help a lot. After what seemed like a couple of eternities it was finally our turn.
I was really really happy with the round. The rhythm was good, he was brave, he was careful, and it actually felt easy. He got many many pats and many many cookies for his double clear. I can’t wait to see what pictures the photographer got! Other folks were not so lucky in stadium, and we moved up to 7th place.
After Henry was bathed and put away, I was off to meet up with Amanda Merritt of Anchor Equestrian for an XC course walk to get some tips and pointers. She helped me at Greenwood too and I thought she was great, so I had arranged for the same “XC walk and warm-up” with her at Texas Rose as well. She had a few helpful tips and ideas on how to ride some of the more technical elements, which was greatly appreciated, and said she thought we’d be just fine. I thought so too, but it was nice to hear it from someone else who actually knows what they’re doing.
Cherry on top – JUST as we got back from the course walk we walked up to the video trailer (which was playing the Belmont on their big screens) right as the horses were turning for home. I got to stand there and watch a Triple Crown victory amongst a swarm of screaming horse people at a horse show on a video trailer screen. Pretty fantastic end to a great day.
Tomorrow – CROSS COUNTRY!
breedrideevent.com 
What an awesome day! Henry is such a good man :). Stadium looked like a blast!
I think dressage was lovely! He seemed so obedient, even with the heat. He has come such a long way, I think that is so much to be proud of! 🙂
LikeLike
He was really good. A couple bobbles where he thought I wanted an up transition and didn’t, but otherwise he was super obedient. He just really wanted to do the entire test in stretchy trot, please. 😛
LikeLike
Haha! Not the worst problem to have…
LikeLike
No, definitely not, considering 6 months ago the word stretch was not in his vocabulary!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh man, I have no idea how you guys ride in that kind of heat/humidity. It was 81 degrees two weekends ago when I was at a show and I was dying (pony too) – we got the same kind of ‘too relaxed’ and ‘needs more forward’ in dressage too. Still, you had some great rides and Henry looks like a pro over those jumps!
LikeLike
This was really the limit of what Henry can handle, heat wise, and the right at the border of fun and miserable. It’s tempting to want to keep going on this roll and do a couple shows during the summer, but I think we’re officially at the point where it’s not fair to him. Summer can be his down time.
LikeLike
You guys look great!! What a wonderful stadium round, and your derpssage isn’t too shabby either 😉 Can’t wait for the XC recap!
LikeLike
Thanks! The XC recap is more fun. 😉
LikeLike
Your showjumping round was excellent! And heat is something Foster struggles with, and I am definitely of the tomato-face clan. I basically try not to compete when it gets that hot- would rather not hot-scramble my brains inside my helmet!
LikeLike
I’m more of a puker than a brain scrambler
LikeLike
Sorry, Kid…you inherited that from your mom.
LikeLike
That stadium round looks like a blast! Henry definitely woke right up for it. And, yes, it was about 9000 degrees. Very accurate estimation on your part.
LikeLike
maybe 9002 degrees. Something like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those be some schmexy cobra braids! Love that guitar jump!
LikeLike
Thanks be to Peony for the tutorial 😉
LikeLike
Can you come teach Chloe to be “lazy” like Henry (quotes because I call that quiet 🙂 )? Fabulous stadium round, that last red and white oxer looks HUGE!
LikeLike
Make it really really hot. Instant laziness. 😉
LikeLike
Those braids look awesome! Good choice on no coat. It was way too hot this weekend… I thought all the hunters were crazy.
LikeLike
I thought about it. I really really really thought about. But nope. Too old. Too hot. Too thick of a fat layer already.
LikeLike
You guys make the stadium round look so smooth and easy!
LikeLike
Thanks! He was really great.
LikeLike
That guitar jump is super cool! You guys look great, and I love the braids.
LikeLike
Thank you. The guitar jump was definitely my favorite.
LikeLike
I was going to give you crap via FB for not wearing the lovely coat, but then I was like “OH DER TEXAS”. Henry has improved so much!
LikeLike
Lovely coat would have been a lovely stinky sweaty disgusting coat.
LikeLike
I thought the dressage was lovely and the judge was a bit harsh. Hot TBs should get bonus points for laziness lol. Excellent stadium round =)
LikeLike
In my mind I was expecting more like a 33, so I was a little wounded by the 36, but I respect the judge’s opinion. He definitely was lacking energy and wanting to get too low in the poll so it was plenty fair to be dinged for that. Plus there were a lot of REALLY nice moving horses in our division so that’s a bit of a tough act to follow for my plain little horse!.
LikeLike
His stadium looked fantastic! You should be really pleased
LikeLike
Thank you, I definitely am. 🙂
LikeLike
Stadium looked great! What a successful move-up event for you 😀 😀 😀
LikeLike
congratulations! i loved that stadium round – so consistent and smooth! nice job working with what you had for dressage too. that heat is no joke!
LikeLike
You guys looked great! Those stadium jumps looked huge to me 🙂 Love the braids too.
LikeLike
I love to see how he perks up for jumping! That test looked so boring
LikeLike
He thought it was excruciatingly boring. I can’t disagree.
LikeLike