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Now that it’s stopped raining in Texas and our fields have dried up, we’re back to being able to ride outside of the ring as much as we want. This is a happy time, because Henry and I are both big fans of doing as much work outside of the ring as possible.

He’s still well-behaved in the confines of an arena, but he’s a little grumpier, a little more sullen, and a little harder to motivate. When the footing is good in the fields, we really only go in the ring to jump, since, ya know… that’s where the jumps are. So we might only ride in the ring once a week or so.

If it’s a dressage ride I usually take him out to the smaller field right next to the barn. In prepping for the 3 Day we’ve added a long walk or long trot before/after pretty much every ride, even dressage days, and it all seems a lot less monotonous going round and a round a field instead of round and round the ring. Plus Henry really likes to pretend to spook at random things, especially bushes, and who am I to take that joy away from him?

For straight up conditioning rides and gallops we go down the street to the big hay field. I’ve got that place down to a science – one lap at a 220ish mpm trot is exactly 5 minutes, and it’s a lot easier for my brain to handle 8 or 9 laps than it is to embrace the reality of a 40-45 minute trot. I can’t even imagine trying to do that in the ring, I think I’d stab myself in the eye out of sheer boredom and Henny would probably decline to continue carting my butt around.

As an eventer, riding outside of the arena is obviously pretty essential. You have to be able to control the horse in a wide open space, get yourself and your horse used to traversing varying terrain, etc. Plus you just need SPACE to gallop. Can’t do 450mpm gallops sets in an arena. Not without being really freaking scary, anyway. Most of the eventers I know ride outside of the ring at least a few times a week.

But I also know a lot of people that rarely, if ever, ride outside of the arena. Many because they just don’t need to, but for some people I know it’s a fear issue. Like the lady I knew forever ago who wouldn’t even walk a single step outside of an enclosed area – she would even mount/dismount in the ring and always close the gate. I guess that’s a control thing? And then there are the horses who seem to genuinely lose their shit outside of the ring. Granted, I’ve never had one, but I’ve heard of these mystical creatures.

How often do you ride outside of the ring, and for what purposes?

It’s official – we’re one week away from leaving for Coconino.

We’ve already talked about the tremendous task that is packing, and right now I’m choosing to bury my head in the sand and pretend I don’t have to worry about that yet (omg), so let’s not talk about it again. But as I’ve tweaked Henry’s work routine a little bit this week to prep for the long trip followed by two weeks of showing, it got me wondering what other people do to prep for shows.

Most of the time I don’t really do anything drastically different before an event, I just scale it all back a bit. Usually a few days before we leave I pop Henry over some fences, more for my sake than his, and put in a dressage ride or two, but mostly I just focus on keeping him happy and feeling good. I don’t like trying to fit a bunch of lessons and work in at the last minute; I want him to get to the show and be happy and interested in what we’re doing, not mentally/physically burned out or tired and sore. I feel like if I’ve done my job on a day-to-day basis in preparing him, there’s no need to cram a million things into the last week or two.

Of course for this show we’ve done way more conditioning than we’ve ever done in the past, so while I will keep up with his normal schedule of conditioning rides, he had his last really long one on Monday and now they’re getting scaled back a bit. We’ll do a couple more dressage rides and he’ll have his last jump school this weekend. The day before we leave he gets a day off and a massage. Otherwise we’re gonna hack out in his sidepull, go on some long walks, and take a little bit of a breather before the whirlwind starts. We’re as prepped as we’re gonna be.

Which approach do you prefer – a lighter workload the last week before a show, or lots of cram sessions to try to sharpen things up? And more importantly – why?

In my continuing efforts to make Bobby and Halo more fabulous, I’ve been fighting the bonnet battle for a while. When I first met Bobby he pretty much refused to put anything extra on Halo, saying that “he doesn’t like having stuff on him!”. So he went boot-less, and breastplate-less, and obviously bonnet-less.

Now that he’s past his 6 year reign of Beginner Novice and going around solidly at Training, we’ve spruced him up a bit. Everyone remembers the custom saddle of course, and the real leather bridle. He’s also got a full set of both XC boots and stadium boots now, and Trainer basically forced him to buy a breastplate. He’s so much more legit. Yet he has still staunchly refused to come around to the magic of a bonnet.

Bobby is out of town right now, and he left me with the task of working Halo while he’s gone. Yesterday as I was tacking him up I noticed that he was just swarming with flies despite being doused in fly spray, so naturally I thought “I’M GONNA PUT A BONNET ON HIM! BOBBY ISN’T HERE TO STOP ME!!!” <insert much cackling>. So I did. And you know what? Not only was he cute as hell, he had zero flies or gnats bothering his precious (giant) ears.

I immediately sent pictures to Bobby, who admitted Halo looks damn adorable in a hat. Once again I’m right. Halo needs one. Everyone tell Bobby that Halo needs one!

Just one with like 2″ longer ears than Henry’s bonnets have. Halo’s big ol’ donks were testing the limits of spandex.

His colors are black and red, so I was thinking either black with two rows of red cord (stealth mode bonnet) or black with red trim and white cord (bling bling bonnet). Obviously no rhinestones or beads, because while I have succeeded in making Bobby hella fabulous compared to the sad state I originally found him in, there are limits to my magic. I’m not a freaking miracle worker.

Peer pressure, people, let’s do it! Halo needs his own hat!

We could also call this post “The Rollercoaster of Henny Emotions” or “How Henny Feels”, because his facial expressions are dead giveaways for what he thinks about each phase.

PS many thanks to Erin Roane for taking these, it is much appreciated! Having memories from your horse’s first Training is important when you’re a crazy horse mom.

First we have Dressage “This, it be Dumb” Henry:

Getting happier… focused stadium Henry:

And then of course – Henny on XC, the happiest Henny of all:

I might be slightly biased, but XC Henny is really freaking cute. Also, Trainer’s leg is about 9 billion times better than mine. Damn her.