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Originally this show was supposed to be on the 13th, but we got massive amounts of rain and they had to reschedule. I was debating scratching either this one or the combined test on Saturday, but finally decided it could actually be good for us to compete two days in a row. Miles and all that.

This show was a derby – we had dressage first, then about an hour break until a mixed round of XC and stadium. There were 12 XC fences and then once you landed from the last XC fence you just kept going and jumped 7 stadium fences. I thought this could definitely be a challenge for us, considering that XC Henry isn’t exactly ideal for stadium. I also entered Training, and while it was soft, there were still a few max height fences and some combos. I was just hoping for a clear XC and maaaaybe a low ribbon. This show has badass prizes, and I wanted a badass prize.

Dressage was fine. I got on and let him canter a few laps until he relaxed, and basically warmed him up the same way as Saturday. It was really cold but he felt good… calm, in my hand, listening. If anything maybe a little too quiet, which I’m totally ok with. Considering we spent all of last year not cantering in dressage warm-up because his brain fell out afterward, I’m cool with too-quiet-after-cantering. He was a little more tense in the test itself, but overall ok (another “not brilliant, but not awful” test) and good enough for a 36.1 and 4th place after dressage.

After a quick course walk and tack change, back out to warm-up we went.  We trotting and cantered a few laps, then I opened up and let him gallop a bit (Training speed feels really fast to my micro-managing self so I needed to get myself thinking forward), cantered three fences, then walked up to the start. Hopefully this is the last helmet cam video using the GoPro, since the new one should be here this week. I was having a hard time getting it to stay put, soooo sorry in advance for all the jostling. The damn screw thingy (technical term) doesn’t stay tight anymore.

I came out of the box a little aggressive, wanting to make time, and Henry was totally game on. My goal was to NOT pull on him or try to micromanage (my favorite hobbies), and he pretty much took me to everything without a second thought. Big white skinny ramp, ditch combo, bank combo, water… Henny got dis! Henny got dis a little too much at fence 9 where we almost died. Ok we didn’t almost die but I almost crapped myself. Note to self: ride better. Note to Henry: I’m still in charge. In general I tried to let him just flow forward, tried to stay out of his way, and we saved ground wherever we could.

I jumped the last XC fence in more of a hand gallop, since we literally landed and cantered straight ahead to jump 1 of stadium. He came back pretty politely and jumped the first three fences really well (and I found the base!), then wised up to what we were doing and tapped a couple (coincidence that it was the two fences I had a teeny bit of a gap to? Neh…).

His minimalistic efforts in stadium give me heart palpitations, but they stayed up and we finished double clear. We made time on XC too, so we ended on our 36.1, moving up from 4th to first!

The prizes did not disappoint, it was like mini-AEC. Two gift certificates, an engraved plate, an embroidered belt, a saddle pad, a hat, and a set of Equiflexsleeves. And we won the TIP award for Training (highest placed TB) which got us another ribbon and a Jockey Club backpack. I’ve been tying to win a TIP award with Henry for two years, so I was pretty excited about that!

Overall I’m pretty happy with how Henry handled everything. He was brave and happy, and is getting to be a total pro at hauling and standing tied at the trailer. It wasn’t mistake-free… it wasn’t one of those shows where I walked away feeling like I’d done a particularly great job (I could write another whole post about that), but in the interest of being less self-critical I’ll just say we dipped our toes into the shallow end of Training and didn’t die. We have a lot more work to do before we’re ready for “real” Training, but it’s good to feel like I’m sitting on a confident horse that likes his job and seems eager for more.

Now we go back to plugging away at lessons, then a recognized Novice in Louisiana next month, then more lessons. Keeping our sights on Coconino…

Yes, show recap #1, because we had two shows this weekend!

I was pretty sure I was going to die on Saturday. Let me explain.

I entered Training at both shows, and Wednesday was the first time I tried to run through Training test A. It was really bad. Like the worst ride I’ve had on Henry maybe ever. I never actually made it all the way through the test a single time. Then on Friday night a cold front blew through, dropping the temperature from the mid-80’s to the upper 40’s and leaving behind a 25+mph wind. I thought really long and hard about scratching, but instead I just sent Bobby a quick fb message to bequeath Henry to him and put on my Big Girl Pants.

I unloaded my horse kite (see below) around dawn, because naturally I was the first rider of the day. It’s a small venue geared more toward beginners, so I was the only one in Training. I tacked up my kite while trying to keep him attached to the trailer but off of my feet, took a flying leap onto his back like a spider monkey, and we snorted and spooked our way down the road toward warm-up. Yep… definitely going to die.

As soon as I got to the warm-up ring I got into as much of a half seat as I could manage in a dressage saddle and just let Henry canter until he quit spooking. It really wasn’t that long, maybe 5 minutes, then I was able to pick up contact, sit on him, and start warming him up for real. He was definitely tense but fairly obedient, so after a few lengthenings and some leg yield I decided to wander over to the ring and let him look at it for a few minutes before we went in. He hairy-eyeballed the potted plants at the letters and I could totally feel him stiffen from nose to tail when the big wind gusts blew, but what do you know, he went in there and was actually pretty good.

No movement was amazing, but none were awful either. A lot of the comments were “tense” (well… yeah the wind was literally about to blow us over) but I got the good ol’ “tactfully ridden”, which I’m pretty sure is code for “good job not getting killed”. Ha.

After a quick tack change (not really, I couldn’t even tack my horse up because the wind was blowing so hard, shit just kept blowing off) I hopped on for stadium. I was freezing to death and ready to go home so I cantered two laps each way, jumped two fences, and went in the ring. They set the jumps really soft, only two were 3’3″ and the rest were 2’9″-3′. I tried to move up past the distance at jump 1 (because I dunno, history of bad judgment?), and Henry was a little over-enthusiastic, but other than that it was fine. A hard rub but luckily it stayed up.

Then I stuffed Henry full of treats, picked up my dressage test, tossed him in the trailer, and left. I was dying of cold. Yes it was only 50. Whatever. I couldn’t feel my legs or my face. I had gotten quite used to the 80’s last week, thank  you very much. My desire to be warm far outweighed my desire to wait for a 1st-out-of-1 ribbon.

The pone is pretty cute though. And by the end he was no longer a kite anymore, so that’s a plus.

And then it was on to our Sunday adventures…

Over the course of last year’s show season I was able to nail down most of my stuff. Breeches, helmet, saddle, bridles, accessories… it’s mostly done. Of course, there are still a few little items that I’m adding, or items that I’m trying to upgrade to something nicer for the long term. Here are a few of the things I’ve added so far this season; first the things I already have, and then the things that are in process but I’m still waiting (patiently?) on.

Already have:

We’ll start small. The first thing I wanted was my own bridle number set. I used to hoard old bridle numbers like it was going out of style, in case I ever lost a number while at a show or went to a schooling show where they don’t hand out bridle numbers (please never make me do dressage in a pinney). You can flip the old bridle numbers over and write your new number on the blank side if you need to, or pull the little hook off and safety pin it to your pad. But Bobby kept stealing mine (because he’s a jerk and a poor planner) so I decided to invest the $8 in an interchangeable set. Actually that’s a lie. Bobby bought them for me, because apparently our love does have a price and that price is $8. Now these guys live in my bridle bag, just in case I (or Bobby) ever need a spare.

My new stock tie was an AETA find. I’d been casually looking for a new, plain-ish stock tie for a while but couldn’t find anything I liked that was super subtle (the blue and yellow coat/helmet kind of limit how far I can go with a stock tie before I officially look ridiculous) but still interesting and GOOD QUALITY. Seriously, what is up with all the cheap ugly stock ties out there? I loved the fabric and structure of the Style Stock ties, so I brought home this tone on tone stripe.

I always show in a dressage Ogilvy baby pad, but I wanted a nice Ogilvy jumper baby pad for shows too. None of the jumper pads I had were that nice – more schooling quality or kinda old and sad looking. Teddy’s Tack Shop perfectly filled that gap for me with this logo pad, complete with navy binding and yellow piping to match my half pad. It’s perfect and I’m a little obsessed with it. You’ll be seeing a lot of this pad.

A boring one, but I figured it’d be good to have: a good ol’ medical armband. I have a Road ID and have just worn that since I started eventing, but I noticed at a lot of schooling shows they really want you to have an armband. I kind of hate wearing them but I figured it’s something I might need (and in fact I’ve already worn it), so into one of my Riding Warehouse orders it went.

I just got this one last week, but I finally have a really nice show shirt. My TS shirt was fine but I never really loved the feel of the fabric, so now I have a Winston Vienna to replace it. My favorite thing about this one (aside from the A+ stellar perfect fit) is the little trim of navy blue striped fabric around the top of the collar and the bottom of the cuffs, which I think will look especially good when one of my “coming soon” items arrives.

 

Coming Soon:

And that item would be the Winston coat that I accidentally ordered when I wandered into the Luxe EQ trailer with my defenses down. But I’m really excited about this coat. I’ve never had one as nice as this, or custom, so I’m hoping it’ll be an item that lives in my closet for a very long time. Of course, I don’t have a picture of it since it’s being made, but… use your imagination and add navy lapels, yellow piping, and navy buttons.

After all of my AETA gushing about the Majyk Equipe boots, I’m sure no one is surprised to hear that I’m anxiously awaiting the release of the leather jump boots. Total must have. And again, another item that I’m hoping will stand the test of time and have a place in my line-up for years to come.

Ok let’s be honest, “really nice stuff with excellent longevity” is the name of the game this year. I’m trying to weed out cheap stuff that falls apart or things that I don’t really love and end up selling. Maybe it’s finally time that my closet start reflecting my age? But now that all 3 pairs of my Roeckl’s seem to be on their last legs, I decided to invest in I-Quips. Also custom, so… use your imagination again. Pretend these have navy finger reinforcements, yellow stitching and yellow piping.

And then I caved and ordered the Cambox helmet cam. To be fair, my tax refund was a lot bigger than I was expecting AND I already hit my Coconino budget AND I came into a little bit of cash on top of all that. I found it in France for $35 cheaper than it would have cost to order it from Dover; cheaper for me and not giving my $ to Dover equals a win-win. It’s currently en route from France. Yet another upgrade, this one is way smaller and lighter than my current GoPro.

The next big thing I need to replace within the next year or so is my tall boots. My 6 year old Monacos aren’t looking so hot. I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around boot brands yet. Tucci? DeNiro? Makes my head hurt just trying to think about it. Slightly obssessed with the DeNiro with the American top, though…

As part of my show season preparation, I finally sat down and made stall cards for Henry and Halo. Last year I usually just jotted my number/hotel on a piece of tape, and every single time I did that I thought to myself “This is ghetto, I should make real stall cards”. But I didn’t, because I never remember anything.

Stall cards in general are one of my favorite things. Most of the barns I’ve been at over the years have put some kind of information on the horse’s stall. Sometimes just name and how much they ate, other times everything from basic info to blanketing information. As someone who has worked in a barn (and still barnsits sometimes) I love having it all right there on the front of each stall. It takes all the uncertainty out of everything, and makes it so that just about anyone can step in, if necessary, and care for the horses.

Bobby and I hemmed and hawed for a while about exactly what info to put on them before deciding on All Of It. That way if one or both of us is injured at a show or otherwise incapacitated in some way, all the care instructions will be right there. So I threw together some stall cards for the boys that we can take on the road with us and now they’re off to get laminated so we can re-use them over and over. And they have unicorns on them, natch. And they’re color coordinated. Might as well, right?

Do y’all put cards on your horses stalls at shows? What info do you include?

I try my best to stay away from all the cool, fun technology. I’m the curmudgeon with an old iPhone that has more things that don’t work than things that do work. I still have a hotmail account. I have no interest in figuring out how to work Skype. But when I heard about Honey, the Google Chrome plug-in that can save you money, my little penny-pincher heart went pitter-patter.

I installed Honey a while ago and have seen it pop up here and there when I’ve ordered things online. Basically when you’re on the shopping cart page, if Honey has any coupon codes entered for that website, it will pop up and ask you if you want to try them. You say yes and it will run through them all automatically. Sometimes one works, sometimes none do, but it requires literally zero effort from you. I like zero effort.

This year I decided to start tracking how much money I saved because of Honey, jotting down the amount every time a code works. So far this year I’m up to $20 with just a few small purchases, the latest addition being a $5 savings at Drs Foster and Smith for my dog’s joint medication. It’s not often that it works on horse related sites, usually it’s the more popular websites like clothing or shoes, but Drs Foster and Smith does have some horse stuff too. You can also go on Honey and enter a coupon code yourself, if you know of one that isn’t already in the system.

Imagine if we all had Honey and entered coupon codes as we came across them. Savings for everyone!

Side note – Honey does use Google Analytics tracking to record usage, so if you’re super paranoid about being watched, you have to on and opt out of that feature.