An Outing With The Horse
Jul. 14th, 2019 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThis post is not about dragonflies.
I took the horse up to a local unrated hunter-jumper show as an outing. Following our disastrous dressage outing earlier this year, I figured I needed more time In A Ring to practice Remembering To Breathe so I undertook that here of late. I went to a clinic (not stressful - I can totally clinic) one weekend and then I went to a show today. We did (drumroll) the Open Walk-Trot Crossrails. (This is different from Little Children Walk-Trot Crossrails or Bigger Children Walk-Trot Crossrails or Adult Walk-Trot Crossrails or Advanced (there is an actual pattern) Walk-Trot Crossrails. OPEN means anyone can be in it, whereas the other classes are aimed at people who are doing walk-trot because they don't canter and want a quiet, safe division with no nutjobbery going on. OPEN is for people who are (a) trying to maximize their show mileage or (b) getting a horse some ring experience in what is totally 100% going to be a "schooling" outing. When it's an OPEN division, anything can happen.)
The crossrails were twelve inches high. You did the jumps twice and then they judged you on the flat, a set-up called a "division" for this show series. The super difficult jump course was four jumps set up near the rail, two on each of the long sides of the ring. Go around the ring twice (for eight 'jumps') in a clockwise direction. Then for the next class, go around the ring twice (for eight more 'jumps') in a counter-clockwise direction. Seriously, it's two big circles for each "pattern".
People in the walk-trot crossrails divisions are not there to do difficult patterns. They are there to practice being in a ring and doing a Very Low Stakes skillset that is not terribly challenging. The class is judged on how much the horses look like "hunters" -- sweepy relaxed trot, calm, well-mannered, safe. The rider is not judged.
There were eight people in the division, about half of them teensy (six, seven, eight years old) children on very well-schooled and solid-citizen ponies. They were all adorable. The other half of the division was as follows:
1. Confident young adult rider on somewhat worried dutch warmblood who overjumped each fence by two feet and bolted forwards towards the next one. Horse improved through the division.
2. Confident tween rider on a palomino barrel horse in the process of becoming a jumper by way of a detour to hunterland to practice Going Over Very Small Things because he for damn sure knows how to turn N burn but needs to learn that we Go Over The Things and do not throw a fit or just run-n-gun upon entering the ring. Horse improved through the classes.
3. Middle-aged ammie on unsuitable ayrab, practicing her pregnant-lady breathing skills in the ring. Arab totally nonplussed, rider did better and better with each class.
4. Somewhat less middle-aged ammie on another unsuitable ayrab, practicing Going Over The Things. Arab relatively nonplussed, refused twice on first class but then showed improvement from there on out.
If you are in the walk-trot division, might be that you are busy with shit like Look Up and Don't Drop The Reins and Try To Find A Diagonal and Aim For The Middle Of The Crossrails. This is because you are a beginner at going to horse shows and don't have the wherewithal to do that stuff AND ALSO remember/steer a complicated pattern.
But also if you're in the OPEN walk-trot division, perhaps you are doing something like "Please to be trotting, this is not a barrel race, note lack of barrels, we do not just charge about the ring looking for the barrels" or "Settle down, dutch warmblood, these fences are tiny and nonthreatening and also I am not thumping on you." or "Do not be eyeballing the mudpuddle or the nice lady with the clipboard. Just trot over the fences." or "Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out."
Anyway, whatever it is you are working on in the open walk-trot crossrails, it is plenty to occupy you without also handing you a complicated or difficult course with lots of turns and things. So, the fences are tiny and the course is simple.
My goal in life is not to be Supreme Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion, and that's a damn good thing because we were 5th, 4th, and 4th in the three classes. Fifth in the first over-fences one (he flailed over the first two fences), then fourth in the second over-fences and the flat. The tiny tots mostly placed above the bigger people Working On Their Shit. I was the highest placing person Working On Their Shit, so go me. The tiny tots had dead broke, predictable horses with lots of ring time and very steady, relaxed approaches to their crossrails. They SHOULD have placed better than the rest of us, who were not really There For The Ribbons.
The Open Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion was also the Walk-Trot Ground Poles Champion and probably (we didn't stay that long) the Children's Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion. She was a tiny tot with big bows in her braids, more-or-less steering a Been There Done That big bay horse who trotted over every single wee fence without once breaking stride because he'd clearly done this shit at least a thousand times before and knew the drill cold. It was a delight to see.
So that was our outing. Truck ran well, go truck!
In other news, we picked up Punch from the Altoona Pony Lady, whose business... look, if you have a boarding/lesson stable and there is grass growing in your stone dust ring, even on the rail, you're not doing a whole lot of business there. But Punch is in good weight and we have her home again.
I took the horse up to a local unrated hunter-jumper show as an outing. Following our disastrous dressage outing earlier this year, I figured I needed more time In A Ring to practice Remembering To Breathe so I undertook that here of late. I went to a clinic (not stressful - I can totally clinic) one weekend and then I went to a show today. We did (drumroll) the Open Walk-Trot Crossrails. (This is different from Little Children Walk-Trot Crossrails or Bigger Children Walk-Trot Crossrails or Adult Walk-Trot Crossrails or Advanced (there is an actual pattern) Walk-Trot Crossrails. OPEN means anyone can be in it, whereas the other classes are aimed at people who are doing walk-trot because they don't canter and want a quiet, safe division with no nutjobbery going on. OPEN is for people who are (a) trying to maximize their show mileage or (b) getting a horse some ring experience in what is totally 100% going to be a "schooling" outing. When it's an OPEN division, anything can happen.)
The crossrails were twelve inches high. You did the jumps twice and then they judged you on the flat, a set-up called a "division" for this show series. The super difficult jump course was four jumps set up near the rail, two on each of the long sides of the ring. Go around the ring twice (for eight 'jumps') in a clockwise direction. Then for the next class, go around the ring twice (for eight more 'jumps') in a counter-clockwise direction. Seriously, it's two big circles for each "pattern".
People in the walk-trot crossrails divisions are not there to do difficult patterns. They are there to practice being in a ring and doing a Very Low Stakes skillset that is not terribly challenging. The class is judged on how much the horses look like "hunters" -- sweepy relaxed trot, calm, well-mannered, safe. The rider is not judged.
There were eight people in the division, about half of them teensy (six, seven, eight years old) children on very well-schooled and solid-citizen ponies. They were all adorable. The other half of the division was as follows:
1. Confident young adult rider on somewhat worried dutch warmblood who overjumped each fence by two feet and bolted forwards towards the next one. Horse improved through the division.
2. Confident tween rider on a palomino barrel horse in the process of becoming a jumper by way of a detour to hunterland to practice Going Over Very Small Things because he for damn sure knows how to turn N burn but needs to learn that we Go Over The Things and do not throw a fit or just run-n-gun upon entering the ring. Horse improved through the classes.
3. Middle-aged ammie on unsuitable ayrab, practicing her pregnant-lady breathing skills in the ring. Arab totally nonplussed, rider did better and better with each class.
4. Somewhat less middle-aged ammie on another unsuitable ayrab, practicing Going Over The Things. Arab relatively nonplussed, refused twice on first class but then showed improvement from there on out.
If you are in the walk-trot division, might be that you are busy with shit like Look Up and Don't Drop The Reins and Try To Find A Diagonal and Aim For The Middle Of The Crossrails. This is because you are a beginner at going to horse shows and don't have the wherewithal to do that stuff AND ALSO remember/steer a complicated pattern.
But also if you're in the OPEN walk-trot division, perhaps you are doing something like "Please to be trotting, this is not a barrel race, note lack of barrels, we do not just charge about the ring looking for the barrels" or "Settle down, dutch warmblood, these fences are tiny and nonthreatening and also I am not thumping on you." or "Do not be eyeballing the mudpuddle or the nice lady with the clipboard. Just trot over the fences." or "Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out."
Anyway, whatever it is you are working on in the open walk-trot crossrails, it is plenty to occupy you without also handing you a complicated or difficult course with lots of turns and things. So, the fences are tiny and the course is simple.
My goal in life is not to be Supreme Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion, and that's a damn good thing because we were 5th, 4th, and 4th in the three classes. Fifth in the first over-fences one (he flailed over the first two fences), then fourth in the second over-fences and the flat. The tiny tots mostly placed above the bigger people Working On Their Shit. I was the highest placing person Working On Their Shit, so go me. The tiny tots had dead broke, predictable horses with lots of ring time and very steady, relaxed approaches to their crossrails. They SHOULD have placed better than the rest of us, who were not really There For The Ribbons.
The Open Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion was also the Walk-Trot Ground Poles Champion and probably (we didn't stay that long) the Children's Walk-Trot Crossrails Champion. She was a tiny tot with big bows in her braids, more-or-less steering a Been There Done That big bay horse who trotted over every single wee fence without once breaking stride because he'd clearly done this shit at least a thousand times before and knew the drill cold. It was a delight to see.
So that was our outing. Truck ran well, go truck!
In other news, we picked up Punch from the Altoona Pony Lady, whose business... look, if you have a boarding/lesson stable and there is grass growing in your stone dust ring, even on the rail, you're not doing a whole lot of business there. But Punch is in good weight and we have her home again.
