Halloween Event Derby!

Another fun little competition opportunity came up this month. A local up and coming eventing and boarding facility held a low key jump derby in their lawn today. It was Halloween themed and costumes were encouraged so I decided that would be pretty darn fun. 

The day was wet; but again about mid 50s so not cold. It was manageable.  We got all decked out in our purple, our twinkle dust and sparkles and headed off to the show. 

Did I mention it was wet? As badly as I wanted to wear my wings as we flew over jumps, I decided to forgo them due to the amount of water coming from the sky. Wet wings would be heavy and could throw us off balance. 

We were able to do most of our warm up in the nice big indoor arena but the jumps were in the outdoor arena that was rapidly deteriorating in footing quality. By the time it was getting close to our turn to jump the course, I went out to hop over a few jumps to get in a jumping mind set. But the arena was a swamp. Deuce did not even want to canter in the mess. He carefully hopped over the cross rail a few times but he was not feeling too goo about the 2'6" vertical. He jumped it but he let me know he was not feeling confident about the footing. So I decided we would forgo any more jumping and just wing it on course. (the actual derby course was out on grass and while it was wet, traction was much better). 

The course was really fun! It had elements of cross country and stadium jumps and twisted around in the field. Lots of big "scary" stuff too. With pumpkins and spiders and corn stalks and open things and all. 

It was a good opportunity for us to test our confidence in new jumps. 

We bounded across the start line and Deuce knew immediately what to do. All I had to do was show him to the next jump and keep my leg on. He cantered on boldly from the logs to the vertical to the  big white bench with pumpkins. Then instead of a hard right to the next vertical  we circled left to turn back to the vertical then a long gallop down to the lattice roll top and around the corner to the next vertical and another gentle sweep left to the blue coop. He was going so confidently at this point I was mostly cruising and I took that coop for granted (and there was no jump to it's left) so with no strong ride to the base, he dove left at the last minute and we had a run out. Darn it! We circled back, I sat up and road and he jumped it. Then it was a careful turn around left again to a open sloped vertical that I was a little worried about, but Deuce cleared without question, then back over the coop the other way, then a skinny roll top, then around to the barn then the final fence, a log with a pole and turn right to cross the finish!  Not a clean round but a REALLY fun round! He jumped everything well and it was a huge confidence booster for me. 

We did not participate in the costume class but we were one of the few that dressed up despite the rain so we got an honorary costume ribbon and even with a run out, we got a pretty pink fifth place ribbon. Yay!

Fall scenes in the field

I really like Halloween... and Deuce does to!

Our October mounted Pony Club meeting was a jump lesson combined with a Halloween party and we were encouraged to dress up... I couldn't resist... I had to do something to dress up...


Originally, I  had a grand idea that involved Deuce being a lion and I just needed a bit of lion mane type material from the craft store (or yellow and orange or brown fleece blankets from Goodwill... but the fabric store was closer to the office and time was short) After a strike out for lions mane type material in the fabric aisle,  my eyes landed on a mannequin wearing an awesome black and purple sparkly tutu and ferry wings.... and I had to have it!! Purple AND Sparkles... oh heck yeah! In that moment I suddenly recalled that I had some wonderful ferry wings at home. Oh yeah, this is gonna be good!!  So I searched the store and found the last purple tutu on the rack... and it happened to be on major sale (60% off, baby!!)... and then with a bit more wandering around the store, I also found some wonderful matching purple and black sparkle garland and some fantastic purple glittery ribbon (all of these also on sale AND I had a discount coupon for half off the rest! OOOOHHH Yeah!!!

Deuce and I made quite the turn out in our purple sparkles. After our Safety inspection, I climbed in the saddle and paraded around the arena, grinning ear to ear! As we passed the mirror down the long side, Deuce did a double take of himself with all of our sparkles. It was pretty funny... but I think he liked it. He sorta puffed up in his "I am hot stuff" frame.

Our lesson was great; we worked on going way forward and big strides in the canter then half halting back to get his hind end under him and better balanced. It made a huge difference in his jumping and his straightness  It was a good lesson and it was the first time Marc had taught an adult in braids, a tutu and glitter.

Spooktacular end to the horse trials season!

We are fortunate to live in an area where there are lots of pony clubs that put on 1-day Horse Trials at different venues across the region.

So this one day was the Halloween Spooktackular put on by Briarwood Pony Club and held at Northwest Equestrian Center in Rainier and it was Halloween themed! (riders were encouraged to wear costumes.. and there were some fun ones!)

Mid October in western Washington is a risky time to be planning anything outdoors if you rather not get wet. 

The week before was looking pretty good. But the rains came Friday night. Fortunately it was not too cold but it was a wet morning and not looking like it was going to improve much. Unfortunately  I did not get myself together enough for competition or rain friendly enough costume... but that was not going to stop us from having fun!

Upon arrival, I got Deuce settled with some hay and then took a walk of the cross country course. It was intermittent light rain, but nothing soaking at that point. It covered some terrain! The start was down at the lower end of the property along the creek and looped back and forth and then up a really steep hill and then ran fairly straight with a few small turns and then a line of jumps fairly straight to the finish line. We had been up to school a few weeks before so I was feeling pretty good about the course and none of the jumps had me worried at all. It was more a matter of traction. Deuce is barefoot so no chance of putting studs in shoes that he's not wearing.   I decided I would be very conservative on the turns and take our time. (this was not going to be a timed course anyway...)

I got back up to the trailer and started getting ready for our dressage warm up and the rain started coming down; at least it wasn't cold. Warm up for dressage was busy. It was along the entrance road so there were lots of horse trailers and horses coming and going. Deuce and I had a difficult time focusing on what we needed to be doing - fortunately coach was able to help us focus a bit better. I wanted to keep him round and maintain support with my lower leg but I did more hanging in his face and bracing against him and thus he just braced against me. Erin finally got us focused and working together better and we headed into the arena (they were running ahead, amazingly) So into the arena we go and darn it if does't go straight up in the air again as he looks over to the horses in warm up in front of him. Instead of closing my leg and pushing him forward, I get tense and brace and so we set the stage for our test....our center line was straight  which was a plus, but most of the test I concentrated too much on my test and not as much on supportive leg and softening my arms and not bracing. So it was not the lovely frame and movement that we have been getting at home, or even in the warm up... but it wasn't a complete flop either.  Average test; we ended up at a tie in second with a 36.

We had a little bit of a wait till our cross country ride so I watched some stadium jumping and chatted with one of my barn friends while we waited. The rain let up again and it looked like the sun was even thinking about coming out. That was encouraging! But by the time it was time to get ready for our cross country ride, it was getting grayer again. We got down to warm up and I was impressed with Deuce's sure footedness on the terrain. Erin helped us warm up again for cross country, the key was to keep him in front of my leg to get a good takeoff. And the sky really opened up again, lots of rain! However, when we were going, neither one of us noticed.

Soon it was our turn to head out of the start box. Deuce was ready, I was ready! Off we went to the first log, he hopped over it with no problems and I brought him back to a trot to round the corner to the bench. We cleared the bench with ease and then it was to the logs; this one was a little tricky as there was a slight down hill slope about 3 strides after the jump and then a hard turn left to head through the woods. Wet grass, a slope and a turn are a recipe for a crash, so I decided to ride a straight line after the logs, stop then turn back into the woods. The straight line took us right into a non mowed weedy steep bank of a hillside. I had planned to use that as our breaks to slow and stop and re group. Deuce was rather confused when he cantered right into the weeds and then stopped. But he was game and cooperated with my requests. So we did a little roll back and got pointed out through the woods and we were on our way again. My plan worked beautifully; no slipping or crashing and we were on our way again  Many of the jump judges had umbrellas to keep off some of the liquid sunshine and Deuce thought those bright overgrown mushrooms were more interesting than the obstacles we were dashing towards. He wasn't spooky at all, it was more of a lack of attention being paid to the fast approaching jumps when we came up to them. So the next 2 jumps I really had to work to get him focused on jumping. I didn't want him to get up to it and have a bad jump or a run out or a stop because he got surprised by the jump. But he got focused about 3 strides out each time and we cleared both. By jump 6, the red ramp, he was back to paying attention to cross country and we had a nice canter established; we sailed over the ramp and power surged up the steep hill. Good boy! Then we were on to the log cradle and log pile. We were in sync and having a great time! There was a gentle turn left again to the next log pile under a tree and there was another bright, overgrown mushroom in the shadows. He looked a little bit but I said "hey, pay attention, we are jumping those logs!", gave a strong leg and he locked on his jump and took off beautifully again. We had another turn right... he was doing great with the footing, and then down the almost line to wall, another log cradle and then a log palisade to finish! Yeay!!! Another clean round and exhilarating ride!!! As we walked back to the trailer, I finally noticed the rain and how soaked we were... good thing I brought extra gloves.

After another wait, it was time to start thinking about stadium jumping. The rain had let up then started coming down again but at that point we were so wet, we hardly noticed. At least I had dry gloves to put on... and the arena footing was a nice well draining sand; meaning great traction! Warm up went well, I had a nice jumping forward horse and round and soft too; we had been working on both of those things at home, so I was pleased that it was coming through out in competition. Soon it was our turn to go. We circled and circled, waiting for the horn to start, finally got it and then went around to make the approach to our first fence. We had to go between a jump and the arena railing to get to the start line. However, that was also right under the announcer tower, where a bunch of spectators had huddled to get out the rain. And it was windy... and all the papers flapping around on the score board... needless to say it was pretty scary right there. Deuce was not at all interested in going past that scary place! He took one look at the shadows and commotion and did a little duck and weave to avoid the tack. I did a little talking and kicking and steering and after only minor resistance, he finally passed with an arched neck and a snort and we carried on to cross the start line and jump our course.  Once he saw the jumps, he was all focus on his jumping course. That was great!! But I was already making notes on to ride strongly to the fence near the announcer tower. Turns out it wasn't an issue. He was so focused on jumping he never even noticed the scary shadows along the fence line. What a ride!! We had a clean and fast and super fun ride!! Woo hoo!

The rider in first was only 2 points ahead of us and maintained her placing and we maintained our second place (though the person we tied with moved out of second) So we finished on our dressage score; yay us!

This is the last 3 phase of the season, but what a season it has been! It was our debut into the eventing scene and I'd say we are ready for recognized next year and will start looking more seriously at Novice in the next year!