Show Day 3

Sorry for my hiatus, but life just gets in the way.

Show day 3 left all the riding to my trainer.  They didn't offer a .80 meter this day, but they did offer a .90 meter in the big grand prix ring.

I did stick to my routine and lunged him when I first arrived in the morning.  By day 3 Liam was really tired and pretty relaxed.  He probably didn't even need a lunge, but I decided to stick with routine for him.  We hand grazed by the ring till about 7:15am and then headed back to his stall and tacked up slowly.

Walked him over the ring and my trainer hopped on.

Liam walking around calmly on a loose rein

At this point I was able to get a good look at the ring.  The jumps looked set at a solid .90 meter and there was some really fun looking jumps on the course.  I knew Liam would be jumping hard.  My trainer started warming up and Liam looked nice and relaxed.  After a few minutes she had me come in the ring and set warm up jumps and Liam really was being great.  We finished warming up and was able to head right into the ring.

The course was a power and speed round with 14 jumps total.  With the first 8 being the power and last 6 being the speed round.  The first jump was a solid square natural oxer with an 8 stride bending line to a very spooky stone wall lamp post oxer.  Left roll back to a vertical 5 stride line to an vertical in and oxer out 1 stride combination.  Right turn 90 degree to a very wide solid square blue oxer.  Left turn to yellow and orange oxer 4 strides to another 1 stride vertical in and vertical out to a bending 6 stride line to a huge square  yellow oxer.  This ended the power part of the round.

Liam jumped the crap out of jump 1 and 2.  Handled the left turn to the vertical 5 strides to the 1 stride in and out line like a champ.  He was late on his change on the right bending 90 degree and got a little flat and had a rail at the blue oxer, bummer we aren't going to make it to the power round.  What I am most proud of is how he handled the last combination line.  He had to jump the big yellow and orange oxer and whoa in 4 strides to the vertical/vertical in and out, then bend in 6 strides to another huge oxer.  He went through that combination like an old educated show horse.  I am sure my trainer riding helped, but I couldn't of been more proud of my boy at this current moment.

Three years ago we were a fire breathing dragon to ride to now negotiating around a tricky hard course.  Liam got many good boy pats and mints after that tough course.

I slowly packed up the trailer and took my boy home for some turnout and relaxation for 2 days to start week 2 four days later.

Show Day 2

Last Thursday was show day 2 for Liam and I.  The plan for the day was for me to do one .80 and for my trainer to do Liam over a .90 class. 

We had a huge storm come through overnight and I pulled into the horse show at about 6:15am to a soggy mess.  I quickly sent my husband a text to not drive my car to the show grounds as it would get stuck.  I fish tailed it all the way to the tents to park with the truck.  I thought, hopefully the grounds dry out by the time I need to leave later or I am never going to get out of here. 

I arrived to Liam's stall to a wide eyed horse ready for his morning lunge.  He just needs that 10 minutes on the lunge to move around.  After the lunge we headed over near the ring to hand graze.

The photographers got this beautiful picture of Liam and I hand grazing.

Popped Liam back in his stall to walk the course.  My course had one tricky turn in it that I was a bit concerned about from jump 1 to 2, but my trainer was confinced that I could handle the inside turn without a problem.  Went back and tacked up Liam and headed off to the schooling ring.   Liam was quiet.  Hopped over a few jumps, trying to wake Liam up and then headed into the ring.

Liam seemed half awake to jump 1, 2, and 3.  The turn from jump 1 to 2 wasn't as bad as I thought we just were kind of backwards and he never changed his lead.  Tried to wake him up from 2 to 3, but I failed to get him balanced, just opened up his stride, so got a flyer to 3 whiched ended up in a rail.  Then we were awake and the rest of the course was beautiful.  I was all smiles leaving the ring again.

For our efforts in the .80s this week we walked away with a rail in each class, but some ribbons out of 16! Yay!

After my class, Liam was able to go get hosed off and a short rest in his stall before he had to come out to show in the .90 class.  I tacked him up and my trainer hopped on.  He warmed up beautiful.

Nice and relaxed canter in the schooling ring.

My trainer and Liam learning the course.

Then it was time for them to go in.  The jumps were a solid .90 meters.  As my trainer was walking in the ring I said to her, good luck and by the way this is the biggest course this horse has ever jumped.  Liam preformed beautiful.  He was a little green in the combination and drifted right and had a rail, but the rest of the course was very nice.  I am really proud of my boy.

The plan for the next day was to have Alicia do 1 .90 class in the big grand prix ring.  All our classes so far were in the side ring (which is pretty big too).

Stay tuned for the last day of week one.

Show Day 1

I arrived at the show at about 6:15am on Wednesday to a wide eyed Liam wanting O..U..T.. of his stall.  He finished his dinner from the night before, drank about 3/4 bucket of his water and ate most of his hay.  I was very happy about this.  I grabbed the lunge line and headed to the lunging area.  It took Liam about 10 minutes to settle down on the lunge.  Then we hand grazed next to the ring for about 30 minutes waiting for my trainer to arrive at 7am to walk the course and warm up for our classes.  Liam actually at this point seemed really chill and just happy to be out hand grazing.

It was another hot humid day ahead of us with thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.  At 7am is was already almost 80 degrees.  Trainer arrived and a away and headed over to the ring.

The jumps looked HUGE!  When they say they are .80 meters, they are a solid .80 meters.  .80 meters is 2 feet 7 3/4 inches, so almost 2'8".  If I am being completely honest I was really intimidated by the jumps.  Especially the oxers.  They were square and wide.  Eeek!

The courses:

The first course was a speed round and the second course was a timed first round with a jump off.  The courses were pretty straight forward with noting tricky.  They had 2 in and outs.  If you remember, Liam and I haven't practiced many in and outs.

Got Liam all tacked up and headed to the schooling ring at about 7:45am.  I love the schooling rings at this show.  They are big with amazing footing.  A lot of times shows have these tiny warm up rings with horrible footing.

Liam actually seemed pretty chill walking out to the ring.  I hopped on and picked up my trot and was pleasantly surprised how quiet he was.  We trotted around both directions looking around, but then got right to work.  My trainer/friend set jumps for me and we started schooling over them.  Liam was again really pretty chill.  It was a way different ride then I was used to.  It was almost like I had to create the energy.  Typically I am trying to relax him to the jumps.  We kept finding the base distance because I am not used to this quiet Liam.  I wouldn't call the base distances chips though, it was more like settling to the base of the jumps.  Liam wasn't backed off the jumps at all but he wasn't taking me to them like he normally does.  He felt almost huntery...  This is new.

Headed into the ring for the first course.  He woke up a little in the ring and I picked up my canter and I got a nice forward canter and jumps 1 & 2 came up beautiful.  Rolled back to 3 which came up great, by holding my shoulders, but keeping him in front of leg.  Cantered away to 4ab and I felt him peak a little.  Like, what is this?  I didn't feel like he was going to stop, it was almost like he was trying to figure it out.  I clucked and he jumped right through.  Good boy!.  Now we were moving.  We were very forward to 5 and I never really got him balanced and I jumped up his neck and he hit the rail with his front end, darn.  6 came up long and again I never balanced to 7 because I didn't realized how open his stride was and we did a 4 in the 5.  opps.  My trainer and I talked about possibly doing a 6 there, but Liam had other plans.  At this point I realized that Liam was on the move now after the clucking at the in and out.  I landed from 7 smiling and laughing that we just left out a stride, I have been so worried that Liam couldn't make it down the lines.  I was thankful that we had a roll back to 8 to balance a little.  I balanced him through the roll back with my shoulders again and kept my leg on and 8 came up lovely.  Stood out to 9ab, this time Liam had no hesitation to the 2 stride in and out with a bending line to 10.  Again, I never balanced to 10 and we kind of had a flyer.  But all and all I was really pleased with my first course.  Could I have rode better absolutely, but I am a true amature and Liam was ok with my mistakes.

Heading into my second course I knew I had to balance a little better.  It wasn't like Liam wasn't listening to the balance, I just wasn't asking him to balance at all.  Jump 1 came up good with a left turn to 2 with 5 strides this time to jump 3.  I just sat up in the line and the 5 strides was beautiful.  Right turn to 4 ab, again this came up great, sat up to 5 and it was beautiful.  Around the end to jump 6, 7, & 8 which was a 5 stride to a 4 stride.  Found a good spot in and just sat up with leg on and the 5 to 4 was beautiful.  Right turn to 9, now you didn't expect me to ride this whole course well, did you?  What did I do, never balanced to 9 and jumped ahead, had the rail... Darn it!!!  Landed and beautiful ride to 10ab, with no hesitation this time from Liam.  Ugh, I just needed to sit up better to 9 and the course would have been perfect, oh well.  I was really pleased and was all smiles leaving the ring.  I even said to my trainer that this was actually fun.  Big change from the day before where I was saying that this is not fun at all.  I was so happy with Liam and the grown up horse showing he just did.

Untacked him and hosed him off and settled him in the stall for the afternoon.  Liam was really tired and even took and nap in his stall!  Success!

I was all done showing, Liam clean, tack clean, and packed up and it was only 9:30am.  I could get used to this.  The ran the ring as an open card, which I think all horse shows should do... Liam got a well deserved nap and hand walk later and tucked in for the night.

Arrival Day at PSJ

Last Tuesday Liam and I headed over to the Princeton Show Jumping horse show to get all settled in.  The show grounds take about an hour to get to from my barn with the trailer, but are only 15 minutes from my house. Since I was planning on showing Liam in the first class at 8am for 3 days in a row I decided it would be a good idea to get him a stall on the grounds to save me about 1 1/2 hours of sleep a day and about 2 hours worth of driving a day.  Also, I wanted to see how Liam would be stabled on the show grounds somewhere local first before taking him anywhere far away.  Liam lives outside 24/7 and hasn't been in a stall consistently in about 3 years.  I had know idea what to expect.

I left work around 1pm on Tuesday and picked Liam up.  We arrived on the grounds around 3pm.  I put Liam in his stall and unpacked the trailer.  I didn't get a tack stall, so I kept only the necessities by the stall.  He was really confused about the stall and got really anxious.  I ran to the office to get my number and check in and came back to Liam stall walking and screaming.  Oh boy...

I decided to take him out for a lunge to take the edge off just to hand walk him around the show grounds.

Liam wants to know where he is...?

He actually is never crazy on the lunge. He just trots around with his head up looking around.  After lunging, I hand walked him around for about an hour.  I decided it was in my best interest to not get on him until someone I knew was on the show grounds in case he was fresh in the ring since we were fresh just hand walking around.  What I mean by fresh is leaping in the air to show all the other horses how high we can jump.  Grrrr.  My husband was going to come over after work at about 5pm.

Right before 5pm, I brought Liam pack to stall to start tacking up.  My husband arrived just as we were getting back to the stall.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it was about 95 degrees and very humid, so I was dripping sweat.  Lovely.

Tacked Liam up and headed over to the ring.  Well, the lunging and hand walking didn't do enough, but I am sure it helped.  We trotted around like a giraffe pulling a cart (best way to describe) for a while, then turned into a seahorse carnival ride leaping in the air when other horses got close.  I did my best to get his attention by circling, changing directions, bending, counter bending, and getting him to move off my leg.  For the most part he started listening.  At this point, I was riding around thinking how faint I felt realizing that I was completely dehydrated and how this is NOT very fun.  Liam finally gave a good canter with out any shenanigans and I called it quits.  Headed back to the tent to untack and hose him off.  Hand walked him until he was mostly dry, put him back in the stall with a full bucket of water, hay, and his dinner.

Liam took one sniff of the water and said no way am I drinking that.  It made me smell the water and it stunk like pvc plastic pipe.  The show grounds are relatively new (opened 2 years ago) and in the spring this year they ran all new piping for water and electric to the tents.  I decided to go home and eat some dinner at this point and come back with water from my house in a few hours for night check.  I have 2 five gallon fresh water containers that we used to take camping.  I left the grounds to a stall walking screaming Liam.  I called my friend on my way home and asked her if a horse could possibly stall walk and scream for 3 days, it has got to get better right?  She agreed that he will either adjust or he won't.  Great, perfect confidence booster right there (rolling my eyes).

I came back and checked on Liam around 8:30pm and he still wasn't happy, but dealing.  He still didn't finish dinner, so I decided to just leave it in his bucket for the night.  He is not really a food driven horse and if he is stressed at all he won't even eat treats.

I left that night thinking Liam settling in could have gone better, but it could have gone a lot worse.  He wasn't spinning in his stall like a crazy lunatic, just walking slowly in a circle.  It's got to get better, right?

Stay tuned for day one of showing...

Final Jump School before PSJ

Yesterday was my final jump school before the first week of the Princeton Show Jumping horse show this week.  I feel like I have been anticipating, planning for, and talking about this horse show forever. 

I loaded the Liam cuteness in the trailer and headed down the mountain.  I gave him a serious pep talk before we left the barn though.  I told Liam that I really needed a very confident building ride today before the big show and to not pull any shenanigans.  Saturday, Liam was really bad.  I was trying to ride in the ring with another boarder that has a gaited horse and a very squeaky saddle.  Every time the horse came up behind Liam, Liam would leap forward.  Or if the horse was coming at him he spun the other way.  Eventually, I gave up and headed into the indoor and Liam was ridden until he said no more.  If you are going to pull crap like spooking at another horse then you are going to get a hard ride until you give it up.  After about 45 minutes to a hour straight of trotting and cantering Liam called it quits.  Sometimes he just needs those rides.

I didn't know what to expect my jump school to be like on Sunday after our horrific Saturday ride.  To my surprise Liam was very cooperative.  He listened really well and we put together a really good final course with all the jumps set at a solid 2'9".  Two inches higher then we will show at.  That felt really good.

I am a bit nervous about this show.  It will be many firsts for Liam and I.  It will be out first "away" show, meaning Liam will be staying in a stall on the show grounds.  It will be our first show at .80 meters a solid 4 inches higher then our last show.  It will be our first rated horse show ever.  I am confident we can handle the height, we have been jumping a solid 2'6" - 2'9" at home since march.  I am nervous about how Liam is going to handle living on the show grounds though.  It might be interesting, but exciting at the same time!

I am planning on bring Liam over to the show grounds tomorrow afternoon to get him settled in and his first classes will be on Wednesday morning.  Wish us luck!



 

Pro Ride Days - Video fix (sorry)

Liam got a pro ride yesterday as one of the final preps for the Princeton Horse Show next week.  All in all he was a good boy.  He did stop at one fence and my trainer/friend says she feels exactly what I feel.  Like he is not paying attention and about 2 strides away sees the jump and spooks/panics and peters out in front of it.  She went back around and he hops right over.  Hmmm, it is really weird.  Once he starts jumping he is game on.

Here is a crappy cell phone video, but I figured you all would appriciate it.

I have my final jump school on Sunday morning and off to the show next Tuesday, eeek!

OMG it has been over a week!

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post!  So many things to tell.  I am going to give you the quick update.

Liam had Monday and Tuesday off last week and he behaved himself for hacks on Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday we worked over a line of raised cavaletti.  They were set up as a solid 5 strides apart.  Because they were only like 6 inches off the ground I worked over them going left and right doing an add in 6 and double add in 7.  Liam was really good and listening to direction.  Thursday we worked on transitions.  He was good, nothing worth telling about.

Friday I went for a jump school.  It was raining and we were stuck inside.  Liam was pretty forward but for the most part really listened.  I really like the forward ride without the bucking!!!

Saturday I had a baby shower in the afternoon so I went and rode Liam first thing in the morning and got him ready for the show on Sunday.  Saturday we worked on lengthening and collecting in the canter, all in all he was good with little fussing.  Got Liam washed, face trimmed, mane touched up, and trailer packed in record timing.

Headed to a schooling show on Sunday morning.  Liam started out fresh and spooky, but settled relatively quickly.  It was really windy out and the jumps were decorated with a ton of foliage that was blowing around.  I can't really blame him for being spooked by it.  All in all he was good though.  Headed to the indoor to school over jumps and when I went to canter my first low jump Liam was spooking all the way up to the jump at things around him.  He noticed the jump about 2 strides away and I took my leg off (ugh, why do I do this) and he did a beautiful halt right in front of it.  Nope, not what I wanted at all... Turned right back around and headed to it again and his head was in the game this time and hopped right over.  What is up with this?!?!  Note to self, do not take my leg off.

Finished up schooling over some more jumps and went in the ring.   Liam felt like he was going to do the same thing to the first jump on course, but I kept me leg on this time and he jumped it.  The rest of the course was rough because I guess I over rode everything, but he got around.  The second course was better, but again really forward, but good.  We had a rail in the second class.  Liam pulled me past a distance a little bit and I jumped up his neck, and you all know the rest...he hit the rail with his front end.  Oh well.  The third class was by far our best.  We were on the same page the entire course.  Good boy!

We ended up 2nd in the first class, which was an optimal time class; sixth in our second class with a rail, power and speed class; and second in our last class, which was a timed first round and jump off.  With these results we were reserve champions at the show!  WOOHOO!

I am a bad blogger and didn't get any pictures at the show, but I will treat you with a sneak preview of the professional photo shoot we did yesterday.  More to come!

Liam is having a pro ride on Thursday this week and I'll have a jump school Sunday morning.  Then, we are off to Princeton Show Jumping Horse Show for 2 weeks starting next week.  I am really excited to see how we will grow with back to back showing!