Searching for Inspiration

I was searching for inspiration (a conscious effort to battle the winter blahs), so I pulled out my notes from the FEI Trainer’s Symposium with Steffen Peters and Scott Hassler in January.  Looking at them now, a little over a month later, let me look at how that trip has improved my training arena. To keep this from becoming another long, dressage-geek diatribe, I am going to discuss 3 areas that I have notes on and how they have improved my rides. Like pretty much everything in dressage, they all come down to basics.

Positioning the neck for the bend

One of the horses in the clinic was a young horse with limited road miles. He was a bit overwhelmed by the environment, and showed it by bracing in his neck and wanting to come too high in the contact.  Steffen emphasized that horses need to be correct in the connection before they can proceed to the work of the day, no matter what was on that day’s training agenda. He had the rider position the horse with inside bend, then flex the horse’s neck to the inside, but not take the neck further than the width of the horse’s chest. Then he had her straighten the neck. When the horse maintained a soft neck bend without excessive inside rein, Steffen asked her use the outside rein to put the horse’s neck whatever height gave her the best feel of the horse’s back and control of the topline.

Throughout the weekend, the topic of a slightly braced topline came up.  Croup-high gaits and unauthorized lead changes were attributed to slight bracing in the connection. 

So I went home and checked all of my horses. Were the toplines soft and easy to position? If I flexed them to the inside, then straightened them, would they hold the bend from all of my aids, every time? I changed my warm up plan – when I asked my horses to flex and soften their topline, if I didn’t get the response I wanted, I replaced my old plan of lengthening the rein and letting them stretch (which is my go-to when I had flexion problems, to make sure I’m not getting the neck to short and blocking the flexion), with repeating the flexion aid again until I got softness from a response to my aid. I probably wouldn’t have tried this plan in the summer as I would worry about getting the necks too short, but since it’s winter, I was months from the judges’ eye and free to experiment.

The experiment worked out.  I began warm up focusing on the flexion and ignoring what I saw in the mirror. When they started to feel soft, then I’d check the mirror.  What I saw was not short necks, it was softer toplines and more open throat latches as my mounts stretched more into the connection. Which meant I could then put the neck at whatever height was best for my mount’s balance in that particular part of the workout.

Go from a light, pressing leg

Steffen Peters has a couple of themes that have shown up every time I have watched him teach. One of my favorites (and one I quote regularly, with attribution, of course) is that the only things we have to communicate with our horses is our leg, seat, hand and voice. He insists that they respond calmly to the lightest of aids, particularly the leg aid.  He made it very clear that the leg should stay softly against the horse at all times, and the horse should go forward from a small press of the calf. Not a kick, not a bump, not a spur or whip, but a press. Every time, no matter what, without any tension.

So I went home and checked my horses. At the Debbie McDonald clinic in December, she had focused on getting Secret to slow her steps from my seat. The order of the aids – increase energy with my leg, slow the tempo with my seat, ask Secret to follow the bit into a longer topline, then relax my thigh pressure to allow her to go forward again. Being a good student, I had done that with pretty much all of my horses.  As a result, I’ve seen longer toplines and more control with my seat. But I think all of this emphasis on not running through my seat aid had let them be a touch lackadaisical about a forward response to my leg. 

Since I had spent a month on “stay with my seat no matter what,” when I added “forward energy with every press of my leg,” I found I had a bit of a hole.  Most responded, but not in the next instant. They went, but a stride or so after I applied the aid.

So for 2 days I kept my leg steady, and without taking it off, added a gentle press. If I didn’t get an immediate response, I gave a REALLY strong press-to which, of course, they hurried away from. I’d bring the tempo back under my control, and apply a gentle press again. Most of them got the point within a few repetitions.  I tried to be a good student of Steffen and Scott and not use my whip (which Scott emphasizes is for collection/cadence), or the spur (which Steffen emphasizes is for engagement). 

The result after a couple of days was, of course, my horses were more responsive to a light aid.  In addition, insisting on an immediate response created a feeling of the withers pushing the pommel up every time I pressed. This isn’t an unfamiliar feeling to me at all, but the 95% consistency of it was really nice, especially with so little effort from me.

So I kept that standard as a tool in my toolbox, and watched what it did to the other work. Slingshot, who I have been focusing on exercises to create shoulder freedom for several months now, took that shoulder freedom upward into his medium trot to create a reliable, rideable medium with very lifted front legs (I have video proof!). 

Three components of pirouette work

Pirouette work always comes up in FEI clinics, because pirouettes are, frankly, hard. They take a long time to develop.  And like most things in dressage, the pirouette is only as good as the basics. Scott specified the three areas of the basics that often create problems in pirouette work: compression, suppleness, and balance. His advice is to figure out which of the three is creating the limitation, then fix that part, then go back and work the pirouette as a whole.

With his emphasis on simplicity, Steffen addresses both the canter pirouette and the walk pirouette pretty much the same. They are all about control.  If the horse backs off at any point in the approach, go forward out of the pirouette. Only stay in the pirouette as long as the quality is good, if I can’t get out of movement, I’ve stayed in it too long.  Once the horse understands the compression, balance, suppleness, add the turning aids. Once the turning aids are understood, polish the approach. If the approach isn’t controlled, the movement won’t work, so repeat the approach.

So I went home and checked my walk and canter pirouettes. I tend to start walk pirouettes pretty early in a horse’s education, so they all do them to some degree. I love walk pirouettes for teaching bend without swinging the haunches out, lifting of the withers, and shoulder freedom. But when I added the element of ‘control every part’ and ‘go forward at any moment,’ I also got the benefit of, well, control and forward.  That control carried over to the next exercise, and the next, and the rest of the workouts. 

Using Scott’s plan of deciding where the problem was, working that part, and then putting it back together made a big difference in Secret’s canter pirouettes.  She went into the winter understanding to rebalance and carry more on her hind legs on a straight line or a 20 meter circle, but I was having trouble maintaining the quality of the canter when we started turning. Her compression and balance seemed ok, so I spent a few days working on improving her suppleness during the compression.  Then I went back to asking for the turning steps, and boy did it work. I went from the spiral in exercise to Steffen’s pirouette diamonds to working pirouettes on the centerline, and when I kept the suppleness in mind, she could make big-girl pirouettes every time.

So even in this hard, long, snow bound winter, with all of my usual help enjoying the sun in Florida, using the resources I do have, I’ve managed to keep my guys progressing. I am looking forward to everyone returning north so I can get familiar eyes on my horses this spring. That, and warmer spring weather.

My Personal Trainer made Headlines!

Several years ago, I suffered a whip-lash injury to my lower back. While it was healing, I began to understand why riders gave up riding. I REALLY don't want to be one of those people, so I started looking for a personal trainer to help me stay strong in the right places, so I wouldn't wear my body out riding horses every day.  

I tried several different trainers, and they wanted to either make me into a body builder or an anorexic gymnast. Carolyn was the first one who actually listened when I said "if this doesn't make me ride better, I won't stick with it." And best of all, she's the first one who actually let me put her on a horse. 

In addition to my workouts, Carolyn has developed an Equestrian Boot Camp that we run here at SFD on Saturdays. Between her own riding (yep, that first ride was not a one-time event!!) and my feedback, she has created a system that incorporates cardio, core work and balance work. Believe me when I say this -- I can tell which of my students are in her class and which ones aren't.

So when the reporter from Suburban Life asked if I'd be willing to be interviewed for an article about Carolyn's fitness work, of course I agreed. Below is Carolyn's article. It's a bit hard to read, if you want me to send you a more legible digital version, e-mail me at ange@straightforwarddressage.com

Vocab lessons

 Recently, I have had an influx of new students. Whenever a new rider comes into my program, vocabulary plays a big part in the first several lessons.  Creating a standardized set of terms to communicate about training is crucial. Which got me thinking about of how much dressage-ease differs from standard English.  For example:

Relaxed = Attentive

Light = Steady

Submissive = When the horse lets you control of each of their body parts easily.

Suppleness = Adjustableness.  In other words, can the rider control the wiggle?

Connection = When the reins have a steady taughtness to them that allows the horse to use their topline correctly to re-circulate the power from the hind legs over a swinging back.

In front of the leg = The horse’s energy is under the rider’s control, regardless of the speed or the tempo.  The test of “in front of the leg” is when the rider puts the leg on the horse should make a polite change in the feel in the hand.

Behind the leg = The rider is not in charge of the energy. Sometimes it presents as the horse going too slow, sometimes it presents as the horse getting quick and running from the leg.

Bend = Creating and controlling an even curve along the entire horse’s spine, and placing that curve in front of the inside hind leg. Some parts bend more easily than others, so sometimes creating bend means straightening the neck. When the curve is placed in front of the inside hind leg, the power of the hind leg helps push the withers uphill. The amount of bend is determined by the line of travel – ie, a 10 meter circle needs more bend than a 20 m circle. The most extreme example of bend is walk and canter pirouettes. In those movements, the inside hind leg always steps straight, never crossing the outside hind.

Collected = Lots of power held back a bit by the balance and angle of the rider’s seat.  Since the horse really wants to GO, the rider sits with their core tight and pelvis angled in such a way so the horse’s desire to GO becomes uphill balance.

Uphill = When the energy created by the horse lowers the croup and causes the withers to lift. Sometimes it can be felt by a change in the balance of the saddle. Sometimes it can be felt by an increase in shoulder mobility. Sometimes it can be felt by an ease of the movements. Sometimes the mirror is your best indicator.

Plus there are a few golden rules of dressage in our barn:

When in doubt, do the opposite.   When the horse feels stiff and all you want to do is hold the bend, move them in and out of the bend. When they feel quick and you want to hold them back, put leg on and push the energy forward, then allow the horse to come back.

It takes more leg than you think.  Particularly when the horse is learning collection. Or learning leg yield. Or pretty much anything, for that matter.

This is a sport.  There are times you’ll be tired, times your abdominal and thigh muscles will be sore. Times when the best thing to do is spend some time off of the horse cross-training your balance and core muscles.

This is supposed to be fun.  No matter what, enjoy the ride.

FEI Conference Through Different Eyes

I flew home from the FEI-level Trainer’s Conference in Florida last night. On the ride home, as I was thinking about how to organize this blog, I tossed around a few different angles-- how Steffen Peters and Scott Hassler clearly showed all of us the lessons each horses had for us, how the inspiring lessons make me want to come home and train with more clarity, how re-setting my standard this time of year is so crucial in the hard-to-stay-motivated cold, how sitting in front of such clear communicators makes me want be a better teacher, but really, all of this has been covered so beautifully on other blogs, such as:

http://usdfdressage.blogspot.com/2014/01/trainers-conference-2014-message-that.html

http://usdfdressage.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-song-remains-same.html

http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/building-dressage-horse-bottom-top

http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/seven-horses-seven-concepts

Then I thought of what made this experience different from last year’s trip south, and I had my angle. This year I shared the inspiration.

This year my assistant trainer, Maddy, joined me on the trip.  I wanted Maddy to come because, although she has watched Scott teach me many, many times, she has not had the opportunity to watch the progression of horses from first level to schooling GP back-to-back like this before. Also, when she watches my lessons with Scott, because I have been working with him for many years, the lessons aren’t filled with as much explanation as when he takes the roll of facilitator.  I wanted to give her a crash course in the training approach I have been trained in.

Additionally, this year again I was able to spend a very brief time watching Catherine Haddad train. Maddy got to see not only good training and riding, but also Catherine’s assistant take the roll of her eyes-on-the-ground, a role I want Maddy to learn to take.  I haven’t had an assistant that was confident enough to take that role in a while, and now that Scott’s barn goes south for the winter, I’m really feeling the lack. 

Monday and Tuesday, we watched and let our cognitive learning absorb Steffen’s effective, quiet seat while he and Scott’s words explained the order of their priorities in each phase of the training. We took pages of notes, and Maddy even stole a little cell phone video to watch Steffen’s canter seat over and over again.

 

After watching all day, we had dinner with our friends, Lauren and Fiona, who had also came down for the Conference, and discussed what we saw. Fiona has a gift for starting conversation.  I loved watching Maddy start in role of listener, then, as our conversations confirmed her ‘eye’, begin to contribute to our discussions.  We talked about Steffen’s training approach -- how he was willing to use more advanced movements to improve the overall thoroughness of the basics, and how the basics improved the movements themselves.  We talked about his rather short training sets, and how they would work in our colder temperatures. We discussed his amazing ability to get the horse to offer the movements. 

Fiona asked what we were going to do with this knowledge when we got home, and Maddy right away answered that she was going to bring Silly’s talented canter more uphill, and use it to make her “just overall better.” She also said she was eager to go back in the show ring on Venus, who has been helping Maddy find her show-ring skills after being away from the competition ring since high school, and really think about working the show ring to make Venus really shine.  

Needless to say, this all made me quite proud. Educating horses is my passion, but I can only train as well as my teachers have trained me.  As a thank you to all of the wonderful instructors who have not only taught but mentored me, I feel an obligation to do the same to the next round of professionals.  Maddy is not the first young professional I have helped, nor will she be the last, but since I taught her to canter when she was a kid, watching her turn into a confident, skilled horseperson is a particular joy.

P.S. I want to say a special thank-you to all of those at home who made it possible for Maddy and I to both be away, particularly with the Polar Vortex descending in our absence.  Doug, Joyce, and Aneesa, you are all wonderful people and I am truly in your debt. Thank you again.

Now out to apply it all in the balmy 14 degree weather. 

Dressage Boots

  

Usually when I get the opportunity to do something really exciting and special, there’s some kind of back story.  That back story comes up over and over again when we reminisce about our horse experience, i.e., the clinic where I misread the directions and went to the organizer’s house in a downtown Washington DC subdivision instead of the barn, the show where I was 4 hours from home with 2 horses to show and no girths in my trailer, the dead bird story, well, you get the idea. 

These stories also make great fodder for the blogs. 

As I was thinking about this weekend and organizing the amazing lessons I enjoyed with Debbie McDonald, I thought I would tell the story of my boot saga, complete with me somehow agreeing to be part of a fashion show.

Us crazy dressage riders, in addition to putting ourselves up against the impossible standard of “the perfect 10,” with the equally impossible standard of trying to not stain really expensive white pants in a very dirty barn, insist that our very tall boots are much stiffer than the boots of our other equestrian friends. Much, much stiffer. Like you can bang on them with your knuckles and they sound wooden stiff.

The boots are all leather, and like all good leather shoes, there is a break-in period. The boots are fitted so that when they are new the leather hits the middle of the knee cap, so that when the ankle area softens (the only part of the boots that will soften, by the way) and the boots “fall,” they are still tall enough to come to the back of your knee. Needless to say, until the ankle softens, walking around, mounting, and riding is painful, often bloody torture. But once broken in, they mold to the legs like chocolate on caramel.

So, obviously, we dressage riders will go to great lengths to avoid breaking in new boots. We will repair, resole, replace zippers, anything to delay the break-in period. I bought my show boots 10 years ago, when Silly was 5, after Dressage at Devon.  I was SO STUPID EXITED to get to ride at Dressage at Devon.  After 4 years as a poor, hard-working working student, I was finally getting to ride at A BIG SHOW. 

We arrived the night before, and my old boots didn’t have zippers. I put them on to ride, and because it was evening, my legs swelled. I couldn’t get them off.  On the advice of Silly’s breeder, I laid on my back in the barn aisle with my legs in the air to try to get my swollen legs to un-swell enough to remove my boots.  Yea, this is big time horse showing at its best.

My next pair of tall boots had zippers.  I didn’t want to go to the expense of full-custom, so my semi-custom options were really tall or just at the knee cap.  I went with the knee cap size. Once they had broken in, they were a tiny bit on the short side, but not floodwater geeky-kid short, and they were broke in, so in mind they were perfect. 

As they aged, the ankles got a bit softer.  I replaced the soles.  Then I replaced the zippers. Then I did the the soles again. Then the zippers.  A few years ago I lost a bit of weight, and I needed to have them taken in.  My boots came back, well, not my boots. The widest part of the boot wasn’t really lined up with the widest part of my leg.  But they were still better than breaking boots in, so I wore them. 

The advantage of boots with zippers is they are much easier to get on and off, but the zippers need regular repair. Sometimes it’s the zipper that gives out, sometimes it’s the stitching around the zipper, which lies against the saddle, and therefore is subject to a lot of friction.  Plus leather is weakened by the stitching holes.  So after much riding and zipper replacement, the time comes when the leather is just too weakened, and the boots just need to be retired. Since my faithful boots also had developed holes in each ankles (I was dumping sand out of them daily), it was time. 

So it was time to start the whole cycle over again.  Again I had the choice of a little too tall or just at the knee, and this time I went with too tall.  But of course that size was on backorder. No biggie, show season had just ended, I could easily come up with 4 or 5 weeks between October and April to break them in.   

Then Secret and I got selected for the December Debbie McDonald clinic at Hassler Dressage.  And I had boots with big holes in the ankles and zippers that were failing. 

I called the store, and they promised to have them drop-shipped as soon as they could, but no promises as to exactly when I would have them. 

As I couldn’t very well ride for Debbie McDonald in my sneakers, I took my boots to my cobbler yet again. He said he would patch the holes and replace the zipper, but he wasn’t sure the stitching would hold. 

I picked them up and sure enough, on ride 2, the leather gave out.  Of course it did.

But good news -- that day the tack store called. My  boots were in. They arrived Thanksgiving week, giving me a whole whopping 2 weeks to get them broke in enough to ride effectively in front of 100 auditors. 

Did I mention that I ordered the extra tall boots?

I added heel lifts, and walked like the Tin Man to the mounting block until my thin chestnut-mare skin needed a few days off. Linda reminded me of the “sponge trick,” putting small, round tack sponges at the back of my knees to soften the stiff top edge of the boot. 

This helped a lot, but I really didn’t want to ride around with yellow discs at the back of my knees in front of auditors, then Maddy came up with the idea of using the black foam poll-protectors.  Perfect! I was still mounting with something far less than grace, but by the Friday before the clinic, I could bend my knee enough to move my leg back without grimacing. 

My Tin Man days were over. Or so I thought.

As part of this clinic, Hasslers was having a Christmas Shopping Extravaganza on Saturday night. Susanne Hassler asked for volunteers to help. I, of course, offered my services, hoping she needed someone to refill wine glasses. But no, she needed people to model clothing for one of the venders.  Me, who lives in fear being called by “What Not to Wear,” modeling clothing? All of us at the barn were quite entertained by the idea.  But the shop owner agreed to let me wear that brown tail coat I have been drooling over for 2 years, so ok, fine, I’d do it.

Then she hands me the boots to go with it. They looked great with the coat – they were tall, chocolate brown, a bit of bling on the top, and just looked expensive.  And they are really, really, really tall. Like over the top of my knee tall. 

And I am supposed to walk down stairs in them. 

Um, well, ok, I guess.

Just to make matters all the more comical, the DJ starts playing “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” just as I begin my lurching, rail-clutching descent.  It was all too much, I burst out laughing. 

I did my loopdy-doop around the audience, and then I was supposed to walk back UP the stairs.

Remember, I couldn’t bend my knees in these boots.

So I elegantly, in the most awesome runway-models strut, I crab-hopped sideways up the steps, hanging onto the banister for dear life.  

I don’t think the runway holds much of a career for me. 

The rides? Yep, they were awesome. I’ll give you the low-down as soon as I get caught up  enough watch the DVDs -- we ended up spending another night at Riveredge, since the snow came early causing traffic mayhem (my students who came to watch made the 90-minute trip home in a record 5 ½ hours). 

More later. 

Trickle Down Training

Slingshot at the Big Fall Show

Last Sunday marked the official end to SFD’s show season with OVCTA’s Big Fall Show. As I took my whites and show coats out of the trailer, I was thinking about the year.  This year I have had several horses accomplish some wonderful things in the show ring, and all of my mounts seem to be making steady, consistent progress, even the ones that haven’t headed down the centerline. Which got me to thinking about trickle-down theory.  But because I am a horse trainer and not an economist, my thoughts centered around centerlines, not dollars and cents.

Secret and my road to Sport Horse Nationals began last January, when I started focusing on every detail.  I was fresh back from auditing the FEI Symposium in Florida, with Steffen Peter’s admonition to “ride every movement for a 9, every day,” fresh in my mind. If I asked for a canter from the walk, and she tightened her neck even a bit, we’d do it again.  Every halt needed to be square.  I kept telling Linda, “it’s a competition year, not a training year.”

But in retrospect, I think I was a bit incorrect. 

So I spent the spring and summer perfecting Secret’s reactions, and, as is her nature, she became a more and more obedient girl. We clearly defined the beginning and end of each movement, every time, until it became habit.  If she did something less than a 9, the thought in my head was “Secret, we can do better.”  Before long, I knew I could count on the canter-walk-canters, the straightness of the centerlines, and the steadiness of the left shoulder in.

Since habits are habitual, I found that mindset trickling over to the other horses. I insisted that my all of mounts be calmly obedient, even the ones who were not heavily campaigning.  Venus became more obedient in her canter-walk transitions. Flash started to wait for my seat, which made the little pinto-power bounce even more. Sling became steadier in the connection.  Ember and ET, the 4-year-olds, became more consistent in their reactions to the leg aid. Star, the fun little sales horse who moved on to her new home in August, became more focused on me and less on her environment.

So the summer training continued, and my habits evolved.  If I wanted to ride every movement for a 9, I needed to make sure my mounts were right with my aids, every moment, not just when I needed to ask for the 9.  I started to utilize more range in my half-halts–in addition to a preparation half-halt and a re-balancing half-halt, I began to use a smaller, more subtle “are you with me?” half-halt when I was focusing on the quality of the gaits and the harmony.  Not surprisingly, my mounts improved not only in more prompt responses when I used a stronger, preparatory half-halt, they began to show better quality of gaits and harmony.  My increased focus on my half-halts was trickling down to increased focus from my horses.

Focus, like habits, develop over time.  One horse, in particular, showed amazing growth in his ability to focus.  Sling, who we refer to as “ADD boy,” started his season doing well in the numbers, but I wasn’t completely happy with his rideablilty in the show ring. So once he earned his regional qualifying scores, I decided to keep him home.  

The only catch with staying home is at home it is easy to miss how much things are improving, especially things that develop slowly. So totally I missed just how well he was beginning to lock into my seat.

Then I took “ADD Boy” to the Big Fall Show, in the gusting, cold wind, and rode First 2.  He was with me every step of the way. His back was so connected to the movements of my hips that it felt like he was following my thoughts.  Lisa Schmidt, the judge, noticed, and rewarded the ride with a 71.89%, a 7 on submission, and an 8 on harmony.   And it wasn’t a fluke—he was super in both clinics he attended this fall.  Both Catherine Haddad and Lendon Grey both commented on his obedience and work ethic.  He needs a new nick name, “ADD Boy” no longer fits.

My springtime comment to Linda proved to be inaccurate. The increased focus on the details required to excel in the competitive arena had directly improved the training overall. Secret’s big year had trickled down to create a flood of improvement in all of my horses.

  

Sport Horse Nationals 2013

Secret believes ribbons should be carrot flavored.

Dressage at Devon was last weekend, and for the first time in 9 years, I didn’t enter a horse. I have two 4-year-olds on my ride list and Harry is a year old now, so I had horses eligible for the breed show, but back in January I decided to skip it this year.  What would entice me to keep my youngsters home from the largest breed show in the country you ask?  Sport Horse Nationals.

This year Sport Horse Nationals was in Lexington, VA, which is only 4 ½ hours away, as opposed to Idaho, which is 2 days away. Secret has been the wonder girl all season, so I wanted to see how she compared to the best Arabians and Half-Arabians in the country.   So we sent in an entry and packed the trailer.

Because Sport Horse Nationals is limited to Arabians and Half-Arabians, unless you ride in a predominantly-Arab barn, chances are your coach isn’t available. So, like at many Arab shows, we do some coach-swapping.  Aneesa, who is a regular student of Cara Klothe (who, while she was in college, trained and taught out of SFD, and now works as assistant trainer at Rolling Stone Farm) trailered over a few weekends before so she could polish Par’s performance and we could get re-acquainted with each other’s styles. Cara and I have tag-teamed Aneesa’s show coaching a few times in the past, so shortly I felt up-to-speed to wear the coaches hat.

I also was in need of warm up eyes, so when my friend Lauren asked for warm-up assistance as her trainer Anne Rawle wouldn’t be making the trip, I jumped at the chance, but only if she’d be my warm-up eyes too.  I went down to her place and watched her take a lesson with Anne, and she came down to Hasslers and watched a lesson with Scott.  Lauren, being Lauren, took copious notes, and showed up with her notebook in warm up. 

I felt more prepared to help Aneesa, but the way the times came out, I was going to be en-route when she was doing her training level class. So the week before we spent a lesson on warm-up priorities and the stages of warm-up, including timing how long it took for Par to reach each stage.  Lauren’s first ride, at First level would also be during our travel time, so I put Secret in the trailer and headed to Lauren’s so Lauren and I could practice warming each other up. And time each other’s warm-up. Linda also video tape our test run-throughs so I could use that to help my final preparations.

Between the time with Scott and all of this warm-up preparations, Linda and I figured we’d done all that we could do to help Secret show her best. Now it all came down to judge’s opinion, who managed to have the better ride that particular day, and what curve balls Mother Nature would throw at us.  

Of course, we were all hoping that we would show our best. Arabs do things a bit different than the open shows. For example, in addition to huge ribbons and lots of flowers, National Champion and Reserve National Champion received coveted Arab statues given as trophies.

But trophies weren’t the only thing on the line--in Arabs, competition results actually change the horse’s name. When the horses earn enough points and enough championships, they get their names changed to add +, +/, ++// etc. after their name. It’s kinda like wearing their resume whenever they enter a show.  These are really huge milestones in the Arab world, with the horses being honored with a presentation in the main show ring, often followed by a barn party.

Secret has already earned her +/, and being a half-Arabian who only competes in dressage, has only one more / she can earn.  In order to get it, she needed to win a Top 10 finish at a National Championship and earn a bunch more points.  Paradox needed a few more points for his /, and a Top 10 is worth a whole bunch of points, so Aneesa and I were both working on show nerves well ahead of the shows.  Starting a week or so before, she started texting me to say the anticipation was killing her. I started having nightmares about halting at X, and sudden snow squall blocking my view of the dressage letters. Yea, this was a big deal.

Despite this anxiety, Aneesa managed just fine without me. She ended up 3^rd in the quite-competitive Amateur Owner Training Level class, earning Par a new / after his name.  She missed reserve champion by .1 of a point, and spent the rest of the week letting me know it was my fault for not getting up earlier to make it to Lexington in time to warm her up.  My retort? Your 20-year-old horse is 3^rd best horse in the country. And she didn’t even NEED a coach for that.

Lauren, who hid her show nerves much better than Aneesa and I, piloted Breeze around  the sandbox for  a quite nice First level ride that finished 3^rd,  earning another top 10 ribbon.

Lauren’s Prix St George ride was next to go, and Linda and I made it there in time to help her warm up.  She was a bit insecure about that ride as it is her first year at FEI, but she and Savannah warmed up well. That is, until the amazingly cheerfully-on-top-of-things-for-five –whole-days ring steward (the woman deserved a medal) called that the ride before was circling the ring. I watched her lower back stiffen, and instantly Savannah, her very, very honest mount, forgot how to count tempi changes.  In desperation to help my friend relax RIGHT NOW, I went with humor.

“Lauren, pretend it’s Friday night, you only have $5, and want to drink all night. Shake your booty, girl!” Lauren promptly busted out laughing, shook her hips, and went in to ride a national top 10 Prix St. George worthy test, complete with accurately-counted changes. To top it off, she earned her final score for her USDF Silver Medal.

Lauren rode Savannah again on Thursday in her 4^th level class, again earning a top 10, with a score over 68% from one of the judges. 

Finally, on Friday, Secret and I had a go in our 3^rd level class. There were 33 other pure Arabians and Half-Arabians in our open division, with  lots of +/, ++//, ++++// after their names. Linda and I wanted a top 10, but with the quality of the purebreds and the warmblood crosses in our class, we weren’t sure if it was realistic. We were in the first hour of our class, which ran nearly 5 hours long.

The dressage arenas were on the top of the hill, and our stabling was in the far back corner. Linda and I nearly wore our shoes out walking up and down the hill checking scores, which were slow to come out. We walked, and waited, and walked, and waited, did a little shopping, then walked up the hill again.  Finally, after all of that walking, we got our score – 8^th out of 33, for a top 10 finish.  Mission accomplished.

Sunday was Secret’s Second Level championship, but Saturday afternoon the skies opened up. Secret is a really good girl, but slippery footing scares her. She hates the splashing and slipping, so she’ll hold her back and shorten her neck.  Which is a huge improvement—a few years ago she would leap the puddles and kick out at the mud.

Sunday morning dawned foggy, so not much hope of the arenas drying out. I walked up to check the different warm ups and see the condition of our assigned ring. I took a few steps at M, the low point in the arena. Yep, it was splashy and slippery. Linda and I agreed that it was a good thing we had already earned the needed top 10, and with the footing it was anybody’s game.

I warmed up in the one arena that had some dry areas and some puddles, so I had a chance to get her loose and to get her acclimated to the mud separately.  We went in and did our thing, and Secret was a bit tight in the neck, and it showed in her mediums which were a bit running, but otherwise she was a good girl. She didn’t leap or dodge any puddles and did everything I asked her to do when I asked her to do it. As scared as she gets in the mud, I couldn’t ask for anything else. I was really proud of her.

Lauren, who had watched more of my class (I tend to avoid watching my classes, it just makes me nervous), said a lot of the horses were having trouble with the footing. Since there were only 15 in my class (they divided purebred from half-Arab at 2^nd level), we figured we would need to stay for awards. Which, of course, was the last thing of the day on Sunday.  So we waited. We took our time packing, did another tour of the shopping, and generally killed time. We waved Aneesa off in the morning, and Lauren off in the afternoon. And waited some more.

Again scores were slow to come. We joined the mob at the dressage office. Or I did, as Linda couldn’t look.  When I told her Secret was Reserve Champion, Linda didn’t believe me. She made me look again. Even on second look, Secret was still Reserve Champion.

So Linda and I celebrated Arab style, with some over-blinged-up gaudily embroidered ego-jackets that declared BR Danny’s Secret as Reserve Champion and Top Ten Sport Horse Nationals all over them. If Secret gets her resume attached to her name, well then Linda and I will wear it as well.  And we wore them we did, at Dressage at Devon the following weekend. Of course we did.

Secret's haul from Sport Horse Nationals

Back of the ego-jacket

Front left of the jacket. Go Secret!