Arab Summershow 2025

 When people get horrified about me riding while pregnant, I tell them that I'm planning to homeschool, like I was. In terms of controversy, I'm just getting warmed up.

In all seriousness, this wasn't a decision we undertook lightly. It's pretty easy just to say that riding is a risk and no responsible mom would take it. It's also easy to spiral into a pit of depression and doom, which carries plenty of risk on its own. I pretty quickly realized that nothing in pregnancy, or presumably in childrearing, is black and white. It's all a scale of risk vs reward.

please appreciate his post-plaits unicorn hair

With a profound mental health (including PPD) history in my family, I've been utterly bent on not going down that particular rabbit hole. My kid deserves a mentally well mom. For whatever reason, the Lord saw fit to wire my brain in such a manner that it only functions when it has horsy time. I don't make the rules. To my mind, the risk of damaging my body or my baby while riding is puny compared with the risk of damaging my mind and my baby with not riding.

pictured: very good for mental health

So I've been riding.

In fact, I won my Third Level class at Penbritte on Thunder and First Level on Rosemary at four weeks, though I didn't know it yet. Then Chippy, our baby's nickname before we found out the gender and picked an actual name, went on to ride with me at Gauteng Champs. I wrangled my way through this in the trials of the first trimester---and then my second trimester brought glorious release.

The nausea never quite evaporated, but it certainly diminished. My energy bounced back. Everything quit hurting. I started to feel the little thing kick and play in there, we had our gender reveal, and pregnancy abruptly became really fun. So I did the one thing that made sense: entered another horse show.

I'm 35 weeks along now with really swollen feet and zero energy for a proper show recap, but suffice it to say, Lancey and I enjoyed yet another great Summershow and my beautiful little unicorn was perfect in every conceivable way.

the company was pretty perfect, too <3

I asked Erin to ride him in a few classes for me so that he could still go in all of his usual classes and also so that I had somebody to sub in if I felt that I wasn't coping. This worked excellently, because not only did Erin make him go better and better (and bring his turnout to a whole new level), but it also completely removed the pressure from me. I didn't feel like I had to ride every class to get my money's worth; if I felt like skipping it, I could. I didn't end up skipping any but it was great to have that option.

one of the moms made these adorable stall signs

We took a couple of kiddos along, too, and they brought in a significant element of chaos (through no fault of their own), but Lanceyboy remained the calm in the storm. Of course he was perfect for everything. He was perfect to travel, he was perfect in the stable, he was perfectly well-mannered for me to lead around and bath and hand graze even with a belly in the way.

It's the first time I've ever skipped doing arena familiarisation in the Afridome. It would have meant staying an extra night, and we already did four nights, which I thought was more than long enough for the horses. Besides... it's Lancey. I didn't think I needed to worry, and I was right. I rode him right into the Open Geldings class and he was forward, relaxed, focused, and perfectly, perfectly obedient, because of course he was.

Our performance wasn't perfect. Canter-to-walk transitions and big extensions are not exactly easy to do when you have essentially no more abs left and a certain little person kicking you in the kidneys all day. I basically had reschooled Lancey to do his downward transitions mostly off my hands instead of my (amazingly useless) seat, and he did them obediently but not with his usual panache.

I also could not have cared less. I was on my beautiful horse having the time of my life, all with my favourite little passenger riding alongside. It was a really precious horse show memory that we made as a little family---DH, Chippy, and me.

 He didn't place in the Open Geldings, and I immediately knew it was just going to be one of those shows for us. While we weren't as on our game as at Nationals, he still went absurdly well and presented a really nice picture. The judge just wasn't looking for a Lancey at this show. Such is showing. It's just the nature of the game. I immediately let go of expectations for any ribbons.

just a woman on a horse

suddenly a really pregnant woman on a horse

I rode him in the open geldings, the hunter pleasure (where I think we ribboned? fourth or something), and the adult riding horse (no ribbon for us). Erin rode him impeccably in the adult rider class, where they had to swap horses and the rider who got him absolutely could not make him move forward despite being one of the most beautifully stylish and effective riders I have ever seen, perhaps suggesting that most Arabs are just a smidgen hotter than Mr. Lancey.

He even helped out both the kiddos who came along. They each had a bit of a confidence wobble on their own horses, for various reasons, and we all know that the cure for wobbly confidence is just a little bit of unicorn magic. This included getting dressed up as the Grinch for one kiddo,

and going into the best walk class, which he won, for another.

When the General Breed classes rolled around, Erin and I were both excited. She was riding him in the best pleasure horse class, and I had him in the open show hack, my first go at an open hack class on him. Erin had him looking absolutely amazing. She put his mane into the most stunning running plait and we decided to leave his tail as it is, since he is an Arabian, after all. Also, can you believe that not one whisker is clipped on this horse? The darkness around his eyes and muzzle is makeup, courtesy of Erin. She somehow made him look even prettier than the traditionally shaved Arabs without having to disturb a single whisker. We didn't have one single negative comment on his turnout for the entire show.

shout-out to the lesson mom who bought me this stunning browband and matching brooch for Christmas <3 such a bucket list item for me

Erin's classes were first that Saturday, and we were all fairly astonished when she didn't place in the top two in the best three-gaited. Lanceycorn went like a perfect angel, and the judge gave her a test that included two 20m circles; she was the only one who rode actual 20m circles. Everybody else rode them the width of the Dome, which is at least 40m. According to the judge, Erin made them too small. Look, I respect what showing judges do, and dressage judges get their fair share of hate, but at least they know how big a meter is.

We sent them straight into the next class since we had a scratching for it, and in the best pleasure horse, Erin and Lancey absolutely owned. Lancey was picture perfect in every possible way, but Erin also showed him off with the kind of ringcraft that my nervous butt can only ever dream of, and they were such obvious winners that absolutely no one was surprised when they came out with his first big red ribbon of the show.

There was some silly snafu with the championship and they wouldn't let her go into it, which was a bummer, because I believe they would have absolutely kicked butt. Lancey is a stellar little gentleman for me, but under Erin, he looks like an absolute professional.

There wasn't much time to be annoyed about it, because it was time for us to ride our show hack class.

I had told myself that I didn't want to ride to win at this show, just to enjoy - and I had been enjoying every moment in the saddle. He couldn't possibly have been any more perfect. When we went into the show hack class, though, with a fresh judge and different competition, I was suddenly determined to ride the best individual test we possibly could and show this judge exactly what my Lanceycorn is made of.

We pulled out all the stops. Erin had somehow fixed his connection to the point where he was absolutely perfect even in one hand. I did his extended canter one-handed and part of his trot work, too, and Lancey floated around like the most magnificent little white unicorn who ever lived, which he is. The few other horses in our class also went well and were beautiful, tall, typey bays, which always counts in their favour, but this time, Lancey was unbeatable. He placed first.

I offered for Erin to ride in the championship, since she'd had such a disappointing time earlier, but she more or less shoved me through the gates and wouldn't hear of it. In hindsight, I appreciate this more than words can say. It felt pretty incredible to float around the big, beautiful Dome and hear Lanceycorn called out as the reserve champion.

My baby gave the biggest kick in the lineup while we were waiting for our ribbon, reminding me that this memory has my beautiful horse, my adorable husband, my incredible best friend, and my perfect little baby in it. It honestly doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Not many horses out there can do four days of showing without one single spook, buck, or moment of irritability, much less crown that achievement by winning a reserve championship while toting around a six-months-pregnant rider, but Lancey can. Because he's amazing.

Chippy is due soon, so that was my last show for a hot minute. At 35 weeks I still hop on for the occasional five-minute walk, mildly impeded by the bump catching on the pommel, and I can't wait to get back on once they're safely here.

God is good.

Dressage Gauteng Champs 2025

 I'm writing this post many many months after the fact, but not for the usual reasons. In fact, this post contains a little bit of news that I was waiting to share until it felt right. I couldn't quite do this story and these memories justice without it, so here we are, talking about this ages and ages later.

After our scintillating Advanced debut at Penbritte in June, the logical next step was to aim for Gauteng Champs in August. Arwen had never gone so well in her life. The test was tough: 4-3 is a long way from 4-1, with actual pirouettes and tempis in it. But we buckled down at home and made it happen. Are the tempis and piros really polished? Not even a little. Is the rest of the work totally solid? Absolutely. I wanted to do it, so we went out and did it. As you may have noticed, I overthink a little less these days.

Another reason why I was really motivated to go out and make it happen was that we'd received news that meant I would have to shelve riding at the higher levels for a little while. After much anticipation and hope, DH and I are finally expecting our first.

The Internet is a weird and dangerous place and certainly not suitable for babies and little children, so I won't be sharing much about our little one on here, but pregnancy is part of my story and I'd like to honor it.

This is an intimate part of the story of 2025's Gauteng Dressage Champs, because when the big day rolled around, I was nine weeks pregnant and in the throes of a truly horrible first trimester. Delighted by the existence of the tiny little peanut, overwhelmingly excited for the journey ahead, and also constantly throwing up and exhausted. That thing they say about "morning" sickness? It's not. It's really not. Totally worth it, totally sucks. But dressage gave me something to focus on, something to motivate me to get outside and do healthy things, even if we needed to double up on sports bras and wince through most of the sitting trot and sometimes jump off to just lie in the shade and groan a little.

As we led up to the show, she grew more and more confident with the test. We had only one little whoops when she flew back while tied up (goodness only knows why) and pulled hard on her neck and poll. I may have panicked a little. I summoned our local bodyworker in great distress, only for her to come out, poke around Arwen's body, and shrug. There was nothing wrong with her. She got a nice massage for her troubles anyway.

Our preparation went swimmingly until I dropped my last sewing needle in a pile of hay while plaiting Arwen's mane. After several minutes on my hands and knees under her feet, I had no choice but to give up on that and do the last few plaits with elastics, which I always hate. Nonetheless, we bundled Arwen into the box that Thursday afternoon and set off for Kyalami full of excitement. I had luckily chosen that day to crave Kyalami Park's absolutely elite chicken strips, so that worked out pretty great. (Have you ever been absolutely bloody starving and simultaneously on the brink of vomiting? It's not fun.)

having had four kids, Arwen says I'm weak

Arwen was so chill that I was a little worried about her. She dozed by the box while I got ready and wondered where on earth my husband was with the lunch I was growing so desperate for. He returned ten minutes later, triumphant and bearing a hilarious story.

He'd arrived at the cafe and placed the usual order, but the server told him that they were out of chicken strips. Now, we are both introverted people who don't do confrontation. Usually, if a place is out of something, we get something else. But this time, DH moaned, "Oh, no. You're the ones who have to tell my pregnant wife that she can't have her chicken strips."

They must have seen the light of desperation in his eyes, because the ladies at the cafe immediately sent a luckless young cashier all the way up to the big restaurant at the other end of Kyalami Park Club. I got my strips. They were the best thing I'd tasted in weeks.

Thus satiated, I hopped on my extremely relaxed horse and proceeded to the warmup. (Why did I feel way better with a bellyful of fat and carbs? Girl, idk. I was eating steak and kidney pies at 7am but gagging at the thought of water or crackers or any of the things you're supposed to eat. Pregnancy is wild).

All day long, Arwen was an absolute pleasure in every way. We were so harmonious in the warmup that it was actually a little freaky. She was spicy and energized, but not in a let's-chuck-you-off kind of way, more in a this-extended-trot-is-absolutely-LIT way. I was grinning all over my face when we finished our warmup. I'd never felt her that amazing before. Also, pregnancy mood swings are a thing. Apparently my hormones were set to "delighted" that day, which certainly helped.

The steady low-grade discomfort---the sore boobs, the nausea, the near-constant need to pee---evaporated just for a little while as hubs helped me into my beautiful tailcoat (back in the days when I could still wear normal people clothes) and we headed into the ring.

We were in the Members Arena, DH was watching, and I had the most wonderful little passenger riding right along with us. It was a moment I won't ever forget. After the bell rang I took a few moments just to soak it all in, the glory of it all. Life on this side of Heaven is a weird mix of the glorious and the fallen, and pregnancy is no exception, but that was one of the Heaven moments, one of those instances when the sheer joy and beauty and glory of God bursts through in a way that nothing can stifle.

Then we were cantering down the centreline like we belonged there, and that day, we absolutely freaking did.

Nothing was particularly spectacular---and the judge was not into anything that wasn't a 5, 6, or 7---but we made no big mistakes, which, for our first bid at 4-3, was pretty epic. I juggled the halt a little badly and we landed a bit crooked for 6.5, "more straight in halt." She soared through her medium trot, as much as 14.3 hands of tubby Nooitie can soar, leaving the judge unimpressed for 6.5, "more airtime" (ma'am pls how much more airtime do you think this little animal has in her?)

Our shoulder-ins and half-passes and first extended trot were solid, long string of 6.5s, the judge asking for more bend right and a freer shoulder in the extension. Her rein-back was obedient but she ducked hard behind the bit for 6.5, "steady halt, very deep in rein-back". She popped back up again, thankfully without any difficulty, and pulled out a 7.0 for the next shoulder-in and a 6.5 for the half-pass and then listened for once into the collected walk for another 7.0.

This started a walk tour that blessedly does not include any stupid turns on the haunches. I'm so over those, not gonna lie. I'd rather do twenty canter pirouettes. We still managed to get a bit tense and weird at the end of the extended walk for 6.0, then anticipated the canter for 6.5.

Arwen LIKES the 4-3 canter work, which is to say that keeping a lid on it is not simple. We rushed in the medium canter for 6.0, but got things together and half-passed for 6.5, "more bend," then headed into our first canter pirouette in competition. I felt her lose the rhythm a bit and tried to help her out but my general ineptitude was fairly obvious for 5.5, "together behind for one step." 

She did, however, remain super quietly on my aid and listening into the flying change, which was 7.0 despite being our difficult rein. The judge wanted more bend in our next half-pass but still gave us 6.5. I followed this by completely ruining the next pirouette for 5.0, "together behind throughout." She sits really well and understands the trick---Arwen loves her tricks---but actually doing it properly is still a work in progress.

The next flying change was smooth again for 6.5, and we redeemed ourselves in the extended canter for another 6.5. Then we had to scrape ourselves up for the three-tempis.

These are hit and miss. Sometimes we absolutely nailed them at home, through, steady, collected. Sometimes I completely fail at the timing. Sometimes she gets hopelessly overexcited. These were a bit more miss than hit, but we fuddled our way through them for 5.5, "jumping together behind." The tempis also have the effect of lighting the dragon like one of those flaming Chinese rockets from Mulan, so I piloted my rocket down the centreline with a certain amount of difficulty, still managing a square and immobile halt for 6.5, "fairly straight, not quite on centreline."

I couldn't possibly have been happier with her. I knew we'd made our share of mistakes in the difficult movements, but we'd been working together with every step. She gave me a feeling of total harmony; even when she was hot and fizzy, she took me there with her. It was amazing. I was grinning so hard as I rode out of the arena that a passing coach remarked I was the happiest person at the show. I said that she would be, too, if she had an Arwen.

We had our first official bit check in competition right after that, which consisted mostly of the official laughing at the daylight she could see under my noseband, and then went to greet hubby, who knew from my face that things had gone well and was already as proud as could be.

Arwen was happy to chill at the horsebox (who is this woman?) while I hurried off to check our scores. To my delight, the judge had liked us, and it showed in the collectives. Let the record reflect, now and forever, that a barely-more-than-pony Nooitie is perfectly capable of earning a 7.0 on paces at freaking Fourth Level. We got a 6.5 on impulsion, 5.5 for submission, 7.0 for rider position, and 6.0 for aids.

"Horse showing ability," the judge commented, "but at times could show a little more." Couldn't we all?

That was good enough for 62.778%, considerably more than I'd expected for our first ever trip at 4-3. Better yet, we placed 7th out of 24 in a whole class full of warmbloods and professionals. I was absolutely stoked, to say the very least. We'd only come to the show to ride, with no illusions of getting anywhere, but we found ourselves through to the championships.

The championship day was the Saturday. I could have schooled the piros and tempis on Friday, but I felt that we weren't going to fix them in one ride and messing with them more might make my brain fall out, so we just had an easy stretchy ride and hack that day.

Saturday rolled around with a whole different mood attached. My hormones had decided that this was the day to be unbelievably overstimulated and mad at everything that moved, even though I sewed her plaits in and she looked nice. Arwen is used to my general emotional instability and didn't bat an eyelash at me. Hubby plied me with snacks, and Erin showed up with a giant bouquet of flowers, because everyone in the world should be lucky enough to have a friend like Erin.

This buoyed my mood considerably and I was feeling better, albeit on the verge of puking and probably needing to pee as I did 24/7 for about six weeks back there, when I scrambled into the saddle.

To her credit, Arwen was perfect. She strolled off to the warmup on a loose rein, chill and ready---maybe a little more chill than I would have liked.

I soon discovered that the only thing more chaotic than a warmup arena full of little kids jumping around on ponies is a warmup arena full of upper-level dressage riders. You never know where somebody's going to go next. Lateral work gets right of way, sure, but that's absolutely no good when literally everyone is shoulder-inning and half-passing all over the place. Pirouettes complicate everything; the horse and rider that was peacefully cantering away from you six strides ago are now barreling towards you and doing flying changes everywhere.

the photographers did not capture one single extended trot lol

DH also went to find the relatives who'd come to watch (the family support is honestly amazing 💜💜). I didn't know this and thought he had disappeared into the ether. Erin appeared in the nick of time with something cold to drink and instructions to look up, but I had broken our tempis hopelessly (as you do in the warmup for a championship test) and can't do those without looking, so her good advice fell upon deaf ears. Also I kind of wanted to throw up. It wasn't good.

Arwen, however, was extremely good. As usual, she was coming through for me when I was operating at like 50%. Erin wrestled me into my tailcoat and I took a deep breath as we reached the arena and I spotted DH, instantly making my life much better. I had a lot of hormones to contend with and every inch of my body wanted me to be angry and upset with the universe, but at the end of the day, I was on the best horse in the whole world, flaunting the tails we'd worked our butts off for, with a lot of people who loved me watching.

There wasn't a lot I could do about my mood, but I could still be pretty dang grateful in that moment. I picked up my reins and my wonderful dragon glanced around the massive atmosphere of the Peter Minnie on championship day and said, "Just hold on. I got you." And she did.

To be completely frank, in the (many) intervening months, I totally misplaced the tests. I know that we made a few little mistakes. The tempis came to bits completely - in all honesty, those are still unbelievably hard for me, and I need to be really switched on to make them happen, which I was not - but the pirouettes felt a little better and the single changes were smooth and lovely.

The best part was that, once again, Arwen was right there with me. She was not only responding to all my aids and really listening even through moments of anticipation, but she covered my mistakes at times, stayed cool when I stuffed it up, and offered me so much more than I genuinely deserved for how well I was riding. It wasn't smooth and fluid and easy the way it had been that Thursday, but we were in harmony. Connected, communicating---dancing, if not very well.

The marks surprised me a little. We got 59 from one judge and 58 from the other, not with any dramatically bad moments, just a general decrease in the overall quality. My more lackadaisacal riding had everything to do with it (and judges are always just a little more cranky on championship day). But it didn't matter.

We'd earned our tails and we'd come out---a pregnant amateur on a little round 19-year-old Nooitie---and shown that we deserved to be in this level. We might not have lit the world on fire, but we did our tests in harmony, with lightness, with ease. None of it felt hard on her; the mistakes were largely mine.

It felt like dancing. It felt like dressage.

It'll be a long time before I fit into that tailcoat again, but I'll never forget the awesome privilege of wearing it on the horse who carried me all the way from Training to Fourth against all odds, or the endless support from the tribe we've gathered along the way.

God is good.

             

A little throwback: our mutual first Prelim, 2014, and our Advanced, 2025

How To Train Your Baby Dragon

 It's only been, like, nine months since I started backing Wynnie, but it's too momentous an occasion not to write a post about. Brace yourselves for a novel.

I remember feeling like I waited a thousand years for Thunder to be old enough to back. I must be getting older, because it feels like I was cuddling tiny foal Wynnie only yesterday and now she's a whole horse. Last November, when the days grew longer and I had time in my schedule, I decided to bring her in and start playing with the groundwork.

feels like yesterday

Now we all know that backing age is one of the most contentious debates out there, with people ranging from jumping on 18-month-old racehorses to waiting until their warmbloods are seventeen-hand seven-year-olds before doing anything with them. To each their own. I like a useful middle ground somewhere between three and four and a half, depending on the horse. I will also confess that, when my current big horses were baby horses, my then-coach backed the poor suckers as two-year-olds. I shudder to think of it now, but Arwen was one of them and is still competing sound as a bell in the upper levels at nearly nineteen, so, you know, it's not all bad.

look at weeny baby Wynnie sleeping in my lap

Wynnie is an early bloomer. Though I don't anticipate doing anything with Raya other than trying to find an angle to get a picture where she doesn't look like a llama until she's four or five, Wynnie was sturdy-looking by the beginning of last summer, and her agile mind was also perpetually getting her into trouble. She was climbing through fences, hassling the other horses, and escaping her stable at every opportunity, as well as terrorising the poor grooms with her antics.

By then, obviously, all her citizenship was in place. Wynnie showed as a foal at foot, so loading, travelling, behaving in a new place (for a given value of "behaving" as we saw at HOY 2025), doing all the in-hand things, bathing, plaiting, having her legs clipped, tying up---all that stuff was old hat to her. We'd also messed around with join-up and I'd taught her to pony off Lancey in the arena the previous winter.

There wasn't a whole lot left to do other than start the groundwork for backing, and with Wynnie telling me that she felt ready, we got to it.

asking to come in and do something interesting

Even though she is mature for her age, nobody's growth plates close faster than anyone else's, so right off the bat we weren't doing anything particularly strenuous. We didn't (and still don't) lunge for more than ten minutes and only on large circles with only little bits of cantering (three circles on each side). She cottoned on to lungeing very easily and was forward and incredibly obedient from the start. Her canter was also just easy and balanced from the beginning. She sometimes struggled to pick up her right lead at first.

Before long, it was time to introduce the bridle, which I knew was going to be a bit of a pain. Busy brains have busy mouths and I haven't had a youngster with such a busy brain for a long time. She'd had her wolf teeth out ages ago, but getting used to the bit was a real mission for her. I fed a lot of treats both for accepting the bit and for not chewing it, but ultimately, she just needed to wear the bridle a lot of times before she quit chomping on the bit. I started her in a French link snaffle because that was what I had that fit her and she ultimately got used to it.

On a bittersweet note, the spare bridle I had lying around for her was Magic's. I think it looks good on her 💜

We moved on to the roller, which sparked a bit of humping and crow-hopping, something she can still do when she's a little fresh. I wasn't expecting her to be a particularly easy horse to back and this was another indicator to me that she might be a little on the spicy side. No worries. I didn't breed her to be an easy little angel, I'm here for another dragon, and I wasn't in any hurry.

We took our time with the roller, and once she was consistently chill with lungeing in it, we added the saddle. This was a non-event, and, as I'd expected, she fits perfectly in the old Kent & Masters jumping saddle I bought several eras ago for Arwen when we were teenagers who thought we were going to be eventing superstars. She's the same little round mutton-withered thing that Arwen was as a youngster and the K&M sticks to her back like glue, even though it's taken a thorough beating over the past 11 years or so. I'll eventually want to move her into a dressage saddle but figured that having shorter stirrups might not be a bad thing for the dragon theatrics that will inevitably follow.

The only little spook she had with her saddle was once when I put the stirrups down without warning her and started her groundwork like that. The sun sparkled off a stirrup and she scooted forward a step with big eyes, then immediately stopped, pricked her ears, and demanded a treat for Coping So Well. Since clicker training has been our jam since the beginning, I couldn't exactly deny her just reward.

who is this grown up woman? (feat. cows)

Interspersed with introducing the tack, we started with the baby groundwork J taught me that just fixes and improves so much in the early life of a dressage horse. My particular favourites include rein-back on the ground in a good posture, slowly increasing the number of steps until we were doing ten steps uphill three times a session with practically no pressure on the reins. Another special favourite is turn on the forehand, developing the "Over" cue that will ultimately become all of her lateral work, and then slowly turning that into shoulder-in on the ground along the rail. It's amazing how much a few minutes of this develops their balance, symmetry, strength, and understanding in a super low-impact, youngster-friendly manner without a rider on yet.

I wasn't surprised that she learned the groundwork and all the lungeing commands effortlessly. Her brain is so much like her mom's in that way - she learns "tricks" quickly and enjoys executing them. By the time I was lungeing her with the saddle, I barely needed any body cues for transitions. She also surprised and impressed me with how balanced, supple, and easy her canter is on both reins. Her trot is nothing to write home about (yet) but her canter is what I'm really after, and it's simply effortless.

We ran into another speed bump when we introduced contact to the bit. I started with the neck stretcher quite loose; it's forgiving and soft, and it teaches the youngster not to be scared of the contact but to go boldly into it. A little counter-intuitive, but for dressage, I like them to be bold and fearless of the contact. The bit is primarily to help with suppleness and connection. Brakes are in my seat and voice, although I do teach a sort of emergency stop off the bit for the hairy moments.

She wasn't bad or dramatic about wearing the neck stretcher but she did start chomping quite a lot again. I keep the grackle loose and let her chomp all she likes. Once she worked out how to soften over her back and stretch her neck down to release the contact, she quit chomping, although she'll probably have a busy mouth for the rest of her life just because it's attached to a busy brain.

After a few weeks we had acceptance in the neck stretcher and she was starting to work with a little bit more of a stretchy shape, so I switched to the long lines to teach her a little bit of steering and the emergency brakes. She took to these just fine. Being supple and having a short body makes the steering pretty easy, and we also installed the "oh crap whoa dangit" from canter to halt, just in case of drama. We long-lined in the lunge ring and also a bit in the arena, learning about figures and not falling around without a fence to hold us upright. I also installed a rein-back on the long lines, using the same voice command and encouraging her to keep her back up.

With that, we only had a little spot of groundwork left, which was to teach her to walk and trot forward with a voice and whip aid. This really helps them translate to the leg aids, which are always the hardest thing to teach a baby. She figured these out quickly, of course. The Dragons are nothing if not good at figuring out responses to aids.

All that left was the actual getting on. This brings us to somewhere in December, near her third birthday, and this is where our progress eased off a little. I've backed dozens of youngsters in my day, but it's been a minute, and I'm not as brave as I used to be. We spent a lot of time standing at the mounting block, hanging over the saddle, bouncing in one stirrup, all that jazz. Wynnie complicated this somewhat with the fact that standing still for more than a minute still eludes her, but she was never actually naughty.

Finally, I abandoned the saddle and slipped on for the first time bareback, and everything was perfectly fine. I fed her a few treats from both sides to let her look around and touch me. She didn't care.

second sit, first pics

The next time, I popped on with the saddle, having broken through that mental barrier, and we were off. Well, sort of. Like most babies, Wynnie was totally happy to accept me on her back but very confused about what I actually wanted up there. We started with a few steps of rein-back and then had to wiggle side to side to get the front feet to move forward. If I'd been a bit bolder about it we would have got it done in a couple of sessions, but I took my time, and we would wiggle forward a few steps at a time (click treating for progress), until at last one day I had K jump on and I led her around a bit. After that, Wynnie set off boldly when I asked.

K and I worked together with Wynnie for the next couple of months. I'd lunge her once a week and take her out, ponying off Lancey, at least once a week. She LOVED ponying and was absolutely angelic for this from the first second---I never had any trouble with her. In fact, sometimes I'd sent her ahead of Lancey if he was spooking at something. She loved climbing hills and bushwhacking through long grass.

I'd also ride her myself once or twice a week and K would do one session until she'd introduced her first canter. Wynnie was surprisingly well-behaved for learning to canter, which is a time when a lot of babies like to throw a playful buck or two. She never had any trouble picking up both canter leads and she was easy and balanced around the dressage arena from the start.

It was a triumphant moment for me when I had my first canter on Wynnie shortly after K installed it. I had way too many youngster-shenanigans to sit through in my misspent youth backing babies for people, but something about Wynnie always gave me confidence. Part of it is just that she feels so much like her mom; her movement is so familiar and comfortable. But I've also spent the past three years playing with my baby pony and getting to know her well enough that I understand she's a spicy little maiden with not a mean hair on her head. We simply cruised into our first canter together like it was no big deal.

Since then, we've been continuing with little rides, just 15 or 20 minutes at a time. It's all light and playful, focusing on having her travel forward and bend in both directions and move off my legs left and right and canter on the correct leg. She has thrown a little buck when fresh that doesn't worry me at all, and has had one or two minor spooks, but on the whole, she is one very good and hardworking and clever baby horse.

She leaves me so excited for the future. God is good.

A Tale of Tails

I was mildly amazed to find out that there are parts of the world where y'all get to ride whatever level you want. I felt a little like a knight-errant would feel, arriving in a foreign court, displaying a mythic sword he found in a castle keep and slew ten dragons to reach, only to find out that Bob the quartermaster has a whole rack of them hanging up in the armory.

It was a timely reminder that our worldly achievements aren't quite as important as we think they are.

Anyway, once we had finally scraped up that last 60%, I realized with a shock that achieving Fourth Level meant we had to actually, you know... ride at Fourth Level. Step one was to obtain the long-desired tailcoat that I'd worked so hard for the right to wear. It turns out that these bloody things cost your left kidney, except that that very day, Erin spotted one on Marketplace for an absolute steal. I figured that the timing aligned (even if I feared it might not fit) for this to be Providence, so I went ahead and bought it that afternoon after the show.

It arrived on the Wednesday when we were in town anyway (more Providence, I tell you). Hubby was jumping out of his skin when we got back to the car, where I tore open the package and he declared it was magnificent. It's had a bit of wear and is kind of pilled but you don't see that on a show photo, do you then?

We rushed home. Hubby put away the groceries while egging me on as I dressed up in the whole shebang for pictures. He made it exceptionally cute and special. When I was a girl looking forward to marriage, nobody told me about this bit---the whole "main cheerleader" thing escaped me. There have been many occasions through the past couple of years that I've voted to press pause on the horse show thing to save cash, and every time he's come up with some other thing we can go without for a little while, all because "Liefie, you're so close to those tails." Well now the tails were here, in the flesh, and he was most certainly not going to pass up the opportunity to do a little photo shoot of them.

Readers, I do not have the budget to pick a stylish outfit for this, okay? I just picked the one I could afford that was hopefully in my size. I am also 5'4" and fighting an eternal battle against my chonky genetics. I expected to look like a cotton ball with a tail. I did not expect that it would look this freaking badass. I am in love. I would like to wear them everywhere. As a side note, my success in the aforementioned fight last year was key to the fact that I can actually fit in them---they're a bit of a squeeze in the boob department, but not uncomfortable. (I appreciate the support, to the contrary).

heck yeah

With the tailcoat acquired, there remained only one piece of the puzzle: actually, um, riding Fourth Level. I'd changed my entry for the first of June to 4-1 instead of 3-1. When I read the test, my heart did a little flip. Of course we'd been working on the Fourth Level movements for more than a year, but playing around with pirouettes and tempis is not the same as actually stringing them together in a test.

I had no expectations of a good score for this show. We'd chased enough scores in the last year. We were just going to go out and give it a bash, and if it wasn't a good mark, it would still be our very first Advanced together and special because of it.

For two weeks, Arwen and I rode the test movements over and over. The one that really surprised me was that funny little HXF, change rein medium trot, showing 7 steps of collected trot over X. Sounds simple enough. Disastrous to ride. We broke, we bucked, we struggled.

I also had trouble showing difference in the pirouette canter steps on a 20m circle. Everything else, though, was surprisingly fine: the canter to halt, the half-pass into a change on the wall which she often wants to anticipate, and---to my joy---the three changes on the diagonal. She liked these and I had to ride them really carefully to avoid a whole lot of anticipation, but she did them cleanly.

lots to fix still, but clean and uphill! (especially for a horse who is actually built pretty downhill)

By last weekend, I felt that we rode 4-1 fairly competently, but I didn't feel entirely ready the way we have been for Third Level lately. I expected a mid-fifties score, if I'm being honest, but that didn't put a damper on anything. I was just so excited to get to ride our first Advanced test, to be at this place in our journey, no matter if we weren't good at it yet.

I also got Arwen clipped. We'd finally obtained our own clippers again but used them to do the kids' ponies the week before, so I was faced with one very hairy dragon and some extremely blunt blades. I sheared the poor beast like a sheep. The worst clip job I've ever done, but at last she was comfortable again.

My ride time was pleasantly late and I spent the morning doing her plaits with a haynet. She seldom gets hay---this is a feral pasture beast we're talking about---so she was happy to nibble while I did her hair. I kept waiting for DragonMode to kick in, but it took a surprisingly long time. Maturity, is that you? (She is 18 after all---maybe we're starting to chill out a little).

We were taking a lovely young client's horse out for her first competition with K as well, and I was a little worried that this mare would be tense to load. I needn't have feared. She waltzed right in without looking back. I, however, lost focus on my dragon, who pulled away from me and merrily gallivanted off into the pasture. I retrieved her, cursing and sweating, from the middle of a gigantic blackjack bush a few moments later and dragged her back to the box with thorns and burrs dripping off us both, only for Arwen to basically trot into the box without looking back. (The client horse stood angelically throughout).

crappy clip, gorgeous plaits. It's all about balance, people

At last, we stuffed ourselves into my dad's bakkie (the SUV's suspension chose the week before the show to sadly expire): hubs, me, my mom, K, and Sokkies, who is a neonatal potbelly pig. I sort of rescued Sokkies' mom when she was really pregnant and she had six lovely, healthy babies, but accidentally stood on Sokkies, necessitating stitches. He is now our latest bottle baby and had to come along because he gets fed every three hours. He is extremely cute but hates me.

the culprit

We hit the road to beloved Penbritte and they traveled like stars, though I had to tie them both quite short because the youngster wanted to sass Arwen, which is never a good idea. I spent the drive convincing myself that I was going to forget to canter in.

Arwen was, again, dry and happy when we arrived. In fact, she seemed positively sleepy as we unloaded and gave her a haynet to pick on while I got us both ready. The youngster was well-behaved and unproblematic throughout.

The only person who was being a little problematic was Sokkies, who was disgusted at the prospect of being in his cat carrier during the show and screamed blue murder at times. Luckily, he didn't spook anybody's horses.

K helpfully tidied up the horrid edges I'd left on her legs. I was just putting Arwen's saddle on when suddenly a familiar car pulled up and out spilled a whole lot of extended family, thoroughly flabbergasting me. With his biggest grin hubby informed that he couldn't let this prestigious first-tailcoat-wearing occasion go unnoticed. He had invited the whole army to witness this historic moment. It was extremely cute.

trying to make us presentable since 2015

Cheerleading squad in tow, we headed to the warmup, leading K and the youngster by the box, where the youngster continued to be impeccable. Arwen didn't care that we left her behind. She knew where she was and what her job was and immediately got to work.

We had a really chill warmup during which we both felt completely relaxed, even though I'd been faintly nauseous with nerves all morning. As soon as I was actually on the horse, doing the thing, I felt completely fine. Arwen warmed up great except that her formerly good change, right to left, was sticky, but her old bad change, left to right, was perfect. Clearly we have overcorrected.

Then it was time to go. Penbritte was 100% the right choice of venue for our first Advanced---everything felt relaxed, normal, and routine. We wandered over to the judge, whose favorite thing ever is to give me 58.7%, so I immediately abandoned all hope of a good mark. While she was writing, we did a little figure eight with changes just to tune them up again. Arwen felt so chill that she was almost a little bit lazy.

Then the bell rang and---lo and behold---I did not forget to canter.

For the first time ever, tails flapping magnificently, we started with A, enter collected canter, X, halt, salute.

She marched down the centreline and had a trot step into the halt, but it was smooth and fluid enough that the judge gave us 7.0, "active entry," an auspicious start. She happily proceeded into trot and then that change of rein in medium trot with the collected steps. Arwen still doesn't quite understand what the heck this is supposed to be, and she stepped sideways in the collected bit, then lacked some boldness in the last bit of medium. It's just a matter of teaching her how it goes---she'll get it. We got 6.0 for that, "more uphill."

it is tragic that no show photographer was around to document the occasion, but my MIL did her best

The half-passes were easy peasy, 7.0 and 6.5. J makes you do so many changes of direction in lateral work that this first mini half-pass zig-zag felt effortless. She lacked boldness in her extended trot---she was sort of waiting for more collected steps---and didn't have her usual swing and reach for 6.5, "more balance." The shoulder-in left was so easy (7.0, "steady") that I sort of panicked that I must have messed it up and responded by messing up the shoulder-in right, 6.5, "too much neck bend."

Then it was time for the walk tour. The turns on the haunches had been giving me the heebie jeebies since Second Level, and now they were walk pirouettes, but I didn't botch them. I carried my whip for this one single movement, switching it from one side to the other so that I could just gently tap her outside butt and remind her that she does have four legs. The moment's fierce concentration it takes my uncoordinated self to switch a whip from side to side proved an excellent way of keeping my focus. We got 6.0 "more fluent" for both, but she kept her rhythm and never crossed her hind legs.

Our collected walk was another 6.0 and she lengthened nicely into the extended, but got a little tight and joggy in the end as she wanted to canter. I'd spent our last few minutes of warmup getting her really sharp off both legs in preparation for those imitation tempis at the end, and she wiggled left and right a bit as I tried to steady her. We got 6.0 for that, "more balance after."

Our marks rose again as she stepped into canter for 6.5, "more active." We had never struggled with the canter half-passes, but I'd watched a video on riding 4-1 at 2am the night before (due to Sokkies, not show nerves) and the coach had said how steep this half-pass was, so I decided that I needed to stare fixedly at B when I turned onto the centreline. I thought I'd missed the centreline completely, and actually had to steady the half-pass a bit to avoid getting there long before B. Sure, they're steep, but it's amazing how much less steep the lateral work is when your horse is 14.3 hands---it feels like you have kilometres of space in there.

flappy tails are a vibe

I believed I'd botched the half-pass but it was 6.5, "more forward." She popped her back up through the change, leading me to believe it was late behind, but it was nicely through for 6.5.

Next was the circle with the pirouette canter steps. This is another movement I know we can nail with more practice. It was a little wobbly here, and she almost halted on the centreline, but we scraped it together for 6.0, "more sitting."

We rode a bold medium canter for 6.5, "more uphill," and I focused on the accuracy during the next half-pass but kind of abandoned the bend a little for 6.0, "more bend." She really anticipated the next flying change, yet waited well for my aid, then gave the change a little explosively for 6.0, "more synchronized."

I really rode the extended canter but we still got 6.0, "hurried," and 6.0 for the transitions, "more uphill."

so proud of how she was in the bridle

Then came the big moment: the change of rein KXM with three flying changes---quarterline, centreline, and quarterline. This is obviously the preparation for the threes and fours, but without the pressure of counting. I set her up as well as I could and underrode the first change a bit; it wasn't quite through. The next two changes were through and on the aid, though, and we got 6.5, "more straight."

She was absolutely on fire by this point---extended canter followed by practice tempis will do that to her---and I had to sort of wrangle her down to trot for 6.5, "more uphill." She was pulling and excited as we turned down the centreline but absolutely obedient into a square halt, albeit taking one step back to correct herself. That earned us 6.5, "more balance."

the light in her tail 💜

Our collectives were more of the same: 6.5 for paces, 6.0 for impulsion with elasticity, suppleness and engagement underlined, 6.5 for submission, 6.5 for rider position, and 6.0 for aids. The final mark was 63.28% with the comment "A willing horse but not always in balance today. Could be lighter in the forehand, especially in lengthened work."

I was beyond happy as we headed out. It felt like our most harmonious test yet. She was focused, attentive, happy to be there, and listening to all of my aids. The same could have been said for me. We were so in sync. It was amazing; it was the magical part of dressage. I expected nothing from our scores and didn't care. We'd come out and done it, and it felt harmonious and calm instead of laboured or messy.

Arwen was happy to return to her haynet and some water while I fed Sokkies and then headed off for two things: my test and (more importantly) chippies. Both were highly satisfactory, especially because I ate the chippies sitting in the restaurant in my tailcoat and feeling very cool, but also because our final mark was almost 5% more than we've ever achieved with this specific judge. It was also good enough for first place (okay, out of two), and Penbritte's ribbons do not disappoint.

I couldn't have asked for a happier day.

God is good.

new halter bc you have to have a nice new halter when you're an advanced horse