One Last Elementary-Medium

 Thunder is currently enjoying a light couple of weeks after lots of work for the beginning of March. We were entered for what was to be our last EM on Sunday the 6th.

I got stuck at Elementary (2nd) for an inordinately long time. Four years, to be exact, although not on the same horse. After riding Arwen up to Elementary based on Internet knowledge and a single, lonely dressage lesson, I was then blessed with Coach J, and basically had to relearn how to ride from scratch. Thunder and I eventually built our way back up to Elementary, and then there was the pandemic and my money troubles of 2019, and eventually we got to the place we were two weeks ago: test riding Medium competently, playing with Advanced, and yet graded only at Elementary.

At least one can ride a single grade higher than you're registered in, so EM was an option, although it must be said that the early EM tests are virtually identical to the late Elementary tests. You get a travers and an easy half-pass but the rest is all counter-canter and simple changes. (Flying changes come in during tests 4, 5 and 6, but somehow things always worked out so that I was riding tests 1 and 2). I was getting a little jaded, and more than that, EM is the highest level where you're allowed to ride two tests per day (almost always back-to-back with the way our shows are structured). You ride two tests, each almost seven minutes long, with a brief break in between while the judge writes. At Medium, Advanced and obviously the FEI levels, you only ride one. EM is a bit brutal like that. At least, maybe EM is only brutal if you're on the struggle bus, but I digress.

So we EM'd our hearts out last year and only needed two more points (a score over 60% being worth 1 point, over 65% being worth 2 points, and so on) before we could upgrade to officially EM (able to compete at Medium). I was SO READY to leave EM world behind and move into a world of half-passes, flying changes, one test per day and no canter-to-walk transitions.

Anyway, we didn't put a lot of preparation into last weekend's show, since he had done EM 1 and 2 a thousand times by this point and knew the tests better than I did. I schooled him as normal on Monday and Tuesday and then we had a lesson on Wednesday with Coach J.

I took no pictures all week but Auntie H took millions of us being cute at the show

I did tell Coach that we had a show on Sunday but that it was tests we were very comfortable with and didn't really need preparation just to get our points. By that point I knew that I was riding against W, who rides the higher-grade horses at work, on Shy Boy who is super obedient, amazing in his body - and has the blessing of enormous gaits. TBird can equal or beat him in the first two departments but decidedly not in the third, LOL. So I knew we weren't going to be winning ribbons and felt confident that we could get our points without having to have a lesson on these two tests.

The one thing I did NEED to work on, though, was those hateful TOH that I just seem incapable of doing in the show ring. I think it's in my head at this point because I can actually feel good ones now (which is a fairly recent development), and ride good ones at home most of the time, but the week before a show they just start to crumble. Thunder is more than capable of 7s on his TOH, his mother just needs to get out of her own mind so much. Anyway, we worked on the walk pirouettes on a square like Coach normally has me do until they were good, and then we did some half-passes in walk with pirouettes randomly thrown in to keep him stepping over (and keep me focusing on his hind legs and not his mouth).

As the lesson went on, Coach started to throw in some walk-canter-walk transitions in the half-pass. I was unsure of these and overrode them at first but Thunder obviously did them very nicely when I asked nicely, maintaining bend, balance and sideways movement through the transitions. Still an exercise I need to practice a lot though, to smooth it all out, but the penny dropped nicely towards the end.

Finally, Coach had me riding a "big walk pirouette" - walk pirouette with his tail making a volte, about 5-8 metres. This was very easy for us both. We were doing this nicely when Coach said, "OK, now canter your pirouette" and I immediately forgot all of the aids and kicked Thunder so that he bolted forward, kicked at my spur and squealed. Sorry, my dude. Suitably unimpressed, Coach ordered me to stop overthinking and just ride the walk pirouette and then ask him to canter on just like we'd been doing in the half-passes. And that was how Thunder and I rode our first four or five strides of something like a large canter pirouette.

Yes, he's the best. Bask in his glory

We repeated this on both reins and honestly, it was very messy and I am not good at this, but the building blocks were absolutely there. Sure, he did lose his throughness, bend and balance a bit but it was a collected sideways canter in a large pirouette shape, and that's a start. Everything is there for the proper pirouettes - it's a matter of practice for us now, not only to strengthen him, but to build my confidence and get him to learn the movement. Thunder is really good at learning tricks extremely quickly, so he will pick up on the movement fast, and then things will be much easier to smooth out. Of course, it's going to be months before we have an actual canter pirouette of any description, but I still never actually dreamed that my coach would use the words "canter" and "pirouette" in the same sentence with Thunder and I, so this felt like a really exciting step.

Coach was very pleased as well, saying that once he has the pirouettes, he has everything he needs to go all the way to PSG. Obviously not yet in the quality or level of difficulty required - but the basic version of each of the PSG movements. And considering that I am an anxious mess, and that he is a farm donkey, that's pretty exciting and amazing. Just six months ago I was asking Coach what sort of level would ever be fair to ask of him, feeling like we could bottom out at Medium and not wanting to hurt my horse by asking for more - and now we're starting to work on the Small Tour stuff.

On this high note, we had a fairly relaxed Thursday and Friday, just working through our tests and remembering how to do the simple changes (he kept wanting to do canter to halt or flying changes). He knows EM 1 and 2 super well by now and will even help me out if I get lost so he very quickly realized what we were doing. He actually felt a bit bored in the tests. Not that we do them perfectly, but he just sort of felt a bit unenthusiastic about it all. Not resistant in the least, just sort of ho-hum, not the firecracker Thunder I have when we're test riding Medium. I had sort of the same vibe myself - looking forward to it, excited to ride well, but getting a little jaded with these specific tests. I've been riding them on Shy Boy and Lady Lionheart for more than a year too.

His coat looks so much better 💜

Sunday came along with nice late ride times and the prospect of my own first Medium on Lady Lionheart. Thunder was first, though. The show was at a venue we know well but in the indoor instead of its large outdoor. I had some trepidation about showing him in the indoor for the first time but didn't want to shell out the cash to school in it first, and besides, he is a big boy and I should start treating him like one. (Also I was deeply enthused to ride in the shade - I can't wait for DSA to realize that making us ride with jackets at little local shows in the middle of an African summer is just silly). 

Of course, TBird, who spooks at the same teeny birds EVERY TIME I try to ride him out, strutted into the spooky indoor without a second glance at spectators, stuff happening outside the arena, jumps piled in shady corners by the viewing area, etc. He just went in there, said "ah yes, this again" and did his thing like a good boy. I know one should cultivate a somewhat more amped state of mind for real competing, but honestly this was the most competitively I have ever ridden. I was so chill about it and he was so chill about it that we could focus on each movement and ride properly. It felt unexciting, but competent, relaxed and easy. Except the TOH, of course. I panicked in those and they were a train wreck, "stuck behind" as usual.

The scores reflected as much. We had a 61% and a 64%. Not much was particularly wow - we garnered a handful of 7s, an 8 for the extended walk (now that's more like it), and then 5s for the TOH. He also broke in one of his mediums for a 4.0, which cost us those few extra percent in EM 1 where we got the 61, but it paid off honestly because he suddenly realized that I will actually get after him about lazy mediums in the show ring so he pulled 6.5s for all his other mediums that day. This is not bad at all for him considering that, for his natural ability, the medium trot is absolutely the most difficult movement for him. Clearly it's mother that needs to get her act together to hit the high 60s and 70s.

Another huge achievement for us, despite the mediocre marks, was that I rode him completely without a whip from start to finish at this show. This is enormous for us because just a few months ago I couldn't even get him into canter without a whip. I did have my spurs, but I only used them lightly, barring one or two little reminders in the ring. I didn't have to kick at all. In fact I didn't even think about not having my whip, and I didn't panic in the walk-to-canter like I usually do, and everything was completely fine. I didn't even warm up with a whip! I am overjoyed about this. Not only does it mean that we don't have to worry about not having a whip when we go to the higher levels or ride in a championship test, but for me it's symptomatic of having a horse who is a thousand times happier and more comfortable in his work than before. I wasn't dragging him through the test the way I was dragging him through his first few EM tests in Jan/Feb/Mar 2021 - we actually had one show in February 2021 where I couldn't get him to canter a few times. But now we were just... doing the thing. Quietly, no worries, no fuss, both relaxed, both ready for it, made a few mistakes but didn't let it get to us, just going happily about our business. I honestly don't even care about the marks, I think this was our best show to date.

Possibly my new favorite photo of him

The judge seemed to agree; as always she commented that he needed more engagement but also said "Lovely harmony - a steady partnership", which seemed to summarize the feeling I had in the ring so well.

After this I covered him in all his fly things again and shoved him into a show stable (where he behaved impeccably for the first time in his life - thank you sir) and jumped on Lady Lionheart for our mutual first Medium. LL is obviously a ridiculously talented animal and she's a schoolmistress to me. I rode her for seven months when I first started at the Friesians and then she went to Coach J for schooling and to get her Sport predicate. He competed her extensively in the EM, and then after she got her Sport she returned in October and I started riding her again. So I know her well, but also am not yet fully there with all of her new buttons, and haven't competed her a lot myself. She is absurdly well schooled and unbelievably talented and also had a super temperament to boot - a firecracker of a mare but absolutely reliable and I trust her down to the marrow of my bones.

So it was very exciting to ride my first Medium on her, and while the marks weren't amazing, there are a lot of little things there that I can fix. The first was that I was a bit conservative because she is ON FIRE at home and I expected her to be hot, but she was actually far more chill at the show than at home, so I could have used my whip and woken her up in the warmup instead of concentrating on settling her down like I do at home. And the second was that I bombed the collected walk completely because I was dead nervous of not showing enough walk, so I showed too much - a mark we can easily improve. Anyway, the rest of it was pretty solid, not spectacular but solid, for a 60% - which was OK for our first go, but definitely something to improve on.

Good little LL!

All in all, it was a successful Sunday, but not quite as successful as Wynnie's Saturday - which I'll write about in the next post.

God is good!