Easter Festival 2024

 Two of the best shows of the year are clustered together in our calendar. For some reason, they both fall in the height of African horse sickness season, so it's always a bit touch and go whether we'll be able to attend. Since AHS is midge-borne instead of being directly contagious, I'll usually show as long as there aren't active cases in the area where the show is or in our home area. This has (praise God) been a quiet AHS year in our area so far and we were happy to be able to enter the dressage.

Easter Fest is a week-long celebration of all things horse, with all the disciplines together at Kyalami Park, plus a huge showjumping competition at the end that also features amazing shopping. I love competing in the dressage on the weekend before Easter and then getting to watch the jumping on Easter Monday; it negates that FOMO from watching a show instead of riding. Plus, as always, it's a great way to gain grading points and experience. So we entered Arwen in Third 1.

My ride time was 14:03, which made for a peaceful morning---altogether too peaceful, actually. I haven't shown on my own without kids to worry about in ages, and thus I spent the morning buggering around instead of actually, you know, getting ready. We were a bit late by the time I finally threw Arwen's plaits in and loaded her up, but I didn't let it get to me. It all felt quite relaxed and low pressure even though this is quite a big show.

Arwen was soaked when we arrived at Easter, but traveled well; I think she genuinely gets hot in the horsebox so I'll experiment with traveling her naked for the next show. Either way, she stepped into the parking lot like she owned the place. Picking up on my adrenaline and also revelling in her majestic dragonness, Arwen proceeded to paw and dance around---even trying to get back on the box---while I tried to get dressed and get the stains off her legs.

With hubby's impeccable help, we managed to wrangle the dragon into her tack and I hopped on about twenty-five minutes before her test. I'd have preferred thirty, but it was fine. Hubby trailed behind with a suitable balance of sports drinks, energy bars, and my jacket, faithful as ever, while Arwen and I marched to the warmup.

While "marched" was the operative word, Arwen was all business the moment I got on. There was no dragoning around to be had now that we were working. She warmed up absolutely phenomenal, stretched down the moment I asked, listened to my aids, and offered no drama. The first few changes were a bit explosive but that's pretty normal even at home. We waved hello to Lady Lionheart in the warmup; she has an ammy owner now and looks as happy as a clam, which was first prize (the fact that Arwen kicked her butt was a distant second).

Before I knew it, Arwen felt chill and ready. We took a short breather and a sip of water in the shade courtesy of the most magnificent horse show hubby you ever saw, and then we headed into the big old Peter Minnie where we'd won our working riding three weekends before.

maybe back off the inside rein a little Mrs. Sadler

During dressage shows, the Minnie has a tendency toward a lot of Atmosphere. It's got a looming show office, grandstands, lots of sponsors' flags, and three judges' boxes per arena. One of the Friesians I used to ride ran absolutely the heck away with me in there at my first and only SA Champs in 2021. But Arwen marched into that place like she owned it. She sneered at the judges and we headed down centreline feeling incredible---maybe a little more electric than usual, but focused and listening.

I don't have my usual play-by-play account because some kind soul helpfully fetched my dressage test right before the kind soul I had assigned to the task got there, so it's vanished into the aether, but I know that it was the best Third Level test I've ridden. I made mistakes, obviously, but they were much more minor than forgetting how to canter or breaking for half our long diagonal like last time.

Looking at the video, we had a nice first centreline, then a bit too much angle in our shoulder-in left. The half-pass could have crossed over a bit more, not helped by the fact that the I to H half-pass is really long and shallow for our short legs. We had a tiny miscommunication in the corner when I shortened my inside rein and Arwen thought maybe we should canter, so we took one little canter step and then came straight back to trot, which was kind of hilarious. The shoulder-in right was better but the half-pass was quarters leading at first, corrected near the middle. Our medium trot was fab and so was our halt and rein-back.

The extended walk was fine and so was the first turn on the haunches. I asked for a bit too much going into the second TOH and we had several jog steps, which I'm sure hit our marks pretty hard, but we sorted it out quickly and went on to a really nice walk to canter transition. The medium canter was fine and so was our 10m circle. I felt like our change was fairly nice, but in the video it was a bit close behind.

The extended canter was nothing if not fierce. It certainly needs a bit more sit-and-push as opposed to HAHAHAHA CHARGING INTO BATTLE but there was plenty of difference and the transition down was super nice. We had another nice 10m circle and another close-behind change.

Finally, we had the transition to trot and then the extended trot on the long diagonal, and I tear up a little bit watching the video. This little mare of mine has many, many natural strong points, but she wasn't born with a big trot, yet in her extended trot she absolutely gives everything she's got. She flicks those toes like she's fancy and has so much push and engagement and overtrack it's actually insane. Obviously we will never score like a purpose-bred horse---rightfully so, people spend a lot of money and effort purpose-breeding horses for this sport---but this mare gives every shred of physical ability she's got.

I was beaming as we finished our last centreline. We obviously got the usual knock in scores from riding at a big show with the pros, but we still achieved our goal of over 60%. I felt like it was a much better test than the February one that got 63%, but it was 60.7%, which is just fine. Every second on my lionhearted mare was a privilege with DH by my side.

Grateful for the honor of making memories like these. God is good!

Horse of the Year 2024 - Supremes

 With Wynnie, Faith, Erin's mare and my lovely helpers all shipped back to the farm with hubby, I had an afternoon to hang out at the horse park, never a sad thing to be stuck doing. I watched Erin ride her borrowed mare admirably in a huge championship class, then watched some of the big SASA classes until a thunderstorm arrived. At that point I beat a hasty retreat to Arwen's stable.

We spent a pleasant evening hand grazing when the weather allowed or just chilling while I scrolled on my phone and hung out with my fantastic horse. She was the most relaxed she's ever been in a show stable, snoozing away while I sat in the shavings. It was a very pleasant and contemplative way to spend the evening.

Hubby arrived back in record time, and I dressed her up in her clown suit to stay clean, kissed her goodnight and hopped into the car with hubby. We headed to my brother-in-law's house, where a hot dinner, welcoming arms, and a truly fantastic long hot shower were waiting for us. Erin kindly did night check and sent me a photo of a very happy and well-behaved dragon.

was she chill? yes. did I still put ropes over her door? also yes

The next morning, the class only started at 10:45. We got there feeling fresh and rested around 8. Arwen was totally chill and happy, so I fed her and then took her for a hack. She was a little up when we got out of sight of other horses, but settled beautifully and schooled really nicely in the arena.

Then, thanks to the thunderstorm the day before, the announcer let us know that the classes were running late. So I put the finishing touches on her mane and we wandered off to get breakfast and watch the working hunter... which ran really really short.

The next thing I knew, the announcer was calling the working riding class in---not only on time, but early.

Fifteen minutes of panic ensued. To Rain and Erin's total dismay, I simply didn't have time to sort out the last details of Arwen's turnout. I threw on her tack, scrambled on, and cantered across the warmup arena and into the Bob Charter. That was my warmup.

I found myself second in line, after the Appaloosa working riding champion. Arwen, to her intense credit, was totally relaxed. She didn't let my frazzlement bother her in the least. My frazzlement, however, was considerable. I realized that I hadn't gotten to picking up my test and had no idea what it was. Luckily the very friendly lady on the warmblood champion next to me told me the whole thing. Thank you very much, friendly lady.

With that our names were called, and sans warmup, Arwen and I headed into our second ever working riding supremes.

jumping is not my thing, can you tell?

I wish I could say I rode as well as I had the day before, because if I had, we could have ribboned. Instead, my brain fell out and oozed around on the floor. We cantered up and popped over the jump at number one, then trotted into a lane, halted, and reined-back out with no trouble at all. The wheels fell off a bit at the fan, where I sort of... didn't turn at all, necessitating some scrambling from Arwen.

We proceeded to a pair of barrels, one with a flag on it. She stood quietly for me to pick up the flag and trotted nicely around the second barrel, but my blazing adrenaline was starting to get to both of us, and she fidgeted as I set the flag down again. We had a very short distance to show a lengthened canter I went for it but didn't really let her stretch out, so instead we did a credible impressing of a bouncy ball to the last obstacle, a mat. She cantered onto it and halted nicely, but by then I'd overridden so much that she had resorted to Dragonmode and she piaffed merrily for five seconds instead of halting.

That brought an end to our Supremes test. I was a little bummed that I'd let my brain fall out again, but Arwen was a lot better than last year. It was by no means a disaster---just not the test we'd had the day before, which could have put us in the ribbons.

I felt a bit like I'd let her down as we rode out of the arena, then realized that this is absurd. As far as Arwen was concerned, she'd had a kick-ass time. She was glowing as we strolled to the stables and I couldn't have been prouder of her. I wasn't happy with my performance, sure, but that couldn't detract from the fact that we'd had an amazing weekend with horses and people we love.

This world is so filled with love and splendor that it takes my breath away sometimes. God is good.