Gauteng Champs 2024 Part One: Warmup and Qualifier

I know it's been like... two months since this show, but here we go anyway!

I promise that we do things other than horse shows, even though the blog might not reflect that fact this year. Skye, Wynnie, Raya, Lancey, and all the others are alive and well and still being loved. In fact, Wynnie has had some early training which I'll post about later. For now, let's recap one of the most epic horse experiences I've ever had.

In 10 years of dressage, I've never ridden my own horse in a championship show. I rode a client horse in Prelim at Nationals one year, which sucked for many reasons and crushed the fragile little flower of my ever-struggling confidence, and sort of avoided it ever since. This year, though, with Arwen on fire (in both good and bad ways), it was time to give it a shot.

The whole thing turned out to be not as expensive as I'd feared. The composite entry fee turned out no more expensive per class than an ordinary dressage show and KPC charged no non-member fee because it was a championship show, so that was fabulous. Stabling did add to that somewhat, but was less expensive than fuel for driving up and down. In the end, it was a surprisingly cost-effective way to earn grading points. May my poor American readers read it and weep---the stabling and entries together for a prestigious four-day dressage show at one of the nicest venues in the country worked out to US$128. I'm awfully sorry. We also got free sherry, albeit at nine in the morning, so my lightweight butt skipped that one.

Very dear relatives of ours live fifteen minutes from KPC, so we stayed with them and had a truly fabulous time hanging out with them all weekend. They were a definite highlight of the show.

I spent Thursday running around, trying to get everything in order for us to leave the farm for three nights and being quite frantic. Still, we got Arwen plaited and on the box by one in the afternoon as planned. As we were packing, I threw in her double bridle, then eyed the snaffle bridle she only really uses for hacking and lungeing. I guessed I wouldn't need it, but grabbed it anyway. Lucky I did. 

Poor old Arwen had to be squished into one partition while we packed all her hay and bedding on the other side. She was a real superstar about this, but it was hot and she was alone, so she arrived really sweaty at KPC. I'd hoped to get her clipped before the show and failed; as a result, her coat was super yucky the entire time, because one of us sweats like a pig and the weather was really nice. Luckily for us, dressage is not a beauty pageant, so I did my best but didn't let it get to me.

She was pretty chill when we arrived---much more so than she had been arriving alone at Easter Fest in April---and stood tied quite happily while I tacked up. However, I could see that we would have challenges to face that weekend. Only eight horses competed in the warmups on Thursday, which were for Third Level through to Grand Prix only. While many horses had arrived to the stables, these are all the way on the other side of the property from the dressage arenas. A few horses drifted around the warmups, but we were mostly on our own---and the last horse and rider to go in that day.

I jumped on without much ado and headed to the warmup, feeling a little tense after our less-than-great experience at our last show. This feeling did not get better as we passed another warmup arena fulled with riders who were passaging and one-tempi-ing around, but I felt greatly reassured when we approached our warmup and discovered a kind and friendly lady doing late-behind changes on a magnificent grey horse. We had found our people.

She warmed up super great. She was instantly professional with none of the fussiness we'd had at Eaton Farm, honestly never putting a foot wrong. In fact, everything was peachy until we headed down the centreline for our test and all the other horses evaporated from the known universe. Arwen trotted down, obediently halted square, yanked the reins through my hands and dramatically flipped her head left and right. I scraped the reins together and managed a salute, albeit one without as much flair as hers.

much elegance, greatly dressage

It all went downhill from there. She was rushy and tight; I got a little rushy and tight myself, but didn't quit riding, so that was a small victory for me. She dived behind the vertical---something she's almost never done before---and I spent the whole test juggling my curb rein between super loose and grabbing it when she was trying to bomb off. It was a hot mess. I didn't even keep the test papers because it was so uncharacteristic for us, but I know we had a few sixes and sevens and a few well-earned threes and fours. She broke in the walk and the extended trot, bucked through the first change, and spooked into the second one. The thing that nailed us the most was the connection---my usually rock-solid dragon was all over the place, fussy, BTV at times despite my best efforts, and flipping her head anytime she got the chance.

To her great credit, she didn't pull out any of her previous signature moves when she's tense. She didn't buck into the canter transition and her halts were absolutely rock solid. Even when she threw her head, she didn't move her feet one inch.

I didn't quite get what had gone wrong until I looked up as we walked out and realized that all the horses had vanished. I could hardly blame her for how she'd behaved, but I'll be honest, I was a bit slow to realize just how much separation would affect us at this show. This particular test was a train wreck: 55%.

We conducted the first of many long hacks from the arenas to the stables, and for the whole show, this was a fairly miserable experience---not just for me, but other competitors as well. Arwen hacks out alone just fine at home, but she jigged and squealed all the way to the stables, for which I couldn't blame her. I didn't try to modify this behaviour all show long, just to be as reassuring as possible until we could get back to the "herd." A school of thought exists in horsemanship that the horse should be a good little robot and not be bothered if they can't see other horses. While some horses certainly can learn to cope on their own (exhibit A being Lancey, who honestly doesn't care), it's not something I *expect* from my horses. It goes so deeply against the core of what they are as a species. So we just sort of handled this as well as we could for this show. She was OK as long as we were at the stables or arena where we could see friends; in between, she was never rude, but tense and upset. Again, couldn't blame her.

When we got to the stables, we found that we were in the same row as several of our old friends from the Friesian stud, so that was lovely. Arwen was a little busy in her stable but not making any attempts to pace or jump out. I wrapped her legs with Ice Tite since they fill overnight if she's in, and this worked like a charm all weekend---they never filled at all. Finally, I gave my hairy beast its handful of dinner and put on its thin sheet while everyone else fed their warmblood bucketfuls and wrapped them in duvets.

She was more relaxed than I'd expected when we arrived the next morning. She'd eaten a mountain of hay, pooped like a champion, and had cool, dry legs. This was the only night she didn't lie down to sleep, though, and the moment I'd fed her and took her out of the stable to hose the Ice Tite off her legs, she was a firecracker. My nerves did not help the situation whatsoever. I tried to keep a lid on things as I saddled her up and headed to the warmup arena next to the stables to see how she was in the snaffle.

screenshot from the test bc this is becoming a wall of text

The snaffle was a hit. My riding was not. Arwen was tense and rushing in the extreme. Her walk was OK, her canter was fabulous, but she ran in the trot while pulling and being BTV at the same time. I felt like I was torturing my horse, which didn't help. She kept napping toward the dressage arenas (not the stables) and her electricity wasn't her usual dragon sass, it was genuine anxiety. I hated the feeling. She hated that I hated it. Things went downhill from there. I tried using Thunder's usual brain-reset activity, which is to halt and rein back when he starts to ignore my aids. It works great on him. It made the dragon absolutely furious. I, ever slow, kept reining her back when she got hot, apparently not realising that this only made her hotter and hotter. It was a disaster.

When my poor, longsuffering, undeserving husband enquired for the sixth time when my ride time was, I may or may not have had a magnificent meltdown. I halted Arwen (who stood, to her great credit) and threw my reins down like a toddler. "My horse won't listen to me and neither will my husband," I wailed at this unlucky soul. "I want to go home."

Instead of yelling at me, which any sane person in the world would justifiably have done, this pure and gentle man of mine said, in the kindest of tones, "No, you don't. You can do this. She can do this. We're not going home."

I breathed deep and walked my horse around on a long rein. We were both tired and sweaty after half an hour of struggling, and it was tempting to drill more, but it wasn't good for either of us---least of all the dragon. We made peace in walk and then I hosed her and put her away to rest for a couple of hours until it was time to warm up for our test.

Things already felt better as we headed to the warmup. Arwen relaxed as soon as we reached the dressage arenas, and while she was still rushing somewhat in trot, she felt a thousand times better in the connection and in her mental state. This was more typical Spice Dragon behaviour than anxiety. A lot to manage, but not unhappy in herself, which made me feel much better as well. 

We charged down centreline with two judges watching. I didn't have much brakes, but we scraped out a solid first halt (C 7.0 "good halt, slight deviation behind", B 6.0 "past X, not square behind"). She bombed off and wanted to fall through the first corner but we scraped it together and I rode extremely conservatively into the first medium trot. She still dropped a little in the connection but didn't rush. The judge at B liked it (7.0) but C said 6.0, "BTV, hurried". Sometimes Arwen gets "hurried" simply for having short legs, but the BTV was valid. She came back beautifully for 7.0 from both judges for the shoulder-in right, and though she wanted to fall out on the half circles a little, we communicated and sorted it out for 7.5 from the judge at B ("accurate") and 7.0 from the judge at C.

I worked hard to keep her from getting tight in the neck, but couldn't quite keep it together for the half-pass left, which garnered a 6.5 from both judges (C "BTV, more position"). I slipped up in the extended trot and rode it like I normally do, not like I would do on an active inferno of a dragon, so we rode lovely transitions up and down but broke in the middle and lost our balance. The judge at C gave us a 4.0 for the trot ("very hurried, losing rhythm") and 6.0 for the transitions; B was a bit more generous with a 5.0 ("showing difference, then lost balance and rhythm") and 7.0 for the transitions.

We got it together and didn't let the mistake get to us. Fired up though she was, she halted absolutely dead still and gave me a fluid rein-back (C 7.0, B 6.5 "almost square, willing rein-back"). The shoulder-ins really helped to lift her into the bridle, so we got 7.0 from both judges for the shoulder-in and the half circles. The half-pass right is her harder side but still got a 7.0 from the judge at C, though the judge at B saw "slight neck bend" and gave us a 6.5.

She came back to walk beautifully for me and I stayed awake for the turn on the haunches, riding it as well as I could, which is much better than my track record of totally falling to bits in the TOH. The judge at B liked it for 7.0, but the judge at C saw that she stuck for a step with both hind legs and gave us 4.0. We had the same mark and comment from the C judge for the next TOH; the judge at B gave 6.5, "more active behind." Still, despite her spicy feeling, she remained beautifully smooth and rhythmic in the medium walk in between and didn't break. She was trying so hard despite feeling her oats---it was fantastic. We got a 7.0 and a 6.5 for the walk.

Things did go a bit wrong in our extended walk, though, when I dropped her a little and she took two trot steps, garnering a 5.0 from B ("some tension") and a 4.0 from C ("trotting behind"). Still, she came back perfectly when asked and was completely relaxed and obedient into the transition to canter for 7.0 from both judges---a little triumph for us both. She felt much better in the bridle in canter, too, although I lost control of her inside shoulder for a few strides in the corner. The judge at B spotted us and gave us 6.0 for the half-pass; we got a 7.0 from the judge at C. Her half circle and flying change was a 6.5 (B: "on the aid") and a 4.0 (C: "late behind"), which just shows you how much angles matter.

We kept our balance nicely into the next half-pass (B: 6.5, "more supple", C 7.0) and had a really clean but slightly bouncy change right to left, which is our better side (B: 6.5, "hop and change", C: 7.0). All that was left was the extended canter, during which I dearly missed the double bridle because we had very, very little brakes. The judge at B liked it (7.0, "bold" lol) although the judge at C gave it 6.0, "more ground cover". Their marks were identical for the transitions - 7.0 from the judge at B, 6.0 from the judge at C. I felt that our upward was fabulous but the downward was something of a wrestling match as Arwen would gladly have galloped the rest of the test.

She wasn't particularly keen on going down to collected trot either but did it obediently and on the marker, albeit dropping BTV for a stride, getting a 7.0 and a 6.5 for that. Despite the fact that I felt like I was sitting on a runaway jet ski down centreline, her halt was absolutely perfect, and neither judge could help but give her an 8.0 for that.

I was so pleased as we headed out of the arena. She was a total firecracker, sure, for a variety of understandable reasons, but she gave me absolutely everything in there. The few mistakes were mine and though it was a constant struggle to keep the connection solid, I actually showed up for it and worked every step of the test to keep her poll up. Despite her tension, she also didn't pull out any of her usual habits when she's feeling spicy, like dancing in her halt or bucking into her canter transition. I couldn't have asked for better and I was over the moon with how we pulled ourselves together after a particularly tough morning.

We were all smiles as we headed back to the stables, and our score gave me reason for more smiles. We got 7.0 and 7.0 for paces, 7.0 and 6.5 for impulsion, 6.5 and 6.0 for submission, 7.0 and 7.0 for rider position, and 6.5 and 6.5 for use of aids. Our overall marks were 65.375 ("some pleasant work shown") and 63.250 ("a willing horse needs to work more over a supple back to produce more ground cover and fluency"), for a final mark of 64.31%.

I was over the moon with that. It took a lot from both of us to pull out a personal best score under tough circumstances and riding against the best riders in the country. We placed 11th out of 25 riders---definitely the best we've done in such good company. To my amazement, we even qualified for the championship class the next day.

We spent the rest of Friday just relaxing with the relatives, taking Arwen for the odd walk and keeping her happy. Some neighbors had moved into the stables and she was totally content in there. I slept well that night knowing that my dragon was just fine and ready for the championship.

God is good.