Penbritte Thoroughbred Series 2024

 September didn't present any suitable opportunities for local shows. We skipped our national championships—the entries were expensive for only two or three classes—and took the opportunity to hang out at home, take a couple of lessons, completely break the flying change to the right, and repair it.

I have so much happy news about the other horsies at home, but for now, let's talk about the main quest: qualifying for Advanced. Arwen and I had six points after Gauteng Champs and needed ten to reach the next level and earn our tailcoat, so now that plenty of fun local shows are happening, we're hitting them as much as we can.

We started with a trip back to our favourite venue last weekend. Penbritte is perfect in every way, from its footing to its show stables to its genuinely delicious pizza, so I looked forward to a chill day out. The forecast was devastatingly hot, and it felt nice and balmy when I fetched Arwen from the field at 6:15.

By 6:30, we were on the road with Arwen and Mawarda for a kiddo. Arwen loaded with a hint of wariness, but I couldn't blame her for that---we've been using the horsebox as a temporary chicken coop after a major storm destroyed one of ours. She nipped at Mawarda's nose and earned herself a tight leash on the hour's journey to Penbritte, but she was only moderately sweaty when she arrived and looked very chill when we disembarked.

I promptly realized I'd cut things a bit fine with our timing. We arrived at 7:30, and my ride time was 8:20, which would have been perfect, except that I still had to get both horses settled in their stables. This is normally my darling husband's job, but a stable cat appeared at that moment, making adorable noises and rolling over to have its tummy stroked. This rendered my husband thoroughly enchanted. He forgot that wives and horses existed at all and lost himself in a joyous world of friendly kitties.

I scrambled out of the stable with my bridle all hanging out of its keepers in a terrific fuss. DH snapped out of it at this point and filled water buckets while I struggled into my boots and charged off to the warmup, leaving this longsuffering man to sort out the complete tornado I'd created in the process of tacking up.

Arwen, at least, was a thousand times more relaxed than she'd been at Gauteng Champs. She strolled on a loose rein to the warmup and didn't even mind when I accidentally shut the paddock gate on her hind fetlock (equestrian of the year, I know). Our competition, a majestic warmblood, was being well-behaved in the vast warmup when we arrived, and Arwen happily did her walk work. She was a little rushy stepping into the trot, but after a few quiet reminders, we even had a stretchy trot almost right away. It was chalk and cheese compared to Gauteng Champs or even Eaton Farm. I had my horse back.

Of course, my horse is still the Dragon, so when I asked her to canter we got a few handstands instead. This is pretty normal behaviour for her so we just went back to walk and tried again. She was gorgeous; into the bridle, forward but not racing off, and collecting every time I asked. We had a few more bucks through our changes, but after some practice, she settled and felt good.

I think the day that Arwen doesn't give me a little extra sass at a show will be the day I know she's done. Her tension at Gauteng Champs was real worry and anxiety, but this? This is just who she is - somebody who gets excited about life. I don't expect her to be a happy little robot. She's a majestic beast with loud opinions and a cheeky streak, and I love it.

We had a little less time to warm up than I would have liked (thanks for nothing, adorable cat/Firn's brain), but we still felt fine as we headed in. Arwen had a moment of worry when she glanced around to make sure that all the horses in the world didn't abandon her again, but the sight of several horsies in the parking lot reassured her, so she gave one whinny and then relaxed about that. We halted by the judge, who made me introduce myself (talking to people, eek). I then noticed that the strap of Arwen's noseband had escaped its keeper. Knowing there was a livestream, I decided to fix it real quick so that it wouldn't flap around on the video. That gave us this true gem which garnered over a thousand likes on Shitedressageunited, I'll have you know. (Equestrian of the year once again).

Crisis averted, we headed in for our test. I immediately felt that our trot was much less rushed than before and she felt steady in the bridle, to my tremendous relief. I had an issue with looking at her neck instead of at the letters for most of this test. This was pretty dumb, but in my defense, I was concentrating really hard on keeping her from diving behind the contact. So our first halt was an uncharacteristic 6.0, "not quite on center line after entry, not quite square." This judge never likes our medium or extended trot so I'm not surprised that our very sexy medium was a 6.0, "slightly hurried, needs ground cover." She actually parked a bit behind my leg in the first shoulder-in so I booted her a bit and we wobbled in the connection, but it was accurate enough for 6.5, "curling back."

I remembered to look up for our half-circles and not to completely destroy them this time, so they were an easy 7.0, her rhythm much easier to maintain on a nice flat level surface unlike what we have at home. Her half-pass felt nice for 6.5, "more lateral bend". I rode the extended trot a little conservatively but needn't have worried; she gave me a fabulous, powerful, rhythmic trot that still got a 6.0 from this unimpressed judge, "more ground cover." Her extended has been a 6.0 and an 8.0 in the same test from different judges, so I take that with a pinch of salt. We got 6.5 for the transitions.

I hopelessly botched the halt and rein-back by halting about four kilometres before A (see above re: not looking up). She gave me a nice rein-back, though, for 6.5, "not square, willing rein-back." We wobbled in the position slightly in the next shoulder-in for 6.5, "changing position", and 6.5 for the two half circles. Her next half-pass, the right one, has always been the tricky one and I pushed her up in front of my leg for 6.0, "lack of bend, becoming slightly hurried." I often mess up this half-pass a little because if they don't come off my leg in it, we struggle with the flying change to the right, historically my worst movement.

That concluded a boring but very solid trot tour and we confidently moved into the walk. I felt she was calm and not hurried or tense, but ready for some mischief. Our first turn on the haunches was a colossal flop for no good reason other than that I rode it badly for 4.0, "stuck badly." I kicked myself for that one and rode the second one much better for 6.5. She maintained an effortless, loose medium walk for 7.0.

When we went to the extended walk, she snatched the reins a bit, an issue we've since been ironing out with the Nathe. I'd much rather deal with a little snatching than the BTV issue we had before, but it kicked us in the teeth now, making one of her best movements a 5.5, "head bobbing a little too low at times, needs more ground cover." I whispered "Don't buck, don't buck, don't buck" as I gathered her for the canter transition and apparently she listened because it was a 7.0. We cantered merrily up the short side as I congratulated myself for my awesome dragon-taming abilities and gently put my outside leg on for her best canter movement, the half-pass left. Arwen promptly planted her head between her knees and threw a few little bucks. I scraped it together swiftly and she continued into a lovely, easy half-pass, but the damage was done, and we had 4.0, "resisting badly, broke." So. Thanks for that, Dragon.

the moment at which I realized it was about to go down

She REALLY, REALLY wanted to buck through the left to right change and gave it to me on the aid but plunged downward afterward for another delicious 4.0, "croup high, late behind." After that we got our marbles together a bit and had 7.0 for the half-pass right and 7.0 for the flying change to the left even though I was doing some major buck management there, too.

Given the level of dragonness that we were dealing with, I rode the extended canter conservatively too, but honestly I doubt it would have mattered - we got the expected 6.0, "more forward, more ground cover". The transitions were 6.0, although I felt quite controlled as we went around for our trot transition, which was a surprising 7.0. And then I promptly realized that I had absolutely no brakes. Zip, none, zero, zilch, nothing. I gave an experimental pull and an experimental half-halt from my seat and got nothing at all. We careened around the turn onto the centerline, with my dragon proudly snorting and flinging her feet, and I momentarily thought we would end up in the judge's lap but then Arwen remembered there was a halt at the end and tried to stop a few steps before G. I gave her a little squeeze and she took the few extra steps to G and halted absolutely immobile and obedient as if we'd had brakes all along. Somewhat breathless, I threw down our salute like a gauntlet, and we left with much patting of the fabulous, ridiculous dragon. The wobbly halt got us a 6.0.

first flying change photo

Our collectives were not to be sniffed at. We had 7.0 for paces, 6.5 for impulsion, and 5.5 for submission (I would not exactly apply the term "willing cooperation" to several moments in our test). My seat was a 7.0 and aids a 6.0, understandable considering that I only have about 70% control over the dragon at any given moment.

"Horse could have been more consistently active and ground covering but showing some pleasant work," the judge summarized. I thought that "horse" could also maybe have not bucked, but we still garnered a 61.12% - enough for a precious grading point toward earning our tailcoat.

Arwen was relaxed and chuffed with herself as we strolled back to the stables on a long rein. If we'd had ten more minutes in the warmup, I know we could have gotten the tickle out of her feet and avoided a few fours in that test, but I also hadn't competed since Dressage Connection and felt a bit rusty in the ring. I also feel that we would have gotten better scores for our extended movements with many other judges, so I wasn't at all dismayed by our final mark. We had a messy test, but we still did it. Best of all, my dragonbeast felt like herself. She was silly and playful, not the tense and nervous mess we had last time.

She did give me a worried few moments when we were back in the stable. She isn't great about drinking water directly after competing and didn't go near it, but she also only picked her hay for a few minutes and then stood in the corner shifting her weight in a suspicious manner. She didn't have that tight look in her face that real colic horses get, but I wasn't super happy. She also didn't want the slightly wilted carrot I had for her (equestrian of the year yet again) but crunched the nice fresh one that one of the kiddos brought. Her gut sounds were fantastic and she'd passed plenty of normal manure, so I gave it half an hour to see what would happen, and it completely resolved and ended with her eating her haynet with great relish. 

feeling a little off

I had caught her eating sticks in her field the day before as if she had no grass to eat and was a poor starving pony, so I wouldn't be surprised if they caused a little irritation on the way through. The other possibility, always present in a performance horse, would be a bit of gastric irritation or a brewing ulcer. If she does this again, she'll go for a scope. I don't think it had anything at all to do with her behaviour. She was just being the way she always is - even at home on a fresh morning - and the bellyache only started several minutes after she was done riding.

We spent the rest of a long and very hot day at the show for kiddos, but Arwen was perfectly behaved and content in her stable. DH and I enjoyed milkshakes and pizzas because Penbritte is the best. We got home in the dark, but Arwen was really nice about it.

91F at 5:30pm on the way home - and no, the judge did not waive jackets

Though we've had nicer tests, I couldn't have been happier with the feeling she gave me. My dragon enjoyed it out there. As for me, I can't help but enjoy a happy day out with my cat-obsessed husband, the man of my prayers.

sometimes he looks at me the way he looks at pizza

God is good.