Riding on Water: June 2025

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.