Arrival in rainy Florida!

Yesterday Victor and I flew from Ontario to Palm Beach, Florida.  The flight was relatively uneventful (once you've flown with horses, it becomes less of a "big deal"), although we did have some turbulence coming into Florida with all the storms here.  Once on the ground at the airport we took a horse transport van to the show grounds, which was only about a 30 minute drive from the airport.  We flew over with most of the rest of the west coast Grand Prix horses, Steffen's two horses Legolas and Rosamunde, Guenter and Zero Gravity, Charlotte Jorst and Nintendo, Kim McGrath and Winslow, and Tracey Lert and Udo.  Most of the riders had grooms that flew with their horses and they flew separately although both Kim and Tracey were on the flight with me.


It has been dumping rain pretty much since we arrived.  Today we even had wind gusts up to 30 or 40 mph.  However, unlike the Pacific NW, it is remarkably warm outside, about 75 degrees or so.  Naturally it is quite humid here and that has been an adjustment.  I'm glad we had that short time in California to at least acclimate to the heat (versus Boise in December, which was a high of 23 when we left).


Victor traveled well although I could tell he was a little worried when he first got on the plane.  All of the horses loaded very easily.  It is always surprising how well the horses handle such a strange situation (loading up a ramp onto a very noisy plane), but even the rookie horses loaded fine.  I suspect they ride better on the plane than they do on most horse trailers, once it gets to cruising altitude, as the ride is generally very smooth and quiet. 


Victor ate ok on the plane although not super well.  The horses always get off a long trip like that looking a little gaunt and drawn up, which typically goes away after they get rehydrated.  He immediately started eating and drinking when we put him in his stall. Today he looked much better although I only hand walked him since I thought he could use a rest day. 

Flying to Florida tomorrow!!!

Everything is pretty much set for our flight to Florida tomorrow.  After riding this morning I repacked everything and got it all organized for our trip.  I try to pack as minimally as possible when on a plane ride, partly because they don't like you taking tons of stuff and partly because I don't like having to keep track of that much stuff anyway.  I managed to condense my saddle, bridles, various blankets, wraps, extra towels, various grooming equipment, my show clothes, and other miscellaneous items into one large tack trunk.  I also have a small container with pre-made grain baggies for the trip, a couple chairs, my boots, a large tote with saddle pads, another tote with my show coat and helmet and a spare set of boots (in case of zipper crisis), my braiding box, a muck bucket packed with a feed bin, a couple water buckets, various small buckets and washing equipment, a manure fork, my whip, a couple suitcases with clothes and toiletries and a partridge in a pear tree LOL.  I also make sure to bring a list of everything I put on the plane, so I can check it off and make sure I pick everything up.


We are supposed to arrive at the airline gate tomorrow at 5am, so Amanda and I are planning on leaving W Farms at 4:15am.  Ontario is actually pretty close, only about 30 minutes away, but it's a good idea to plan in some extra time.  The weather is going to be cold on the plane, once we get in the air, so Victor will travel in a cooler topped with a lightweight blanket.  I always put a pair of bell-boots on him although I'm not sure it's really necessary.  Makes me feel better though.


We should arrive in Palm Beach International around 3:30pm.  According to Lana it is hot in Florida right now (about 80 degrees) and very wet.  It is forecast to rain quite a bit over the next few days, but it's supposed to hover between 70 and 80 most of the time.  Yuck!!  Hot, humid, and raining!  Good thing we had a few days here in California to at least get used to the heat again, if not the humidity.  Yesterday it was 23 in Boise!


My next post will be from (sunny, or not) Florida!!

Day 1 of brief CA stay en route to Florida

Yesterday Todd and I drove to California from Boise in one straight shot.  For those of you familiar with the Nevada routes we took 93 south through Wells and Ely, dropping into Las Vegas to pick up the 15, then to Chino Hills.  The trip had a very cold start, with temps in the single digits (we even hit -1 at one point!!) all through eastern Idaho and much of northern Nevada.  There was a ton of snow on the ground in that area as well (from a storm that went through 4 days ago) but none on the roads.  It was a very smooth and uneventful trip, always the best kind!


Today Victor and I had a well-deserved rest day at W Farms.  Thanks again to David and Alisa Wilson and Amanda Olson for taking great care of us and allowing us to stay at their farm for a few days!!  Although Victor always travels well I could tell he was tired.  15 hours in a trailer will do that to any horse  He spent much of the day napping although I did hand-walk him a little so he could stretch his legs.  Tomorrow I will put him back to work. 


The weather here in Southern California was fabulous today, with highs in the low to mid 70s, sunny with a light breeze.  Such a change from up north!!  It's also a nice transition for both of us to the much warmer (and more humid) Florida climate.


I'm feeling better about the whole trip now that the first travel leg is over.  Trips like this are a huge, stressful undertaking with all the logistics, expenses, and travel, not to mention getting the training were you want it and keeping the horse healthy and fit throughout all the training, travel, and intense competition.  I worried about the trip down to California for a while because weather this time of year can be very dicey.  Now that it's over at least a partial load has been lifted off my shoulders!


We fly out of Ontario on Friday morning.  So we have a few days to rest up before we make the trek across the country.  Luckily this part of the trip will be at 35,000 feet, so although it will still be very cold (like our trip through Nevada), at least it will be quick relative to its length!

Leaving tomorrow for CA en route to Florida!!

So tomorrow is the start of the grand journey. Fifteen hours south through Nevada to W Farms in California, where Victor and I will stay for a few days before we fly to Florida.  And not too soon, as the last couple days highs here in Boise have only reached the mid-20s.  Yuck.  My toes and fingers are frozen.  It will be quite the shock to be in 80 degree weather!


I've taken care of a few loose ends as far as logistics go (aka, I should probably stay somewhere while I'm in California!).  Today Lana and I packed up the trailer and figured out what all needed to travel to Florida versus what would be used in California, etc.  I loaded up some extra hay and shavings yesterday and made a few notes about arrangements to make while I'm in CA (namely, order hay and shavings for Florida).  I also went through my wardrobe and tried to figure out what to pack.  I'm going from mid-20s here in Idaho (and just as cold through most of Nevada), to upper 60s-low 70s in California with a "frost-warning" (whatever that is, from my perspective in Idaho it seems silly), to a cold flight to Florida (those cargo planes are freezing cold), to highs in the 80s-lows in the upper 60s in Florida itself.  So I pretty much packed everything I own LOL.


Victor has been doing very well.  Some issues that I've spent the past year trying to resolve have all the sudden come together in the past week.  Good timing I suppose!  Not to say I will be able to translate that into a significantly improved test but we will give it out best shot.  The piaffe has been a little hit or miss lately although everything else is significantly better. I did discover his piaffe is better when he is well connected versus when I try to ride him longer or looser within it. 


The journey tomorrow should be pretty easy.  Luckily for us there are no major storms going through Nevada or California and the last snowfall was last Wednesday.  So plenty of time for those roads to clear out.  Looking forward to making it to California safe and sound.

Pre-trip preparations continue

Today we had the joy of our first snow here in Boise.  Temps have been in the high 30s, low 40s during the day and into the 20s at night.  It's supposed to get even colder over the next few days, with lows potentially in the single digits and highs in the low 30s.  One of my concerns with this trip to Florida is the drastic weather change.  Boise is very arid (low humidity) and right now pretty cold.  Florida is very humid (I think around 80 percent, depending) and yesterday the high in Wellington was almost 80 degrees.  That's fantastic if you're going on vacation but not fantastic if you are making a long-distance trip to compete in a horse show that requires tremendous amounts of energy from horse and rider.  We do have the advantage of going from 2500 feet to sea level (although I've never actually thought of that as that much of an advantage). 


To compensate I've been working the crap out of poor Victor.  Past couple days have been majorly intense, so that hopefully we can ease up a little when we get to Florida and (outside of the necessary acclimation period) things will be much lighter and therefore easier.  After two days of super intense work, I expected him to be a little tired today so I only lunged him.  Instead he was spunky and full of himself, which is a very good sign that his fitness levels are quite high (I'm sure the new snow helped too). 


Also, in addition to his usual grass hay 3 times a day, I added 1 flake of alfalfa at lunch and I've also started adding a second flake at dinner.  Plus he gets a large scoop of Purina ultium at lunch (in addition to 2 cups of rice bran).  I also give him 2 cups of beet pulp (soaked, obviously) and another 2 cups of rice bran with the beet pulp around 3pm.  I suspect I could even add another flake of alfalfa at breakfast.  If he were sedentary he'd gain weight so fast he'd look like a thelwell pony!


Ernie came out to the barn on Monday to spot Victor and I and give me some pointers, as I've been a little nervous about heading down there without my usual ground help.  You have to understand that the man is not even a week out of knee-replacement surgery (last Tuesday).  He is the epitome of tough.  And supportive!


I am pretty much ready for my trip outside of packing everything.  I have a coggins and health certificate (for both Florida and California), my FEI passport is up-to-date (and with me), I have my musical freestyle CDs (although I should probably run through that one more time), I have my wardrobe figured out, I have my flight and drive to California planned, I have my hotel, groom and rental car for Florida arranged.  Horse is clipped, although I should probably pull his mane to make him a little more presentable LOL.  Mostly I just need to get everything put together that needs to travel with us to California and then on to Florida.


Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I've not been thinking much about the holiday itself, although I will spend it with friends this year as I can't make the trip back to Portland when I leave Monday for my trip.  As I go through this Thanksgiving weekend though I am thankful for the ability to do all of this silly horse-show related stuff that I do.  I am thankful to my support crew, including my fantastic clients, vet, farrier, trainers, and of course, my mom and dad, without whom none of this would be possible.  Even though they think it is silly LOL.

The Road to the Festival of Champions

Victor and I capped off his first year at International Grand Prix with an invitation to the Festival of Champions, to be held December 9-13 in Wellington, Florida.  This is one of the most prestigious dressage competitions in the United States.  For many years this competition was used as the selection trials for the major championships (WEG, Olympics, Pan-Am games, etc), although they have altered in the selection procedures in recent years.  Scores have to be earned at CDIs throughout the year, and then riders are ranked and the top 15 riders are invited.  Just to earn an invitation is a HUGE honor.


However, I was originally going to sit this one out because of the distances and logistics (and finances!!) involved.  Boise, Idaho, to Wellington, Florida??  In December?  That's probably about as far across the country as one can travel (it would only be further if I lived in the Seattle area) and during a really horrible time of year for traveling (with winter encroaching).  In the end my ambition and sense of adventure (??) overruled reason and I decided to make the trip.


Victor and I leave a week from tomorrow (Monday, Nov 30) to drive to Southern California with our chauffeur Todd Fears.  Normally I just drive myself (and when I say myself, I mean ME) but this time I was pretty worried about the weather.  Nevada can be fine in the winter or it can be downright nasty.  Todd was chosen for this job because he is a bad-ass truck driver, who runs the night-shift 5 days a week, driving a triple-trailer Semi for FedEx back and forth between Boise and Hermiston.  All year long.  If you've ever driven down the famous Cabbage Hill at any time of year, you know it is really, really horrid and especially at night.  In snow and ice.  And wind.  In a triple trailer.  So he's ok to drive my horse trailer LOL.


We'll have a few days layover at the ever-wonderful W Farms crew (thank you David, Alisa and Amanda!!) who have so graciously allowed Victor and I to stay at the farm before our flight leaves Friday, December 4th.  Victor and I will fly out of the Ontario airport at o-dark-hundred and arrive in West Palm Beach later that day.  From there we'll be trucked to Global (the show facility).  The jog is the following Tuesday, the GP on Wednesday, the GPS on Thursday, and the GP freestyle on Saturday.  Our flight returns Sunday, December 13 and Todd and I will drive back on Monday the 14th.  So it will be a whirlwind trip!


I decided to fly him because it is much, much easier on Victor and I, plus I got some financial help to make it more feasible.  I actually looked at driving to Florida, and even had a route penciled out.  I knew there was NO WAY I was driving across Wyoming in the winter (I've heard far too many horror stories to even consider it), so I mapped a route south through Nevada, into Arizona, through New Mexico, Texas, right through the deep south into Florida.  The theory being that the weather would likely be better on that route (of course, right after I looked at this Hurricane Patricia happened and Texas flooded).  It was a 5 day trip, with 10-12 hour days.  That's assuming you drive straight through and don't stop for a day or so to recover.  I looked at that and said "NO".  No way.  I wasn't going if I had to drive there.  Particularly not during the winter!


The past few weeks have been crazy-busy with pre-trip preparations.  As far as the training goes I've been getting Victor back up to full-intensity GP mode (he had most of the month of September off and was ridden lightly in early October).  I want him super fit before leaving because I know the travel and show will take some out of him.  Although luckily he's generally a very easy traveler.  I've also beefed up his feed to try and put some extra weight on him, since he will inevitably lose some in transit.  Today he also got rid of the yak costume that disguises the International GP superstar.  This time of year he puts on so much hair that I sometimes call him my dressage yak.  Thanks Aly for clipping him!  Victor looks much more the part now after his clip job and he probably lost 50 pounds.  Time to feed him more LOL. 


I still haven't packed anything yet but I did make a list of stuff to bring.  On an airplane they generally don't like you bringing tons of stuff (not that I do anyway), plus since I'll have to keep track of it without my horse trailer I like to pack as light as possible.  My trusty groom Lana has helped immensely by researching hotels, making reservations, and taking care of some logistics.  We're unfortunately staying near the Palm Beach airport (about 20-30 minutes from the show grounds) because Wellington is amazingly expensive.  It should work out just fine, although I'd rather be closer.

World Cup Las Vegas GP

So I decided against going to the WC this year as I'd already spent enough $$ in California on my shows trying to get to the WC.  LOL.  Now I'm regretting it as I see Facebook posts about the horses arriving, interviews with the top riders, posts about friends of mine going, etc, etc.  Vegas is not my cuppa tea, I'd really rather be anywhere else, but on the other hand it would be worth it to see Valegro and Charlotte in the flesh.  Oh well, another time.

I'm back to work this week riding all the horses, my FEI horses and the babies.  Plus teaching.  The motto of the work has been "keep going", no matter what the issue, "forward", as they say, fixes everything.  I'm not always sure of that but I do think to just keep going eventually solves a myriad of problems.  Maybe it's because the horse eventually wears out LOL.

I also have been clearer about asking for specific responses, getting a reaction, then easing up.  Then asking again, getting reaction again, then easing up.  Sometimes I easily get into "ask, don't really feel a clear response, sort of keep going but not happy" kind of riding, so clarity is really my good friend here.  Particularly with babies but also the FEI horses.  Horses generally respond much better to clarity rather than ambiguity, but I think it is hard as a rider to be that disciplined all the time.

The weather here was beautiful at the beginning of the week then we had a ton of wind and dust.  I hear Vegas was much worse with some nasty dust storms.  Welcome to the Wild West.  Today was back to nice, with temperatures in the mid 60s and tomorrow is looking even better.  I'm off to teach a clinic in Portland this weekend, then back home to get everyone whipped into shape for an Alfredo clinic here at the barn the following week!

Caifornia Trip Recap, or, I'm finally home!!!

Actually I've been home for about a week after my super-successful California "tour" with the boys.  I was unable to update the blog during the third week in Rancho Murieta, California, but that show also exceeded my expectations for success.  Victor finished second in both the GP and GP freestyle and successfully broke the 70% barrier in his freestyle.  After his rocky start in San Juan, Bolero won all three of his Third level tests, with two scores over 70%.  What a way to end the trip!!

Personally I was totally burned out by the last show and it has taken me almost a week to fully recover.  I'd been going pretty much non-stop in dressage and horse-related activities since mid-January.  All the intense build-up training for the boys for the shows, riding in several clinics, organizing one clinic, teaching a couple clinics in Portland, running my training business, competing in four different CDIs in California, and driving back and forth from Idaho to Southern California twice, yeah that's about enough for a couple months.

The travel required is draining, not least from the long hours of driving but the inevitable stress of it all.  I made one trip to Burbank and back in February (15 hours each way), then turned around 3 weeks later and drove first to San Juan (17 hours), then to Rancho Murieta (10 hours), then home to Boise (11 hours).  Generally the drives were smooth and stress-free although I overheated the transmission slightly on my truck coming down the Grapevine (the stretch of I-5 just north of Los Angeles, which is a pretty nasty hill) on the way to Rancho Murieta.  Although it turned out not to be a big problem (however I did get the tranny serviced the next day in Sacramento), it was very stressful and just added one more thing to worry about with the trip.  Not only do I want to keep my horses healthy and happy, I want the same for the truck! 

I've had several questions about where I'm going to be going from here.  The rest of this year is going to be predominantly a learning/growing year for both Victor and Bolero as the big year is next year (the Olympic year).  So I will be entering some National shows with the idea of perfecting some details in Victor's work, and maximizing his strengths.  Although he has some weaknesses from the perspective of what the modern-day judges want to see, he has more than enough strengths to make up for it.  I hate to pick away at things he finds difficult if I can just improve things he's already good at but could get even better at.  So naturally I'm also going to put time/money into getting some more training, as that is always necessary to get improve.  Likely I will also have to re-evaluate my freestyle choreography to make it a little more difficult for next year. 

For Bolero I want to get him more comfortable in show environments, and me more comfortable at dealing with his silliness.  I also want to push for FEI for next year (PSG/I-1) and get him a solid start on the piaffe and passage.  I think he's at the point where he can really be pushed.  Keep in mind this is a horse who did not have a confirmed flying change until late last year (late 8 year old), which is pretty late by the standards of most top riders.  He will be a world-class horse but getting him there is going to take some work.  GP horses are not born, they are made.

There is some question about the Festival of Champions, as Victor amazingly managed to be ranked 23rd in the nation (at least currently) in his debut year at GP.  The top 15 will be invited to Festival, which will be held in Wellington, Fl, this December.  If finances were no problem I would go if invited.  However it is a very long and expensive trip (and not a good month for cross-country traveling, I hate driving anywhere over the mountains in the winter!), and at this point I think it is smarter to invest that in training and local competitions and put it towards my CDI qualifiers for next year.  I'm still a little up-in-the-air about it though, as it is an important competition and a good place to test the waters for next year.

So the goal for next year is to try for the Team with Victor.  It is a big, big goal, and will be difficult.  All the top riders will be out in force with their GP horses and those that don't have one will likely find some sponsor to buy them one.  Frankly I'd be thrilled to even make it to the Selection Trials (assuming that's how they're going to do it, they seem to change their minds all the time about the selection procedures for these big events!).  I'd love to be able to do a CDI on Bolero next year but that might be pushing it too much.  It'll depend on how he handles the training.

Right now I'm just recovering from my trip and getting my business back going again.  The boys are rearing to go though so they will be going back to work tomorrow (plus I have a clinic the following week anyway, so they need to get back going again).  They survived the trip much better than I did!

Friday and Saturday updates from SJC

I was so exhausted yesterday I forgot to update my blog!  I'm really not used to the heat, and it has been close to 90 here for a couple days.  Totally wiping me out!

Yesterday's CDI GP Special test was kind of a funny story.  Originally I had signed up for the Special this weekend but decided instead to do the freestyle, as I wanted to just focus on two tests rather than three.  So I emailed the show secretary a few weeks ago to change it, then she emailed me back and told me I was wait-listed anyway for the two shows.  Naturally that freaked me out--I'm not driving 17 hours to be waitlisted!!  So it became about being wait-listed and I totally forgot about which test I had signed up for.  They did put me into the first show, but I only knew last Tuesday that I got into the second show here in SJC at all! 

Anyhow for some reason I assumed the test had been changed, so I figured I was going to do the freestyle Saturday (today).  I went to bed Thursday night thinking I could sleep in as I didn't have a test until mid-afternoon with Bolero.  However I had a funny feeling overnight, and woke up at 4am Friday morning with this odd feeling that I needed to look at the ride times.  A couple people had wished me "good luck tomorrow" on Thursday, and I responded "I'm riding Saturday but thanks!", and they looked at me funny but no big deal.  The more I thought about it the more I thought I needed to make sure I wasn't, in fact, riding on Friday.  So at 4am I pulled up the ride times on the CDP website, and sure enough, there I am in the GP Special at 10:09am Friday morning.  Aaack!!  I hadn't yet ridden the Special on Victor, not even schooling at home, and I hadn't ridden the test since the last time I had a GP horse, about 15 years ago.  I am now wide awake, so I pull out my test book and proceed to re-memorize the test (which wasn't that hard, since it hasn't changed in 25 years and I've watched others ride it enough that I pretty much knew how it went).

I re-set my alarm clock for slightly earlier (it's not like I do much warm-up anyway, and braiding him takes me 20 minutes), and went back to sleep (amazingly, you'd think I wouldn't have been able to fall asleep again!).  I let Lana know when we woke up, and then we were off.  I played with the idea of trying to switch to the freestyle, but figured that would be too complicated with the show management this close to the test (CDIs are a little more complex).  I was worried about the Special because I had no idea how it would ride on Victor, and I didn't want to go out and totally blow a test in front of this tough panel, especially since the last couple shows had been going so well.  In the end I decided it would probably be ok, and if nothing else it was a good test of my nerves, which at this point were a little on-edge. 

Anyway I did my usual 15 minute warm-up, with Leslie yelling a few helpful tips (mostly make him more active, shorten your reins, bend him, etc LOL) while she was teaching someone else.  Remarkably the test went very, very well and he was really on form.  It is a very aerobic test because there is a ton of passage and extended trot and transitions between the two in the beginning.  I was a little worried about the walk to piaffe transition at G, which can be difficult on him, and the pirouettes on the center-line and one-time changes between them.  But everything worked quite well, and I had no funny rhythm breaks in my trot extensions like had happened in the GP, and the ones worked very well (in fact they were better on the center line than they are on the diagonal LOL). 

We scored 67.089 and finished fourth, with one judge had me winning with over 70%.  First place was a 68.9, so competition was tough but I was right up there with the others.  I was thrilled, and kind of surprised to pull it off as well as I did.  What a good horse!!  He was really trying out there, he's not a horse I would say has a lot of "try" (he tends to be quite lazy), but he was really on-it and seems to have a sense of occasion to which he rises.  I got some great comments from the judge/commentator and several of my competitor-friends about how great he looked and how well-ridden the test was.  I was beyond pleased!!

Bolero however decided that the speakers were going to eat him and spooked through much of his test in the afternoon.  He finished with a 64, today he was again tense and spooky although overall he was better and finished with a 66.  He scored easy 8s on his big, expressive, easy flying changes but 4s when he jumped to the inside of the arena and spooked at the flowers LOL.  The judges really like him, and he looked great on the video when he on the program.

We spent the rest of the afternoon packing for the trip tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will be driving to our overnight location Starr Vaughn Equestrian Center in Elk Grove, CA, which is pretty close to the next CDI in Rancho Murieta.  After that CDI it's back home for us and back to reality!!  At least the weather is supposed to be milder up there.  It's been surprisingly hot down here the past few days.

Today's GP with Victor and Bolero Third level

I started the morning off early today with Bolero's test at 8:08am.  It was actually a little chilly this morning, surprisingly, so I made sure to get on a little early to make sure he was settled.  He was actually really quite good in the warm-up and his test, and there were many highlights.  Unfortunately he was grinding his teeth some which affected our marks, plus he threw in an unscripted flying change after his very good flying change and so got dinged there as well.  He ended up with a 68.333, which was a very good score considering the problems, and won a class of 5 horses.  I was very pleased with him and especially pleased with how much more uphill and active he looked on the video.

I rode Victor a little in the morning and he was really, really good, much better than he's been. I played a little with the piaffe, seeing if I could put it more on the spot, and then worked a little on my ones which were an issue last weekend.  I was a little worried about the weather, as it was pretty warm today and my GP was scheduled for 3:14 in the afternoon.  It probably made 90 today although thankfully we had a pretty strong breeze which made it feel a little cooler. 

He warmed up well for his test and had good energy despite the heat.  I had a couple little mistakes again and some straightness issues (with the haunches wanting to drift left at times) but I was happy to have another active and energetic test despite the heat.  I was also happy to get my ones after they were such an issue last weekend.  The judging was pretty tough today and we finished with a little over 64%.  I wasn't thrilled with my score but I was very happy with the improvements from the last show.  Tomorrow he gets a light day then we do the freestyle on Saturday.  Bolero has a Third level 3 test tomorrow afternoon just before 4 so he gets to go in the heat!

Bolero lesson with Leslie and Victor gets into CDI this coming weekend!

Monday was a well-deserved rest day for all of us.  We aren't allowed to ride the horses Monday here in the show grounds (I think it has to do with there being no Steward on the grounds that day), so I handwalked the boys in the morning and evening.  Lana and I spent most of the afternoon asleep in our hotel room as we were pretty wiped out from the past week or so.

Today we were back to work.  I rode Victor lightly in the morning, and worked a little on the changes (since he seems to have forgotten how to do them this past weekend LOL).  They got better but not as secure as I would like. 

I had a lesson with Leslie on Bolero which was very good for both of us.  He was actually very good, but I'm always way too cautious about pushing him and really making him work and use his body.  Leslie wasn't going to have any of that tentative riding, and it was good to learn to really push on him and not worry about what might happen.  He responded quite well although he felt tense and was a little spooky throughout the ride.  However he's going to have to learn to deal with it if he wants to be an FEI horse (or if I do LOL).

I was fortunate enough to get into the CDI with Victor this weekend, which made me happy!  The jog is tomorrow and the GP is on Thursday.  My goal is to try and ride a little cleaner this weekend (clean up some of those little mistakes in the extended trot, improve on my extended walk, improve on the piaffe, and make the pirouettes slightly smaller).  I don't want to do too much differently than I did last weekend, I think mostly the connection and activity are the biggest things that need work.  If he's too high or too stiff in the neck then that seems to be the crux of many of our issues.  Also it's supposed to be pretty hot, and the GP is in the afternoon, which may also cause us some problems.

CDI-W GP Freestyles in San Juan

Today was a big day for American dressage, with the final qualifier for the Las Vegas World Cup here in SJC.  Steffen is the favorite to earn the top spot, and he delivered with a very technical and well-ridden performance on his "firecracker" mount Legolas (who gets a little revved up with the music). 

Victor and I went early in the class (second to go, after our NW friends Jessica Wisdom and Cardi).  I was very happy with many parts of my ride, some things that we had worked on throughout the week were much better and Victor has gotten very honest in the ring.  I was able to do some things in the test that worked just like they did in the warm-up which is great for our mutual confidence.  I did have some unfortunate mistakes in the changes, both the ones and the twos.  Those need some more attention.  But overall I hit my music spot-on, and was able to make the pirouettes smaller (they were a little large in the GP).  He looks so much more through and closed-up behind than he did even in Burbank (I watched the video, courtesy of Lana), so I am encouraged by our progress. I was a little disappointed to only score a little over 68% (I had hoped to break 70), but I was encouraged when I saw that FEI "O" judge Stephen Clarke had me at almost 70% (and gave me the highest score). 

I'm still on the waiting list for next weekend's CDI (it is so unusual for a CDI to fill up!!), but I have a shot of getting in thanks to the paranoia of other riders trying to qualify for Pan-Ams.  I had forgotten that many riders are trying to qualify, and if they got their scores this weekend, they are inclined to scratch to not risk lowering their average with a bad ride next weekend.  I hadn't thought of that, so there have actually been a few scratches for next weekend.  Fingers crossed that I can get in!!!  Would love to get into next weekend's CDI and further learn how to ride tests to the super-high standards down here. :)

Bolero had a light day today and just hand-walked.  Tomorrow I will hand-walk both boys and all of us will have a much-needed rest day.  Tuesday we will be back at it as the FEI jog is on Wednesday and the next show starts Thursday.  I entered Bolero all three days in Third level, and I'm going to try powering him up a little and see how that goes.  I was encouraged by how settled he's been (after his initial drama).  Victor's GP (if he gets into the CDI) will be Thursday as well.

Also I decided to go to Rancho Murieta the first weekend in April for another CDI.  It will both give us another CDI GP experience (and Bolero more show experience), while splitting up our long drive home.  It's a great show and a little quieter than the shows down here (not that it matters, both boys are handling the environment down here very well).  That means we will be driving home Sunday, April 5th (at least I think it's the 5th!). 

Day 2 of Capistrano International. Lesson with Leslie on Victor and Bolero's first Third level test!

It started off a little cool and breezy today here in San Juan.  Not complaining, as it's probably 30 degrees and windy at home. :)  I made sure to work Bolero a little extra so he would be settled in his test.  He actually was a lot better than I expected, went right to work in the warm-up arena although a little spooky and then had a very solid, if conservatively ridden, ride in his first Third level test.  I was careful as I wasn't sure how he'd be in the test, so I underrode pretty much everything.  I was thrilled to score almost 70% (69.769 or something like that) and place 2nd in a very competitive class of 5-6 open rides.  I'm going to spend this coming week trying for a little more power and activity behind and see if I can iron out the right-left change.  He wants to kick against the right leg in that change, which he was doing in the warm-up a little, although the left-right change is super (he got an easy 8 on it in the test). 

Today I took a lesson from Leslie on Victor, mostly to deal with some of the overall roundness and reactivity problems that I have.  He was overall much more supple over his back to begin with today from the previous few days work, and she wanted me to make sure I got a forward reaction to the leg and didn't get too "digging" with my spur (which is easy to do on him since he's kind of lazy).  She also wanted him a little bit overtempo today (a little extra forward).  She had me ride some tic-tacs then ride forward out of them to keep him in front of the leg (especially the right leg, so I'd ride a right-left-right tic-tac then ride medium to make sure he stayed in front of the right leg).  It was a good gymnastic to keep him thinking forward in the one-time changes and it also improved the quality of the canter.  We also did some trot-walk-trot transitions to make sure he didn't quit behind into the walk (which he loves to do), and that made him much more active as well.

We watched much of the I-1 today in the afternoon.  It was hard-fought, with lots of high quality horses, good riders, and well-ridden tests.  It was fun to watch such a competitive class!  Leslie had a super ride on Fine and Smart (aka Smarty) and ended up tying for first although she placed second with 70.5.  First was Guenter with 70.5, second was Leslie with 70.5, third was Beth Ball with 70.3, fourth was Mette with 70.1.  Talk about competitive!

Tomorrow I ride the GP freestyle on Victor.  Bolero will just get schooled, he has three tests next weekend but since I wasn't sure how settled he would be I only entered one this weekend.  Wish us luck!!

Another solid go in CDI GP for Victor!

Today Victor and I had another very solid, active go in the GP, I was very happy with him.  In some ways he actually went better today than he did in Burbank but I had a couple expensive mistakes and the panel was generally not very forgiving of mistakes!  I was happy with how active and on the aids he was, despite the heat (it wasn't that hot, but we just aren't at all acclimated to it!).  I had a couple rhythm bobbles in the trot extensions and expensive mistakes in the one-time changes.  Leslie was pleased with it and she's hard to please. :)

I just lunged Bolero this evening, although I rode him for quite a while yesterday.  He had settled down quite a bit from the first day, but I wanted to make sure and school him in every arena.  It took him a while to go to work and he still wants to spook at every set of flowers next to the letters.  He was good though and the changes were uneventful.  Leslie had had me ride shoulder-in the day before with Victor, then straighten his neck (turning it into a leg yield) and keep him off the inside leg and/or increase or decrease the trot.  It helped get him more through and more honest to the aids.  I did the same with Bolero and it was very helpful for the spooking.

Tomorrow Bolero has his first Third level test.  Hopefully he's on good behavior!  My goal is to get around the arena without took much drama, anything more than that will be icing on the cake. :)  I also plan on having another lesson on Victor with Leslie and see if we can fine-tune a few things for the freestyle.  Then we should probably find a grocery store.  I'm out of beer!!

Day 1 in San Juan Capistrano

We did the drive over two days, just like last time.  Monday we drove from Boise to Bishop, then Tuesday from Bishop to San Juan.  The trip was long, very long, but uneventful.  It didn't help that I didn't sleep well in Bishop for some reason so the second day was especially arduous.  We were relieved to arrive unscathed in San Juan and get the boys settled into their stalls.  We were so tired we ordered a pizza delivery (normally we're all over the Mexican restaurants down here!).

Today I handwalked the boys in the morning then worked them in the afternoon.  They were both idiots, just idiots hand-walking.  Bolero was higher than a kite (which was expected, as this is his first show back in well over a year), but Victor was also an idiot, piaffing and passaging and occasionally leaping through the air.  Goofy horses.  After we found a cheap but really good little Mexican place for lunch and took a nice nap (we were both still exhausted!), we went back to the barn and I rode Victor and lunged Bolero.  Victor was pretty good, ramped up and a little strong but otherwise ok.  Bolero was a nutcase on the lunge initially but eventually settled down and worked quite well.

We are having a bit of a logistics problem as the CDI horse (Victor) and the National show horse (Bolero) ended up in different barns.  My tack stall was originally with Victor and I have a second stall (that was supposed to be for Majek) with Bolero in the National barn.  I decided to put Victor and Bolero together in the CDI barn so our tack stall is way the hell and gone away from the horses.  I rented a golf cart, so that's been working as a transport for everything from the tack stalls to the horses.  It's very silly, and I tried to change it when I arrived but to no avail.  Oh well we'll just make it work.

We found another Mexican place for dinner (we love Mexican food) and are now back at the hotel.  Tomorrow I have an early lesson with Leslie (8am) then we have the jog in the early afternoon.  I will also school Bolero in the arenas on my own tomorrow.  The GP is Friday and Bolero's first test is Saturday.  Looking forward to a great show!!

California Road Trip, Act II: Destination San Juan Capistrano begins tomorrow!!

We're all packed and ready to begin our second big California trip of the year, this time to beautiful San Juan Capistrano for the back-to-back CDIs hosted by California Dreaming Productions.  We'll head to Bishop again for the first leg of our trip, where we will overnight, then onwards to San Juan Tuesday and we'll arrive mid-afternoon on Tuesday.  The FEI jog is Thursday, the CDI GP on Friday, and the CDI GP Freestyle on Sunday. 

Majek is going to sit this one out, he is still recovering from that stupid ringworm (he has several raised welts on his back where the saddle pads goes) he contracted at the last show.  Victor's hives seem to be under control (finally), hopefully we won't see any recurrences while we're there.  Bolero is going to get back in the show ring after over a year off and do his first Third level tests.  He mostly needs to get more experience and learn how to handle the environment.

Victor will do the GP and GP freestyle again the first weekend but unfortunately we are wait-listed for the CDI for the second weekend.  They had just a ton of entries for these CDIs which is great for West Coast dressage but not so great for those of us who didn't get our entries in early. :(  I figure if all else fails we can either pick up some rides in the National show or just turn it into a schooling weekend with Leslie.

Looking forward to another exciting competition!!

So Cal trip #2 in T minus 7 days!!

We leave a week from today for the two CDIs in San Juan Capistrano.  The first weekend is the final World Cup qualifier in the North American League.  Victor is unfortunately wait-listed for the second weekend although thankfully we got into the CDI on the first weekend.  Looks like they got a ton of CDI entries for these shows, 62 horses total!  There's over 20 horses in the GP alone on the first weekend, and the PSG looked like 35 or so (I didn't count them). 

I figure that I'll use the second weekend as a good schooling weekend for Victor.  Leslie will be around so maybe I can get a couple more lessons from her if I don't get into the CDI.  I could always try to pick up a scratch in the National show as well.  Bolero and Majek are in all their tests both weekends.  Majek will do the I-2 and GP again, while Bolero will be doing Third level.  Bolero mostly just has to go to these shows and get comfortable with the busy environment, as that sometimes sets him off.  He's been going well in schooling although our changes are rocky again.

Majek's ringworm looks to be healing well.  He has one spot that showed up today but hasn't broken open yet.  Hopefully that will be the last one.  We've been judiciously washing his blankets, saddle pads, brushes, etc, and keeping everything separate from all the other horses.  So far it's worked.  I rode him for the first time today in over a week (I spent last week lunging him and doing half-steps), and his half-steps were much improved.  In general he felt looser and better connected.  I think the week of lunging did him some good!

Victor's hives have been a pain in the tail-end.  We've given him Dexamethazone a few times to try and get them under control, but they've come back.  My vet wants to switch to hydroxycine (sp?) this week (which is more of an anti-histamine rather than a steroid) to try and get them under control before we leave.  We've been communicating with the FEI vet and lab testing at USEF to try and figure out how long we can treat him before the show.  The FEI is really anal about drugs and the whole thing is just complicated.  But I'd really, REALLY hate to drive all the way down there and test positive for some prohibited substance just because I'm trying to treat my horse for having a mild allergic reaction.  How irritating!!

I rode Victor today too and in some ways he was better.  I had to wake him up a little, which is always the case after he hasn't been ridden in a little while.  But he was more active and rounder, which was nice.  He was a little over his front legs in the piaffe to begin with, but I did a few passage/piaffe/passage transitions and that brought him more up pretty quickly.  Tomorrow I think I'll run through a few pieces of the tests that give us trouble and see how that goes.  Hopefully his hives don't come back after being ridden today. 

Horsey skin problems and other drama

I've had it with weird skin issues on my horses.  Victor got hives on the last day of the Burbank show, and I didn't treat it with steroids because we were (a) at an FEI show, which has very strict drug rules, and (b) I didn't want to compromise his immune system any more than a 15 hour trailer ride home would already do. 

I had my vet look at it when we got home, by that time his skin had gotten kind of scaled and dry looking and some of his hair fell out.  Not so attractive looking. :(  My vet recommended us to scrub it three times a week with Chlorohexadine shampoo.  But at this point they will just have to heal.  We were also instructed to clean his blankets, saddle pads, etc and make sure they don't have any residual detergent that might be irritating his skin.

A couple days later he got hives again, so we gave him some Dexamethazone (which is legal to give a certain window before an FEI competition, as long as it clears his system.  The time frame is 7 days before the show.  So we're cutting it a little close, but I want to get it under control  I also haven't ridden him for a few days since the hives are mostly on his right side under the saddle pad (and somewhat lower).

So today I go to tack Majek up and he has a couple large hive-looking lumps on his side.  Turns out it's ringworm.  WTH!  So now we have more scrubbing and we have to be super careful about all of his stuff, tack, blankets, saddle pads, brushes, etc.  All of it has to be super clean (preferably with a small amount of bleach) as ringworm is transmissible through inanimate objects.  Grrrr.

I have no idea why all the sudden I'm having a bunch of skin issues on the boys.  They must have picked something up in California I suppose.  I've had hive issues in the past, and they've always been in early to mid-March, right before I leave for the late March California shows, about 3 weeks after clipping them.  So I don't know if it's something about being clipped that makes their skin more sensitive or what. 

Anyhow, so now I can't ride either GP horse before we leave for the next major show in a little under two weeks.  I think this week I'll lunge them and do some in-hand work as I've found that to be a good way to keep them going.  Hopefully later this week or next week I can be riding again.

If it's not one thing it's another...

Back to work!

I put the boys back to work today.  They came home with a surprising amount of energy!  Normally they are a little lethargic for at least a couple days, but not this time.  I turned them out Wednesday morning (we got back Tuesday night) and you'd have thought they had had an entire week off with how goofy they were in turnout.  Majek ran laps around his paddock while Victor jumped straight up in the air and tried to levitate above the ground (punctuated by caprioles).  Evidently the guys couldn't catch Victor Wednesday afternoon to bring him in.  Ernie said he would walk up to you cautiously, you'd walk towards him with the halter, then he'd spin around and run off, leaping through the air.  I was happy they felt as good as they did, but then thought they should probably go back to work sooner rather than later!

I also put Bolero back to work.  He had the week or so off when I was in California.  He was also feeling his oats on the lunge line yesterday but today was much more civilized.  Since I'll be gone longer this time he's coming with us to San Juan where hopefully he will learn to behave himself again at shows.  He's very, very big (17.3, although some argue he's 18 hands), super powerful, and spooky.  When he settles down he's awesome.  Incredible.  When he's not settled it's like driving a Mack truck with not much brakes and really bad steering LOL. I signed him up for a couple Third level tests.  On a good day I can do a PSG, but on a bad day I'll have the before-mentioned steering/brake problems which would make PSG a trainwreck LOL.

I worked on Majek's piaffe and passage a little today since it wasn't that great in California.  His piaffe was much better, leaving me to think he forgot to pack it in his suitcase before we left.  With Victor I did a lot of walking and walk-halt-walk transitions.  I find that the better I can get him giving in his back and solidly on the bit in the walk, closing up from behind into the halt and moving promptly forward off a light leg aid, the better everything else is.  Plus it is a little less high stress for him and me.  Then we went for a little trail ride outside.  The outdoor arenas are very dry and ridable, which is unusual for this time of year up here.  But I think it's supposed to snow or get super cold again next week.  Yuck!

Finally home again

Just finished up the 11 hour drive from Bishop to Boise.  I could tell Majek was getting mighty irritated with being in the trailer for so long but they settled in well once we got them out and into their "home" stalls.  Truck ran like the champ it is, I guess I should include the truck in the next press conference when I have to thank everybody who has helped get me to where I'm at LOL.

The weather was just wonderful for traveling, a little chilly but sunshine and no clouds or precipitation.  Dry roads all the way.  Very nice for traveling this time of year.  It's hard to believe I'll be making a return trip to So Cal in about 3 weeks, yikes!!

I'm very encouraged by Victor's scores down in So Cal.  In his International GP debut, he earned several 8s on his piaffe (including an 8.5 from one judge) and 7.5s on the zig zag and trot half-passes.  He also earned a 7.5 and 8 on his one-times in the freestyle, and he is capable of 8s on the extended walk (when he's looser and stretches more) and the canter pirouettes (when I can figure out how to ride them really well).  ALL of those are coefficient movements in the GP.  If I can get 8s on those (and sprinkle in a few in the collectives, I did get a 7.5 and 8 on rider from a couple judges in the GP), and keep everything else at 7s, I'm at close to 75% in International GP!!  SO COOL!!  Now I just have to figure out how to make that come about.

I also have some ideas for warming up for the freestyle next time.  I think I miscalculated my warm-up, he actually needed a little more suppling and loosening work, as some of my problems resulted not from him being a little lazy, but rather from him being a little tense and locked up against the hand.  It's hard to gauge with him when he needs a little "kick in the pants" and when I need to ride him a little longer and looser.  Because he is a little lazy behind, it is easy to make sure he stays in front of the leg, when in fact he's tensing his back and needs to become a little looser.  I had anticipated him being lazy for Sunday (since it was the end of a long show and trip), but that's not the horse I had.  Ideas for next time!

On the way home!

Today we drove back to Bishop for the first leg of our return trip.  The trip was uneventful although the mountains around Los Angeles definitely got a little snow from the little storm that rolled through last night.  We had a little bit of head wind going up Highway 395 but not bad.  I would have preferred to have an overnight stay that was closer to Boise, as today was short (5 hours) but tomorrow will be long.  It would be better to do the long day the first day.  However there's not much in the way of civilization in the area of Nevada where we're going.

The boys settled into their "hotel" much quicker this time.  They're getting used to this whole traveling thing.  It's hard to believe I'm driving back down again in about three weeks!  It would have been preferable to stay in California between the three shows but I felt that I couldn't be gone from my business for that long.  The boys will get at least a week off, maybe more or less depending on how they're feeling.  It normally takes about a week for them to recover from a trip like this.  I always know when they start tearing down the barn or going bonkers in turnout that it's time for them to go back to work!

GP Freestyles!!

Today was the last day of the Mid-Winter CDI and the rain moved in!  I started Majek in the Intermediare II again, and this time he went in the Indoor (which I hadn't actually gotten him into before this test).  He was wild in the warm-up, another location which I hadn't gotten him into, but it gave me the opportunity to work through his tension problems in the warm-up.  It took me a good 15-20 minutes to settle him down and get him focused, he kept spooking and leaping around at the people and horses walking behind the bushes next to the warm-up.  I was a little worried I may have to scratch, but he settled down enough that I decided to try it.

The test went actually better than Saturday and Sunday in many ways.  He was very good in the arena, despite having not seen the inside of the Equidome before the test.  I had problems in the piaffe again, and make a silly mistake (totally my fault) in the ones.  He ended up with a 60% from two CDI judges.  I was pretty happy with that, as I knew those big-time judges would be much more picky about his balance and engagement.  He was more uphill in that test than he was all weekend, but it's still not enough for what those judges want.  I was happy with how he rode though given the circumstances.  It is important that competition horses learn to deal with unexpected circumstances like that, so I figured it was a good training opportunity.

Victor's freestyle went fairly well.  Unfortunately he was a little on the hand today and not quite as good on the leg.  We had a few bobbles in the beginning piaffe/passage work and he didn't have quite as much activity in the piaffe today.  I also got dinged quite a bit because he had his mouth open in much of the trot work and some of the canter work.  When he gets strong he sometimes does that and the CDI judges really get after you for it.  I also had some mistakes in the 2s although the ones were really nice and I scored a couple 8s on them.  I was able to stay pretty good on my music and hit all of my transitions.  We finished with a 69.1.  I was a little disappointed to not break 70, but I shouldn't be too hard on myself as this was the first GP freestyle I've ever done, and we really only got it finalized a couple weeks ago.

I didn't get to see any of the GP freestyles as I was getting ready to ride.  I did hear Guenter's music when I was cooling Victor out and it was really, really well done.  Evidently one of his clients is a pianist and composed the whole thing.  It was very different but really interesting to listen to.  I couldn't see what he was doing to it though.

Unfortunately some rain moved into Southern California so I spent some time watching the weather.  We plan on leaving first thing tomorrow morning to drive to Bishop, where we'll overnight, then finish the drive back to Boise on Tuesday.  It's been a long week, these shows are a surprising amount of work!  I think some of it is just the stress.  I'm going to need a couple days off after I get back to recover!

Majek's first GP and schooling day for Victor with Robert Dover

The morning started early with Majek's first GP at 8:09am.  He warmed up fairly well, but I wanted to try for more engagement and power, and I started to piss him off later in the warm-up.  He displayed his displeasure by getting testy in the piaffe and bucking in the one-time changes.  Getting after him generally only makes the situation go from bad to worse, so I changed the subject and worked on something else for a while.  His test was ok for where he's at.  The piaffe didn't work very well at all, although the last one on the center line was better.  I did get a 7.5 on my two tempi changes and would have scored high on the ones as well except he had one change that was short behind.  He broke 60% but just barely.  I was happy to get his first GP done, and that it went reasonably well despite being on the verge of giving me the horsey-finger in the warm-up.  Tomorrow he will do another I-2 then be done for this weekend. 

I schooled Victor today under the supervision of USEF technical advisor Robert Dover.  Robert has tons of experience in top level dressage over decades (he's ridden in 6 Olympics I think!!) and has a real passion for improving American dressage at all levels.  He is also very gracious and kind in person.  I'm always a little leery about having someone help me at a show who doesn't know me (or the horse) well, as I have a system that pretty much works (although imperfect) and hate to screw too much with it.  However, Robert had some very good ideas about improving the presentation, some little things that I tend to overlook (like riding into the corners, having my leg lie flat on his side, keep a steadier contact, stuff like that).  He also wanted me to ride a little more aggressively forward and uphill in the changes (which I tend to let him be a little flat).  I was interested to hear what he had to say about Victor's hind leg in the trot and passage (he tends to be a little out-behind).  He said that since he piaffes so well, that he can close his hind leg up, I just how to figure out how to carry that shape forward into passage.  So when I was in piaffe, he wanted me to keep him in that shape then push him forward into passage but with his legs more under him.  It did make him harder to get forward into passage (as then he wants to get a little stuck) but I think directionally that's where I'll need to go with the passage to get him more engaged.  Also he wanted me to think of the passage as being more "up and down" than forward.  That was a little backwards for me, as I'm always thinking I have to ride him forward to get him more engaged.  But sometimes that only makes him longer.  So riding it like he described felt better and ironically more underneath himself.

I also did an interview with Axel Steiner today for the Live streaming on the CDP website, which was a lot of fun.  I've done interviews before but never a live one.  It's a side of high performance dressage that I'm not very familiar with but is interesting to experience.  I've shown in front of Axel many times but it was interesting to actually talk to him about my horse and his history, my goals, etc, providing background information that the judges oftentimes don't know.

Tomorrow Majek goes early again at 8:38 and Victor does his freestyle at 1:09pm.  Then we will start packing up and leave Monday morning for Bishop and the long drive home.  This week sure has gone by fast!

SUPER awesome first day here at the Mid-Winter CDI

Very, very happy with my rides today at the Mid-Winter CDI.  Majek started off the day with a very nice, if conservative, ride in the I-2 (his first I-2) to score 63%.  His piaffe still needs a ton of work but it is much improved from last year.  I scored 5.5's in the test today, much better than the 2s I was getting this time last year!  Tomorrow he will do his first GP, so it will be a big day for him!

Victor was just a rock star today in his test.  I rode him for 20 minutes or so first thing in the morning, before Majek's test, just to get him loosened up and worked through some of his stiffness issues in the pirouettes.  Then I did a 15 minute warm-up before the actual test.  I've found this strategy works really well for him, as I can get him supple and going forward but save our energy for the test.  He's a little lazy so energy management is really important for him. 

I rode the test for pretty much the maximum for where we're at.  And it worked!  He was really, really good, lots of energy, piaffe was super active and on the spot, and even the canter tour worked really well.  No major mistakes.  Even Leslie, who is super picky, couldn't find much wrong with the test outside of a little unsteadiness in the extended walk.  I think for where we're at, it's the best we could have done.

And the judges liked it!!  He finished with a 69.6, by far his best GP score to date, with 8s across the board on his piaffe and even an 8.5 from one judge.  He finished 4th in a very competitive class (Steffen Peters won, Kathleen Raine was second, Guenter Seidel was third), and we just missed 3rd by .06 percent.

It was one of those days that makes it all worth it!  When everything goes the way you'd hoped and planned.  Not often we get days like that in the horse world, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts!! 

Final schooling day and FEI jog

Started the day off early with a lesson with Leslie on Victor.  She was very helpful for dealing with some stiffness and activity problems I've been having throughout the work, which becomes particularly obvious in the pirouettes.  She had me ride some leg yields in a long angle, in both trot and canter, and supple his neck quite a bit more than I usually do and keep him much more in control of the tempo (he tends to slow down when I bend him and she wanted me to speed him up).  Also especially in the left pirouette she wanted me to ride him lower in the neck and keep him quicker behind, keeping the pirouette larger for schooling.  She felt that the loss of control in the left pirouette is because he stiffens as I prepare, so approached it from that angle.  His canter especially felt much better after we worked through those issues.

We had a scary moment in the warm-up when he got his legs tangled up in a pirouette and smacked himself hard on his right front and came up 3 legged lame for a few moments.  It is always a very scary feeling when your horse is 3 legged lame, whether you're at home or at a big show!  Luckily he walked out of it fine, then we gave him a quick brake and trotted him a little just to make sure.  He was fine, thank god.  I think he must have hit his ankle bone with the opposing shoe on the front leg, which stings like hitting your shin bone on a table.  Ouch!!

Majek was much, much, MUCH better today.  Instead of acting like a wild 4 year old, he was able to impersonate a budding GP horse!  I applied a few of the ideas from my lesson with Leslie to Majek and felt that it improved his suppleness and activity behind.  I also ran through a few of the movements out of both the I-2 and the GP.  I particularly have trouble with the zig-zag in the GP and Leslie's approach really helped there.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the jog.  Which mostly involved waiting LOL.  Victor passed the jog no problem.  We have unfortunately drawn the 3rd ride in the GP, at 1:28pm.  But I guess we get to set the tone for the rest of the class!  The heavy-hitters are later in the class (Steffen, Guenter, Kathleen, etc), because I think the times are drawn in order of World Ranking List, as this is a CDI-W (a World Cup qualifier).  In other words, if you have more experience in CDI GP you get to go later in the class.  I'm not exactly sure on the details; these CDI rules are downright overwhelming at times!  Majek will do the I-2 at 11:49, so I have plenty of time between tests.  Wish us luck!!

First ride in Burbank

Today was a light day for us and the boys.  It was nice to have an easy day after the drive and before the show starts!  Most of the CDI competitors also arrived today and got settled in.  The smog is continuing to be horrible, and it is very difficult to see the mountains around us from LAEC.  Not to mention the traffic is horrible too!

Majek was an idiot, which wasn't a surprise.  He actually started ok but then got himself all wound up about something and then started leaping around and even took out the arena rails.  So I spent my ride on a circle riding basic transitions until he settled down.  He ended pretty well, luckily I have tomorrow to help him settle down some more.  I will also probably hand-walk him around the arenas and hopefully that will help.

Victor was better than Majek, but a little tense in the back and on the hand.  After doing some loosening work I worked a little on the pirouettes.  I didn't want to kill him but did need to work through his tension some.  I have a lesson with Leslie (Reid) early tomorrow morning, and my goals are to improve his throughness a little, particularly his activity behind in the trot and passage, and get some ideas on improving the pirouettes as they are in the GP (on the centerline).

It's always a little difficult to gauge how tired or amped up the horses are going to be after the long trip.  They are typically always a little dehydrated, as they don't get as much water as they normally would when they're traveling.  Plus they don't generally eat quite as well.  Standing in a trailer is actually relatively stressful for them, particularly when the ride is bumpy or involves a lot of noise or stopping/starting.  So I don't want to work them too hard on the first day after such a long trip.

Tomorrow we get serious about the show!  The jog is at 3pm so after my morning lesson I'll ride Majek, then get Victor cleaned up, braided, and ready for the jog.  The draw is after the jog so we'll know ride times for the GP then.  We did give the boys baths today so they're at least somewhat clean.

Safe Arrival in Burbank

Whew, we made it!  Horses are all settled in at LAEC and we got everything unpacked.  The weather here is pleasant, mid 70s or so and lows in the upper 50s.  But the smog is very thick.  You don't really notice it so much when you're in it, but when you come down into it from the mountain you can see how it just sits around LA.  You can barely see the mountains around LA in some places because of how thick it is.  Yuck!

After feeding the horses and stopping at the local Starbucks, the day started off with a somewhat unscheduled trip to the local Ford Dealer in Bishop, after a somewhat scary incident coming down a grade in Nevada that I thought involved my brakes (scary mostly meaning "involving loud grinding noises under the truck when brakes were applied").  I was afraid something was wrong with the truck brakes and that is a BIG problem when you are going down any kind of grade with a heavy load pushing you down it.  So after consulting my panel of experts (you know who you are!) I stopped in to the Ford dealer and asked them to check it out.

Thankfully the mechanic said the brakes looked great.  I'm thinking, they should, since I just had them replaced a few weeks before this trip!  However, he asks me, when did you have work done on the driveshaft?  I'm drawing a blank, I know I've heard that word before but it's been at least a year.  Turns out, the carrier bearing on the driveshaft was on backwards.  I had to appreciate the guy's dry sense of humor..."I'm just a Ford mechanic, but when "FRONT" and an arrow are printed on it, and it's facing towards the back of the truck, that's probably not right".  LOL  Because it was on backwards, there was too much play in the driveshaft and it would make occasional noise when I was driving it.  He thinks there was enough play in it that when I pushed on the brakes going down hill it shoved the carrier bearing forward into the driveshaft hence the loud grinding noise.

Thankfully there was no major damage to either part, and it only took him a half-hour to take it off, clean it up a little and put it back on right.  He also noticed I had a new transfer case, and I told him that yes, I'd had that replaced about a month ago.  He's like, you know they have to take the carrier bearing off to replace the transfer case?  So now I know why the truck started making funny noises after I had that transfer case replaced.  Sometimes it would clunk a little, sometimes even grind, in varying levels of noise and at various times.  I knew something was wrong, and I knew it had something to do with the transfer case, as it was a noise I had never heard before I had that work done.  I had taken it in to my mechanic a couple times to try and figure out what was going on, with no success.

So now I'm pissed at my mechanic in Boise for screwing up, but thankfully the truck is fixed, no major additional damage was incurred, it didn't take long, and we're ready to get back on the road.  Plus I feel a whole lot better knowing the brakes are good as that was my main concern.

The rest of the drive is without incident.  The truck hauled great and had no problems the rest of the route.  We have one light day tomorrow where we can all get a little rest (although I will ride the boys) before the FEI jog on Thursday.

Arrived safely at overnight location in Bishop, CA

Today was a pretty long day of driving but we arrived safe and sound in Bishop, CA, after about 11 hours.  The weather was perfect the entire way, relatively warm and dry and no precipitation or wind.  Good weather conditions make the drive so much easier!  We did see some wild burros on the way, out in the middle of Nowheresville, Nevada (actually off of highway 360).

Once we arrived, the boys settled in very quickly at the Tri-County Fairgrounds and I gave them their evening beet pulp/rice bran smoothie (I had been soaking the beet pulp on the drive down).  It wasn't super warm here but pleasant, low 70s in the late afternoon and sunny with a light breeze. 

I do have a little concern about my truck brakes as they slipped a little at one point coming off a hill.  I just had new brake pads installed before this trip (both front and rear) so I'm wondering if the brakes shimmied because previous residue wasn't cleaned off the rotor surface.  At least that's what it sounded like based on my Google research.  Nevertheless there's a Ford dealer here in Bishop and I'll take it in first thing and have them check out the brakes.  Unfortunately there's no Chevy or GMC dealer for 100 miles or so (my truck is a GMC).

Tomorrow the drive is quite a bit shorter, only about 5 hours or so to Burbank.  It will be nice to finish traveling and be settled in at the show grounds.

Last minute preparations for tomorrow's DEPARTURE!!

Today I had one final ride on the boys before I leave tomorrow.  Majek started off very good, his passage was much better and he had some very nice canter work.  Then I went to run through the GP in the outdoor arena.  He started out great, much improved cadence and rhythm in the trot work, a little tense into the second piaffe/passage sequence and resulting kick in the passage/canter transition, but well recovered for a very good line of 2 time changes.  Then he saw the neighbor and his dog out doing something beyond the arena, and then, well, he was an idiot.  I mean, really an idiot.  He's never dangerous or anything like that, and I can't blame him for getting wound up about something out in the distance that he couldn't quite make out.  But really??  I tried to continue the test but his attention was totally gone and focused on whatever it was scared him.  We even had running sideways and blowing through the nose aka Arabian moment.  I had to give up the test and then ride basic transitions until he started relaxing and paying attention again.  Not a good way to end before a big horse show, but I know Majek very well and I'm sure that won't be repeated.  Plus we'll have plenty of time down there to get acclimated before we have to ride a test.  Hopefully...

Victor on the other hand was great.  I ran through the freestyle yet again and although I was a little off the music (I was having a heck of a time hearing the cd player over the wind outside today), he stayed on the leg very well and I was able to clean up a few technical issues from yesterday.  I also rode the GP again today and was very happy with how it went.  I made a few corrections for him wanting to come behind the leg in key places but overall I was better able to stay relaxed in my body and not push quite so much all he time.  The piaffe/passage was MUCH improved today, and also the pirouettes (although the second one was too big because he misinterpreted my aid to stay in front of  me as "go out of the pirouette").  But I was very happy with the improvements over yesterday's trial run.  Much, much better.  Thankfully.

We finished packing and Lana's husband Bruce showed me how to change the tire on my truck and how to put tire chains on.  Useful information for us road warriors to know.  It wasn't complicated, just a matter of running through it once to get familiar with the process.  I like to have a basic understanding of these procedures in case I end up in Nowheresville, Nevada (I go there a lot) and need it.  Also good to make sure you have all the right equipment and that your tire chains fit your current tires (thanks Bruce!).  Lana also put together a basic tool kit for the truck.  Before we only really had my square nose shovel (which was very handy when needed, that sucker helped me get the fender off my trailer on the last blow-out!), now we have all sorts of handy tools.  Including a crowbar.  Which would have been really helpful in that fender-removal situation. 

I'm planning on leaving tomorrow at 7am.  It's about 11 hours to Bishop, California, from here (which is where we're overnighting), so we should arrive around 5pm if all goes well (includes time change from MST to PST).  The horses will be staying at the Tri-County Fairgrounds which is right off Highway 395.  Bishop is a very cute little touristy town near Yosemite, nestled in a valley between the Sierra Nevada and another impressive mountain range that I can't name off the top of my head.  However being a tourist town the restaurants and grocers are a little pricey.  Since this is the off-season hopefully a bag of ice won't cost us $6.  The drive down looks great.  I'm looking forward to getting started!

My Valentine's Day gift to myself

My Valentine's Day gift to myself: a 15 hour trailer drive to Southern California in two days!!  Not exactly the most romantic of gifts.  That said, there's not much I'd rather do than be at one of the top CDIs on the West Coast watching our top riders be awesome and inspiring the rest of us to be awesome too.

Today's trial run through the freestyle with Victor went very well.  Then I ran through the GP which, well, sucked.  Admittedly I did push a little more than normal and put more expression in the passage, more activity in the piaffe, more uphill carriage in the changes and so on.  The resulting test was pretty rocky, as he misinterpreted my aids for more activity in piaffe and lurched forward into passage, had mistakes in the ones, and got stuck in the pirouettes.  Plus he was wandering all over the place on the diagonal in the extended trot.  Yuck.  I'll run through it again tomorrow and see if I can ride it a little more cleanly. 

The freestyle went very well though, I was slightly off the music starting both pirouettes but was able to get back on the beat very quickly.  Otherwise it is a much easier test for Victor than the GP, I can't decide if it's just because the test itself is a little easier, or because I ride a little better to music.  I'm really looking forward to riding it in competition, I think it is just a cool freestyle and I think the spectators will love it (hopefully the judges will too LOL). 

Majek schooled his passage and some passage-trot-passage transitions to add more lift and cadence in his basic trot.  Tomorrow I'll run through my tests again with him.  I have been very happy with how he's been in the tests I've schooled, unlike Victor, he stays better in front of the leg and so I feel more confident riding the tests.  However he also doesn't piaffe anywhere near as well as Victor does and I know better than to try and push it too much.

In other news I found out I entered the wrong tests at the show next week.  The ride times came out and there Victor is, in the PSG/I-1.  One frantic phone call later and it's all better now.  How embarrassing, but oh well.  I'm hoping that's the only major screw-up I'll have this coming week!

On the plus side the driving conditions for Monday and Tuesday are looking downright glorious.  It's been in the mid to upper 50s here in Boise during the day and just hitting freezing overnight, and dry as can be.  It's been looking equally dry and warm for the entire west coast for the next week.  Perfect, perfect, perfect weather for driving through the sometimes sketchy areas of Southeastern Oregon and Nevada that we have to go through.  No snow in sight.  And in mid-February.  Yay!!

Thursday, Feb 12

Today I ran through the Grand Prix on both Majek and Victor.  Majek's GP went reasonably well, considering he had a short break last week and today was his first day back to full work.  Ernie helped me some, and corrected my perception of his warm-up tempo (I was riding him too quick and flat), which helped tremendously.  His passage has improved considerably, much snappier with more elevation.  His piaffe is still pretty weak, but it's far, FAR better than it used to be so I'm happy.  I'm sure the big-time judges won't be very impressed, but if I consider that this time last year he was running backwards if I tried to do too much and was scoring 2s on it in tests (because it didn't look like anything at all), it is much better.  The rest of the test was quite reasonable.  If it goes at the show like it did today, I'll be happy.

Victor's test went quite well except for the pirouettes.  I warmed him up by pushing the passage for more impulsion (lots of transitions forward and back there) and then pushed him for quite a bit extra impulsion in the test itself.  It paid off well in many ways although it was a little rocky.  The pirouettes on the centerline have always been tough, as he loves to get behind the leg and stuck.  Also I put the piaffe on the spot and wanted maximum activity and he didn't much care for that so I had bobbles there.  However I have to ride close to full power though to get the scores, so if I go a little over-the-top at home it gives me some space to back off at the show slightly.  Still I can't back off much, otherwise he looks a little sluggish and behind the leg.  Those CDI judges don't cut you much slack LOL.

Afterwards I schooled a few different configurations of pirouettes on the centerline, for instance starting the pirouette then 3 strides in yielding out in haunches-in position.  Also I played with the tempo in the pirouettes, trying to make the pirouette a little quicker or a little slower.  And since I only have 6-8 strides I have to get those tempo changes to happen immediately but without changing the pirouette itself.  I was very happy with what I got.  I have to school it on the centerline because the c-line presents problems that don't happen when I ride them in other locations.  Also I'm hoping Leslie (Reid, who will be helping me some when I'm down there) will have some useful tips for those pirouettes.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will run through my freestyle again in the outdoor arena.  It's been remarkably dry and warm for this time of year (mid to upper 50s during the day) so although we had quite a bit of rain earlier in the week I think it will be dry enough by tomorrow.  I've pretty much got the freestyle memorized, but since our indoor is a slightly different size from regulation, I'd like to ride it in a regulation arena again before traveling south. 

Earlier this week I upped the feed the boys were getting.  Both horses look very good right now (particularly Victor looks like a lean, mean dressage machine) but they could stand a little extra weight before the 15 hour drive south.  Already they get a large feed scoop (probably 4-5 cups) of Purina Ultium for lunch, one cup of rice bran, and a multivitamin in addition to good quality grass hay 3x a day.  So I added beet pulp to their evening feeding; each horse gets 2 cups of beet pulp soaked, then we add 2 cups rice bran (for Victor) or 1 cup rice bran (for Majek), then a little bit of Ultium to top it off.  Then stir it altogether.  Basically it's a calorie-dense horse smoothie.  They both love it.  I will keep them on it for the next couple months with our heavy show/traveling schedule.  My vet prefers this supplementation to alfalfa because it adds water and doesn't increase the risk of gas colic like alfalfa does.

Tomorrow morning is my last gym work-out before I leave.  Twice a week I work out with a personal trainer and it has done a ton for my overall suppleness and fitness.  I originally started because I sustained several muscle injuries in my early 30s and decided that if I wanted to continue riding professionally, I was going to have to do something to improve my flexibility and overall muscle balance.  We riders tend to overuse certain muscle groups and under-use others (likely this is true of other sports as well).  It is exhausting, and not exactly something I love getting up super early to do, but something that I view as necessary to my overall health.  Plus it has improved my body awareness, control, and endurance in the saddle. 

T minus 5 days until departure for Burbank!!

After being gone last weekend (in Portland, teaching a clinic), I worked Victor Monday and Tuesday and rode the freestyle both times.  We're in the fine-tuning process, I'm very comfortable with the choreography and the music, so now it's just getting the two to synch up reliably.  Cindy is pretty fussy about getting it right and tweaks it just a little pretty much daily, then I ride it the next day.  We've basically got it done except for a few minor tweaks.  I'm comfortable with this process, despite being this close to the show, as I have a very good idea about how to ride a freestyle now.  A few years ago this would have made me super nervous.
Today (Wednesday) Victor had a light day and only walked for a 1/2 hour.  I would have taken him on a trail ride but it's so wet and muddy outside that I opted to stay inside.  I schooled some of our canter pirouette issues in the walk, something I hadn't thought of doing before but dawned on me today while I was wandering around.  He wants to get a bit stuck sometimes in the pirouettes so I ride in and out, making the circle smaller then bigger (sometimes in haunches in, sometimes not), making sure he stays in front of the leg. 
I worked Majek for the first time since he had his hocks injected a week ago.  Last couple days were only very light work, and before that he was being hand-walked some.  He felt ok, not great, more on the forehand than I want for a horse who will do his first GP in a week.  Luckily I have a week to get him back going again!
I have a hard time getting both Majek and Victor going equally well at the same time, I think partially because they are so different in reactivity.  If I have Victor going really well, I typically have him really good off the leg (and because he's lazy, I have to be a little strong and quick), but that tends to make Majek quite tense.  He's more sensitive, so he works better if made very loose and supple, then activated, but in a slightly quieter way than Victor.  I have to be careful not to be too aggressive.  But if I ride that way on Victor he kind of half-asses it around the arena.  I've gotten pretty good about being able to shift from one horse to the next but at this level the nuance is so important that I can easily get it wrong.
So far preparations are going well for the trip.  Lana's on top of it, and has the trailer well-organized.  I have to make sure I check the oil in the truck over the weekend, and check tire pressure in both truck and trailer and pump up the truck tires.  I typically keep the fronts at a cold pressure of 55 ppi and the backs at 80 ppi when hauling my trailer (a 5 horse Sundowner), plus I have a set of air bags over the rear wheels that I pump up to 40 ppi which helps level the truck.  Those air bags have done more to even out the pressure on my truck than anything, which really helps save my tires.  With such a heavy trailer I have to watch the tire pressure and balance of the rig much more closely than with my old, smaller trailer.
Lana's husband Bruce is going to come over this weekend and show me how to change a truck tire.  I'd rather never have to do that, but it is a useful skill to have.  I'm super handy at changing the trailer tires, thanks to a couple of blow-outs in the middle of NowheresVille, Nevada, but don't have any experience with the truck.  When traveling distances such as these, and through desolate areas (I had no idea how big our country was until I drove through Nevada!), I think it is important to know how to change tires.  There are areas of Nevada where I have no cell phone service and don't see another car for an hour.

T minus 7 days until departure for the Mid-Winter CDI

Next Monday Lana and I will be off on another great adventure, this time a trip to Burbank, California, for the Mid-Winter CDI-W (February 20-22).  We'll be taking Victor, who will compete in the CDI GP and GPF (his first GP freestyle), and Majek, who will compete in the National I-2 and GP (his first GP) classes.  Bolero will sit this one out, as he is still at a funny place between 3rd level and PSG, and I'd rather wait until he is confirmed FEI to show him.

I've had just a ton of things to think about and do the past month, partially in preparation for the trip and partially for my clients at home.  As seems to be typical for these trips, not only do I have a bunch of the usual preparations but unusual preparations come up as well.  For instance I had a few issues crop up with the truck that needed to be resolved.  We like good working brakes.  The truck also decided it needed a new "transfer case", I don't really know what that is, but I know it's flippin' expensive.

The boys have been going quite well.  Since it's difficult to have the horses going at their peak for GP for very long (I worry about burning them out, but I also worry about burning myself out LOL), I've been gearing them up since mid-to-late January for these shows.  Before that I was schooling much of the work, but it was not quite as intense.  I actually spent much of last fall doing very basic work with both of them, improving suppleness, self-carriage, and straightness in the basic way of going.  I also did some trot poles, jumped them a little, that sort of thing. 

I had a couple clinics in late January, one that I rode in at a local barn and one at our barn which I organized.  I haven't organized a clinic in a while and I forgot how much work it involves.  Between scheduling and figuring out the lunch situation and the inevitable schedule changes it was a ton of extra work.  However both clinics went very well, and gave me a bunch of ideas for where I need to go in my training, despite adding more things to do to my already overloaded plate.  

Of course the Monday after my clinic (two weeks before we leave for CA) I realized I had forgotten to get a current Coggins and Health Certificate for the boys.  Somehow that hadn't made the priority list, but luckily it was easily remedied.  Thankfully I had remembered to get the required influenza shots for the boys on their FEI passports and all those goofy memberships required for CDI competition.

Victor's GP freestyle has been a ton of work, and I haven't even been doing much of it.  Cindy Seburn has done aall the work finding appropriate music and doing the difficult and tedious job of editing it so it fits together.  I did the choreography, which was harder than I thought it would be.  Since Victor is still a relatively green GP horse I didn't want something too complicated, I'd rather show a logical and fluent choreography than something too difficult that is hard to follow and hard to execute.  Once we got a rough draft I've been riding it almost daily in an attempt to get the timing right.  I know it pretty well and the little tweaks we've done have helped make it much more ridable.  The freestyle is pretty much finished, and it is cool.  It will be fun to debut in California! 

This week the goal is to get the freestyle completed and memorize it.  Also I need to make sure I have everything I need packed and ready to go for the trip.  Plus I need to take care of all my clients before I leave!  Luckily I can count on Lana to know what we need to bring.  On previous California trips I'd do all the packing as well as everything else, which was downright overwhelming!