Pine Hill Schooling HT || Oct 1, 2017

So, we're continuing the theme of getting the green horses/riders out for schooling at this point.  I'm starting to itch to show my beasties at the "real" shows", but it's important to let the working students be able to learn how to show and it's fun seeing them grow.  This weekend we decided to let Hannah play with Piper at the HT about 45 minutes down the road.  We had debated Beginner Novice for the two of them, but I opted to just let them do GAG since I knew Piper would be bored and it would give Hannah a chance to remember three things - Sit Back, Outside Rein, and Commit.

Overall we got that done, but man, our division was a shit show.

I also learned we are SO used to Dressage Land that this was a bit of a culture shock to Sarah and myself.  Hannah comes from Hunter Land so this was also a shock to her but in a good way.  I forget hunters don't number their jumps and I thought Hannah was going to die from excitement.  Hunters, I can't help it but you guys make it way too hard.  Our show times were after 11am which was initially exciting, but proved exhausting by the end of the day.

We arrived with plenty of time to orient Hannah and explain how this whole thing was going to work.  We walked the grounds, walked the dressage rings, and watched some of the dressage to put Hannah's mind at ease that she was WAY more prepared than most everyone else.  I KNEW dressage was going to be a bit hard to watch but omg.  It was rough y'all.  Hannah felt confident and so we went to get Piper from the trailer when it was close to time to warm up.  We knew we weren't going to do a ton since it was warmer and people were zooming all over with horses' heads in the air as well as some questionable acrobatics while the critters danced all over the place trying to dressage.  There wasn't an air of zen, that's for sure.

Hannah hopped on, we utilized the small red dirt pad near our trailer (but technically on cross country so we made it quick to not get in trouble), and then headed to "real" warm up and I had to call her back to get her bit checked when she headed out to the ring.  It's hard remembering all the tiny details to tell newbies.  With that done, went to warm up and were fortunate to be offered an opportunity to go earlier which we happily took to avoid the GAG dressage warm up chaos.

As we headed out to our ring, we were given more information about why we were going early.  The horse two before us wasn't allowing AT ALL for a bit check and was flipping out and the one directly before us was having steering/bucking/motivation issues.  Umm.  OK.  Hannah quietly warmed up Piper.  The horse before us started the approach to the dressage ring and... freaked out, dumping their rider and bucking all the way back to the barns.  Piper kept working nicely and we were allowed to go right in.  Because.two.horses.were.not.having.it.  Guys, it was tough for us to watch (have I said that?).

While Hannah didn't absolutely "nail" her test, they looked good and she kept remembering when to rebalance, when to half halt within about a second of when I would have.  Granted in riding time that's EONS but it's much much better for someone that's only been in our program for a month or so.  A hoof clip on the ring fencing left them a little frazzled but they got it back together.  Not too shabby and we earned a fair score of 34.0.  There were plenty of easy ways we can add "sparkle" and shave those points down into sub 30s as Hannah gets experience so that was awesome.

When the scores were put online, we were a bit confused that the horse that bucked its rider off was placed ahead of us with a 32.5.  Apparently since she fell off OUTSIDE the arena and BEFORE she entered, they allowed her (at judge's discretion) to ride her test.  Not sure this was terribly fair or safe, but well, spoiler alert - karma was strong at this show so hang in there...

After dressage, the CSF crew nabbed Piper and I took Hannah for water and to walk the (tiny) cross country course.  The main issue was Hannah's overconfidence towards the tiny jumps so I reminded her to respect the course and the three goals as stated above.  After watching some of the stadium to learn the course, I got her to eat some lunch and we went back to prep for stadium.  I didn't have a lot of words of wisdom because basically if you sit back, keep leg on/commit in some form, and watch outside rein, Piper will jump anything.  If you get off balanced or uncertain, Piper is a good teacher and will pull up/abort to help save your/her skin from bad decisions.  I don't consider self preservation in a horse (especially a mare) to be terribly awful but we knew when Hannah gets laid back that this can be a problem as she starts getting ahead instead of waiting.

I can haz jumping now?

When Hannah saw the jumps she laughed and I just shook my head.  They did a quick warm up (we forgot medical armband, crop... geez we suck at only showing one horse as a team) over the tiny jumps and we headed up the hill for our turn.  The runs went pretty quickly and we ran last in stadium for the whole trial.  Hannah wasn't terribly impressed with the size of the jumps and Piper saved her at the first jump but when they get in a bit wonky and weird to the second jumps, Piper makes the executive decision to "save" Hannah.  After a second refusal, Hannah remembered to ride and they were good to go.  Tiny jumps are hard for riders guys!  I told Hannah she was out of winning contention with the refusals (apparently I was wrong though...) so to just focus on schooling herself on cross country and the other riders didn't have stadium issues... although one horse was eliminated during this time so maybe I was wrong about not having issues.  This was the horse that was NOT having it for bit check in dressage.

After the lol of stadium, some well placed ribbing at Hannah, and then some more food/water, we had about three hours of nothing to do.  Since we arrived later, they had us park way up the hill which proved to be an epic spot as we were able to lay in the shade of the trailer and watch the cross country come through the field and up the hill.  We all tried to nap to varying degrees until it was FINALLY our turn.

We horse show so hard

At this point, Piper was DONE with being a nice, calm, happy dressage like pony.  She'd waited ALL day in the trailer and was in cross country beast mode.  Problem was this wasn't BN+ level courses.. it was GAG.  We loled at Hannah while they warmed up and had them rest in the trees.  Piper was good to go.  The horse-that-bucked-its-rider-off-but-was-in-first-place was having issues in the warm up so we avoided them.  As we sat in the shade waiting for our turn to go (last again :P) it seemed everyone was staring at the white coop of tininess.  Horses were stopping left and right at it.  I told Hannah is she peeked at it, I'd stab her.  No refusals.  We'd jumped ALL these as warm ups a few weeks ago.  Stare ahead at the trees and do the things on this Training Level schooled horse!

Piper is ready. #crosscountrybeastmode

Just when Hannah was about to walk to the start box, they called for people to close tabs at the consessions.  UGH!  I jogged up there and got that done just as she was coming through the field.  I got to see the white coop of doom (they aced it) as well as the rest of the course.  No refusals and they looked dominant on the course.  I was happy and Hannah had a serious adrenaline buzz going.  Piper FINALLY looked satisfied with herself and we were ready to pack up once scores were published.  Wait.  Once scores were published AND there was a dispute period.  Man, eventing is sooo much waiting vs dressage where it's all available once it's up.  The end.  Whatever.  At this point we'd waited so long that I was all WE'RE WAITING THIS OUT.  Because... Horse That Bucks well... it dumped it's rider.  Other presumably good horse ended up with time faults (huh?) and we got first in the end.

Guys.  It was a shit show in our division.  I just can't.  Two horses were left standing and we came out on top.  Karma, but oiy.

What even?

So in conclusion, I still love going to Pine Hill.  I practically grew up there riding and it's such an odd mix of sadness and excitement and familiarity when I'm there.  I love introducing new people to this place.  My feelings about eventing have been mixed for many years now and this weekend really made me sadder.  Seeing so many kids that can't ride w/t/c well, seeing so many coaches/adults drinking alcohol and bad mouthing other people/horses and then riding or instructing, seeing kids (and parents) being assholes, seeing horses that were clearly unhappy with the dressage, seeing so many more riders seething about the dressage and then seeing how NOT having dressage or foundation skills was creating unsafe situations in the jumping made me nervous.  Eventing at any level isn't a joke guys.  It's dangerous and even MORE dangerous than your average horse sport by the simple design of what we ask the horse and rider to do.  This is not the sport I remember as a kid and I get that we can't go back in time and that the "good old days" aren't all that "good" but I really remember learning about respiration rates, rating your speed, riding properly, staying hydrated, taking care of yourself, applauding good rides not people falling off and being able to skirt the rules at GAG to get back on the horse.  BN riders up each other's asses on cross country.  Guys, I just... unno.  I did see some lovely riding, don't get me wrong.  It stuck out like a sore (? awesome?) thumb and we cheered for these riders.  The rest though, wow.  

My critique on Hannah would be that I'm super proud of how much she's grow since joining our team and how eager she is to try all these things while being professional in her learning during the events.  Piper is being fair with her and that's helping her learn faster at the shows as well.  The CSF team rocks (even when we're forgetting all the things) so we're good to go for the upcoming big shows.

Thanks Eventing Land for the side trip and we'll be back to cross train the ponies.  We also learned we are definitely in the right place for our sanity/happiness with our dressage dedication and will continue to spend our money happily there when we get the chances.  

Oh and don't forget to put on the sunblock that we put into the trailer to specifically prevent sunburn.  #fail

Sarah was smart and bought this on her way home. I suffered with normal aloe and tylenol