*TWIN* ~RIVERS~

My amateur-ness will be on full display here... I am absolutely giddy to be heading to Twin Rivers in Paso Robles tomorrow to watch some of the horse trials! I've only seen one other horse trials (Shepherd Ranch in Santa Ynez), and I can't wait to watch! We've got the best sport ever - how can baseball and basketball possibly compare? Why aren't there thousands of people showing up to horse trials to watch? 

Good luck to my barn mates and their horses Kelly & Finn, Jordan & Honor, and Ashley & Brodie! You're so inspirational. :)

Monday 3/7/11 Update:  IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!  First of all, congratulations to Kelly, Jordan, and Ashley! Not only did all three of them have amazing rides and some personal bests, but they were incredibly competitive amongst so much great competition! It was so motivating to watch you!

This weekend really made my heart flutter with excitement and anticipation to get out there and do this myself. It looked so challenging and so much fun, and I really enjoyed being part of such a fun barn. I've been dreaming about it - night and day! I kept looking around at the courses thinking "these people must be crazy!"  and I can't wait to be one of them!

Beautiful Twin Rivers! I'll ride here someday...

Nevermind on those schooling shows...

Unfortunately, both schooling shows were rained out. So much for jumping right into our competitive season! The worst part is that the venue has not yet announced replacement dates, and our other local eventing venue doesn't have anything until May! My trainer and I are trying to figure out some other options - once something is lined up I'll post it here, make some goals, and hopefully kick off 2011 officially!

Meanwhile, though, let me present to you a typical horse riding night for myself:

Yep. Darkness.
I get off of work at 5:30, and it takes 30 minutes to get to the barn, so its 6 pm by the time I show up. At this time of year, that means darkness and freezing cold. If you can see her, the grey mare is Spirit on the right, and on the left you can barely make out her paddock-mate, a chestnut and white Paint mare named Maui (also in training for eventing), who actually turns out to be Spirit's half-sister! Small world. Anyway, high-five to everyone else who braves the darkness for their riding. I am so blessed to be at a facility that has some lights, and a trainer who is willing to come back to work late.

I've had two dressage lessons this week, and I'm feeling really good. We're on a roll. Our second lesson was even in the rain, so my trainer and I get extra kudos for being hardcore. Okay, okay - it was more drizzly than raining. But it was dark!

Sunshine!.....or not

The sun has decided to come out and dry up the arenas, but unfortunately it's slated to rain again this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which will (likely) cancel my next upcoming show as well. Alas, this year's show season has gotten off to a rocky start. A rainy start, rather. In fact, no start at all, due to the rain. Sheesh.

To top things off, Spirit somehow scratched her face and jaws all up. Pretty bad. I've been gooping them, but it still looks pretty bad.

On the bright side of things, I had a wonderful ride on Spirit last night. It had felt like forever since I've been on her. She certainly had a few bucks which we longed out of her first, but then she settled down to work nicely. I had so much fun and I'll likely go ride again tonight, even though I have a lesson tomorrow. Just because our shows were cancelled doesn't mean we can slack off on our studies - it's not like Spirit comprehended that we had events coming up anyway.  Hopefully these schooling shows will get rescheduled - I need to get my feet wet before I can get to my real goals of 2011 - real Horse Trials!

All Weather Sport?

So, less than a week away from my first schooling show of 2011 (dressage only), and sassy Miss Mother Nature shows up with her rain clouds to screw things up. (Ever since I had a previous horse at a co-op boarding facility, I have hated rain. Rain makes feeding, mucking, and tacking up take twice as long, and makes riding dangerous. Its just a nuisance. I haven't been at a co-op for many years, but my annoyance at rain hasn't gone away.) I had bathed my horse this past weekend, and now I know she'll be a mudball. The footing is not safe enough to exercise my horse, so we're not getting the practice rides I was counting on. Plus, the show is likely to get cancelled, and I'll be out the $25 administration fee. Grrrrr.

Update - show officially cancelled =/

Countdown to our first schooling shows of 2011

So it's official: Spirit and I have signed up for our first schooling shows of 2011! They're at El Sueno Equestrian Center in Somis, just a short drive from my barn.

The first is on Saturday the 19th - we're signed up for two Opportunity dressage tests: Training Test 1 and Training Test 3. I've been memorizing like mad, reviewing the letters of the full-size dressage court on my breaks from work, and moving my finger through the test. I must look like a crazy person to my coworkers!

Then we've got a schooling derby on Sunday the 27th! Unlike other derbies I've been in, this one is jumping only and does not have any dressage. I'm excited to get out there and see how we do under a little bit pressure (show nerves). The event poster boasts water obstacles and banks, so I'm excited to do both of those things as part of a course - I've only schooled those two in the past.

Goals for the events:

1. For the dressage show, I want to do the movements accurately and precisely.
2. I want to have good control of my transitions. For my up transitions, I don't want to go running away for 5 strides - I want to go quickly (preferably straight into) a collected gait. For my down transitions, I don't want them to feel like "splat". That's the best I can describe it for now.

3. For the jumping derby, I want to get through my bogie obstacle (down banks). Just live through it.
4. I want to be the one riding the course, rather that Spirit just taking me a long for the ride.

Equine Affaire 2011

Yesterday some girlfriends and I headed down to Pomona for Equine Affaire. It's the place and time to stock up on inexpensive horse items such as treats, grooming supplies, and wormer. I also got some really cute Kensington saddle pads and some more hot pink buckets. Can you ever have too many buckets? We watched parts of two seminars, and I spent a little bit of time manning the Paint Horse booth. Any time doing horse shopping with girlfriends is fun, but sadly the expo was much smaller than last years'. Hardly any vendors were giving out samples and I didn't see as many good deals being offered. But I sure got my supply of treats for the year!

First XC Schooling of 2011

So we had our first cross country schooling of the year this past Saturday. Once again Spirit proved to be the most amazing horse ever. We took on water and down banks (our bogie) and even a Novice sized rolltop. Spirit was a pro. First time at that facility, and no problem. How am I so lucky to have her?

Unfortunately, I'm not quite as pro as she is. She's almost 6 and has been doing this for basically 1 year, whereas I've been riding for 18 years, but that didn't stop me from being a bit of a nervous nilly! It was the first time my trainer got to see me ride when I'm nervous/tense, and she gave me a list of things to work on. I'm so impatient to improving my riding - I want to take lessons every day until I can do it right! If only the day job and pocketbook didn't get in the way...  Meanwhile, in between practice rides and lessons, I'm reading up and working out. I've got a whole slew of books from my trainer, but if anyone has any suggestions for books, maybe something like "The basics of dressage and jumping for you and your young horse" or "How to train yourself and your horse at the same time" or something like that, just let me know!