Something To Talk About: Friday Fun day followed by a Shitty Saturday

At the last minute I decided to go ahead and enter a starter trial at Olde Hope on Friday night. The thought was, even if we didnt jump around we would go for the dressage experience and use the entire show mostly as a schooling event.

My goals for the event were simple:

Dressage: try to recreate more of the magic we can get at home or in C lessons.
Jumping: More forward stadium and XC rounds

The beast all cleaned up for me by my wonderful hubby

My husband never gets to see my ride, so it was a nice treat and the perfect event for him to come watch since everything ran back to back (dressage first, stadium was 15 min after, immediately followed by xc).

Oddly enough, on the drive home, I realized I didnt have ANY nerves what so ever and was able to actually school her in warm up when she wasnt listening...sure it led to some interesting protesting, but it got me some nicer moments I needed in the ring.

Maybe I should dressage in my jump tack more?!

I did however realized I am much less patient at shows which leads to a tenser Tillie...she gets upset and takes any correction personally so this is something I need to be mindful of show days and try to not think of everything needing to be soooo perfect.

Either way, it wasnt the most perfect dressage test, but as a rider it felt like one of the better ones. I felt like we were more on the same page, there wasnt as much tension through her entire body or bracing happening.

a nicer softer moment

We came out scoring a 28.9 and it was a test of mostly 7's with some 6.5's. The judges comments were tactfully ridden, nice expression just a bit tense - lol I guess those can go for both horse and rider!

Here is the entire test on video:

We headed right over for stadium which was a pretty twisty course which I LOVED since it keeps Tillie thinking. With the goal to ride more forward, I new this would be a good course to do that with...it also helped most of the turns were right handed since thats her easier lead to get.

It was beautiful and Tillie responded well to any adjustments...minus the last fence which i totally biffed, but Tillie was a super star!

Then we moved on to XC...which I felt was pretty soft. There were maybe 3 jumps on the entire course that were novice height, but I wasnt too bothered by it considering my goal of actually trying to go more forward. It was nice too since when I came earlier in the season and walked the novice with Brita, I remember being a bit squeamish about a few of the same jumps, but this time was confident about every single one.

I also made a point to think about riding certain jumps differently and more smart...not just get on, go and hope for the best like I have done on some not so few occasions. Tillie ate it up and kept a cool head the entire time...I really couldnt have felt more proud or confident.

She flew over the largest jump like it was no big deal and sauntered on home like it was no big deal. We ended up in first by quite a few points and one of the only clear/clean rounds of the night!

Like my new C4 Belt?!

Tillie took the entire event in stride, no silliness just cool, calm collected. I was planning on doing a light trail ride with her the next day, saturday, but upon showing up at the farm the morning feeder asked me stop in the barn - which is never a good sign.

Apparently, the pony Tillie has lived with all winter decided she didnt want to wait for breakfast and literally beat Tillie to a pulp...scalped the top of her tail bone, huge scrape/kick marks down her right flank and some pretty fun scrapes and cuts littered all over her hind legs.

sad beat up tillie

Whats crazy is this pony is barefoot...my mare has shoes all around and the pony came out of it completely unscathed, not a single scratch on her. REALLY Tillie!?

Even after 2g of bute, Tillie was unsound left hind in the walk so a call to the vet happened. He was more concerned with her right hind based on the location of her cut thinking possible splint bone injury.

see the silver spray right at her splint

cut above the hock really swollen and reason for LH lameness\

Luckily by the time he arrived her lameness was slightly better and he quickly ruled out the splint and inspecting the LH said her unsoundness was due to her ballooning up at the cut which wanted badly to turn into cellulitis. So he said keep her out and moving, maybe bring her in to rest a few hours but slather her in antibiotic cream and keep her on the doxy (which she was just about to finish today for lymes) for another week.

I knew this meant possibly not going to the derby we had planned this weekend which is our test for a move up to training, but I relented that we have had an awesome year so far and if that was the case I wouldnt be terribly disappointed.

getting cold hosed

Much to my delight Sunday morning, all her swelling was gone and she was sound sound sound!!! so I decided to take her on a light hack around the farm and on the trails which she was a super star for.