Tillie's first show back of the season - Fair Hill

I was feeling a tad worried going into Fair Hill...I really only started digging in to prep about two and a half weeks out. I realized the week before, I had yet to ride my dressage test at all on Tillie let alone some of the movements...nor had I stadium jumped her.

Ummm unprepared much?

Attempting to prep for braiding all by myself!

But our jump prep felt great and our final dressage lesson the day before felt really good, relaxed and consistent even through the test.

I did it! Although not beautiful, I did not melt down

I got her all cleaned up and braided...which if any of you remember is a big deal for me lol. I am not a good braider and in the past would get about 3 braids in before losing it and calling someone for help. So was super proud I did it!

Tucked in and ready to go

Tillie the next morning was really offended I left her in all night...so lesson learned, we will try next time putting her in the smaller paddock with Kiss and hope she keeps her braids in. Because her angst lead to some major issues in our dressage test...like 44.5 points of issues to be exact.

Yea not great. Especially since our flatwork has greatly improved. You can see she just was persnickety and super tense....and it led to me getting flustered. The head flicking...well not ideal and I believe to know the cause and working towards fixing it:

I will say, I didnt feel horrible when I saw a few other riders in my open division with similar scores (I mean we were dead last, but at least we didnt canter out of the ring like that one time though). I had Ryan Wood, Jenny brannigan and similar quality riders in my division...OH and Icabod crane. You know Phillip Dutton's previous mount. 

F- ME. 

We could have used this relaxation in dressage

So new focus...dressage boot camp for a week (currently happening). I was feeling really frustrated and resolved to get this figured out because I KNOW we can do better and more than that we have to do better. I was however happier with her canter and trot lengthenings over previous tests...even if the score didnt reflect it.

But on to jumping!

Tillie warmed up amazingly well. Got all the distances, leads and was forward but would rebalance and jumping like a beast. I opted to go in early and felt ready. The course had a lot more combinations than I was expecting, which were a huge issue for us last season we competed. So I prayed our last jump lesson paid off and we would keep the rails up.

So jump one...we pull a rail. Not exactly how Id like to start...and left lead, not sure where that went?! But I will fess up to the first rail. I got too impatient and didnt keep her balanced...I dropped her before.

But all the hard stuff she nailed and was adjustable and responsive...through the second line however she felt pretty darn heavy. She did respond to be, but I had what felt like 25 lbs in both reins.

We pulled the last oxer's rail as well...as you can see in the video, she got low and I didnt hang out long enough in the turn to get her back so we basically came in low and hot.

But we survived and at this point still in the qualification for waredaca...so XC it is.

Out we went...I had the goal to get as close to time as possible knowing full well I tend to run her too slow. 

She came out strong. Like way too strong. So I had to keep her in check more than i would have liked the first few fences. 

You can see here her pulling my arms off down the hill...and i was thinking oh god if this is the whole course I might die. But knew after jump 4 we had a downhill to a good uphill stretch to let her have at it and get out that pent up energy. 

It worked and rest of the jumps came nice and steady out of a good distance...without always adding!

So not exactly the first outing I had anticipated. BUT there was a lot to like despite the frustrating lows. At least coming out of this i know what we need work on. We at least got the qualification needed for waredaca so 3 more to go!

A few people recommended trying perfect prep or something before dressage...if anyone has suggestions on show day help for relaxation please let me know!

weekend recap

I must apologize in advance because I, sadly, dont have a ton of media from this weekend...Such a bummer because I would have loved footage of Tillie's first Training outing.

Sure it wasnt a full training event, but it was a great test! I must admit too, I need to be better like Emma at Fraidy Cat eventing and take pictures of each jump...**sigh** I just dont think that ahead.

All loaded up and ready to go!

The morning of the derby, I had some time to kill so decided to tackle a mini project I was considering and putting interlocking rubber/foam mats in my dressing room of my trailer to make things neater than the grungy old carpet.

I got the mats at Costco for $30 and only needed one pack of them and still have some scraps left over to touch it up when I get another spare moment. But it came out pretty nicely and it only took roughly an hour!

Before....................................after

Once that was done I loaded up and hit the road. I met up with a fellow barn mate I met through being a working student of Dans and we walked the course together. It was nice to have her there since shes been competing her mare at training level for a few years now. Her relaxed attitude about the day helped me stay relaxed, especially because the jumps were pretty giant (I dont freak out about size typically). 

Stadium sized jumps dont because I know we can just knock em down...cross country was definitely a big step up for us and while I mentally noted how large they were, felt really confident Tillie would do just fine. I did have a pep talk with her though and also made a note to maybe purchase some sticky spray for the future. 

All done and grumpy about the bugs

She warmed up quite nicely despite the fences set up not to training level height so I was a bit worried about going into stadium but quickly told myself it was no big deal even if we did take a rail, this was just practice and trying to see how we would do off farm. 

Off we went into our 8-jump stadium...sure enough fence 1 she rubbed with her front legs which ALWAYS is something she does if she doesnt realize fences go up. She slipped a bit around the the turn to Fence 2 and she still hadnt caught on and dropped the rail with her hind end. After that she woke up and REALLY started jumping. Oh. My. God.

Jump #3 was part of a combination with fence 2 and she realllllly over jumped it. The turn to #4 was a roll back turn to a three stride to #5 bending line and boy was she really jumping out of her skin. #5 She literally jumped me out of the tack so hard that I apologized on landing to her (thank god for thinline). She didnt miss a beat though and made the turn to #6 to one more 4 stride line #7 and 8. 

Treats for me!?

They ran the event that upon landing you kept cantering right into XC so off we went! Jump #1 was a GIANT red house. It was wide too but Tillie soared over it. Jump 2 was about 5 strides after and was a smaller wooden roll top looking thing but Tillie over jumped it so hard I lost my right stirrup. 

Thank god I didnt lose my balance or feel shaken in the tack because she was movin and groovin...I got my stirrup back really quickly though and we cantered into water, up the bank to a two stride to a pretty large table. 

Once again, Tillie didnt disappoint...she got a bit long to the bank which isnt ideal, but she made up ground and moved up to the distance well. She landed after the table quite excited with a playful head shake but regained focus reallllly nicely. 

I said TREATS please!!!!

Next was a bit of a coffin complex with a large blue train jump, ditch to a roll top. It was by far the largest ditch we have ever jumped and Tillie jumped it like super man lol head between the knees but did it without hesitation. 

We had a good gallop up the hill to an even larger roll top with grass and we took that out of a gallop which was really fun! On landing though I did have to use my pelham and for a good couple strides to tell Tillie to calm down lol she was trucking to the last two jumps. 

She did come back after a few HARD half halts but still jumped forward over the second to last jump and I really asked her to wait for the last one with it being quite a large trakahener knowing she kinda looked at one the last time. 

She jumped it well, but I over thought it a bit and landed kind of in a heap almost lost my left stirrup ahaha, but Tillie had her ears pricked and was ready for more...She did come back nicely to a trot and boy was she huffing. 

Soooo tired

It was only 10 xc jumps, but she was drenched and breathing pretty good...it was more mental than anything else, but I definitely need to step up our conditioning before our first Training event. 

All in all it felt good, it felt confident. I learned that road studs arent enough at this height and we probably need to try slightly larger ones when the ground is this hard. She got a nice poultice to help with that and a massage the next day :)

Meanwhile, I am in works with Dom to start working on me keeping up with her and not getting jumped out the tack. Stay tuned for our XC lesson we will have this week addressing those! 

So here is to hoping things go as smoothly later this month!