We finished a BN three phase!!!!!!

 Finally!!!! Whoo hooo! We finally did it! 

 

Jacel and Laura and I had planned to do the schooling show at Full Gallop to redeem ourselves from the recognized one last month. Well, not Laura. :) She and Smartie didn't need redemption. But Dan and I wanted over that final XC fence and a better stadium round and Jacel wanted to get through the XC course without the drama. But... only Smartie got to go back. Llama cut her leg and was swollen and not being ridden because of it. And Dan, well... Dan was still lame and obviously not jumping. So... I opted to take Lyric and Jacel opted to take Rose. And Smartie and Laura came. So... because it was a schooling show we opted to haul in the day before and school. I knew I definitely needed it! When we left home it was so cold! Like...in the 30's cold. I was tempted to pull Lyrics 2nd layer but she got all fussy and dancy at the trailer and it was so, I just left it on. Clearly the wrong choice because it quickly warmed up and when we got to Full Gallop she was sweaty. Ooops. I'm sorry girl! 

 

We got parked in our same hook up spot and had stalls in the same area. I got Lyric unloaded and settled with hay and water and went to get more shavings. When I got back, the farm across the drive was shooting. I'm not sure if it was that or what, but Lyric was freaking out. She was trembling and yelling and trying to walk over me out of the stall. The other horses were freaking out too as were some in the arena schooling. We gave them some time and they eventually settled but it was wild how they all freaked out! And of course we're supposed to get on and go school XC soon. Doh! But, surprisingly, they all settled and them seemed fine and everyone was super on XC. We hacked out there and warmed up and Lyric was quite good. Jacel had me ride her barrel and basically push her into my outside rein with my inside leg. I was essentially leg yielding her into the connection almost. But it worked. She softened and was going fairly well a good chunk of the time. She wasn't being naughty but was a bit stiff and inverted and throwing that giant shoulder around. So..we started jumping. I had no spurs or crop because of my last Waylon lesson. And it wasn't great. Everyone else was going well but Lyric and I were struggling. We tried trotting things but she was sucking back and tossing me around with her shoulders. Anytime I got even slightly ahead of the motion, she would toss me around (wiggling.. not bucking) and I would get out of balance and couldn't support her and she'd stop. Then she got a little herd bound and was stopping if the other horses were standing behind her. And I wanted to cry. But I didn't. We persevered and towards the end, it got better. We basically had to trot everything. Jacel told me that the trot allowed me to stay centered better and not let Lyric use her body to put me in a precarious balance, which allowed her to stop. So by trotting, we were just giving me a better chance and being able to keep her body in line and thus, jump. She also told me that Lyric was SOOOOO emotinoally in tune with me. Crazily! And that while it would be to my advantage at some point, it also had its downfalls. If I wasn't committed, she wasn't committing. And if I was unsure, she was unsure. So, we went back to trotting everything and I kept my chin up, my shoulders back, and my shoulder blades pinched together and my leg on and she went. Everytime that I stayed in the back seat and thought about sitting my tailbone on her... she went. But if I tipped the slightest or got off balance, she could stop. And she didn't every time... a few times she went even when I tipped slightly forward. So good on her for that! And at the end of the day... she was jumping some of the scarier BN fences without having to stop at it first. But we did keep trotting them. We did occasionally pick up the canter a sttride or two out. 

 

So... I'm not going to lie. I was pretty ... disappointed. Not in the mare so much... but just... I felt like I had done things wrong because it's been well over a year... why are we still struggling to get over small fences? Why do I still have to slow it down so much and trot things? Why are we struggling when others are doing so awesome and just taking to XC? But Jacel reminded me that she is 4, coming 5. She is very emotional. She's also not done growing physically. And she told me she was proud of me for persevering and that she felt like Lyric gained a lot of confidence from the schooling. And yes, I agree with her. But it's still a bit hard to swallow. Especially since her 5 year old mare who has only been off the property 3 times and schooled xc once jumped the whole BN course like she'd been doing it for years. I am reminding myself that the quirky horses are the upper level horses. The hard horses are the ones that teach us. I don't like easy horses... they're boring! But still... it sounded so nice to be able to just get on and go clock around. But we will. One day. Just not anytime soon. I need to stop comparing our journey to other peoples journeys. Their timeline doesn't alter my timeline. My timeline is my timeline and it is based on what Lyric needs from me. Not to mention... I'm an amateur. I work. I'm trying to ride 2 other horses. Sigh... but the devil was working hard to get me to be upset. So I tried hard to focus on the good. We put money in the bank. She schooled all the things. She bombed right through the water (and the puddles in the field) without batting an eye. She didn't mind the ditches or banks. She was actually very chill and relaxed considering the winds and the chaos. Oh, and towards the end of schooling a horse and pony got loose (with tack) and went galloping off and our horses just stood and watched. And there was three random armadillos' in the woods (in 3 different places) scrounging around and she looked at them but didn't spook. We managed to work through some of the herd bound stuff. No one came off. And I didn't cry. Almost, but didn't. 

 

We ended up walking the course to cool them down because in the chaos of schooling I didn't pay attention to my course. Then I gave her a quick bath since she was so sweaty and dirty and they had hot water. It was still pretty chilly though. She got her cooler and then we grazed and walked in the sunshine to dry off. We walked into stadium and I let her look at the train and the butterfly fences. And the pile of jumps in the shed in the corner. She was a bit alarmed about the train but didn't panic and approached with minimal encouragement required. Afterwards we fed them and went to dinner ourselves. Lyric wasn't really eating her dinner but by morning it was gone, as was her hay. 

 

It wasn't too terribly cold that morning but a bit chilly. And she warmed up so good! I really really like Jacel on the flat too! I definitely need to get some more flat lessons, even if I have to bribe her to come to the house. She had moments in our warm up that were the best she's ever felt! And yes, they were moments and not the whole time, but there were lots of moments. And she's building strength. She had me ride the barrel. Bend her barrel around my inside leg and push her into the outside rein. But she had me post to the inside. She told me to bring my outside hip to her inside shoulder and it totally worked! I don't know why, but it did. I was doing the opposite, especially tracking left because that right shoulder kept escaping but Jacel's way worked better. I guess I was pulling her over underneath my balance. And as Jacel told me, it shaped my body in a way that opened up space for her inside hind to step up and under. Okay... duh! I "know" this in theory I guess, but... I could really feel it. Basically, she had me position myself to unblock places and encourage Lyric's body to go where I wanted it to. And holy moly... she was in the outside rein, but soft and she put herself there!! She reached her neck out to that soft light connection and put herself there! I didn't have to create it... I just made the space for it and allowed it. And she was soft in the inside rein too with a fairly steady connection. It was great!!! She was moving nicely, her back lifted, and her hind end was following her front end. Honestly, it was the best she's ever felt! And again, she fell out of it a bunch, because we're both weak. When she did, Jacel just had me ask again with the inside leg and sometimes a little bit of inside flexion or a little bit of wiggling the bit to get her focus back. When we picked up the left lead canter she felt a hair wonky at first but settled into it. And the canters were nice too! So then we headed to the arena. She felt so good in our last little trot around the arena! We went in to do our test and it felt worse than our warm up. Which, is fair. It's a small arena and I didn't have time to settle into the movement before we were doing another. And because of the confines of the arena railing, I wasn't as brave about asking her to move her barrel over and she was throwing her ribcage at me a lot more. So we were definitely a bit more braced and crooked. But she did everything I asked. Our canters were on the correct lead and nice but our transitions were a little bit blurred. Your typical green transition where you almost run into them. And we got nailed on those. But she was pretty darn good considering! She was trying hard but just felt green and inconsistent. But I was still super proud of her. I didn't look at the scores until we were done but... she scored a 30. something!! WHAT?!?! Go girl!!! And yes, the judge was generous. We did get an 8 on our halt. But her comments made my day! She basically said "a correct and lovely pair... work on better preparation for smoother transitions". WHOOO HOOO! I don't even know who the judge was.. I should go look. And we were in 4th out of 7 I think with that score. Yeah girl!! I have seriously underestimated your dressage ability! 

 

I hopped off and watched Jacel's ride and then she got to go back in her stall for a bit. It was quickly time to get ready to jump though so we got tacked back up. I noticed that she had nicked herself in the fetlock again and was bleeding. Oh dang.. that's why her canter felt wonky for a few strides in warm up. Darn...  I put her boots on and tacked up and we headed to stadium warm up. When we picked up the trot she felt kind of lame. NOOOOO!!!! Jacel watched and thought maybe she'd work out of it. It was subtle. Oh.. maybe it's the boot rubbing her wound! I had a friend pull her hind boots and she immediately trotted off happy. Oh phew! So we warmed up. It was pretty good actually. Jacel even told us to canter and as long as I stayed centered and balanced and thought of being behind the motion, it was great. We didn't have any stops but it wasn't as smooth the few times I tipped the tiniest bit. Jacel said she was proud of me for realizing I was tipping because previously I hadn't been able to tell. So, we went in. And it was bad. So bad. Ugh. I trotted the first fence but she sort of tried to run and then I didn't commit so she fizzled and it wasn't pretty. We cantered over the second and it was okay. The third was the triple bar but it was set as an oxer and I think we did okay over that one but it wasn't real confident. The fourth fence was wiggly but we made it over but then I totally didn't ride that line and it's a hard line to a roll top. I basically let her fall in and then didn't set her up and tipped forward and had her at an angle, so of course she stopped. And we may have had a rail at this point somewhere along the course too. So I regrouped and trotted and got her over that... then we sort of faltered over the next one but got over it. Maybe had a rail. Then it was a 2 stride and she came in weak and twisted and was angled to the out. I pulled her out of it. I figured it wasn't fair to ask her to do that. But then when we came again I didn't really ride it any better so it was equally awkward and we had a rail. Sigh... so then I sat up and regrouped and managed to send her forward. I think I wasn't necessarily riding backwards but I was not helping her out at all or doing any encouraging or sending, so... once I started to think about actually closing my leg and encouraging, she went much better. She didn't worry about the train and jumped that one fairly nice and then the last fence was much better. Sigh... Sorry girl. I flubbed up the whole course until the last two fences. Doh. So we more or less doubled and then some our dressage score. Ha ha. Doh! 

 

Jacel again told me she was proud of me for not giving up and getting it done and making the last two fences better. And told me we were going to go rock it on XC. So we went. We warmed up and it was actually pretty decent. Although she took another funny step and was holding that left hind in the air again for a few steps. Jacel said she didn't look like her stifle locked but that she stung herself and she saw a mark on her coronary band. But to me, it felt like she couldn't unbend her leg for a minute. But I don't know. She walked it off and was perfectly fine. So we carried on. And it was much better. We jumped 4 fences including the downed tree jump and she didn't stop and was brave. We even cantered some. So then we went out on course!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, have a great ride. My plan was to trot but as I started out of the box our trot was very drunk and wiggly. I couldn't seem to get behind her to straighten her so I decided to send her forward and canter. And that did the trick. She straightened out. So then I pulled her back down to a trot a few strides out and we trotted the first fence. Although I think she cantered the last stride or two. We carried on and I ended up just cantering most of the course because she felt straighter that way! And she was brilliant!!! She did all of it. And it felt much smoother. She even cantered the big scary fence 11 and the final big wide cabin! There were a few times on course where I asked her to trot to get her shoulders back under control and then I sent her forward again. And I think I trotted the up bank. But we did it!!! Whooo hooo!! I don't even think we had time faults. 

 

So yeah.. that was actually kind of fun again. :) Not kind of. It was fun. I told her how proud of her I was! We did it! Over a year in the making but we are officially a BN event horse now! From the racetrack to the eventing field. Whooo hooo!!!