Video Interlude

I'm about to head out on the town with my buddy Liz Austin (read: danger, Will Robinson!), but a few videos for your amusement:

Ella, schooling canter (she was DOG tired when we made these two, so pardon the missed changes at the end)
Ella, schooling trot, pi-pa and walk
And my personal favorite, Midge making baby piaffe!

Yay!

Weekend at Lendon's

Greetings from Bedford, NY! Cleo and I are having a weekend here to work with Lendon Gray, one of the great American greats in the sport; if I have to explain to you all who she is, climb out from beneath the rock you've been living under. This is an exciting time for Lendon, as she's stepping back from the full-training business (you should see the yard sale they're having at the farm this weekend; holy moley), to pursue her other interests. She will still be teaching and giving clinics (like ours in December, yay!), but she's taking a big life step, and I think it will be a good thing for her.

Cleo shipped like a champ, and we had our usual First Day In A New Place ride - no hind legs anywhere to be found. They'll show up today. After spooking all over the place like a dumb four year old, she did settle and we did a Grand Tour of all the work in the tests. She gave me a neat exercise for the transitions for piaffe to passage, something I'm a little uncoordinated at, and she was a big fan of my pirouettes and extended gaits. Today I'm hoping for some better half-halts at the canter - strike that, ANY half halts at canter - and to do some tests. I have "test brain": I have a plan, but when (inevitably) things don't go according to plan, my brain does the equivalent of "uh..... uh...........," by which time I'm halfway through the test.

So I want to be in CHARGE of the brain today, think a little faster. And try and remember where I packed Cleo's hind legs! They have to be around here somewhere...

I Barely Passed High School Math, And It Shows

STOP THE PRESSES! I'm a math-challenged idiot. I'm QUALIFIED FOR GLADSTONE by the teensiest tiniest of margins! YAY! HOORAH!

(thank goodness!)

So: Cleo will get some well-deserved time hacking this week, then it's up to Lendon's for three days of "Lauren, could you PLEASE stop flopping like a trout, sit up and RIDE the poor creature?!"

Hoorah!

Nature of the Business

I'm frustrated.

Cleo was a very good girl in New Jersey, trailed up by herself with no drama, warmed up well Saturday, warmed up even better Sunday. The test was good, not amazing. Piaffe-passage still lackluster, but I was a little braver about putting my leg on and going for it. She snuck an early change in my canter zig-zag, I over-prepared for the second canter pirouette and got one lurchy step. But no disasters, no drama.

The scores were more than 6% apart between the two judges, and the resulting average pulls me off the list for Gladstone by tenths of a percent.

So now I'm begging and pleading with show organizers (who are being very, very kind), and I have to haul her down to Raleigh next weekend - her third weekend in a row, by the way - for absolutely no good reason. I'm frustrated that one person can cause all this chaos. I'm frustrated that Cleo, who didn't put a toe out of line, has to suffer as a result. And I'm frustrated that my plans of letting her have a little down time, of trailering up to work with Lendon and focusing on training instead of showing, and of trying to save a little capital is all going to pot.

The good news: Cleo is fit fit fit, wasn't even breathing hard at the end of the test, so I know she'll take it all in stride. I just don't want her to have to.

Tooling About Town

After going to see sale horses at Leslie and Lesley Laws (very, very nice people and horsemen, by the by), I went into Middleburg to join some friends for a drink. When I pulled up to their office, there was a two-horse carriage standing out front. I went to go pet their horses, while they went rummaging through the office for ice; they then offered us a ride around town.

Someday, I want a two-horse carriage.

It was really, REALLY fun! Two big Canadian mares, who were very good girls who loved their jobs, took us on a little ride through downtown M-Burg (which is a legimate town, for those who've never been - traffic, motorcycles, people mulling around, especially since it was such a stunning day yesterday). We toured the cemetary, went through some residential areas, and saw parts of town I'd never been to before. It was beautiful, and VERY fun, and... yeah, I want a carriage. :)

Ponies are great. I vow to not work Cleo in an arena until we go to the show this weekend; we need a little mental vacation, and yesterday we ran through the Brentina Cup test's trot-passage-piaffe tour in the field, on a hillside, and she was fun and fresh. Ella's still physically recuperating from the show, so we're just tooling around, though she made some nice twos yesterday.

And then there's Midge! Now that we've got a big break between shows, I'm getting back on the piaffe bandwagon, and he made such a nice effort on Tuesday I couldn't even believe it. He was so sensible I almost called the vet!

Head & Shoulders Above

I remember watching a rider school in the rain before the Prix St. Georges at a Morven Park show last year, a light, athletic bay horse and a handsome rider making beautiful changes across the diagonal. He turned the changes into a half-pirouette, and it was then that I realized that he was missing half a leg.

The rider was James Dwyer, an Irish citizen who's training in the US and pursuing a berth at the Paraquestrian events at the WEG. This weekend, he swept his division at the Lamplight CDI. In the brief conversations I've had with him, I've learned he's a quiet, modest guy who deeply, deeply loves his horse. I've also learned that he could ride circles around my ass, all with what some would consider a disadvantage. He's turned his "disability" into an advantage; he can't grip a horse with his calves, bury his spurs. He has to make his horse more honest, more attentive, more crisp to smaller aids, and is the better rider for it.

Congrats, James, you've earned it!

Rising Above

Cleo, after trying very hard to KILL Jess and I in the wash stall, being a total cow to braid, peeing all over her stall door, flirting with anything in sight, nearly biting my leg off, being an ass to tack up and get on, and having the adjustability of a freight train in the warmup, went around the arena for her Brentina Cup test. And when the judge rang the bell, she bolted. I took hold, came to a stop, and took one. deep. breath.

And then Cleo gave me a beautiful test.

It wasn't an oh-my-God test. My piaffe-passage was marginal, but infinitely better than yesterday. My ones were early. My pirouettes were a little big. But man, she was uphill and balanced and organized. She was with me 110% of every minute of that test.

And we got a whopper 62%.

(I don't get it. Whatev!)

Here's what makes me happy:
1. My lovely new navy top hat, in which I look smashing, thankyouverymuch.
2. All the details I worked on this week - centerlines, passage-walk transitions, collected-extended walk transitions - went great and got super scores.
3. That neat-o filly who ran her big bay heart out yesterday.
4. All the Smirinoff and cupcakes (don't knock it 'til you've tried it) I consumed yesterday, surrounded by great friends.
5. Midge and Ella's GREAT efforts in their tests today (to the tune of 66% and 65%, respectively).
6. The 2 8s and a 9 I got on walk pirouettes today (booyah).
7. Midge's very nice tri-color for being Third Level High Point champion (yay!), and my new handsome matching glassware set, shiny matching plates, and VERY useful new white polos (PVDA does give out top-class prizes).

And most importantly:
8. That I get to get up every day and do what I love, and call it WORK!