Waredaca Wednesday Night Schooling Show 7/25/12

Last night was the second schooling show Waredaca hosted. Basically it is an opportunity for people to come and simulate a real stadium jumping or dressage test but without being timed or judged and with the ability to jump as many rounds at whatever height you want or ride as many dressage tests with 15min worth of feedback as many times as you want to prepare you for your next show or maybe even for this to be a show for you. The last time they hosted this event I found it SO useful because I got to have a "show feel" and jump a real course but still be in a laid back environment and without any stress of winning a ribbon or competing.

My original plan was to jump the 2'6" course then jump a 2'9" course. The actual course does not change - only the height. Here are the helmet cam and camcorder videos from my first round. I was so nervous last night. I don't know why, either. I got SO inside my own head that when I entered the ring for the first time I was only focusing on my brain saying "omg omg omg I'm jumping a course omg omg" instead of "Get a nice canter, eyes up, leg on, keep her straight" I got through the first 6 fences relatively well despite my lack of focus. At jump 7 she stopped - why? because I was staring at it and lacked leg - but she was nice enough to still jump the fence from a standstill. After that we didn't have enough space to recover very well into our next approach and fence which was into a 2 stride combination to a 5 stride bending line. I managed to get her over 8a despite not being straight at all but she did not go over 8b and I also rolled off. I was embarrassed and mad at myself because I knew exactly what I did wrong. By jump 8b I was still staring at all the jumps (aka head down), she was not straight at all (needed more leg), and I was totally unorganized.

Thankfully it was a practice show so nothing counted against me and so I decided my second round was going to be doing 2'6" again instead of trying to get through 2'9". Here are the helmet cam and camcorder videos from my second round.  Finally my turn was up and I went back into the ring and this time I was much more focused on my position and making Smash listen. We had a better pace, she was straighter and more balanced, my eyes were up over every fence, and while I sort of gunned her through the last combination (and she knocked a pole on almost every fence because of it) we got through it! It still wasn't perfect but I walked away having fixed my problems and remembering what I need to focus on for Sunday's show and what NOT to focus on. Clearly obsessing about simply being at a show did me no good. It just made me wig out and defeat myself before I even stepped into the ring. So Sunday my warm up goal is to get into the good mentality and focus on my new tools before stepping into the ring.

My Mom then took Smash after a long wait into the dressage ring. She, too, had a difficult ride but it was mostly due to the judge being so far behind that Smash was getting antsy. My Mom took away the lesson on how to ride Smash even when she's tired or bored and make the best of it. Chances are she won't have too many experiences with Smash when she's like this but it's still good for both of us to have tougher rides so we know how to handle it if it does happen at a show.

I'm still a little disappointed that my ride wasn't perfect or how I envisioned things going but I think with riding in general you have to always have a Plan B to deal with the horse or rider you are dealing with that day and not the horse or rider you envision in your head. And while my confidence didn't sky rocket last night I am very glad I did the practice show and I'm working on getting my brain back in the right place for Sunday.