Waredaca Practice Show 8/15/12

Tonight was the last of the Wednesday night schooling shows at Waredaca. It's been a GREAT opportunity to get in some dressage and stadium practice without the pressure of a formal show (or the price!). I've participated in each one this summer (recap of show 1 and show 2) and each have coincidentally landed the week of a show I'm signed up for and really helped get me mentally prepared for my stadium round.

Tonight was no different. My Mom started the night off with dressage. She got there before I did and rode her Intro B test with Smash. Sadly I missed it but I saw the judge's score and comments and they were GREAT! She got an 8 and mostly 7s! She said she felt like it was one of her best rides with Smash, too! Hoping it's not because no one was there to witness it ;) Even though I missed it, I'm really proud of her great ride and I know she'll just continue to get better as she practices. PVDA watch out, my Mom's on a roll!

About an hour later I tacked up and got Smash warmed up for my stadium rounds. My plan of attack was to make Smash really work/pay attention to me in warm up. None of this ADD 'ooo a butterfly!' or calling to her buddies in the nearby field business! It was work time! So I put her through her paces as if I was prepping for a dressage test and then made her trot all of the warm up fences - even the oxer that was set up.

My first round was done almost entirely at the trot to get and keep Smash's attention and to continue to get her to jump properly instead of thinking she needs to whiz around and fly over everything - in turn ignoring me. I didn't use the helmet cam because trotting makes the video much choppier and harder to watch. But the camcorder captured the gist. I thought it was a great idea to trot a 2'3" course because it made me sit back and wait a tad longer and concentrate on what I was doing vs letting my nerves ride for me.

My second round was done at 2'6" and at a canter. You can see the helmet cam view here. In this round I worked on consistency of pace since the course had a few long approaches and my tendency is to get quick. I definitely implied the 1-2 counting from jump 5b to 6 (the 1stride to the purple and yellow diagonal/vertical) and I think it worked well for me! But the best part is I noticed Smash was listening to me and I could feel her jumping with a smidge more ease than normal and cantering with impulsion from behind vs on the forehand/pulling herself more. She had a couple of wiggly approaches still but nothing as wiggly as normal or as speedy as in the past. I felt very proud that I was one of the few riders to get a straight approach to jump 3, the wave, and not knock it down! I also noticed as I rode around the course whenever I felt myself start to get nervous about certain jumps or start to look down I caught myself in time/sooner and told myself to look up. I also consciously caught myself at times saying "open your hips and put leg on now" instead of progressively getting into the fetal position/slouching and chancing a refusal. It was just a much more proactive and lucid ride than normal. I think I am finally finding the middle ground to dealing with my nerves and not letting them take over.

I'm sure Saturday's stadium course will be nothing like the course I jumped tonight (for one a 1 stride combination is not allowed in BN) but it was still a great practice for the show and my confidence is very high!

Speaking of Saturday here are my ride times:
Dressage: 3:11pm
Stadium: 4:52pm
XC: right after stadium but my official time is 5:10pm

I keep peeping over at the xc field whenever I go get Smash to see if I can see any new jumps and attempt to see the course yet but so far I haven't seen much.  I have noticed a lattice and produce stand is out but that's about it. Guess I'll have to wait until Friday/Saturday to walk the course...dundundun!