BCHA=cheap fun

The Botetourt County Horseman's Association hosts a show at Green Hill Park every year.  Now, what I love about this show- 1) It's actually got jumper classes, an annoyingly scarce occurance at GHPEC shows for some stupid reason; 2) It has incredibly affordable classes, typically $8 or $9.

Maxin' and relaxin' in the in-gate crowd

I still haven't found a job but I felt like Reily was getting REALLY bored with the same old, same old at home.  I'd been doing some odd jobs/ horse work to make a little extra money and felt it was worth the $27 to take Reily to the show and let him do something new and exciting.  Boo-who got to stay home because there was no excuse to spend the extra money.

So Reily went and we had him entered in 3 classes at 3 different heights (2'-2'3"; 2'3"-2'6"; and 2'6"-2'9").  The course was not entirely to my liking because it just had a really rangy feel.  It was really a hunter course set-up with an added narrow on one end of the ring so for the "jumper" course it was a ton of single fences, no lines, bending lines, related distances or anything and I just felt like it was lacking in the educational department.  Essentially you jumped either the in or out of a hunter line, went around to the other end of the ring jumping the in/out of another line, and so on and so forth.  The only change up was that (and this was again really poor planning) the narrow fence was added in for the jumper course and it came directly after the only oxer in the ring... who does that?  Anyways, due to the course design it meant you jumped big over this oxer then made and almost 90 degree turn to the narrow, landed then make another 90 degree turn to get turned back towards the final jump.  Did I mention that the oxer was headed straight for the in-gate...yeah, poor course planning.

I figured something new is better than nothing and since the course was the same for all the jumper classes I figured if we had real issues in one class we had 2 more chances to school it.  And it proved to have some educational merit after all.

In the first class (2'-2'3") I tried to stay as out of his way as possible I wanted him to make the decisions on where to take off but if he was hesitating I'd give him a little squeeze and he responded immediately.  Since I care more about his training then I do about some silly ribbon we made big wide turns to help him (and me) regroup as needed.  He got almost all of his lead changes naturally which I was so happy about!  If he was on the wrong lead and felt unbalanced he'd swap.  We had a big steering issue after the oxer at 7 to the narrow at 8.  As I was ranting about earlier the oxer was right before the narrow and headed straight for the in-gate.  So when he jumped 7 he was staring straight at the in-gate and not listening to me so once I finally got him turned in the right direction we met the narrow fence really crooked.  Thankfully it was so small for him it didn't matter so with a little cluck and squeeze of the heels he popped right over anyways.  He earned himself a 2nd place ribbon even with the great big turns we made and the turning issue.  Reily's got big, ground covering strides but it really goes to show you, good training is a hell of a lot better than reckless riding, tearing around the course ruining any good you may have ever done at home or in lessons.  And unfortunately I see that a LOT from the people who show at Green Hill.

The second class (2'3"-2'6") was the same course but this time we weren't so lucky.  Now that the jumps were a bit bigger he jumped the oxer with even more enthusiasm and I just didn't sit up and take enough.  So this time we meant the narrow at about a 45+ degree angle, and of course hindsight is 20/20 and if I could do it over I would have just circled him and presented it straight rather than asking something outrageous of him.  If he was already at, say, training level then it wouldn't be such a stretch to ask him to jump it as such an extreme angle, but he's a little green bean still and this was only his 3rd show.  Bad riding and pilot error this time, but after a correct approach he went over just fine.  Even with the faults and time he still got 6th.

His last class (2'6"-2'9") I was determined to make it work at that turn.  So coming down to the oxer I actually bridged my reins and asked for a big whoa on the landing.  We made a good, all be it, tight turn to the narrow and I made a big fuss over him because that was my only real goal for that class, for him to learn that if I asked for a whoa I meant listen now, not later.  We did pull a rail at 9 because I cut the turn a little too tight and sort of buried him at the base.  But I couldn't care less about that because I was just happy we made that turn.  He earned himself a 4th in this class.

Teaching while Reily naps

I also helped school a couple girls and their horses which was great fun cause I love seeing that my input is actually improving the way they go.  It makes me feel like a real trainer ;)  Reily just stood around with me while I raised and changed jump poles and some little girl came over asking if she could hold him for me.  I was sort of baffled but the way she was asking I think she thought something might happen if I was holding him and doing that at the same time.  I'm not sure what made her think that because Reily was napping and being perfect the whole time.  I was like "He's fine, but if you want to, sure" and handed her his reins while he dozed away.  Then she looked at him harder and was like, "Hey, this is that horse that I really liked in that jumper class.  He was so cute!".  I just chuckled cause I thought it was adorable Reily was already collecting fans.  He can't help that he's so handsome and wonderful.

All-in-all, great success!!!

Mini XC

We don't have much in the way of jumps/poles etc. at home but we make do with what he have.  Since I still had Pat's (amazing!) camera and the girls had been exercising the boys for me while I was gone I felt comfortable the boys were fit enough to do some makeshift XC schooling last night.  I have a few trees and PVC pipes to use as poles, a couple of barrels and I repurposed the compost "house" to make a coop jump.  The weather was fabulous and the boyfriend agreed to take pics for us.

Boo was good.  He had his usual cheeky, tantrum moments but no refusals or major bucking fits.  He's such a funny horse.  He's rarely a joy the whole time you're riding, but when he's good he's very fun to ride.  Not to blow my own horn (especially since it only took what, like 8 years?!) but he's really a pretty well trained horse.  He's decenlty adjustable and good to the aids, but damned if he doesn't make you work for every second of it.  He can be such a pain in the ass, but he's made me a lot better rider for it!

Reily was also great.  He had never seen a lot of this stuff before.  Barrels, the PVC poles, and skinny jumps were all new for him.  Pardon my disgusting equiation in some of these pics.  It's awful but sometimes he would jump so big he'd jump me out of the tack and other times I was pinching a lot with my knees and just got way ahead of him, subsequently crawling up his neck.  Sixteen days without riding and my eq went to sh*t  :'(  What matters most to me is making sure I don't catch him in the mouth so honestly as long as I'm not doing that I can live with myself while I get back in the swing.  Riding through some of his big leaps was hysterical, but looking through the pictures is even more hilarious!  He's such a good boy though, he'll really go anywhere you point him and it's great for him to do tons of stuff at this level.  I want him to learn where to take off while the jumps are little like this so that, later on, when we get to the bigger stuff and I get him to a fence funny he can save both of our butts.  So as funny as it is to see pictures like this one... where he took off WAAAYY long, I want him to learn that if that happens here's what he'll have to do to still safely get us to the other side.

It was a great night of riding :)