Phase 3: Stadium Jumping

The end of championships snuck up on us while we weren't looking. It feels like just yesterday that we were setting up our tack stall, but then we found ourselves taking it apart. However, before that happened, we finished the third and final phase of eventing.

There were some complications with the warm-up ring. For dressage, the ring was insane and the horses were a little spooked because of the disorder. Pony Club tried to make up for that by only allowing ten horses into the arena at once. The trade off is that some of my teammates only got a ten minute warm-up.

In spite of that, one horse had a clear round, and the other two only got four fault points. Overall, everyone did pretty well. Our friend in beginner novice also got a good score in that last phase.

Afterwards, we all kinda relaxed for a bit, glad that the competition was mostly over. We began taking down our tack stall and cleaning up the place. The awards ceremony was interesting--apparently Bill Gates was there--but we didn't place. For the most part, that's okay. We all agreed that it was a huge achievement just to make it to championships and not to come in dead last!

Here are some pics of a couple of my teammates warming up.

Here is one of my teammates in the ring.

And I could be wrong . . . but I believe that in the picture below, Bill Gates is the one is the green poncho/raincoat and blue baseball hat??

Phase 2: Cross Country

Thursday was a very, very busy day for everyone on my team. We were all a little nervous because one of the horses was still quite stiff from the accident. There was a possibility that we would have to scratch her from the competition, or at least the x-country phase. However, she loosened up during her warm-up and made the course without a single penalty point.

As the stable manager, I had to be there for my teammates as they came off the course. One of the things we were judged on for HM was how well we could cool down our horses. As the horse/rider team came off the course, a vet took the horse's vitals. Then I quickly removed the horse's tack and sponged it down while another teammate walked it around. Thankfully, I had a lot of help from the people on my team who weren't riding at that time. All of the horses cooled off quickly without any problem. At that point, I carried the tack to the golf cart and our chaperone drove me back to the barn.

One of the girls from our club was on a different team, but she helped cool off our horses which was wonderful! Of course, we had to return the favor. She was doing beginner novice, so her riding time was later and we were able to watch her ride. She and her horse did really well, and also cooled off without difficulty.

Here are some pictures of my teammates' x-country rides.

And here are pictures of the cooling off process.

I have to sneak this one in cause it's just so perfect!!!

Phase 1: Dressage

Today the mounted competition began! First, we did last minute touch-ups to tack and horses, making sure that they were as clean as possible. Then one at a time, my teammates headed off to turnout where all of our hard work was judged. It sounds like we got a few points off and some exceeds standards, but we won't know for sure until tomorrow morning. After turnout, they entered the dressage ring. One rider said she felt her test was the best she had ever done. The other two people on my team were less than pleased with the their performance, which they felt was influenced by a very unorganized atmosphere. By now official scores should be posted, but I haven't heard. An hour after their dressage test they had to go turnback. Basically, we re-cleaned the horse and tack to perfection and then were judged by some very high standards! As far as I know, we passed that with flying colors.

Every morning, HM scores are posted. This morning we were quite discouraged to find we had a total of five penalty points! Thankfully, four points were taken off because the situation was out of our control. The reason we had been penalized was that our buckets were lower than the proper height. However, it wasn't our fault because the stalls were too short. The last point was given to us because one of our team member's halters wasn't labeled. In fact, it was labeled, but the label was quite small and the judges must have missed it. We made an official inquiry and now we are point free! This is a picture of the Chief Horse Management Judge in our tack stall. 

This is my team, and a friend who stopped by during visiting hours.

There were some awesome things too watch in the Alltech Arena, like polocrosse and games.

Tomorrow is cross country!

First Day of Eventing Rally!!!

Today was a rush of cleaning, organizing, washing horses, and trying to figure out where we needed to be. However, in the end we figured everything out and now we are ready to attack this head on! We got our competitor numbers and our ride times for tomorrow. So far, some of the rules are a little confusing, but we are doing our best to be as excellent as possible. Today, I decided to set a team motto which I wrote on "pretty duck tape" which I put on our tack stall door. I got the motto from our Horse Management Handbook: Excellence is attainable, perfection is not. I think it properly sums up what we are here to do. Obviously, we won't be perfect. Most likely we'll mess up in one way or another. Maybe we'll get Horse Management point off, or someone will knock a pole in show jumping. However, we will strive to do our absolute best so that whatever the outcome, we can be proud of our achievement. Another favorite quote of mine comes to mind.

"When a man has done his level best, and is conscious that he has done his best, he is a success, though the world may write him down a failure." --B.C. Forbes

Later, after the stable area closed, we had our parade of regions. It was huge! It's a little overwhelming to see how many competitors there are, even if not all of them are here for eventing. Everyone started screaming and it was so loud!

It was so cool walking the course, and being in the arena, and jogging the horses out, because the whole time I just kept thinking, "This is where the Rolex/World Equestrian Games riders were!" The Kentucky Horse Park is just beautiful. Hopefully at some point I will be able to explore it more.

Here is the Lucky Charms at the Eventing briefing.

This is our creative (if I say so myself) sign for our tack stall.

After hours of hard work: our tack stall is an organizational masterpiece! Well, maybe not, but we are proud of it.

Fun with bathing horses!

Getting Started

Tomorrow is the first day of Championships 2014! We all made it safely down to Kentucky, thanking God, literally! On the way down yesterday there was a freak accident on the interstate; a truck and trailer went out of control and jackknifed across two lanes of traffic at 65 mph. Other than a few bumps and scrapes, everyone is okay, and yes, that includes the two horses that were in the trailer. By a miracle, no other cars were involved and my family and I were right there to help our fellow teammates.

Today we unloaded everything at the Kentucky Horse Park and started to set up our tack stall. Tomorrow the rally official starts and we will have the parade of teams. I'm so excited!!

Here are some pics of us putting everything together.

Introduction

(Written June 27, 2014)

I'm a passionate person and life is full of adventure, but for as long as I can remember, there have been two things I loved with all my heart. One is writing. Although I've been told I'm good at it, I guess I don't really care too much about that. I mean, I am a perfectionist, but for me it's more the joy of writing. There is truly nothing quite like it. The other hobby of mine is horseback riding, or anything horse-related really. So when my Pony Club rally team, the Lucky Charms, qualified for National Championships in Kentucky this summer, I saw an opportunity to combine the two.

It all began last summer when a group of five of us headed to the Steepleview Qualifying Eventing Rally and Horse Trial. Since it was our first rally, we were terrified and unprepared, but it was an experience of a lifetime! For anyone who might not know horses or Pony Club that well, that probably doesn't mean anything to you, so I'll do my best to explain.

Eventing is a equine sport that involves three phases. First is the dressage portion. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines dressage as, "the execution by a trained horse of precision movements in response to barely perceptible signals from it's rider." I prefer to describe it as a dance performed by a horse and rider in a small arena, where the pair performs specific maneuvers as accurately and gracefully as possible. This phase tests the horse-rider partnership in that the rider and horse must work together peacefully without misunderstanding. If you haven't practiced, everyone will know!

The second phase of eventing is the cross-country phase. This is when a horse and rider rider through fields and often wooded areas at high speeds jumping various obstacles, often natural such as logs and small amounts of water. Your horse should trust you enough to overcome the obstacles. Points are taken away for refusals, getting off track, and being too slow or too fast, among other things. If your horse is not in shape, or you are not prepared, cross-country can be very dangerous.

The third and final phase of eventing is called show jumping. In this phase, you and your horse enter an arena to jump several brightly colored jumps. These jumps have poles that will fall if your horse kicks them on the way over. The goal in show jumping is speed and precision. You must clear the jumps as quickly as possible. If you touch the jump and poles fall, and sometimes even if they don't depending on how the event is judged, you will lose points.

Since it was a Pony Club event, there was one more section of the competition, horse management. This is basically how accurately, safely, and efficiently you can take care of the horses on your team. This is the part of the competition that I am in charge of, more or less. I am the stable manager.

When we went to the qualifying rally in September, there were five members. I don't ride in the competition, I just hold down home base, clean up, and make sure everything is running smoothly on time. Don't be fooled--it's harder than it sounds! However, it is a lot of fun and totally worth it. There were four riding team members on my team. One of those members will not be going to Kentucky with us. So now there are only three riding team members.

We finished third for HM (horse management), and second for the horse trial (which is what you call an eventing horse show) in September, and partially qualified for nationals. Then, all the riding team members had to go to another horse trial and get a certain score. Now we are completely qualified and Nationals is looming up only a few weeks into the future! This blog will describe our experience before, during, and after USPC Festival and National Championships 2014.