"E" stands for Eliminated

Well, Reno and I competed in our first show since April. It was a doozy! It took place at Fannin Hill Farm in Brooksville, FL. It was a 3-Phase competition which meant that Reno and I had to compete in three completely different phases. They are:

1. Dressage: Takes place on the flat (meaning no jumping). You have to memorize a set pattern around a ring. You change speed between walk, trot, and canter at designated points throughout the ring. You are judged on rhythm, smoothness, and your horses submission (this just means it shouldn't look like the two of you are having a fist fight trying to get around the arena). Overall, it should look smooth, balanced, and effortless. Here is a link to the pattern I had to ride and the layout of the ring if anyone is interested.

2. Stadium Jumping: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up in an arena. You have a designated time to get over the jumps in the pre-determined order. If you go over time, you get faults. If you knock any jumps down, fall off, or your horse stops at any of the jumps, you get faults. Faults are bad, you don't want any. Here is an example of a typical course. These jumps were higher than what I was doing, and the layout of any two courses is never the same, but this is a good example. There is no set way to get to each of the jumps. It is up to the rider to walk the course ahead of time and decide which way will be the quickest while also giving their horse ample time to analyze the jump and make it over cleanly.

3. Cross Country: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up over approximately 1500 meters. Again, you have a designated amount of time to get over all of them in the pre-determined order. These jumps are different though. They do not fall down. They are made up of logs, walls, and other solid objects. You have to be very careful with your approach to these because they are unforgiving. Here is an example of a low level jump (the type I do) and a very high level jump (what you see professionals and Olympians doing).

So, with the 3-Phase 101 completed, I can now tell you how Reno and I did. Placement-wise, the answer is not very well. But, overall, we accomplished what I wanted us to for this outing. It gave us a great place to start for show season and helped me outline goals for the coming months. So, without further ado, our results:

Dressage: This was the first phase we competed in. We received a score of 39, which is ok. A winning score would have been around 29. We were not the best, but we were not the worst either. The only bad part was, coming around one turn, Reno stepped out of the ring for a split second. This immediately eliminated us from the competition and took us out of the placings. We were still allowed to complete the other two phases, however, it was without any chance to place. Reno actually performed much better than I expected him to. And again, it gave us a great baseline for the upcoming show season.

Stadium Jumping: We jumped everything cleanly (meaning he did not knock anything down and he did not refuse) however, we were a little over time so we received 6 time faults. I was not upset about this (obviously, we'd been eliminated already, what's to get upset about!) but I felt we took the appropriate amount of time for us. I made sure Reno had a good experience and did not feel rushed to the jumps. We will get faster with each and every competition, but this was a good starting place for us.

Cross Country: I was least pleased with our performance in this phase. Of the 12 jumps, Reno refused 5 of them, meaning he did not jump them the first time I presented them to him. This meant I had to circle around and try again. This took up valuable time and was also not a very confidence building experience for either of us. This will be an area we focus on over the next few months. Unfortunately, this is also the hardest area to practice. The reason being, while you may make a horse very comfortable with the jumps that you have access to from your own farm, Cross Country is all about the horse being brave over fences he has never seen before at a place he's never been to. The horse must be able to see a fence and jump over it a few seconds later. Any hesitation typically results in a refusal. So, we will most likely have to trailer to other farms and competition venues to brush up on this.

And that was pretty much my entire Saturday. I had to be at the farm at 5:30am to feed Reno breakfast and get him on the trailer, and we didn't get back to the farm until about 6:30pm. Jesson was able to come and cheer us on for the dressage and stadium portions. I always feel better when he is at a competition with me, he has a very calming effect. Below is a picture of Reno and I over jump #6 on the Cross Country jump, the Tire Jump (for obvious reasons!)