Rocking Horse Winter I judging: Part II

Sorry.  I fully meant to post this yesterday, but financial reporting, y'all.  Year end + month end = CFOMP (Cluster F of mammoth proportions).

So, anyway, Rocking Horse Winter I, Training division.

First off, it was the continuation of an absolutely beautiful day.  It cooled off a bit, with intermittent clouds, but was what I think of as horseback riding weather.

I got the opportunity to judge the steps.  The riders were to come over a pretty maxed out open square cedar oxer in the shadow of a tree, slight right turn to the opening of the sunken road, and out over the two bounce steps out of the hollow.  It was a pretty good question.

The steps 8AB

Fence 7, large open square oxer

Being the 8th fence, it was towards the middle of the course.  Again, in training we did have a couple of falls, but nothing serious, and absolutely nothing at my fence.  I did have one refusal at the second bounce, but other than that, the horses figured it out pretty readily.

This fence does not make for pretty pictures, but here is a series of Joe Meyer on his first ride of the division. They made short work of this.

Joe Meyer

Joe Meyer

We did have one horse that had an issue before he got into the "chute" created by the sunken road.  It looked to me like he came off of 7 and saw the edge of the chute and simply said "uh-uh" and hopped up and down a bit, backing up.  Since he did not appear to have even seen the bounce at the other end, never mind been presented to it, I didn't count it as a refusal.  His rider handled him beautifully, though and got him in the chute and out over the bounce with no issues.

A couple of notes I made from watching and listening to coaches that were doing one last coursewalk with their students:  you need the right canter.  Send them deep to the base of the first one to make sure they go UP instead of getting strung out, or else it's going to get bumpy.  Keep your eye on the first part of the fence until you get to it, and then look UP.

I can tell you several riders were not aware of the deep to the first one piece and got long, and boy was it ugly.  Like I said, all the horses figured it out, and no one fell off, but there were some where all you could say was "oof".

Marcy came through with Riley like a seasoned pro.  She said it felt like he looked like a freight train, but it didn't look that way to me.  It looked like he was game, and she was keeping him focused on the job.  So happy this guy is staying in the program and can't wait to see where he goes with both Marcy and Ginny. Unfortunately, I was trying to get video with the camera, which didn't work, so I have no pictures or video.

Here's a picture of him in their last event, though.  I had to "borrow" it from Ginny's facebook.

So after that, I took pictures of fence 7, since it made for prettier pitchers.  Nope, not sure of the riders.  Still can't find my roster.

Buck

Then came one of my favorites, Elisa Wallace and the amazing mustang Hwin.  This little horse is so game.  If you look them up, Elisa is nice enough to post videos of her competitions rides.  I'm always partial to the little ones, and the ones that are not what you would consider "standard".  Don't get me wrong, I like a good thoroughbred, too.  I'm just partial to the "odd men out" so to speak.

Elisa and Hwin

Elisa and Hwin

Elisa and Hwin

And then came Dom Schramm on one of his horses.  I have to say, I'm loving the black boots with the gray tops to match the pony.  I'll have to look and see if that is his normal, or if he does match his boots to his horse.

Dom Schramm

Domm Schramm

All in all, it was a beautiful day, with great competition.  There were no major issues, and no injuries that were reported.  I walked away with a sunburn and a sinus headache, but it's all worth it to me to be able to see all these great rides.

I judge again next weekend.  I'm a little bummed because this year I won't be judging Advanced or Intermediate, since they are running it on Friday and I can't take time off work, but I'm happy to help any way I can.

This weekend my Valentine's Day present from the boy is that I get to go stay at Marcy's for the weekend. Yay for multiple days of riding, which means maybe I can try some gridwork?  And of course it is much appreciated that I get a chance to catch up with the ladies.  You just don't realize how much you miss them until you don't get to see them for a while.

Maddie is keeping my bed warm for me.