T3D! Part 2

Thanks for your patience, Team Taco fans.  Here is the promised entry on what happened at the actual competition!

As you might recall, I left you in a little bit of suspense about whether or not I would stay on for hacking R&T and getting over to the steeplechase school.  I must admit that it was this question that worried me the most going in.  I imagined that Taco might get so excited about the other horses running around that he would jump in the air and chuck me on the ground.  Hey, I had to put my anxiety somewhere, right?  But on the other hand, I had to have some way of getting over to the very far end of the Kentucky Horse Park to meet Dorothy Crowell.

At first I had decided to hack over by myself, but then Kerry and Chase, some P3D competitors from Georgia, were heading out at about the same time we were.  So we decided to hack together.  And it turned out to be great!  After we had been out a few minutes Kerry thought that we should trot, and we did.  Chase is a little horse with a big stride, and Taco stayed pretty busy keeping up!  He was fresh but it was nothing I couldn't handle, and I arrived at the steeplechase school with a sense of triumph.

Taco scoping out the steeplechase field upon our arrival

The school itself had been a source of anxiety too.  To add to my trepidation, one of the riders in the previous group fell off just when I got there.  But I knew that if I just held on, I could ride as fast as Taco could run.  I asked Dorothy to encourage me to go faster should I need to, since I thought I might probably err on the side of going too slow.  And I was off!  First we did a 260-meter marked stretch, which we were supposed to do in 30 seconds.  We then proceeded immediately to a triple bar showjumping fence.  Taco and I did both quite respectably.  Yeah!!  Next, we got to practice accelerating from a standstill and jumping the first steeplechase fence on the actual course.  Here is what happened:



To quote Dorothy, woo hoo!

Then I did hack back to the barn, back along Phase A, all by myself.  As I was trotting along under the blue sky, amidst the fall foliage, through the park that only recently had held 700 of the top horses in the world, and on the back of the horse that I feel is the best one in the world, I thought about how unbelievably lucky I was.

The next morning was our dressage test.  Hoo boy, was it cold!  My numb fingers re-braided Taco (a slightly better job this time) and we tacked up and hacked over to the dressage complex.  Amy helped me warm up, making sure that I got the engine going at a hot enough temperature.  My dad and my stepmom Jennifer arrived while I warmed up, and then I headed down center line!  It was a respectable test.  My connecting half-halts were not as effective as they needed to be during the canter lengthenings and he tossed his head at the end of each one.  He broke from the canter in the corner after the right-lead lengthening.  My trot lengthenings were adequate but suffered from a similar inconsistency in the connection.  But he was forward and very obedient, and I was very pleased with him.  We scored a 36.4, which was good enough for 7th out of 34 starters.

Photo by xpressfoto.com

That afternoon, I went over Phases A-D thoroughly.  Amy walked me around Phase D (the regular cross-country phase) and we made a good plan.  Out of concern for the hardness of the ground, I decided to "ride" Roads and Tracks on the bike.  It took me a minute to figure out the route, but I eventually got my gates and kilometer markers figured out.  On the advice of my friend Jennifer Joyce, who is an old hand at this classic-format stuff, I got a second armband and put my little Phase A-C time chart into it.  I wrote my Phase D  markers underneath it on my arm with a sharpie, and then took off the extra armband in the ten-minute box.  It worked a charm!

The next morning I woke up with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.  This was it!  The day I have been preparing for for three years!  I was worried that I would screw up, but also excited and feeling like I was about to embark on a fun adventure.  And that is exactly what it was.

My whole Team Taco crew had met the night before and come up with a game plan for the day.  It consisted of Amy, Carol, Lauren, Dad, and Jennifer.  Although I only needed one person to send me off onto Phase A, and one person to be in the assistance area after Phase B, the whole crew was at each place, cheering me on and excited for me.  Lauren walked me out to the Phase A start, where the others met us.  And then I was off, making Taco trot as fast as he could!  He is not the world's fastest trotter, and he was spooking at all of the gate judge's cars, so we were slow meeting our first kilometer marker.  No matter, we put in a little canter along the way and it was easy to make the time.  He also perked up a good bit as we trotted alongside the steeplechase course and a horse raced by!

Phase A.  Photo by xpressfoto.com

Then it was steeplechase/ Phase B.  Oh, my.  I have never gone that fast on the back of a horse in my life.  But I was determined to make the time, and I did, with some to spare, even.  Once we got up to speed, I felt like everything went very still up on Taco's back, and we sort of skimmed along the ground.  He was very careful at each fence, setting himself up just as everyone said he would.  Wheeee!  What an exhilarating experience!  Lauren handed me a water bottle for a quick drink and then we were off on Phase C.

Steeplechase! Photo by xpressfoto.com

Phase C was supposed to contain some walking but Taco was really not too into that.  Dorothy had said that it was OK to trot if this happened, as long as the horses were not rudely running away with us.  Taco trotted along very happily and politely, so I let him.

In the ten-minute box.

My team was fabulous in the box!  Beth joined us, so that we had plenty of calm people to put cold water on and scrape it off.  Taco's vitals came right down and he jogged well.  Amy and I went over the course one last time.  before I knew it, we were off on Phase D again!  It was a great round.  Taco was forward and confident, and so was I.  He was also very, very rideable.  We made time easily and I went through the finish with a big smile on my face!  It really is true that doing Phases A, B and C before D make the last phase even more fun.

Photos by xpressfoto.com

With the help of my expert sponging-and-scraping team, Taco's temperature, pulse and respiration came down so fast that Dr. Duncan Peters asked me whether Taco had even worked that day.  We were released to the barns very quickly and I set about taking care of his legs. We had moved up one spot and ended the day in sixth place!

Later that afternoon, Dr. Peters had generously agreed to do an optional jog for T3D and P3D competitors.  I pulled Taco out and jogged him along our shedrow.  Uh oh.  He was a little uneven. But he jogged better the second time, so I thought he might be stiff from standing in his stall for a while.  I went over to Dr. Peters to get his expert opinion.

Waiting for our turn to see the vet

Dr. Peters suggested icing his hocks and light, gentle exercise.  Because it was a national competition, Taco was also allowed to have a gram of bute that evening and then 12 hours later.  The next morning, I iced again, and then showed him to Dr. Peters again, who was cautiously optimistic that continued gentle movement would loosen Taco up.  Since my efforts seemed to be helping, and Taco felt fine during a light ride, I decided to present him at the jog.  However, the ground jury sent us to the holding area, where the treating veterinarian palpated his hind end and found it to be quite sore.  The hard ground of the day before had, it appeared, taken a considerable toll on his hock joints and he was also quite muscle sore as a result.  At that point, I made the difficult decision to withdraw him from the competition.  Even if more exercise has been able to loosen him up enough to satisfy the ground jury, I hated to jump him when his hock joints and hindquarter muscles were making him uncomfortable.

So we drove home.  I cannot say how very proud I am of my horse and my team, and so very grateful that I had this opportunity to participate in this wonderful event!  I got much more confident riding Taco in the open, more confident at speed, and more confident on cross country.  I learned how to prepare for a jog, and how to take care of Taco better afterward.  And I learned more about how to keep him sound and comfortable for our next T3D.  We have an improved game plan for keeping his joints and muscles happier through the training and competition season next year.  Indiana Eventing Association T3D is in June 2011, and I plan to be there!

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

It's been some time since my last post, mainly because my job (yes, actual history professoring-- I have to pay the bills somehow) has kept me quite busy.  In addition to the usual teaching prep and grading I've gone over the copyediting for my book (Fedexed out today!) and gone to Washington, DC for a conference.  But I digress...

Taco is his usual gorgeous self, and is full of energy in the spring weather.  Ideally, I'd be preparing for the Area III championships right now.  However, I probably don't need to tell the readers of this blog that competing is expensive, and my competition budget is rather tiny at the moment.  We have big competitions planned for later in the year, including the American Eventing Championships (AECs) and of course our Training Three Day.  I also want to do an event camp in early July at Come Again Farm in Indiana, with Peter Atkins, Dorothy Crowell, and Holly Hepp Hudspeth.  So I am having to make some hard choices about shows in the immediate future, including the Area III Champs. 

Given the revised show schedule, then, I need to concentrate on practicing, practicing, practicing.  I need to keep a consistent connection in my flatwork so that I don't rush him in the test.  Jumping, I'm still working on my *&$%! right leg and the same connection that I need in dressage.  As Wofford is fond of saying, "practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect."

The problem with this is that I am far more easily distracted at home.  Without the pressures of a competitive situation, unwanted thoughts and anxieties show up.  Witness, for example, the I hate wind post from a couple of weeks ago.  I got over my fear of Tidbit the miniature horse, but there will always be something for me to fret over (today it was having my right stirrup tied to the girth again).  My task is to focus in on my job despite the distractions, just as I would at a show.  I feel that I have made some progress, but if anyone has suggestions or experiences to share on this topic, please comment!

 Tidbit doesn't scare us!

Despite the above challenges, my practicing has been going fairly well.  On Easter Sunday I decided to try jumping again.  This time it went better.  We conquered the crossrail...

(See that right leg?  Damn!)

and then a few other little fences.

I've felt like we've done some good flatwork in the last week, too.

I had a mini-breakthrough when I realized that I've been riding with my right hip always cocked forward, which is sending my right leg back.  I go to the chiropractor on Wednesday and will ask her about this.  In the meantime I've been bringing my right hip back every time I think about it, with some good results.

Today I had a lesson and, as I mentioned above, my stirrup got tied to the girth again.  And I broke the string three times!  I think Amy was a little annoyed, especially when I freaked out each time she tied it up again.  But I freaked out far less than I had in our previous lesson, so that was progress.  Taco was plenty fresh, since he hasn't been jumping so often in recent weeks, so she suggested that I jump over something twice a week, preferably at a balanced, rhythmic canter.  I find that it is helpful for me to pretend I am in an equitation class and that I have to make smooth, but effective, adjustments between fences.

I know that a few Team Taco fans will be disappointed about Area III Champs, but look for an improved Team Taco at shows this summer and fall!  Until then...

Have I mentioned that I hate wind?

I've gotten better, but I still hate wind.  When I was a kid I don't remember caring about it.  Now that I'm older and more cautious, wind blowing up a horse's tail causes a chill to go down my own spine.   I did manage to have a nasty fall a couple of years ago on a windy day, and sometimes the memory returns unbidden.  So on windy days I really have to be smart and focused.  Taco will instantly figure out that I am anxious and will add his own editorial comments about what we should do that day.

Well, today he got plenty of comments in.  The wind was blowing at around 25mph, according to Weather Underground.  Maybe it would have been smarter to work on long lining or something else.  But the footing was perfect, and in this wet winter and spring that is a rare commodity!  And-- I hadn't jumped since Full Gallop.  And I felt like such a big shot at Full Gallop, riding around that Training course.  Hah!

So I tacked up...

Ready, Stace?

And went up to the jump field.  Right away, we ran into problems.  The neighbors (the same ones that honked at me from the other side of the fenceline when I was galloping past one day) have a new dog, and they cannot seem to keep the dog on their property.  He came joyfully bounding over, and my constant companion Crescent was thrilled to play.  That did not last, however, because Amy's dogs had seen him from the porch of her house and came whizzing down to the jump field in an outraged pack.  Taco jumped into the air and scooted away.  My heart did a tap-dance.  I decided that I had better dismount while the dog situation resolved itself.  The neighbor did come and scoop the dog into the back of his pickup.  Amy saw me standing on the ground and came to check on me, and I assured her I was fine.

Round two: I got back on and picked up trot right away.  I thought we had done enough walking, thankyouverymuch.  At the trot it is of course much easier to focus for me and therefore I can insist that Taco focus too.  We did some passable trot work, and then I picked up canter to the left.  And found myself shooting down one of the sides of the field!  Taco thought that would be fun, or he was worried the dogs would burst out of the treeline on that side.  One of the two.  Yeehaw.

At this point I was thinking that maybe I should quit while I was ahead.  But I am the pilot, not a passenger, dammit.  And I am a Virgo, and I do love symmetry, and I needed to canter the other way.  So we went to the right.  Not bad-- I maintained the focus and he felt pretty good.  So I talked myself into doing some jumping after all.  There was a little crossrail I could try.

I trotted toward the crossrail and committed a fundamental error:  I decreased my speed and impulsion on the way to the jump.  He was still fresh and spooky, and in the back of my mind I was afraid that he would land in a bucking spree and toss me like a ragdoll.  No, he has never done this to me before.  But I was not being entirely rational.  What ended up happening was that he reached the crossrail with nearly zero impulsion.  And I thought to myself, "well, I am getting Taco, who never stops, to stop."  Wrong!  The most honest horse I have ever known jumped from a near standstill, I landed in a heap on his back, and he jogged away from the jump, with a look of exasperation on his face, I'm sure.

Lesson learned.  The horse MUST have sufficient impulsion to be able to jump.  You will get a far worse jump if you pick down to the base than if you keep your leg on and your hands quiet.  With that knowledge fresh in my mind, the second attempt was considerably better.  He did overjump it with a good bit of enthusiasm, but the feared bucking spree never occurred.  Same with the third and fourth.  Then I called it a day.  Carrots for Taco and reflection for me.

I get frustrated with myself for not fearlessly riding through whatever happens, as I recall doing when I was in my teens and twenties.  Not only do I need to work on my technical skills, but there is this whole other mental layer that I must deal with.  I didn't make wonderful choices today, but I learned some things and lived to think about them.

By way of conclusion, here is Taco enjoying the spring sun.  We still have to feed hay outside, but you can see the greening grass in the background-- and not a moment too soon!

Let the Fear Make You Smarter

I've been planning this blog entry for a long time, and have just been waiting for a chance to write it.  I had been planning to write about Taco's monthly can't-catch-me game (inflicted on a poor, unsuspecting friend of mine), and our last lesson, in which I struggled with my galloping and jumping position.  I also was planning to incorporate insights about galloping and jumping gained from watching upper-level riders over the weekend, because I made my annual trip to the Wilsons' lovely Pine Top Farm to volunteer for some of the nicest and best organizers in the eventing business.

But yesterday, cross-country day, was one of the toughest I have ever experienced with horses.  I witnessed not one, but two, serious falls at the fences I was judging.  These falls were horse falls which, as common sense would dictate, are more dangerous than falls in which only the rider meets the ground.  Worse, they were what are known as "rotational" falls, where the horse does not gain enough altitude in the takeoff and hits the fence somewhere on the forearm, causing it to somersault over the fence.  These thankfully rare falls are the most dangerous kind, to both horses and riders.  Luckily, both horses in the incidents that I saw seemed unhurt and were led off the course.  The riders, however, were seriously hurt and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.  I do not know their current conditions, but I am praying for them both to heal well and quickly.

I was very shaken.  I have been present at events where serious falls have happened, and have known someone who was paralyzed in a rotational fall.  But I had never witnessed one in person, let alone been standing next to the fence at which the fall occurred, or been all by myself with an injured rider at my feet, or helped the EMT carefully reposition that rider so she could be transported on a backboard.  And I hope I never ever have the chance to repeat it.

Under the circumstances, it seems incredibly selfish to worry about how I will maintain my confidence in my own riding.  But reality is that I have an event coming up in two weeks, and unless I scratch, which I believe would be detrimental, I will need to get back on the horse and figure out a way to ride through the fear.  So I list some pertinent information here.

1. The risk of horse falls per number of starters at Training is very low, and rotational falls are very, very rare.  This is because the fences are low enough that the horse is far less likely to catch his forearms on the fence.  I can live with this quite small level of risk.  And I have a very savvy and experienced horse, plus an extremely capable instructor.
2. Given that I choose to live with this level of risk, what I can do now is to mitigate my risk as much as possible.  This means that, in addition to having a wonderful horse and instructor, I can work on my own physical and mental fitness.  I need to continue my workouts on the rowing machine and my core exercises, even though work and household tasks constantly intrude.  I also will be using the services of Carol, the Team Taco resident sports psychologist.

On this last point, sports psychology, I received a wonderful gift yesterday from John Staples, a former international eventer and a current member of the USEF Safety Committee.  He shared an experience with me that he'd had at Rolex, in which a close friend of his had fallen badly, very shortly before John himself was due to leave the start box.  It was very difficult to summon the courage to head out on course, but the conclusion that he drew was that he was going to be as smart and sharp as possible as he jumped around cross country that day.  He let the fear make him a smarter rider.

So I will end with that insight.  Let your fear make you smarter.

Winter = Patience

Wintertime is a mixed bag, especially this year.  At the end of November, I realized that trying to finish a big project at work, traveling to Boston for Thanksgiving, attending the USEA convention, and wrapping up the semester were more than enough for me to do.  So I asked Amy (our "provost" from my previous post) to ride Taco for four weeks.

It's not as if Taco needed extensive training-- we had, after all, pulled down some nice scores at last year's events.  I just wanted her to evaluate him, keep him in work, and be better able to help me in lessons.  But it really seems to have brought us to a new level.

What happened was this: after two rides, Amy texted me.  "You can get so much more from him than you're getting!!" she said, and then, when I got back home after Thanksgiving, she showed me what she meant.  Wow!  Taco looked amazing.  He floated around looking like the fancy dressage horse he is.  The next time, I got on.  I was having some fear issues, I will admit.  I hadn't been on him for two weeks, it was windy (I HATE wind), and there was lots of activity at the farm that day, including Tidbit the miniature horse stallion (since gelded) running along the fenceline.

 

Oooh, scary Tidbit (scary to me, at least!)

I struggled along trying to do the suppling exercise that Amy had found useful on him.  Then she made me get off and showed me what she wanted.  Then I got back on... and I got it!  I sat up tall and pushed him out in front of me.  Amy suggested I try a lengthening and Boom, Boom, Boom!!  I found myself riding the biggest trot I have ever sat on! Woo hoo!  Taco had another gear that I just didn't know existed.

At the end of the four weeks I got the ride back and kept practicing my newfound dressage skills.  Things were going very well until The Cold Snap of 2010.  Nashville is in the South, and most people do not have indoor arenas.  Winters are mild and we do sometimes lose a few days to wet footing but those days are not too frequent.  Unfortunately, this year we tied a record of the longest period of sub-freezing temperatures-- two weeks-- set in 1942.  Great.  The footing was frozen solid.  

Then we had a gorgeous weather week.  We got back to where we had been in the dressage.  We also had a fabulous jump lesson in which I thought we were at least as good as we were last season, if not better!  And then the rains came.  It rained for about a week.  A few times, I hacked around the farm to warm up, then rode in Amy's all-weather round pen, which had the driest footing on the property, and then cooled down hacking around the farm again.  To break things up, I lunged in the round pen too. Not so bad.

Finally, this week things have started to dry out.  I escaped from work early yesterday so that I could have a lesson.  I brought Taco in and began to remove his mud mask (a favorite beauty tratment that he uses often).  And then I saw it.  The outside branch of his right front shoe was bent.  Aaaaargh!!!  Amy took the shoe off and I spent the day fussing over his grooming.

Todd, our farrier, was kind enough to come by this morning and put the shoe back on, but I generally cannot ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays because they are my teaching days.  Even if I had left work early,  I had to go to the dentist immediately after work.  So there Taco was, ready to go, and the footing was good, and I am sitting in the dentist chair getting worked on with that awful drill.

There is a winter storm forecast for tomorrow, and temperatures will not return to the 40s until Monday.

Winter = patience.