I know!!!

How many times has your child/children said that to you when you TOTALLY know that they don't know? It drives me insane because apparently, at 9 years old Molly knows everything. (Which translates into I know nothing). I guess I just have a child genius on my hands and have never recognized this gift.



Today Molly showed at our local hunter show. The weather has been so nice and fall like until today when it turned back into summer and 90+ degrees. Of course! Because of the heat, they were trying to move the show along so they were not splitting the classes that would normally have been split. As a result, Molly had 11 in the mini stirrups. We are a little burned out with showing at this point, that I really did not care as long as it meant we could get home sooner.



The classes were fine and lasted about 5-7 minutes each. Even though there were 11 kids, there were a good 3-5 that were really not competitive - you know, basically hanging on by the seat of their pants. Molly was either 4th or 6th in every class - nothing higher and nothing in the middle - just 4th or 6th.



Schooling for the cross rail class was a little crazy with 11 horses and 3-5 kids who could barely steer - add in one stupid short stirrup rider who insisted on schooling with the mini's and was trying to jump the diagonal lines! Anyway, Molly KNEW how to school the course and kept encouraging Treenie to canter down the lines. Now she does know that that is not our plan. She is supposed to trot in and trot out both lines. She finally got it right after 3 times around so we quit before poor Treener's dropped dead on us.



Molly was 5th to go - as the 3rd kid was going I started going over the plan with Molly - 1) they specifically said no opening circle so get a nice trot as soon as you get in. 2) Get lined up with the first jump and look straight down the line. 3) Keep your heels down and eyes up... at this point I got the "I KNOW" smart remark. Rather than argue with her I told her to watch her mouth and dropped it.



So, in she goes - points 1-3 were great. I was sure she was on her way to a great ribbon - maybe even winning it. The she jumped the 3rd jump and proceeded to let Treenie canter down the line towards home. That's it - pack up and go home because now she was no longer consistent. I was livid! Molly totally knows the plan - she also totally knows how to sit up and whoa to get Treenie back to the trot. There was no excuse for this other than that she wanted to canter.

Surprisingly, Molly ended up 4th for the class - considering the inconsistency, I thought she got lucky. Molly on the other hand thought that it just meant that it wasn't so important to stick to your plan.

I REALLY need to send her to a show with her trainer as opposed to me. Hover, there is a problem with this - Our barn really only goes to stupid recognized shows which charge an obscene amount of money - the closest for example charges $25 per class, $25 Grounds fee, $17 Drug fee. Add to that $60 trainer fee and the dinky mini or short stirrups - which are unrecognized end up costing $202!!! And that's if I bring the pony over - it is another $85 if I pay for trailering. I'm sorry, but I just can't swallow that. Especially when we have been showing all summer for $65 on the cheap end and $80 in the high end. I have tried to encourage these guys to go to some of the local shows, but they are just not interested. It also kills me that my friends buy into this whole hog and just fork over butt loads of money every month when they don't have to.

So, it looks like Molly and I are stuck with each other for next season also - I just wish that she would realize and accept that I really do know what I am talking about and just listen to me - I know - never going to happen!

You've GOT to be kidding me!

Each week at camp they have "dress up". The kids come up with costumes for their horses/ponies and they have a parade. Of course, we are always scrambling at the last minute because you can not find costume stuff in July/August! I had the brainstorm that we could use our "Man in the yellow Hat" costume and Molly could be Curious George.

Here is my poor Lexi being the sport that he is (the painted saint) and Molly with 1/2 of her CG costume. I missed the "main event" of the costume extravaganza, but apparently, all of the kids were different characters from the Curious George cartoon and Lexi actually carried around Molly and another girl at the same time.

Lexi is a good boy - you can literally do anything to him - however, take a good look at the expression on his face - "I will not hurt her, but YOU will pay for this!" Fortunately we left for vaca the next day - I think he forgot about it.

Dressage Divas

Whew! We have had a whirlwind summer! I thought things would just coast along, but we were BUSY! Molly continued to horseshow throughout July and August - we even worked some of our vacations around her showing.

The kids officially kicked off summer with a "family" week at the beach - I stayed home and had a VERY nice week to myself. Then things jumped into full swing with camp and Thursday Dressage Shows.

Despite the fact that Molly has told me she hates dressage, she has continued to get REALLY good scores in the intro tests ( she is consistently scoring in the mid 60's!). We all even did the regular schooling show in June (Molly, me and the lady who 1/2 leases my horse ALL showed). We all got great scores - I even broke 70 for the first time! We also ALL qualified for our GMO dressage championships! Only the lady who leases Lexi is going to go. Molly, K and I are saving ourselves for the smaller local championship show.

There are some people "in our circle" that downplay our successes because we only do local/schooling shows. The bottom line is that we really only have local/schooling show level horses ( my poor horse broke his hip for crying out loud). I scribe and work at a fair amount of horseshows - I am totally open eyed to the fact that we would be completely outclassed at recognized shows. And you know what, that's okay because we found an appropriate arena to compete. We are competitive at these shows and we have fun. That's what it is all about. So we will continue to compete for our local year end awards and GMO awards because it's fun. I am sure that everyone reading this blog knows that horses and showing cost way too much to not get any enjoyment!

Both Molly and her best bud K have gotten really positive feedback from the judges. Helpful, constructive upbeat feedback - just like in the mini stirrups - NOT! This is one of the reasons that I push Molly to do this (and the fact that I am a BIG dressage fan and it is something we can do together - Lexi's hunter/jumper days are over.) I keep telling Molly and K that they will appreciate this background in the future. After all, who can argue that learning to keep a steady rhythm, make round circles, bend in the correct direction and keep your horse straight are not skills everyone needs to master?

So, since the only lessons Molly has had were during the 3 weeks she spent at the barn at camp, I set up real dressage lessons for her and I with a real dressage trainer at a real dressage barn! Molly is not so thrilled, but I can't wait! I have not had a lesson since before Lexi broke his hip in November. It just did not make sense to me to pay for lessons for myself while I rehabbed Lexi when Molly certainly needed the instruction. Balancing the costs of two horses is a challenge.

September and October will be busy show months for us. Starting this weekend, I will be at a show either with Molly or with my lessee just about every weekend. The hubby is not going to be thrilled but this is the big finale and the last push for points for year end awards. Before you know it, winter will be here and shows will be hard to come by!

Can I Help You?

This is what we see when we go out to get our pony every day! I had seen these fly masks on the web and thought they were really cute, but they were really expensive. I immediately thought - hey, I can do that! So I picked up a cute pony size fly mask and some cool colored permament markers and let Molly go to town with her design. She was really excited to do it and it is kind of cute - especially with the pink floppy ears! By pure luck, we managed to get the "glasses" right where Miss Treener's eyes are.

Molly showed again this past weekend - it was our local hunter show. Because of the holiday weekend, I really did not know what to expect as far as turnout - well, I guess the "staycation" theme has caught on because the show was packed! I could hardly find a spot to park our van and unload! The classes were huge and as a result, many of the divisions were split into 2 sections. It seems like they split the mini's by age as Molly was again in the B section. The first group of kids seemed young compared to Molly's group and they only had 7 kids while Molly's group had 9. Also, all the kids in Molly's group were pretty much at the same skill level. I have to say, it was good company this weekend because the kids were all competent mini riders. Once she finally got going, the classes ran pretty quickly - Molly was 3rd in the Eq, 4th in the pleasure and 5th in the figure 8. For some reason, she just can't seem to get the figure 8 down - the shape was better but still not 100% - oh well, something to work on.

Molly also won her cross rail class! It is the 3rd jumping class in a row that she has won - it seems like we have figured out the secret formula for this class!

This is my first attempt to upload video - it is from the FOD show a few weeks ago - Molly won this class also. At least you can finally see some action!

Thursday is our local dressage series again - I was hoping to make a nice Mom/Daughter day of it as I was scheduled to ride my musical freestyle. Unfortunately, my horse slipped and has 8 stitches on his ankle! So I guess it's pony groom for me! I am sure that Molly will do well - if only she can figure out how to make ROUND circles!!

Quick Update

Sorry I have not written lately - It has been on my mind, but when I looked at our blog today I realized that our last post was May 31st!! Oh my - how rude!!!

Since the last post, we've been to 2 horse shows and 1 more XC schooling/trail ride. The first show was a very little, very casual dressage schooling show. Molly and her best barn bud K went together. I am totally hooked on making things with my computer, so I bought the HP T-shirt transfer kit and little white polo shirts and made the girls matching shirts with the farm logo. They looked very nice and put together for two little pony kids. The judge was overly nice and had a lot of compliments for both girls - they rode from the legs, had great positions and their trainer was doing a great job with them. She was also great with her criticism because she kept it constructive. She really was wonderful. Molly scored a 60 something and a 62 something in the intro A & B (I said the judge was really nice). This show was the first of a little series so we are adding it to our "quest for points". Last year Molly went to 2 of the shows with my horse and she was 5th overall at the year end (against all other adults!). I think she is off to a good start!

Next we went to the good old FOD show south of us - I have to say, knowing that the mini's do not start until 2pm makes planning your day SO much easier. We got there early and as usually met my mom and her friend Annette. They are becoming Molly's personal fan club. My best friend (horsey and non horsey) Ronnie cam with us also so we had quite an entourage. Molly warmed up with no problems - good thing Ronnie was there as I got a devastating call in the middle of the schooling that one of my friends has died suddenly - Ronnie was able to take over supervising the schooling while I made several calls to other friends.

There were about 7 in the classes - mostly the same kids that had been there all along and a few newcomers. Molly was 3rd in the pleasure, 2nd in the Eq, 5th in the Fig 8 and 1st in the crossrails. Overall she was reserve champion which totally made her day. My husband met us down there and picked up Molly - he was off to the beach for the week with the kids and I was officially on my own for the week!!

Last week, I Molly and I took our horses to another park that has some xc jumps - my horse is now completely recovered from his hip injury (as recovered as he is going to get anyway for a 20 yr old). He is jumping really well and seems so happy to be able to go out again - he was a children's hunter for most of his life but he LOVES to go cross country - this is one horse that totally missed his calling in life - I'm just glad I can let him have some fun in his golden years. Anyway, Molly was a little apprehensive - she is totally my daughter and does not like to push beyond her comfort zone. This park has no "warm up" rings, just open fields with big long rolling hills and some trails. So there was so "testing" period to see how Treenie would act (I knew she would be fine because it seems she to was destined to be an event horse!) - Anyway, we walked toward one trail, crossed a nice stream with no problems and off we went. We trotted on the trails, on the hills etc. I finally found the field I was looking for with the little logs and baby bank jump. Molly just foll wed me over everything - Treenie wasn't too sure about the bank down, but she did do it - twice! Then we cantered along the sides of some hay fields. As we were cantering we came up to a nice log - I yelled back that I was going to jump it - Molly said she was going to go around - the next thing I heard were little canter, canter, canter steps up and over behind me and Molly cantering up next to me. I looked at her and she had a big smile "it was just easier to jump it" she said.

Tomorrow we have another mini stirrup show - hopefully it does not pour on us! Will try to post some video next!

Cross Country Pony

How Cute are they!!

Friday was our XC schooling day. It was an absolutely beautiful day with lots of sun and clear skies. We got off to a great start leaving the barn on time and getting to the horse park without incident.

Of course, the "hunter" girls immediately headed for one of the rings to warm up (chickens). Molly and her friend followed since they are only 9 - the "hunter girls" are the barn owner and manger who are in their mid 20's, so they're really the "boss". After about 15 minutes they decided to head up to one of the dressage rings so K could practice her tests - Molly got kind of bored with all of this - as was I, but since I did encourage everyone else to come with us, it was only fair that I be a team player.

FINALLY, they were ready to head out onto the XC course - they were so excited to see all of the jumps and at the fact that there was a nice amount of little jumps for everyone to play with. We spent a lot of time just going back and forth over little logs, hay bales, railroad ties etc. Molly was a little nervous at first, but Treenie NEVER looked at anything - she just went and jumped like a good pony should. She did stop at one jump that everyone had trouble with. It was a cross rail in a post and rail fence - see pix below. I don't know what the issue is with this jump, but whenever I event here, my horse backs off to take a look at it too - EVERY TIME! It is a little 2 ft cross rail but there is something scary about it I guess. However, Molly stuck to her plan and did get over it. AND, when one of the hunter girls was having a really tough time at it, Molly asked "do you want me to lead you?" We all got a huge chuckle because the response was, "Only if you don't mind me jumping on top of you". The hunters were a little wild. One was over jumping everything by like 4 ft - I'm not kidding - I have the pic to prove it! Our hunter girls are good jocks boy.

And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon!

(and that was from a trot)

The Very Scary Cross Rail

Lovely Form Too!

Molly and K also were the first to get their ponies into the water. I thought Treenie was going to roll in it she was splashing so much. Molly said that when they first started out in the ring that she didn't know what the big deal was but once she saw the xc jumps she thought she was just going to "walk around" while everyone jumped. However, once she got started, she kept up with the everyone else and jumped with the group. She said she had a lot of fun and would like to think about doing a starter event in the fall! I think I may have an event rider on my hands!

Of course, it was a rush to get back to the barn and unload in time to pick my son up at preschool, then rush home grab quick showers and shuffle Molly off to her dance recital rehearsal - nothing like over scheduling!

Why I Hate the Hunters!

Warning: This post may offend some die hard hunter fans - sorry, I have to get this off my chest!



Preface - I was a hunter rider for 20+ years, children's hunters, schooling hunters, pre-adult hunters, adult amateurs etc - been there, done that - and I was perfectly content while I was doing it. The turning point came during a lesson. I had been jumping a course that turned out really well - I hit every distance and it felt great. I turned to the instructor and said "that felt really good" - her response was "you could have been 6 inches closer to the last jump". That's it, I was done. I was not interested in having to be that perfect. I stopped riding for a while shortly after that. I had just had a baby (Molly) and life was too complicated to fit in riding that was just frustrating so I took a break. I started again after reconnecting with a friend who had moved onto eventing. I evented a little as a junior - it was fun and in the lower levels, you just had to get from one side to the other. Maybe this is what I needed. My friend set me up with an event barn and that was it I was hooked! I have not been back in the hunter rings since. I LOVE the fact that you get an actual score and on the dressage test there are comments along with the scores. You know exactly why you got what you got.



So, Molly is now doing the mini stirrups which brings me back to the hunter shows. Almost every time we go I think "God, I HATE this." There is no sense to the judges' picks. At least not that I can see and I have a good eye. At one show, the judge pinned a short strided horse that limped in the corners in the pleasure class - can someone please explain that? At another, a pony stops twice to poop in the middle of the class and that kid is in the top 3 - I'm sorry, I just don't get it.



Molly showed again on Saturday. It was another HUGE division - 10 in each class. She was 4th in the pleasure, nothing in the Eq, 6th in the Figure 8 and 4th in the cross rails. I can't really say why she got what she got. Treenie is a decent mover so I thought she should have been higher in the pleasure. They asked for a sit trot in the eq which Molly does great - more than half of the kids bounced around like jumping beans - but Molly got nothing. In the Fig 8, I expected her to get nothing because one of her circles was really lopsided but she managed to pick up 6th. I REALLY thought she won the o/f class but was 4th.



On the way home she asked me why she only got the places she got - I had no answer. I told her that the judge picked the ones she liked best. I also told her that there was nothing that she really should have done differently - she is riding really well and there is nothing we need to change. She really is on the right path, in the right program and has the right pony.



I thought a lot about her question on the ride home. To put everything in perspective:



1-This is her 1st year of showing (her 5th show to be exact)
2-This is the mini-stirrups - not the Maclay's!
3-She manages to get a piece of the ribbons almost every class
4-She is usually in the top half of the class
5-She said - out of the blue - that she loves to horse show



I felt a lot less frustrated after I came up with my list. I think it was bothering me more than it was her. Still, I can't help but wonder if we are doing anything to help these riders along by handing out arbitrary ribbons with no reasoning? Would it be so terrible if the judge handed out the ribbons and gave each rider a little comment? Like they do at a schooling dressage show? Nothing too deep, but just a little hint "try to keep your heels way down" or "make sure you don't let your reins get too long". Something - anything to give a clue on what the judge was looking for.




So, that's my soap box for the week. As parents, we shell out a lot of money for our kids to show, I don't think it is too much to ask for a little feedback.



If the weather holds out, Molly will be going cross country schooling on Friday. It should be really fun. I know once she gets a taste of it and realizes she can stay in control, she will love it. She also has a dressage show coming up on June 12 - scores and feedback to make Mom happy!



Will try to take a lot of pics of the xc day!