The Hot Flashes are ON FIRE!

The Hot Flashes are back!! Well, two of us... we substituted two other members. And ha ha.. we fared much better this year. :) hee hee. Teasing, as I was one of the drop scores last time. 

Chatt Hills had their "Golden Oldy League Team Challenge" again so me, Laura, Cindy and Jean were a team. And we won! Whooo hooo! We used our flame shirts and flame tiara's again. Dan and I ran Novice again. And it was such a good weekend! 

We got to Chatt Friday because they did the jog at 5 pm. Dan and I bathed at home and then hauled to Chatt. He settled into his stall for a bit and hung out in the shade and fans til the jog. He was settled nicely, whether it's the nupafeed or because he was next to Llama and Jean's horses??? We did the jog and he was pretty good. He didn't go straight and almost ran me over on the way back. Ha ha. The announcer said something like "Looks like these two work out together!". He was trying to be cute for everyone. He was pretty good. So after the jog we were hanging out and there were a lot of horses milling around. And one got riled up. And then Dan did. He did his whole leap and spin stuff. I did the "crouching tiger" stuff and he settled in a minute. But then he was acting like he was going to do it again. Cindy came over to help. She does the TRT stuff and she showed me a really cool trick! It's the same thing but not. She had him held close to the halter, like snubbed up to his nose more or less. She used the whip to push his hindquarters over. The point isn't to touch him with the whip, but with Dan, you had to a bit at first. The key is that he can't move forward onto you... he has to go sideways and with the diagonal pairs at the same time. She said that when he's just flinging around, he's not balanced. And because he's not balanced, he is panicking or upset. BUT when he yields and uses the diagonal pairs... he's balanced and that settles and soothes them. Aha. It took quite a bit for him to figure it out at first but he eventually did. And the other direction was much quicker. So then she gave him back to me and he was fine for a bit. Then he started acting up again so I tried it. It took me a minute because I was allowing him to come through that shoulder instead of going sideways. I didn't realize that he was going forward at first. But once I got it.. he got it. And then he settled. And we walked off again. And when he got hot again, we did it again. And he settled. YES!!! So, I know we need more practice, but... now I feel empowered! I have a tool! A tool that not only gets him to settle, but I can do it without a ton of space needed... without worrying that I will upset other horses (well, not too much) and I shouldn't have to worry about him kicking me. I suppose he could bite me, but... at least he can't kick me. Because his head is so close to me and his hindend is being moved away from me. And... as an aside... he was super the rest of the weekend. Maybe it's because of the nupafeed, maybe it's because he was stabled near his pals, maybe it's because most of the time when he was out, we had Llama near us, maybe it's cause he was tired given the heat and humidity and all we did, or maybe it was all of it. But it was a much improved weekend in that aspect!

 

So after the jog I rode. I thought he might be a little wild, but.. he wasn't. We hacked down to the cross country field with Laura and Llama and walked our XC course. I didn't show him anything, but I did use him as my golfcart. Then we did a little trotting and cantering in the field and I trotted him throught the bridge in the woods. We did a little grazing that night too and he was super. 

 

The next morning we grazed a little and then I walked XC. Then it was time to dressage. He warmed up quite nicely. We didn't do much fancy stuff. I think that it might be my game plan. We just did some transitions and some general stuff. Then it was our turn. We were warming up a little in front of the arena and he felt lame! Like I felt in our jump lesson the other day. Especially when going from right to left. I asked Laura and Jacel who were watching and they said he looked even and strong. ??? So oh well. We went in and did our test and he was super. He felt really lame though! Well, not lame, but struggling. Obviously that footing was super deep!! I thought the judge, who ended up being Robin Ginn, was going to ring us out. But she didn't. And so we kept going and I tried to stay off the deep paths... making my circles a little too small and then a little too large. As we finished and I was walking towards Robin and petting Dan she said "He looks great! I've always enjoying watching him go.. he's always lovely. We haven't seen you in awhile but whatever you've been doing in the meantime, keep doing it... he looks amazing"! Whooo hooo!!! That made my day! I took it to mean... he looks even better than he has before! And we scored a 22.8!!!!!! Holy moly! Back where we belong! We ended up in first... and actually we had the lowest score of the day until Erin Flynn beat us with a 22.1 on Sequence. hee hee. But yay! Guess he wasn't lame. ;) 

 

He got a rinse and a rest and then we tacked up for stadium. Luckily that footing was fine. We warmed up and it was so crowded. As we went over our second jump... a girl came at it first and we were close behind but far enough I thought it would be okay. Except she knocked it. So Dan basically bucked over the downed rails. Ha ha. Ooops. We came to two more jumps and he was amazing and getting worked up, so we just quit with that. Jacel said he was just gonna get nutted up and clearly he was ready! So in we went! And it might have been one of our better rounds! We had two rubs that luckily stayed in the cups, but... we felt fluid and pretty smooth. He jumped everything out of stride and I didn't jump up his neck at all. I may have tipped a tiny bit but only a tiny bit! And he even put a 2 stride in the 2.5 stride! Yay! I hopped off and went to walk him back and he wouldn't move. He was like "um, no... I'm going to sit here and wait for more people to aknowledge my awesomeoness". (or at least that's what I hope... I'm a little paranoid that he was sore and not moving because he was sore, but.... I think he was just being stubborn because he would move the other direction). 

He got another short rest and then it was time for XC. He was definitely a little cranky about being tacked up a third time and definitely more sulky and balky. But once we got to the XC field he was better. We warmed up over the roll top and the first time was a little sticky but the second time was spot on! So off we went. The course wasn't big... but it was a tiny bit more technical. I wasn't too worried but there were a few big fences. And the stupid winged fence at the end. But... off we went. He did the first 7 or 8 fences with no issues, although we chipped to them all because I kept tipping my shoulders at him the slightest bit. I did it expecting him to take the long spot, but duh! That's not how you get him to take the long spot Holly!!! So once we got through the water, I sat up and rode properly... keeping my legs on, my knees open, and my shoulders back and waiting. And guess what?! He jumped out of stride! The last half of the course was lovely! We got to the last four fences and my dumb self screwed up the timing. I knew that optimum was 4:16... and in my head... started my watch 4 seconds early, so... 4:20. Except I forgot that optimum meant you had to be on that time or earlier. NOT focusing around that time. I never knew what speed faults were so... we circled and then happily cantered the rest of the course. I didn't push him but I also didn't collect him terribly. We jumped the last four jumps beautifully, including the hidden fence around the water and the scary winged thing! And we gave ourselves time faults! ha ha.. We were like... 4 seconds too slow. Whoops. Oh well. Technical difficulties. And no big deal as we still stayed in first. Yay!!! GOOD BOY!!

And like I said.. our team won the eventing team challenge, so double yay! I'm feeling pretty good about going Novice at Full Gallops recongized show in 2 weeks and then... 2 weeks later.. BN AEC's!!!!!!