USDF Regional Championships

I got back home last night from the USDF Region 6 Championships. This was something I was shooting for the moment I began working with Vienna. It was a lot of hard work (and some hardship) to get her to this show, but what transpired over the weekend was well worth all of it!

With our training the past 4 weeks I knew I could be competitive with Vienna in our Championship classes. But I wasn't too concerned with that. My main goal was to present and ride a horse that was listening and through with me. If we placed well, then that would be the icing on the cake.

We left on 10/1 for the 9 hour drive. We traveled with Vienna's owner Deb, River Run Ranch owner Julie Bennett and her horse Piero, and our friends from KGF Equestrian: Siggi, Kristen and Sandi. It was a safe and thankfully uneventful trip. Vienna got off the trailer in the dark and was looking around, but nothing out of the ordinary.

On Thursday we spent the morning getting completely settled in to the show grounds and walking Vienna a lot around the grounds to get her adjusted to her new environment.

Our schooling session in the afternoon went okay. Honestly, I pretty much "slept walked" through the ride. The past few weeks and the travel had taken a toll on me. Getting feedback from Wendy and watching the video of the ride showed me it wasn't all bad, but I needed to get back on track.

The show started on Friday, but I didn't have a class this day. I wanted to spend another day schooling Vienna to ensure that I was in control of how long we rode for and could make adjustments on the fly. This ride went well. We schooled for a short period of time 15-20 minutes and then went through the Training Level 4 test. I had told Wendy prior to the ride, to really push me and not hold back. So after a couple of F-bombs dropped my way to look up and to stop riding like an amateur I got things together and put together a good ride.

On Saturday, we were planning on riding in the Training Level 3 class as a warm up for the Championship classes on Sunday. I woke up to rain and wind in the morning. During the midday hours all was well weather wise. Then ominous black clouds began rolling in. For about an hour and a half we had two brief, but potent thunderstorm came through delaying my ride for about 2 hours. After looking at the footing that got drenched I quickly scratched the ride and elected to school Vienna in the indoor arena later that evening. By doing so, I would be showing Vienna in the championships without going into the show ring.

The schooling in the indoor ring started after almost disastrously as Vienna was spooky and tense with all of the "things" to look at. I was wondering if I could get the mare back together and actually have a good ride. After about 15 minutes Vienna started to relax and started to trust me. For the next 30 minutes we put together some of our best work. It felt great and it was fun to show off in front of a fair amount of people. Getting off the horse, I had a big smile on my face and felt very confident about tomorrow.

Well, it turned out to be a good thing to elect to school indoors on Saturday as our first Championship class (Northwest Championship) was moved from outdoors to the indoor arena. If we hadn't schooled the night before then we would have had big problems in the test.

Vienna was still a little nervous while warming up, but in the show ring she put together a solid test. The only mistakes we made were in the free walk and the stretching trot circle where she became momentarily distracted. I left the arena happy with our ride.

I knew going into this show that the Open (Pro) classes would be extremely competitive. I just didn't think it would be very close. We placed 5th in the class with 349 points (69.6%). We were 1 pt behind 3rd place which had 350 points (4th too). Even though 2nd place was 11 points ahead, we actually were placed higher than them by one judge. Click here for results.

Our second championship class (USDF Regional Championship) went well too. This class was held in one of the outdoor arenas. Although the weather was good, the footing was a complete muddy mess from the rains the day before. This was Vienna's first experience in muddy footing so I wasn't too sure how she would ride. In warm up, she actually rode well. In the show ring she had a very big slip in the first canter circle, leaving a huge divet. From that point on, I rode her a little more conservative as I didn't want to risk her health.

After the final halt/salute, I felt happy with the ride, but knew it wasn't as good as the test earlier. We finished 5th again in the class and were 2 points out of 4th place. We were still in the thick of things and that meant a lot to me. Click here for results.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with how the show transpired. I have been riding this horse for 4 months and only 3 days a week. To bring this horse along to this point has been a wonderful experience and very rewarding. Thank you Deb for the opportunity to train and show your horse.

This brings a conclusion to the show season. In the next couple of weeks, I'll provide a more thorough recap of everything that has transpired since the move and what I'll be working on during the off-season.

Swedish Warmblood Inspection

This past Saturday (9/27), I presented Cinzano at the Swedish Warmblood inspection.

We began the inspection with him getting his measurements done to make sure his confirmation was correct. After that we began the free jumping segment. The first round through he wasn't too sure what was going on, but after that he was all for it. The inspectors raised the jumps successfully up to 4'2". On that jump Cinzano had to put in a big effort to get over and kicked backed with his hind legs aggressively to get over (more on that).

After that I trotted him in hand. All of this went really well.

The final component of the inspection was me presenting Cinzano under saddle. We showed in an arena with the two inspectors in the middle and about 20 people watching on the side. This was quite unnerving to the horse as he had not been in that situation at all. I was asked to show him at walk, trot, canter in both directions (plus lengthening of the trot and canter). From the get go, he felt different. On the left rein he was feeling okay but to the right he was all over the place. In the canter Cinzano was swapping leads, throwing his head, and even rearing. I was sitting on top, thinking "What the hell is going on". I tried everything I could by not sitting deeply and trying to keep his neck as long as possible.

After that we had the inspectors give their scores and opinions of the horse. Overall, they like Cinzano a lot and repeated this a couple of more times verbally and in writing. He received 7 and 8's in all of his scores, except for under saddle where he scored a 6. His total point total gave him a Class I status, but to be approved as a stallion all scores need to be above a 7. The inspectors repeated a couple of times to bring back Cinzano next year as he shold be able to pass.

Needless I was disappointed that I could not get Cinzano passed and couldn't figure out what happened under saddle. In prior rides he never rode like that. I thought something felt wrong in his back but couldn't pinpoint it.

The next day, Cinzano received a chiropractic exam. The chiropractor found, and adjusted, a rib that was out of place on the right side. More importantly, Cinzano's pelvis was severely rotated. This is what caused the misbehavior on Saturday. How the pelvis became out of place, came from the free jumping in the inspection. On that 4'2" jump he injured his pelvis. With the adjustment, Cinzano is now fine and ready to come back to work!

It was slightly frustrating to loose a confirmation because of something that was out of my hands. But that's the beauty of horses sometimes :).

Preview of Upcoming Attractions

A quick update on the two competitions coming up for me:

Sweedish Warmblood Inspection:
This Saturday (9/27) I will be presenting Cinzano for inspection as a stallion into the Sweedish Studbook. We've doing a lot of work with him and it is beginning to show. Each time I ride this young horse, the more and more I like him. He is starting to express his gaits and figure out that under saddle throwing the head around from time to time is not good.

For his age, he is well balanced and is starting to come from behind. After watching him in trot while free, passage should be no issue for this horse!

I'll be showing him in hand and then under saddle. We'll also be free jumping him as well.

Here are a couple of short videos of us working:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUtp5WC_8T4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW5AkI5RMVo


Regional Championships:
This comes up in a week and a half. Vienna is starting to really show her stuff. Today I asked her to engage even more in the hindend and start to show off her gaits. More so from what I would expect a 2nd level horse to do. While she can hold this for short moments right now, it felt absolutely wonderful!! Her canter is becoming much more well balanced and when she stops pulling on me she can really float in the air.

From now until the show we are going to focus on transitions as this is our achilles heel. We did a ton of walk-trot, trot-walk, walk-halt transitions. With about 95% of the halts instantly square. If I can get her to come through on the canter transitions we will show very well!

New Horses

In the last two weeks I have taken on 3 new horses to my list.

Claudius:
Is a Dutch Warmblood who was trained through the FEI lower levels in Europe before being imported 5 years ago. He is owned by Cindy Bucceri. Over the past couple of years Claudius has been showing 2nd and 3rd level; with one show at 4th level this year. I will be working to get Claudius back up to the FEI level with the goal of showing Prix St Georges and Intermerdiare I at some point in the 2009 season. His training will include me riding 2-4 times per week and giving lessons to Cindy and Emily (who successively showed him this season).

Cinzano:
Is a 4 year old stallion owned by Wendy Hsue. I will be presenting Cinzano at the end of the month, both in hand and under saddle, for inspection into the Sweedish Warmblood Studbook. I've only been working with Cinzano for a little over a week and I really like this horse. Very sweet and is starting to move better and better with each ride.

Dutch:
Is a 4 year old owned by Rebecca Chatfield. Dutch is extremely green and I've been working with him under saddle to give him the basics of under saddle work with the goal of having Rebecca riding him in the very near future. As of today we are walk, trot, cantering with no problems and he is an extremely smooth ride. He shall be fun!

Whidbey Island End of Summer Show

Last weekend, we hauled back up to Whidbey with Vienna to try and get one last qualifying score for the Regional Championships. Plus, it was good to get Vienna some more show experience.

I knew all I needed to do was get the mare through and then ride a mistake free test and all would be taken care of.

I was only going to show her Friday and Saturday as I didn't want to go through another 3 day show. If we couldn't get one score out of two rides, then in my opinion we didn't deserve to go to Championships.

On the Thursday warm up day Vienna went pretty well. At the end of the session we schooled in the ring (lower sand ring) where we would be showing on Friday and she was a little tense and looking around. There are a lot of noises from the nearby highway that you can hear from that ring and she wasn't too comfortable with that. We tried to get her listening the best we could.

On Friday we rode in the late afternoon. Vienna felt a little tired to me on Thursday and I elected not to school her in the morning on Friday to ensure I had enough energy in her. So I spent the drizzly, misty day hand walking and grazing her a lot. She was taking in everything like a pro and I was thinking if she keeps this up we'll be fine.

Instead of rehashing the warm up and ride, I'll give you the quick version. The horse got tense in the ring and I rode her terribly. I didn't ride proactively and instead rode passively hoping to just get through the test without any bobbles. Well that approached backfired as we had a couple of leaps in the right lead canter. Needless to say we didn't get the score. Once again, without the errors we had it. On the bright side we did receive on 8 for gaits.

I immediately went back to the warm up and schooled her and we got going well. I was furious afterwards, mostly at myself, for not riding well. I knew better and yet I didn't step up. I went to bed that night vowing not to let that happen again.

Again, we had a late afternoon ride and this time I schooled her in the morning. In that schooling session, I put the mare in a deep frame and got her coming up through the back. We had a fabulous ride with no issues. Deb helped me through the ride and was very impressed with what she saw.

Flash forward to the warmup for the test in the afternoon, and we immediately picked up where we left off in the morning. I had a horse tuned into me, so much so that she was picking up the canter with the slightest seat aid.

Right as we were about to enter the ring for the test Vienna started thinking canter and I aborted the entrance at the last second, literally, and circled back around. Doing that probably saved the day.

In this test I had the mare the most attentive I have ever had and we had great test. We had a couple of minor errors where we picked up the canter early and bobbled for a section in the trot. Other than that, I was very happy with the mare. This is the horse we've been working towards for the past 10 weeks.

We got the score, 69.6%, and will be traveling to Nampa, ID for the Region 6 Championships the first weekend of October.

What I'm really excited about is I still haven't gotten this mare to ride her best. With 4 weeks between now and Championships I know that I can get Vienna going much better and I know that we will be competitive in the Open Division.

A big thank you to Deb Reinhart for allowing me the opportunity to train and show this mare.
To Wendy Meyers for coming up and coaching me before each ride. Also to my parents, Alanna, Sharon, Nancy, Norma, Roxanne, Cindy, Claudio, and Adrianna for coming up to cheer us on. The support is greatly appreciated!

Whidbey Island Summer Show

This past weekend (8/15-17) we traveled up to the Whidbey Island Equestrian Center for their summer show.

I traveled up with Vienna, Vienna's owner Deb, and River Run Ranch owner Julie Bennett and her horse Pierro.

The fun part about traveling to this show is you take a ferry boat to reach the island. The alternative is to drive a couple of hours north and go around over Deception Pass. I'm always nervous about taking horses onto the ferry boat, because if something were to happen to the horses, you can't do anything about it. Nothing happened at all on the ferry boat, except when waiting to unload off the ferry Vienna felt bored and gave the trailer a very big kick. Sitting in the truck when this happened, I thought something had broke because of the noise she made. Fortunately, everything was alright.



The warm up ride on Thursday went really well. Vienna felt very good and was taking in her new surroundings in stride. Compared to our first show 3 weeks ago, this horse was much more calm and you could tell/feel she was starting to understand what her job is.

Our goals for this show were pretty simple:
Have a solid show where the horse was calm and listening to me in the tests
To get our qualifying rides for championships

To get the qualifying scores, you must have 2 scores, from 2 different shows, from 2 different judges. At Training Level in the Open (Pro) division your score must be greater than 68%. Because we did not get a score at Donida that meant we needed to get both scores at this show. At this show, Friday counted as one show and Saturday-Sunday was counted as a another show. So we needed to get a score on Friday and then get another score on either Saturday or Sunday.

Friday
On Friday our ride was not until 5:30pm. So we took the mare out and schooled her around 10am. She felt absolutely fantastic and we kept the ride to around 20 minutes.

In the warm up for the test the mare again felt really good. Deb and Julie kept saying to me, "Matt she looks wonderful".

The first part of the test went really well. She was attentive, moving nicely, and giving an overall lovely picture. However, after the walk work I felt Vienna mentally check out on me. When we started the canter work, I was beginning to loose the connection in the horse and she was getting a little strung out. When we got to the second half of the canter work on the left lead, we lost the lead (trotted) way too early. I gambled and did not pick up the canter again as I did not want to risk having a blow up trying to get the canter again. By playing it conservative I was banking on getting good scores on the last part of the test and not have a horse that was frustrated and not listening to me and receiving low marks for the rest of the test.

After the final halt, I knew we missed the score by a little and turned around to Deb and Julie and with my hand, squeezed my thumb and index finger close together signaling "We were this close".

Indeed we were. We score a 64.8% and that was with a 2 for a score in the canter and a 4 somewhere else. Without the error we would have had our score and won the class.

Saturday
We rode two classes on Saturday. In the morning we rode Training Level Test 3 for practice and in the evening Training Level Test 4. The evening ride would also be a qualifier.

Throughout both warm ups and rides, Vienna felt tired. When taking her out in the morning her haunches were noticeably sore (just slightly). Because of that, I would not be able to get her to engage as well as I would have liked. Because of that, we did have a buck in a canter depart in each test.

Again, just like yesterday, a big mistake cost us valuable points and placings. Without the errors we would have been scoreing 67-69% and placing 2nd or 1st in the respective classes.

At the end of the day I was slightly frustrated because we weren't showing our potential. In all, I was very happy with Vienna's overall demeanor; especially in the warm up ring with 8 other horses.

So, with no qualifying score yet, that meant we needed to score one on Sunday's ride.

Sunday
We rode in the late morning. Vienna came out much better than Saturday, but still I could feel was not 100%. I adjusted the warm up and only rode her for about 10 minutes enabling us to get loosened up and have enough energy for the test.

While warming up around the ring waiting for the bell I kept working on riding with the loosest hips possibly to keep her engaged. She felt a little strung out and I was trying to keep everything together. Just keep it smooth I kept reminding myself.

We went through the test without any errors. I was very happy with that. When we got out of the arena, Wendy and I were chatting that this was the best test the mare had put in yet, but probably was a point or two away from the score. Julie walked up and said, "Matt, you got your score". I didn't believe her thinking we probably score around 67%. But a lot of people were saying we looked a lot better than what I felt.

Well, they were right. We score a 68.000% to get the score! In addition we also won the class. This put Deb in very high spirits which was great to see.

Overall, this was a extremely successful show for Vienna. We had no blowups like we did 3 weeks ago; we stayed in the arena each time; and Vienna handled the experience like a pro. This was seen in the warm up arena when we had to navigate around at least 8 other horses for each ride. At this show, it seemed that no one could ride correctly in warm up and we had a couple of close calls. Each time, Vienna brushed off the horse coming close to her and rode like a pro.

We really want to take this mare to Championships. We are now entered in the last Whidbey Island show of the summer on Labor Day weekend. We just need to get one score out of two rides.

We'll be leaving on Thursday the 28th and showing just on Friday and Saturday.

Thanks for the support!

Karla Spiritus Clinic

Since the Thursday of the Donida Show, almost each ride with Vienna has shown me a better and better horse. Enough that some people who initial thought she was an alright horse are now telling me different.

This past weekend proved no different. On Saturday I rode Vienna in a clinic with German Grand Prix Rider and trainer, Karla Spiritus. Prior to the clinic, I knew nothing of Karla other than from a couple of other riders that they found her clinics very helpful to their riding and horses.

Now, the first 15-20 minutes weren't that good as Karla's English is good but not very great. When she couldn't express what she wanted, I would then get an English translation from trainer Siggi Wolff. Additionally, the radio headset I was wearing would go out from time to time. For a lot of that time I wasn't too sure in what Karla wanted. So to help she hoped on Vienna for about 10 minutes. Just watching what Karla wanted I knew exactly what to do.

From that point on, the ride went fantastic. Karla had me get Vienna deeper than I had been riding her previously and then the horse responded beautifully. I had Vienna going with a ton of self expression and carry. We began fully schooling shoulder ins, mediums, and counter canter.

Afterwards I was very happy with the ride and became even more excited about the mare.

The next day Karla and I were chatting (as best we could). She told me that next time she comes to Seattle, she wants me on Vienna for at least two days and to bring any other horses I have in training because she thought I am a strong rider. She continued this praise to Vienna's owner as well.

This meant a lot to me as I'm always a little apprehensive when riding for someone the first time. I'm pretty confident about my riding, but because of some things that happened 10+ years ago, I always have a little self doubt. It's nothing bad, but it's always there.

Big thanks to Julie Bennett for holding the clinic at River Run; and of course to Vienna's wonderful owner Deb Reinhart, for the opportunity to ride and clinic with the horse.

We're now gearing up for the Whidbey Island Equestrian Center Summer Dressage Show 8/15-8/17.

The other horses that I have in full and half training are going wonderfully and I'll have news about them in the coming weeks.