Okay, I'm really tired and ready for bed but I'll post this real quick before I forget everything.
Today was the Junior Individual Test. My ride time was 10:29. It went pretty well, we had a few mistakes (these judges are so observant! Haha.) that killed our score, even though Nash was being really good. We ended up with a 61% and change. Our ride was interesting, and although I would have liked to score higher, I'm pretty happy with it. Here's why:
Usually at shows, Nash is (understandably) a little tense, particularly in the actual show ring. We usually spend the warm-up loosening up and trying to get him stretched over his back and through. Then when I get in the show ring he starts looking at everything,I get a little tense and grip with my thights too much, he gets a little tense in the poll, and blocks me through his shoulders. So what we've been working on in the show ring is maintaining a through yet RELAXED frame, where he is soft and bendable through his neck and poll and I am loose and supportive in my seat and legs. Today, I feel as if I achieved that, albeit at the expense of a high frame and level of collection. We went in the show ring and instead of him looking all around and getting worried/tense, he stayed loose and pliable through the neck and shoulders. Unfortunately, I think he was also a bit fatigued and as I said we had a few mistakes and weren't as "up" as our first test, which is reflected in our score. But despite the score I feel as if I achieved something today with Nash, and in the long run that is, of course, what is important.
On another note, Jamie Pestana and Winzalot won the Individual Gold Medal with a score of 71%! GO JAMIE! It was a beautiful ride and the awards ceremony was a ton of fun. Region 7 is lucky to have her!
We're still waiting on videos of my rides, I promise those and more pictures will be up soon. Tomorrow are the freestyle tests, and I'm actually a little relieved I don't have to ride mine although it would have been fun. I'm about to go to bed, ta ta for now!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
SILVER MEDAL BABY!
WOOOOHOOOOOO! Region 7 Juniors won the SILVER MEDAL!
Here's how it happened:
Each team is composed of 4 riders- the Region 7 Junior team is myself, Stephanie Early with Panash, Genay Vaughn with Waranja, and Jamie Pestana with Winzalot. Today, we rode the FEI Junior Team test- the average of all four of our rides is taken and compared with all the other teams, and WE WON THE SILVER MEDAL! There are 9 Junior teams from the U.S., but I don't know how many Canada had, and Mexico doesn't have any Dressage teams.
So I rode today at 10:35, thankfully before it got dreadfully hot. Nash was a star. He has been cheerful and confident this entire week, and he brought it straight into the show ring. We had about a 45 minute warm-up, which was crazy- there were like, 8 other horses warming up with us in one Dressage court. Of course he handled it very well, a complete gentleman. I could tell he was getting fatigued at the end of our warm-up so we did a lot of lateral movements at the walk, trying to save energy. I was a little worried about my left lead canter- every time I sat in to collect he would immediately break to trot, despite my attempts to hold the lead, but I knew I couldn't let it ruin the rest of my ride, I would just have to work with what I got in the show ring. My ride time came, Lyn walked us down the chute to the stadium, and in we went.
I cannot describe the absolute and overwhelming excitement I felt going around the outside of the ring. I probably had the silliest grin on my face, Nash was flinging out his toes, it was great. And, the judges all said "Good morning!" back to me! I remember my first CDI, I go around the outside and cheerfully say "Good morning!" to the first judge, who looks up and glares at me. It was very intimidating. But these judges were nice. So I was pretty excited, pretty overwhelmed, but when I entered at A I knew Nash would be tense if I didn't ride in the same mindset I did at home so I did my best to get down to business.
Honestly I don't know how my rides look or what the score will be when I'm showing, so I don't know how to share my actual ride with you other than posting a video (which will come soon I promise, it's not finished converting into an uploadable format). It was a solid ride, our only mistake was picking up that stupid left lead canter at A. I cued probably too strongly as I was worried about getting it and he hesitated and we had to cut the corner, but it was contained to one movement so didn't hurt our overall score too much. Oh, and there's a huge electronic scoreboard at the end of the stadium that is updated with your average score AS YOU RIDE. It was so hard not to look at it during my ride, but I didn't want to see a low or high score and psyche myself out. As we were exiting the arena however I stared at it- 64.321%!
So the ride, apparently, went very well. I have yet to watch it, it's almost 12 hours later and I'm still savoring this indescribable feeling. Happiness, relief, pride, I don't know what it is but it's very very nice.
Stephanie and Genay put in solid rides at 64.000% and 63. 622% respectively, and Jamie and Winzalot had a stunning ride with 69.?? %. I don't remember exactly what our overall average was. All of us did really well, and it's been such a fun time getting to know these girls and bonding as a team.
At 2 we had the awards ceremony. Our team got to stand on a podium and have our national anthem played, it was all very grown-up and official and FUN! I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time. Nash was adorable, I haven't ever seen him preen so much. He definitely deserves the attention. It feels like it's been such a long journey to get here, to qualify, to medal. But in reality I met Nash (and started Dressage) 2 years and 8 months ago, and I guess in the grand scheme of things that's a relatively short time. Nevertheless, it has been quite an experience and I couldn't possibly have asked for better results. Nash is an amazing horse who I've come to love and appreciate, a constant and unconditional best friend, and I'm looking forward to picking a new goal with him once this Championship is over.
Alright, I'm exhausted and feel like I'm rambling a bit. All the details that I missed in this blog I'll be sure to add tomorrow, which is thankfully a day off for us Juniors. On Friday we ride the Individual Test, and the top 15 from there go on to the Freestyle on Saturday.
OH! And an update about that left lead canter- he's developed tender bumps on his back snce we've been here, mainly on his spine and left side, which explains why he would pop up his croup when I'd sit into him- it would hurt! So we had an FEI vet come and look at it, he approved a dose of Dex, and the bumps have disappeared. We'll see if the problem is fixed when I ride tomorrow.
Here's how it happened:
Each team is composed of 4 riders- the Region 7 Junior team is myself, Stephanie Early with Panash, Genay Vaughn with Waranja, and Jamie Pestana with Winzalot. Today, we rode the FEI Junior Team test- the average of all four of our rides is taken and compared with all the other teams, and WE WON THE SILVER MEDAL! There are 9 Junior teams from the U.S., but I don't know how many Canada had, and Mexico doesn't have any Dressage teams.
So I rode today at 10:35, thankfully before it got dreadfully hot. Nash was a star. He has been cheerful and confident this entire week, and he brought it straight into the show ring. We had about a 45 minute warm-up, which was crazy- there were like, 8 other horses warming up with us in one Dressage court. Of course he handled it very well, a complete gentleman. I could tell he was getting fatigued at the end of our warm-up so we did a lot of lateral movements at the walk, trying to save energy. I was a little worried about my left lead canter- every time I sat in to collect he would immediately break to trot, despite my attempts to hold the lead, but I knew I couldn't let it ruin the rest of my ride, I would just have to work with what I got in the show ring. My ride time came, Lyn walked us down the chute to the stadium, and in we went.
I cannot describe the absolute and overwhelming excitement I felt going around the outside of the ring. I probably had the silliest grin on my face, Nash was flinging out his toes, it was great. And, the judges all said "Good morning!" back to me! I remember my first CDI, I go around the outside and cheerfully say "Good morning!" to the first judge, who looks up and glares at me. It was very intimidating. But these judges were nice. So I was pretty excited, pretty overwhelmed, but when I entered at A I knew Nash would be tense if I didn't ride in the same mindset I did at home so I did my best to get down to business.
Honestly I don't know how my rides look or what the score will be when I'm showing, so I don't know how to share my actual ride with you other than posting a video (which will come soon I promise, it's not finished converting into an uploadable format). It was a solid ride, our only mistake was picking up that stupid left lead canter at A. I cued probably too strongly as I was worried about getting it and he hesitated and we had to cut the corner, but it was contained to one movement so didn't hurt our overall score too much. Oh, and there's a huge electronic scoreboard at the end of the stadium that is updated with your average score AS YOU RIDE. It was so hard not to look at it during my ride, but I didn't want to see a low or high score and psyche myself out. As we were exiting the arena however I stared at it- 64.321%!
So the ride, apparently, went very well. I have yet to watch it, it's almost 12 hours later and I'm still savoring this indescribable feeling. Happiness, relief, pride, I don't know what it is but it's very very nice.
Stephanie and Genay put in solid rides at 64.000% and 63. 622% respectively, and Jamie and Winzalot had a stunning ride with 69.?? %. I don't remember exactly what our overall average was. All of us did really well, and it's been such a fun time getting to know these girls and bonding as a team.
At 2 we had the awards ceremony. Our team got to stand on a podium and have our national anthem played, it was all very grown-up and official and FUN! I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time. Nash was adorable, I haven't ever seen him preen so much. He definitely deserves the attention. It feels like it's been such a long journey to get here, to qualify, to medal. But in reality I met Nash (and started Dressage) 2 years and 8 months ago, and I guess in the grand scheme of things that's a relatively short time. Nevertheless, it has been quite an experience and I couldn't possibly have asked for better results. Nash is an amazing horse who I've come to love and appreciate, a constant and unconditional best friend, and I'm looking forward to picking a new goal with him once this Championship is over.
Alright, I'm exhausted and feel like I'm rambling a bit. All the details that I missed in this blog I'll be sure to add tomorrow, which is thankfully a day off for us Juniors. On Friday we ride the Individual Test, and the top 15 from there go on to the Freestyle on Saturday.
OH! And an update about that left lead canter- he's developed tender bumps on his back snce we've been here, mainly on his spine and left side, which explains why he would pop up his croup when I'd sit into him- it would hurt! So we had an FEI vet come and look at it, he approved a dose of Dex, and the bumps have disappeared. We'll see if the problem is fixed when I ride tomorrow.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Alright, so these are pictures taken today. We have the tack room- it actually looks much different now, that was taken when only some of the stuff was in it. It's a lot messier. And crowded. Then we have 
the arena I will be showing in, or rather the stadium around it and a little bit of the arena, and then we have Nash and I standing in front of the stadium. I don't know if you guys can see it, but it says Kentucky Horse Park above our heads. Oh, and I'm blogging from my Dad's laptop, and I don't know how to work the photoshop on here- so I apologize for the unnatural eyes!KENTUCKY!!!
Okay. So we're here. Finally. We left yesterday, 4:45am, flew out of Sacramento, arrived in Lexington around 3:30. Had a great dinner at The Cracker Barrel (they don't serve alcohol. Not that I should care, but it was a bit of a surprise. I guess I'm too used to California!) and then saw that Angelina Jolie movie, Salt, with my dad. He let me sleep in until 9am this morning, what a gentleman! We got to the Kentucky Horse Park around 10am with the trailer- found our stalls, and let me tell you we are SO LUCKY! Our stalls are in the very first barn, out of a little cluster of dressage barns, on the East side- they're in the shade from about 11am on. SCORE! And there's a pretty little berm with beautiful grass right next to it, oh yeah the grass here! It's always green! And mowed! I don't think I've seen one bit of dead grass yet. Again, I must be too used to California. So we unloaded all of our stuff from the trailer and set up Nash's stall and the tackroom, went and got lunch, and returned to wait for the horses to arrive. Nash flew out of Oakland early this morning (many thanks to Lyn and John for taking care of him and bringing him to the airport, you can read details of that on her blog) and he arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park at 6pm. He was "jet-lagged" I'd say, a little tired and wide-eyed, but very well behaved. Marly and I hosed him off and walked him around the park for awhile, letting him see everything for the first time. He seemed relaxed, probably pretty worn out! We went to dinner after settling him in, then Dad and I went out again to walk him around. The grounds were pretty dark, and not a lot of people were there, so we got to wander all around the place without distractions. Nash was eager and alert, looking at everything but being very respectful and well-behaved. I'm so proud of how well he is handling all his! We walked over to our show arena, it's a HUGE stadium arena with a lake with fountains in it across from the bleachers. Absolutely gorgeous. I feel so lucky to have gotten here. It seems like such a long time ago I was watching other girls ride, wishing and hoping to be where they are someday. And I absolutely couldn't have done it without such a team- Lyn and John, my parents, Kim, Steve, Sandi and Sue Roberts, all the "barn ladies" and other people who have helped along the way... I have a few more pictures, I'll put them in the next post!Monday, July 19, 2010
Sent the trailer!
Yesterday we loaded and sent off the horse trailer to haul all our "stuff" to Kentucky- hay, shavings, blankets, fans, stall matts, extra tack, show clothes, etc. WHEW. My dad (Mike) and I fly out on Friday, and Nash flies out Saturday. We are all so excited! Nash definitely knows something big is happening, he has been stepping up to the plate like a true rockstar. I actually got chills when I was riding today; it was one of those special, wonderful rides when everything just clicked and seemed wondrously easy and flawless. I feel as prepared as I could be at this point- sending the trailer off made all this seem real somehow, we're actually going to Kentucky!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Hello Everyone!
Hi! As you know if you are on this site, my name is Meg Adams. I created this blog to keep my family/friends/interested persons updated and informed before and during my trip to the North American Junior/Young Rider Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, with my wonderful horse, Nash. There will definitely be more to come, but I'm about to head to Tahoe (HOORAY!). Ta ta for now...-Meg
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