Horse show and hacking.

So last weekend was a show weekend for the Lo and I. We showed at an A show close to my home but not close to the barn or my school, so Lola got to sleep over at the grounds and I got to sleep at home. She shipped in Friday, we unloaded her and the other horses, ensured that they were all comfortable for the night with blankets, water, hay, etc. and headed out. D, wonderful person he is, stayed at the show in his camper to be there on the grounds for morning feedings and emergencies, God forbid they arise.

Saturday morning came and I headed out to the show. I hacked Lola since she was in heat, there was a stallion nearby and the focus was not so much. After a quick hack and the realization that "HEY WE'RE AT A SHOW TODAY" she settled right into business. I took her back to the barns and let her chill for a few hours before getting her ready for our first class of the afternoon. We showed Adult Amateur Jumpers (L3 - 3'6") and she was just wonderful. We went double clear and our time in the jump-off (always our enemy - Lola is not, maybe, the fastest horse out there) was good enough to earn us eighth place! And so we got to put a brown ribbon up on her stall (one of many, many brown ribbons. We're usually eighth, no matter what. I wish I could explain why). She was likewise wonderful in our second class, though in the jump-off we had a slight inexperienced-over-enthusiastic-horse mistake and she left out a stride in a long line. It was pretty frightening, actually, realizing your horse is doing the swim over a fence. I threw the reins away, stayed out of her way and let her sort herself out, both in the air and on the landing. It took me a couple strides to gather myself back up but all ended well and we got (guess what!) eighth place again. I was mostly happy, but I didn't very much like that long spot. We have to work on putting the chip in more at home - it's just safer.

So I stayed at the show late that evening to watch the Grand Prix, which was very exciting. We passed the horses on the way back to the car, made sure they were all right for the evening, and headed home. The next morning my class went around 9:30, which conveniently was when the heavens decided to open on the show. We showed in the pouring rain and Lola, who really is great but is also somewhat water-phobic, way over-jumped everything in the ring. Our profile picture, actually, is from that class. We figured, judging by the standards in the photo, that she was clearing roughly 5'3" of air total, which is just silly when the jump's only 3'6". But never mind, since she settled as the course went on. We went clear, obviously haha, and did well enough in the jump-off to earn sixth (NOT BROWN!). Then I put her away with a warm and toasty cooler to dry off and rest for our classic in the afternoon.

The classic was level 3 as well, and they put in the most dreaded of all obstacles - the liverpool. Since this blog just started, our struggles with liverpools have not yet been documented. Lola hates liverpools. She was fine with them until last summer, when she decided that they were devilspawn or something and refused to jump them. L, K and various other crewmembers at the barn have been very supportive and helpful and we've got her jumping the plastic ones at home. The ones in the jump field that are made of cement are too ambitious, at this point, I think. Anyway, I debated scratching, since I am a chicken, but L and K both pointed out that in order to move up, I'm going to have to jump liverpools sometime. So I manned up, donned the white britches and headed for warmup. Thankfully, Lola has a bright blue and lime green cooler that we were able to spread on the ground in the warmup as a sort of liverpool simulation. Whatever, it worked! We made it over the liverpool, jump 9 on course, without a hitch! Of course, I was so relieved at that point I forgot to ride to the combination and got her to a horrible spot, where she saved my ass like the wonderful animal she is. We elected to return right away for the jump-off, as it was an option class, and ended our run in fourth place. Of course, there were ten horses to jump off after us but our clear round and our sort-of-fast time of 30 seconds were enough to keep us in the ribbons! We got to victory gallop in the seventh position, sporting a lovely (brown-free) purple ribbon on the bridle.

So after the show, Lola got two days off to rest. She enjoyed them, judging by the mud I found on her when I pulled her out of her stall to ride her yesterday. I had a lesson on Tuesday on a lovely little pony named Casper, and L really worked with me on my position, my leg, feeling the horse and being aware of my aids, etc. I tried to apply it in my hack and I like to think I made some improvement, though it won't happen right away. It's one thing to work on that stuff on a little pony, quite another to work on it on a big-moving warmblood! Even though she's small, Lola has BIG gaits. So I worked on it as much as I could, and she was pretty good. We have to work on her headset without our big srs-bizness bit (we hack in a loose ring rubber mullen-mouth, work seriously and jump in a shaped mullen-mouth rubber pelham) and I have to work on loosening my hips and being more aware of my seat.

So that brings me to my question: if there's anyone reading this, do you have any suggestions for relaxing the seat? I have bad hips - they've always been stiff and I've had a lot of problems with them, but they're pretty good right now, so I'm trying to loosen up and be a little easier on Lola's back, but I've been riding defensively with my hips for so long now it's difficult. Any suggestions of exercises I could do? I know lunge lessons are the best, but they're not really an option, at least not right now. Anything else?