The Pre-season Post- My Geometry Sucks

So it's been a while since I've last posted and so much has happened.  I'm going to split the events into two separate posts so that it isn't quite so insane.  This one is going to focus on the FCHP combined test and schooling as well as the two day schooling that we did at Twin Rivers, the pre-season prep if you will.

We had quite the group going to Fresno for the combined test and schooling.  Adi, little Lauren, Dana, Mackie, Ellie, Kaiti, Lauren, and I with our horses Danny, Regal, Jax, Wilson, Dakota, Bondie, Diego, and Brit, respectively.  Ellie was just there for schooling and soak in the show atmosphere with the older girls. She has never been to a rated show before and wants to start going this year to a few. At age 11, she is the youngest of our group and is going to have to learn how to keep up with the big girls. Hang in there Ellie!

Jumping just a little big over the trakehner

Day one we schooled cross country.  With many of the girls looking to make their training debuts in the near future it was quite important for us to have that schooling time.  Brit schooled all the training quite nicely and is proving to me that all my hard work during the off season really has helped transform us as a team.  We were very fortunate to have the use of Dana's wonderful professional grade camera and video camera at this show to take lots of photos and videos of everyone.  They are so nice that even the girls can get decent pictures with them (evidence is above, I believe Adi shot that one).  Although for some reason whenever they have charge of the cameras a number of mysterious pictures show up on the camera--the subjects normally being one or several of the girls modeling or being silly, birds, and horse poop.  What Adi finds so artistically amazing about horse poop to justify taking pictures of it is beyond me.  In addition to this Ellie's wonderful dad brought his camera (tripod and all) and setup to take many awesome photos.  Good job sticking it out with us girls Darren!  I think he may have been feeling a little outnumbered all weekend; our group was 14 something girls and one guy.

Day two was dressage and everyone put in some nice tests.  Except for Dana, Jax was being a booger and she ended up making funny faces at us when the judge couldn't see.  She even laughed at the end.  I think we've all had at least one of those rides at one time or another and the best thing to do is exactly what Dana did, laugh about it and move on, but perhaps hold the silly faces for after the test eh?  Brit decided to spook at the judge's booth before my test and a bit during my test.  Why she did is quite the mystery, I'm pretty sure that the judge's booths didn't become giant horse eating monsters since the last time we saw them two months ago.  Either way she was a bit fresh and difficult in my test and, as it turns out, when I start fighting with her my geometry goes to hell.  Like 15 meter circles become 19 meters as the judge was so kind to point out... all over my test.  Apparently my corners also sucked and I had some of the worst geometry known to man.  I mean, she did have a bit of point, it was bad at times, but I have never had a comment on my geometry. EVER.  So you can bet that I will be fixing that for next time.

Such a cute girl, you can't help but score that pretty face well!

Day three was show jumping, the day where rails can kill.  Honestly, I came into this show with a very simple list of goals: finish, and improve on our last outing.  At our last show Brit lost some confidence jumping and we had some trouble in the show jumping.  However I am happy to report that this time that was not the case.  I gave Brit the softest ride I could and some of the jumps she jumped the snot out of, others.... not so much. But hey, three rails?  I'll take it, I don't even care.  We came out this show and left better off than the last. We may have missed out on a ribbon (again, I mean seriously, what does it take for a girl to get a rosette around here?), but we were victorious in other ways at this show.

A few short weeks after the Fresno CT and we were off to school Twin Rivers.  Amazingly enough even though it poured at home it stayed remarkably dry and pleasant at Twin.  This trip also marked a historical occasion, the first time that the Original Fictiophiliacs brought along their cameras to vlog a trip.  Now you may be asking what the heck are you talking about? So allow me to explain.  Original Fictiophiliacs is the name that little Lauren, Adi, and I came up with to name a youtube channel where we will vlog about horse shows and perhaps do some other crazy videos to entertain others with our amazing sense of humor and just plain craziness.  So that explains what the group is, but the word fictiophiliac comes from the urban dictionary term fictiophilia which refers to the act of falling in love with fictional characters.  Every one of us in this little group is quite guilty of this and so we made up the term fictiophiliac to describe one who falls in love with fictional characters.  Anyway, so each of us that has a camera was supposed to bring it so we could vlog.  I had a camera to bring and Adi was so excited about starting vlogging that she went out and bought a camera.  The morning to leave comes, I start vlogging with my camera, and Adi realizes that while she has her camera, she forgot the camera battery.  Fail.  So for this trip my camera flew solo.  I have been through the footage and it is absolutely hilarious.  Once I have time to design the intro hacking it together should be a snap and it will be quite entertaining for all.

Jumping rather large out over the roll top.

The schooling went really well for everyone and much fun was had by all.  I discovered the magic of kissing to keep the rhythm up to the big fly fences and I can now say that I am a believer Lauren, I believe in the power of kissing and counting!  You have a convert!  Although Hawley Bennett is rather likely to kill me at Young Rider camp this year... oh well.

I'm currently working on a video mashup of my schooling footage, that should be up soon and a link will be included in my next post where I will write all about the Fresno Horse Trials, our first real show of the season.  Until next time! I'll be working on my geometry, because apparently sometimes it sucks.