Exploring Jumper Land

Taking Stock and putting together a plan
Becca and I sat down a couple of weeks ago and planned out our spring competition season. After analyzing the gaps in Leo and Spy's training and doing some analysis on the cost of competitions, we decided to turn our attention to the jumper ring for the first few weeks of the competition season.

Stadium has always been my nemesis. Things happen so fast in stadium - no nice long gallops between fences like on xc! It doesn't help that I don't have a great eye for distances and I easily get overwhelmed in the ring. Then to top it off, Leo isn't confident in stadium either.

For Becca, Spy is simply just not careful in stadium. He is a scopey and brave horse, but doesn't care enough to clear the jumps with his hind legs. She was on track to move him up to Intermediate at Pine Top in February but she withdrew after a terrible stadium round where Spy dropped almost every fence and fought her the entire round.

We contemplated going to Morven, but the total cost of a weekend in Virginia would have tapped out around $800. It seemed ridiculous to spend all that money and only get one opportunity to do a stadium round. And for me and Leo is would only be a training level round. Plus, the weather is always risky in Virginia in March. Last year, I got to compete but Becca got rained out. $800 is a lot of money to lose.

We figured it was a better invest of both time and money to go somewhere and be able to do several jump rounds in a stadium setting. Becca talked to Sally about skipping Morven in order to focus on jumper shows and she agreed it was a good choice. We spent an afternoon scouring PA and NJ for jumper shows and were able to find a couple of jumper shows in New Jersey that offered classes over 3'....

• Black River Farm in Ringoes, NJ: jumpers through Level 5 (4')
• Duncraven Farm in Titusville, NJ: jumpers through 1.25m (4'11")

Gigantic 120x260 ft indoor at Wyndsor Farm

Hello, Jerk Face
Next thing we had to do was find an indoor with jumps so that we could prep for the first jumper show at Black River on March 15th. Becca and I had spent 2 weeks trotting roads, but we needed to get some jump schools in. We ended up heading over to a local hunter/jumper barn, Wyndsor Farms. This facility is down right luxurious and the indoor, with it's felt footing, is massive with gorgeous show quality jumps, fillers, walls, the works. We went twice. Leo got progressively worse. He was spooking at everything in the indoor - the walls, the jumps, the heat lamps, his own poop on the ground....you name it. The first jump school, I couldn't get him near the first fence which was literally 2 feet high but had blue flowers. We got over that and things got a little better but I made sure not to do too much. 

The second jump school, Leo was even worse! I had to override all the fences just to make sure he would jump them, but then I couldn't control his stride and the distances got too short...we were a huge mess. We were jumping much bigger at this point - up to 3'9" - so with the bigger fences, our ride-ability issues made for some serious ugliness. Back at home, Leo was equally shitty under saddle. I was not feeling good about the jumper show. 

I made a run to Dover Saddlery and stocked up on Perfect Prep Training Day supplement and attempted to get that back into his system (this is what he gets during the competition season). Leo was not amused and then stopped eating his grain. Awesome. So I started feeding him his Training Day via a syringe. Take that, Leo. 

The best $80 I have spent

We went to Black River on Sunday. The morning of the show, he got Training Day and Equine Chill at 9am. I also lunged him before we left the farm. I didn't ride my courses until 2pm and by then, he was all business. Needless to say he will be back on that regimen for all his shows.

The worst thing about jumper shows is all the waiting around for your division to start. But everyone at Black River was super nice so it wasn't that bad. I rode two 1.05 meter Child / Adult Jumper classes to start. The max height for that division is 3'5", but I think most fences were more or less 3'3" - very close to a training level division. I also rode one Level 3 Jumper class which is 3'6". The courses were nice! There were related lines, lots of turns and changes of direction, a one-stride combination, various short and long approaches to fences, and a good mix of square oxers and verticals. 

Leo and I had one rail in both of the 1.05 m courses, but overall they were good rounds. In the first round, his stride got away from me in a related, bending line from the in-and-out to a vertical. I ran out of room for the 6th stride and I had a rail. Then in the second round, a similar thing happened in a 3-stride line. We jumped in too bold and I didn't half halt fast enough and he ticked the front rail of the oxer out. But then we went clear over the 3'6" course! Woot! 

For all the rounds, Leo was all business and was jumping great. He was taking me to the fences and was quite bold with everything. Not at all like the jerk he was at Wyndsor Farm. He never once felt like he was going to stop at anything.  It felt really good to get 3 rounds in and for a cost of only $80!!! 

Becca mistakenly threw my riding boots out of the dressing room the morning of the show and I had to ride in my Dubarrys. Despite their hefty price tag this does not make for a good show-ring look. But after 3 solid rounds, we were joking that I should ride all my stadium rounds in my Dubarrys now. They are my lucky charm!

We're going back to Black River on Apr 4th for another jumper show. Then we go to Plantation Horse Trials on April 11 & 12. I'm starting the season off at Training to get our feet wet again and then we'll bump back up to Prelim.