Tag: twophase

Spring horse show season has begun!

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle2 Comments

Many horse professionals from New England travel to the Aiken South Carolina or to Wellington/Ocala Florida for the winter to continue training and showing and return in time for the show season up here! My former barn in Massachusetts, Orchard Hill Equestrian Center, started their schooling show series in April AND the very next weekend was the UNH Spring Trials, a recognized show important to many Area 1 eventers. The schooling show at my old barn was a 2 phase, meaning just dressage and stadium jumping. Right now the cross country field is too soft/muddy. The event at UNH was all three phases meaning dressage, stadium jumping, and cross country.

I volunteered as dressage scribe for the schooling show, which is always a fun job. It can be crazy furiously scribbling down every word the dressage judge says onto the score sheets, but I always learn a lot. I am always too busy during dressage to take any dressage pics. Once dressage was done though, I got to be a spectator for the stadium jumping.

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This particular rider lost her stirrup very early in the round, you can see in this pic her foot is out of the stirrup!!! Superstar!

From where I now live in NH, UNH isn’t that far at all! Mizpah and I headed over to watch some friends from Orchard Hill compete. We weren’t there early enough to watch a lot of dressage, but we did get to see some stadium jumping and cross country. Walking the cross country course is always a lot of fun with Mizpah. We totally have her do all the jumps and play in the water complex haha. The course was definitely muddy and wet in some areas, but UNH did a great job of spreading gravelly sand to the approach and landing areas for jumps that needed it. The UNH students in the equine science and agricultural programs volunteer to make this show run as smoothly as possible.

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Pretty much the only good pic I got of my friend stadium jumping
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Mizpah in the XCountry start box!!
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Beautiful scenery for cross country

A great place to watch some cross country is here at the water complex. In that one area you get to see a few jumps and of course the spaaaalash into the water!

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Jump before the water complex
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Jump over the log down into the water!
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Coop after the water! Lots of pats and exclamations of excitement after this jump!

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The earliest I will be riding again will be this coming winter, so for my own sanity, I will be trying to attend a lot of horsey fun events to get my fix until then. It was so nice seeing my barn friends and supporting the schooling show at Orchard Hill as well as the riders at UNH. Mizpah was an absolute star. Most horse people also looooove dogs, so it was a great day to get her out on the leash greeting kids, adults, other dogs, and select horses who I know are ok around dogs. At horse shows its particularly important for Mizpah to NOT jump on people because no one wants muddy paw prints on their riding pants before entering the ring!!

Anyone planning on getting out to some horsey events this spring and summer? Maybe a polo tournament, a race, or a local show?? Kentucky Derby is coming up, wish I was going!!!

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Volunteering for my barn’s spring two-phase!

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle4 Comments

This past weekend was the spring two-phase at the barn that I ride at. A two-phase is dressage and stadium jumping, the third phase that will be added in for future shows is cross country. I usually volunteer to scribe for the dressage judge which is really fun, but definitely hard work. You write furiously, trying to make sure that you get every comment and score as the dressage judge watches the dressage test. Our judge for this show was Lainey Johnson, and she is awesome. I love scribing for her because I learn so much, and she is just a lovely lady to hang out with too. The shows at my barn are schooling shows, so they are affordable, and just great opportunities to get some showing experience at a very low key, informal event. Once dressage finished up, I helped score the stadium jumping rounds. The spring show is the first show for many horses and riders coming out of winter hibernation, so its a great step to prepping for the rest of the summer shows. We only had 3 errors in dressage, and only one person came off in stadium. There were quite a few refusals in stadium, but in a schooling show the rider can finish even if they get eliminated and you can pay for an extra round and try the course again too. Its supposed to be a positive learning experience 🙂 Here are some pics from the day!

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View of the dressage arena from the dressage shack
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Bigger view of the dressage arena
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Stadium jumping
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Nice view from our jumping arena huh?
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I loved this palomino horse, oh man, looked just like the Barbie horse figurine I had so many years ago. 

Even if you are just getting into horseback riding and you aren’t ready or can’t afford to show, volunteering at shows can be a really fun way to learn and get involved. You get to know people from your barn and that camaraderie can really be a positive part of your time spent at the barn. Saturday was just a beautiful day too, can’t complain about getting to spend a lot of it outside watching children and adults chasing their dreams on horseback 🙂 Have I inspired anyone to get out there and start riding or just volunteer their time at a barn? I hope so, riding and spending time at the barn has saved me from many a bad day.

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