Half a Ton of Fun! Our first rated US Hunter/Jumper show :D.

Firewell

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Yesterday Jae and I went to our first rated (affiliated show). It was a B rated show so not as big or as important as the A rated shows closer to LA but still big enough :).
It was held at the Earl Warren Showground in Santa Barbara, a big showground used to hold national competitions.
Firstly I was the only person to ‘haul in’. Everyone else booked a stable and stayed there for the weekend. I was also the only person without a groom and a trainer (except the trainers themselves)!
Showing as they call here it here in America is totally different to competing in the UK and goodness am I learning that big time!
Firstly people compete less often but they go all out. The entry fees are extortionate and a trainer will take a trailer load of clients to a weekend show and they will all stay. A client will pay upwards of thousands of dollars for a weekend. It cost me $175 to do just two classes.
I have learnt that it is common for the trainer to ride the clients horse first and they will take the horse in the schooling rounds. Some shows have a first day just for professionals to compete the clients horses.
The second and third days the clients will compete the horses who have been schooled the day before to offset the clients weaknesses.
Showing here is big money :/.
They also decorate the stalls to make the clients happy. They lay grass outside the stalls, put up banners and flower pots and set up grooms quarters with curtains and welcome mats the works! It looks beautiful and I wondered around the stabling area with my mouth open!
This did all make me feel very nervous and embarrassed with my horse the only one tied up to a trailer and me getting changed inside!
I had no help except my husband who was holding our 1yr old boy and he is totally non horsie. I felt quite alone tacking up.
There is also an etiquette in the warm up of which I am not familiar with but it involves trainers taking turns to help their clients. As I was on my own I snuck in when everyone was walking the course and jumped the fences that were up. Jae felt great and I was pleased. The problem with this method was that I didn’t get to walk the course! I had no one to hold Jae anyway so I learnt it from the side of the arena.
Everybody was really friendly and it was fun chatting to people while we waited for our turn to jump.
The class run under table 2B which means the first round is judged against an optimum time, if you are clear within this time you do a jump off straight after. The optimum time was set to encourage power and purpose according to the judge! You didn’t have to rush but you did have to ride an upbeat, forward round taking a couple of tighter turns to make it without time faults.
The competition was tough. Everyones horses seemed to go like the bat out of hell and never touch a pole so I knew I had to motor on if I was going to have a chance of being in the ribbons.
I was feeling sick with nerves before I went in, I felt like I could hardly breathe! I have learnt that I am ALWAYS nervous, it’s nothing to do with the height of the fences, it’s me wanting to do well and I always feel like it. So irritating!
I went in determined to be within the time. The round started off brilliantly, then jumped number 3 a black and white oxer and my mind went blank. Where was number 4! Oh cr@p! I slowed down wracking my brains and then I saw it, I had to double back over an upright asking Jae to jump it from a ridiculous angle which he did fabulously. I really had to push then as I had wasted so much time and the rest of the course was a blur. I waited with baited breath and we were in the time by half a second! Phew!
The second round I took some tight turns. I haven’t ridden a proper jump off for years and Jae loved it, he ate up the course revelling in it and we finished with our hearts racing and big smiles on our faces.
Our time was 36 which I thought was a good time untill I saw the other people go. My god these US jumper shows are competitive! They took turns I didn’t think were possible and the winner finished clear in 32 seconds, we were pushed down to 5th but I was over the moon to be placed. It was a real achievement I felt. That was the 85cm.
The next class was the 3ft or 90cm.
I was planning on going for it in this class, I had to if I wanted to get a ribbon. I overheard a lady saying that the horse before me was an ex 1m30 horse which made sense as to why people were doing so well.
We went for it in the 2nd class, I focused on turns rather than speed and made sure I kept the pace up around the turns. Jae was brilliant, all I could think of was wow he is good at this! He got a bit overexcited and bucked between the first two fences on the jump off course which cost us a couple of seconds. I can’t complain though as he was on fire and with me every step of the way, turning on a dime, searching for each fence and lifting his feet up as high as he could, he didn’t touch a pole!
Even with the seconds lost we completed clear on 33 seconds over a meaty 90cm. I was hugging him and patting him like mad!
Unfortunately other people upped their game as well but we did very well to get 4th place. Everyone who knows me will know that speed when jumping isn’t normally my strong point so this was a great achievement for me.
We are improving every day I am thrilled. There was also quite an audience by this point. It's very California to get out and about at the weekend and as the show was advertised on a big glowing screen off the highway 101 there were a fair few people in the stands applauding as each rider finished! Very cool ha ha. I also heard the comment 'I think I'll stick to Bridge' as I rode out :p.

I am pleased that we are doing well under our own steam with little help. It is very rewarding :).
Jae is chilling out today in his fly rug for a well deserved day off. On another note my family are arriving from the UK next week. I can’t wait to show them the area :).

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If anybody wants to keep up with regular updates from Jae and I outside the competition reports please check out my blog www.hoofprintsinthesand.com

Homemade cupcakes for those who got to the end! Thanks for reading!

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Festive_Felicitations

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Well done on your frillys! They are very pretty :)

It sounds like you guys are doing really well despite the lack of a pit crew and confusion about US comps in general. You'll be winning before you know it! ;) Jae looks fab in the pic, the US obiously really agree's with him.

Have fun playing tour guide with your family!
 
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PorkChop

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Well done, I find it fascinating how different the competitions are, would you say the standard of riding is netter because of it?
 

dominobrown

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Lovely report- would love to go over there.
I also think its great that you are doing so well on an ex-racer, without all the 'trainers' and faff. :)
 

Rollin

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Well done. I know nothing of the US competition scene so found your report very interesting. Good luck for the future.
 

Kokopelli

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Massive well done, they're going to get fed up with how well your doing without all the help :)

America definitely suits you both.
 

Fun Times

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Its nice to read such a happy and positive post following on from your previous thread about being a bit homesick. Well done to you and jae. Its also interesting to hear how different the competitons are over there. Remember the beatles struggled to crack the states too....
 

prosefullstop

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Well done, I find it fascinating how different the competitions are, would you say the standard of riding is netter because of it?

I would say that Americans are absolutely fanatical about correct equitation. You don't see a lot of elbow-flapping and "get up" kind of riding.

Sounds like you're cleaning up, Firewell. Next year Devon Horse Show? (I've been watching the live stream all weekend--such a fun show!)

http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/2014devon/
 

Sb2

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Great report, Sounds like great fun & bet you were competing against vastly expensive horses ...! So you should be v proud! I am aghast at how much money the Americans spend on these things & how seriously they take it at these levels!

Hope the prize money was huge to make up for the big entry fees?!
 

Firewell

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Thanks everyone!!
At the rated show the standard of riding was very high. I was shocked actually by how perfect everyones rounds were and they didn't gallop dangerously at the fences to get the times they did immaculate tight turns. Then again whats the point in forking out all that money if you're not going to be in with a shot! They train alllll the time. It's definitely made me up my game!
Whereas in England I used to go for a hack if I couldn't be bothered (which was frequent, I'd hack 3x per week). Here I only hack once a week and when I'm in the school instead of thinking walk, trot, canter, pop a X, an upright. Done. Here I really practice! I practice 'dressage' rather than schooling and I jump at least twice a week which really suits Jae. Seeing how everyone else puts so much effort in to be perfect rubs off! We also have a fantastic huge arena with 20 odd jumps in it so It is easy to practice jump off turns, courses, dog legs, related distances, grids without too much dragging jumps around!
 

Firewell

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Ha yes they take it extremely seriously. There's no going out to give it a bash here! They also take jumping 70cm as seriously as they do 1m30. Horses are so expensive here in California :(. Do you know I would have struggled to get 6k in England for Jae but here he would be worth $45,000 all day long.
Also they LOVE older horses. Jae is 9 and he is young. They consider 12 young. Older schoolmasters are very much in demand and respected. They really look after their horses and expect them to be competing and useful right into their 20's. It's a refreshing attitude.
 

TarrSteps

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I think those aspects are all linked. Horses that do a job well cost a lot of money (you should be proud) to buy and run, so people want to make them last.

The equitation thing comes from how the introduction to riding is structured. Everyone does at least a bit Eq, even if it's just at a riding school level, and because they are taught that way they teach that way, even if they move into eventing etc.
 

slumdog

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Ha yes they take it extremely seriously. There's no going out to give it a bash here! They also take jumping 70cm as seriously as they do 1m30. Horses are so expensive here in California :(. Do you know I would have struggled to get 6k in England for Jae but here he would be worth $45,000 all day long.
Also they LOVE older horses. Jae is 9 and he is young. They consider 12 young. Older schoolmasters are very much in demand and respected. They really look after their horses and expect them to be competing and useful right into their 20's. It's a refreshing attitude.

I love your reports, I find it amazing how different jumping coloured sticks can be in another country! I loved your comment about the older horses, my boy is 20 and I'm having a really rough time at the moment but it really made me smile knowing Gambler wouldn't be considered 'old' out there :) what would an old grade A be worth out there? The money thing is crazy! :)
 

JFTDWS

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Massive well done - brilliant report too, and I love the "I think I'll stick to bridge comment". I think that might become my new euphemism for a duff competitive performance!
 

skint1

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I love reading your reports Firewell, I am so glad that you and Jae are back on track again! I think you're really brave to go out there and compete, it sounds massively intimidating (not that you need to be, as you are an excellent rider)- just the whole training all the time and the massive expense. Some of what you've written reminds me of the horse books I read when I was kid in CT but I never got to see it up close, so it's very interesting to read your of your experiences. Wishing you many more good reports to come!
 

MagicMelon

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Well done OP, sounds quite terrifying with it being so different from here! I used to go to the odd horse show to spectate in Florida and I thought it was bizarre seeing everyone have their own trainer in the warm up etc. The hunter classes I find weird, they all lean so far forward the whole time (2 point I think they call it?) and the horses all seem totally push button. Horses are crazy money in the States though aren't they? I used to look at the horse for sale ads in the paper there and it was about £15k for a horse jumping 3ft which here is the norm, there they seem to think that's special! They'd be horrified if they came over here, they'd think our horses were ridiculously cheap!

Did you take your own horse over there from the UK?
 

Cabaret

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It's nice to see someone else in North America here! If you ever have any questions about the American circuit and how things work, I'd be happy to help as I've shown on the US circuit on and off over the last 5 years, and I'm about to make the transition to the UK where competing looks completely different and bizarre to me.

I can corroborate the comment about older horses. Of the GP horses we have in the barn, they are 14, 18, and 20. You will often see people buying ex-GP or ex-1.20m+ horses to learn the ropes on in the lower level classes.

I will say though that the riding that wins you a 70cm-110cm class that you'll see in the US will not win you a 120+ class! After 20 years of competing in North America, I've only managed to win a low-level jumper class once and I had one of those horses who would leave the ground from anywhere, not touch the rails, and ran like a bat out of h#ll! It's very competitive at the lower levels, and everyone can be quite serious!

It's much more expensive here. My bill for 2 100cm classes, 1 day of showing this past weekend was $191.75 (Canadian) at an A rated show. If I had showing 110cm or above, it would've been $130 more expensive! On top of that is trailering (half hour away from the yard) - $175, one day of coaching $75. And pretty much everyone does go with a coach.

Firewell - it seems like you had a wonderful day and should be very proud! If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help! Welcome to North American competition!
 

dieseldog

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Well Done! I would treasure those rosettes forever! It is unbelievable how much entry fees are though, think that would make me train harder too!
 

RachelFerd

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Great report, fascinating stuff. I always quite liked the idea of there being emphasis on equitation in America, I have always been confused why the pony club here have not pushed a similar concept. Nice to see an ex racer continuing to succeed on another continent!!
 

kassieg

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sounds like you both did amazing !! really good report :)

I'd love to have a go at competing out there it sounds so different !
 
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