Equestrium = Very Good Day :-)
Sep. 20th, 2009 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniWhat a nice event: super nice site/horse facility, happy people and horses, fun stuff to do, you couldn't ask for more. Even the weather cooperated some, by not being as hot in the afternoon when they ran the West Kingdom Equestrian Champion contest as we all thought it would be.
Helga won, and she was great. :-) I was also happy that Laurentia and Pauly made it to the 4 finalists, as did Mari and Gwen. 12 competitors total, with me as the additional auditor. Again, it was a 90 sec ride-whatever-you-want/pagentry portion, a pattern portion, a "gambler's choice" trail-trial-oid challenge course, and then the finalists rode head-to-head ring tilting. Really happy with how it was run because of the stress placed on horsemanship (as opposed to just being the 'run fast and hit stuff'-games approach.)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
onerie, I wish you could have been there, you would have really liked it; I thought of you more than once yesterday. :-)
I'd say total attendence was about 30 people, which for an EQ-specific Western event is about par for the course. Thier Majesties attended (well, the Championship was Their idea, after all), as did the Princess of Cynagua. Always nice when Royalty attend and participate in eq events because, well, eq can be isolated (for a variety of reasons).syele and sarahbellem showed up which was very fun and helpful, since they held The Paint Princess for me numerous times during the day. ;-) And congrats to back40joules on her roseleaf, and to Gunther for his Queen's Order of Grace (best award in the whole WK, IMHO) :-) . Laura and Lutuld got their AoA's which people thought they had already. So court, while done without a net (no ceremony book), was quite nice. :-)
And -- Yay! -- Brandee and I got to audit the whole thing. Very good experiance for me and my brain, and Brandee did well. When and if we ever get to a schooling show I wonder if Brandee will freak out because there *won't* be pavillions and flapping banners. ;-) I got many kind words from people, including Thier Majesties, which I very much appreciated. I was assured that the Champion job wouldn't *require* being martial and encouraged to compete next year. If this holds true for whoever is our royalty at the time Brandee and I will go for it. :-) I want to takehunrvogt up on her kind offer and come down to her practice and play sometime, 'cause that would be good for my brain as well.
I didn't get any pictures, but I hope I can get my hands on a couple Lutold and Maguerite took of Laurentia and Pauly and me and Brandee. L and P looked *so fabulous*! And big thanks to them for trailering Brandee so that we could play.
What Brandee and I did, cut for the uninterested: Since they let us, we rode all three parts. Decided that the music would be too much trouble this time and better suited to a future Concordia ride, so didn't use it. For the 90 sec demo we walked in, and I ad libbed" Your Majesties, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Brandee, the Palfrey of Peace! We are small but we are mighty! While doing this we were walking, and then did a walking leg yeild past the audience. Picked up a trot, did some circles and leg yeilds and then canter, both sides.
For the pattern we did what we've been practicing. Ride in, halt, walk down centerline. At X trot and leg yeild to the left, turn and trot accross the short side, then leg yeild to the right to X, canter in another triangle to the left. At X trot down centerline, back up, halt, fini. :-) To the left was OK, and to the right was better than I had expected. Must work on building up my left side muscle tone and coordination so that I can give more effective cues. Got some nice complements on Brandee's canter -- Yay! But, boy, you've got to ask for that canter every stride. :-0
The only thing I wanted to do on the challenge course, really, was back up through a zig-zag. We did it, but it took most of the alloted time. Managed to pick up a pig sticker and carry it around a pole (hey, Brandee doens't know that it's any different from the poop forks we carry around at the barn), and trot through a serpentine with these heavy sleigh bells (bell jingling, Brandee not caring).
All and all a super fun event to ride in! I hope it keeps this same format and doesn't go back to the run-fast-games model next year. I don't know how much control the Champion will have over next year's competition, nor do I have any sense of what Helga would like the competition to be.
But, in any case, many thanks to Thier Majesties and to our WK Gold Scarfs and the autocrat for coming up with such a fun event!
Helga won, and she was great. :-) I was also happy that Laurentia and Pauly made it to the 4 finalists, as did Mari and Gwen. 12 competitors total, with me as the additional auditor. Again, it was a 90 sec ride-whatever-you-want/pagentry portion, a pattern portion, a "gambler's choice" trail-trial-oid challenge course, and then the finalists rode head-to-head ring tilting. Really happy with how it was run because of the stress placed on horsemanship (as opposed to just being the 'run fast and hit stuff'-games approach.)
onerie, I wish you could have been there, you would have really liked it; I thought of you more than once yesterday. :-) I'd say total attendence was about 30 people, which for an EQ-specific Western event is about par for the course. Thier Majesties attended (well, the Championship was Their idea, after all), as did the Princess of Cynagua. Always nice when Royalty attend and participate in eq events because, well, eq can be isolated (for a variety of reasons).
syele and sarahbellem showed up which was very fun and helpful, since they held The Paint Princess for me numerous times during the day. ;-) And congrats to back40joules on her roseleaf, and to Gunther for his Queen's Order of Grace (best award in the whole WK, IMHO) :-) . Laura and Lutuld got their AoA's which people thought they had already. So court, while done without a net (no ceremony book), was quite nice. :-) And -- Yay! -- Brandee and I got to audit the whole thing. Very good experiance for me and my brain, and Brandee did well. When and if we ever get to a schooling show I wonder if Brandee will freak out because there *won't* be pavillions and flapping banners. ;-) I got many kind words from people, including Thier Majesties, which I very much appreciated. I was assured that the Champion job wouldn't *require* being martial and encouraged to compete next year. If this holds true for whoever is our royalty at the time Brandee and I will go for it. :-) I want to take
hunrvogt up on her kind offer and come down to her practice and play sometime, 'cause that would be good for my brain as well. I didn't get any pictures, but I hope I can get my hands on a couple Lutold and Maguerite took of Laurentia and Pauly and me and Brandee. L and P looked *so fabulous*! And big thanks to them for trailering Brandee so that we could play.
What Brandee and I did, cut for the uninterested: Since they let us, we rode all three parts. Decided that the music would be too much trouble this time and better suited to a future Concordia ride, so didn't use it. For the 90 sec demo we walked in, and I ad libbed" Your Majesties, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Brandee, the Palfrey of Peace! We are small but we are mighty! While doing this we were walking, and then did a walking leg yeild past the audience. Picked up a trot, did some circles and leg yeilds and then canter, both sides.
For the pattern we did what we've been practicing. Ride in, halt, walk down centerline. At X trot and leg yeild to the left, turn and trot accross the short side, then leg yeild to the right to X, canter in another triangle to the left. At X trot down centerline, back up, halt, fini. :-) To the left was OK, and to the right was better than I had expected. Must work on building up my left side muscle tone and coordination so that I can give more effective cues. Got some nice complements on Brandee's canter -- Yay! But, boy, you've got to ask for that canter every stride. :-0
The only thing I wanted to do on the challenge course, really, was back up through a zig-zag. We did it, but it took most of the alloted time. Managed to pick up a pig sticker and carry it around a pole (hey, Brandee doens't know that it's any different from the poop forks we carry around at the barn), and trot through a serpentine with these heavy sleigh bells (bell jingling, Brandee not caring).
All and all a super fun event to ride in! I hope it keeps this same format and doesn't go back to the run-fast-games model next year. I don't know how much control the Champion will have over next year's competition, nor do I have any sense of what Helga would like the competition to be.
But, in any case, many thanks to Thier Majesties and to our WK Gold Scarfs and the autocrat for coming up with such a fun event!
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Date: 2009-09-21 02:58 am (UTC)T-rah was taking pictures of everyone doing everything, she will get them up as she gets them processed. I'll post a link in my journal when I know where they are posted.
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Date: 2009-09-21 03:21 am (UTC)hey! I get to see you next weekend!!! be sure to bring your togs, I may have a pony lined up for you for Sat who will be bored and lonely and can do with a bit of arena time (the silly thing is classically trained but will try to tell you she doesnt know what you're asking la la la :). she's a fun ride and cute as a bug....)
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Date: 2009-09-21 04:59 am (UTC)