Waredaca Thumbs Up

[Winding_Down]

I competed in the Novice Division yesterday, with a not good finish. We are exploring what went wrong and my baby boy will be spending some time in the vet clinic to rule out physical issues, such as Lyme or soreness. Took a chunk out of his front foot in show jumping, which threw his bell boot sailing. So… there are many possible explanations, including his being a very immature and unsure baby dinosaur who may need some time with ground poles or my being a less than effective trainer who needs more direction.

But I digress.

I haven’t competed at Waredaca at lower levels for many many years. I want to give a big thumbs up to this event out here and public. The volunteers were plentiful and pleasant. There were signs everywhere, I mean everywhere, telling you where to go. I loved that I didn’t have to ask which path to take to dressage or to xc or wherever. Food was awesome and thank you to Smoothie Lady. Parking as always was great. Scoring was fast and posted. Nice vendors. Dressage warm up is what it is. What I liked the most, however, was a very thoughtful and well-designed xc course at the novice level (I did not get a chance to walk others) It looked easy but there were enough problems that indicated that it had some tougher than average questions. Every single fence posed a new question, which is tough to do at this level. They included everything. Kudos to the course designer and crew!

I am never impressed with the xc footing but it is what it is. Waredaca is a working farm and they obviously use their xc course for things other than just a course so I forgive them for some uneven footing here and there. I think at the upper levels they could do more but it was obvious it was aerated and they worked the ground as best they could.

All in all, they did a lovely job and I was very happy with the event. Oh, and the weather was fantastic, breezy, cool, and wow!

[asterix]

I will pass your thanks along to the crew - it is much appreciated!
I also had a meh finish (would help if I actually learned my dressage test properly and we have, ah, some ditch issues to work out) but had the same reaction to the novice course. It was both interesting and “thinking” for the horse and fun to put together.

Good luck to Bornfree and all other COTHers today. I’ll be cheering you on from the SJ hut…

[bambam]

Glad you had a good experience. Waredaca usually puts on a good event and, while I am biased because I am often one of them , they do tend to have great volunteers.

[MoonLadyIsis]

I had a great time yesterday too! Despite a rocky start (my mare slipped off the trailer ramp being a turd and scrapped the skin off of her hind cannon bone. When it was white, I started to panic thinking it was bone) the staff was excellent. The helped me find the vet, who was amazing in cleaning the wound and wrapping it for XC. She was also very helpful in calming me down since I was ready to cry/scream/just plain scratch and go home and sulk) I LOVED how smoothly everything went. All the warm up areas and the staff running them were controlled and you knew when you were going and where! I only ran BN but the course was fun. There were some things that had me nervous, but brave little mare made me confident.
I had a terrible week and this event was just the boost in confidence and mental clarity that I needed. PLUS those hand painted pitches for the winners are gorgeous! They are seriously the best prize! (when I sent my mom a picture of it, she wants it!)

Please thank the crew and everyone involved in putting on your event this weekend. I will definitely be back at your events. Fabulous crew of volunteers and the Smoothie at the end was the icing on the cake.

[FrittSkritt]

Great event as usual… I did P/T (actually went right after BFNE!). They had us do test B (large arena), which was a nice change. SJ rode well, and (training) XC was really nice. (My #1 complaint is that they run the same course all the time.) The only fence I didn’t love was the table at #9 – the approach was way too angular for my taste. Had an uncharacteristic stop at the produce stand – my fault for not riding it more aggressively – but otherwise it was nice not having to do “Waredaca barns, coop, oxer, Into Space, half coffin, Trakehner, turning tables…” for the 6th time in a row. (See, I can recite their usual course from memory. :winkgrin: )

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Fun time as always! My BM rode one of my greenies on Sat. She did her first event a Novice and finished well on her dressage score (27) and ended up 2nd. That has motivated me to actually sign some of my horses up for TIP! Seemed like a nice novice course. I came back for the PT with my guy. Sorry for anyone I missed saying high too…I was a bit deer in headlights all day. Dressage was what it was…I was HORRIFIED to be in the big ring. I haven’t had to sit trot that long in FOREVER. My boy and I really need to get into the dressage ring more…for both of us. Scoring was generous with a 41.3 (I think). Stadium was what I was worried about…and he rocked it. Thanks for Astrix’s DH for putting up with us and running a smooth warm up both days.

XC we had a drive by at a pretty simple fence (Chevrons)…he just wasn’t paying attention. I might need to up grade his xc bit to a snaffle (instead of the piece of rubber he is in now). He jumped all the hard stuff with ease…but breaks and steering were not always present. Need to regroup and figure out next steps…but thought it was funny that the Prelim aspects went just fine and we screwed up on the training level part!

But nice well run event. Great volunteers.

[FrittSkritt]

[QUOTE=bornfreenowexpensive;7718197]
Thanks for Astrix’s DH for putting up with us and running a smooth warm up both days.

XC we had a drive by at a pretty simple fence (Chevrons)…he just wasn’t paying attention. I might need to up grade his xc bit to a snaffle (instead of the piece of rubber he is in now). He jumped all the hard stuff with ease…but breaks and steering were not always present. Need to regroup and figure out next steps…but thought it was funny that the Prelim aspects went just fine and we screwed up on the training level part!

But nice well run event. Great volunteers.[/QUOTE]

Had no idea that was asterix’s DH! I did say hi to her DD (dear dog ;)) a few times… he also barked his approval when I finished my stadium round as I was the last to go (we were held up with the vets having to strap all the cardio monitoring equipment to my guy).

We had a stop/runout 4B when my horse was so fixated on the horses in the turnout paddock that he literally didn’t see the second jump. (He did this a few years ago at one of the evening events there… literally lost his s*** and froze when he saw the other horses turned out while we were on course. IMO I think he doesn’t see the paddock fence and thinks they’re actually loose, or he’s just a moron.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

[QUOTE=FrittSkritt;7718779]
Had no idea that was asterix’s DH! I did say hi to her DD (dear dog ;)) a few times… he also barked his approval when I finished my stadium round as I was the last to go (we were held up with the vets having to strap all the cardio monitoring equipment to my guy).

We had a stop/runout 4B when my horse was so fixated on the horses in the turnout paddock that he literally didn’t see the second jump. (He did this a few years ago at one of the evening events there… literally lost his s*** and froze when he saw the other horses turned out while we were on course. IMO I think he doesn’t see the paddock fence and thinks they’re actually loose, or he’s just a moron.[/QUOTE]

He’s not a moron…Porter took a good hard look at those horses too. I came up the toward 4A and he was staring at them…I had to go shake the him a bit and get him to look at the jump! Then going away toward the big drop at 5 he was turning his head to look at them while galloping—I was worried he wouldn’t see the drop! But he got back and focused well for that. I forget sometimes how green he really is (only been competing about one year and only about 2 years since his last race–he last ran 8/3/2012).

But I do think that 4 and 5 were pretty solid for the level questions made just a tad harder by the distraction of horses hanging out in the trees. Now if they added in a few cows, sheep and other animals, THAT would seriously up the distraction level

[FrittSkritt]

[QUOTE=bornfreenowexpensive;7718821]
He’s not a moron…Porter took a good hard look at those horses too. I came up the toward 4A and he was staring at them…I had to go shake the him a bit and get him to look at the jump! Then going away toward the big drop at 5 he was turning his head to look at them while galloping—I was worried he wouldn’t see the drop! But he got back and focused well for that. I forget sometimes how green he really is (only been competing about one year and only about 2 years since his last race–he last ran 8/3/2012).

But I do think that 4 and 5 were pretty solid for the level questions made just a tad harder by the distraction of horses hanging out in the trees. Now if they added in a few cows, sheep and other animals, THAT would seriously up the distraction level :)[/QUOTE]

Good, glad mine isn’t the only one that does that! Of course, he’s been off the track for at least 8 years and going training about 3+. Ahh Thoroughbreds!

Fence 7 (down swale) was causing issues for horses, although mine was more concerned about the bluestone at the bottom swallowing him up… :winkgrin:

[asterix]

Fritt, usually the DD only barks for me, so you should be honored!
And lest you think we get a home field advantage…those horses are my guy’s HERD… I was worried he’d get so distracted he’d miss 4 entirely…