United States Eventing Association

Well, it’s finally happened: all the tack is cleaned, the trailers are packed up, and the horses have been revived from winter mustang mode and are approximating show animals again. We’re heading off to our first horse trial of the year! As I’ve said before, it’s still so strange to me, as a New Englander, to be out and about this early in the season (and the California season started even before I did, with the first horse show of the year happening in January), but I’m not complaining. This weekend, Ringo and I will be kicking things off in the JYOP division at Twin Rivers in Paso Robles, California – I couldn’t be more excited!

(Left: Kate and Ringo’s 2010 event season has officially begun! Amy McCool photo.)

The past few weeks have been a flurry to try to get the basics nailed down before the season starts in earnest. Amongst other things, I’ve really been working on my sitting trot (my nemesis), making Ringo and every other poor creature that I can get my hands on endure endless circles of me flopping around on their backs without stirrups trying to get it right. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this department, though, it’s that practice really does make perfect: I’ve always known what I was supposed to do, and that what I was in fact doing was only the vaguest approximation of that ideal, but it’s only been through hours (and hours, and hours… or so it feels) of brute practice that I’ve started to make any progress. But, after a month of solid work, progress is exactly what I’m starting to feel!

The rolling hills of Rainbow Ranch is the ideal facility for eventers to leg up their horses.

The other main activity of the past few weeks has revolved around fitness work. We’re so lucky at Gina’s to have Rainbow Ranch at our disposal, which is probably one of the best conditioning sites in California (especially in the winter, when the back hills are soft enough from the rain to permit the long, slow hacks that are so good for baseline fitness). If I’ve learned one lesson from these winter gallops, though, it’s been to know my mount.

Because of Ringo’s exuberant “airs above the ground,” they were banished to the back of the pack.

For example: I had heard a rumor that one of Ringo’s first potential careers was a hunt horse. I have no idea whether this is actually true, though I can see the appeal: he would cut quite the dashing picture, bounding across a green hillside with a pack of multicolored hounds. Unfortunately, as the rumor goes, poor Ringo was "excused" from the hunt field at a fairly young age and so went on to other, less "galloping in a group"-oriented things. Well, this thought was tumbling around the back of my head when we packed up five of the hottest horses (Ringo included) for a group gallop at Rainbow. But, as Ringo had been so good on all of our previous outings to the ranch (with fewer, calmer horses), I thought to myself, "Nah, he’ll be fine." Well! I quickly got to experience first hand why Ringo may have been "excused" from his hunt field career, when we went to canter across the ridge line on the back of the property and he took off rodeo broncing and showing off some impressive lateral range with his flying back hooves! After a few laughs and a few extra moments of reining him in, Ringo and I unfortunately had to spend the rest of the ride relegated to the back of the group – not exactly Ringo’s or my favorite spot! From that moment out, Ringo was in full-on "fire breathing" mode, complete with unnecessary toe-pointing and eye-rolling. While we still had a great time (I think it’s impossible to not have a good time at Rainbow Ranch!), I definitely removed Ringo from the group gallop list from there on out. Lesson learned!

The scenic backdrop of Rainbow Ranch makes for an enjoyable hack.

With this newly acquired knowledge, I was definitely a little apprehensive about our first cross-country schooling of the year at Ram Tap last weekend. Not only would it be a group outing that would involve galloping and jumping (though, thankfully, not all together), but also Ram Tap is probably the scariest horse venue on the planet. Period. It’s surrounded by highly frequented train tracks (as in, every twenty minutes or so an enormous freight train rumbles by), an active firing range, and a massive power station. Don’t you think any one of those things would be enough to set off a delicate flower like Ringo? I certainly jumped a little bit every time the gun nuts over at the shooting club decided to put on what could only be interpreted (from sound only) as a small fireworks display every few minutes. Add in the fact that it was bright, sunny, and even a little breezy (when we’d had nothing but grey skies for the past few days), and I was certain that we had brewed a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

Hopefully, Kate and Ringo will be the picture-perfect at this year’s Twin Rivers horse trials – here they are looking stellar at last year’s event. Tass Jones photo

And… Ringo was perfect! He was easy, calm, straight as an arrow, and jumped perfectly. He did definitely prick his ears when the first train went by and when we got close to the firing range, but he stayed right on task, with no bronco activity whatsoever. What a fabulously mysterious creature!

So now I’m finally starting to feel ready for our first event (just in time!). I’ve got my test learned, my sitting trot mastered (ok maybe not mastered, but let’s think positively), and my horse is fit. I may still have no idea what sets him off and what doesn’t (it’s not clear that he does either), but I’ve certainly gotten some laughs out of trying to figure him out. There’s always more to learn!

Here’s to a fun and successful show to everyone involved. Wish us luck!

Keep up with all the action at Twin Rivers via the Live Scoring!