Saying goodbye

I am in the process of taking my last final exams as an undergrad and packing all of my belongings to prepare for my move to Cincinnati. I'm going to miss a lot of things about Ohio University, but I think I might miss the Equestrian Team the most.

I've had a great few years riding with the team. I have learned so much from my coach and fellow riders and have made some great friends along the way. I have been able to ride so many different wonderful horses, and was even fortunate enough to make strong bond with one horse in particular -- Gump.

I've been riding Gump almost every day since this summer. We've been through a lot together as we worked on building up his confidence over fences after he had some lameness issues. We competed at a show together this summer and I've been leasing him all quarter. I'm going to miss Gump and his quirky personality a lot as I make my way home. Saying goodbye to a horse you've shared a bond with is always difficult., but I know Gump is in good hands here with OUET. And I'm sure I'll be back to visit!


Thanksgiving is in a few days, and I know I'll be listing the Team and all of the benefits I've gained from riding through college in all the things I'm thankful for.

Showing in the Cold

OUET at the end of the day on Sunday.

The team traveled to Painesville, Ohio, this past weekend. We were there to compete at a horse show hosted by Lake Erie College. It's hard to know what to expect whenever we travel to a horse show -- there's always horses we've never seen before and different ways shows are run -- but we can always expect one thing when we go to LEC: it will be COLD.

And this weekend was no exception. However, we were all pleasantly surprised that there wasn't any snow on the ground this trip. LEC has an indoor ring, of course, but it's insulated like a hockey rink and stays colder inside than it is outside.

Our morale stayed high the entire weekend despite the cold. We did not do as well overall as at our show. We got Reserve Champion Team on Saturday and placed third as a team on Sunday. I think this show was a good wake-up call to some of our freshman girls. They've now realized how hard they're going to have to work to stay first place in the region! The other teams are going to put up some stiff competition this year (Ohio State and LEC being our biggest competitors), but hopefully OU will work hard enough to stay ahead.

My rides this weekend were rather disappointing. My over-fences class on Saturday was certainly not my best. I drew a Thoroughbred gelding named Shrek. He was a sweet guy, and I have to give him credit for doing a good job. I just didn't feel very "in the zone," and the ride didn't go as well as it could have. I placed 4th in that class.

I felt like I had a really great ride in both of my flat classes (one on Saturday, one on Sunday), but I placed 6th (the lowest place that gets a ribbon) on both days! I was disappointed, because I knew I had had good rides both days. My coach, not shy to tell you what you've done wrong, even said to me, "Hannah, I don't know what happened. I thought you had first place." But that is all a part of horse showing. It is a subjective sport and you are only being judged by one person. Maybe the judge doesn't like your style of riding, or maybe they just didn't see you in a sea of horses and navy blue hunt coats. Sometimes you just have to deal with being disappointed and I took comfort in the fact that I at least got approval from my coach.

So it was a rather anti-climactic way to end my time as an IHSA rider. I will be graduating in about two weeks and won't be able to compete intercollegiately anymore. IHSA does have an alumni division though, so maybe I'll make my way back into the IHSA show ring someday. Showing IHSA has been a fun, challenging experience, but I think I'm ready to move on and get back to going to "real" horse shows.

OU Hosts a Horse Show... And Wins.

Our horse shows were two weekends ago, October 20th and 21st. We have one full show per day, going through all of the flat and fences on both Saturday and Sunday. We have a different judge each day, and nothing that happened on Saturday counts on Sunday.

Day One -- Saturday

Our show wasn't starting until noon, which is a very late start for a horse show, so we all enjoyed being able to sleep in until 7 a.m. before having to drive out to Coolville to get the horses ready to school. In IHSA competition the horses must be ridden, or "schooled", before the show starts so that the other teams can see how the horses go. Only riders who are not competing that day are allowed to school horses.

We all made it to the barn by 8 a.m. The birds sang and a light fog hung onto the pastures and arena. The horses were happily finishing off their breakfasts as we started to groom and tack the ones that would need to be on the flat.

Once all the horses were schooled and the coaches had a meeting we had to endure the chaos and frustration that is The Draw. As I've said before, at an IHSA show each rider, or a representative from her team, draws a horses name out of a hat before her class. It's probably the most stressful part of the day as you wait to draw and nervously anticipate the horse you're going to ride. Just like in any sport a little luck always helps, and so each rider hopes and prays she'll get a good draw.

I drew the horses for our team on Saturday, and I don't think anyone was too unhappy with me for drawing a bad horse. I drew Gambler, a chestnut Thoroughbred with an attitude, on the flat, and LA, another chestnut Thoroughbred with much less attitude, for my over-fences class.

Once the draw was over we were ready to start the show!

Whenever you are part of an IHSA team that is hosting a horse show, most of what you will be doing is standing around holding horses. Only a rider from the hosting team is allowed to hold the team's horses and adjust the tack. The horse holder must walk the horse and rider into the ring for their class, only handing the horse over the the rider at the last moment. This is so that coaches or riders from other teams won't make any illegal adjustments and it helps even the playing field -- none of the riders have had control of their horse until the set foot in the ring.

So that is what I spent most of my day doing. Luckily, I got to hold my favorite horse, Gump. We got to hang out together most of the day in between my rides.

Ah yes, my rides.

We started with the flat classes on Saturday. I was in the 5th class, so I got my ride over with pretty early. I was on Gambler, who is not the easiest ride, and I was doing well until I had to pick up the canter going to the right. I picked up the wrong lead! This is a huge no-no, and a mistake I often make at shows when my brain somehow turns off to defend itself from all the commotion.

What is a lead? you might ask. Well, when a horse canters he will reach one of his front feet out first. This is the "leading" foot. To be on the correct lead, the horse's front foot that is on the inside of the bend should be leading. So, if you are going to the right around the ring, as I was, your horse's right side would be on the inside, and so his right front foot should lead. There is a great video here if you need a visual. Watch horse's right front foot.

So, I picked up the wrong lead, but I only had it for two or three strides (I realized my mistake right away) before bringing Gambler back down to a trot and picking up the canter again -- this time on the correct lead.

I thought for sure I was doomed. I had committed a cardinal sin right in front of the judge. I prepared myself for the humiliation of leaving the ring without a ribbon as the placings were called out by the announcer. But, wait! They called my number at second place! I was relieved, but my coach was still pretty angry that I'd made a mistake. "You had that class before you screwed it up!" were her words as I exited the ring.

After that flubbed ride I was ready to redeem myself over fences, but I had a while to wait. It was dark by the time we started jumping. We were all getting tired from being in our tall boots and on our feet all day, but we managed to keep morale high. Finally it was time for my jumping class.

I had drawn LA, who is one of my favorites at the barn. He has a very willing personality, but needs a soft ride or else he'll throw a tantrum. I managed to stay soft in the corners and not let him drag me around. We got a few short distances to the first two fences, but overall it was a nice, smooth ride that felt great. LA was willing and acted like a perfect gentleman. I was so pleased with LA that I almost started crying after I dismounted.

You can imagine my elation when the results from my class were announced and I had placed first! I gave LA a big hug and a treat for a job well done.

The sun had been down for a few hours by the time the show was over. We tallied up every team's points and were thrilled to announce that OU was the High Point Team! And Kati Cibon and I had tied for Reserve High Point Rider! It was a great day and we were all in high spirits as we gave the horses a rub down and good dinner before tucking them in for the night.



Click on a picture to see its caption, or view the slide show (bigger and better!) in a new window.

Day Two -- Sunday

We had to get an earlier start on Sunday since we were starting the show at 9 a.m. The whole team met up at 6:15 and made the sleepy drive out to Coolville. Instead of birds and a poetic mist greeting us, we all had to greet each other in the dark with sleep still in our eyes. But that's how it goes with horse shows -- they're one of the only things I will willingly awake before sunrise to do.

We went through the same routine as Saturday -- feed horses, tack horses, school horses, draw for horses, hold horses for riders in paddock. This day we were starting off with the jumping classes, and I had drawn Annie.

Annie is a young American Spotted Draft Horse. In other words, she's big, spotted, and green. I watched a couple other riders go on her before my class, and it was not pretty. They couldn't get Annie's big ol' engine revved up enough and she kept crashing into fences or refusing. By the time I got on her I was bound and determined to get her over every fence without stopping, trotting, or just generally looking ugly.

And, well, it certainly wasn't the prettiest ride I've ever had. I got Annie galloping, that's for sure, and she didn't dare refuse or trot, but we missed a lead and changed it a little late going into a 4-stride line. We jumped in short to the line and wiggled up it, and the out fence didn't look so pretty either. The course ended with a rollback (you jump one fence the circle or "roll" back to another fence that is next to the first one) and I didn't get Annie to the center of the second fence and I almost took down the jump standard with my foot as we went over. Even so, I probably had one of the better rides on Annie the entire day.

And it was good enough to get a 4th place, which, considering most other riders didn't place on her, I'd say was good enough for me!

My flat class went a lot better than that. I had drawn Zen, a big, flashy Warmblood who is comfortable to ride. Well, comfortable to ride as long as you're not doing a sitting trot. When you ride a horse's trot you will either sit down in your saddle, or rise up and down in the saddle with the "1,2,1,2" beat of the trot. The trot gait has a moment of suspension, when all four horse's feet are off the ground. This suspension can be long or short, depending on the horse. Well, Zen has a lot of suspension, and that makes his trot difficult to both sit and look pretty doing so.

Lucky for me, the judge on Sunday was making all of the riders work the sitting trot in the flat classes. When the judge asked my class to sit the trot I put on my game face and forced my skinny little butt as far down in that saddle as it would go. I tried to make it look like I was having the time of my life, "Oh, this is easy!" Yeah, right. After a lap around my legs were burning and I was begging for the judge to ask us to do anything else. Finally she asked us to canter and the worst was over.

I guess my sitting trot looked a lot easier than it felt, because I won the class! I definitely have to give Zen some credit here -- he put up with me very well the entire class.

The show ended much earlier on Sunday, and, once it was all over, we hosed down the warm horses, turned some of them back out in the pasture to roll and play, fed them dinner and congratulated everyone on a job well done. Our team had, once again, been awarded High Point Team, and we are leading the region by 13 points.

All in all it was a great kickoff to the season. Our show ran smoothly, our riders did great and were all very encouraging of one another, and we got a head start on winning the region. Hopefully our show this weekend, at Lake Erie College, will go just as well!

Work days

We hosted the first two horse shows of the season last weekend, but we had a lot of work to do to get our barn in shape to host the ten other teams in our region.

So the whole team met up on a sunny Saturday afternoon to do some chores around the barn.

Lauren Z., Sarah Jo, Jill and Whitney work hard painting jumps.

I showed up a little late since I had to take the biology GRE that morning (which was a blast). I hitched a ride out with my friend Katherine, and as soon as we got to the barn in Coolville Hannah JC, our assistant coach, sent us to buy more white paint for the jumps.

Then we helped clean tack (saddles and bridles), paint jumps and collect garbage and scraps to throw in the burn pile. Hannah JC and I almost started a brush fire when we lit the garbage, but we took care of it with our unsung firefighting skills.

After all the work was done we broke out the hot dogs and Gatorade and chowed down.

Hannah JC and I roast our hot dogs.
There's nothing like standing next to a scorching fire after a hard day's work.

Michael's truck served as a buffet line and shade provider.

It was a good day of hard work in the sunshine, but we still had things to do to get ready. We all pitched in doing odd jobs during the following week, and we were all trying to ride as much as possible to get ready for competition. But still we needed to meet for another work day the Friday before our show.

Our horses needed baths, big time. It had been raining off and on all week, and some of the horses had been frolicking in the mud.

Beckee bathes Big E

It was on the verge of being too cold to bathe the horses, but we all suffered through it. The horses were all great sports -- most of them stood quietly and didn't get too cold. Those of us that weren't bathing the horses got the super-fun job of moving the jumps so that Michael could steam roll the arena.

Yes, I said steam roll.

Our arena has great footing. It drains beautifully, is nice and deep and cushiony, but the ground underneath is rocky. For some reason or another all of the rocks from the soil below the ring have made their way up into our footing. It doesn't seem to cause any problems for the horses (especially if they have shoes), we just have to be sure we check their feet for rocks after every ride. However, it makes the otherwise gorgeous riding ring look unsightly.

Luckily, Karen Hiehle, our head coach, owns a construction company. So she has access to a steam roller, which her son, Michael, uses on our arena to push all of the rocks down back into the ground where they belong.

We needed to do this before our show, but all of the jumps were already set up in the ring. So a few of us had to move all of the jumps out of Michael and the steam roller's way. It was rather tedious and hard work -- you'd be surprise by how much a wooden pole weighs -- but definitely worth the effort.

Part of our beautiful, steam-rolled arena before the jumping portion on the Saturday of our show.

Hosting a horse show is always a lot of work. There's so much preparation to get the barn and horses into show-off order, but it's always worth it at the end of the day when you know you helped make the barn beautiful.

I always leave the barn after a work day satisfied and proud -- if not a little bit tired.

Introduction, explanation

Hello, hello!

I am Hannah, and this is my blog about the Ohio University Equestrian Team (Hunt). I've been riding on the team ever since I was a shy little freshman, and this is my last quarter of both school and riding on the team. Graduating from college is a scary thought, but what scares me the most is how much I'm going to miss the team, our coach and, of course, the horses.

But let's get down to business. We've got a lot to cover.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you, dear reader, know absolutely nothing about horses, horse showing, or the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association. If you happen to be an expert in these areas, please just gloss over all of this.

The Equestrian Team is a club sport here at OU. That means that anyone can join, we are self-governed, and we don't get mountains of money from the university. This also means that we are not in the NCAA, so we show in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). IHSA horse shows work a lot differently than normal shows, but we'll get to that in a minute.

I ride on the Hunt Team, which is the English style of riding. (Think jumping, fox hunting, what you see in the Olympics, etc. Basically, we're not cowgirls.) OU also has a Western team, but we'll focus on the hunt seat to keep it simple. Under the hunt discipline, IHSA has chosen for us to all ride equitation. This means that the rider is judged, rather than the horse. The rider must expertly ride her horse with grace and style, and any mistakes the horse appears to make are usually considered to be the rider's fault.

The reason IHSA has chosen equitation is because of the way the shows are run. In a normal horse showing situation all of the competitors bring their own horses on which to compete. They have been riding and practicing and training hard for the competition. The horse and rider have probably established a strong bond.

However, at an IHSA show, the school that is hosting the event provides the horses. Each rider must draw a horse out of a hat, get on the horse, and, having never ridden this horse before (unless, of course, her school is hosting the show), the rider will have to compete in a flat class or over fences.

Wait, flat? Over fences? What the heck?
Yes, I know, it's complicated. Bear with me, we're almost finished.

A flat class is simple -- the riders walk, trot and canter their horses around the arena while the judge watches. Occasionally the judges will choose to test the riders by making them drop their stirrups, or giving them a pattern to execute, or basically telling the riders to do whatever they want (when you are in the show ring, you do whatever the judge wants).

An over-fences class is more challenging. The riders are judged as they jump their horse over a course of 7 or 8 obstacles. The riders need to have good form over the fences, get their horses to the ideal take-off spot at each fence, as well as execute lead changes (flying or simple) when necessary.

All right, I know I just barfed a ton of information on you.

Here is a video that might make this a little more clear.
It is of me riding at Lake Erie College in a show last winter. I was riding Terrabella, a Thoroughbred mare, in the Intermediate over-fences division.



It was a decent enough ride to get me 2nd place.
Did you catch what cost me the blue ribbon?