Saturday, May 5, 2012

A Question of Footing

Recently, a friend asked me if I am going to do the local dressage series of schooling shows this year.  I hesitated in answering, and then responded with "not in May".  The truth is that I am thinking about looking for a new place to show.  I am not determined to show, so there is no hurry.  I am having fun working with Harley without the thoughts of a show date looming over my head.  I know that many riders love showing and like to have a tangible goal to work towards, but that just isn't me.  In fact, every time that I do show, I feel like I am literally forcing myself to go.  Why do I do that?  I believe that it is good experience for my horse to travel once in a while and I like to put myself out there to be evaluated.  Well, maybe "like" is too strong a word, but it is good for me.  The downside of infrequent showing is that we never really get comfortable with it, so it is difficult to give our best ride, but that hasn't seemed to hold us back too severely.

Last year we when to two of the three horse shows in the dressage series, rode the First Level tests 1 and 3, scored 60/61% in all four tests, and received a Reserve Champion First Level year-end award for our little local series.  I was given a pretty, fancy ribbon, a monogrammed collapsible red chair for the trailer, and a 2011 show series T-shirt.  Not bad considering that we did not show at all in 2010 and previously went out for Training Level only.  If I took regular dressage lessons, and by regular I mean more than six times a year, I am sure that we could have beefed up our scores, but I was happy to have received the respectable 60% on my own, so to speak, and with my beloved, Harley. 

Why do I want to find a different place to show?  The venue is comfortable and friendly.  The staff is competent and the shows are well run.  The problem is the footing.  When I ride, my test times are usually at the end of the day.  Last year, we were the last ride at both shows.  This means that 50 to 60 people had been in the show ring before us.  The ring was probably watered and groomed before the first ride, but by the time it came for us to enter at A, the footing was very uneven.  The corners were especially deep, the worst parts being at the C end in front of the judge.

Now I know that a craftsman should not blame his tools, but...

...I was really frustrated by the footing.  Dressage depends upon rhythm, straightness, and impulsion.  From these elements the contact and connection between horse and rider is developed with relaxation at the helm.  I found it very difficult to maintain these things in the deep corners of the ring.  And those corners come up very often!  I do not ride with spurs and Harley is very peppy and willing, but when we entered at A, his legs seemed to be stuck in molasses.  This presented itself as "resistance" and also caused me to work too hard with my legs to keep him going, which by the way, does not happen at home!  This compromised my position and definitely impacted the quality of our ride.  I watched the tests on video later, which confirmed what I was feeling in the ring.  I overheard at least one competitor and her training discussing the footing.  They were also not happy.

A couple segments of the 2011 Bloopers Video depict our dilemma.

At home, Harley and I are not used to anything fancy.  We ride in sand with lots of round pebbles.  The rings are dragged about once a week, which is good and bad.  The sand gets leveled and more even in depth, but more rocks get dragged up.  We have a lot of rocks here and the riding rings are really just glorified paddocks.  They have never been graded or set with footing, unless you count dumping more sand.  If they were graded or leveled it was probably ten years ago.  Maybe more.  The footing at the show location is a sand mix of some sort.  I was told that a large quantity of arena footing was donated from a traveling rodeo after they left the area.  This is the footing that I was frustrated about.  The warm up is grass, which is fine.  Harley warmed up great and then lost steam as soon as we entered the show ring.  He even power trotted his lap around the letters before entering to be judged.  I felt really good about that trot, only to find that we lost it as soon as it counted!

I could just go again and deal with it, but I feel like I already did that when I went back for the October show.  Harley was very fit after a summer full of riding.  We had no issues maintaining gait at home and I felt that our connection was very good and reliable.  Certain parts of the test were a challenge for us (the counter canter loops in test 3), but maintaining energy should not have been one of them!

So what do you think?
How much does arena footing matter to you?

18 comments:

  1. Footing is a big deal for me... With all the miles on Willie's legs, I want to do everything I can to protect them, which means not working on ground that is too hard, too wet, or too uneven. When I was in VA, I missed a lot of riding time because my break was scheduled early in the day and the ring was still frozen solid. (Interestingly, the trainer had once commented about the apparent frequency of popped splints in her barn... I don't think it's a coincidence!) Regardless of the horse I'm riding, I now ask myself, "Would I work Willie on this?" If not, we keep it to the walk.

    There is one local dressage organization that I no longer join, because every year their championship show is held at the same farm, and my ONE experience with that farm was so terrible that I won't risk driving two hours just to find it in the same condition. (Never mind the time and expense of membership and qualifying for a show I won't attend!) The competition ring was so uneven that I could literally feel a difference in the height of Willie's shoulders as we trotted down centerline. The rest of the ring was no better, as he stumbled in quite a few places where the footing changed abruptly. The surrounding property, too, was littered with holes that you could lose a pitchfork in.

    Now, we work over natural ground 99.9% of the time... The closest thing to groomed footing that my horses usually see is the plowed edge of a farmer's field. But if I'm spending the money and dressing up to come ride in your arena, you should darn well have it maintained better than the great outdoors!

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    1. Frozen ground is very frustrating. I think that using your work with Willie as a barometer for other horses is a very good plan. I have heard other people talk about popped splints. It never occurred to me that hard ground could be the culprit, but that does make sense. Too hard or too soft are equally troublesome and I agree about the show grounds. Dressage is supposed to be so precise. How can the ring be presented that way for a big competition?

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  2. Arena footing is very important to me. I feel if you have bad footing either too rocky and hard or too soft and deep you can really hurt the horses legs. I drag mine at least once a week. The indoor has sand and the arena in the field has shaved rubber chunks. The arena up top by the barn is a disaster. I think it's just dirt and every time I drag it more rocks come up so I have a bucket that I continually deposit my finds in. Someday I'd like to redo that ring or close it down. As it is we just use it for longeing occasionally.

    Maybe if you did want to do that show you could get a bunch of other riders together and send them a letter about dragging it during the show. When we used to show (a lot) there were some shows that took a break and watered and dragged around lunchtime. It did help. Good luck.

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    1. Shaved rubber sounds nice! We used to have access to an indoor with a rubber/sand mix. It was wonderful, but then they dumped a ton of coarse sand and the footing turned into a beach. If felt like Harley had to leap every stride to canter through it, so we stopped going there. I worry about their legs, too.

      I probably should try contacting the show organizer. The show depends upon volunteers and is low budget, so I worry that I would be asking too much. I probably should still give it try though.

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  3. Hello there!
    I went back a saw the Blooper Reel and it was truly funny and I am so glad that you made that... levity is good!

    Well, since I am not training and not in clinics or showing...I really can't weigh in seriously. But, I do know the horses classroom should at least have a clean slate (good footing)for your horse to be able to have concentration on his work and respond correctly to your given aides.

    I am with you on having to make myself do shows...when I did do them, it made me sick. That said, you two are really a great team and I think if you can find a suitable riding arena...go for it. If you don't have anything to worry about being fair for Harley, then, you may enjoy it so much more.

    Thanks for the nice sentiments for us at my place. My Dressage is done out- "Trailssage" style. It is going well too.
    KK

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    1. We love trailssage, too!

      "Clean slate" is a good term for it. I could feel him tighten when we hit the deep parts. I feel that this gave a false impression what he is like to ride. Not something that I want when we are actually being judged for our way of going.

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  4. I'm with you, Val. I don't need anything fancy, but the one thing I really dislike is deep footing. I don't mind little rocks or slightly uneven ground, but when it's deep, it's very hard for our horses to do their job. I would probably search out another venue as well.

    Karen

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    1. It would probably be nice to find a new place for a change of pace, too. I just need to find something close by.

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  5. Footing is a huge deal for me. We have really nice footing at home and we take good care of it -- watering it and dragging it regularly. One of the things I didn't like about where we were trailering to train with Gayle was the footing. It was just dragged dirt. I stopped taking lessons there on Jackson, even when he was sound, because I worried about the footing causing a flare up of his concussion laminitis. Our bodywork person concurred -- and she goes out to that barn regularly. It is one of the reasons why, even tho my feelings were hurt when we were uninvited from the barn, I won't miss going there.

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    1. I have admired your footing and the nice harrowing job on your blog. Believe me, I noticed!

      To pay for lessons and ring usage only to have the ring be less than what you have at home just isn't right. At least, that part of the change is for the best!

      I mentioned an indoor with deep footing in one of the comments above. I had to pay to ride in that ring, so when the footing was so poor that we couldn't get any work done, there was no value in renting the arena. I certainly wasn't going to pay for that!

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  6. Funny you bring up footing today...during my ride this morning, I was bemoaning the footing in the covered arena where I board. It's really, really deep! Not quite cutting horse deep, but deep enough that I feel obligated to wrap Patty's legs and she sometimes struggles to move freely. Footing's really important to me, but I wish I knew more about it. I think I'll be riding a lot in the outdoor pen, where the sand is flatter.

    I completely understand not your not wanting to show at a place with bad footing. If the facility got enough complaints last season, maybe they'll groom the arena more frequently this year? Here's hoping.

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    1. I just don't get the deep footing preference. Some riders do prefer it. I have heard people say, "Now the horses are actually working" when the footing changed at the indoor I used to frequent. More like being broken down in my opinion.

      It is possible that the situation has improved. I probably owe them an email asking about it before I move on.

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  7. It matters a lot. Often I won't ride at more than a walk during the warmer month because my arena becomes six - eight inches deep soft sand. As long as we get regular rain it's decent.

    I can't wait until my proper arena comes to pass. Level and firm is all I ask for. :)

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    1. Yes. Level and firm. That would be perfect!

      Riding in sand is nice, but definitely becomes an issue when it gets to dry. We had that problem a couple weeks ago. A sprinkler system would be great, but is difficult to set up in an outdoor (not to mention expensive!).

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  8. Footing is my current riding dilemma. At home the footing is terrible - muddy, uneven grass. Team that with floodlit after-work rides and rising is not fun for me OR my horse!

    I have to move house soon anyway (they are selling the place we live at) buty #1 priority in my new house is flat, even footing (even if it is just grass) because I can't keep ruining my poor horse's confidence and balance in this crappy footing anymore.

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    1. You hit the nail on the head. How can a horse learn to use himself properly and stride out confidently when the ground beneath him is not reliable? I hope that your new location is flat and even.

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  9. I've got the same problem as Lisa :-( But, I'm not moving, anytime soon, if ever, so, I'll have to fix it. Eventually. Also need to build a couple fences, learn how to manage my pasture better, dig out dirt stalls and put in stall mats...the list goes on :-( Time and money...ugh!

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