USPC B Traditional Rating

Warning- unnecessarily long description to follow.
I am in shock.
I passed?!!

I have been dreaming about being a B for a long time and I never thought I would get this far. Tiny and I have been together for a long time and we've gone through lots of ups and also lots of pretty bad downs. In fact, the few weeks before the B, we were struggling very very badly on the dressage to the point I broke down in tears and wanted to quit the B. But luckily I relaxed and made myself ride correctly and our loose ends came back together.

I can honestly say I am amazed that I passed flatwork. Tiny is not easy on the flat by any means and it takes a very long warm up before he accepts the bit. Incredibly, an entirely new and fantastic horse showed up on dressage day and he did such wonderful work for me; probably the best work I have ever gotten from him, ever. What a champ!!

In addition, this was one of the most gruesome and tiring 2 days I have ever experienced. On Friday, I got up at about 5:30 in the morning to get things together, feed the horses, and longe Tiny before we left. Tiny had an approximately 25-30 minute longeing session before our ride to Aiken. We got there at about noon and it was sweltering hot down there with no breeze and high humidity. Let's just say changing into my riding pants wasn't a walk in the park.... lol

At 3:30, we had to get on in the heat of the day to begin our flat session. I got a pretty decent warm up done in about 30 minutes, and I was about to show my riding without stirrups when a storm rolled in. So then we had to head back to the barn and wait for it to pass. At about 5:30 we headed back out... of course poor Tiny needed to be warmed up pretty much all over again. So he had to endure another 20 minutes of warming up then we did our dressage test. The first time through, our canter work literally fell apart because he ran out of gas.
Thoughts were racing through my head that I just blew it, and I failed. But I kept positive, let him have a break, and explained myself to the examiners then tried the test again. It wasn't the best test ever, but I would have to say it was pretty doggone close!

Immediately following the required test, we switched horses and that took about 10 minutes or so.

The kicker is there was no rest time and we had to change saddles and go straight on to gridwork. This is no walk in the park at 3'6, especially after the poor horses (and riders!!) have been made to work out in crappy conditions. My entire body was weak and shaky since I am anemic and there was no "real" food available for us. Somehow I managed to get through the no-stirrup work.

Thankfully that was all the riding to be done that day, but both me and Tiny were very burnt out. Luckily Tiny was pacified by a steady stream of peppermints and apples. We didn't get out of the barn until 9pm.

And of course, I couldn't sleep worth a crap in our hotel!!

Next morning at 5 am, we get up to go to the barn bright and early to get the wrapping done. At 8:30 we had our longeing in jumping tack then proceeded to do our coursework directly afterwards.

I could tell Tiny was running on empty more or less by the time it was our turn to jump our course because he was difficult to balance and jumping sort of flat, but his attitude was still phenomenal and he tried his guts out for me.

Next came the switch jumping and I could tell he was just going quicker just so he wouldn't have to use himself fully. I felt so bad but luckily he was in enough shape for this rating.

Immediately following our coursework, we finished up on cross country. It was a pretty straightforward XC course with a few galloping fences, an up-bank, a half-coffin to a fairly steep drop, and then finishing over another table. He was such a good boy and as always he perked up when it was time to go gallop in the field.

I must say that the ditch to the drop was incredibly fun because we both love drops, but I was concerned that the examiners had us do such a steep drop on that footing with obviously tired horses. Luckily everyone made it over safely.

And that was it for the rating! The examiners said "Congratulations, you passed" and I immediately started crying and hugging Tiny's neck. He looked at me like he knew he did a good job, but must have been thinking, "wow, my mom's a psycho!"
hahahaha.

I am so proud of that horse for trying his little heart out for me and doing the absolute best he could. He brought his very best out just for me and that is so incredible. He is not a fancy or expensive horse, and he certainly doesn't hold a candle to a warmblood, but you can't beat his try. He is a once in a lifetime horse and I couldn't be happier that I took a chance on that ugly broken down 3 1/2 year old 5 1/2 years ago!

Thank you Tiny.


And thanks be to everyone who read all that. Major props to you! I get carried away with the keyboard sometimes. :)

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• uspc
• pony
• club
• traditional
• rating
• c3

[JumpingPerfection121]

Oh my gosh!!! You have amazing dressage eq!!! I want to steal it!!!

[matrixmare]

@JumpingPerfection121 Haha, thanks! I worked reallyreallyreally hard on it.

[JumpingPerfection121]

@matrixmare I mean you barely even move at all...

Oh and the day I reach B rating I'll eat a bale of hay.

[matrixmare]

@JumpingPerfection121 bahahaha I died at your comment

I swear you can do it. I never would have thought I would make it any time soon. But you just gotta push you and your horse and make every stride count and you'll get there!! I hope you like hay ;)

[xxxligeiaxxx]

I just found your channel. You are a great rider and your critters are beautiful--obviously very happy, well cared for, and eager to please. Congrats on passing! :)

[matrixmare]

@xxxligeiaxxx Thank you so much! :D

[JumpingPerfection121]

@matrixmare Hahaha!!

I suppose I'll get there. I have 12 years of PC left if I keep doing it.

I'm only a D-2 now, I'm getting my D-3 rating on wednesday and I believe my C-1 on Sunday. I only got rated for D-2 on Thursday, so I guess I'm doing pretty well. Half of the things that's on the test sheet I didn't get asked. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought, but the upper levels look pretttyyy darn hard. I think it's just the thought of doing it that scares most people. Congrats by the way! :)

[matrixmare]

@kendallar Aww thank you so much:) It sucks you might have to quit! Hope you can keep up your riding career

[kendallar]

Wow, I can't imagine you NOT passing! You and Tiny make the perfect pair, and you look amazing on the switch rides too! And, yay for being in Pony Club ;). I'm a C3 Dressage (with my HB) from Texas. Although I think I'm quitting next year when I go to college :/.