Goals

Showing horses can be a very complex ordeal.

USDF Medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold

Saturday nights have been dinner nights.  After barn chores we go to a restaurant to eat before going back to the barn to do night check.  It's really my chore, but my friends have been helping me since well they're awesome.

Last night Friend 1 and I started talking about showing.  Friend 2 is very new to the whole horse showing world.  And so we had to explain to her all the awards and divisions and different goals that one can pursue.

For my non horse friends.  When I show dressage I enter tests.  Generally you can only do 2 tests per day.  The judge scores each movement 0-10.  0 (movement not shown) 10 (you're awesome!)

To get 100 is impossible.  Horses aren't machines.  Horses have strengths and weaknesses just like their riders.

80s (you're freaking superwoman)
70s (you rocked the house)
60s (generally most folks are in this range.)
50s(well good try)
40s and below....  (to score this low is well you need to rethink the whole agenda)

2014
Short Term Awards
USDF All Breeds
I need to collect 8 scores from 4 different judges at 4 different shows.
Median must be 60% or higher.
Sith Pony would be competing against other horses in her breed association for scores.

Long Term Goals
This is a personal goal.  Earning "Medals" in the United States Dressage Federation is not only a personal thing but also for professional riders mean a of advertising yourself or to get into programs that the USDF offers.  For amateur riders its a special hooray.  I do teach children how to ride.  I'm not on the pro level that say my friends Renee Carter or Lauren Sprieser are at.  But by definition the USDF and USEF I am recognize as such.

Bronze Medal
2 scores 60%+ at First Level
2 scores 60%+ at Second Level
2 scores 60%+ at Third Level

But I want to eventually become a USDF judge.  To get into the "Learning" judge program I need 3 scores at 60% and 2nd level. As I want to work up the judging ranks I'll have to get my Bronze, Silver, and then Gold if I want to be more "advanced" judge.  Dressage is very systematic.  The dressage pyramid is amazing.  Great programs.


See I told you it gets complex.

Imperial Officer "Cavalry" Shoot

My friend who does professional equine photography came to our barn and did a photo shoot with 3 of us equestrian gals.  I already have enough pretty pictures of the Sith Pony.  She's pretty she makes for pretty pictures.  But I don't do a lot of nerdy photo shoots with my horse.  Actually since I never showed it off, here's our side saddle shot.  I think I'll try and make a matching apron for Davera's side saddle show next year.

Anywho.  Here's some of the shots from Kayla's photo shoot.

  

Full gallery:

Richmond Christmas Parade

I did the Richmond Christmas Parade with Garrison Tyranus on Dec 7th.  I heard many of the members call this the 3 mile death march.

There was a lot of walking.

We froze to death.

But it was a hella good time.

2014 Show Season

I've beginning to look towards the 2014 show season.  My plan is to take lessons during the winter and if I can hit up a winter schooling show and I'll do one Feb/March time frame.  See what our scores are and decide if I want to do training level or first level at the licensed shows beginning in April.  Here's the very tentative calender.

April 5+6: Vada Nova Spring Show, Leesburg, VA
May 3rd+4th: Dressage at Meadow (Doswell, VA) or CDCTA (Leesburg, VA)
June 7th+8th: Vada/Nova Summer Show, Leesburg, VA
June 21st+22nd: PVDA Ride For Life, Upper Marlboro, MD
Aug 9+10: Vada-CH, Culpeper, VA
Sept 13th+14th: Vada/Nova or VADAF Autumn Show Leesburg or Fredericksburg, VA.

I need 8 scores at 4 different shows to qualify for the USDF All Breeds awards.  Showing horses is definitely not cheap.

Museum of Sci Fi

Museum of Sci Fi wanted to shoot a promo commercial to support their fundraising efforts to build their preview museum.  I first heard about this project a few weeks earlier and really wanted to donate money.  I donated $50 towards the funding.  With it being Christmas season I couldn't donate anymore.  But then this troop popped up I jumped on it.

Dec 1st, bright and early Ray and I journeyed up to Washington, DC.  We stopped by Starbucks and got our coffee.  This lady came up to us and asked us what we were dressed up and we told her.  She was really excited to hear about the Museum as well.  

We got to the Capitol building and found parking and met up with a few Old Line Garrison members and a few Tyranus members as they got there.

It was a really fun troop.  They only wanted stormtroopers for the commercial  but we got a ton of pictures taken by tourists.  It's amazing how quickly news traveled and people came up to me saying that they heard about it on the metro, twitter, facebook, and came running.

We got featured on WTOP (local news radio station), DCist, and the Washington Post.  I've heard we also were featured on some other news networks.  Hardball showed a brief clip of the stormtroopers while they were shooting the commercial.

Be sure to check out the Museum of Sci Fi Fundraising Site

 

Air & Scare 2013

One of my first events to ever squire for when I was interested in joining the 501st was the Air & Scare hosted at the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA.   It’s a huge event that draws over thousand people.  This year was my first year I was actually dressed in my Imperial officer.   My friend Raymond was also in an Imperial officer costume.  So we got to pull double duty as handlers and be dressed up.  My friend Kelly wanted to come and help.  A big help she was.  She’s not a huge Star Wars nerd, but she told me she had a blast with the event. 

It was a fun event.  It was great seeing a ton of happy kids and adult kids see their favorite Star Wars character.  There was a little girl dressed up as a witch probably around 4 years old who walked up to one of the Jedi and smacked him with her broom.  Funny how much the bad guys got a lot of love versus the Jedi. 

Jon, myself, and Raymond. 

Imperial Officers represent.  :D  

Tiny one hit the Jedi.  We approved.

Vader, Vicky and I.  

For a Trekkie Vicky is okay.  :D  

Patrick Clinic

Last month my trainer came down to teach us one last time before he headed for Florida.  Patrick Tigchelaar is an excellent trainer.  I haven't had much chance to take very many lessons from him this year, due to other goals and budget constraints.  But I signed up for a 2 day clinic.

A lot of non-horse folks ask me, "why do you take lessons, don't you know how to ride?"  Well I do.  But riders should always strive to better themselves.  I have flaws in my riding that effect my horse.  We're a pair and my issues effect hers and visa versa.  My mare is built downhill which means her hind quarters are higher than her withers (peak of her shoulders).  My bad back and previous hunter/jumping makes me want to lean forward, which puts her on her forehand.

Patrick I would never say is a teacher that nit picks on the rider.  He kind of nit picks the whole picture.  But this weekend he really was focusing on me, because 1/2 her issues are me.  My bad back combined with her build sometimes we get all wonky.

It was two great days.  Really got her to be light in the bridle and really worked on getting me to sit back and keep my left arm which has a tendency to poke out.  And now that she's not a young horse I need to keep my hands forward and not so much giving rein.

It's a never ending process.  But hopefully we'll be able to do 1st level at the licensed shows next year and maybe 2nd.  We'll see.

Showing

Lilly has done very well in training.  Showing on the other hand has been hit or miss.

I didn't really go after any year end awards at any series this year.  Just showing her here and there to try and get her to stop being silly.  Another issue is at shows I tend to ride very forward.  Hunter riding comes creeping back into my position.

Hoofbeats to Hope
Had a great time.  A lot of people loved my Star Wars freestyle, but the judge not so much.  We still got a respectable score, 64.833%.  I had about 10 people come up to me saying they loved my freestyle.

My average this year for musical freestyle is 65.944%.  I showed at Compass Rose and got a 68%.  The judge liked our freestyle, tho there were a few bobbles on my end.  Plus Lilly has learned her freestyle and so she's anticipating the changes and doing flying changes.  When I ask her to come down at the trot, she gets angry.  I ALREADY DID THEM!  Its funny they don't use words to speak, but I know what she's saying.  We also got a 65% at CDCTA.  Our old trainer was judging.  She loved the music.

My training level 3 tests have been mostly low.  My average is 59.88%.  At our last show at Compass Rose we got a 66.20%.  I screwed myself out of a few points with a few mistakes and again my position.  grrrr.

First level well we won't go there.  But we're entered at Morningside Training Farm on Nov. 16th.  yay!  First Level 1 and 2.

And last night we were amazing.  Of course that's at home without any pressure...

I'll try and blog more.  My muse seems to have left me this year.

Pacific Rim

This is a nerdy post.  :)  I love Pacific Rim.  I've always been a fan of the kaiju genre.  For those who are unaware of what that means in Japanese it means "strange beast".  Other translations include monster, or giant monster and so on.

Godzilla is the most famous example of kaiju.  Most widely known by the general public.  Others include Mothra, King Kong (to some), Gamera, etc.  Of course there are a lot of sentai shows like Ultraman who fight kaiju monsters.

When I first saw the trailer for this film my jaw dropped.  I was instantly intrigued.  This movie seemed to combined the mecha genre (giant robots) and the kaiju film.  Guillermo del Toro is a fantastic director and story teller.  I knew I would love this film.

And I do.  It's been out since Friday and I've seen it twice.  The first time I saw it in 3D IMAX, and it was good in 3D, but I got a headache.  But it was so visually amazing.  Storyline was good, not uber strong, but still good.  I love the characters, the acting, the monsters, EVERYTHING!  :)

My best friend and her husband invited me to go with them last night and I was the third wheel.  I had a friend who said the music was good.  But truthfully I think I was so visually stimulated that I didn't notice the music the first time.  I made sure to take note and I did.  Music is awesome for most scenes.  Really like the music when Gipsy Danger is walking through Hong Kong.  Sounded very wild wild west gunslinger like.

The Kaiju
There is a definite assorted cast of kaiju.
My favorite is Otachi.  She's a bad bad girl who is very very ill tempered.  I loved her.  She kicked King Ghidorah out of 3rd spot of favorite kaiju.  (Number 1 and 2 are Godzilla and Mothra).

I'm definitely going to see this movie again and again and again...

My conversation with my mare

Sometimes when I’m lazy I ride bareback.  The whole extra 10 minutes of putting on tack seems so taxing sometimes.  Mind you it takes more muscles in the body to ride bareback, so this thought process is flawed.  But I enjoy it anyways.

Well yesterday I did my barn chores and I was way too lazy to walk all the way back to the car and get my breeches.  Plus it was getting late so I was like why tack up for a 20 minute hack.  Mind you I’ve been working out so my abs were already in a moody mood. 

I hopped on and off we went.   I don’t usually canter bareback.  I’m a big chicken.  But for whatever reason I was feeling brave and so after we had trotted for a bit I asked for the canter.

Lilly: What?

Me:  I’d like a canter please.

Lilly: Well okay.

Then she cantered like I was a complete beginner, more of a lope.  I asked for a trot.

And then we took a little walk break, switched directions worked on leg yielding and such.  Built my courage back up and asked for a canter again.

Lilly: I don’t think we should do this.

Me: I think I can do it.

Lilly: Well you’re asking wrong and you’re leaning forward.

I adjust myself and ask again.

Lilly: No.

Me: Yes

Lilly: No.

Me: Yes. 

Lilly: Fine. 

She added a crow hop to show that she didn’t like this plan.

Then we trucked along with her cantering normally.  She has a big canter for a 15.2 little mare.  Then we went back to the trot.  We did a little more trot work and then I decided I called it a day.

Mares always have to tell you their opinions in life.  But that’s what makes them so fun.

Star Wars Freestyle Challenge

I had a few friends in different conversations say to me, "You should do a Star Wars freestyle."
For the nerdy folks.  Dressage is the equestrian sport I often compete in.  Now it's fun and tough.  There are different levels.  Intro is the most basic level and it goes all the way to the Olympic level Grand Prix.  My horse and I are like in 2nd grade.  I school First Level and I have competed at First Level a month ago.  But mainly I've shown in Training Level. 

What's a freestyle?  It's like gymanstics or ice skating, you create your own test and put it to music.  Now this is very challenging.  

Part of me was like oi I don’t have the time or energy.  But I loved the idea.  Star Wars freestyle.  Plus I have that little voice in my head that says “It’ll be fun!”  The angry little voice goes, “what in the world is wrong with you?” 

My first step was looking at the test requirements.  I had to know what I could and couldn’t do.  For training level I could pretty much walk-trot-canter.  15 meters circles.  Free walk.  Very basic. 

Then your horse.   Every horse has their own personality as well as their own way of moving.  You have to calculate your horse's bpm, beats per minute for each gait.  Walk-Trot-Canter.  I calculated my horse's gaits and they were walk (55) trot (75) and canter (104).

You should match the music to the horse’s personality. 

Now my friend and I just put on Star Wars music at the barn.  It was fun.  One of the first songs we listened to was the Cantina Song.  Now both horses seem to be perky, it matched the pony more than Lilly. 

The Imperial March was 104 BPM and it matched Lilly.  It’s just kind of long so we’d have to remix it somehow to make it that I’m not cantering my whole test. 

So far the experiment is fun.  Even if I don’t end up making a freestyle it’s been fun riding to Star Wars music.  

Again Life In the Fast Lane

Right now all things are good on both the nerdy and horsie sides of life.

I'm starting a business: Capital Con.  Basically we are trying to create another science-fiction/fantasy convention in the DC area.  I've had this idea for awhile and my group of friends have been great.  We're forming a parntership and we'll be setting up our LLC soon.

We have our first partner and our first event got canceled due to last night's storm.  It ended up doing nothing in Alexandria.  But we'll be doing our first meet and greet event next Friday.

Check us out on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CapConDC
Our website is in development but our home is here: www.capitalcon.org 

On the equestrian side my mare has been doing great!  I've been taking lessons when I can afford it.  Otherwise it's having fun and riding.  My last ride on her was so super.  She was so light in the bridle and so supple.  She's been fighting me less and less.  And I'm so pleased with her. 

I wanted to do licensed shows this year.  But that goal has to be pushed back.  Just not enough paycheck.  I can afford schooling shows, but the licensed shows are just so much. 

We've had fun.  I supported my friend's hunter series and we got 3rd and 4th surprisingly.  Pretty pleased.  Though it's been awhile since I've sit in a hunt seat saddle. 

Life

Life has been zooming past.  I've had good moments and not so good moments the past few months.  But I'm keeping a postitive attitude on life. 

My equestrian pursuits are dominating my schedule right now.
I'm managing my own show series, our first show is this Sunday.  I've poured a lot of money, blood, sweat and tears into this show series.  I'm in the red for the first show, but by the 2nd show I'll be fine.

My friend is jumping my mare again.  We were supposed to go to Fox Chase this weekend, but I got too much on my plate.  So we're going to shoot for Sandstone on April 27th.

I have my entry form ready for Dressage at the Meadow.  I'm going to do Training 2 and 3.  I schooled first level, but I want to go to a schooling show first before I enter First Level.  Last night's ride made me brave, but not brave enough to do it at a licensed show.

I had Anne Crowell of ADC Saddlery check my saddle.  It fits!  Hurray!  So my pony is just naughty to be naughty when she gets tight in the back.  Last night's ride was relax and she was using herself well.  I also remembered how to ride and it was a great ride. 

Show enviroment another story.  But we gotta get out there.

Ultraman cosplay

I'm not going to too many conventions this year.  I'm only planning to go to Katsucon and Dragon*Con.  I'm actually a staff member at Katsucon.  I'm not dressing up, just being a grunt for the weekend.

Here's my first cosplay of the year.

Ultraman

I love Ultraman.  My father was stationed in Japan when I was a kid.  I remembered the show and I loved it.  I kind of forgot about Ultraman until I went to my first Otakon.  I found a plushie and I had all these feelings of joy looking at it.  I asked a few guys at the con, did they know who he was.  I couldn't remember and they told me, that's Ultraman.  So I rediscovered Ultraman.  I love him.  The shows are so corny and I absolutely <3 it. 

This is my third time doing Ultraman.  The first time I was like 17, I made it myself, but my sewing abilities suck.  So when I redid it I went with another gal.  Now she did a good job, but I wasn't happy with a few minor things. 

So I'm working with a new gal.  She seems really awesome. 

Now the biggest problem is the mask.  My first mask has disappeared.  But the huge problem was the fact that it was latex, it was hard to get on and off, and I couldn't breath. 

Now I was thinking well maybe I'll get a mask like the Power Ranger cosplayers get. 

Well I found one guy who everyone recommends Aniki.  He does really good work.  $450.  >.<  whew.  He's good and he's the best.  But that's a hella lot of money.

Found another studio LittleGiant in Indonesia.  He was better priced, but then I saw the shipping prices.  Holy cow.  Cheapest shipping would be $300. 

I have a good friend who is going to Indonesia, but he won't be back before Dragon*Con.  Bummer.

So I put a few feelers out there.  But I hate working with folks that have no reviews or have no experience.  So it may just be a leap of faith.  It's like do I shell out $450 for the real deal or pay $220 and experiment with my money.

Tough call.  Still deciding.

Mitchell Sport Horses

Mitchell Sport Horses is official business in Prince William county!  Yay! 

Problem with starting a new business is the start up costs.

I have to get insurance, two types.  1) Lesson instructor insurance and 2) Horse Show insurance. 

Ribbons for the horse show.  Thank goodness my ribbon lady rocks.  I have a lot of left over ribbons and she is sending me replacement streamers and she gave me a guide to change them out.  Saves me a lot of money. 

But still need to get walkie talkies, dressage arena (evenutally), dressage letters, etc.  Show ground rental, etc.

First two shows are going to be in the red.  Dressage arena costs $2,000. 

But it's worth it. 

Fear Litany

I have to say one of my all time favorite books is Dune by Frank Herbert.

The Fear Litany is one of my all time favorites as well.  Something about these words that is awesome!


I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.