Different Horse, Different Warm-up

For six years, I primarily evented the same horse.  Over those years, I honed his warm up routine.  He did well with a day off the day before an event, particularly if we trailered in the night before.  Dressage warm-up was a light hand gallop up off his back to warm him up followed by a run through of test movements in no particular order, all within 20-30 minutes.  As a former "curler" with a longer back and a habit of internalizing stress, this got him thinking forward and make his job his focus.

GMHA June HT 2014
Flatlands Foto (used with permission)

At our first event of the season, GMHA's June recognized horse trial, I learned, among other things, that this warm up just would not do for Suki.  She was wound-up going to the warm up, only settled down slightly before entering the ring.  Then, she determined a third of the way through her test the judge's end of the arena was highly suspicious,  As a result, I have been working on customizing her warm-up.  She's usually best to jump school if she does something tiring, but not anxiety inducing, the day before.  This means hiking up a long road with a significant incline at the walk and trot.  The hill is about 1.8 miles to the top, and she energetically marches up it and comes back down with gusto.

GMHA Starter Trials 2014
Nick Goldsmith Photography (used with permission)

So far, this pre-game day warm up has significantly helped her take everything in calmly at events.  I am still working on the day of warm up, though it seems like a long warm up with at least twenty minutes of suppling walk work to start has had a degree of success.  She warmed up well at Hitching Post a few weeks ago, though her test still lacked a bit of focus.  Her warm up at the GMHA Starter trial was a little bit too long and she lacked energy in her test.  But, one major (positive) difference was her ability to relax and focus in the warm up.  Then she was able to remain relaxed during her test and very business-like for the remaining two phases.

The benefits of this developing warm up routine, including the hack the day before became even more apparent when I left out a piece before Huntington.  After trying out saddles on Suki in the morning, I decided to skip the pre-game hack.  It seemed less necessary, given we weren't traveling so no settling into a new environment.  And, as it turned out  it wasn't necessary for dressage.  She was calm, even a bit lazy (an issue I have subsequently begun to address).  What I didn't account for was the idea that home field cross country would be an issue in terms of excitement rather than simply being "just" look-y.  Retrospectively, the pre-game hack may have helped take the edge off what turned out to be a very geared up ride-a ride culminating in a revival of her track instincts as we passed through the finish flags, which faced the pasture her herd is turned out in.

As a trained scientist, I like to base decisions on evidence.  So far, I have support for my new warm up's effectiveness ands two scenarios where the lack of a hack resulted in a frustrating go at it.  While this is hardly statistically significant, and there are many unaccounted for variables, I am going to consider the patterns that are starting to form and develope my routines in accordingly.