Zippy updates!!

[Cypress Creek Elites]

Some of you may know this but I/my family own Zippy, who we accidentally bred (long story involving a 60 horse breeding operation being rehomed and a 2 year old stud colt). He was born in 2011 and now he's 13! I've been primarily riding him since he was about 7, and we moved to an eventing barn 4 years ago. This is his third show season, and he's FINALLY getting the hang of it.

We are going to our first recognized this next weekend, and I am mildly terrified because our track record with cross country has been historically abysmal- however this summer so far he's been incredible, complete attitude change. I'm not worried about dressage because we're doing a very easy test and he likes to look pretty, and I'm not worried about stadium because we've done lots of jumper shows and he's basically a pro at them at this point.

I also took him and his friend/boyfriend/himbo horse husband (a not very sharp thoroughbred) (ridden by one of my friends) to a hunter pace for funsies, and he was surprisingly willing to do most of the jumps, including some that we probably should not have been doing- we were following the TB and my attitude during the whole thing was "well, why not try" and he was very good about trying. We were 10 minutes behind the optimal time for that course though :')

[BlackOak2]

Oh! Good Luck! Be interesting to hear how he handles it.

Remember (like you need a reminder at this point ), Have Fun!!

[Cypress Creek Test]

It's occurred to me that I never actually followed up on this, so-

Zippy is still around! I really need to clip him, bro is SO FLUFFY and gets SO SWEATY.
The show went... ehhh. We were 6th in our division after dressage (had two small hiccups but otherwise a very solid performance), after a very speedy and clean stadium round we moved into third, and then on XC we got the most refusals possible without elimination and ended up in 13th (last place lol)
I don't think I'm going to take him to any more eventing shows until I'm certain that I can get him around a cross country course without issue. It's a lot of time, money and energy... that I do not have

I took him to a second hunter pace with his horse boyfriend! He was amazing (again) and in warmup we jumped a 3' oxer, which is the biggest thing he and I have... ever... jumped (my trainers were aware of this possibility, they figured we could handle it-- and we did). I think I'm going to keep doing those because they're a much more chill, low cost, low time investment xc experience and I can actually do the big things instead of being stuck at starter.

This next show season I'm planning on taking Zippy to a few jumper schooling shows, because we're good at those, and my boss wants me to come with her to some dressage shows, which are more expensive, but since Zippy is actually pretty reliable in dressage (and cute) it should be a much less frustrating and much more rewarding experience. We're working towards getting his flying changes (right now doing walk-canter work), and he's come a long way in the canter as a whole.

[BlackOak2]

Oh-Oh!

Well, an experience is still an experience. And it sounds like overall, you still had fun (and so did Zippy, even though he must've been big-eyed at everything).

Thanks for the update and looking forward to hearing more.

And of course, good luck!

[Cypress Creek Test]

Lots has happened (again!)

We are working towards doing training (which I've done before, but it's fine) level for potentially the first dressage show of the season, in March;

We did high bar at a holiday party and made it all the way to 3'9 before everyone who got that far collectively decided 4' was too much;

He did his first lead change on the flat EVER a couple of weeks ago!!! Also I bought a secondhand dressage saddle (Stubben Tristan, fits me VERY well as long as I don't acquire any more size, highly recommend), and I'm broke now. He is currently has an abscess so he's on stall rest for the next week or so but I'm excited to get him back into work and keep doing goofy things with him! He will be 14 in April.

[BlackOak2]

Oh! 14 years! Prime time for dressage.

Don't forget a dental visit before getting deep into that dressage! And congrats for the courage to jump [practically] four feet! To both of you.

The key to flying changes... setup, setup, setup. If you and he can get yourselves regularly and comfortably into that 'setup' then the flying change should happen without thinking. Plus it helps a LOT with flexibility too.

Good Luck!

[Cypress Creek Test]

He had his dental work done pretty recently. He's fairly low maintenance; gets chiro every few months, and then gets his feet done and his dentals whenever those are due. And then when we've shown out of state he does the whole vet checkup thing. We lucked out- he's pretty chronically sound, despite an injury as a little baby when he slid under a barbed wire fence. He's got a scar going up to his knee on one of his hind legs.

This abscess is the first time that has happened, and he had his shoes pulled because we intended for him to have his hinds off anyway. He might not get his front shoes back until cross country starts back up- depends on how much of a wimp he is about the gravel.

The lead changes are a work in progress for sure! He was still kicking up quite a bit, but I talked to my boss and the trainers at the barn we board at and they've all said that that's normal.