Wednesday, November 1
Nov. 2nd, 2023 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Pleasant weather, just a hair above zero, no wind, sunny.
I have to say, I've been getting solid sleep the past few days.
I spent some time just being outside this afternoon, watching the birds come to the birdbath that I use as a winter feeder. I can sit on my stool just maybe three or four feet from it, and they land and eat. Chickadees are so brave.
Then I went to see River for our lesson.
A good deal of our lesson today was dissecting the results of our recent online competition for the ILHA, for which I had submitted the freestyle class (that you all saw here a while ago), which had a compulsory pattern that went along with it to get a combined total score.
River and I got second place out of a class that did have some other competitors (sometimes we are the only entry in a class for the ILHA). We scored well overall.
So we talked a lot about the freestyles and the artistic points vs. the technical points.
R also submitted a freestyle for the same class, but in the "pro" group (I show as a non-pro), so she competes against a higher level of people, many who are also trainers. She did very well on the compulsory part (thus the technical skill), and on her freestyle pattern she also got good points for her difficulty level/technical work, but not very high on the artistic merit. She still placed third in her group, which is very good considering the level they are all at, but the artistic points would have really brought her score up.
I think she's really stumped about how to improve her "artistic" score; I remember she had the same issue with a freestyle she did last year as well. I saw that one, and I thought the artistic side was good.
I haven't seen her current video yet, but she described what she did, and it should have done a little better artistically.
The problem with the artistic stuff of course, is the subjectivity of the judges. With something like this, the "artistic" side is things like your costume, if the horse was decorated, the music you used, the overall theme, and little things like whether or not there was a little dancing or some kind of creative flair.
All it takes is for one of the other competitors to do something "country" and one of the judges to have a reining background, and you're at a disadvantage.
The real kicker, is for some reason, the ILHA no longer gives constructive comments about your efforts. They give a score, and in the patterns you get a bit of a breakdown of that score so you have a bit of an idea of what you did right, and what you need to work on, but let's say you just get a 3 out of 5 for a circle. What was wrong with it? Not round enough, or was it too big or too small, or was it just that your trot was too lazy or something? Without comments, you have no idea how to improve.
It would help a LOT with the freestyles to get feed back.
Anyhow, I got the feeling that R really needed to vent and dissect the classes, BUT it was my lesson! We could have dissected the show some other time.
I did manage to pull us back on track for at least a few minutes to do some constructive work. I want to learn the Spanish walk, showed her what I was working on with doing a circle "away" (hard to explain), and cantering over poles to improve River's rhythm and body awareness.
I came home and caught up with my Sweetie. He and his parents went to an interpretive center at a nature area for lunch, walked around a little bit there, and met with some family again for supper at a nice place for pizza.
I learned that author Agatha Christie was an avid surfer.
https://www.agathachristie.com/news/2021/on-surfing-agatha-christies-love-of-the-sea
Pleasant weather, just a hair above zero, no wind, sunny.
I have to say, I've been getting solid sleep the past few days.
I spent some time just being outside this afternoon, watching the birds come to the birdbath that I use as a winter feeder. I can sit on my stool just maybe three or four feet from it, and they land and eat. Chickadees are so brave.
Then I went to see River for our lesson.
A good deal of our lesson today was dissecting the results of our recent online competition for the ILHA, for which I had submitted the freestyle class (that you all saw here a while ago), which had a compulsory pattern that went along with it to get a combined total score.
River and I got second place out of a class that did have some other competitors (sometimes we are the only entry in a class for the ILHA). We scored well overall.
So we talked a lot about the freestyles and the artistic points vs. the technical points.
R also submitted a freestyle for the same class, but in the "pro" group (I show as a non-pro), so she competes against a higher level of people, many who are also trainers. She did very well on the compulsory part (thus the technical skill), and on her freestyle pattern she also got good points for her difficulty level/technical work, but not very high on the artistic merit. She still placed third in her group, which is very good considering the level they are all at, but the artistic points would have really brought her score up.
I think she's really stumped about how to improve her "artistic" score; I remember she had the same issue with a freestyle she did last year as well. I saw that one, and I thought the artistic side was good.
I haven't seen her current video yet, but she described what she did, and it should have done a little better artistically.
The problem with the artistic stuff of course, is the subjectivity of the judges. With something like this, the "artistic" side is things like your costume, if the horse was decorated, the music you used, the overall theme, and little things like whether or not there was a little dancing or some kind of creative flair.
All it takes is for one of the other competitors to do something "country" and one of the judges to have a reining background, and you're at a disadvantage.
The real kicker, is for some reason, the ILHA no longer gives constructive comments about your efforts. They give a score, and in the patterns you get a bit of a breakdown of that score so you have a bit of an idea of what you did right, and what you need to work on, but let's say you just get a 3 out of 5 for a circle. What was wrong with it? Not round enough, or was it too big or too small, or was it just that your trot was too lazy or something? Without comments, you have no idea how to improve.
It would help a LOT with the freestyles to get feed back.
Anyhow, I got the feeling that R really needed to vent and dissect the classes, BUT it was my lesson! We could have dissected the show some other time.
I did manage to pull us back on track for at least a few minutes to do some constructive work. I want to learn the Spanish walk, showed her what I was working on with doing a circle "away" (hard to explain), and cantering over poles to improve River's rhythm and body awareness.
I came home and caught up with my Sweetie. He and his parents went to an interpretive center at a nature area for lunch, walked around a little bit there, and met with some family again for supper at a nice place for pizza.
I learned that author Agatha Christie was an avid surfer.
https://www.agathachristie.com/news/2021/on-surfing-agatha-christies-love-of-the-sea
no subject
Date: 2023-11-02 07:59 pm (UTC)