The horse trial was August 18th at Hilltop Equestrian Center. This is the same place we did our first horse trial, and have competed in a two phase there as well. It is a really nice venue, and I always enjoy showing here.
I arrived at the show a couple of hours before my dressage time becasue I wanted to be able to walk the cross country course before they started the cross country rounds for the day. There were 14 jumps on the course, 7 of them were in the field, 5 of them were in the woods, and the last two were out in another field. There were a couple that looked a little scary. Fence 5 we had to come at from up a hill, so it looked bigger than it was, and fence 11 looked much higher than the 18" max of the pre-elemenary division, but I told myself we woud be fine. When I jumped the course though, I was surprised to see that they had taken the top log out of the fence and it was MUCH smaller than when I walked the course. I recorded the course on my new CourseWalk app so it can be seen here. The course itself was easy to remember, but it was nice to be able to look at pictures of the jumps in the order that I would be jumping them. I think this app would be even handier for the higher levels with more complicated courses.
Otis was very good for the dressage warm up and our test, so I was feeling pretty good about the day. Once we were done with dressage I changed my clothes and changed Otis' tack so we could get warmed up for cross country. While I was getting changed they announced that the dressage scores for my division were being posted, I resisted the urge to go look at them so that I could get ready in plenty of time for cross country and not have to hurry.
Otis was really good in the warm up for cross country. No crazy deer hoping over the jumps! He did look down at the practice log when we jumped it the first time, but went over it fine after that. I felt really confident and ready to go when it was our turn. We were counted down and off we went! Otis was a little nervous/excited as we headed down into the field, but he jumped fences one through four no problem. He tried to refuse fence five, which is the one I thought looked a bit scary, so I guess he agreed. It was a small enough fence, so I just kicked him over it. This worked him up a bit so he jumped fence six a bit bigger than he needed to. By the time we reached fence seven, he was okay and jumping great again. He got a bit worked up as we heaeded into the woods for the rest of the course, but we just cantered along like we would on the trails at home. He got a bit squrimy as we approached the fences in the woods, but I kept him between my legs and he sailed over them no problem! We finished the rest of the course no problem and we galloped through the finish cones up the hill to head back to the trailer. It was SO MUCH FUN!! I had goose bumps when we finished! I was so proud that we not only finished the course clean, but we did it well, and improved SO MUCH from the first time we tried cross country.
We had a couple of hours before our stadium phase, so I untacked Otis, hosed him down and let him have some hay and water. I walked up to look at the dressage scores and we were in the lead!
It was finally time to tack up for stadium and Otis was still feeling nice and relaxed when I got on. I jumped him over a few of the warm up jumps and he was still being awesome. I decided to give him a break and just walk around the grounds while I waited for it to be time to jump the course. Stadium was running a bit behind so we had to wait a lot longer than I had planned. When it got closer to our turn I jumped Otis over the warm up fences a few more times just to wake him up. He jumped the course great. We were both feeling sleepy from standing around in the sun so we could have done better, but we went clean with no refuslas and no knock downs. This meant that we kept our first place stanidng and got to take home a blue ribbon!
My main goal for the day was to be successful in cross country with no major mishaps. Not only did we accomplish that goal, but we went clean in both cross country and stadium, and received an excellent dressage score. Otis and I were both pooped by the time it was time to go home, but what a fun day! If I thought I was hooked on eventing before, I deinitely am now!
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| A sleepy Otis proudly displaying his ribbon! |
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