After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time! most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the
As much as I love dressage, my true love is eventing. There is nothing in the world quite like galloping over a cross country course. Dreamy is a bold and willing event pony, which makes it even that much more fun.
While we did get to UNH's two-phase event early in the spring, I was unable to do any other events all year as they conflicted with the dressage shows I wanted to attend. Therefore I was unable to event until this fall.
I trucked Dreamy down to Green Acres Stable in Madbury, NH on Sept. 27, 2009 for one of their last horse trials of the year. We went in the Modified Beginner Novice division and there were six riders. We ended up placing 3rd on our dressage score.
http://carabell.zenfolio.com/p633748231/h210cf83b#h210cf83b
There are five pics of us. :)
There is one photo in the slideshow that shows us going over that skinny gate. She was totally drifting to the right, so much so that I was afraid she might run out. You can see my giving her a HUGE correction over the fence. Equitation fail! But at least we got over it. Other than that one jump, she did not look at anything else.
Here are photos from the other professional. I like #2. :) Again, huge correction in photo #6 and #7, as you can see it was a tight turn to the next fence. LOL!
http://khody.smugmug.com/Green-Acres-9-27/34/9792799_Lk7XK#664073618_kHV6Q-L-LB
While we did get to UNH's two-phase event early in the spring, I was unable to do any other events all year as they conflicted with the dressage shows I wanted to attend. Therefore I was unable to event until this fall.
I trucked Dreamy down to Green Acres Stable in Madbury, NH on Sept. 27, 2009 for one of their last horse trials of the year. We went in the Modified Beginner Novice division and there were six riders. We ended up placing 3rd on our dressage score.
It poured in the morning, but by the time I got to the event (it was 90 minutes south in NH) it was just overcast. The warm up rings were AWFUL (it rained all night...) so I had very little warm-up and just a few strides of canter! So the dressage test was OK, but would have been better if I had decent footing and a real warm-up. At least it was in the indoor, so no puddles to deal with! Dreamy was actually really good. It is an ancient indoor with uneven footing and bad lighting....but she was fairly relaxed and had a rhythmic canter.
The funny part was the judge HATED her! LOL! I am confident enough now to just ignore it, but she was like, "Wow, this horse's canter is awful. What is wrong with it?" :O She actually wrote "No canter" under gaits in the collectives! UMMMM.....OK, lady. My horse has a very nice canter for a STB! We got 7s on the canter transitions, a 6 on the left lead circle and a 4 on the right lead. That is pretty typical. The rest was 7s and 6s. She was so negative, but I did not let it bother me. She is a local woman and I do not think much of her anyway. :P
The funny part was the judge HATED her! LOL! I am confident enough now to just ignore it, but she was like, "Wow, this horse's canter is awful. What is wrong with it?" :O She actually wrote "No canter" under gaits in the collectives! UMMMM.....OK, lady. My horse has a very nice canter for a STB! We got 7s on the canter transitions, a 6 on the left lead circle and a 4 on the right lead. That is pretty typical. The rest was 7s and 6s. She was so negative, but I did not let it bother me. She is a local woman and I do not think much of her anyway. :P
Cross country was pretty slick. I was cautious and did most of it at the trot. There were some HUGE fences......supposed to be only 2' and under, but most were at least 2'6" when I stood up next to them! One fence, a coop made out of birch logs, caused MANY riders in all divisions to have refusals and some even got eliminated. It was huge too! Dreamy did not even look at it! LOL! The only fence she did get looky with was a downhill log that had a ditch about 2 strides after it. We were only to do the log, not the ditch. Well, she was looking at the ditch, thinking we were doing that afterwards. So she got a little hesitant and wiggly, but I just sat up and pushed her over it. No problem. We have never done a ditch, but I bet we could have done it if it had been part of our course! We went clean, as usual!
Stadium rode well, except there was a skinny gate to a oxer. It should have ridden in 3 canter strides. Well, Dreamy got all sticky, wanting to drift to the right, over the skinny, so our approach to the oxer was not straight. She bobbed all over the place! I had to grab mane and squeeze hard! But we got over it. I had to yell SH!T of course! LOL! I always seem to yell a swear word when I mess up. Bad me. But we went clean, which is what matters!
I was happy with her overall. She is a good girl. :) We had six riders in our division and placed 3. Only three of us went double clean. it started to drizzle right before I did my stadium, but that was not a huge deal. When I got home it was pouring. For some odd reason I cannot seem to find my dressage test, so no idea on the exact score. I want to say it was a 41 something %.
http://carabell.zenfolio.com/p633748231/h210cf83b#h210cf83b
There are five pics of us. :)
There is one photo in the slideshow that shows us going over that skinny gate. She was totally drifting to the right, so much so that I was afraid she might run out. You can see my giving her a HUGE correction over the fence. Equitation fail! But at least we got over it. Other than that one jump, she did not look at anything else.
Here are photos from the other professional. I like #2. :) Again, huge correction in photo #6 and #7, as you can see it was a tight turn to the next fence. LOL!
http://khody.smugmug.com/Green-Acres-9-27/34/9792799_Lk7XK#664073618_kHV6Q-L-LB
I hope you at least bought number 7 from the second photographer! It looks like a cover shot!
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