I was running a bit behind on Friday (per usual) but managed to only leave about an hour later than I had anticipated. However, shortly after getting onto the interstate my "check engine gauge" light came on. Huh?! So.... I thought well.... I'll slow down some. But I was already going fairly slow for the interstate. It helped but not much and it kept going close to the red again. So then I thought, well... maybe I need to turn the heat on. Maybe it's overheating. So... okay.... I've got the windows down, but holy heck it was hot. It was like...95 degrees outside.... I had the heat on... and despite turning the vents away from me... I was started to really get miserable. My cracked leather seats are NOT comfy when you're sticking to them. So then I checked and it still wasn't really helping. It was better, but still not cooling down like I wanted. So then I had the epiphany that maybe I shouldn't be hauling in two mode since the RPM's were pretty high. So... I took it off (Ie...turned overdrive back on) and my RPM's dropped way down, not almost in the red like it had been and lo and behold.. the truck engine temp dropped dramatically. I was able to turn the a/c back on. And then the rest of the trip went fine. DUH!! But.. cut me some slack. My chevy had a tow mode.... and it hauled all the time with it on the entire way, even on the interstate. (I think.. maybe I did take it off some???) But Bart never overheated on me. And Sally is a 3500!! But maybe cause she's diesel? And my trailer is now substantially bigger and heavier. And I was on the interstate going 65 to 70. And in my mind... I was afraid to tow that big trailer without tow mode, but... now I know. :) And by the way, I was able to get up to 75 mph now. Doh.. Oh well. Lesson learned.
Anyways... we finally got there and I got the trailer hooked up (yay me!) and we finally got tacked up and headed out to school XC. Danny was super and we had a blast. He jumped a good chunk of the novice course but not all over it. I waffled between "putting money in the bank" and "cheating" but decided to jump the tricky stuff, leave the simple stuff, and then we jumped a few of the training options instead of the novice ones. And a few extra training fences. I was so proud of him. He was literally becoming quite point and shoot!!! They even had an uphill bank with a short bendy line (maybe 5 strides) to a fake corner! On Novice!!! (Okay... so it was a wedge, but on a bendy line after an up bank!) I didn't ride quite forward enough so Dan had to pop in a chip before the fake corner but he just lopped on over. :) We had a blast!!! We also did this fun thing, which doesn't look so bad on camera, but... was kind of impressive in person. It was skinny.... a log on top of the bank... He just trotted up to it, picked up the canter and hopped off. So I did it again and made Anne video. :) Of course I got cocky. We walked over the ditch and he was game so we trotted and then cantered it. So then we went down to the big ditch with all the things and the novice line was a coop with a turn to the ditch. The training line was a coffin. I thought.. meh, we'll be fine... and went for the training line. As we were approaching I thought... perhaps I should just do the second half of the coffin to be fair... and good thing. As we got close to the ditch Dan slowed way down and tried to run out almost, but we basically ran to the left and jumped the ditch (without stopping or even coming to a walk, but we did come to a trot) on the novice side instead of the training side. BUT... he did it despite giving it the hairy eyeball. So rather than push the issue, we just came through the training line and carried on. Then at the top of the hill we did the training fence after the up bank to make us feel big and brave again. And then... I saw it. The heeby jeeby fence. It was the ramped log stack thing but open in between. It was set on the hill so it was a ramp up off the top of the hill with a fairly substantial drop. It was marked as training. I decided to do it since he had already done the bank thing drop.... I came to it and then circled.. chickening out. Then I kept going and we went to it and he just popped right over it like it was nothing!!! Wheeee!!!! We did a few more fences and then finished at the water complex. The last time we were there they didn't have any water in it other than the trickle on the edge of the bank and Dan freaked out! I had to get off and I still couldn't get him up the bank. Down was fine-ish... So this time.. there was water. And we were able to go up and down and up and down. :) Yay!!!
Anyways... I tried to ice Dan that night, but.... I didn't have much ice left and then I realized I didn't have a hose where I was going to do it... and then I tried with my kitty litter water containers and he stepped out of it and tipped it over when I got the first boot on so I gave up and just linimented him. After feeding him and wrapping him, I let him eat some hay while I cleaned tack. It was actually a fairly nice night out so it was pleasant. So then I used Poplar's shower so I didn't have to rearrange my abode and... then when I was finished I planned to take Dan for a walk. What perfect timing!! God must have made it happen just so... so that it all fell into place. It was a super moon night.. or maybe a harvest moon night... some kind of special moon night. And I just happened to take Dan for his walk as it was rising! It was amazing!!!
Saturday was a beautiful morning too! God is so amazing!
I tried not to get on too early as it was hot and Dan and I had a full day, but.. I did. Oh well. We warmed up and both of us were feeling a bit sluggish and almost blase about things. At least it seemed like it. I was trying to get more swing from Dan but... in some ways he felt too loose and just.... sloppy??? Maybe.. I don't know. It didn't feel like it was going to be super awesome. Maybe it's because it was Kelly judging us and I wanted to be superstars!! We did our test and during one of the canters, Dan broke to the trot. I thought it was lackluster but obedient (Minus the break... but my fault for not keeping my leg on). Apparently it wasn't that bad. I know Kelly can be generous, but... we scored a 30.95!! Which put us a very close second to the only other girl in our class. Hee hee... Close enough that I think we may have beaten her had Dan and I not broken in the canter. But maybe not. Anyways... after the show I ran into Kelly and she said she was pleased with how much more forward in general Dan was, especially at the walk and trot. She said he was energetic, but that the canter still needed more. ha ha.. You think?!? :)
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