Ahhhhhh... I love FENCE so much!!! Or Tryon Riding and Hunt Club. I'm sooo glad that I took Liz's advice and did this show. Do I need a recognized show? Not really. Is it expensive? Yes. Was it totally worth it and exactly what my heart and soul needed... YES!!! Honestly, it was so nice to just get away and breathe. And the mountains and beautiful weather didn't hurt one bit. :)
Luckily I had already booked that Friday off months ago for Mike and I to finally have a mini vacation. Ha! Um hun... can I go horse show instead? hee hee. I'm lucky he loves me. So while I had Thursday off and was able to ride, by the time I got all of the things done, I didn't pack. So I was glad I had Friday to pack and organize. Plus I had to get Funny done and stalls done. So it was 1ish when we left. But I did at least give him a bath first. I figured the hot water would be handy and the wash rack was much easier than the wash racks with no cross ties at FENCE. We rolled in at 4:30 ish and I got him unloaded and in his stall and then parked my trailer and got my hook ups hooked up. Then I checked in and got my packet, along with a free cute Morris the horse hat and two water bottles. Nice! I decided I would ride first... and then I could walk XC by moonlight. It was a full moon and super bright at the house the night before. So we went for a ride. He felt good... just a little bit runny. Not quite fast, but.. maybe a little on the forehand. I couldn't quite get him to rock back like I wanted and I couldn't quite get him to settle. But we had a good ride. And the sunset was lovely! Luckily he didn't get too sweaty so I didn't have to give him a bath and he stayed clean.
After my ride, I got him fed and settled and then it was getting dark enough that I didn't have enough daylight to go walk XC. But I figured the moon would come out soon enough and I'd be fine. I did a few little things to get ready for the next day and then I ended up going to get ice and some food at the Ingles while I waited as it was definitely too dark at that point to walk XC. And then I ate. And the moon still hadn't risen! Finally at 9:30 pm it did and I was able to go walk XC. I decided it was probably worth a shot as I wasn't sure if I had quite enough time to walk it properly tomorrow and definitely wouldn't have enough time to walk it twice. So I did. And it was pretty cool! I put on my headlamp and headed out. I gave a ton of a deer a fright... and was a little afraid I might get trompled but they were more scared of me. Later someone mentioned bears but I'm super glad I didn't think of that while I was out there. It was tough finding a few of the fences because I can't read maps to save my life and the path was in the woods some. But I managed to eventually find all of them expect for 15, which I didn't realize til way later. It was cool walking the course by moonlight. And while I do think the fences were a bit on the small side - many were shared with BN but adjustable - I do wonder if they moonlight made it seem less daunting. :)
Our dressage time was 8:47 or something Saturday morning so I had to get up super early to get ready and get him braided. The trusty headlamp was super helpful for braiding. And he was a really good boy. He's getting so much calmer and better at standing still. I managed to get ready and done in time and once again, got on a little bit too early, but... I always think too early is better than being rushed. He warmed up well and still felt a little bit runny, but not too bad. They did a great job of keeping us posted and funneled me over with just enough time to walk over and head on it. There was a bit of a glare from the sun but thank goodness it was dressage and not jumping! We had a good test. He was very obedient and we did all the things at the right spots. I felt like our transitions were a bit better. He even got a little big across the diagonal. It was a very nice test. It just wasn't our best test. It felt a teeny bit rushed/racy. I said that either we would get dinged for being a bit rushed, or rewarded for our energy. Hee hee. It didn't feel bad... it just didn't feel superb. And now, looking back, I think that's exactly what it was. He was very obedient and soft, he was just not rocked back onto his hind end enough. We scored well. A 29.5 I think. Which put is in 3rd of 12. So while it wasn't our best score.... it wasn't bad either and we were well up in the placings. After our test I only had to rub a little sweat off and then he grazed for a quick minute and then he had to go eat hay and relax while I went to walk the course. Luckily in the daylight I saw that I did indeed miss Fence 15 and was able to find it. The course still looked smaller but there was some fun terrain questions. For whatever reason, I wasn't nervous. At all. I was excited!
XC time!!! Dan was a little leery of walking to the XC field by himself but we got there. Early. :) We warmed up a little and practiced jumping coming down the hill to the fence as there was some terrain questions. And then we were just chilling on the buckle and I was trying to find out how many ahead of me and a golf cart came out of the woods. Dan spooked and spun and I almost fell off. Whooops! Luckily he settled quickly. We jumped another fence and then it was our turn. It was a super fun course! The fences were small... not just an optical illusion in the moonlight! But good questions. We rocked and rolled over the first 4 and he wasn't sticky to them, but we weren't jumping quite out of stride like I wanted so I asked him to go. And then he surged. Not rocket boost sir.. just more forward! Hee hee. I managed to get him settled though and he jumped nicely after that. He didn't look at anything and wasn't backed off of anything. Well, that's not true. hee hee. The jump judges were all sitting fairly close to their fences so he was looking at them and being squirrely up to the fences. But he didn't back off any of the fences nor did he spook at any of the fences. Just was using the fence judges as an excuse to be wiggly. He honestly felt bored. He was skipping over the fences. And there was a few that he ran past his distances on. He took a flyer on the red cabin and I got left behind. But he nailed the ditch combo and was brave even over the ones that looked like you were leaping off the edge of the world! We cruised and took the long routes but didn't trot any and ended up well under optimum, but not in danger of speed faults. He was barely winded when we finished. (Unlike me.. you can hear me breathing the whole way on my helmet cam!). We had so much fun!
Look at his knees!!!! LOOK!!!!!! And I honestly thought he was skipping around these fences bored. I was totally expecting hanging knees photos again. GOOD BOY!!! :)
After we untacked he stood in his ice boots and ate his hay. Then I managed to get him to stand in his ice boots one hind leg at a time so he got all 4 legs iced. And then he got a nap while I got lunch. And then I even tried to take a little nap. Then we grazed in the steeplechase field and chilled. And I walked stadium which looked like a super fun course. We grazed some more. Then the neighbors in the RV next door invited me over for cheesecake and then also fed me dinner. That was nice!
I didn't have to get up quite as early for stadium, but I still got up early so I could braid. Because... you know... good photos. And we were in 3rd still. And the team challenge was going well! It appeared that our team was winning! Dan warmed up great and the course looked fun. So off we went. He was SUPER! It might have been one of our better rounds. He jumped everything nicely. We had a few where we got to a tricky spot but whether I asked for him to leave long or to add one in, he did. And he got us through with no rails! Yay!! Good boy. He did the 2 stride great! Which made me extra happy as it was the "Morris the Horse" combo. :) We ended up moving up to 2nd because my friend had one rail and Fence does a victory gallop so we got to do that. Dan was in such a good move he didn't even try to win the race! Ahhhh... It was so tempting to go hack in the trails after but I knew we had to get home. Funny (and her stall) was waiting! BUT... they had such a fabulous backdrop we couldn't resist going back to the trailer to get my phone and then hacking back to the backdrop for photos. :)
Ahhhhh... what a great weekend. Dan and I had a blast hanging out with each other and we had so much fun. Tryon Riding and Foothills club always makes us feel so welcome too. And the views. And the weather. Ahhhhhhhh
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