EEEEKKKKS.... We did it!! We're a training level team!! (again!).
I am so so glad that Jacel convinced me (although to be fair, I was leaning towards it myself, but glad for that extra push). I toyed with just going and schooling XC and then running the CT the next day... because what if there was a trakehnher.... or chevrons?! But then I was thinking I'd be sad if the course wasn't too bad and I could have done it. So she made a good point. Two good points. I could always scratch and just do the CT and skip XC if it was too much. And because it was the beginning of the season, it shouldn't be a crazy hard course. So, I signed up for the whole 3 phase. And yep, so glad I did. Chevrons included. :)
We hauled in Saturday morning and I ended up parking in day parking because it was just easier to get tacked up before we schooled XC at the trailer than trying to find his stall and park and drag him back and forth. We warmed up and he was pretty decent but we avoided that big chevron in warm up because we weren't quite there yet. Then we headed out on course. We basically jumped the first two training jumps on course to get him going. He was perfect! Then Jacel had us jump the third fence because "there's a weird glare and it backs every horse off, so be prepared". Um yeah.. it did NOT back Dan off. :) We skipped the train fence because I was trying to preserve his legs and didn't want to "cheat" the entire course. Then there was a fairly big steeplechase fence that was white. With lots of shrubbery. (Stableview did a great job and decorated all the jumps, which was extra awesome for the schooling show). Jacel pointed out that while Dan was jumping well... and not backed off, he still wasn't fully in it. She told me to get excited! She said that he was emotional and that we needed to have FUN!!! So, we headed to that fence and I cheered Dan on. And he perked up and jumped the snot out of that big fence! Wheee. Okay, NOW we're really having fun! The next fence was a small drop and a bendy line to a coop and Jacel had us do that... and then continue on to the big cabin. We did. And Dan was perfect! I kept cheering. We then skipped the next two big tables. Next on course was a fairly big double brush on a slight angle in regards to terrain. Dan jumped amazing over that and I almost went straight on to the chevron because he felt so good but I pulled up figuring I should get a pep talk. I let him walk up to it, but he was unconcerned and tried to eat the flowers. Ha ha. And he basically came at it like it was no big deal and jumped it awesome! Whoo hooo! Next up on course was an option. You could do a small corner/wedge or a small trakenher. We jumped both and Dan didn't flinch over either. Then next up was two upright coops with brush on a 3 stride angle. Again, Dan just whizzed over them... perfect 3 strides. Damn boy! You're on fire! We then skipped the next two giant tables! One even was a big table with a little footstool, but... we skipped it. I wanted to leave something for tomorrow. :) I was ready to quit with that as he was super but Jacel wanted us to jump the jump into the water and then over the big hammock as she said the hammock sometimes surprised them. She may have forgotten we had jumped the novice hammock last time, but why not!? We did them and he was super duper again! He literally was foot perfect!!
I hacked him back to the trailer, untacked him and then gave him a bath. Then I iced all 4 feet and then I drove him to his stall. Ha ha. He was lucky and got the end stall and settled in pretty decently. I unhitched and we walked stadium. Then I cleaned tack and we had dinner. Jacel had rented one of those little cabins right there, so it was so nice to not have to leave or go anywhere and to be able to eat dinner without a wait. The only downside was that the water in the shower was barely luke warm. I did a quick rinse but didn't bother washing my hair and I had goosebumps. Ugh. Then we grazed the ponies under the stars. I was talking to Mike and after I hung up I caught part of their conversation about at least her geldings love her, even though she prefers mares. I said "I wish MY gelding loved me". And Dan picked his head up from the grass, moved in, and nuzzled my chest. Awwww... you do love me buddy!
He slept pretty well and I did not. Ha! My bed was comfy. It was the couch. And I was close to the bathroom but the tv had a screensaver on it which was so bright. And because I was the last to bed and they had turned out the lights... I didn't want to mess with the remote and risk waking anyone up. And my dumb self didn't think to unplug the tv. Oh well. Nerves too! Which is silly as... I had already done the XC course!!
Sunday morning was COLD! SO COLD! I didn't prepare fully. I thought my fingers were going to fall off. I hacked him over to the warm up arena on the buckle. But we got within 20 feet of the covered and he got all animated. We walked into the arena and he squirted, bucked, and spun and I pulled him up and headed to the grass warm up. It just wasn't worth fighting him and pissing off the other riders. Dingbat. I don't know why this is becoming a thing. Oh well. We warmed up in the grass area but he was so on the muscle and throwing his right barrel at me. I kept trying and we got a little bit of nice work but nothing like what he's capable of. I even tried moving his barrel, but... not much success. Finally Jacel showed up. She had been waiting for me in the warm up area for 20 minutes. Ooops! She told me to leg yield a few steps and then half pass back those few steps and he loosened up really nicely. He was still on the muscle but I could do that subtly and get him soft. Kind of like the flex/counter flex trick. So we walked up to the arena and still had 2 rides before me. Oh well. Not quite enough time to go back and warm up but too much time to stand. Oh well. We stood. We went in and our test was mediocre. He was on the muscle still and hanging on me. And I was hanging back. We hadn't run through that actual test and in the small arena it all happened so quick. It was a lot of rapid fire stuff too... working trot, stretchy trot, working trot, trot lengthen, working trot, walk, trot, canter, immediately canter lengthen, working canter, change lead, etc. So, it showed. He wasn't terrible.. and he was mostly obedient. It just wasn't what he's capable of. Or me. Our first downward across the diagonal in the canter he fell out of it too early... the second time I was more prepared and had him more balanced and ready but then he immediately picked up the other lead. Oops. Ha ha. I joked about him giving me a flying change. Close. ;) We ended up in a 3 way tie for 2nd out of 11 or 12 people so not too bad at all considering. Still, It's getting frustrating that we can't seem to show our best work there.
I untacked him and tried to warm up my hands. It wasn't too long before it was time to jump, so off we went. He warmed up pretty well but I had to get pumped again and get excited before he really kicked in. The course wasn't super huge but was basically a big gallopy course. Jacel said this particular course was going to rely solely on your canter. If your canter wasn't quality, you'd have rails. And the final line was a 2 stride to a 7 stride ending on an oxer. She said they would all build going to that final fence so be careful. Dan was great! It wasn't our smoothest round but it wasn't bad at all. He jumped me out of the tack for some of them. And we had a few rubs but we got lucky and had no rails. And I rode that last line well and that didn't even have a rub! Whooo hoo!! Double clear.
Jacel told me to jump the one jump in XC warm up and then head out unless I felt like I wanted to jump that chevron. She told me that I needed to commit if I did and if I did, and it didn't go well.. to just jump the log again and go out and not worry about that chevron. I decided NOT to do it because... while I think he would have.. he didn't need to. Although I did think about maybe coming back AFTER XC and doing it. ;) So off we went. He was AWESOME!!! He basically flew through that entire course and didn't blink at anything. If anything he was a little too gung ho and I felt like he was getting a little flat and runny, so I would half halt. But I don't think I had as much leg as I had half halt, or I got more response than I expected, so we did that thing were he felt like he was running past his distance and then I checked and then we had to put in a little chip. And sometimes it wasn't even a chip, it just wasn't as smoothly jumping out of stride. He was definitely "prettier" and smoother schooling, but... that's fair. He was rolling and I need to get braver with that bigger rolling stride. But regardless, it was a lovely solid ride and he had a blast! We finished well under optimum, but with no speeding tickets without even having to try. :) YAY!!!
Because we were in the middle of closest to optimum of the 3 way tie.. and they all jumped double clear too, we moved to 3rd place. But 3rd place in our first training again!!!! What a good boy! I iced him again and then he rested while I packed up and cheered everyone else on. ahhhh... such a great weekend. I love being part of this group. When I was warming up for stadium I mentioned something about being nervous but not sure why I was nervous so Jacel prayed with me. I love that. It made me tear up. And also, I saw his "Thankful" bridle charm.... and I teared up. I'm so thankful and grateful that God decided to heal my boy enough for me to do this again. He could have said no. He could have made him only good for trail riding. But he didn't. And we moved up to training level!!! That's like... 3 whole levels higher than it could have been. So yep. An amazing weekend!
