Close, but no cigar!
Dan and I have done two schooling shows at training level but they were about 1 and 2 years ago. Successful, but it's been awhile. We then moved up and did training at Ashland for the Halloween show, but it was "training lite". It was training level show jumping for sure but the XC was a soft course. Not novice, but a mix of novice and training. Plus, it's Ashland, which...is soft and we can school it whenever. So the plan was to move up to training at Stableview and school the day before, like last year. But then when we got his neck injected, I didn't realize he needed two weeks off instead of 3 days so we couldn't do that. Plus, Jacel had to cancel that show too. So we then looked at doing Full Gallop's show. Recognized. Gulp!! Okay, I mean... nothing like going for it. Ideally I had wanted to do a schooling show first, but... oh well. Fine. It works for everyone else. But I started getting soooo nervous. And then the weather looked rough. Like... tornados/storms/downpours/lightning for the whole weekend. Okay, cause that's ideal for my first training level. Ugh. So I prayed. And God provided. I saw a shooting star the week of the show. Not just a tiny little streak but a big long one with a fizzling end. Thanks God. And then I saw the hawks a lot this week. Thanks God. And then I had some emotional stuff with Dan and him not loving me because he doesn't nicker at me, he pins his ears at me. Not sure what that had to do with the show, but it was another thing I was stressing about. But then I had a good talk with some friends about how Dan does love me, he just has a different love language. So, okay... starting to feel a little better about Dan and the show. But still worried about the weather!
The show was Sunday so we did decide that Saturday we would go to the Vista and school as prep. Not a ton, so we didn't wear them out, but just enough to get us feeling good. Friday was a long work day and non-stop. I got home later and it was dark so I didn't do any packing or anything, but luckily I had prepped mostly the day before. I did have to fill the water trough though and since it was supposed to start raining overnight, I figured I would just go ahead and do it. So I did. But the horses wouldn't stay away so instead of finishing packing the trailer I had to babysit the trough. Dan was making me giggle. He was sticking his nose in the stream and wiggling it and then trying to bite the house.
Since it was dark and chilly, I figured we'd just have to bathe in the morning or at Full Gallop. But I also wasn't too stressed as I figured the weather prediction would make any bathing efforts minimally noted anyways. So I went to bed. When I woke up it had rained a little but then stopped and wasn't too freezing, so I decided to go ahead and give Dan a bath. I did it before breakfast thinking that would work in my favor. He got his bath and I put the cooler on him and put him out and immediately got breakfast ready. At first he hung out in the stall and was awaiting breakfast but very quickly he started to paw and look like he wanted to roll. So I got after him and unfortunately, chased him out into the pasture. Clearly then he was going to roll out there so I ran back in and got his halter and brought him back into his stall. I managed to keep him upright until breakfast and he chowed down. I tossed the really good alfalfa and crossed my fingers. He started munching but then before I could react, down he went. NOOOO... Seriously Dan?!? Luckily he was still wearing his cooler so he only managed to get a little bit of mud on his hamstrings area. Dangit dude. Of course when I was finishing his bath it rained hard for about 6 minutes so he was nice and muddy. Oh well.
We loaded up and headed to the Vista. The closer we got the nicer the weather got. By the time we schooled it was 75 degrees and sunny!! Yahooo! Thanks God! (apparently it had rained pretty much all day at home though, so the big storm was squirting around us). We had a nice school. It wasn't super, but... not bad. We jumped a few things and tried to be picky so we didn't wear him out. We did the corner, but had two stops at it. I did fix it though. We did the sunken road, as Full Gallop had posted the course and it was almost the same course as the one they had run at a previous show that showed photos. We also jumped a few big tables, which... went okay. He still feels sticky to them and it's apparently because I'm not galloping him to them. So then we went to the last field to see what was in there and the others jumped a few. We were a little confused because we thought we were originally in the training/prelim field but then the last field, which we thought was BN/N, also had a decent corner and a few training looking type fences. So... maybe we schooled some of the easy prelim fences? I still don't know. But the corner they had was fairly soft so maybe it was novice. But it was bright blue and looky, so I wanted to jump that. And another log stack thing. So we did. And he was sticky to those. So then I got all in my head and felt like I was going to cry. We're not ready... we're sticky. Why can't I send him to them? Sigh... Jacel talked me down off a ledge and told me to GALLOP to a novice fence. So I did. And he jumped it out of stride. She told me I was fine and that I just needed to get him rolling and that it was okay when he patted the ground and added the extra stride. It wasn't the end of the world. But I was still feeling kind of poorly about our jumps. sigh.. Dan got a second bath (though with cold water) because he was sweaty. His poor face and legs were so hairy and sweaty and of course he's not a fan of the face wash, so... oh well.
We then headed to Full Gallop and got lucky with our stall and hook up locations. We got them settled and went to walk the courses. They looked fun. Stadium is always fun at Full Gallop. They did have the triple bar, which honestly... didn't upset me so much. Maybe because I knew it was set for prelim height? Cross country was exactly as anticipated. And actually, it seemed like a pretty decent course, maybe even a hair soft. The first 2 fences were fine. The third was a big table but not that bad. Fence 4 was a skinny table but not huge and not a chevron. Fence 5a and b was just two fairly small tables set on the slightest of angles. So slight. Then downhill to the sunken road. The first water was pretty easy considering. Jump then two or three strides into the water. Then out of the water and up the steep hill to a tiny log on top of the mound. Then down the steep hill to a corner, but you had about 5 or 6 strides before the corner. And you could also choose to do a "chevron" with brush instead. It wasn't quite as thick, solid, or skinny as the stableview chevron and fairly short. Then a bench down the hill, but it was painted in such a way that you really didn't notice it was a bench until you were on top of it. Then a big table up the hill. Then down the hill by the treeline and up the hill to a small table. Then the second water was a fun hanging branch, then a small raised log into the water. Which looked pretty fun but had the potential to be tricky as you literally landed in a drop into the water. Then a long gallop up the hill around a curve to a semi-hidden coop, but it was small. Then a half coffin - ditch to skinny coop. Then a final BIG table and then the last fence was a fun hammock type hanging log with a boulder in front. So.. really, not that tough of a training course. It actually looked fairly fun and I was really only worried about the corner and the big tables.
After we walked the course we took the ponies out for a walkabout and sunset graze. It was a gorgeous night. We really got lucky with the weather. Thanks God! We fed them dinner and then went to dinner ourselves. We went to a great sports bar called Grumpies. Their BBQ chicken sandwich was really good. After we got back and checked ponies again I cleaned my tack and then we headed to bed. Before we did though, I went out to the drive and sat down on the flatbed there and watched the sky. I saw another shooting star. Okay, thanks God. Feeling a bit like "everythings gonna be okay".
That night the weather forecast was looking even better and it only rained briefly overnight. Great! It actually improves the footing in Aiken cause of the sand. We woke up to a cloudy sky but no rain. There was some lightning in the distance but nothing happening at Full Gallop. I rode dressage at 8:48 and by the time it was my ride time it was actually sunny out and a bit warm. We warmed up and Jacel told me to open my thighs and it allowed his withers to lift and his shoulders to lift and improved his trot and canter! It was cool feeling him tip up and down in relation to my seat. Okay, cool! We had a good test. He was very obedient and we did all the things with no breaking gait when we weren't supposed to. Our canter lengthens to working were maybe a bit drawn out and I could have shortened her working canter a bit more. And our trot lengthen could have been a bit bigger, but... I thought it was quite a nice test. The judge agreed and we scored a 29, which tied us for 4th. It was a classy division! Lots of nice horses. And first place was a 28 so we weren't too far off.
When we got on for stadium the clouds have covered the sky and the winds had picked up. It was a hair chilly, but great weather for jumping! We warmed up and the first two jumps were a little meh.. So I came with more power and he jumped the third jump great! So we decided to go with that. I went in before Jacel and ... it was awful. The first fence we were underpowered and underpaced and he jumped it but awkward. So I kicked him on and sent him and the second one was quite nice. But then we came around to the third, which was the triple bar, and.. he stopped. What?!?! I didn't think I dropped my shoulders at and I felt like he was going well. But clearly he was just loping along and I didn't encourage him any. We came again and stopped again. CRUD!!! Am I eliminated?? How many stops do I get? But they didn't ring the bell, so.. I came again and this time I used the crop. He jumped it. Not great but he did. We went around and jumped fence 4 slightly better. Then it was a tight turn to the combo and we got in okay but lost a little on the out. We got through it and then also pooped over the next fence. The next line was another combo and it also wasn't great. Sigh.. come on Holly.. get it together! The jumps weren't even that big or scary, so why was I riding so terribly? Then we had the train and I actually rode that one and he jumped it nice but then we got a funky distance to the final fence too. Sigh.. I'm sorry buddy. I let you down. Thanks for getting us through that, no thanks to me. Sigh.. Suprisingly he jumped clean.. but two stops. Jacel told me that basically I just let my nerves get to me and rode him like it was BN. I needed more speed and power.
We headed to XC and she told me to go jump the two warm up fences. We did but she was telling me to GALLOP the whole time. I managed to kick him up and the second fence was better. I decided to wait and then right before it was turn I would gallop him over one more and then go to the box, so he was amped up. And we did. And it was MUCH better. He jumped it out of stride. Okay.. that's the ride! So we went to the startbox and he was a little rowdy, which made me feel good. And off we went. The first two were decent. I had to use my crop though. Sigh.. Fence 3 was sticky, but we got over it. Then he jumped fence 4 decently and then... fence 5, the combo that I thought was easy peasy.. he slid to a stop at. What?!? Okay, so maybe I was just running you at it instead of balancing you, so.. I came back around and rode him and he jumped it fine, though he wasn't forward to the out either. Sigh... So then we went down the hill and he jumped the sunken road like a rockstar! Then he jumped the water combo great and while we were a hair sticky to the corner, he did it. And it felt more like he just wanted to add rather than he was hesitating. Then we galloped down to the bench and jumped that great. Then we sort of crawled over the big table. Dangit! So then we galloped the small table out of stride and then he jumped the water combo like a rockstar. Just leapt right in and out. Yay! So then I'm telling him we're home free... the coffin is easy peasy.. he's got this. Then I was like, well, okay.. I mean, it's a coffin, so pay attention, but you can do this. And he leaps out of stride over the coop, then we do the coffin beautifully. Okay buddy, one more big table and then we're almost done. And we get to the big table and... I think I just.... quit riding. And he was like "wait? Where did you go?". He jumped it.. but awkward and like a deer because I quit riding. And he popped me out of the tack and I couldn't stick it. I tried, but I literally landed on my feet at his shoulder. NOOOOOOOO... ONE FENCE FROM HOME!!! And I really wanted to jump that last fence too as it looked fun. Scary, but fun. So argghhh.. He was like "MOM... we were THIS CLOSE to be being an offical training horse"! I know, buddy I'm so sorry!
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