Oops, we did it again!

 Another first place!!! We finished on our dressage score of 25.3 and stayed in first! 

We left at 5:45 this morning to head to Aiken again. (It just works better for all of us. Dan is happier being out and not having to be in a stall.. it's cheaper... and at Beginner Novice, the times are late enough in the day that I have plenty of time to get there and walk my courses!). We made good time and got there with just enough time to unload, take a quick walk, and then pop him back in the trailer while I went to do the course walk with Jacel. It wasn't raining yet, but... the forecast was showing rain and storms literally all day. In fact, they were supposed to start at 4 am. It did sprinkle very briefly while I was feeding before we left, but then it stopped. We made our course walk and didn't get wet! The course looked good actually! There was a few slightly intimidating fences in the sense that one was a hammock and one was a giant table. BUT... I wasn't freaked out. I wasn't even super nervous. I thought "Those are big, but... look doable". In fact, the novice course actually looked fairly doable. Of course, it's a lot easier to say that when I'm not actually jumping it, but.. yay for that. So then I unloaded Dan again and he had a pee. Then he hung out eating his hay for a bit. The sky started looking a bit darker so I decided that I should probably walk XC again before it got to raining, so poor Dan had to go stand in the trailer again. He probably would have been fine, but... I didn't want him getting loose and running amuck while I was on the XC field. Plus, if it started raining he'd stay dry. So I headed out. I figured I'd walk stadium first. Of course by the time I made it to stadium it started raining. But not terribly. I watched a few rides and then they opened the course for walking. I said hi to Melissa and she asked what I was riding. I told her BN and then she said "let's HOPE you get to ride BN... the weather may not cooperate!". Ugh. Yep. The stadium course looked fun! It had some fun lines and some fun turns. So then I headed over and walked XC again in the rain. It looked even better the second time. Fun! 

I got back to the trailer and it was really starting to rain now. I was pretty wet so I changed into dry clothes and sat in the trailer for a bit listening to the rain on the roof. Dan was munching hay for a bit but then he got bored and annoyed. Sorry buddy! There's only so much I can do. It eventually was time to get ready for dressage. Still raining. Ugh. But, it was either ride in the rain, or don't ride. I was hoping the weather would stop for XC, but if I didn't ride dressage, it wouldn't matter if it stopped or not. So I tacked up in the rain.... and hopped on. Luckily they have that big covered arena to warm up in. Of course by the time we got to it we were already pretty wet. We went in and started to walk around. Except Dan decided he was in a mood and he started spinning and bolting and bucking. Goober! I was giggling. He wasn't really scared... just bored! We tried to do a few things but he wouldn't settle so I finally just had to excuse ourselves. We headed back out, which took a minute, and did some trotting around the parking lot. (sandy parking lot, not concrete/asphalt). In the pouring rain... DAN! But he settled so we headed back in to the covered and tried again. He was better, but there was still some antics. I was able to do some work but he was motoring! He kept breaking into the canter.... and then he'd settle into a lovely super soft but rocked back and powerful canter... then he'd squeak and bolt! ha ha. Only it was a canter, but it was basically a bolting canter. Goob! We did some medium trots. We did some half passing. We cantered a lot. We did transitions. He was on the muscle and motoring! And it was fine because that arena is huge but I was a little afraid we would motor right on out of the small dressage arena! Oh well. They called me and I reminded myself that I just needed a clean cross country run. :) So in we went. And of course, being Dan, he was super! He was a bit more expressive maybe and a teeny bit braced.. instead of hanging softly, but it was nice and he did all the things. Our halt was a bit better through the walk this time too! Although as soon as we halted he had to turn and look at the horses running XC! hee hee. That's okay buddy.. that's next! But thank you for getting through your whole test (mostly) before you got distracted!  Turns out, that was a really good test! We scored a 25.3, which put us in first place out of 15 in the open beginner novice division! GOOD BOY DAN! He got pretty much all 7, 7.5, and 9's until our halt.. which was a 6. ha ha! He even scored an 8 on his gaits!!! We stayed and watched the others tests too... Laura's, Jacel's and Jeans. Oh, and... when we went back into the covered to warm up after the first set of antics, the rain stopped. So we got to ride our test in the non rain!

Since the rain had stopped, Dan got to stay out of the trailer and much his hay. He was much happier and calmer now that he had been able to move his feet! We hung out a bit and finally it was time to tack up for jumping! EEEEKKKKS! But I was excited! We headed over and warmed up. The first one was good. The second jump I asked him to move up and he got a little deep. Jacel told me that since he was in front of my leg and going, there really wasn't a need to ask him to move up. Just stay quiet, soften my elbows and stay up in the chest/shoulders. So the next one was perfect and we went in with that. Our show jump round was pretty darn good! We got a teeny bit sticky to one or two, but not because he was behind my leg. One he jumped bold over that I wasn't expecting so I got a hair left behind. Two of them I should have asked him to move up to and didn't and he got the chip in. But because he was in front of my leg, it was okay. It's just that had I encouraged the teeniest bit, he would have moved up and jumped more out of stride. BUT, the rest of them were pretty much just that! Right out of stride! And he jumped clean! Even the in and out at the end. We sort of ate the first one and he jumped big and bold over the B and stayed clean! YAY!!!! 

We headed over to XC and still no rain!! And it was a great XC round! He started out and just clocked on through! He jumped the scary hammock without even peeping at it. We had one jump we sort of got sucked into and slid a hair so he kind of pooped over it. Of course it was the one Melissa was judging at but she cheered us on anyways! Whoo hooo! He was game and bold into the water and was super brave and jumped the big table out of stride! YAY!! The one that I think we had the refusal at (granted novice, but still, at our last event there). He finished in fine form just 2 seconds past speeding fault time and was ready for more. It took me 30 seconds to get him to stop trotting and walk. He was so proud! I was telling him how amazing he was but he was looking for his adoring fans. hee hee. "Mom, where are all my fans? Where are my bouquets of roses?". hee hee. Then he didn't want to go back to the trailer and we spent 10 minutes walking around, sniffing poo, looking at things... trying to get back to the XC field. :) Ahhhh... I'm so glad he's happy!

So yep! We held onto first place! It was close too... not even 1 point difference between me and the second place girl. But we won! Yay!! So now, one clean XC run between us and AEC's! (Of course, we've been there before... , but that's not going to happen this year!). We even won a saddle pad and some banix! Yay for prizes!

I got him all cooled off (not that he was that sweaty as it wasn't hot and he's fit as a fiddle) and bemered him and poulticed him. By that point, pretty much everyone had left, so I took him with me to go get my ribbon. Of course he was dragging me around and being silly. He got lots of compliments all day too, including when we went to get our ribbon. And he got to be in the photo since he came up with me :) Smile! As we were heading back, he was dragging me around sniffing poop. At one point, he squealed and leapt straight up and spun around the line. He didn't try to get loose... he was just having fun. Some lady walking by was like "what was that about?".  Who knows lady.. who knows? Because... Dan. :) Hee hee. He did eventually load up and we headed home. He gets tomorrow and Monday off and then we lesson Tuesday with Rana. 

Ahhhhh.... good day! I'm so grateful to God for keeping the rain mostly at bay. But most importantly, I'm grateful to God for letting me have my event pony back. My D-rex/Danomite/Danimal is back!!!