My goal for this, our first event, first rated event, first
time show jumping, and first time going XC, was always to 1) make it a good
experience for both of us, 2) learn and 3) finish. We ended up accomplishing all three
and getting a shiny silver 4
th
place ribbon! I am so thrilled with the way I learned what
he needed from me over fences, and what we learned about each other, and can’t
wait for the next one. The three photos I bought are coming really soon, but if you'd like to see all of the proofs/order any (Hi Mom!), they are located at
this link. Now for the rundown:
Dressage
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| The tent stabling on the walk back from XC |
The equestrian sport psychology book talked a lot about
preparation and visualization, and as a result of following its advice I felt confident as we warmed up instead of feeling like a nervous basket
case. My trainer focused more on my
teammates than on me in the warmup because Connor was so relaxed and focused on
me – big change from last summer. We got
lots of 7’s, a few 6’s and two 8’s for our final down centerline/halt/salute,
with the most common comment being “stiff through back”. When I got back to the barn, I was greeted
with a text from Austen congratulating me on my score of 34 before I even had a
chance to check my score! We led the
field by 6 points after Dressage.
Stadium
Stadium was two hours after Dressage in a grass ring, and
the jumps were all quite wide, and were mostly intricate standards with poles
and flowers underneath. Like with
Dressage, I was so mentally well-prepared for it that any nervousness I felt
was fear of the unknown – how Connor would react to doing stadium on grass over
strange fences, jumping flowers for the first time, right next to the tent
stabling. In our warmup, I started to
get a feel for the level of confidence he required from me, and we had a couple
of good fences toward the end of the warmup.
After our stadium round, the barn moms told me that it
looked like he just needed to put his nose down and check out each fence before
going over them. He swerved before the
first fence, causing me to lose my stirrup, but went over it without a refusal,
and though our approach was…green…to every fence, we made it through clear,
primarily because the only thing in my brain was “Cowboy up!” He’s a green pony and this ain’t hunters, it
doesn’t have to be pretty! All I needed
was for him to come out of the ring feeling accomplished and proud of himself,
and to not be scared, and we did that – as well as going clear, thanks to his
scopey, athletic jump even from a near standstill. As for me, the photos show that my stirrups
are finally short enough, and I only jumped ahead of him at two fences.
XC
XC was the biggest unknown of the weekend for both of
us. The course started out with an easy
log, but got progressively harder from there. Fence photos are at the end of the post for reference. Fence 2 was a ridiculously skinny log right next to a huge prelim fence,
and that’s where we had our one and only runout. We circled back and he popped it the second
time with lots of encouragement from me.
From there it was an uphill canter to a taller log, then a
long canter to the bogey fence, the first non-log, a feeder with evergreens on
top. Not only did it look funny, there
was a nice, wide inviting path mowed on either side of it for the other
divisions, and it was the only fence on course to not have flag poles on either
side, just flags stapled to the fence itself.
I was not surprised when he stopped dead at it, but I also knew that if
he took a single step backward we would be last in our division, so I urged him
on – and he jumped it from a standstill!
Good pony! I ended up on his
neck, and one of his back hooves hit it as we came down on the other side, but he was fine and I quickly regained my seat and we cantered away.
It was like that fence was the turning point in our Disney
movie, because after that, I knew what level of commitment and confidence he
needed from my ride, and he knew that he could get over anything I asked, even
from a standstill. Fence 5 was a pile of
downhill logs, and with a swerve at the fence judge, he took it like a
champ. At the fence 6 coop and the fence
7 red ramp, he locked on and gave me just the spot I asked for. After the final jump, another log, we had
about a 150m canter to the finish, and we went through the flags with ears up
and eyes bright, still cantering. I
jumped off of him as quickly as possible, loosened his girth, gave him a big,
sweaty hug and walked the quarter mile through the woods back to the barn next to him. His job was done and we were both so happy!
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| I missed Fences 1 and 2. This is Fence 3, at the top of the hill. |
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| Fence 4, the one he jumped from a standstill. Look how inviting that is to go around! |
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| Fence 5, on a slight downhill. There was a truck parked next to it that he swerved at. |
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| Fence 6 |
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| Fence 7 |
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| Fence 8 "Finish pole", and the finish flags way in the distance. |
