Midsouth Pony Club Horse Trials
With our farm horse trials just a week away and many of the students saving their horses for that outing, Midsouth PC HT was a bit of a vacation this year!!! With just 6 horses running, things were ultra-relaxing and it was hilarious… Though I did miss all the smiling faces!
Four of the six horses that we took were all at the Preliminary level…. Ali on Alex, Chelsea on Basil, Maddy on Bernie, and Megan on Hopper. There were 42 preliminary level horses running this weekend, and the two strongest preliminary divisions I’ve ever seen…. The divisions were filled with numerous professionals on their intermediate and advanced horses… This was a Prelim division to contend with!
I was so proud of all our prelim horses…. They all contested these horses with great class. Chelsea showed an improved dressage tests and we’re very excited for their potential! Maddy had a terrific dressage test with Bernie, to earn a 40.0 against all the pros…. Without the error they had, they would have been i the 30’s! Ali has been working hard on Alex’s dressage, and it paid off, with a 36 and a very good test. I had entered Nemo to run a Prelim as his return to eventing after his short time off after his pasture injury, but unfortunately he’s still not back to 100% fitness. I ran Hopper last weekend and typically don’t do back to back weekends, but the prior Prelim didn’t take anything out of him, and he was happy to step up to the plate for Nemo this weekend… Hopper was terrific in dressage and I was so happy with his test! He usually scores in the top two or three, but unfortunately we drew the one dressage judge that never scores him well, and were relegated to a 37.1 in dressage, despite having one of his best tests. Oh well!
The cross country looked solid, not terribly easy and not terribly hard. There was a bending line between two skinny houses to contest with, as well as a bending line from a table to a corner. The course included a toothbrush, as well as two trakehners. The water was a skinny, over a mound, then a skinny in the water. I thought it was a very fair course, but there was plenty to do and plenty to keep you busy with 26 fences and several combinations. Maddy and Chelsea were both doing their second Prelims, and they both had terrific clean rounds and a foot perfect course. I was lucky enough to see nearly every jump on their course, and they both rode so very very well!!! The time was very, very, very tight, and though going fast was not her goal, she scored a very competitive time of only 20 time penalties (a great run at prelim!). Chelsea managed a very quick clear round with only 12 time penalties—Basil has a huge stride! Ali and Alex scored a great clear round, and Ali was able to cut alot of distance off the course…. She did a terrific job, and managed to score one of the fastest times of the day with only 10 time faults, moving her up to 6th after XC! After Hopper’s dressage score, I was on a mission to make up ground. He is becoming such a reliable cross country horse that I was able to make some really, really difficult lines work well, not wasting any time and galloping well between each jump… Hopper came in a very accurate 5 seconds under time, becoming one of only THREE horses out of the 42 to make time. I was so happy with him! It was really neat to see the photos…. The photographer caught a great photo of Hopper angling a table to be able to make one of my crazy lines… He was so good!
In Show Jumping, the course proved very challenging, with much of the same issue as the day before… The time was near impossible to make! With about 9 rollbacks on the course, the course demanded that you make some crazy inside galloping turns to make the time. Our working student Jane is from the jumpers, and saw the course and said, “Oh! A power and speed course!!” Our response was…. “uh oh.” There were quite a few rails, and almost every preliminary rider had time faults. Ali and Alex started out a little sticky, but once they got in the rhythm of the course after fence 4, they were brilliant and I think they learned alot from the course. Chelsea and Basil had a gorgeous round… Every jump was smooth and out of stride! They had one very cheap rail at fence #9 and then the first rail of the triple when the distance wasn’t quite right… But I was so proud of them and it was gorgeous! Maddy had her best round ever, with just one very cheap rail and no time penalties! They were GORGEOUS!! Hopper went into the ring in 3rd place after his cross country ride, and I knew I only had two points over fourth. Much like last week, I cantered up to the first fence thinking about how well I needed to ride to help Hopper showjump clean, since this is by FAR his weakest phase. He was so terrific….. The time was so hard to make, so I was working to make the hardest lines possible…. He was amazing, jumping high over everything and trying SOOOO hard! He let me take some very difficult turns, and he jumped really well…. We felt like an old married couple, knowing what the other was thinking before they ever thought it. I enjoyed him so much…. He jumped double clean!! One of only a few horses of the day. He finished 3rd, and it turns out the course was so hard that he earned a 13 point lead over 4th place after SJ! I really enjoyed, too, that he finished third to two people who I really like, Emery and Meghan, and that made it really fun. Congrats to Emery for her terrific win!
Kim and Trooper were doing their very first Training this weekend!!! They were amazing, scoring 40.0 in their very first attempt at this level. They had a terrific cross country round…. Kim was very worried about the giant trakehner on fence #4, and while it was all well within her reach, this was a challenging course! The course included a trakehner, coffin, log into water, and a real corner on Training! Kim and Trooper had one peak at the trakehner at 4, but he jumped really well afterwards and I was so proud of them! They jumped with just one stop, and clean on the time in a really pretty round. Then, in the tough show jumping course, she pulled off the rare Clean showjumping round, just 3 seconds over time! CONGRATS to Kim for her very first Training!!!!
Hannah had a great weekend… All the divisions were Open this weekend, which left my 12 year old kid competing against intermediate and advanced level riders! Aaack! She and Vaughn had a stellar dressage test that I was very happy with! But with all of the pros in her division, she wasn’t placed as highly as she would have been in a junior division… But that’s okay. She had a beautiful sj round minus a little navigational issue. But Hannah and Vaughn had an amazing cross country round, foot perfect and they looked terrific!! Hannah was so cute, and after XC she said “That was easy!”
I was so proud of everyone…. They were stellar! Special thanks to Howard, Jane, Katie, and Quin for supportive help this weekend. And at the end of the weekend, I found out that Hopper was the ONLY horse of the 42 preliminary horses to finish on his dressage score, adding 0 faults on XC or SJ!!! Go Hopp star!
June 24, 2009
Nightfall was terrific…. He fell victim to pulling not one but TWO shoes in dressage warmup when he stepped in a hole in warmup… Gulp! Thank goodness he has terrific feet, as he had to do dressage barefoot… And still managed a 7 on gaits! Any other horse would have been lame. He was really good, but the limited warmup from the incident wasn’t helpful. After dressage, he stood just two points off the lead with a 33. 5 and earned five 8’s. He was great on XC, and good in SJ although I didn’t ride him as well as I might hope. He finished a good 4th place in Open BN. I was very happy with him.
When my young paint horse had a little cut this week, I decided last minute to take Vis a Vis instead, essentially catchriding my own horse. I’m glad I did! He was really good in dressage, scoring a 32.5 in front of a different judge, and earning four 8’s. He handily won the dressage, and never looked back. He won the Open BN….. For the second consecutive weekend!!!
ASAP is a special baby for me, and one that I’m really attached to…. He too was victim to a lost shoe in warmup–it was wet and on the side of a very, very big hill. He is only 4yo this year, and shows tremendous potential, but is still green in the canter. It’s hard to fit 17.2h of 4yo in a dressage ring at any time, but when it’s on a hill and the grass is wet, it’s really challenging!! He was really, really good in the trotwork, and tried hard for me in the canterwork. He was 3rd after dressage on a 38, which I was very pleased with. He was terrific on XC, despite losing a shoe yet again. In Sj, the very very difficult course was causing major problems at all levels…. He handily jumped one of a few double clean rounds in his division. When they started pinning the awards, I was so excited for him to finish 3rd! But that was not to be…. I started to walk up to the ribbon presenter for 3rd, but it wasn’t for me! Then second wasn’t for us either….. ASAP WON his division!!! It was so exciting for him… What a special guy.
Hopper was the real highlight of the weekend though, I must say. He was really bothered by the warmup on Friday, and thought we were going XC on the side of the hill, not dressage. I was fairly concerned about his focus level. But my dear friend pulled through, putting in a test that I was really happy with!! Dressage hasn’t been incredibly natural for him, and he’s been working hard. The hard work paid off, and he handily won the dressage with a 32.1. He blazed around the XC, handling the terrain really well and laying down a very fast, accurate, smooth round. But remember how I said the SJ was very, very difficult?? Hopper is more of an old school classic horse….He doesn’t feel the painted poles when they touch his legs. We’ve been working hard on his show jumping, but it’s a difficult endeavor for him. There was a LOT of pressure on my shoulders going in in the lead, in reverse order of standing. All I could think as I was cantering to the first fence was, “You are going to have to ride REALLY, really well. “ Especially after he’d pulled a few rails in warmup… That’s never comforting! But I rode to the best of my ability, and he was terrific. The rails were ROUND and in completely flat cups at every fence… Any jump you touched would fall down. He was terrific, jumping huge over everything and really listening to me for all of the many rollbacks. We touched only a single fence, which fell for 4 faults. I knew I was going into SJ with a 7.9 point lead—not quite enough for two rails, so when that rail fell I knew he must jump the rest of the course perfectly…. No pressure! Perfect he was, and he didn’t need the padding. Just one rail, and still ended up winning the event by ten points after all of the difficulties on the course for other horses. I was so happy for Hopper… He’s been so consistent this year, finishing 2nd four times…. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride! I’m so happy for him to earn his first Preliminary win… He deserves it, and has been consistently at the top waiting for his moment to shine.
I’m also really excited to be concentrating on dressage, which is a big passion for me…. The work is really paying off. In four dressage tests, I earned 8 – 8 – 7 – 7 on rider in front of two different judges, which I was estatic about! I was also really happy with the collective marks, showing all the horses are heading in the right direction…. Hopper earned 7-7-7-8.
We’re so excited to announce the newest member of Team CEO! Sprite had her foal in the morning of June 1, 2009. The filly is bright bay with a huge star (just like Chaos!) and one left hind sock. Other than the sock, her markings are identical to Chaos. She is really cute and friendly and adoreable!
Sheldon did his very first USEA horse trial this weekend! He was darling…. After needing to ride him to the jump warmups to get to my students on time, Sheldon thought it was time to jump before dressage! He settled, but his test was a little green and not nearly as nice as it was two weeks ago. Still, he pulled off a 39.5 in dressage and jumped show jumping with just a single rail. He was great on XC and jumped double clean and really grew up all the way ’round!
We and Kim H did their very first USEA horse trial this weekend! They jumped with just one rail in show jumping and just a peak on XC for a very successful start in eventing!
Chelsea had another terrific weekend, this time moving her 5yo TB gelding up to the novice level very successfully. He was a little playful in dressage for a 39, but it shows you what a nice horse he is that he can play and still score so well… Then he jumped a wonderful clear round in his very first Novice! Just a couple rubs in show jumping and Benny is now a successful novice horse!
Trooper and Kim B had a great run at Novice…. 40 in dressage (they were robbed!), and a terrific double clean cross country round! Many in her division were having rails, but Kim kept her cool to jump a terrrific double clean round and finish on her dressage score! She moved up to a fabulous 4th place!!!!!!!
