This past weekend is admittedly a bit of a blur. I finally started feeling better late Saturday evening. Our XC school that day had gone pretty well, but Jack was definitely being a bit of a spook- not unusual for him after not jumping for a couple weeks. I was struggling with the sudden ~90* temperatures, particularly after being already dehydrated from several days with a stomach flu.
But the show goes on, and we found ourselves doing a short warmup and heading into the dressage.
All in all I’m happy with our effort. A pair of volunteers that decided my entering the ring was the perfect time to move things behind the judge’s truck are to blame for the distraction down centerline (but what can you do, we’re thankful for volunteers no matter what). He tripped in the transition from trot to medium walk. And our right lead canter transition- well that’s still a work in progress. A score of 28.1 put us in 3rd out of 16 after the dressage, and Jack earned himself a snooze before getting ready for the jumping phases.
The Novice SJ course
After walking the SJ course, and visiting the XC course one more time, it was ready to showjump. And quite frankly, I don’t know what to say about SJ. I know that I panicked. I know that my brain was melting out of my ears, and my horse felt tired. I know that I jumped all the jumps in the correct order. And I know that I got 3 poles down. I couldn’t even tell you where. Totally my fault.
Basically a showjumping lollipop
After coming out of my SJ stupor, I realized I probably couldn’t/shouldn’t ride XC like that. So I gathered up the remnants of my brain, stuffed it back in my head, and went out determined to give him a great ride around a fair course with a lot of terrain questions.
And I remembered my GoPro!
The course was so fun. Jack is feeling like a confident Novice horse, and hunting the jumps. Sure, he’s not point and shoot, but he probably never will be. And yet- those ears tell the whole tale.
In the end, my bowling for rails in SJ denied us a top-2 finish… by a long shot. But he’s getting so much more relaxed in all 3 phases, and didn’t lose his marbles when friends left the stable- huge wins for a horse that was a nervous nelly at the same venue less than a year ago. And really, with all the shite that we had to deal with the last couple weeks, getting out and having a positive experience was the biggest win of all.
Red on the Right 
Ok. XC looked like such a blast. I was pretty disappointed with my SJ this weekend too. However, I realized that in the end, my horse and I had a TON of fun. I got to identify some issues, and I know where we need to improve for next time. That’s success to me! (And I hope you too!)
woo congrats!! i think at some point or another any eventer is gonna have that kind of stadium round…. i know i sure have. seems like the other phases were fantastic tho!
So fun!!! And i’d say a pretty dang awesome ride considering you’ve been sick as hell the week(s?) leading up to the show!!!! Plus XC is the important part 🙂 you can fix SJ later when you’re not dying!
Glad you had s great time and Jack looked pretty happy out there on XC and YOU GOT A 9!!!!!!!!!!! And tons of 8’s 🙂 all good things!!
That looked like great fun!! Glad you had a good xc round! And I’m sure that’s happened to everyone at some point whether it be an SJ round or a pattern/round in any other discipline. But yes I agree that you two feeling so much more confident at Novice is the real win! Congrats!!
He looked like a total pro! Great job!
It was so HOT Sunday! Great helmet cam, I forgot to turn mine on, sigh. He is hoping that June is much cooler.
This is goals for me next weekend haha! Well done.
great job! and after being sick to boot! UGH. Jack looks great too! WHEEEE (sometimes it is a toss up which one i want to get over with quicker, dressage or stadium just to get to the fun part CC.
I hope you are feeling better now!!
Go Jack Go!
Yay for you guys! I hate those days when everything catches up to you, and you barely remember if you’re wearing pants. Kudos for sticking it out and giving Jack the ride he needed on XC!