Today was a low, a couple of hunter classes, an eq over fences, and a flat eq. We're all warmed up and seen it all now right? right? um...well.....
Warm up went great, and we were ready for our first class. The Low is sort of your mulligan class, but it would be nice to do well, and then just have to smooth out the edges so to speak. There was a trot fence (again) for later on, and all the lines were easy, a 5 by the judge, 6 on the diagonal and 2 on the outside. Easy right? Well it *started* well. First fence - awesome. Up the judges line in 5 - easy, down the single oxer - buried a little under it but no problem. Right turn up the 2-stride and uh-oh. He is backing off and giving me the 'no, uh-uh, something scary is in the bushes'. (I should note that that particular side of the ring has really tall bushes like trees and normally they are a non-issue). I kicked him up and clucked and got him into the 2-stride and then had a freight train that probably could have done it in 1 going out and bolting off around the turn. Which...I have to get him back because we still have the diagonal line going home to finish. It wasn't a pretty round ...but unbelievably we finished (together) and got 4th.
On to the first Hunter round. Should be able to fix it all now right? Well sort of. Again with the scary whatever-it-was in the bushes, but at least less freight-trainy. However he opted out of landing all the leads, so it was a m'eh round...which..no lie...knowing how brilliant he can be....was a bit of a let down. We got 5th...bleck.
Next Hunter round - gotta be better right? It was pretty good, which is better than m'eh. We got 3rd.
One to go - the Eq over fences. Nothing too hard...just another trot fence hahaha. Open with the 5-stride by the judge- great. Down the single oxer, good, 2-stride - finally! success, continue to the right, and trot. and WHAT THE?? That would be about the time I dug the spurs in, clucked mightily (pun intended) and he leaped over that thing like it was gonna eat him. Then the bending line which worked out well since I had his attention, roll around the little island, okay, up and then roll back (past the trot fence oh dear god!) and down to finish. It certainly wasn't our most brilliant eq round, the judge clearly wasn't impressed by the sheer amount of riding that had to be done :-) I honestly don't remember what we got hahaha.
We had to do **2** jogs today. Jog out, walk back. Change the order, jog out, walk back. The horses got a good giggle out of it.
Eq on the flat to finish - which I rode well. Should probably have been 2nd, and the placings certainly puzzled more people than me. The person who finished directly ahead of me couldn't sit the trot or pick up the right lead canter. So I don't know what happened there but oh well.
They announced the Champion and Reserve Champion for the Hunter Division, and I figured we were Reserve. Imagine my surprise when they announced this same person that I spoke of in an earlier paragrah as Reserve. Hmmmm........upon re-calculation of points - surprise! Oberon was Reserve Champion! Yay Mighty!
The boys again enjoyed a leisurely turnout today. We went and watched the Ride and Rally which was the most fun. Horses did a jumper round on the Grand Prix field, the rider bailed off and ran over to the next ring, jumped in a Kubota golf cart/ATV thingy and did a round (you had to go between the cones and not knock the tennis ball off the cones). It was hilarious and very cool.
Tomorrow is the last day till August. Boo! I wish Walgreen's would give me 6 month's severence so I could just ride and show the rest of the summer :-)
Today's soundtrack:
Don't Play A Game That I Can't Win - Beastie Boys featuring Sanigold sp?)
Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
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