Where to start with last weekend? Let's see. I'd have to say it went pretty well! Friday was quite miserable with the complete down pour the weather decided to give us. I think it was the first time I've walked a cross country course with Mike, sloshing through the water the whole way and with everyone's rain jackets being the life of us. Thankfully both times I rode that day (schooling in the morning and performing my dressage test in the afternoon), I was lucky enough to not ride in the tormenting downpour. I guess God thought I got my fair share of riding in the miserable rain at Poplar. Even with my horse having been ridden previously that day, he never fails to be completely tense, rain or no rain. After cantering in our lengthening trot, a bobble in our canter work, and all of our walk/free walk movements consisting of jigging and trotting in place, I'm not sure how we pulled out a 42.2. This coming from Sally O'Connor none the less. She must have seen some potential in my horse, because it definitley was not a test to be happy with. Like always (which happens a little too often in my opinion), Mike had to give me a "pep talk" in how it "isn't as bad as it feels to [me]." Still, 9th place out of 14th isn't great.
After putting a terrible dressage behind me (which I'm quite skilled in at this point), I focused on cross country for the next day. The ground was terribly wet/soft and quite slick in some places. With the help of my big studs, we didn't put a foot wrong on the course. I even got compliments on my ride through the water and the bank complex, where after jumping up the bank, we jumped down and continued with four strides over a corner. After thinking about it, I realized this horse never questions what I point him at. With accuracy questions such as that, he never looks for a way out or an oppurtunity to not jump something, but instead never fails to have his ears forward and looking for the next fence I allow him to jump. "A big wooden corner right after a drop off a bank? Let me at it Mom." I can't describe the mind set of this horse any better than that. However, if I was to describe his mind set going into the dressage ring, that would be a completely different and quite defiant story.
Seeing as I didn't need Holly Hill as a qualifyer and the ground wasn't ideal, Stoney and I just cruised around the cross country, racking up a bit of time. It was more of a schooling ordeal than a competitive outing. Besides, there was no point in running his legs off (in the terrible footing) when we are doing the CIC* at Greenwood next weekend. I will go ahead and say that we finished in seventh (seventh place seems to really likes me). Like I said, it wasn't a show we were striving to win.
Now, how can I even begin to describe show jumping on Sunday. It was brilliant. Perfect is the only word I can come up with to describe it, and even that falls short. Warm up went perfectly for me, and I was seeing my distances perfectly and forward. I guess only having jumped a few times since Poplar and Stoney being in the round pen three times a week payed off because once we got into the ring, he didn't even touch the jumps. With the exception of a rub coming out of a combination (which was actually my fault), he cleared every fence. Not only did we clear every fence, but it was in perfect rythm in harmony. With no change of speed, the jumps just simply came into our path.
I can honestly say I had never heard such a loud cheer after crossing the finish line. Everyone from my barn was so ecstatic and happy for me. They all knew how incredibly difficult it is for me to have a clear round and that it was literally the second clear round I'd ever had since buying this horse (the first one being this winter at Rocking II in Florida). I came out of the arena, Heather waiting with a big grin and high five for me. She was just as thrilled with the round as I was. Even after I had gotten back to the barn, Mike came up to me later with a grin and another high five for me, as well as my barn mates congratulating me and giving me hugs. As you can see, this was a big deal. Mike said in the past that with a horse like mine, you have to be spot on every single time to the fences, and even then, you can only pray that he does his job in keeping the rails up. That day, I was spot on to everything, and Stoney did his part as well. Seeing as I've been struggling with my show jumping and had a rough round at Poplar, this was exactly what I needed going into my second ever CIC* at Greenwood. But perfection in just one phase, or even two, isn't enough to do well. To succeed in this sport, everything has to fall into place at the right time, and not just once. You need perfection (or close to it) in every phase of the game.
Since being back, I've had one dressage lesson with Mike. It seems we finally have somewhat of a break through in my dressage. Even if so, it won't matter unless it translates over into my test at Greenwood. I guess we'll see. After my lesson on Tuesday, Mike flew to Kentucky for Rolex. Heather left Monday morning from Holly Hill with Roe, and we wish her all the luck this weekend in the blue grass state. I was told that if it hadn't been for Greenwood being the weekend after Rolex and I really needing a qualifying ride there, I would have been able to go to Rolex and groom for Heather. Gotta love unfortunate circumstances. I'm glad Mike made the call for me to stay here, because I would have made myself sick if I'd have had to make the decision. Still, the fact that I am in a position where such a great opportunity arose is quite unbelievable. The fact that I can say I have ridden a horse more times than I can remember that is competing at Rolex is quite unbelievable too. Trust me, I am well aware of how lucky and privileged I am.
So, the barn has been a ghost town the past few days and will continue to be through out the weekend with everyone being at Rolex. Not only am I staying back to ride Stoney and prepare for our one star, but I am also in charge of riding both of the horses Mike and Heather will be competing in the two star, Maisie and Remi. Not to mention a few of the other horses in the barn, and hey, while I'm at it a few of the girls' horses while they got the oppurtunity to go to Rolex. Busy busy me, but I'm having a blast doing it.
Sure, I'm a little disappointed I couldn't go to Rolex, but no sacrifice, no victory. It's safe to say I've sacrificed a lot at this point. I sacrificed going to University of Arkansas so I could stay down here and train with Mike, and I will officially be attending University of North Texas in the fall. Would I have liked to have gone to TCU? Of course. But buying a comfy sweatshirt from the college you desire doesn't help with attending it if you can't afford it. Although, if I had attended TCU, I wouldn't have been able to keep working for Mike, since it is in Fort Worth and an hour's drive away, meaning, I couldn't continue to keep Stoney at his facility. Since UNT is so close, my plan is to keep my job with Mike, keep my horse boarded there, and just take afternoon and night classes (still being a full time student of course).
And so the count down begins. Only seven days until our second CIC* and the big last qualifier that I need for this summer. I will add that I am very apprehensive about getting around cross country clean, seeing as Stoney had a complete melt down when schooling Greenwood's water complex right before leaving for Florida. I can only hope he has matured and has gotten over whatever mental wall he had built up. So, fingers crossed everyone as we go into next week!
Tried Stoney's ear bonnet on today to see how he felt about it. He'll be quite the handsome catch at Greenwood wearing it (;
No comments:
Post a Comment