Fitch's Corner Area I Novice Championships!
This event and I have a little... history...
Last summer Ariat and I went, we had (to date) our best dressage test ever (finally breaking out of the 40's), we had a fab xc warm up, and she STORMED around the BN xc course, STORMED. My watch went off for the 2nd time signifying I had 20 seconds left to finish the course on OT and we were galloping our way down to the last fence.... THIS FENCE
What you can't tell (as this side looks quite small) is that on take off side of the fence it is a max height 3' brush fence. The solid log stops at max solid height and then the brush comes up. Ariat was flat and pulling with her shoulders, she went to get in deep and add a chip to re-balance herself... I, being stupid, through myself at the fence and up her neck. As she goes to chip and take off, I am around her ears, and she instead runs-out to the right as even an amazing beast mare cannot jump a max fence with me around her ears! And this happened:
Back to the present:
It was hot. Very hot, had been all week! She is a big horse and does not do well in that kind of heat so my anxiety levels were through the roof! But I decided we have work so hard to get here I would take it 1 phase at a time and made a promise to myself and to my horse that at any point during the event if I felt she was done, that was it. I would retire and do so happily!
Dressage
Even with it being so hot I decided to go ahead with my normal 45 minute warm-up. I thought long and hard about this. I did. But at the end of the day I was there to be competitive. To be competitive in dressage she needs that longer warm-up. This warm-up consists of 90% walking work to supple her up through her rib-cage. So I did our normal warm-up despite it being so hot. My theory was one phase at a time. Ride dressage, then see how she feels on xc. She was really really tight so it took a while for her to soften but we had some really nice moments. we ended with a 35.7 tied for 22nd place. The judge wrote, "LOVE THE FORWARD!!!" Circled, underlined, and THREE exclamation points. FORWARD has never been our issue, forward while BALANCED and NOT running is our issue! As I was picking up my test that evening (after 3 ice baths of the big girl, did I mention it was 101 when we rode our test? and yes I DID wear my jacket, ALWAYS wear your damn jacket people!) There were many tests with post-it notes on them from the judge that the vet needed to check the horse. It was to be a long ass weekend of keeping an eagle eye on our horses.
Such an adorable beasty!
Checking out Boyd's test!
That night after our horses were hand walked, grazed, A rolled around in the grass a few times and got all the other horses rolling (sorry to the owner of the gray!) We went to the celeberty bar/dinner where DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNNNN this happened:
Yep! P.Dutty AND Boyd's signatures! Both told me to kick on and have a good time on xc!
A was not as amused by the autographs as I was!
Cross-Country
yay jumping is fun!!! (*barf*)
After walking the course several times, I actually felt pretty good about it! After surviving Groton House I'm not so sure there is going to be anything xc that is going to make me want to puke anymore! However, I was VERY concerned about the weather. Friday, dressage day, had a high of 105 with 90% humidity. I don't know how we made it through! However, by 10am (my ride time was 12:40-ish) it was still only mid 80's, overcast, and quite breezy! I was beginning to feel better, more relaxed, and ready to rock this shit! So we suited up and hacked up there! I entered warmup feeling pretty good only to have the steward tell me not to be alarmed if the vet's tagged me for a vet check. Up until that point very few heavy horses finished xc, 4 had been pulled out of xc warmup, 2 retired on course, and 1 just pain didn't have anything left and stopped out at a simple log. GREAT! FANTASTIC! JUST what you freaking want to hear! So I did my walking warmup, about a nano second of trot work, bumped her up to the canter, sent her FORWARD, rocked her back, changed directions, hopped over the log, messed up the larger solid table, remembered how to ride and hit the perfect distance to the table. and then called it a day. About 7 minutes from start to finish. That's it. That's all she needs. FORWARD and picking up her feet (why I ALWAYS jump solid fences if that's an option). And then we were on deck.... and "30 seconds... 15.... 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1.0 Have a good Ride"
waiting for "10" to set my watch!
aaannnddd our signature awkward turtle first fence! #classy
and that earned her a pretty significant "sit in and half halt" as blowing me of was def. NOT a good idea for this course!
So the course was FUN, but tricky! There were a few big problem areas. The first was the half coffin at 5a&b, you came up a big galloping path, turned right and then the ditch was about 6 strides off of the turn, BUT if you cut the turn too tight you really couldnt see the ditch until you are right ontop of it. Knowing my horse and knowing time was going to be an issue (and knowing we might end up retirering due to heat any way) I went for it, took the inside track, she took a look at the ditch but went and then exploded to the B-log cabin and off we went again. After jump 9 she was blowing HARD, we had a bit of a galloping stretch so I let her just cruise along and decided to check in with her for the 10 A&B another half cofin, but a small ass ditch to a small ass log and then decide before 11 if we needed to retire. I sat in on the approach to 10 and asked for more and A said, "Oh? You want to go faster?! OOKKKAAAYYY" and poured it out! After nearly running some course walkers over during the next galloping stretch and going by the pool and thinking "Man, I would REALLY love to go for a swim... but take that back, the water jump is still coming!" we got to the wedding rails and I still have NO idea WTF happened there, but we got the worlds worst jump, I ended up in complete safty position, 1 hand in the air balancing myself back, 1 hand on the buckle.... But we survived, came back to trot, re-grouped, and off to THE WATER! The water complex at Fitch's is tough and was the primary problem maker all day. We had a table on a down hill, 2 strides, splash in-broken line, splash out, 2 strides big table. She came in close to each of the jumps but WENT and that's all that freaking matters....
Then we had this adorable bumble bee jump
AND THEN..... THE JUMP!
We got in close! BUT instead of throwing myself at the jump I waited like a good little rider
AND OVER WE GO!
This would be me yelling "GOOD MARE!"
I got her off course, IMMEDIATELY stripped off her tack, hand walked her back to stabling, and started the first of five ice baths with a 5 minute hand walk in between each one. She came down nicely, got her body brace, legs poulticed and wrapped, and some yummy electrolytes. We did get checked by the vet, but we passed with flying colors!
Stadium
So THIS year we FINALLY got to go jump around stadium! The champs course was a bit tough incorporating a MASSIVE triple bar and some tricky turns. The atmosphere at Fitch's in and of itself can be an issue and as A and I didn't make it to stadium last year, this would be her first time there. But per usual my Honey Badger didn't care. We did a short warm-up, hit the vertical, hit the oxer, got perfect distances to both and called it a day. I was SHOCKED with how much horse I had on this third day of one long ass weekend. We entered the ring, saluted, and NAILED the first jump and I just started smiling! (Buying pro pictures soon). I KNEW it was going to be a good trip! I saw our distance to the triple bar and gave her a tap on the shoulder and she LAUNCHED it and I don't think she has ever gotten herself so high over the fences before. I wasn't exactly sure when we were going to land! She was amazing around the roll back, and perfect through the in and out (the last fence those mean course designers) and then on the very last fence she hit it HARD and I thought it came down, we do our canter circle and I look around and IT'S STILL IN THE CUPS! My big girl jumped double clear in stadium!!! On the 3rd day of a Championship weekend with the heat and humidity to cope with. :D I am STILL so so SO proud of her!!!!
We ended 19th/40 only adding xc time to our dressage score!
I could not have asked for more from this horse and she really stepped up to the plate and delivered it! I know I really should stop being surprised by this, but I am, every time. The amount of heart she has literally brought tears to my eyes as I was driving us home to NH.
She enjoyed a light week following Fitch's where I "rode" once to check that she wasnt 3-legged lame and then we "hacked" which involved bareback and a halter... and then usually I got off and let her graze.....
GO EVENTING!
