Eventing = Love

I cannot express the FUN I am having with this whole eventing thing. I love how much I'm learning, I love getting out of the ring and experiencing new things, and I can't wait to just immerse myself in an entire weekend of the horse trial.:) Squeaky loaded up well and without incident on the trailer with Sparky, and we made it to Calimar Farm only an hour late and with just one missed turn. My student was already there with a friend, and we all tacked up and headed into the field.

Goofball Tiki decided that the mounting block next to a running lawn fountain was NOT cool, and actually reared up a little bit and yanked the reins out of my hands before I mounted. Ugh, not a great start! Got him to stand quietly, mounted, and in we went. He had one of those "fresh horsey" head shakes, and was walking with the snorts!

I felt ... off, I guess. No surprise considering my lack of intense riding and the no jumping thing for 5 weeks. I felt VERY crooked.:( Again, no surprise. I actually have a pair of 30 degree curves in my spine. It's definitely time to get my butt in gear and get our training back on! Lol. !ithis life, and nothing solid at all. Nicole impresses the hell out of me. Sparky was jumping HUGE, cracking his back, then bucking in glee afterwards. She kept her stuff together, and kept pushing forward. Wow.

Tried to put a 2 in the 2 stride hanging log combo, but I grabbed his face and caused him to chip in a 3rd stride when he over jumped the first one and landed a little deep. Sure pray and hope I win the lottery tonight so I can get myself in front of a TRAINER before October, haha!

Ambled over to the ditches. Sparky walked over the narrow one ... Britain walked over the narrow one ... Tiki stopped dead and SNORTED at it, so I wimped out because I didn't want to get jumped out of the tack from a walk ... we trotted it a few times, and while it never felt GOOD, it didn't feel awful every time. That's SOMETHING, right? Stood him in front of the wider ditch a dozen times, and admitted defeat before I even actually tried it. Nicole jumped Sparky over it! Damn. Britain loped over it. DOUBLE DAMN. I got Nicole to jump it 2 more times so I could just follow her over it, and the Muffin jumped it, YAY!!!!!!!! I praised, patted, breathed, and moved on.;)

Jumped the cedar rail he'd stopped at no problem. Did the down bank without a single hiccup. Bridge and train jumps were lovely. He'd finally relaxed and we'd found SOME type of rhythm, and he wasn't jumping everything so big. Yay. I was finally relaxing as well.

Stood him in front of the cabin for about 15 minutes. No joke. He got close enough to scratch his head on it a few times ... yay me. Played in the water so Brit would get in; Tiki was PERFECT. Didn't even HESITATE at the water. Super pony! Trottted in and jumped out of a bank ... perfect, yay! Stood by the cabin again. Scratched his head on it. Trotted in, leaned forward, dropped my leg ... he stopped. I let him. Circled, scratched his head again, went into the water again, procrastinated ... attempted to follow Britain over it, but I was too slow. Finally just cantered in, and he jumped it GREAT. Huge, yes, but great.:) Came in again and chipped. Again, and he chipped again. Again, and Nicole YELLED at me to slow down and quit chasing him. Whew. Supported his pace, SLOWED DOWN, sat up, looked up, counted down, and nailed it. I patted him like crazy. It was just finally no big deal. Cantered into the water for the first time, and nailed the bank coming out, so I quit there. You get water in your face when you canter through it, lol! Wasn't expecting that.

Had a GREAT time! Hunter pace and jumper show August 21 and 22 at Chattahoochee Hills is the next item on the agenda. I plan to actually RIDE between now and then, haha.