Week 33: Atop a Hill

After Horse Park Finn and I jumped right into some new training! I finally purchased a dressage saddle that I love and I took a lesson with Sally Cousins. To work on our jumping, my trainer had me cantering endless ground poles. The ground pole acts kind of like a jump and it gives horse and rider an opportunity to work on distances and things like that without constant concussion on the horses legs. At first Finn and I couldn’t get any of our distances and things seemed a little bit unorganized but after working on it he began to get better and better. After working with the ground pole and heading out to Flora Lea for a cross country schooling I was feeling great! Then came my lesson with Sally Cousins.

                The first two jumps of my Sally lesson were run outs. After convincing myself that I am capable of jumping the jumps and that I am a good enough rider to be doing this training project I put my heels down and went to work. Suddenly something clicked and it was perfect. Finn flew over ever jump I pointed him at and we jumped a variety of combinations and lines. After this lesson I was ready for the event!

                Finn and I did not have a very good dressage test. There was a green electric box in the corner of the dressage ring and Finn was terrified. We ended up getting a 47 on our test which was not exactly my idea of fantastic. However, we both got through it and at age 4, that should really be my only expectation for Finn. I hope to improve that score immensely by the time we get to Flora Lea for our first beginner novice event.

                Show jumping was pretty good other than one silly rail in a combination. Finn was very looky and that resulted in some effective but ugly jumps. The show jumping was set up on a hill and overall the course was pretty technical for an elementary course. However, by combining small jumps with technicality they made the course very hard to ride because none of the striding really worked.

                Cross Country was great! We had one stop at a scary jump but other than that Finn was great. He listened well and powered through the course like a great event horse would! 

Week 30: Trip Up

                Sometimes the hardest part of being a rider is accepting that sometimes failure happens. This weekend when I loaded Finn onto the trailer for the Starter Event at HPNJ I never thought that I would face the complications that I did. When we got to the show it was already about 80 degrees and the horses seemed exceptionally mellow. I left Finn on the trailer as we ventured out to walk our courses and double check our ride times. Before the day even started the dressage times were running an hour behind and the show jumping was not set. Since the show jumping was not set, we decided to walk cross country and count on the courses being posted later on in the day. The cross country at HPNJ seemed to have a lot more terrain than the cross country at Fair Hill did. I was a little concerned at first, but Finn had been schooling really well so I thought that things would be alright.

                At noon it was finally time for my dressage. After having to get on and off a couple times and having the times continuously pushed back, I was really relieved to be able to ride. This weekend we had to ride Beg. Novice Test A which is much harder than the walk test that I rode at Fair Hill. To my surprise, Finn was fantastic! He used his hind end in his canter and we managed to get our first ever 7! I was also happy to get a 6 on my rider position score. Finn and I still have years of work ahead of us for our dressage but I truly believe that we are on the right road.

                When it came time to jump I was feeling a little nervous. I hadn’t had time to walk my show jumping and because of the time changes I hadn’t had any time to eat during the day. Finn and I poppe dover some warm up jumps and then something really unexpected happened. Two strides after jumping an oxer Finn tripped and I fell off. As he tried to get up he trotted over me, luckily not hitting me head on. The EMT cleared me so I decided to get back on and attempt my course. Half way through I felt very sick and I decided to retire. Before I was through the gate, I got extremely sick.

                Not every show is one that you will win. It is always important to drink water and eat during the day. For me, the show day was a really hard test of my ability to handle stress. In the future I hope that I will improve and Finn and I can avoid days like HPNJ. My next event will be at Carousel Park in DE. My goals are simple for that event. I would like to complete all three phases and go clear for show jumping.