Burgundy Hollow HT - N

I had a minor panic attack when I arrived at the barn yesterday morning. I was wrapping Bobby's legs and noticed that there was no poop in his stall. BM walked by and I asked if he had gone out the night before. Despite the big, starred note I had left on the board for the barn worker, Bobby had spent his night frolicking in the field. Miraculously, he still had all of his shoes on and all he needed was his back legs washed off.

Dressage

Here's how dressage warm up went:

"hellooooooo, bobby. fucking pay attention!"

I knew as soon as we got into the warm up ring that we were not going to put in even a remotely respectable  test. Bobby had zero interest in softening, bending, maintaining rhythm, or listening to me. Horses were out on xcountry and all he wanted to do was watch them go around.

one of us had our dressage britches on.
it was not the four legged one of us, by the way.

I did minimal w/t/c before sticking him on a circle and trying to get him to soften and bend. It didn't work. At all. I rode into the ring trying to keep Bobby strung out and plodding instead of drama llama-ing and exploding. Came down the center line, made our first circle, and I really focused on getting my geometry correct to pick up points where I could. I was chanting a little mantra of "Ride into your corners" when the judge blew her whistle. I rode into my corner alright....but I was supposed to be going back down the center line. Dang! I didn't let it rattle me and we carried on back on track.

We got 6s and 7s for our trot work. We managed to pick up a few more points at the canter, getting an 8 and 7s. We ended with a mediocre but well deserved 34.3 that tied us for second. Hubby only got the trot work on video because he abandoned his filmmaker duties to retrieve the dogs who were barking at the tool who parked two inches from our trailer and hung out with his door open and radio on.

Stadium

I took my time to get ready and headed down for stadium twenty minutes before my ride time. There was one rider just going into the ring to jump and then us. They were running way ahead of schedule, but I wasn't going to rush.

Jumped the X and the vertical, making use of my neck strap to keep my balance on the uphill approach to the warm up jumps, and then headed down to do our round. The jump crew volunteer asked me what number I was and I looked down and realized I didn't have my pinny on. I cantered Bobby back to the trailer and enlisted our trailer neighbor to ransack the truck and trailer with me to find it. Thank you random fellow competitor! We eventually dug it out, tied it on, and Bobby and I hurried back.

Here's our crazy, twisty course:

say what?!

Bobby felt okay through it. He was a little wiggly making the turns, but once he got straightened to the fence, he was all business. We did have one chip, of course. But only one this time instead of every single fence!

not sure what i'm doing.

It was a clear round that I actually wasn't embarrassed to do in front of other people! Well on our way to checking off one of my year's goals.

Cross Country

The course walk.

Bobby came around the corner of the stadium ring and saw the start box ahead of him and instantly started jigging sideways. Hubby had to hold on to him while I put my helmet cam on and once he let go, Bobby trotted right off. Pony was ready to do his thing!

Bobby was a total super star. He took a little peek at fence 3, but didn't back off of it all. Fence 4 kind of wigged me out and it was on a downhill landing. I thought about trotting it, but Bobby wanted to canter it so I let him do his thing and he popped right over. We trotted across the messy road crossing, and that halted our momentum a bit so that when we came over the ditch to the big roll top, he was a little under-powered and threw in an extra stride to climb over. After that, he just cruised right along for a super smooth round. 

Watch for yourself! (It repeats for some reason. It's only a 4ish minute video.)

Double clear jumping rounds for our first full Novice? Heck yes! The COTHer that got me hooked up to all the eventing venues in our area was volunteering with her daughter and she stopped by the trailer when we were done to compliment Bobby. She said he looked super smooth and super confident. She was stroking his mile long ears while we chatted and he passed out with his lower lip flopping. Poor thing also had to miss his nap by getting turned out at night.

Our tie for second was broken by our dressage tests meaning I moved down to third. No surprise, and I was really happy just to make it around so easily. We stopped by the ice cream truck on our way back to the trailer and got popsicles and dog treats for the hounds. 

Ribbons, ice cream, and a good pony made for a totally rocking day.

creeping on the mares. what's new?