Rubicon Farm Horse Trials

This weekend Colleen and I went to a nice, local show, about fifteen minutes away. Colleen rode Connor in the Prelim on Saturday, and I rode Lady (my mom's paint mare) in the Beginner Novice today. I didn't compete Teco because he's basically just taking it easy for a couple weeks, after the strenuous CCI* at Virginia. 

Colleen, my mom, and Connor are making the trek up to Bromont in Canada tomorrow, for the CIC* there. It is her last chance to qualify for Young Riders for this year, so hopefully she will do well!

Colleen's competition yesterday was sort of a warm-up for Bromont. She only did dressage and stadium, because of the muddy footing on cross country from all the rain we had this past week. The two of them had a nice dressage test, with one little mishap in the canter - Connor was being lazy, and Colleen kicked him forward, causing him to give a little buck of irritation. The rest of the test was nice, however, and they were well placed after dressage.

Their showjumping didn't go very well; Connor was a little quick and inattentive to Colleen, so they had three rails. She did as well as she could with him, though!

I rode Lady today in her first event, and she was fabulous! She was very calm and quiet for the dressage, earning a 36.5, which we were very pleased with! Showjumping went well, too, as she quietly cantered over the course, jumping clean. 

Cross country was going to be the tough phase for us, though. Lady is not very experienced on cross country, particularly with water. Over the first few jumps, she seemed a little confused as to why she was jumping such strange little logs out in a field - but she settled in quickly and jumped very well around the course! We had two stops, though: one was my fault, because I really didn't set her up for the jump, and she didn't see it in time. The second was at the water - she balked, and I suppose she took a step or two back (if a horse stops forward motion at the water, then it is counted as a refusal). Nevertheless, I was very pleased to see that it only took a few seconds to prod her in, and she didn't throw a fuss or anything! By the end of the course she was taking all the jumps easily in stride.

All in all, it was a pretty successful weekend! I will update to let everyone know how Colleen goes at Bromont - wish her luck!

Virginia CCI*

We just returned home from a long, successful weekend down in Lexington! Teco and I placed 7th in the Junior/Young Rider division at Virginia, out of 12 competitors.

Friday was dressage day...I rode at 4:30 in the afternoon, and it was pretty hot. I was wearing my top hat and fancy shadbelly jacket for dressage (attire that you can wear only at a CCI) for the first time; unfortunately, my hat decided not to cooperate. It kept falling off during warm-up, making for a very disjointed preparation for my test. So, my concentration was broken a little bit, and I made two errors in my test. Teco was not at his best, but he still scored well - however, 4 or 5 points had to be added to our score due to our error. Therefore, we were in 11th after dressage, when we would have been in 3rd, without my errors. Our final penalty score was 62.9.

I was kicking myself, but all I really needed was a clean cross country on Saturday. It was a tough course, but I rode hard, and we had a clean round! We had 3.2 time penalties, which I was fine with, because I wanted to ride a little slow in order to get a clean round. Which we did! He recovered well, proving that he was well-conditioned for the hilly cross country course.

Teco was very sound on Sunday morning for the jog, passing the vet's inspection easily.  We were 7th going into showjumping that afternoon; we had one rail, but he was otherwise great, and he didn't seem very tired at all from the strenuous cross country the day before. 

We ended up in 7th! I am so happy that Teco and I seem to be really getting it together. We are now qualified for the Young Riders team, so we'll see if we make it! We'll be doing one or two more events before the Young Riders camp this summer, so I'll be sure to update then.

Til then -

 Christie

Maryland Short Course and other Bits and Pieces

A few weeks ago, I took Lady (my mom's horse, Hall of Mirrors, the paint mare) to Loch Moy Farm in Maryland. They held a "Short Course," which is similar to a regular event, but with a slightly modified cross country.

Lady and I were entered at Beginner Novice. She is an excellent jumper and has no problem with height in the showjumping ring; however, she is a little spooky out on cross country, which is why we were going Beginner Novice. Unfortunately, the cross country course was a little too tough for her - the water jumps were more of a Novice or Training difficulty, which she was very unprepared for. She has a tough time with going in water without a jump, much less having to jump a spooky log in! 

I am a little concerned about her loss of confidence on cross country. When we did an extra showjumping round set at Novice height, though, she jumped around beautifully! So, I am taking her Horse 1 (2'9'' to 3'3'') at Show Jumping Rally on the last weekend in May, as well as competing her at Beginner Novice at Rubicon Horse Trials in Lucketts the first weekend in June.

Now, on to Teco's updates!

Last weekend, we went down to Charlottesville for a Young Rider Training Camp with David and Lauren O'Brien, the Young Rider coaches. It went well!

His dressage improves daily, and at our last jumping lesson, we were perfectly in sync. Hopefully, all will go well at Virginia CCI* this weekend, and we will jump clean on cross country!

I'll update again when we return from Virginia. Wish us luck!

Christie

Difficult Run Horse Trials

Another show in the rain...how thrilling.

Even better, construction at Frying Pan Park forced the organizers (i.e. my mom, since the horse trials are organized by our club) to rearrange everything. So, dressage took place on grass (and on a downhill, which was very difficult) - needless to say, it wasn't our best test, but Teco still did well all things considered.

We jumped clean in the indoor arena; Teco was wonderful. Of course, the real issue was the cross country: we needed a clear round, with no refusals, to qualify for the Virginia CCI* (which we need to compete at to qualify for Young Riders).

As we stepped into the startbox, the rain started to drizzle down. But we charged on, and had a little issue at a somewhat sharp turn to a jump going into the woods - we came a little fast and I didn't set him up early enough for the turn, so we overshot a little bit and jumped the Training stone wall, rather than the Preliminary one. So we stopped, turned around, trotted out of the woods and cantered over the right one! But that was the only mishap; otherwise, Teco was a superstar!

So, next stop: Lexington, Virginia for the CCI*!

Christie

Loudoun Horse Trials

Last Saturday, we returned to Morven Park for the Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Horse Trials. It was a one-day horse trial, meaning all the phases were to take place in one day.

Poor Teco was still pretty fuzzy with his winter coat, and he was about to melt in the 85 degree weather! Fortunately we rode early in the morning, before the heat came in. He performed beautifully! It really does seem to be getting easier for him. We scored a 30.4, placing us in first! But what I was most happy about was that he held the counter-canter, which seemed much easier for him. Colleen had a little bit of an off day with Connor, and they received a 36, landing them in 5th after dressage.

Showjumping went really well for everyone, though! Colleen and I both went clean (though I had one time penalty) as did one of our friends, Molly Curtiss, who also trains with Paul and is going for the Young Riders team this summer as well.

I was a little anxious about cross country. At the Morven Horse Trials in March, we had two stops on cross country, as you may recall. Since the course was almost exactly the same, I didn't know what to expect. But I went out and rode hard, and we made it around smoothly until the third-to-last fence.

A few times during the course I had felt him considering dodging out on me, but I rode him very defensively and he seemed to realize that I really meant business. However, at the combination where he ran out at the B part last month, he ran out at the A jump. I had softened just a little too much right before he jumped, and he basically took advantage of that and leaped aside at the last possible moment.

While it was frustrating, it was my fault, and I certainly learned from it. And you can bet I won't make that mistake again! Colleen and Molly both went clean on cross country, and since the three people in front of them (including me) had stops, they moved up into first and second!

I have high hopes for Difficult Run this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes!

Til then -

Christie

Fair Hill International

Finally, a sunny weekend for a horse show!! Just the fact it wasn't raining made it a good weekend for me!

Thursday started out with Colleen's jog with Connor in front of a panel of veternarians, which went off without a hitch -- well, except for him being bitten by something right before the vets inspected him, which caused a little ruckus....

Dressage was the next day. It went pretty well for both of us; Colleen performed the new, harder test, receiving a 56, which is about in the middle. I had a really great test, which would have gotten an even better score than 35 if we had not received a 0 for his counter canter (which he broke out of, again...)

Cross country was surprisingly short - only about four and a half minutes, while most prelim courses run from 5-6 minutes. Colleen and Connor unfortunately had two run-outs at a corner, but otherwise had a great round! Teco attempted another one of his grabbing-the-bit-and-running things, only he foolishly attempted to run into the woods, so it didn't work out very well for him! Fortunately it was nowhere near a jump, so there were no penalties for a refusal - just a lot of time penalties for our very large circle.

Colleen and Connor jumped showjumping first on Sunday. Colleen rode Connor very well, so that he ended up only knocking one rail, unlike his usual two or three! I also had a rail, but it was due to a rather unbalanced turn. 

All in all, although the weekend was not successful in terms of ribbons, both Colleen and I learned a lot! There's always something new to learn about your horses and how to ride them.

Christie

In about an hour, we are leaving for the Fair Hill International Horse Trial in Maryland!

Colleen and Connor will be competing in the CIC*, which is the International Event. I will be competing in the ordinary Preliminary division, with Teco.

It's going to be a long weekend, but hopefully with better weather than our last couple shows!

I'll let everyone know the results on Sunday evening. Wish us luck!

Christie

P.S. - If anyone out there wants to know what on earth a CIC* is, let me know and I will explain it in my next post!