3rd times (not) the Charm

Well, this year was once again not my year at Richland.  After all of the drama before we ever even left I was beginning to have some hope, just for the curse to come back and slam me in the face.  I once again had to Withdraw, which I guess in the end is a much better letter than an E, MR, or RF.  It is still a letter nonetheless and I am still disappointed.  My horse is home, sound, and happy though so I cannot be all but so disappointed.

We started the weekend off with a BEAUTIFUL dressage test, scoring a 32.3 from the famous Marilyn Payne, who does not give out points for the fun of it.  I was so thrilled with my little thoroughbred who tried his little heart out in the sandbox.  This score tied his best score ever, which we received at Dunnabeck last year, and was easily my best score ever at the Preliminary level.  I was all smiles as I walked around the cross country, which looked very tough and technical.  I thankfully got some fabulous help from Jessica (Hampf) Payne, and I could not have done it without you!  She had some wonderful things to say that I took to heart, and when I took off around it myself I kept those in mind.

The cross country had several things my horse had never seen before; canter across the water, up a mound to a log, down the mound back into the water.  A sunken road, big rails into a coffin, a Normandy bank.  All of the questions were set to height, but rewarded a nice forward ride.  I absolutely love Ian Stark's cross country courses, even if they are filled with ditches- que Intermediate trekhaner and ditch/brush on the preliminary course!  Goose came out on Saturday, after waiting all day, and rocked around the first 3/4 of the course.  He never waivered when we came to the big water by vendors row, and when I went to my stick at both the sunken road and coffin he just jumped bigger, proving to me that now I can hopefully just close my leg and trust him a bit more (although NEVER at the water!).  I unfortunately let my bay horse down though by not giving him the best line to the huge corner coming out of the second water, and his greenness caught up with us, resulting in a glance off.  But he came right back around and jumped it once he saw it, so I am not worried about it.  We are going to set some big corners at home later this week and make sure we know to jump all things.

Goose also pulled a shoe on the cross country and galloped at least 1/2 of it missing the shoe.  We went through our ice, found the shoe, and I packed the foot.  He was still a little bit sore on it Sunday morning, but I had the shoe put back on hoping that it would fix the problem.  It was still pretty clear that he was a bit sore, so I figured I'd get on a just see how he felt in warm-up, fully prepared to withdraw if he did not feel 100%.  Almost thankfully I did not have to make that decision, as we took a funny step headed to warm up and re-pulled the shoe.  I immediately got off and walked him back to his stall, not wanting to risk him hurting himself or pulling the same shoe 3 times in a weekend.  We came home, and although he was confused as to why we weren't jumping, he is a fantastic show jumper and I am not worried about it.

Even though the curse is determined to run me away from the event, I cannot say enough good things about Richland.  All of the volunteers always have smiles on their faces, the organization is on top of everything, the courses are beautifully constructed and run, and everyone is in a good mood all weekend.  They run 500 horses with the ease of 50, and I would tell everyone to go if they have the chance.  You have the added bonus of great shopping, watching the upper level horses run, among a great competitor party.

While the curse tried to claim all of our group I must say that Deb and Jester are freaking rock stars and I could not be more happy for them and how their weekend went!  They brought home a fourth place with some of the best work I've ever seen out of them, and I cannot wait to have her beat me at Dunnabeck in a couple of weeks!  Haha, well, I hope that I win, but if I don't I want it to be her that does!  It has been so great to watch them develop over the last six months and I cannot wait to see what the future has for them.

I am back to school this week, and hopefully running, all while the heat is killing us here in southern Illinois.  I am actually hiding in the ac right now, trying to prolong heading to the barn to ride all three.  I may not update for awhile, as I will be busy getting 3 horses ready for Dunnabeck and organizing the TB awards.  But I hope to see everyone there!

Kick on!