I don't even know where to begin because I am still smiling and so proud of everyone. I am trying to get videos uploaded of everything- so hopefully I can attach the link to them at the end of this page. I guess first and foremost I have to once again congratulate Sunny Greene and Charli. This duo has been working so hard for the last year, and especially hard this summer, to make great things happen. I don't think she could have complained about anything all weekend, and in true Sunny fashion she continued to say that she had room to improve. This amazing young lady went out and won the dressage in a huge division with a butt-kicking 23! She then continued her quest for world domination by jumping a beautiful double clear around a big, tough show jumping track, and finished off her weekend just adding some time to her dressage score on the cross country. She looked nothing short of professional all weekend, and Charli looks like a million bucks. I was honored to be beaten by her this weekend, and I cannot wait to have her at Richland in a couple of weeks with us.
Just going down the line I can now brag on my horse. I brought Goose into this weekend with the hope of just finishing his first Preliminary. Of course, being competitive I wanted to do well, but I just wanted a number at the end of the weekend. We were very fortunate to have Keri from Voltaire Saddles at the event and she let me borrow a wonderful Dressage saddle for Saturday morning, which was like riding in an easy chair and I did not want to give it back! Goose tried his little heart out in the ring, and once we get rid of some tension I think he will really be able to be in the top 1/4 after the dressage at this level. He still managed to pull a 39 out and lay it on the table, which had me smiling from ear to ear. I then began to panic and my heart began to thump out of my chest as the show jumping approached. I am utterly terrified of the show jumping ring, and I don't have much success at River Glen. But my horse is a jumping machine, and even when I went in and made a couple of mistakes he jumped out of his skin and pulled out a clear round. I took some wide turns to calm myself down and reorganize, and the time is always tight here, so we came out with 7 time penalties. I was so thrilled though that I could of had 30 time faults and still been smiling- I may have even been crying.
It was so great to have the barn family there to cheer us on all weekend. That is one great thing about this event- everything is quite close and everyone can come and watch. We also had some long lost friends from St. Louis who live in the area now, and they got to come over and watch. It was wonderful to see them. Sunday morning came after some long grazing sessions and four leaf clover hunting with the other girls, and I have to say I was actually nervous! I don't know the last time I was nervous for the cross country, but I wanted to give my horse a good ride and do right by him, and for some reason I was worried about that. No reason to though, as he went out and rocked his handsome butt around it like he was made for the job. I went very slow as the ground was hard and I wanted him to understand all of the questions, so hopefully now we can put on the gas some at Richland. I accomplished all of my goals for the weekend, however- and exceeded all expectations for my baby horse. Not only did he come home with a number instead of a letter, but there were 0's all the way across the board in the jump columns! I honestly don't know if I have ever even done that at the Preliminary level- maybe one time with Bubba. While we were just shy of bringing home a ribbon, I feel like I have won the AEC's with this kid, and now I am looking forward to bettering myself for the next one!
Now I have to brag on our other rider's. Miss Amanda has learned how to tame the wild beast that is Van and put in (what I am guessing, sorry I missed it) a lovely dressage test to sit on a 31, which I believe is their personal best Dressage score. They had a rocking weekend in the jump phases to come home all smiles, double clear on Sunday, and add a yellow ribbon to their collection. Amanda's good mood is always contagious, and it is impossible to not root for this pair every time they come to an event with us. I am so thrilled with their success, and I hope they continue to kick some butt and have a great time at the 3-day in October. Molly took Trevor out and had a good weekend, unfortunately I did not get to see much of them due to our times being close, but they looked awesome through the water jump- this horse is such a cool horse on the cross country, I have enjoyed watching them throughout the years.
I have too many people who I am thrilled for from this weekend! I wish that I had more pictures, and while it is a little late I am sorry with how long this post is. Birdi is probably my hero of the weekend- she came and tackled her first training with a determination I have never seen from her before. She and Lucky looked really good in the dressage warm-up, to fall victims of an error and a stiff judge in the ring. She dusted herself off though and prepared for the show jumping with a smile, to go in and have the ring kind of get the better of her. I have to say though, even when things looked dark she found the light at the end of the tunnel and she kept on kicking until she was through the flags after the dreaded triple combination. It was a night and day difference from watching her in the show jumping ring to seeing her on the cross country. She sat up, kept her leg on, and looked like she had been running the training level her entire life. Even at the big water jump when Lucky wanted to get a bit squirrely, she just went to her whip and kept thinking forward, so he jumped right off the bank and they finished up with all smiles. I wish I had more pictures of this, but I have video of her ass-kicking performance, so I will share that! Lucky and Birdi are pretty much soul mates, and I love watching them have so much success.
Our beginner novice crew is who I am blaming for my lack of voice these last two days though. Molly had Ritter out, and she continues to improve this little horse every time they go somewhere, Maddie had to switch from Milo to her young horse Beau (and come to her first event of the year!) this weekend, and then Shalen brought out the wonder pony- Cracken!- to kick around for the weekend. I stood on the hill and watched show jumping while glancing over the trees to the dressage ring, and wanted to scream and shout for all of them while they were in the ring. Then we all hung out in the sun and I worked on tanning my pasty legs to watch their show jumping. All three of our girls were professionals- with Shalen even going to the whip to get The Cracken to behave his sassy little self. We have a very talented group of young riders in the barn right now and to see them conquer their goals is great. Shalen moved this horse up to Beginner Novice this weekend and went out to rock around the cross country like a legit bad-ass, Maddie gave Beau a very confident ride around the entire weekend to get him through his first event, and Miss Molly got Ritter right in the water only to have missed a fence and picked up the dreaded TE. But thankfully she was close enough to the end that they got to finish and Ritter gets to think he is the man- so all in all it just happens to everyone (I've definitely missed a fence or two!) I hope that everyone had as much fun this weekend as I did, and I cannot thank everyone enough for the help, cheers, and support for myself and my horse.
I wish everyone was coming to Richland with us, but Dunnabeck will be here before we know it and the barn family will be out in full force for that weekend. I wish I had more pictures from the weekend (thanks Colleen for the picture below, I had to be able to post our lovely YR's!)- but alas I have videos that maybe will be uploaded before the next Ice Age.
Congrats to everyone on their weekends- including friends that I got to see from afar!- and glad to know everyone got home safe. We have the benefit show to help send Meghan to Burghley so I will have my camera charged and ready to go for that- and I will have a recap! Getting down to my last few days of work so hopefully I will have a normal sleep schedule soon.
Until then!
Courtney
No comments:
Post a Comment