We had a busy weekend at Plantation with me competing 5, and my student Gillian Cowley coming down to compete her Gabriella.
I was super pleased with all of the horses in the dressage, R Star was starting in her first Prelim and scored a sub 25 test to lead the way against some lovely horses. I then had two sale horses in the Training. One, Persia June, had a good test however there is still room for improvement as we are continuing to work on straightness.
Decorated was a star and put in a lovely steady test, to tie for the lead. Then it was on to my Novice horses, first, What it Takes, the super duper pony. He put in an active, energetic test to finish 4th out of 20, and then Dare to Dream's Sport finished out the flat with a quality test as well.
Gillian also put in another good test to win her division on the flat. So we were feeling pretty good going into show jumping with 3 in the lead and one in 4th and the other two with competitive scores.
Show jumping just did not work out the way I had hoped. I am not sure if it was the ground, which is terribly hard for lack of rain, the siting of the show jumping, the course, or me but for whatever reason, I could not get a clear round on some really good jumping horses. Hope, Decorated, Gabby, and Tic Tac had one each at different fences, and Persia had two and Sport three...back to the drawing board for me!
Sunday dawned bright and warm, and Hope started off first cross country and was just angry and a bit unrideable. Turns out the new bit we had for her was bruising her mouth. I must admit that I would not have been surprised if she decided not to go at times, but she showed me a lot of chutzpah by continuing to try, and we will try another bridle this weekend...She finished with some time and ended up 3rd for the weekend...looks like she wants to join her brother Tag competing!
Speaking of Tag, real quickly, he is back in work and starts flatting this week...so exciting. I was grinning ear to ear yesterday having my first canter on him since January 6th!
Back to the event, Persia was the first horse on the Training course, and Denis Glaccum had set up some challenges, and both she and Decorated, who both jumped clean rounds got a huge compliment from Neal when he said "they both look like I would have fun riding them around..." Decorated ended 4th and Persia 11th.
Gabby and Gillian also continued their streak, with a clean go, and another win...she is hoping to move up to Prelim soon, we will see; there needs to be a bit more consistency to some of their work first!
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| What It Takes on XC - Steve Berkowitz Photo |
What It Takes and Sport finished out our day on Sunday. What it Takes was great fun and had me chuckling as we traveled around the course. Sport showed his greeness at the first by having a stop, although it was not caused by the fence, but rather by him staring at the spectators and cars at the top of the field by the first fence. He has not been out for a month and he just showed it, but by the 4th fence he was jumping better than ever. The pony ended up 6th and Sport out of the ribbons.
Video of many of the rides is on our website summary of the event.
We are headed to Fair Hill this weekend, and still waiting on DJ to foal, so if Neal and I look like zombies you will know why...
Hope to see all of you soon,
Courtney
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