Full Gallop Horse Trials

Another fun weekend for Team Awesome. Fleck and I went to Full Gallop for their January horse trials. We weren't planning on it, but it worked with the schedule and they made it a one day and when I was debating signing up, the weather was gorgeous. So.. I did. Luckily, the weather wasn't horrible. I got some riding in prior, but Friday was miserable cold. It actually warmed up later that afternoon but by then I was already in "do nothing" mode. So I figured he could have the day off. Saturday we loaded up and headed out. We stabled at Jumping Branch that night so we decided we might as well school while we were there. Fleck was a good boy. We managed to jump decently, though I could beat myself for the stupid half coffin again. Argh... I came up to and stared right at it. Argh... Of course he stopped. But I came again and looked up and he went fine over it. We finished with a long hack. And it was gorgeous out! It was so warm I sweated in just a t-shirt. Then put them up and went to Full Gallop to walk the courses. The stadium course looked fun. It was a good fun course... WITH a triple!!! Yay!! Only this triple was a big forward triple, then four strides to a upright vertical slightly downhill. Eeeks! Tough. So then we walked XC. I just ran P/T because ...well, because it was Full Gallop and I'm still scared of the ditch and wall and giant trakenher. :) But.... the ditch and wall and trakenher are NO MORE!!!! They annihilated them and they are gone. SWEET!! And actually, the prelim course looked kinda fun! We didn't walk it, but as we walked training, we passed most of it. It looked quite doable. Training was a fun course. Not big... not tough, but a few questions that would be tough for me and Fleck. Lots of downhill stuff. Lots of stuff that was just tough for us. And one new trakenher that was little... but still a smidge scary. And as we finished the walks, the moon was making it's way out. It was gorgeous!!!! Big, low, and yellow! 

So the next morning dawned a little chilly and gorgeous. The moon was just as pretty that morning. It was cold though. We cleaned stalls, fed ponies, and I braided. Then we loaded up and headed to Full Gallop. I swear it just kept getting colder. The wind was brutal. But we manned up and got ready for dressage. I had a pretty good warm up. I worked on getting his neck supple at first by bend/counter bend, then leg yield in, then leg yield out. We got some nice work and at the end, Beth had me do ten meter circle figure 8's. I had to sit up, sit him on his hiney, and then soften his neck too. So I had him working nicely, but when I lifted my inside hand he really softened and bent around my inside leg and was lovely! So... in we went! And it started out pretty good, but then we lost it. I came in strong and our ten meter circle figure 8 was pretty good. My second circle started funky but I fixed it. Our first canter serprentine was lovely!!! Aside from the slight break to canter because I got him with my spur. Oops. The second one.. sucked. It is always tougher and I guess I forgot to let my hip open and allow him to move. And I didn't allow his shoulder to go so it sorta turned into a half pass, but not a good one. Then our walk work was our downfall again. Argh... I like test B better.. it comes at the end. ;) He started okay but when I went to collect him, he inverted and started to trot. I barely held him together but then of course we were tense and I got grabby and locked and... it went downhill. Our right lead canter wasn't horrid and I actually thought it was pretty decent but not so much. Then I accidentally went to X instead of the quarter line on our serpentine so we got counted down for that. The change of lead through the trot was.. just that. It wasn't great.. but he trotted. But the judge wrote "Changed leads". ??? I thought I was supposed to... ?? Oh well. Our lengthen wasn't great either. Sigh... oh well. We ended up with a 42.3 or something. In last place... out of 5. Doh. But aside from the first place girl.. i wasn't too far off. Oh well.

And then.. it was colder!!! I was freezing. The wind was brutal. So I stalled a bit too long and was running really late for stadium. I think I was swinging into the saddle at 10:56 and my ride time was 11:03. And I was still at day parking. Eeeks. We trotted the whole way to the warm up ring and went to jumping. Beth was trying to tell me to collect him, but I was flustered and just gunning him. So... I did manage to collect him and then we headed into the ring. Ugh.. it was probably one of my worst rides.. but Fleck manned up and was awesome!! He jumped clean!!! And saved my butt repeatedly. We even put a two stride in the triple. Argh.. But.. the pictures don't look too bad. And we managed to be only one of two of the five rides to go clean. SAINT of a horse!!

So then on to XC. I managed to get him a bit more collected in warm up and was feeling less horrified with myself. The first half of the course was a little screwy. He started out behind my leg and almost stopped at the coop in front of the banks. I think it's because he was looking for Phinn. Goof! But once I put my leg on him he jumped the coop and then up and down the bank. I wanted to kick him on but then we were barrelling down the hill to the treasure chest and I knew I had to balance him. So we jumped the treasure chest and then we turned right to the trakenher. And Fleck almost slipped on the clay. Eeeks. I really thought he was going down. Right before the trakenher!! Eeeks... I'll admit it, the trakenher was freakin' me out a bit. But I was thinking "balance, sit up"... and then three strides and we were there. Yay pony. So then after that we managed to get both of our heads in the games. Then we were rocking. He burned up the hill and jumped the roll top to down bank... Oh, but then the goof spooked at the barrel on the prelim corner next to the fake training corner and almost ran out. I held him in. Then we were rocking. He burned up the hill and jumped the water beautifully! It was Beth's grid... right bend, left bend. But straight over the jumps. Whee. Then over the last four or five fences and we were home. Fastest time. :) 

We finished on our cruddy dressage score, but because we went clean in stadium we moved up to third. So.. that is now two third places at training, which means..... one more clean XC run and we are qualified for the AECs. IF we decide we want to go. :) Good pony.