This time at RIO, we decided to work out of the trailer instead of stabling Friday night. Leah and Chris were amazing and loaded Dezi for me on Saturday morning so I could just meet them at the park. We immediately got to work. Leah rode around 8:30, so we got her ready and I hand walked Dezi up to the arenas to remind her where she was and to watch the competition. She was totally chill. Surprise, surprise.
After Leah's dressage test, we tacked up for some cross country schooling. We warmed up and jumped a couple baby warm up jumps. Then we proceeded to walk the cross country course (over the jumps that were safe to walk). Dezi walked over every log that I put in front of her. She couldn't care less. So we ran the mini cross country course and she jumped everything. She even got into a rhythm after the first couple and didn't even care about her buddies back at the start box. It was really fun! The only jumps she had trouble with were the stadium jumps that were in the XC field. They were obviously beneath her. We schooled those, but generally, I was very happy with her.
We went on to do the competition. Our dressage tests were OK. Nothing too exciting. Much improved from our last show. I think they were in the mid 30's. I ended up having to do my second dressage test in my jumping saddle, just because of the timing of the show. Our jump round was awesome. She knocked a rail, but I was very happy considering I was pretty sure she would plow through every single one. We ended up with a first place in our Intro C dressage test & second in our Green as Grass CT (only by .1 because of our rail... oops).
We went back to Chris's house where Leah and I spent the evening cleaning tack in preparation for the Mission Valley Pony Club schooling HT on Sunday, September 23rd.
It was an early morning, as horse shows usually are, but apparently Leah and I were excited because we woke up WAY too early. We caught the horses and made them pretty while we waited for Chris to wake up. We arrived at Longview pretty early, so we decided to let the horses chill in the trailer while we walked the starter cross country course. I had to do starter, because that was the lowest division this show offered. Originally, I had planned to just do a CT, but they accidentally signed me up for the HT (including XC) and we figured we'd go with it (and paid the difference), considering how successful she had been in the "XC course" at RIO on Saturday. Most of the XC jumps looked doable with the half roll top and the dreaded black mulch ramp being the only ones I was hesitant about. But she is fully capable, so I'd ride aggressively to those, sit in the back seat, and I assumed it would be fine.
Our dressage test was OK. Again. All the mistakes we made can be attributed to me. I get her too deep into the corners so she isn't able to balance herself enough to hold her frame and gets pissy at me. I messed up my left lead canter depart. But overall, we got a fair 36 (ish).
The stadium course was on grass and had some interesting distances. Most of the distances walked as in-between distances, so the plan was to just ride and keep collected so she could add strides and figure it out on her own. There was also a one-stride, which she had never done before, but whatever... let's try it! She was a champ. Jumps that other people (including people at our barn) refused, she jumped no problem. She jumped planks and a jump that looked like a zebra and never thought twice. We did have a rail, but I think it was just because it was a tough turn getting to that jump. We had to jump a combination and then make a 90 degree turn to the next fence, which is tough considering she can't keep her balance in corners. She's green. I couldn't be mad at her. But that one stride! She jumped it like she'd done it a million times.
Time for cross country. This horse has literally never run a cross country course. She has never done a cross country schooling. She has never seen jumps like these with max height 2'3". She had never seen water. But we were going to go for it. Why not? What could possibly go wrong??
As I was waiting for the OK to leave the start box, I turned to the little girl who was supposed to run XC after me. I told her that my horse had never been on cross country before and that we might have to try doing some of the jumps a couple of times. I told her to yell really loud if she was coming up behind me on course. Well, apparently I didn't need to give her any advice at all. Dezi got going and took every single jump on the course. She kind of stutter-stepped and hesitated at the second fence (the half roll top that I was worried about), but she was honest and did the best she could. She just didn't get a good distance and needed to do some quick footwork to be able to get over it. The rest of the course was great! She even jumped the dreaded black mulch jump without a problem. I tried to take her into the water (which she had never seen) and she didn't even hesitate. She stopped and proceeded to walk into the water, but had absolutely no interest in trotting or cantering through the water. I even hailed the taxi and used my whip to encourage her and she still didn't want to trot out of the water. She finished the course in good form. No problems at all. She still needs to figure out her distances, but in general, she did amazing. She surprises me every time I ask her something. She is so cool! We ended up in 4th place in our competitive starter division, but I could care less about the ribbon. This horse is worth more than ribbons. She's quite the gem.
This weekend (September 29th), we went schooling at Longview. Anthony surprised me with a GoPro Hero 5 Session for our anniversary, and we were able to play with it for a bit. However, I hadn't thought ahead enough to charge it long enough the night before, so it didn't even make it to any warm up jumps. Dezi warmed up nicely and jumped every starter jump I pointed her at, and even a few beginner novice jumps. She did banks up and banks down and the little ditch no problem. Our day unfortunately ended abruptly when Leah fell off at the ditch, but it ended on a high note for Dezi and me. I think she's ready for the starter division at Windermere, our first recognized show! And the GoPro will definitely be making it's official debut! Ready or not, here we come!!
On Sunday, the ponies had the day off and Leah's birthday present to me was a mini Dezi photo shoot!! Happy birthday to me!!
