I have worked hard to lose weight in preparation for this weekend. My goal was to lose 50 pounds before I allowed myself to show at the novice level, no matter how much I wanted to make the move up from BN & how prepared Dezi might be. I blew my goal out of the water by losing 68 pounds between January & October of 2020. I'm still not at my goal, but I'm much closer and I feel like I'm physically in a place to be able to help my horse run novice instead of hindering her along the way. We have put a lot of work into improving our fitness, and we were ready!
This weekend was our first recognized novice HT at Heritage Park (thank you, Mid America Eventing Association for making this weekend happen!).
I took Thursday and Friday off work as a birthday present to myself and to prepare for the show. I had a lengthy to-do list including laundry, preparing the trailer, riding Dezi, and just making sure I had everything packed and ready to go. Chris was home from work and gave me an awesome dressage lesson on Thursday morning. We really were figuring it out! I also got to throw some relaxation & fun in there, including a fun birthday party my pool friends threw for me that was topped by me winning my match that night.
Friday morning, I got all the stuff from home packed into my car, got my blood tested at the doctor, bought a pair of clippers from Family Center (it's about time, honestly), and headed to the barn for a relaxing tack cleaning & spa day. I took my time cleaning tack and preparing the trailer. About the time I was finishing up, the horses had decided to come in from the field. Destiny! I grabbed Dezi and we had a fun spa day. She got a bath, clipped, tail untangled, forelock rebraided, & then got to relax in the stall for a bit before Chris got home from work to take us to Heritage. We arrived around 5:30 pm, and with only a couple hours before sunset and a good dressage ride on Thursday, I wanted to make sure we got a chance to walk XC.
Luckily, Heritage Park is one of our two "hometown" courses where we get to school relatively frequently, so we had jumped most of the novice jumps before this weekend. They decided to make it more technical, though, with several combinations throughout the XC course. Mostly 4-5 stride bending lines. I'm going to be honest. I was nervous. This is the first novice course that matters. I walked it once with Chris and then a second time with only my Course Walk app and my mind to keep me occupied. The more I walked it, the more doable it looked. I would just have to make sure to ride every fence and not trust her completely.
By the time I was finished walking, it was almost dark. I took Dezi for a walk, fed her, and headed home for the night. I got to bed relatively early and dreamt about that combination at 11AB, a faux trakaener with a 6 stride to the big table that has always freaked me out on its own, and now it's part of a bending line! But the more I rode it over and over in my mind, the more doable it was going to be. I had a plan. Sit back between the fences. Be confident.
I spend Saturday morning reminding myself that Dezi and I are beautiful badass women who have worked hard to get to this level. We're completely prepared. We've been jumping this height and these questions at home with no problem. We belong here. I used Saturday morning as an opportunity to become amazing at positive self-talk. I pumped myself up. Hardcore.
Dressage was at 10:20. I took Dezi to the trailer to start putting in her studs around 8:30. I wanted to have enough time to do studs and tack up before I got on at 9:30. After I had put in her studs, while I was chilling out, reviewing my dressage test, and relaxing before I had to tack up and get dressed, there was an accident by the trailers. A woman got stepped on by her horse, who was tied to the trailer. She was lying on the ground and obviously not in great condition. A fire engine and police car came down the row of trailers. In the distance, I could hear an ambulance making it's way toward us. In my head, I'd rather by on Dezi and warming up near the dressage rings than chance her "bombproof"-ness with emergency vehicles in the vicinity. I got dressed and tacked up quickly and headed out to warmup earlier than expected. We walked a lot. Eventually, Chris arrived and we had an amazing warm up. Dezi was listening to me, she was soft, and she was really using herself well. And I was riding well, thinking, and keeping my position with short reins. I had a few friends come to the show from work. I circled them and talked for a bit before I went into the ring.
Even as we trotted around the ring, I was confident and ready. And then the bell rang and we turned down centerline. I went brain dead. Suddenly I had no idea what dressage was. What's connection? How do you ride corners? What's shoulder fore? How do you ask for transitions? What is rhythm? How short are my reins supposed to be? Literally everything about riding dressage went out of my head. All of it. I suddenly had no idea what I was doing. I could feel it unraveling, but I couldn't fix it. I didn't know how to recover. She was counterbent. She was running through my hands. We looked and felt like we had never had a dressage lesson in our lives. It was bad. I ended up with a 32.1. Not a terrible score considering how terrible it felt. It's just so frustrating to have a beautiful warm up and work so hard on dressage between shows and then get into the ring and blow it. We are absolutely capable of scoring in the 20's and yet I have yet for it to happen. See for yourself on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zZE535BZuLU
We didn't have a lot of time between dressage and cross country, so we hung at the trailer. My friends helped me get Dezi's braids out and then we scoped out where we thought they would be able to see the most on the cross country course. I gave them the insider info that you get to see the most when you're standing on top of a prelim jump, because you have the added height. Then I headed back to the trailer, tacked up, changed Dezi's boots, and changed my clothes before I headed up to XC warmup. We got there kind of early, so we walked a lot. Then when it was time to jump, she was killing it. She felt like she was made for this. She knew what she was doing. She was getting perfect spots and our rhythm was just right. We were ready. Chris warmed us up, told us we were ready and that we should take one more jump when it was almost our turn to head out, and she left us to find a good spot on the course.
Then we were called to the start box. It's amazing how long 2 minutes feels. I started the GoPro at 30 seconds and my watch at 5 seconds. I had no idea where my minute markers were, but I ususally have to push Dezi through the majority of the course on novice to make time. The first three jumps rode beautifully. The 4th jump was the hammock. Dezi got a bit of a short spot, so it was kind of an awkward landing, but we headed to the 5AB 5-stride bending line with as much bounce and show jumpiness as possible. She took the combination like a pro. All I had to do was bend her a bit to the left and she knew her job. The water rode fine, seeing as they had not flagged the actual water and we had the option of taking the gravel to the side of the water without having to get wet. It's not that I didn't think Dezi would take the water (she's gotten much better about water), but I figured that if we didn't have to get her feet and boots wet, she'd have more sure footing for the remainder of the course. I think it worked out. She was confident and sure- footed the rest of the course. She didn't questin the ditch to the roll top. On the way to the "pick-a-side" jump, I had a moment of excitement that we were running novice and actually making it happen. She took the faux trakaener & big table 6-stride combination (the one I had nightmares about) like it was a walk in the park. Just another day. After that combination, I looked at my watch and it said 3:08... I did some quick math and figured it would take us at least a minute to get through the last 4 fences. Speed fault time was 4:01. She got a short spot to 12 because there were people playing frisbee golf in the woods on the other side of the jump. She also got a short spot to 13 because I was trying to slow her down a bit (thinking we'd be too close to speed fault time). After I realized that she jumps much better at speed, I decided that we'd just go for it on the last 2 fences. She jumped the 14 kind of wonkey with a weird move with her hind end, and then she focused in on the final fence. She's jumped that fence enough that she knew the jump we were headed to and that she was almost finished. She jumped it really well! I crossed the finish line (my watch said 4:08) and immediately reminded Dezi that we're officially a novice partnership. My GoPro video is on YouTube! Check it out here https://youtu.be/zvjG0i84fuc
We did it! Now all I had to do for a couple hours was wait to see if we got speed fault time penalties. I thought we should be good, but it was the only thing that might be able to give us some penalties. After the scores came out and I saw that our official time was 4:05, I definitely breathed a sigh of relief. Dezi recovered pretty quickly. I walked her, covered her in cold water, took out her studs, and then covered her in linament before I let her chill in her stall for a while. We were still sitting in a tie for 9th place, because apparently almost all of our division had also gone double clear on XC.
My friend Jess and I went exploring out on cross country to watch some of the novice and the starter riders. Then she helped me walk stadium. She had no idea what she was doing, but it was nice to have a buddy. After she took off, I walked Dezi, fed her, and then let her graze around me while I relaxed by the trailer until it was too dark to see her anymore. I put her in her stall and said goodnight.
I had a very relaxing Saturday night. I got home around 8:30. I started laundry to wash my white clothes so I could wear them again on Sunday. I watched my GoPro video and got it posted in a facebook post celebrating our recognized novice debut. And then I went to bed. Hard.
I woke up at 6AM Sunday morning. I got my clothes from the dryer and made myself a snack in case I would need it and headed out. I stopped at QT for a cappuccino, diet coke, and a slice of breakfast pizza. It was all part of the plan. Breakfast pizza on stadium day is like cheese on pizza. I got to the park, fed Dezi, organized my stuff, and then took her out to the back of the trailer parking for some bonding and grazing. We hung out out there for about a hour, talked to a lot of people, stalked a lot of people on social media, and we even played a little. When I went to trot her, she threw her head and cantered next to me. She knew she was a badass. She knew she was important to me and that I love her. She knew that she had done a good job. When stadium started, I let her chill out in her stall for a bit while I watched prelim. So cool! Maybe one day, Dezi.
When they started setting the jumps for training, I decided to start getting her ready. They were moving pretty quickly. And if worst came to worst, I could have a good walk on her or even handwalk her for a while before it was our turn to jump. I'd rather be early than late. Plus, I wanted to put studs in (which is much easier when you've done it the day before).
We got to the stadium jumping area as training was starting the second division. Knowing that we 'd be in the first novice division, I decided to go ahead and get on to walk her around a bit before it was our turn. When they were changing the course for novice, I had the gate keeper and a recent friend, hold Dezi so Chris and I could walk and discuss the course. Square turns to everything. Ride everything (almost) as an unrelated. Keep her bouncy (especially going down the hill to jump 5) instead of letting her get long and flat. Take my time. Typical stadium pre-game talk. Now to see if I could actually execute it.
We did our 2-2-2s and then started jumping. In the warm-up, knocked a rail (hard) on a tall vertical. I didn't have the canter I needed on the approach and got her too long and flat. We proceeded to jump that fence and a training height oxer without issue. We were ready. I was determined to ride a dressage-y stadium course. Keep her bouncing up and down instead of long and flat. Ride every fence. The course started out well. I rode the shit out of the first 3 jumps. And then I was so concerned about the downhill to jump 5 that I didn't focus on 4 the way I know I need to... and we knocked a rail. But you better believe that I rode the shit out of the rest of the course. I was determined to let that be our only rail of the course. And it was! (See the video here https://youtu.be/m5yXFwFeWUo). We finished our first novice on a score of 36.1.
We ended up 10th in the division. They had all of us come in for a victory gallop even if we didn't get a ribbon. That was a little embarrassing, but it was a fun bonding moment with the other novice riders. We pulled up the rear of the victory gallop and as we headed out of the ring, we were informed that Dezi and I tied with Katie and her horse Lenny for the MAEA reserve novice horse of the year award. So we did get a big red ribbon! Very cool!
So there you have it. We finished. And with a respectable score. A score that might have been competitive in a rider division (at this show, novice only had a junior and an open division). I'm very happy with it. We definitely belong at this level. Dezi and I are a novice team. We are exactly where we're meant to be. And I could not be more happy with how we showed up, all the hard work I've put in to lose the weight to get to this point, and how amazing it felt to complete at this level. We are truly beautiful badass women. Dezi will have most of the week off and then I'm so excited to see what Windermere Run HT brings in 3 weeks.
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