I am NOT superwoman.

I spent the summer planning a wedding and preparing for a full fall show season. I am superwoman. I can do it all. I am a hard worker. I am capable. I can do this.

Dezi and I started our fall season by going to the American Eventing Championships in Lexington, KY at the Kentucky Horse Park. We qualified at both beginner novice and the novice level, but since we've been showing novice all season and Dezi respects the show jumps more at the novice level, Chris and I decided to enter the novice division. We got there on September 1 after spending the day traveling. We got the stall set up and found our campsite where we could park the camper for the week. September 2 was dressage day, but we wouldn't be riding until about 4 in the afternoon. I hand walked Dezi several times around the park to get her acclaimated. She was crazy every time I walked her. I tried to keep her out of the stall as much as possible. We let her chill a bit while we went to visit Samantha at the dressage barn where she's working in the morning. It was so amazing to see her and all she's been doing! She has grown up so much and has truly become an amazing woman! And Emily is a great influence for her! We had an amazing dressage warmup and then as soon as I went into the arena, I froze up. We ended up with a disappointing 37.0 to put us in 39th place out of 53 riders. We walked XC several times and I even walked it the morning of September 3rd. Everything looked big to me on foot, but I knew that things always look smaller when I'm actually on Dezi, so it would totally be OK. Again, I got Dezi out of the stall as much as possible and then Chris and I watched some XC before I got ready for my ride at about 6:30pm. Dezi and I would be the second to last pair to tackle the novice XC. Dezi felt a little funky when we started jumping. I later described it as a frantic crazy instead of her usual prepared enthusiasm. In hindsight, it was probably me. I was nervous. I was trusting her too much to calm my nerves, and as a responsible horse owner, I should know never put her in charge of my nerves. We headed out to XC and bobbled the first log, so I pushed her forward to the next fence, which she jumped well. But disaster hit when I headed toward the third fence, a tall coop with a flat landing followed closely by a bit of a natural ditch. Instead of sitting up and riding her to the fence, I trusted her too much because of her forward ride to fence 2. She stopped and I was over her shoulder too much to save myself. It was disappointing. I immediately stood up, addressed the medical crew that came to help me, and then a cried as I hand walked my horse off the course and back to the barns. All that hard work all year and I blew it. I didn't get to ride through the head of the lake. I didn't get to ride in the Rolex arena. But I think what hurts the most is that I've qualified for 4 AECs on 3 different horses and I've fallen off on XC at 3 of them. I'm fully aware of the common denominator. And it's frustrating. I feel like I put so much time and energy and effort into succeeding, and I just keep letting myself (and my horses and my coach) down. We hung out the next couple days. Dezi and I went for a long hack around the park. I got a lesson from Emily. And we headed home on Sunday, September 5 starting to make a plan for how we could get out of this hole I had dug for myself. 

A couple weeks later (on September 26th... the day after my bachelorette party), there was a one- day horse trials at Heritage Park, our hometown event. In an effort to figure out my confidence issues, we decided to enter the one-day without schooling XC the previous day. We did OK in dressage, dropped one rail in stadium (which wasn't super surprising, because I forgot to walk it), and then we headed out to XC. The course rode fine, but Dezi was pretty sticky to every jump, preferring the chip instead of the natural spot. Until we got to the final table. As we were approaching it, my thought was "Wow! That looks like a huge f**king jump." Instead of sitting in the back seat and being the confidence Dezi needed, I went up over her shoulder and she stopped. I ended up in front of the saddle. Luckily, because it was a table, she couldn't put her head down, so it took me a while, but I was able to monkey back into the saddle. We came around and rode the jump again, this time with more conviction. She jumped it fine. But again, I was frustrated. I was failing my horse and my coach... and myself. Chris and I decided that it would be within Dezi and my best interests to drop down to beginner novice for the Heritage Park Horse Trials, which would be the week after my wedding.  We also decided to get her hocks checked out to see if she would need injections, which the vet highly suggested. She had been sore. She was probably sore at AECs, too, but she's so stoic and willing to do anything I ask of her that I never knew! I also had a lot on my mind, so I wasn't giving myself and my horse the respect we both deserved. Mentally. I was unfocused. Hopefully I could be more mentally present after the wedding. 

The next weekend, I got married. October 2, 2021 was the day of my dreams. Literally, I lived the wedding that I had dreamed of as a little girl. It was absolutely perfect in every way. I took the whole week before off of work to make sure I'd have some down time before everything got crazy. I was able to ride during the day in the beginning of the week but then I took off from riding when family was in town and then got back to riding on Tuesday. 

I got in as many rides as I could before I took off work on Friday October 8, and borrowed Anthony's truck to haul myself and my horse to Olathe. Our first solo trip! I needed some help backing, but otherwise, I was pretty proud of myself! Dressage went better than it had been going at the previous shows. I was still stiff and perched, but I ended up with a 32.3 to put us in 2nd place. XC was awesome! It was a whole new course with new tracks and lots of new jumps. Granted, it was a level lower than we had been typically riding this year, but we rode it! Dezi was a rockstar. Even on jump 14 which was similar in terrain to our bogey jump at AECs. I walked off the XC course with a gigantic smile on my face! "It was me!" And then there was stadium. I dropped one rail, but we were able to maintain our 2nd place position. I think we finally had our confidence back! We decided to try our hand at novice at our last show of the season at Windermere Run 2 weeks later. We were back!

The weekend between Heritage and Windermere, we headed out to Longview Lake to do some XC schooling. We jumped all of the novice jumps we could find and she felt great!

I hauled Dezi to Longview Lake on our second solo voyage to Windermere Run HT on September 22. I got there early to set up the stall. We had a lesson with Chris and then walked XC. I braided Dezi and then headed home to get as much sleep as possible. We rode dressage at 10am on Saturday morning. I actually rode it. I was relaxed and thinking throughout the whole test. Until I forgot my stretchy trot... just went right on past it. I pulled myself together and finished the test with a 32.1 includng my error! We were sitting in 2nd place. We totally could have had our sub-30 dressage score (a goal for the year). At least now I know we're totally capable! Then we got to run XC- again, whole new tracks and a couple new jumps. She was a beast! She took the bending line like a pro and we even had to circle before the finish line because we were going too fast! We maintained our 2nd place position. Stadium jumping on Sunday got delayed a couple of hours because of some serious weather we had overnight and that morning. We had a beautiful warm up and then I went into the arena and went slightly braindead. I was over her shoulder, trusting her too much. I didn't have the correct rhythm. I didn't ride her well at all, and it never got better. The jumps that we managed to leave up were because she saved me. I rode like crap and we knocked 3 rails. That 12 additional points took us from 2nd to 7th, which is hilarious, because the ribbon matches all of my things! My husband said that maybe I should change my color to blue! 

I'm proud of myself and my horse for how we stayed determined and finished strong after a couple of bobbles this season. When things had been going so well, it was easy for me to forget that it takes hard work and mental energy to maintain that success. I AM NOT SUPERWOMAN! I cannot do it all. So the next time I decide to plan a wedding and maintain a full show season, someone please remind me not to be an idiot! 

Learning to trust

Chris and I headed to Catalpa Corners Charity Horse Trials in Iowa City, IA last weekend. We both took Friday off work so we could leave super early to try to beat the heat. We didn't want Dezi to be in the trailer during the heat of the day. After preparing the trailer in some viscious heat, eating delicious BLT sandwiches, & watching some Olympics, I slept over at Chris's house and we were able to pull out of the driveway at about 5am Friday morning.

Little did we know, there would be a cold front when we passed from Missouri into Iowa. We even pulled out sweatshirts at one point during our journey! We arrived at Catalpa around noon, got Dezi all settled in (we lucked out and got one of 4 stalls with concrete, so I bought her extra bedding for comfort), and got the stall set up. We found our campsite and parked the trailer in the perfect spot, so I could work out of it all weekend easily. Oh the joys of showing up early at a show!

When things had settled down a bit, we took Dezi out for our warm up. She was firey! I don't know if it was the weather change or the show environment, but she was full of herself, and I was OK with it. She's so much more fun to ride when she has energy as compared to when she's lazy. We made it a pretty quick ride and then headed back. Chris napped while I gave Dezi a bath and then we headed to the competitors party. They had some delicious pizzas and salad! And someone had donated a bunch of hard ciders, which were also delicious!

After dinner, Chris, our friend Cindy, and I headed out for our cross country walk. The course seemed pretty straightforward with several jumps that even looked more like beginner novice jumps than novice. I wasn't about to complain! The biggest questions would be a big table at the top of a hill, a half coffin with a ditch to a fairly skinny rail, the option into water (either a bank down or just a run in), the option of running through a covered bridge to a large table at jump 9, and a 4-stride bending line combination between 11 & 12. But overall, it was a pretty straightforward course, and definitely fair for the level. I walked the course once more on my own to collect my thoughts before Chris and I finished the evening watching some Olympic eventing dressage. I walked Dezi a few times before we headed to bed.

I woke up early on Saturday to feed Dezi and braid her before Chris and I went out to watch some of the prelim dressage. When it was time, I headed back to get ready. In the warmup, Dezi was still pretty spicy, but it was great. She was listening and I felt like I was riding well. When it was our turn, we took a couple laps around the outside of the ring and then headed in. Suddenly, the amount of space I had seemed really small and things were coming up quickly. And she wasn't listening at all. She felt completely different than in the warmup. And I'm sure it was me. It's amazing how mental horseback riding can be. I'm sure I was nervous and handsy and trying to micromanage her. Damn me. She knows her job. We've ridden dressage a million times. We know how to ride dressage. Well, given the test we rode, you might not be able to tell that. It was pretty tense. She wasn't listening. My geometry wasn't good. It was pretty much a disaster. We ended up with a fair 35.0. However, that put us in a tie for 2nd place going into XC. Somehow! Maybe everyone else in my division had just as shitty rides as I did.

We had about 2 hours before cross country. I put Dezi in her stall, put away all my dressage stuff, and Chris and I headed out to the XC course to watch a few of the training riders. The course was eating them alive! Most of the people we saw went through the water really well, but the double down banks were getting people. When it was time, I headed back to the barn to start getting ready. We headed out to the warmup and we were ready to go. Dezi warmed up really well. We jumped all of the stadium jumps and then the cross country warm up jumps well. Chris was going to head out onto the course and told me to jump one more jump, any jump I wanted, when they called for my 2 minute warning before I headed to the start box. We were given the 2 minute warning, jumped the novice XC warm up jump, and headed out. As we were walking to the start box, I heard the announcers call over the radio that there was a hold on course. I was having flashbacks to Mill Creek, when I was held at the startbox for about 20 minutes (I had spent the whole time walking and when I finally went out on course, it took us a couple jumps to get back into a rhythm- Chris had suggested that if it happens again, to go back to the warmup and do a little gallop and jump before I went out of the startbox). I had learned my lesson. I asked if I could go back to the warm up and then get a 2 minute warning again. I'm not sure how long the hold was, but we did eventually get a 2 minute warning. This time, I had her jump the training rolltop cross country jump before we headed to the startbox. This time without a hitch.

Cross country rode really well! My time markers were confusing me. I thought we were behind at the first minute. We were right on the second minute, and then suddenly, we were 20 minutes up on time. At the end of the course, I was slowing her down to a stadium pace as we were headed to the last couple jumps. Everything rode well, though. And we did a pretty good job of riding the plan. She chipped into the 5th jump (a coop in the woods), she took a bit of a look at the ditch (no biggie), I didn't have the balls to do the bank into the water, she beasted through the covered bridge and the big table after, and we took a different line to the bending line than we had planned, but it worked. And it was fun! We went double clear! Woop woop! Unfortunately, the person in first place had a lot of trouble and the person who was tied with me ended up falling off. We finished XC in first place in our division! I could hardly believe it! But the scores were very close. No rails in hand. Check out our GoPro here: https://youtu.be/F7hStqWtdR4

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the beginner novice & starter XC riders. I spent a lot of time walking with Dezi. Chris and I ate some delicious steak and jalapeno artichoke sandwiches and walked the stadium course. Then we watched the Olympics XC before we headed to bed. Nice and chill evening.

I slept in a little bit on Sunday (until about 6:30am). I fed & walked Dezi before Chris and I headed to stadium to watch the prelim riders and some of the training divisions. A lot of riders were having trouble with the owl jump, which was downhill and needed to be approached with a good square turn on the grass. When it was time, I headed back to the barn to put in Dezi's studs and get ready. Of course she hadn't laid down all weekend and decided that right before stadium would be the time. Of course. So I had to give her a good grooming to make her pretty before we headed to the ring. We probably got there a little too early, because we spent a lot of time walking before we were really ready to warm up. Dezi was jumping well. We were ready.

We headed into the ring and got going. The first jump rode well. The second jump rode well. And then she was on the wrong lead, so I brought her back down to the trot and picked up the correct lead to head to the 3rd jump (the owl jump). I rode my square turn well, but I didn't see the distance and instead of pushing her forward for the distance, I held her. I micromanaged her. She knocked the rail with her front end. Shit. So we're not in first anymore, but we were perfectly capable of finishing the round well. We jumped the next 6 jumps well. Coming to 9A, I had a bit of deja vu to the 3rd jump. It was a square right turn and again, I should have pushed her for the distance and instead held her and tried to micromanage my horse who knows her job. She's easy to ride. Point her at the jump and put leg on. I didn't put leg on. We knocked a rail, took 3 strides in the 2 stride line, and managed to leave the B element up. I pushed her to the last fence and we ended the round with 8 jump faults. I didn't trust my horse and tried to micromanage her over the fences. Note to self: don't do that anymore.

We ended up in 4th place. I literally handed my blue ribbon to someone else on a gold platter. I felt like I had let both Dezi and Chris down. I didn't ride to my full potential. After I was sad about my finish, I started to get mad at myself and confer with Chris to make a plan before AECs. I need to work on my mental game and remember that my horse knows her job and I do not need to micromanage her. I'm planning on riding a dressage test every week and doing a jump school every week between now and then. I'm going to let Chris ride Dezi and give me pointers on how to manage her left shoulder (which she likes to drop- chicken or egg?) and do some more lunging to try to get her to carry herself better. And I'm going to read (and hopefully finish) the book "Ride Big" and workout for 30 minutes (non-riding-related working out) every day. We're going to figure this out, and I'm going to make Chris and Dezi proud at AECs. We've got this!

Going from...

To...

Eventing is all about ups and downs

Mill Creek Pony Club Horse Trials came quickly this year! We actually got some good opportunities for conditioning before we needed to head out. The weather report was calling for rain and storms all weekend, though, which is always a little concerning. I took Friday off work. I spent the morning cleaning tack, getting my trailer ready, and loading everything up. Chris got off work around noon and we headed to Longview. We got the stall set up, had a great dressage warm up in a hectic arena, and then we walked XC. The rain held out all evening for us. I hung out with Dezi as long as possible and then headed home for some sleep. 

Saturday was an early morning. We rode dressage around 9:30 (just as the skies were clearing after the morning rain) and had a very nice ride. Chris and I were both super happy with it. We were both positive that it would fufill my goal for a sub-30 dressage score at a recognized event! It was seriously one of the most beautiful, effortless dressage rides I've ever had! Unfortunately, the score did not reflect our anticipations. I got a 33.6, but I was sitting in first place. The judge must have been particularly tough!

I didn't have a lot of time between dressage and XC. Despite the rain all week, the footing was still pretty nice. Chris and I decided to opt for some simple tiny grass studs and headed down to the warm up. I was the 5th rider in the novice division. Everything was running on time, which was awesome, because those pesky storm clouds were looking like they wanted to make another appearance. Our warm up went well! Dezi was jumping everything like a champ and just felt great overall. It was finally our time to head down to the startbox. We said goodbye to Chris, who was going to go out on course to get some video. As they were announcing my 2 minute warning, the TD came over the walkie talkies saying that there was a jump that didn't have a jump judge. They were going to hold me until they could get it figured out. From the walk over the walkies, it sounded like it would be a quick fix, so I just continued to walk around the box and the area near it. It probably ended up being about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't even think about doing another canter or going back up to the warm up to take a jump because I assumed it would be quick. So after they got it figured out, my 2 minute warning came again. We cantered out of the startbox and she jumped pretty sticky to the first couple fences, but the third fence rode perfectly and everything from there was nice! We ended up double clear with a time of 4:27 with an optimum time of 4:45. She even stumbled right up the baby bank out of water without a problem! What a champion. We maintained our first place standing going into the evening. Check out our XC ride at https://youtu.be/wZCrc5X3yU4.

I hung out with Dezi as long as possible. Hosed her off a couple of times. Watched some of the lower levels ride XC, walked her, fed her, and then headed home for the evening. It was a friend's birthday, so I got Jimmy Johns (not quite the steak dinner I had earned) and headed to the driving range for his celebration. We had a lot of fun. I went out to the horse park to check on Dezi and take her for a quick walk before bed. 

I got up early Sunday morning to get to the horse park to take care of Dezi. The open novice division would be the third group to go. I was able to watch the prelim riders before I had to head back to start getting ready for my ride. We were the last people to go in our division, so I got to watch some of my competitors from afar. Some people were knocking rails, and the KC Chiefs jump in particular was spooking a lot of horses. Honestly, though, I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy. It was one of those days when I just couldn't stop being grateful for all the opportunities I was afforded by being able to be here. I am truly living my dream. I'm making friends and having a blast. No matter the placing. I was so happy. 

I went into the ring to start my round. It wasn't pretty. There were certainly a couple jumps when I got way too close to the base and there were definitely times when I let my reins get too long and didn't keep the pace I knew we needed. But somehow, we managed to keep it together and leave all the rails up! We won! First place! I don't think my smile could have been any bigger. We led our victory gallop. Then after I took care of Dezi back at her stall, Chris and I hung out watching some of the other riders do their stadium rounds. I wanted to enjoy this moment as long as I possibly could, because unfortunately, that afternoon, I knew I would be on the opposite side of the emotional spectrum when we went to the funeral services for a close friend of ours who was supposed to be in our wedding and passed away unexpectedly. I knew that I wouldn't be able to ride the horse show high quite as long as typical. 

We had about a month to refine our dressage even more, practice our jumping, go to a couple more XC schoolings, & condition as much as possible before we headed to Queeny Park in Saint Louis. 

Chris took off the whole Friday and we were able to leave her house just before 8am. We got to the National Equestrian Center around one. We got the stall set up and chilled in the camper with air conditioning until the weather cooled off a bit. It was going to be a hot weekend! The weather report was calling for highs in the 100s every day. I rode a short dressage warm up around 6:30pm. We had a really good warm up! I was starting to get really excited for the weekend. After it cooled down a bit more, I took Dezi out of the stall for a couple more walks and some grazing. I like to get her out of the stall as much as possible at these shows because I don't feel like it's fair to keep her cooped up when she's used to living in a pasture and roaming around all day. I'm not totally sure she cares either way. I think she enjoys the vacation and the security of the stall and the consistency of a fan with a constant breeze. I ended the night catching up with some old friends and posting up in front of Dezi's stall reading until it was late enough to head to bed. 

It started getting hot early in the morning on Saturday. We decided it was probably best not to give her a huge warm up before dressage. She felt really good. And then she started jigging when I would ask for medium to free walk. And I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. And I started getting frustrated. And I totally got into my own head. I tried to calm myself down, but I couldn't stop thinking about how we had worked so hard on our medium to free to medium walk transitions and I was sure I would blow it. The test started out nice, but as we went around, I let my reins get longer and longer. And I wasn't thinking the way I know how to think during a dressage test. It was OK. She didn't jig during the free to medium walk transition. We ended up with a 34.3 to put us in 8th place. Check out our dressage ride here: https://youtu.be/JAlhntv1-m0

We had about an hour to get ready for stadium and the temperatures were really warming up. And riding in that sand arena was like riding on a beach. Everything just felt hotter. We gave her just a couple minutes of warm up before I headed into stadium. She jumped well! Our pace was good and she even took fence 3 well despite cross firing and me not being smart enough to get the correct lead. I got her too deep to fence 4 and she knocked it, but the rest of the course rode well! She's so cool. Our rail took us from 8th to 9th. In a class of 13! Oops. Check out our ride on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aKaygbLPibg

Chris and I let Dezi chill in her stall with her fan while we went over to Queeny Park to walk cross country. It was so stinking hot! There were definitely some questions on the course. The first was a bending line with a mound in the middle. Then there was the significant bank down that would be shared with training & prelim. And the last real question was a bank out of water. Like a real bank. Not just a tiny baby bank step out of the water like at Longview. The plan was to keep her going at a good pace through the water so she could have some momentum coming to it. She'd take it no problem. On our way back, we stopped at Quik Trip for a much-needed diet coke. 

I spent the rest of the evening with Dezi. We went on a couple of walks and I finished my book from my chair in front of her stall. I only had to yell at her for trying to bite my feet (I was using my tack trunk as a footrest) a couple of times. I also packed up as much stuff as possible so we could head to Queeny Park as early as possible in the morning. 

Sunday morning, I fed Dezi and took her for a walk early. Then we headed out to Queeny Park where we would work out of the trailer for cross country. We got there just before the modified riders started heading out to the course. It was very interesting to hang out with the other riders at their trailers during a recognized event. I didn't watch any of other riders, because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back and get ready with enough time. I put in some baby road studs and headed out to the warm-up. Dezi was warming up like a champ. We walked a lot, because it was hot out and I didn't want to make her work too hard before we even got out on the course. 

The timing was perfect when they sent me to the startbox because I literally got there as they gave me my 10 second countdown. We headed out. It was perfect, because I didn't have any time to overthink. I rode the plan and the course rode really well! The hardest part was the terrain! There was a lot of ups and downs and it was pretty easy to see that we're lacking in that understanding a bit during our gallops because she wasn't nearly as balanced during her downhill stints as she was uphill. Everything rode great! And then there was the water. It was really murky. She decided it would be safer to trot in, which was OK, until she decided that walking would probably be better. I kicked and hit her with my whip, but she didn't want to go any faster. She WALKED up the bank! But she did it. And didn't even hesitate. What a goofball! DOUBLE CLEAR! Ride along with me and my girl with our GoPro here: https://youtu.be/eFbmjAv8h1A

The majority of the other riders in my division went double clear, too, so we ended up keeping our 9th place finish. 

It's amazing how eventing keeps you humble. After a first place result at both the schooling show at Heritage and Mill Creek, we got knocked down a couple of pegs with a 9th place finish out of 13 riders at Queeny Park. We definitely have homework to do, but overall, I still think Queeny was a successful show. We learned a lot and I now know how to plan even better in the future. I know to push her towards a distance that I can't see in stadium instead of holding her. I know that we need to work on banks out of water and galloping terrain. And I know that I need to learn to keep my head in the game during my dressage tests. 

Next up (after a bit of a break because it's been hot and rainy)- Catalpa Corners in Iowa at the end of July/beginning of August. I'm so excited to have Catalpa back (there was talk that they might retire it)! We're definitely going to be doing our homework to make it as successful as possible and use it as preparation for AECs at the beginning of September. It'll all be here before we know it! And I couldn't be more excited. I'm so lucky to be able to share this journey with Dezi and to have Chris in my life helping me make it all happen. 

Let the Show Season Begin

It has been a long winter!

I rode Dezi as long as I could until the weather started getting truly unbearable, which was in January or so. From then, we would have weeks of being able to ride followed by a week of nasty weather that would make it unsafe to either ride out or haul anywhere. Starting at about the end of February or beginning of March, we were finally able to have some consistent ride time. Dezi and I have spent this time homing in on our dressage skills with our dressage queen barnmates. We had a couple of dressage lessons with Jonni Allen, where we worked a lot on walk/canter tranitions and the ever-score impairing free walk to medium walk transitions. We're starting to school first level dressage movements, like leg yields, lengthenings, counter-canter, & more honest lateral movements. Maybe one day, if I have the time and money and energy, I can start thinking about working toward my bronze dressage medal. But dressage shows AND events are quite expensive!

I decided to have Dezi clipped at the beginning of March when her thick coat and excessive sweating started to interfere with our ability to get anything done during our rides. And never again will I not clip a horse at the end of winter. Yes, the blanketing requirements and decisions were a bit difficult, but it was so worth it! We were able to have productive rides and didn't need hours to cool out. We have had a few jump schools in the grass jump field at Chris's house. We cross country schooled twice at Longview. It would have been more, but work and weather and prior obligations made that more difficult. We've had a blast, though. Dezi and I are starting to work on training level questions, and she's coming up with some impressive answers. The only hesitation we've had is at skinnies, but even those, she's starting to figure out what's being asked of her. She truly loves her job! 

Today (5/2/21), we went to Heritage Park for a schooling show organized by the Mid-America Eventing Association. We were put into a big division of about 12 riders in the novice HT. 

We left Chris's house around 7am and made it to Heritage Park around 8:40... just in time for a quick warmup before my dressage test at 9:14. We warmed up quickly and then went in for our test. It felt awesome, but I know better than to assume anything. I had Dezi forward but on the bit and our stretchy trot was decent, my square turns in the center of the arena were actually square, and she didn't completely blow up when I asked her to go from free walk to medium walk. Overall, I was very happy! We ended up with a 27.1 to put us in 2nd place after dressage. 

We had a short amount of time to breathe after dressage before stadium and XC which started at 10:30. Chris and I went down to walk stadium and watch some of the training riders do their courses. When we got back to the trailer, I put in Dezi's studs and it was time to head down. My friends (Jess works with me and her boyfriend, Cotton) and Anthony had come to watch. Anthony had brought the dogs from home, and it was a lot for him to manage. We really need to work on leash training. 

Dezi and I had a short warm up next to the stadium ring before heading in. She jumped out of her skin, even on the couple of fences where I didn't have a good approach. She totally saved me a couple of times. We had a hard rub at jump 7 but somehow the rail managed to stay up and we went double clear! 

Then we headed out to cross country. Dezi jumped everything. And then she got to the second-to-last fence where she saw the trailers and decided she was finished, so I really had to kick her on to get to the final fence, but we made it happen. We ended up going double clear. 

Check out the YouTube videos of the GoPro for stadium and XC here!

Unfortunately, the person in first place after dressage had some trouble in stadium, so finishing on our dressage score was enough to move us into first place! How stinking cool! I love that horse so much. And my trainer and friend Chris has been the glue that holds us together. We literally wouldn't be able to do half of what we do and accomplish a fraction of the goals we've been able to achieve without her. I will never be able to thank her enough and show her how truly greatful I am for everything she has done for me and my horse. And knowing her, she won't stop supporting us any time soon! Thankfully!