Syd, Pine Top Advanced. Photo by Samantha Clark.
JR and Syd were both good at Pine Top, and in spite of all the rain the footing held up and the whole event ran really well. JR was not too fond of the rain during his dressage test though, and ended with 40. It’s good to see where you are with the horses and I knew I needed to keep improving his dressage; more on that later. My cross-country was probably the nicest run I’ve had on JR for long time. He’s always brave but sometimes not in front of my leg, and my reaction to that was not always correct—I start to think rather than correct and that means you’re always late. So it was great that I was able to use what I’d been working on with Phillip and keep him in front of my leg the whole time. JR was fairly good in the show jumping, maybe a bit under-paced at times, and jumped well in spite of his rider almost getting jumped off and losing her way for a few seconds because she wasn’t looking up! Plus, I lost my stirrup and didn’t get it back till the end of the course.
Syd, Pine Top Advanced. Photo by Samantha Clark.
Syd was beautiful in dressage, very easy and didn’t mind the rain. I had two scratches in front of me could so I could go when I wanted. I knew when I was done that it was a great test, so fun to ride, and he scored a 24.1. He was also great on cross-country, in an easy rhythm, very confident and better at the water than he had been at Pine Top I. Syd’s show jumping was interesting—because of all the stone dust they’d put down due to the rain, he was a bit of old coot! He galloped in and was so spooky I had a hard time riding him until we got over the third jump. But, from there he got better and better and starting jumping really well at fence seven. It was a nice way to start the season.
Working on contact with David
I ended up going to David for a dressage lesson on JR so that that I could work on some things; I needed a new approach before Red Hills. We worked on JR accepting the contact regardless of the frame he’s in, and always holding the contact no matter what. At the same time, David reminded me to always reward JR by giving when he’s good, but not allowing him to drop off the contact.
I had a really good jump schools with both big boys and the young horses with Phillip then ran both Dyson and Luminati at Sporting Days. I also and did a dressage test with both Syd and JR. After my work with David, JR was much better, and Syd scored a 24. Both the young horses went Training, which was maybe a big ask for Dyson, but the Novice jumps are so easy for him I need to have something bigger to ride to. Plus, he’s quite brave. Dyson’s dressage test was nice, though I had a bit too much warm up. He was beautiful in show jumping with just the last jump down. Cross-country is easy for him and provided a good school. It was Luminati’s first time competing and he put in a pleasant test, and was really fun to ride show jumping and on cross-country though it took about three jumps cross-country to get him focused he was so spooky. He was great at ditches and water. Dyson ended 8th in THB and Luminati 4th in THA. I’ll do one more Training at Pine Top with Dyson and Luminati and maybe do Preliminary at Morven if I feel they’re fit enough.
The rest of the Surefire crew had a fantastic weekend at Sporting Days: Chase was 1st on Ever So Lucky and 3rd on Palm Crescent in the JYOP and second on Toddy in OTA, Kendyl won the P/T on Velvet and was 7th on McFly in OND, McKenzie Ragan was second in JYOP on Surefire’s Anwar, Aisling Carroll won JTR on Fluff and Cinthy Carson was 6th in BNA on Popstar.
With all the scare of EHV-1, we didn’t leave for Red Hills until Thursday morning. My Mom and I took down Kaylin Dines’s horse Why Not, and my two, Syd and JR. Caitlin had her Advanced horse Jolliyat and Erika Carson had her two one-star horses. Red Hills is a really well run event and a good test to see where you are with your horses. I was slotted first to go on JR, and again his dressage test was improved, maybe a bit conservative but fairly correct for a 47. Syd was beautiful to ride, but even though I had already ridden the test once, I forgot the halt and rein back and didn’t let the test flow too well after that. I hate it when you have a pilot error, there’s no excuse for that! I just got thinking too far ahead in the test. We still had a 50.5, but I know it should be better.
My goal for cross-country was just to have a good run on JR and get all the jumps done, make sure he was on his game and put into practice all the things I needed to. Thank God Phillip was in the warm up because JR almost stopped at the first roll top he was spooking so much. Phillip gave me a pep talk and told me to use a lot of spur, spur him harder!! He ended up being great on course. I was a bit quicker on Syd, though he landed on all fours into the last water but otherwise was really nice to ride. Both horses show jumped beautifully and I had two of only ten clean rounds in the 3-star division. JR ended 8th and Syd 11th.
Kaylin and Why Not were 14th in the one-star, which was a really competitive division. She had a bit of an unfortunate dressage but didn’t add anything else to her score. In the same division, Erika had nice test on Ricardo and some improvement on Finn in dressage, but unfortunately didn’t have the best timing with Ricardo and had a stop cross-country and two rails in show jumping. Finn was really good for her in show jumping and ran around clean and fast cross-country once Erika had woken up from Ricardo. Caitlin Calder had a nice test on Jolliyat, but had a stop and some time cross-country where she said she just went to sleep a bit. She had three down in show jumping and a bit of time. I think she was a bit too concerned about distances and didn’t ride the canter, which happens to all of us. We were lucky to have Kendyl Tracy fly down to help and the Carsons—Jay, Cinthy and Erika—were a great team after cross-country.
It’s amazing how time flies here in Aiken. We’ll head home after Southern Pines II and Surefire South will be north soon.
I had a really good jump schools with both big boys and the young horses with Phillip then ran both Dyson and Luminati at Sporting Days. I also and did a dressage test with both Syd and JR. After my work with David, JR was much better, and Syd scored a 24. Both the young horses went Training, which was maybe a big ask for Dyson, but the Novice jumps are so easy for him I need to have something bigger to ride to. Plus, he’s quite brave. Dyson’s dressage test was nice, though I had a bit too much warm up. He was beautiful in show jumping with just the last jump down. Cross-country is easy for him and provided a good school. It was Luminati’s first time competing and he put in a pleasant test, and was really fun to ride show jumping and on cross-country though it took about three jumps cross-country to get him focused he was so spooky. He was great at ditches and water. Dyson ended 8th in THB and Luminati 4th in THA. I’ll do one more Training at Pine Top with Dyson and Luminati and maybe do Preliminary at Morven if I feel they’re fit enough.
The rest of the Surefire crew had a fantastic weekend at Sporting Days: Chase was 1st on Ever So Lucky and 3rd on Palm Crescent in the JYOP and second on Toddy in OTA, Kendyl won the P/T on Velvet and was 7th on McFly in OND, McKenzie Ragan was second in JYOP on Surefire’s Anwar, Aisling Carroll won JTR on Fluff and Cinthy Carson was 6th in BNA on Popstar.
With all the scare of EHV-1, we didn’t leave for Red Hills until Thursday morning. My Mom and I took down Kaylin Dines’s horse Why Not, and my two, Syd and JR. Caitlin had her Advanced horse Jolliyat and Erika Carson had her two one-star horses. Red Hills is a really well run event and a good test to see where you are with your horses. I was slotted first to go on JR, and again his dressage test was improved, maybe a bit conservative but fairly correct for a 47. Syd was beautiful to ride, but even though I had already ridden the test once, I forgot the halt and rein back and didn’t let the test flow too well after that. I hate it when you have a pilot error, there’s no excuse for that! I just got thinking too far ahead in the test. We still had a 50.5, but I know it should be better.
My goal for cross-country was just to have a good run on JR and get all the jumps done, make sure he was on his game and put into practice all the things I needed to. Thank God Phillip was in the warm up because JR almost stopped at the first roll top he was spooking so much. Phillip gave me a pep talk and told me to use a lot of spur, spur him harder!! He ended up being great on course. I was a bit quicker on Syd, though he landed on all fours into the last water but otherwise was really nice to ride. Both horses show jumped beautifully and I had two of only ten clean rounds in the 3-star division. JR ended 8th and Syd 11th.
Kaylin and Why Not were 14th in the one-star, which was a really competitive division. She had a bit of an unfortunate dressage but didn’t add anything else to her score. In the same division, Erika had nice test on Ricardo and some improvement on Finn in dressage, but unfortunately didn’t have the best timing with Ricardo and had a stop cross-country and two rails in show jumping. Finn was really good for her in show jumping and ran around clean and fast cross-country once Erika had woken up from Ricardo. Caitlin Calder had a nice test on Jolliyat, but had a stop and some time cross-country where she said she just went to sleep a bit. She had three down in show jumping and a bit of time. I think she was a bit too concerned about distances and didn’t ride the canter, which happens to all of us. We were lucky to have Kendyl Tracy fly down to help and the Carsons—Jay, Cinthy and Erika—were a great team after cross-country.
It’s amazing how time flies here in Aiken. We’ll head home after Southern Pines II and Surefire South will be north soon.
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