My boyfriend, Tom, likens Aiken to spring training for eventers, with its ups and downs— sometimes things are going amazing, and then the bottom drops out. Just before Pine Top we went to Full Gallop and I was in the warm up, talking with Boyd and congratulating him for winning the Wellington Eventing Showcase. He said, “You know Jan, people get excited about a win, but it’s early in the season." He then went out of the the start box, fell off his Novice horse and broke his collar bone. That’s how the season goes at times.
I had a great Pine Top with Rem in the Intermediate. She’s becoming a cross-country machine and jumped show jumping with style, though the dressage is still a work in progress. The babies, Dashwood (Nora), Electrik (Elvis) and Volcan, did three Novices and then moved to Training at Paradise. They all finished, though it was a bit rough in the show jumping, with a tight warm up space and deep footing in a new ring that didn’t do much to promote confidence in young horses.
Fast forward two weeks to the final Pine Top with Rem, she was a wild dragon in dressage but had a great show jumping. Unfortunately, we had a stop cross-country at the skinny brush at the final water. I had taken her mouth to steer her—if you’ve been in the sport lately, you know you have to be able to steer and your horse has to accept it—and Rem doesn’t always do that at this point in her life. She’s learning to accept my leg and hand and stay in front of my leg, but we’re not always there. Rideability—you can never practice it enough!
I competed the young horses at Sporting Days, with decent dressage and three clean show jump rounds. Dashwood was spooky to the third cross country jump and stopped; I think I was caught by surprise. Then, at the third element of coffin, Electrik went to run out, and when I tried to tried to steer him back, he stood up and fell over by accident. It was really a comedy of errors, but I have a very swollen leg as a result. Thank God for Volcan, he did the course with style and was semi-rideable. Hopefully I won’t be held up too much with my leg, but will soon be back to working on that rideability.
It’s amazing how time flies. I have a couple more competitions before I head back to Virginia--here’s to spring training!
I had a great Pine Top with Rem in the Intermediate. She’s becoming a cross-country machine and jumped show jumping with style, though the dressage is still a work in progress. The babies, Dashwood (Nora), Electrik (Elvis) and Volcan, did three Novices and then moved to Training at Paradise. They all finished, though it was a bit rough in the show jumping, with a tight warm up space and deep footing in a new ring that didn’t do much to promote confidence in young horses.
Fast forward two weeks to the final Pine Top with Rem, she was a wild dragon in dressage but had a great show jumping. Unfortunately, we had a stop cross-country at the skinny brush at the final water. I had taken her mouth to steer her—if you’ve been in the sport lately, you know you have to be able to steer and your horse has to accept it—and Rem doesn’t always do that at this point in her life. She’s learning to accept my leg and hand and stay in front of my leg, but we’re not always there. Rideability—you can never practice it enough!
I competed the young horses at Sporting Days, with decent dressage and three clean show jump rounds. Dashwood was spooky to the third cross country jump and stopped; I think I was caught by surprise. Then, at the third element of coffin, Electrik went to run out, and when I tried to tried to steer him back, he stood up and fell over by accident. It was really a comedy of errors, but I have a very swollen leg as a result. Thank God for Volcan, he did the course with style and was semi-rideable. Hopefully I won’t be held up too much with my leg, but will soon be back to working on that rideability.
It’s amazing how time flies. I have a couple more competitions before I head back to Virginia--here’s to spring training!
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