Personal Best

Try, try again, blah blah blah et cetera.

New Jersey Horse Park, unrecognized, event 3 (for us)

The dressage went acceptably, despite a misunderstanding of the order by the steward a very rushed 2-minute warm-up. Stadium, however, did not. The mare was scared of most of the jumps, running sideways twice at jump 2, and jumping 2 feet higher than necessary over everything. To make it worse, the course was at the edge of skill. After the fourth jump, we took a hard right, then immediately a hard left, and came up to a SCARY green oxer painted with weird swirls. Surya stopped and spun left, and I very nearly went flying over her right shoulder.

Elimination. Thankfully, as we were competing unrecognized, we were allowed to run the cross-country.

I’m usually not afraid (see previous posts re galloping out of control). So when we walked up to the cross-country warm-up and I started shaking, I was shocked. This does not happen to me.

Surya and I paced waiting to go into the start box. “I am not afraid,” I told my trainer. Inside my head I echoed “I am not afraid.” Then, “ok who am I kidding?! I’m afraid. We. Are. Going. To. Die.” I couldn’t feel my fingers. This was not good, cause I kinda needed them to use the reins. I muttered angrily, “either you are incompetent, and you need to get off the horse now, or acknowledge you’re afraid, and do it anyway. No middle ground.” I breathed and concentrated on feeling my fingers and toes and knees… and nose. “Be in here.” Miraculously, I felt warmth spread from my fingers and call me to run. My vision tunneled to see only the first log and the sounds around us muted behind the rushing of our blood. When we stepped into the start-box, Surya stilled with her ears pricked forward. The steward counted, “3, 2, 1…” I turned and genuinely grinned at him. “Thank you!” Then Surya and I leapt out of the start box and had a clear cross-country run.

Carousel, unrecognized, event 4 (for us)

We warmed up for dressage by stretching down and then collecting. Surya was an angel, and we had our best dressage test in a ring! We continued the improving dressage score trend! We scored an 8 on one of our circles!

THEN WE WENT CLEAR IN STADIUM. I put emphasis on this because it hasn’t happened yet, and I am so proud of Surya. And myself. It was not an easy ride. Surya tried to run out of the first three jumps. But, I kept her straight. The good thing is that once she commits to a jump, she NEVER drops a rail. Our distances were good, and we rode four related distances and a two-stride. I can feel our skill improving.

Cross-country. The moment of truth. The first five jumps went well. However, after jump 5, there was a large playground to our left. There were many screaming children on swings. Surya turned and booked it to the right (jump 6 was straight ahead up a hill). So we took a little bit of a circuitous route to jump 6. Thankfully, Surya doesn’t regard ditches as jumps, just part of the natural terrain. She extended her galloping stride a bit and then took off to the right again. The next step was to go through a gap in a line of trees and hedges to approach the 7ab combination. Surya, not understanding that and wanting to distance herself from the evil flying spawn (children), saw the starter jumps off to the right and proceeded in a full-out run. I stopped her by running her directly into a hedge. She halted abruptly and tossed her head, snorting.

Somewhat recovered, we trotted through the trees into quiet open fields, leaving the Circus (as the first part of the course came to be called by the people from my barn) behind us. Surya trotted down toward 7a with her head as high as it could go, frazzled and upset. She launched herself over the jump. Then, I made Mistake One. I could feel it happening. Instead of sitting up immediately upon landing and collecting her stride, I remained in two-point and let her fly at 7b. She ran out to the right and attempted to gallop away again. I reined her back and we popped over 7b.

The next obstacle was the water jump. All we had to do was trot through. And there I made Mistake Two. As we approached the water Surya started trotting sideways and refused to go in. At that point, she was frazzled, unsure, and obstinate. I applied leg as hard as I could and smacked her, insisting she go forward. She refused twice. Eliminated.

Eventually, we stopped directly in front of the water. Surya reached her nose down, sniffed, and walked through calmly. I should have let her trot up to the water and stop. She would have gone in. She wouldn’t have stepped backwards.

After we exited the water, the stewards let us finish the course. We jumped the remaining jumps straight and with enthusiasm. Surya galloped up the hill to the last jump and leapt with room to spare. She was a good girl.

I am a little frustrated, because I know what two mistakes I made, and I knew as they were happening. This is an improvement over our last events. I know what to fix and how to fix it. To be fair, we’ve never encountered these situations before. I’ve been to exactly as many events as Surya has.

Overall, we had an excellent dressage test, a clear stadium round, and a great cross-country except for two mistakes on adjacent jumps. It was our personal best elimination! Next time’s the charm?