June 10, 2024
Sophie and I took on the Middleburg horse trials this past weekend over at the Great Meadow Foundation. We got lucky with some amazing weather, and it was so fun to get to be back at this beautiful location again.
Drew and Wally came with me on Friday night to walk the course, and I felt pretty good about everything I saw. Sophie and I were taking on prelim again, and most of the questions felt super fair for the level. Nothing was going to make me lose sleep like some of the combinations we had at Morven a while back!
We had a full coffin for the first time in a while, but Sophie is smart with ditches and those kinds of questions simply become all about steering and keeping my line. The water complex was similar to what we had at VHC the other week, with a solid hanging log right into the water and then a skinny (in this case, a corner) a few strides out of the water. I finished the walk feeling confident that Sophie and I were ready for it.
We were one of the first out that day, and Great Meadow is about an hour from the barn, so my day started at about 5am, which is a lot earlier than I have been needing to get started these days. We've been so spoiled being so close to everything!
We arrived with about 45 mins to spare before I had to get on for dressage, so I grabbed my packet and took my time unloading the trailer. Sophie was in good spirits, and Drew arrived shortly thereafter to help get things organized. I am so lucky to have him around, especially on days like this where Jacqui couldn't make it due to competing at a different show herself that day, and I also didn't have a groom lined up. Drew becomes the best jack of all trades when needed!
I got Sophie tacked and we made our way over to dressage. They were having the dressage on grass this time, and it was right up against a busy road so there was a lot to look at. Sophie felt a teeny bit tense in the warm up, so I tried to gain focus by doing a lot of lateral work and little transitions. She settled slightly, but I could tell she was on edge.
As soon as we entered the ring at A, we went back to our old roots. The war was evident, and Sophie felt a little like a bomb that was ready to explode. As we have unfortunately done in the past, as soon as she tenses, I get tighter, she gets more wound up, and we don't perform well. In retrospect I think we could have warmed up a bit longer which might have helped to ease tension, but I also need to keep becoming okay with allowing with the inside rein even when I feel like I can't.
We had some respectable transitions and stretch work, but the rest of the test was mostly just us fighting. I saluted and patted her, disappointed that we couldn't pull out the kind of ride we managed to have at VHC a few weeks ago. There will always be things for us to work on in this phase!
I watched Sharon White enter the ring after me on her stunning horse feeling pretty down about our performance, and wouldn't you know it but Sophie and I got pulled AGAIN for another random drug test by USEF!! They are so nice about it all, and I am happy to participate and do as I am supposed to, but not having time to process my poor performance in the sandbox really got to me. I remind myself that they are just doing their jobs, and I appreciate what they do, but in that moment I had really wanted about 5 minutes to myself to reflect on my dressage test. I am so grateful Drew was there to chat nicely with that lovely USEF worker while I was a bit cranky 😅
After Sophie was finished with being tested, I took out her braids and set her up with hay and water next to the trailer. Drew stayed behind to keep an eye on her while I made my way over to walk the show jumping course.
Great Meadow is pretty spread out, but luckily they had amazing volunteers with golf carts that were used to shuttle riders and spectators back and forth between the main arena and trailering. I was carted over to the stadium ring and took that minute to check my score and a few scores for friends competing at both Bromont and Apple Knoll - it was a busy weekend for eventing!
The show jump course was fairly challenging, with a few places where you had to make tight turns inside of jumps if you wanted to make the time. I am not usually worried about time with Sophie (we were the fastest ride at VHC in the stadium by far - so much so that they even made a comment about it over the loud speakers 🤦♀️ ) but I was keeping in mind that I would be needing to make these tighter turns without losing too much pace.
After walking stadium I made my way back to the trailer and started getting myself and Sophie dressed for the jumping phases. There was not much time in between dressage and the rest of the day, so I was grateful I was able to walk the cross country the night before!
Sophie was doing her typical routine of falling asleep at the trailer before the jump phases, and continued to snooze as I studded and tacked her. Of course as soon as my butt hit the saddle she woke right up and knew it was show time.
Drew walked with us over to the show jumping arena to find his space to be my videographer. I checked in at warm up and took a few minutes to walk around and let Sophie see the sights. I was the fifth horse to go, and I never spend too much time with her warming up over fences. I also didn't have anyone to set jumps for me, so I patiently waited until some other trainers started setting fences for their riders before I made a move.
I was able to pop over a few jumps and Sophie felt fantastic. I watched a couple of riders before me go in the ring to make note of the routes they took and how it looked. I was pleased to see that the plan I had made while walking seemed to be everyone else's plan as well.
When it was our turn, I walked Sophie through the in gate and took a little tour around the far side of the ring to let her see some more of the atmosphere. She was on fire!
We came in slightly tight to the first fence, and then she kicked out way hard for the lead change on our turn to fence two. The show jumping beast had come out to play. I tried really hard to just maintain the canter and focus on my lines, and Sophie jumped the best she has yet through the first half of the course. The turn to fence 7 was fairly tight, and it was followed by 5 strides to a one stride combination, and unfortunately I started trying to ride the line to the one stride before we got over fence 5. My poor piloting cost us our only rail, but then Sophie came back and still jumped her heart out to finish the rest of the course beautifully. I was so disappointed that I cost us a rail because she absolutely deserved a clear round - I will be better for her next time!
Drew met us with some water before we walked to the cross country warm up and I beamed about how well our little pony jumped in that ring.
Everyone in cross country warm up seemed pretty relaxed as I made my way there. It was a few minutes before the first rider was to be sent out, so Sophie and I joined the crowd and just hung out by the fence line. I watched the first few riders head out on course, and then popped over one warm up fence once the rider ahead of me made their way to the start box.
A few minutes passed and then the spotted unicorn and I walked over to the start, ready to go.
5...4...3...2...1 Have a great ride!
Sophie and I powered out of the start box and had a great ride over the first three fences. 4AB was our first combination, and the in rode perfectly and the out rode a little long, but Sophie was feeling very confident. 6ABC was the coffin, and Sophie was super careful with her feet through it. The C element was a slightly angled skinny, and I wanted to ride it forward but Sophie was more comfortable getting tight and adding in one more stride than I had anticipated, but we will made it over no problem. I kicked her on after we landed because I really want to avoid having those tight rides, and she let out a nice big kick, essentially telling me to 'f off' 🤣 I was laughing at her enthusiasm, and the amazing crew with Erin Gilmore photos caught the moment perfectly!
As we headed out into the back field, Sophie was a little apprehensive about some stumps and our pace suffered a bit. I tried to make up time as we turned back towards home at the far end of the property, and kept the forward motion over the trakehner at 11 and a combination of angled houses to a skinny corner at 12ABC. We galloped back towards the main field and had great rides over a few big tables, and then approached the water. She leapt in so confidently over the log into the water, and I could feel her searching for the flags at the corner out of the water. She felt SO bold!
We hopped over the let up fence at 16 and I somehow lost my stirrup, so we again lost a little bit of pace as I worked to get it back before the angled tables at 17AB. As a result of the slowed pace, we ended up putting 3 strides in that combination where there should have been 2. Sophie had a bit of expected spooking at the volunteer cars sitting under the tree line near our fence at 18, so we had a bit of a deep ride to that, but then we had an excellent forward ride over our last fence at 19. I was grinning ear to ear as we crossed through the flags. This was officially our first clear over fences at the prelim level, and I am so happy we made that happen. This horse deserves that clear ride!
It has been fun to look back on our cross country rides from even just a year ago and compare it to now. Sophie is so much more bold, confident, and into the game. Cross country has always been fun with her, but now it's feeling both fun AND super doable - we are now getting to a place where the rides are getting to feel quite straight forward.
Drew met us at the finish and hung out while I cooled Sophie down. He even helped sponge her down, he sweat scraped her off, and put up the butt bar when I got her on the trailer. He gets the groom's award from me for the day!!!
Our dressage put us well out of the ribbons in a pretty competitive division, but only adding one rail and some anticipated time to our score was a huge win for us. I continue to be in awe of what this horse can do, and I hope to be able to take her to wherever she wants to go. We have another big outing next month, and then we will make the trek to our new (but technically old) home in Mass one month from today 💚
K
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