NJHP HT June 2025

July 13th, 2025

Well another soggy weekend of horse showing brought another disappointing result home a few weekends back. The tl;dr is I retired on cross country for a multitude of reasons, but it was another wet competition in all 3 phases. We have some homework before Huntington, but I look forward to working on continuing to learn what works best for both me and my horse!

I was super excited for this weekend in New Jersey because my good friend Darby was going to join Sophie and I on this adventure. I've known Darb for almost 8 years, and back in the day we used to compete and ride together all the time. She's been out of horses while at college, so part of this weekend was having her come with me so she could get the horse bug again - I think it worked a little!!

I picked her up on the way, and after fighting with the GPS and making a bunch of random stops, we made it to the park just before 5. Saturday competition was still running with starter cross country, so the barns were still busy even at the later hour. Sophie had an end stall, but we were in between a bunch of familiar Area 1 faces, so it was nice to catch up with current friends and also meet some new ones.

I had never stabled at the horse park before, because when we lived in CT we would always do it in a day trip. The stabling was on clay, which meant that everything I brought home after the show had a thin layer of orange dust, especially because it was a damp weekend.

After getting Sophie organized and parking the trailer, Darby and I made our way over to the start box to take a peek at my course. By the time we were walking the rain had stopped and it was just overcast, and the footing actually didn't feel too terrible on the grass.

The start was way off to the back left of the property, and the first 5 jumps followed this loop way into a back field behind the tree line, and then we came back through the trees towards the start to get to fence 6. From there the course followed a typical NJHP pattern, where we stayed on the tree line past the house with the dogs, had a coffin exercise over those ditches in the main field, then did a short tour in the back field before heading through the gully and out into the front fields. After a few good sized tables in the front field, the track put us through the front water complex, then back into the main field to the back water complex, and then a few more fences before the finish. After walking the course I had said to Darby that I thought this was one of the most straightforward prelims I'd seen. I felt confident about Sophie and I's ability to tackle all of the questions, and that I felt the questions presented were beyond fair for the level. I was excited for it!

We then walked over to show jumping, which they had decided to run on grass, much to my dismay. In all my experiences at NJ, the show jumping was always in the big ring down by the pavilion, and Sophie typically jumps neater on footing than on grass. I wasn't sure why they made this call, but it was what it was. We could see how mucked the footing across the jump course was from the Saturday levels, and it looked like they shifted most of the jumps to a slightly new line to allow for fresher ground for the day ahead. The course design was pretty funky in my opinion - a few really challenging turns, especially given the slightly tough footing and it being not a huge ring. Keeping those things in mind, I made the executive decision to use the good old gag for both jumping phases, because I wanted to make sure I had a little more say around the tighter turns in the show jumping.

More on that in a bit.

After tucking Sophie in for the night, Darby and I grabbed food and then went to the hotel. It was not the greatest place I could've picked, but sometimes you get what you pay for 😂

The next morning we got up and went back to the park to feed the pony and get organized for the day ahead. My dressage was at 9:30ish, so we got to the park around 7 to give Sophie time for eating, a walk, and it allowed me time to see cross country again. I went back to a few spots on the course I wanted to get another look at, and then we went back to stabling to get both myself and Sophie ready to dance. Darby took care of Sophie's forelock for me (♥️ ) and helped me tack up and get organized for phase 1. NJ was using the B tests for all the levels, which meant I learned a new test but it turns out that the B test for prelim actually works a lot better for Sophie and I than the A test - all of the canter work for B happens on turns, which is a lot easier to manage for Sophie than cantering those shallow loops in the A test.

We warmed up and Sophie brought similar energy to NJ as she did to Morven earlier this spring - she was actually quite behind the leg, and it took a lot of transition work to get her moving forward. I think she is comfortable with NJ atmosphere, and so she was fairly unfazed by anything happening in and around dressage - which I will take any day over her explosiveness when she isn't feeling the venue.

We entered the dressage ring when it was our time, and put down one of our better tests in a while. We kept our leads for the counter canter work, she never spooked or blew up, she put down some really great lateral work, and the walk work was completed at an actual walk. We left the ring on a 38.8 and with a smile!

My ride times were all really tight, so after dressage Darby helped us throw off the dressage tack and throw on the jump tack. Because show jumping and cross country were essentially back to back, I didn't plan on any tack changes and threw on studs in and boots on, and donned my skullcap and watch. Darby so kindly carried my vests to show jumping so I didn't have to wear those for the first phase.

Sophie felt fine on our walk over, and when we got to the show jump ring they said they'd take anyone who was ready. We never spend a ton of time warming up for jumping, especially since we just came from dressage, so I picked her up and we popped over a few of the jumps already set in the warm up. I knew right away this was going to be a tough ride - Sophie was immediately alive and fresh as hell once I picked up a canter. The bucking was a lot. And she was WILDLY offended every time I touched the reins. It was my poor miscalculation - we have been jumping at home with the waterford and she's been going phenomenally, just a tad strong still. I was concerned about the footing on the grass being mucked and slippery, mixed with the course design, and I thought having my mega brakes would be the smarter decision. Clearly, I was wrong.

I only jumped a few fences in the warm up, and then I popped on over to the in gate to go ahead. Sophie fired up and her ass was in the air between every single fence on course. The footing wasn't great, and that coupled with her frustration with me showing up in the form of bucking caused us to have 4 rails (!!!) which is a ton for her. I was a bit embarrassed, and I felt bad that I gave her the ride and the equipment that clearly didn't work for her.

We walked over to cross country warm up and Sophie tried to buck me off as I was just trying to adjust my stirrups. She was pissed at me. Darby had offered to run back to stabling to get the other bit but I told her it was fine, I wanted the gag for cross country anyway.

I sent her over one warm up fence right before our time, and she jumped it well and seemed to come back down from her frustrations with me.

5...4...3...2...1 Have a Great Ride!

We took off with two, then four, then two, then four feet on the ground from the start to fence 1, and then subsequently that same pattern continued in between fences 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4, and after 4 I really stood my ground and told her to knock it off and carry on. However our conversation was quickly forgotten and after popping over fence 5A, I half asked her to try for B and both of us came to the conclusion that wasn't going to happen. I put my hand up and patted her on the neck as we walked off the course.

It's my first time doing something like that, but it was at a point where between the footing starting to be questionable, my horse clearly unhappy with my ride and equipment choices, and our inability to have an appropriate and productive conversation on course, I decided it was safer to call it a day instead of continue on like that over jumps that aren't small.

At the end of the day, my horse came home sound, fit, and ready for what's next. I don't regret my choices, and I learned a lot about where Sophie is at. She's bold, confident, and wants me to hold her hand less and less at this level as we continue on.

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It is now weeks later and we've had schooling, clinic-ing, and Huntington since - I will have to be a bit speedier with the next blog update! As always, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading ♥️

K