March 25, 2024
This past weekend Sophie and I attended the schooling trials at Loch Moy farm hosted by Maryland Horse Trials. It was my first time at this venue, and it was only a 30 minute trailer ride from the barn - kind of amazing!
Due to the short driving distance ahead of me, I didn't have to leave the barn until 7:30am. It felt wild to not have to wake up at the crack of dawn for a show. Unfortunately it was miserably rainy the whole morning during packing the trailer and driving over, so I kept my fingers crossed that it would at least lighten up a bit by the time I was getting into the saddle.
Spoiler: that did not happen (lol).
When I pulled off the main road and into the driveway of Loch Moy Farm, I was greeted with a slew of cross country fences on either side of me; every question that you can imagine was present in a fairly small space. I noticed that none of these fences had numbers, though - that told me that this was barely a snippet of the venue that lay ahead as these jumps were not being used for the show.
The driveway was long and windy, but after pulling up the last big hill, the massive show jumping ring came into view. The jumps all looked recently painted, and several of the standards were massive with gorgeously decorated wings. It was impressive, even in the rain.
I parked my trailer and took off to walk my cross country course before my dressage test, and I can see why this is a venue that is loved by so many. There are a few places for solid water options, a bunch of banks, and hills through some wooded areas. Their main fields have both flat ground and terrain, and even some of the arenas that were being used for dressage for this show had more bank and water options that could also add to a cross country course. You can get a little bit of everything there.
My course was straightforward and fairly friendly, which put me at ease with it being both the first event of the season for us as well as being terrible weather conditions. And even with how wet it was, the ground felt quite good. We hadn't had a lot of rain in this area for a few weeks, and it was the first use of that course this season, so nothing was mucked up. We were committed for the day!
Dressage felt pretty solid. The ring was a bit sloppy but, as Jacqui pointed out, sometimes the wet footing makes the horses strut a little harder! Jacqui helped us feel ready to get into the ring, and after greeting the judge and receiving a nice comment on her spots, Sophie and I left the ring on a 35.6. This is still pretty solid for us, especially knowing that we've had scores knocking on 50's door in the past. The goal with Sophie has been keeping her straight in her shoulders, working on not being in such a rush, and allowing her to stretch more through her top line. She has a tendency to be tense, especially away from home, and it has helped a lot to just slow our rhythm down. Jacqui told me before I went in to 'take all the time in the world in there, you paid for it!' and I genuinely believe that helped me to slow both mine and Sophie's brains down. The judge even left the comment that Sophie was a lovely horse (duh) and that it was clear that an effort was made. It feels good when they notice I'm trying to figure it out!!
Our stadium round was clean, but definitely not my best ride ever. Jacqui helped us out in the warm up, and I felt good going in, but unfortunately some of my old bad habits creeped back in at a few of the fences. I think the rain was messing with my head a little, and I did a bit of the 'hurry up and wait' ride that is not super fair to Sophie, and often causes me to move my body around way too much right in front of the fence. She is the best girl in the world though, and still jumped every single jump. We did manage to have a few cohesive jumps together, and her scope and athleticism continues to amaze me. I mean just look at her effort in this photo! She is making a training jump look tiny - and she's not a big horse! (Photo by Erin Gilmore)
I went in to cross country with a clear plan. One pop over a coop in the warm up and I could feel that she was good to go. Since it was a schooling event, cross country wasn't timed. I took this to heart and maintained a slow, steady, rhythmic canter for the first few fences. I then brought her to a trot in front of some of the harder questions just to make sure our focus was there. Any cross country jumping penalty we've had in the past has been purely related to either her, or myself, or a combination of both of us being distracted and not preparing for a fence properly, so I wanted to take the opportunity to set us up for success here when the pressure of time was off.
We had one exercise that consisted of a raised log fence about one stride out from the water, so I broke to a trot and let her pick up the canter and take me over that fence, which she did. We cantered through the water and then up in to the woods for a few fences on a smaller side field on the property. Sometimes Sophie gets distracted by cars and volunteers near fences, so there was a bit of expected wiggling as we approached a fence that a car was near. I held the line, and she saw the jump a few strides out and made the correct effort.
We had another combination that consisted of an up bank then two strides to a roll top. I think this particular bank was in a location where water could be added, so the ground right in front of the bank was dark footing that was a stark contrast to the grass (see photo). Expecting that to be distracting, I brought Soph back to the trot before the bank. She once again took the reins and hopped up the bank and then out over the roll top with quite a bit of gusto.
We then turned towards the last few fences on course and we approached the last combination that was an up bank, two strides and then a down bank (see photo). In hindsight, I should have trotted here too, but she was feeling so strong that I figured we were good to go. She had also schooled a bunch of bank exercises without any issues earlier in the week. She found her footing on the up bank, and then went to veer hard left to go around the flags and down the mound instead of through the flags down the bank. I was able to get our balance and shift her over just before we would have had a run out, and, after a little shuffle, we put all four feet down the bank. We cantered away and finished the last three jumps on course with ease.
Our effort culminated in a third place finish! I am so pleased with our first horse trial results this year. Sophie feels great and I am looking forward to what is ahead for us. Our flatwork will hopefully only continue to get better, I still feel good about the show jumping and am glad some rust was knocked off, and she tells me how much she enjoys the cross country every time we get out there. Our little near-miss at the down bank is good information for me to have, and I am prepared to present whatever down bank questions we have in the future in a way that better sets us up for success.
Huge shout outs to Jacqui for making time to coach me alongside her two rides of the day, and to Drew for coming to support in the miserable weather.
Next up: Morven!
K
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