Liz & Hannah at the first water complex at Richland Park HT 2009:
LLEventing headed on, shortly after having arrived home from Wayne DuPage, back across Illinois to Richland, Michigan. Liz had Hannah in the Open Intermediate division and student Jen Johnson and Cannon rode in the Training Rider division.
Liz's dressage score wasn't quite what she was hoping for but nevertheless they put in a decent ride. The cross country course was the biggest and most challenging course Liz & Hannnah had yet to ride, but it was designed well and looked as if it flowed great together. The cross country course went well, we had one rider error at our second corner on the course, probably the biggest corners I have jumped, so I mentally freaked myself out and pushed for the long one...which as we all know is not the solution when riding a "skinny" type fence. I allowed for the right hand runout, represented and jumped the corner flawlessly. We continued on our way, galloping around the familiar course from last year's horse show, but this year, having moved up a level-it presented a lot more, tougher questions! I had a blast and Hannah seemed to enjoy herself also.
Having only ridden at Richland once I had heard they had a reputation for large show jumping. The course seemed long, but looked like it would ride smooth and ride smooth it did. I had a great warmup and was about ready to head into the ring when I heard a 'snap'. A spectator informed me the noise was Hannah's shoe. Having only 15 riders in my division I quickly found the farrier, had the shoe put back on and headed back into the warmup ring. I made it just in time to be the last rider of the divison, having a lot of people come up to me congratulating me for being placed so well...which well, was not the case but it felt good! We rode a nice course having only the last rail of a square oxer come down. I was very pleased with our performance from the weekend.
It was time to get prepared for our final event of the season, Otter Creek. A course I had yet to complete at the Intermediate level. It was my goal, to jump clean on the cross country, having had Wayne & Richland have one runout, both of which were rider erros. I was absolutely determined to stick to my guns and ride out my plan.
