Maui Jim Horse Trials

Well we made it successfully back from Maui Jim Horse Trials and completed our first Intermediate Horse Trials! I had a blast and Hannah felt great, especially around the cross country and show jumping!

Hannah is more fit then she has ever been so little by little she is getting a little more hard to control on the flat and in the dressage ring. It took us two long dressage schools to get the spins, rears and extra edge out of her before we headed into the ring. I wanted to keep things a little more conservative as to be sure we would not have any explosions. We put in a nice quiet ride and scored a 36.9 to put us in 23rd out of 36 competitors, tough competition as the leader led on a score of 30.3. I was happy because it was a good score and she was well behaved, knowing that we can score better if I were to ask for more. Next was the cross country which seemed rather large only varying a little from the CIC2* and sharing a lot of fences with Advanced!

Our first fence was a massive roll top shared with advanced, to a hanging brushed log, next were some logs in the woods (also shared with Advanced!) then number four was a large corner. #5 was a skinny cabin, #6 a large table, #7 another hanging log shared with advanced. #8 was our first water, we ran up what they call a ski jump, then jumped over a brushed coop that landed down the ski ramp into the water, bending line to element B-a skinny brushed step chevron. The CIC2* had two brush skinnies at this first water question which eliminated 1/2 the division! #9 was a large trakehner, #10 another large table, #11AB were bounce banks up. #12 was a large bench shared with Advanced. #13 was a fence they called a ‘Yurt’ which was like a roll top type fence to #14 which was called ‘the big yurt’ which was the same type of fence but also shared with Advanced! #15A was a skinny log, 3 strides to 15B which was another large corner. Then #16 was our next water element, we had a roll top one stride into a large drop into the water. #17 was another large hanging log shared with advanced, #18 was a “Cornish Table” which was like a large table with gravel on the top, really wide! #19 was a skinny table with gravel on the top, and #20 was a roll top. Hannah skipped around the course without any problems and we only occurred 3.6 time faults! I was so proud of her! It was so much fun and the weather was great, a little hot and the footing was sloppy in some sections but overall it gave a great flowing ride & Hannah was jumping out of her skin! After cross country we moved up to 13th place!

The show jumping seemed really large, but rode great in the huge Grand Prix Show jumping ring that they have at the Lamplight Equestrian Center. We had two triple combinations one was a 2 stride to a 1 stride and the other was a 2 stride to a 4 stride. We had one rail on the first combination at the first element, which seemed to get well over half the division. Many people had rails but I was so proud of her, she was not tired whatsoever on show jumping day & jumped really well! We finished in 12th out of 36 starters so I was MORE than happy!

My student Maria Filsinger & Pete also had a great run, she started off with a 33 in dressage which set her 3rd in the Junior Novice division. She ran clean cross country which moved her up to 1st place, she had only 1 rail in show jumping but kept her first place and won the division! Jen Johnson & Loose Cannon unfortunately had to scratch because the morning after we got to Lamplight, Cannon developed cellulitis and his leg was swelled up like a balloon!

We are all headed off to Catalpa next. I will run Hannah at Prelim for a confidence run just in case she got shaken up at all on the cross country, which I doubt is the case but it will be good for both of us! Maria will be running Novice, & Jen Training. It should be a fun outing!

After that I am off to do another Intermediate at Wayne DuPage followed by Richland Park in Michigan, followed by a Preliminary at the American Eventing Championships, an Intermediate at Otter Creek! A lot of fun to look forward to!