Here I am yet again writting a blog that I wish could be written differently, but I suppose this is how lessons are learned. Hannah was nice and fresh this AM and ready to go. Our warmup was splendid and we came nice and forward out of the box and over fence 1. We had a nice smooth turn to #2 abig oxer and a lovely fence 3 out of the woods. We were a little sticky coming to #4 the weldons wall but that was due to off striding coming in so she had to quickly add another step and drifted slightly to the left. We jumped in well to the water at 5 and had a smooth turn to jump out over 5b the cabin. I set her up for fence 6, another big weldons wall which she jumped well but drifted left again on take off, a new problem as of today, she normally drifts to the right. We jumped well up over 7a a big brush to 7b a bank bounce to 7c a rolltop. We galloped on towards the second water and jumped the corn cob in well, popped over the brush on the island back down into the water on a steady 5 strides to the angled brush fence out. Galloped smoothly over #10 the turkey feeder and headed onto the sunken road which rode in a nice two to a two. We galloped down to the wagon which jumped well and onto our next cabin put in a short 5 to the brush then up the hill to the next cabin. We jumped 16 a cabin to set up for the coffin lovely and I brought her back to jump the verticle rail down to the ditch. I broght her back slightly too much so she had an awkward jump in and yet again drifted left. Popped the ditch and I really had to steer to 17c the skinny out which she was very honest adding a 3 and jumping out over the c element. We galloped onwards towards the corners 18 and 19. Jumped slightly up and down over the first corber and I sat up and pressed her for the four strides to the second corner which was a mistake. I should have either sat up and half halted for the 5 strides or circled out to represent as they were numbered seperate. Well anyway she went to add the 5 which wasn't there bc I pressed her up in the middle and she just ran into the fence, luckily she saved herself from flipping over the fence sideways but I got launced off of her left side into the ground with a loud pop as my airvest pin pulled out and quickly exploded around me. Hannah galloped off and pulled up not too far away as I scrambled to get my pinny off so I could loosen my vest and breath again. Laurie from xpress foto quickly ran over to assist and a golf cart was there immediately to bring me to my horse. We only had 5 fences left, a table, open oxer, another table, a rolltop to the final table, nice forward galloping fences that she would have easily done.
All in all you can speculate all you want about what could have been done differently but now I know what to need to work on. If you know Hannah she is high headed and can get very up and down in her canter. I need to think quicker while I am out on course. She schools so well at home but I need to know what to do instantly when I feel something go wrong. It would also help if I had an event trainer to work with on a regular basis at home but we just don't have any resources in MN. I hope to go and work with someone on more of a regular basis this winter in either Aiken, SC or Ocala, FL.
Overall I feel we are both very capable of the level we just have to start filling in the holes with some more skillful riding and knowledge. Unfortunately we don't get ton continue on this weekend but I am already starting to mentally prepare to take the pony preliminary next weekend at South Farm in Ohio. Hopefully I can learn from our previous fall at Wayne DuPage and you know, maybe stay in the tack at one of these upcoming horse shows. Hopefully spirits and confidence begin to pick up as the day goes on. You can't dwell on mistakes made for too long, take what you can and move on a better, more educated rider and go out there and try and try again! Stay tuned for updates at South Farm this following weekend! Thanks for all of the support!
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