Well lets start this blog off with saying...no matter what Otter Creek has always been my favorite show. The people, the farm, the courses, everything. There is too many things to list. First of all, OCF is close to my heart because it is like a second home to me. I went to school at the University of WI - Stout in Menomonie WI and kept Hannah at OCF. I grew very close with the Warner family. It is fun to see the younger generations of OCF kids thriving off of the Warner's knowledge and generosity.
Friday was dressage day. So Hannah knows what her job is when she comes to Otter Creek...and well she definitely doesn't think that it is dressage! We scored a 48.8...the walk was virtually non-existent, and instead it consisted of half rearing, left foot stomping, jigging and head shaking from C-A in well some sort of a diagonal across the arena earning us a well deserved ummmm 2...anyway that put us in last to say the least! I can't help but laugh at that mare sometimes! She is too special for me to worry about her dressage score! As long as she is still happy, sound, fit, jumping well, and teaching me then I guess she gets away with a little bit more than the red mare!
But the red mare picked up her older sister's slack, put in a lovely test scoring a 25.5, placing her first in her final Novice! She is ready for her move up, just trying to figure out which show I'd like it to be at. The debate is between Silverwood, which unfortunately is the same weekend as a Ralph Hill Clinic, or Fox River Valley, which is the following weekend in June. I'm guessing FRV will win because I can't skip out on the opportunity to ride with Ralph! Thanks to Alison for helping warm up both the girls!
The BN kids did well in show jumping both Emily & Janelle jumped clear rounds! So proud of those girls! Both are showing new horses for the first time!
Saturday - the best day of the weekend - was amazing! This weather we have had has been amazing! Almost too hot for what we are used to though! The day started with Lucy! This whole weekend she has been a little odd in her stall, a little frantic, restless, but loves to be around people, she falls right asleep in your arms. Maria showed up in time on Saturday to help out for the day, after 2 hours of sleep after her Senior Prom! Yikes - don't know how she does it, but she does & that is why she is the best! She had all of the other kids running around with tasks helping out as well. Everyone on the LLE team is SO helpful! Lucy warmed up great, was jumping really well! She ran around the course with ease and didn't look at ANYTHING! Not even the two waters! Go Lucy! She galloped everything easily out of stride and we are excited for her big move up to Training!!! She put in a double clean round!
The Novice riders, Maura & Kailey all went later. Unfortunately Morgan's pony Ricky came up lame Sat AM with an abscess! Bummer, but she was such a good sport, stayed positive and cheered on and helped the rest of the team! Maura was having a great round till a scuffle at fence 10, the ditch. Unfortunately, EACH step back and then forward then back again counts as a refusal, so even though she got him over the ditch and the following B element, she was pulled up an Eliminated. Kailey had a GREAT round on Nokomis where she jumped everything with ease!
Hannah the Machine! She is now a "wild" horse in her young age in warm up! She shakes her head and jigs around ready to go! Jumped a few nice warm up fences and off we went! Galloping the fastest I've gone and jumping EVERYTHING out of stride! A little tight in our B element in the first water, her stride has seem to lengthen SO much over the winter - which is great! She was spot on to everything, and VERY honest to her skinnies! She loves XC! Although she had 15 time faults - I swear that was the fastest I have run her! I couldn't have gone faster! Now here's to having a good show jumping round tomorrow!!!
Then the BN kids were off to do some XC! They both had GREAT rounds. Emily jumped clean on Tess and just like she was told went nice and slow (because Tess is known to go quite fast!) and actually acquired some time faults but finished 7th overall! GREAT job! Janelle had an unfortunate stop, but other then that Cleto was very good to everything else! She finished in 10th! Congrats girls!
Photos to come later! Now that I am showered and clean - we are off to Otter's amazingly fun competitor's party and to walk the show jumping course! I'm ready for a little bit of dancing then a lot of sleep!
RIDE STRONG 2012~
Go Otter Creek!
No comments:
Post a Comment