Still Bad Eventer………..

      4 Comments on Still Bad Eventer………..
Photo by Terrie Hatcher

Sometimes I wonder why I’m still doing trying to do this sport…………. that I’m so unbelievably bad at…………

Photo by Jim Stoner

There really are horse things that I’m good at!

I was awesome at Endurance.

No dressage judges, no flags, no trakehners………….
…………just fitness, saddle fit & strategy! That’s Chil, we competed over 1000 miles together. He evented some too, but being Bad Eventer…… we did much better in endurance.

3yo – first ride away from home

or starting babies!

Every single young horse I have ever started myself has been a rock star.

another youngster

They do things MANY upper level event horses don’t…….such as:

Stand patiently to be mounted………yeah…. we use XC jumps as mounting blocks….

Walk across tarps like it’s no big deal………

Trail ride without near-death experiences…………..

Ride bareback……….

Ride in a halter………..

Come enthusiastically when you call them…….

Yep! she comes when called……..often at THE CANTER which is just a bit intimidating………………..

I have enough rock solid homebreds in the community that I get fairly frequent requests asking if I’ll start a horse for someone…..

Fortunately my days of riding OTHER people’s horses have been over for a long time, but it’s a nice complement.

Recently, I took the WonderPony to our first CIC1* and discovered once again…… that I’m not Phillip Dutton………….

I keep thinking if I ride enough horses & take enough lessons that one day the magic will occur and I’ll become GOOD at this sport that I’ve been obsessed with since childhood…………….

but so far…….. not so much…………

A couple years ago I was competing more than one horse at Prelim. Hard to believe, I know……….. And those MASSIVE TERRIFYING jumps were starting to look pretty do-able. I even wrote a blog about it called  “Relativity or Those Sinking Jumps”.  Oh, the good old days…………….

And then one of my Prelim horses took some time off from competition to produce my next rockstar baby.

I love this one more every day.

And one of them decided to join the swim team for awhile.

This left me riding the knuckleheads for a year……..

Knucklehead ONE

and

Knucklehead TWO

….. I was relegated to BABY BASICS where I don’t think I jumped above 2′ for months & months & months………… 

When I made my return to the big stuff I jumped right back in at Prelim with the WonderPony! Yep. I delusionally thought I was Phillip…………………..again…………

Photo by WNC Photography

The Prelim round actually went pretty well (except for that moment there…..), and we set our sights on our first 1*. I had masterfully planned out a second prelim before the 1star, and at the last minute they CANCELLED the event.

This really threw a wrench in my plan, and it left me without a second run before the BIG ONE!

But in true Bad Eventer style I decided to…………..go anyway.

We started in pretty good shape, putting in a solid dressage test which put us near the top of the leaderboard. 

Photo by WNC Photography
OK, I know it was a 1* but it was a zillion degrees
& I was beyond grateful when they waived jackets!

Then things started to unravel…………………

I chose the wrong bit for stadium & essentially got run away with………….amazingly jumping all the fences but with 2 rails.

Photo by WNC Photography

I was………. somewhat horrified when I saw the photos………….thinking………………….what happened to the solid leg & giving hand I had on this horse 2 years ago??!!

Photo by WNC Photography

Boy was Bad Eventer in the house…………. I think that’s my best attempt at the fetal position……………

We jumped clean around XC…. leaving both front shoes on the muddy course somewhere………..and while we finished our first CIC1* with a lovely number……….. I came off the course knowing that I’d just……… blown it.

This photo pretty much says it all………..

Photo by WNC Photography

and yes…….my amazing pony should have filed for divorce as soon as we crossed the finish line.

It turns out that BadEventer can’t jump baby stuff for a year and expect to leap right back into riding well 3 levels up……….

Those jumps that looked so doable a couple years ago….. have grown back into terrifying massive obstacles………….

Photo by WNC Photography

Truly I have THE MOST forgiving horse in the world. He’s earned extra cookies for life……… after toting Very-Bad Eventer……… around their first CIC1*.

Photo by WNC Photography
 

 

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4 thoughts on “Still Bad Eventer………..

  1. emma

    yay but you still did it!!! congrats! next time will feel smoother 🙂 love wonderpony's pricked ears!

  2. T Myers

    Congrats on your finish! Amazing what some time away from the game can do though….you still did amazing 🙂

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