So Close – Part 3 – Tales from a Bad Eventer

Dressage had gone well.

Everyone had stayed in the ring, and other than a pilot error in the Intermediate all the scores were respectable.

Show jumping was next.

SpiderWoman was first.

She jumped around the Intermediate and we had 2 rather unlucky rails.

It was a good round. We got all of our strides and there were no misses. She just “touched” the ones that came down.

It was a little disappointing but that’s how it goes sometimes.

FoxxyCleopatra was next.

She is hands down the best jumper in the barn.

And this is the moment when I realized how unbelievable hard show jumping really is.

She was jumping great.

We were meeting all the jumps well and definitely on the way to a clear round.

The next to last jump was a massive swedish oxer, and we got a bit of a forward distance to the jump.

This particular ring is small, and it’s really easy to get riding backwards. You have to keep coming through all the turns to avoid that. After the flyer to the swedish there was a turn to the last jump. I thought about taking a tug. Then I thought, no we have to keep coming. And when I kept coming she got just a little close to the last fence, touched it and had a rail.

I should have taken the tug.

The things that you really can’t practice, that only happen “at the show” are part of what makes this sport so challenging. I’ve been running into those things a lot lately. Things you can’t really practice…….

Like massive terrain questions that don’t exist where I live.

Back to show jumping. Spidey had 2 rails and Foxxy had one. That’s not how I wanted to start out on my 2 careful girls that almost never have rails.

Poison Ivy was next.

We’ve had some trouble show jumping this year and we’ve really been working on it.

I felt pretty good going in the ring.

And maybe that was my mistake.

We had a combination to a bending stride over an oxer. It was set up to draw the horses left and get you off your line. Those sneaky course designers.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying enough attention and we drifted way left in the combination.

That put us off our line and I

didn’t

anything

about it.

Another thing you can’t really practice.

So we got to that jump long and having lost some confidence earlier this week (see my blog about things going sideways) she said,

Nope.

Fortunately I was able to give her a little pep talk, and carry on. She actually jumped really well and if I had not been lax in my piloting duties it probably would’ve been a clear round.

Sigh.

So after 3 rounds with some rails and a stop……..I’m now contemplating just how hard show jumping really is.

The boys were finishing up the day.

Let’s face it, The Zebrasaurus is a unicorn.

And I’ve had him the longest so I know how to get him to the show jumps.

That was our first clear round for the day.

Phew.

Last was VelociT in the training. When I got to the start gate the volunteer asked what I thought of this course. I said, “I think they’re getting BIGGER! This looks bigger than the Intermediate I did this morning!!”