After falling off in the Welcome Stakes AND the 1.10 meter do-over.

I told the Fearless Leader I just want to finish the week at a meter ten. I realize that’s tiny compared to what we’ve been doing but I just want to get around the rest of the week, and keep my horse between me and the ground.

And maybe if we do that I can try to convince the The Zebrasaurus I’m not completely useless.

Needless to say, this did NOT go over well……..

but after making a bit of an “I’m an Adult Amateur”

“I can chicken out out if I want to” stand on the subject I managed to persuade him.

I also made the same plan with The Zebaysaurus to finish week two at 1.0 meter and not to attempt any more move-ups.

We all agreed…….

And then………………I get a 7AM text from the show grounds that the 1.10 meter has been moved into the arena on the footing.

One of the main reasons we came all the way to Mississippi is to jump on the grass.

The smallest I could do on the grass was the 1.20 meter…….

so after some self dialog……

I told myself to stop being chicken little and to just do the 1.20 meter.

And the Fearless Leader almost gleefully went to change my entry.

But before that, I had my next round on Ze-bay.

We started warming up, and and after 4 literally “perfect” distances the Fearless Leader said, “Are you feeling OK?”

“I mean you just nailed it 4 times in a row!”

So after ‘winning’ the warm up, we went in the ring and had one of our better rounds. The bay pony was a little “rude” but we found most of our distances, jumped everything and finished in one piece.

When I came out The Fearless Leader said, “You should do the next round and see if he’ll be a little better.”

I didn’t know that I was entered in two rounds, we almost always just do one per day.

He said, “Yeah, I entered you in both rounds just in case you did an Arena Inspection today.”

Arena……..

Inspection………….

Yeah, I guess that’s fair enough……….

So we did a few more warm up jumps to work on it and went back in the ring.

The rudeness was better, but then – OF COURSE – I missed at half the jumps.

During the after action review, I said, “In the ring I can probably focus on AT MOST two things. So if there’s 4 new things you want me to work on, if I do 2 of them, the other 2 just aren’t going to get done.”

Because – you know – “multitasking” just isn’t a thing.”

But at least I had jumped around twice, stayed ON my horse, and didn’t get eliminated.

So we’ll call it a win.

Next was my 1.20 meter round on Ze-gray.

Mind you my last round in the ring I fell off at 1.10 meter.

These jumps looked properly big enough to give me some heartache.

I’ve mentioned before that in my long relationship with The Zebrasaurus he has decided to “quit” a handful of times.

And when he has, it took a fair amount of persuasion and time to get him back on my side.

One day off, and one good jump school isn’t likely to get it done.

I had my doubts about this whole plan, but I hiked up my britches to my t*ts and decided we were going to at least try.

In the warm up, he decided to quit me at the very last warm up jump. That’s his version of “nope not today.”

We did eventually jump it, but that’s not typically a good sign heading into the ring.

But I had my plan. I knew my course. So off I went.

I made my planned approach to jump one.

And true to Bad Eventer who is also Bad Show Jumper form………..

I – freaking – missed.

It was deep.

But it was small and just a vertical and if he had any faith in me at all he would have tried.

But instead, we did the same thing we’d done in the Welcome Stakes, and then the 1.10 meter do-over.

However……………..

THIS TIME,

I stayed on my horse.

We took the entire jump to the ground. My glasses FLEW off my face. And as the jump crew ran over to rebuild it, I had a decision to make.

I absolutely did NOT want to try it again.

I was sitting there thinking, “I am totally over this show jumping bull sh*t.”

And then I’m thinking that he’s learning quickly all he has to do is toss me in the ring and he gets to go back to his stall. This pony is incredibly smart. And so now as I’m standing there I’m wrestling with my inner thoughts in the ring and I think,

“Well, I should AT LEAST jump Jump One again (or try) so that he doesn’t really start thinking this is the right answer.”

So reluctantly I decide I’m going at least try jump one, after the jump crew puts the whole thing back together. <so embarrasing.>

And then I’ll retire. And walk out of here………….. just maybe never to return……………………

I make my circle, and I don’t know why I couldn’t find a distance to it the FIRST time, but this time I nail it perfectly!

and while I’m thinking that now I should definitely quit and pull up, I’m also thinking about the reaction from the in-gate that I will get if I do pull up.

I mentioned retiring once before a long time ago in a similar situation and The Fearless Leader literally told me he would have locked the gate and not let me out of the ring until I tried again.

And so I decided I better go to at least jump 2…………… but then I’ll quit!!

We nailed it.

And then I’m thinking…….

well………….if he stops again, I’ll be eliminated and if that happens The Fearless Leader can’t say anything about it, so I’ll just keep going until he stops again……………

Jump 3.

Nailed it.

And while my intent those first 3 jumps was to quit after each one, by the time we arrived at the first combination, I was bound and determined he was NOT going to stop again, and we actually managed to jump the entire course.

It was a bit “frantic” by the end, as I was definitely giving him grief about “hesitating” but we jumped around a proper 1.20 meter course in the grass with a couple combinations and a sizeable liverpool.

And now, that we’ve proven our point, we are officially going back to Plan B and finishing the week at a 1.10 meter.

And that is that!