“Did you ice her back legs?”
My oh-so-fabulous groom looked at me like I had just sprouted another eye in the middle of my forehead.
A friend standing close enough to hear said out loud what my groom was thinking, “Um….. you know you just went beginner novice…… right? It’s not like she ran a 4 star.”
My wonderful helper humored me and iced the baby’s back legs.
I couldn’t help it.
When I traipsed off on my midlife crises working student adventure one of my goals was
“Get good enough to develop my own young horses.”
Let me explain.
I’ve been starting babies for a few <cough cough< decades.
And the backing and starting babies part, I’m good at.
No, actually I’m GREAT at it. The flag carrier is one of my 3 year olds.
The babies I start are brave, solid, and I usually don’t have enough of them to sell to people. I have a good enough rep about starting babies I get regular calls from people asking me to start their babies for them. (Due to a rare moment of self preservation I stopped starting young horses for other people a long time ago.)
But here’s the thing. I get them going………
I get them road safe………..
I usually get them to Beginner Novice,
or even Novice………
and then…………….
I absolutely – completely – chicken out.
I’ve only had one I started that I was brave enough to take around her first training level. And oddly enough she was a 14.1 hand pony.
The jumps were bigger than she is!!
Pretty much every thing else I’ve handed off to a trainer for those first few trakehners.
When I arrived in the land of palm trees and good footing I brought my 3 year old who had about 9 rides at that point.
She’s come a long way from the time she was helping me sweep the aisle.
And last weekend we did our very……. VERY first 3 phase show.
OK, it wasn’t training level, but we have officially started our showing career together.
It was her first dressage test…….. She was amazing.
But then things unraveled in stadium warm up a bit.
At our last jump lesson she proved forward enough to the fences I was told to up the ante in the bitting department. I’ve never ridden her in anything except a halter or a rubber nathe.
But she’s 17+ hands and had started running past her distances so it was time to put a “big bad snaffle” on the baby. Armed with our new bit we trotted up to the cross rail in stadium and she…………..LAID ALL OVER IT.
I thought BadEventer had finally overcome warm up choke…….
Apparently not.
And BECAUSE I am THE Bad Eventer……………
EVERY SINGLE TIME I lay all over a jump in warm up there just happens to be a 4* rider that winds up putting the standards back up for me. This time the pro in attendance yelled “WELL SAT!!!!!” as we were coming up from the pile of poles on the ground & I was miraculously still on the giant baby horse. Silver lining, I suppose.
Baby T-Rex recovered from the bobble in warm up & jumped around stadium like a pro.
Next came our VERY first cross country course.
I was a little concerned.
I did rearrange some of the flags on course during my walk. I came across another competitor staring at this combination trying to figure out exactly what the plan was……….
Maybe someone was just trying to scare the heck out of the beginner novice riders……
Baby T-Rex jumped around most of the course in stride…… We had a small bobble at the jump into the water…….but I was told in my after-action-review that it was completely my fault……….
From this…
to this…
I have never been so proud!
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Their app is fantastic & they have a great sense of humor. Besides! You have to wear an ID band on XC so help a girl out & tell them BadEventer sent you! www.roadid.com
Congratulations! She really is a lovely horse. Is there video?
https://youtu.be/gY9Sv1t6-90