Sticking the Landing & not Sticking the Landing

It’s possible that no other sport is as humbling as Equestrian events.

Just when you think you’re really getting somewhere

some mishap brings you back to earth.

I just had the very best weekend storming around our first recognized event since last November.

It was a huge success & a pretty good reflection on how far I’ve come.

The days where all I could do was hear my heart beating in my ears & I had to count outloud to be sure I didn’t hold my breath weren’t all that long ago.

So when things were going well enough this weekend that I not only noticed the photographer but went out of my way to smile for the photo……..

That was a huge milestone.

I’ve gone from being so terrified I couldn’t even tell you what happened out there to being able to describe the number of strides I got & where I wish I’d adjusted things slightly for a “smoother” round.

I was complaining to the Fearless Leader that I had a near perfect round but completely blew it at one jump.

So I was disappointed in my riding.

He made a thoughtful face & said, “Look, a couple of years ago you’d be celebrating what a great round it was, because you jumped everything, now you’re upset about one less than ideal jump.” ?‍♀️

The BadEventer has come a long way.

So this week we headed back to jumper land with the hopes to fine tune those skills a bit before the next event.

We arrived late last night & this morning I was on Miss Unpredictably Spooky first. This is a horse that has the second highest “body count” of every horse I’ve ever ridden.

She’s the only one I’ve fallen off of twice in one day – on more than one occasion.

So we’re warming up outside & all of a sudden she realizes there are horses – jumping – in the indoor & she does a bit of a head shake, spook, turn, buck move…….

and off I came – but I completely stuck the landing & landed on my feet.

It was definitely a 10 dismount.

But falling off the first horse of the day – in the warm up is definitely not how I wanted this to go.

So I’m walking over to the mounting block to get back on & the official says, “Put your mask on!” (You don’t have to wear one when you’re on the horse, only when you’re not on the horse.) And I thought, hmmm since I seriously stuck the landing now I have to figure out how to pull my mask on, on the way down too!

She jumped well in the ring, and I thought my warmup mishap was behind us.

Next I went in the ring on the Unicorn.

I’ve had him the longest, and I just don’t miss on him. We’re also coming off a near foot perfect performance last weekend at the event.

It was looking like it was going to be one of the best rounds we’ve ever done.

Is it just me – or do things go the most wrong when they seemed to be going the most right?

We jumped the first 7 fences beautifully, nailed a perfect spot at the 2nd combination & headed down a bending 9 stride line to an oxer.

And……….

It was the miss of all misses.

Normally my brave scopy beast would have just figured something out but instead we plowed through the jump.

And I did quite the faceplant.

You know when you hear your helmet make a crunching sound it just saved your life.

I’m ok other than the demolished helmet. And my bruised ego…..

Falling off twice the first day was definitely not how I wanted to start this trip.

If you’ve been following my tales for awhile, you know I buy helmets two at a time.

In a moment of – I don’t really have time to pack for another show- I didn’t have a spare helmet with me.

This sent me to the tack store to get another helmet.

They didn’t have the color or brand that I wanted & as I was explaining I needed TWO, so that I have a spare….. The puzzled sales person said, “Is he being naughty?”

I said, “No he’s a unicorn.”

And she said, “Hmmm ok, I was just wondering why you were anticipating needing two helmets.”