A weekend full of learning experiences...

I hope this blog finds everyone well!  The sun is shining, and it's a beautiful day here in NC.  The ponies are enjoying a lovely day off after our show weekend.

 On Friday, March 12th, we packed up Bug, Renn, and Thunder (Catherine's pony) on the beast of a trailer and headed to Southern Pines.  Bug was competing in Prelim, and Renn was doing his first Novice!

 Renn was the first star up for Rocky Start.  We have been doing a lot of work on relaxation in our dressage and jumping.  I have been trying very hard to keep him calm and relaxed on a loose rein.  I think all of my hard work is starting to pay off!  Renn had the best test that he's had yet!  He went into the arena very relaxed and calm.  Yes, we still have a lot of work to do, but I definately think we are on the right road.  He scored a 38, which was the best score of the weekend for us.  He warmed up very well for show jumping with only a few spooks at on-coming horses.  He's afraid someone might take him out!  He went into the arena and jumped like a pro.  We had some moments where I flubbed the distance (he and Bug are soooo different, I'm still working on getting the distances correct on both of them), and he handled it like a champ!  The majority of the course was very in sync and lovely, though, with only one miscommunication on a bending line where he wasn't quite paying attention!  We got it back together, though, without mishap!  We had a double clear round!  This moved us to 16th out of a division of 32 professionals!  I was thrilled with my baby stallion.

This brings us to Bug...  Bug had the best dressage warm-up that he's ever had.  He was soft, connected, light, and lovely.  I was sure we were finally going to break 35!  However, Bug had different ideas.  As soon as we started our test, he got very full of himself, and he decided to add movements where he thought they might fit in nicely.  Needless to say, we didn't break 35....  We landed a 41.1.  I was very disappointed.  Lesson learned....more dressage work, and more relaxation in the test....   Preliminary did XC on Saturday, so we geared up to go jump 'round the lovely new gallopy course at CHP.  Tremaine Cooper did a great job with the courses, making them all very gallopy, yet still asking the horses questions without trapping them.   Unfortunately, Bug was very happy to gallop and not quite so happy to come back to me for the first combination.  Of course, I completely blame myself for the run-out that happened, as anyone that knows Bug can tell you...if you get his eye on the fence, even if you're way off line, he'll jump it.  I never hit the line in my attempt to get him a bit more in hand.  Lesson learned....never take your superstar horse for granted.  He came around and jumped the corner beautifully, and he finished the course like a champ.  We only had a handful of time penalties.  I have been working hard at getting better at making time, so I knew I would have been close without the refusal.  


Sunday made for a beautiful day.  Bug started out the day with show jumping.  We warmed up great and felt very in sync.  He jumped a lovely double clear round.  He is still not as adjustable as I'd like.....another lesson learned...more adjustability between fences work needs to be done.  However, I was very pleased with our round.  We ended up 16th out of 27. 


Renn and I geared up for our first Novice XC ride together.  He warmed up great, and he felt like he was ready to roll.  We had the BEST TIME together on XC.  I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face!  He jumped everything like a champ.  He has the greatest gallop, and he's so light off the ground.  He was such a star!  We did have a pause at the water before we went through, but it was just to double check that the murky water was, in fact, water.  Even though his score shows a stop, I am still really really pleased with him.  He has come so far!!  He was a joy to ride!!

Unfortunately, sometimes the scores don't reflect how our horses did.  However, they reflect that I have a lot of work to do before the boys go to their next competitions.  We will, hopefully, be headed down for more lessons with Kim Severson in the next week or two.  She can whip us into shape!  She's amazing!

Well, thanks for reading!!  I hope everyone is getting the chance to enjoy the lovely weather.  I think spring has arrived!