Our dressage was crap. It didn't help that the warmup was pretty small and right smack in the middle of one of the cross country areas. So in the midst of warming up we were dodging others, and I'd get a few seconds of nice trot, then we'd round the corner and be facing the coffin. Or the water. Or the stadium jumps they had set up there. And Sunny would raise her head and speed up and be like "Ooooooooooo...can I?" every 10 seconds around the circle. So she was pretty wound up by the time we did our test. We mostly held it together, only broke to canter once, but it was tense and Sunny was fussy and I wasn't happy with it. I don't get upset or anything about dressage ever, sure it's frustrating to have really nice work at home and in clinics and stuff, but getting mad at Sunny or in general won't make anything better. I do my best on the horse I have under me that day, because when Sunny is wired there's nothing that will bring her back down to earth. You just have to get off and call it a day, then try again later. So we keep working at it, someday it will all come together!
Stadium looked pretty straightforward when I walked it, but it was deceiving. There were LOTS of rails, and several refusals as well. Learned my lesson the hard way about actually RIDING to the fence, not just sitting there doing nothing because Sunny goes regardless! I totally stopped riding on the approach to fence 2, and Sunny stopped. I was shocked for a second, then got mad at myself. I'm so dumb. I wasn't telling Sunny to go in any way, shape or form, so why should she? Lesson learned!!! Circled back around and carried on. After that I was totally overriding, riding her in deep past the distance and just brutally burying her into everything, and we had 4 rails:P Totally my fault again. Sunny doesn't need a ton of riding in stadium. Just quiet body and hands, leg on, and she does the rest. Nothing fancy. And I wasn't doing what she needed me to do. So 4 rails, a refusal, and a bunch of time faults for a whopping 30 penalties. Saturday overall was pretty shit-tastic:P
Cross country day, we redeemed ourselves!!! The course looked tough but good! Everyone was thinking time was going to be hard to make as well, the course was so twisty turny and you have to slow down to turn. Some big questions there, and I was psyched when I walked it:) And I can not even describe to you how awesome our round was!! Sunny came out and was ON!! I pointed and she went! Forward, bold, ugh, so awesome!! I just let her roll on! We had a few minor bobbles, 4AB was a 2 stride combination, and Sunny took off long and totally surprised me, but then again I should have rated her a bit more and balanced her up and ASKED for the add, which she does no problem if I am RIDING! So we floundered through that combination, and carried on. 7 was the fence/bank with the big downhill on the landing side, and Sunny just flew right over and down the hill!! Everything else rode mostly excellent, we got the coffin in 2 and 2, Sunny jumped HUGE over the last fence, it felt like we were in the air forever, haha. Then after the trakehner my watched beeped and I saw that we were close to making time, I pushed her just a little, and I didn't ride like I should have to the last 2 jumps. Just got super long and flat, and we had 2 huge long spots that we could have ridden properly, but regardless I was SO FRIGGIN HAPPY with our round overall!!
I was SOOOOOOO happy with my ride, and I knew we'd be moving up in placings, but didn't expect to move up all the way to FOURTH!! We were one of only 2 double clears!! Woot woot!! Sunny definitely makes up for the shitty dressage with pure heart on cross country!! What a girl, haha.
Stadium. Fence 1
Fence 2, which we jumped perfectly second time around!
7... Floating rail is deceiving...
The triple combination rode rather well, surprisingly. Except OMFG WHERE IS MY LEG GOING????? D:
Look at those rails coming down:P
Video...
And helmet cam...
Course Walk App of my XC...
http://www.mycoursewalk.com/course_walk/show/510
Photo course walk... The red numbers are for Intermediate, we shared several fences with them!
Awesome fence/bank on the huge downhill!!!
Huge bank of awesomeness!! 11ABC... And one with my mom beside it for comparison, haha.
This one had a big ditch in front of it:D
This was where the dressage/stadium warmup was, just so you see what Sunny had to deal with! Not exactly the best place to promote quiet and relaxation!
Water combo...
Coffin! With crazy cat tails on the last jump:)
Jump 9...
11B and C...look!! I can keep my eyes up while jumping down:D
Videos...excuse the shakiness!
First part of our course and through the infield...
Second pass through the infield...
Woot woot y'all!!! :D
My mom taking out Sunny's braids after stadium...
Sunny chilling in one of the turn out pens, enjoying some hand picked alfalfa:)
Cross Country Helmet Cam!! :D
So 1 week until the Championships! This year has gone so fast! Pretty sure I didn't even qualify since my season has been all over the place this year:P Between missing jumps and horrible weather, and stadium kerfuffles, this is our first OFFICIAL prelim completed! But whatever, we're going to come out guns a blazing next weekend regardless!! :) I'm so excited to see the cross country course, our designer really pulls out all the stops and puts together some FUN stuff for the Championships:)
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