North Carolina, come on and raise up!

aka.... 5-Points Horse Trials

So, I've been a total slacker about the blog, yet again.  Sorry!  Here's several updates coming at you at warp speed... are you ready?  Ok then, here we go.

Two weeks ago, the Diddy and I headed, once again, down ol' #1 to the Carolina Horse Park.  Yes, this would be the third time this year.  I think P now simply steps off the trailer and goes "oh ok, here we go AGAIN".

The arrival couldn't be without a bit of drama of course.  I made a last minute decision to leave at O-dark-thirty Friday morning rather then drive down Thursday night for a couple of reasons.  1- I hadn't packed yet. 2 - I wanted to go to the used tack sale happening at the fairgrounds. 3- that would be one less night of Diddy crammed into a stall and me sleeping in the tack room of my trailer.

So off I went to the tack sale after work, where of course I gabbed it up with people I hadn't seen forever, and upon leaving the building, I realized that the feed store closed in 15 minutes, and I was probably 25 minutes from it's location.  I called them, and begged the kid on the end of the line to please stay open 5 extra minutes, while I zoomed at breakneck speeds around the beltline of Raleigh.  I arrived at exactly 8:02 and the kind people of TSC simply starred at me as I stood in front of the door with my best pout going on. Not gonna work on them!  They simply walked to the back of the store without even opening the doors to say "sorry, we're closed". UGH.

So I hopped back in my car, made a teary phone call to J-bomb, after which I got my s*&t together and found a client that fed the same kind of feed as me who would let me buy half a bag.  Off to her barn to scoop feed, back home to feed, pack, and go to sleep so I could pull out at 5am.

The rest of the trip went completely fine, and once I got there, and got Diddy ready (touched-up clipped, bathed and braided in less then 45 min!), I realized that I was sitting on a seriously good horse that morning!  He was awesome in warm-up, listening but very forward and springy.  Once we got into the ring, We had a bit of an issue... see, there's these really scary things called shadows that CANNOT be stepped on as they may very well swallow horses whole.  Over all, Diddy was actually really good, just a few bobbles screwed up our score (and a BAD score it was!).  Oh well, the fun stuff was to come!!!!

Seeing as we only rode one phase on each day, and that I was done with dressage at 9:30, I had a long day ahead of me!  I got to go out and walk the course a couple of times, and warm-up a friend/client for her first recognized dressage test (she came over to the dark side from hunter-land).  P seemed relaxed and a bit less cranky about the whole stall thing then usual, so I was feeling pretty confident about Saturday.

Once again, I rode really early (which meant only a few of my friends from Raleigh made the trip down in time to watch), but with the warm temps, I was happen to have the XC done before the heat of the day. P made fairly easy work of the course, and I let him coast around as he had to run at the AECs in just 4 days.  He got a bit slow footed in the water, but other then that, I could not have been happier with my run.  He made everything seem super easy!  I just can't believe how much he's matured and grown over the last year... I LOVE him! 

He cooled out well, and I, once again, got to spend the day lounging with friends, warming Amy up for her ride, and just enjoying myself in general (in between the wrapping and icing and walking of course...  Oh, I forgot to mention that Amy (who is now my hero), offered me half her bed in the Microtel in exchange for coaching... pretty darned good trade if you ask me!!

When Sunday morning finally showed it's face, I was super excited to get in the SJ arena.  My pony was a bit on the tired side and even threw in a bit of a stop in warm-up when I put him at a nasty spot. Being careful not to pick (Amy, the really experienced hunter/jumper, coached me in warm-up), I went in the ring with the goal of having a forward positive ride. P didn't disappoint, although we did have some rails, I am super confident that they were due to pilot error/horse fatigue, and both of those issues I can work on!  He came out in super form and wound up in 9th place.  3rd qualification down and one to go!