It's not really a secret that for a while I was told that P wouldn't really make what I wanted. He fought a little too hard (but so do I), and he wasn't keen enough (aka, he tends to take his time). But the one thing that I've found with the cool little guy is that he always answers "yes" to the questions I ask him (although sometimes there is an eye-roll thrown in for good measure).
Well, last weekend, we answered the question "Can we make our way further into the ranks of upper-level-ville?" ... Answer? yes.
We participated in the Intermediate/Prelim division at Tryon Horse Trials at FENCE, where we did the Intermediate Dressage and SJ with the prelim XC. It's amazing how much smaller the prelim XC looks after the large Show Jumps!
P put in a respectable dressage test (equivalent of 2nd level), with a pretty major jig in the middle of our extended walk (which we usually score very well)... and of course that's the only coefficient in the test! We did get a 9(!) on our simple change through the walk. Yay!
Show jumping was awesome, and if only I hadn't had to stand in the ring for 5 minutes before they gave us the go-ahead to start, making one lazy pony to fence one, then we may have pulled off a clear ride! One rail on the board, and I was pretty much in love with my pony (if you ever doubted that before!).
XC day dawned with wicked sun glares, and we were the first one on the course. The gallop up the mountain took a bit of steam, and the pony was a bit fatigued on the way down.... but luckily for me, his TB blood pulled through and we completed with a handful of time penalties (or maybe two handfuls). We still scraped together a 2nd place finish and are on to do the regular Prelim this weekend at the Ark (which will *probably* be P's last run of the season!).
I also have to give some blog love to Anna Hamby, who rode the wonderful Sweet T to a 5th place finish in the large BN division. Sweet T came to spend 30 days with me in the Spring, and was pulled out of the field as Anna's reserve for this weekend. He blew us away with his williness (and minor silliness in dressage).... so happy for Anna!
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| geometry |
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| triple bar |
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| dunno why, but this jump looked HUGE! |
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| A of the one stride |
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| 'A' of the angled brushes |
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| 'B' of the angled brushes |
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| pop down into the water on the tired pony |
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| 'b' of the coffin |
2 comments:
You guys look fantastic!! He looks like he could jump bigger, too! Scrappy pony!
agreed, he makes it look easy. Congrats, never listen to the naysayers!
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