The Coliseum |
The first event at Morven was solid. Hobbs was great in dressage warmup and in the ring, but I got claustrophobic in the small arena and didn't ride an accurate test. It was ashame because I had the horse and I could've pushed him a bit to try and get better scores, but I wasn't focused enough. We had a rail in stadium...it was a better round, but still not where I wanted to be. XC was great again! I was really happy because it was on the longer side and we came in 15 seconds under the optimum time and I really didn't have to push him, so I felt like I did a better job conditioning him. So the plan was to shoot for Bromont CCI 1* in June. Since Morven went so well and I felt comfortable, I decided to go for the Fairhill CIC 1* in April. It was a bit nervewracking because it felt quick, but I knew the XC was there and I figured the rest would come. So we went through the process of getting Hobbs' FEI passport renewed which was a nightmare. I never got the passport when I bought him so I tracked down Gayle Davis on Facebook and got the passport and then had to redo all of his vaccines and put through all of the paperwork to change the owner. I got everything done in time and we were off to FHI.
The first blip was the in-barns on Thursday evening. I never knew anything about them and hadn't planned on stabling on Thursday since I didn't ride dressage until 9:30 on Friday morning. Well apparently there was some sort of glitch on the website where it said in-barns were Thursday from 1pm-4pm but Keli or I never saw it. So we got there early on Friday morning and took some crap from the vet about missing in-barns on Thursday, but we got checked in and all was good. Oddly we had to trailer to dressage on Gallaher Road. I had a fantastic warmup, but when we got up to the upper ring he started to get anxious and proceeded to meltdown right before I went in the ring. He was extremely fussy and really had a fit when I asked for the right lead canter, but we got through it and ended up with a 62.8...good enough for 12th place. I was really disappointed because we are further along than that, but I had to move on and make sure I went clean the rest of the weekend. The XC course was tough...there were a few tough banks and the water was tough with a turn and an upbank, one stride to the skinny bear. He was incredible though. I picked into 5A/B which was a corner combo, but he added a stride and saved me. That combo woke me up and we tore up the rest of the course. It was the smoothest ride I've had...it felt like every jump was just in stride and so easy. I was so happy and proud that I didn't care about my 62.8...plus we moved up to 9th with a double clear. The weather then turned for Sunday's jog and SJ. It went from 75° and sunny on Saturday to 45° and rainy on Sunday. The jog was uneventful, but kind of nervewracking just thinking about something being wrong, plus with the ugly weather I couldn't wear the outfit I wanted!! I was nervous about stadium just based on the last few rounds and some of the issues I was working through. Now with rain and deep footing I knew it was going to be tough. I was still on a high from Saturday's XC and it was nice to have Danny there to warm me up. After a few jumps, in I went to the ring and we flew around clean...only 1 of 2 clean rounds in my division. I had one small mistake in a 5 stride combo where I didn't adjust to his big jump in and tried to leave out a stride...again Hobby saved me and jumped out of it with me up his neck. Our double clear stadium round catapulted us into 4th place!!! As we were coming out of the ring, Hobb's first owner, Charlotte came up and introduced herself. It was so nice to meet her and really cool that she came out to see our boy and support us. The whole weekend was somewhat surreal and I'm still letting it sink in. As always, I had amazing support from my hubby Seth, my Mom and Dave and my brother John. Tracy and Matt also came down for XC day. I can say I doubted my competitiveness in FEI competitions after Friday and felt defeated at yet another nervous dressage test, but we proved why eventing isn't all about dressage...it truly takes an all-around athlete to complete all three phases.
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