Star at the 1*

Well I have lots and lots of updates.  Last season went really well with Hobbs and we finished out the season with the Preliminary Championships at the Virginia Horse Trials.  It was such an amazing facility and brought back a lot of memories from Pony Club Nationals and doing my musical kur in the Coliseum on Pizzaz!  It was a crazy weekend in October 2011 when we got a snow storm up the East coast!!!  The weather caused the schedule to get changed around and I had to run XC on Friday afternoon unexpectedly.  The terrain caused some time faults for us and I learned he wasn't in the best shape for hills...but of course we were clean jumping because he's amazing.  I did the jumping derby on Friday night and ended up getting second to Holly Payne thanks to some creative lines my trainer, Seth, and I came up with ;).  We had Saturday off because of snow and then show jumped in the Coliseum on Sunday...it was a terrible round.  We had 5 rails and it was ugly.  I think the arena backed him off a bit and I didn't adjust plus he was still tired from XC.  We ended up in 6th and it was a good experience but not the best.


The Coliseum

Over the winter I really wanted to focus on dressage and show jumping (obviously after VA HT).  I never thought I'd say this, but XC is our strongest phase.  I really focused on my jumping position and did a lot of jumping with one hand in the air to try and get my upper body back.  I am also still working on getting the landing to be softer with the big jump of Hobbs.  It helps me to think about trying to sit in the saddle sooner on the way down.  Those adjustments have helped Hobbs to jump a little smoother and me to stay out of his way.  I also focused on getting him rounder and using his hind end more when cantering/galloping.  That has also helped him jump better and smoother.  I need to make sure that I have enough power in his stride without chasing him and getting him flat.  On the flat, Seth and I started working with David Smith.  He's a tough trainer and doesn't let you get away with mediocre work...he definitely calls your bluff and makes sure you are getting the most out of each workout.  The first thing he worked on with both Hobbs and Legacy was working a lot of long and low to develop the topline muscle and atrophy the muscles on the underside of the neck.  He has really focused on getting Hobbs into the outside rein so that I have more control, especially when he decides to have a meltdown.  He has also focused on getting his hind end engaged through many, many transitions.  My typical workout now must include at least 5 minutes when I get on of long and low to get his topline stretched out.  I then move him forward and make sure I can't hear his inside hind leg ticking the ground.  After he's forward and in front of my leg, I pick him up into frame and begin my work.  I have also done a lot of cavaletti work to get his joints flexed and moving.  The most progress I've felt is in our medium trot.  David had me do tons of walk/halt, trot/walk, canter/trot transitions in a row prior to asking for a medium.  This really gets Hobbs sitting on his hind end and he's become much stronger and able to hold his mediums longer.  We're still working, but they have come a long way.

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.