I decided to keep training through the end of December before I gave him time off to try and take advantage of the weather. Working with Martha Redman seemed to really be helping our show jumping and everything seemed to keep getting better. With Danny gone I also spent some time training with Courtney Cooper....she's definitley not afraid to raise the heights beyond my comfort level...it's so much fun!!! Hobbs was feeling a little off on his right front, so we gave him some time off in Jan. Even when we started to come back toward the end of Jan, he still didn't feel right so we put pads on him to try and protect him against the hard ground. We got his coffin joints injected and that paired with the pads seemed to do the trick. After spending the winter focusing on all the details I felt ready to start the season. We had a bad winter with lots of cold weather and hard ground so I was debating going to Aiken for a week or two to train with Courtney and open my season.
Despite some other family hiccups, with Legend getting sick again and Legacy tearing open his chest repeatedly, we decided that I should make the trip to Aiken and Seth would fly to NC to meet me for the show. I left early on a Saturday morning...the drive was rough for the first few hours, but Hobbs seemed to love his new trailer and so did I.
I spent the week with Courtney in Aiken and then travelled to Southern Pines and met Seth for my first outing. The week with Courtney was great, except for the nightmare hotel at Hampton Inn!! The day I got down to Aiken the temperature was 77°!!! As the week went on it got a bit colder, but considering it was snowing at home, I was in heaven! I got to XC school at Paradise which was a great facility. We were a little rusty, but Hobbs was soooo calm and really mature about it. There were no flip outs or rodeo episodes so I was really happy. I was a little worried because he definitely did not seem to be in the best shape. As we were leaving the facility, one of the girls put my cell phone on the wheel well of the trailer and I drove 2 miles down the road before we realized it. We spent the next 1 1/2 hours looking for my stupid phone and somehow we found it on the side of the road 1.5 miles away from the facility...somehow it still worked!! It was great to be completely absorbed in the horses for an entire week...I got to watch Courtney jump school at Sally Cousins twice and watched her work with her Advanced horse a few times....it was awesome!! After my boot camp, it was back North to Southern Pines. I got to the show on Thursday afternoon and picked up my groom from the airport :). I wasn't sure how the show was going to go with it being the first outing, but I know I had done all my homework over the winter and Hobbs was feeling great. We stuck with our same routine of a full warmup 2 hours before my test and then I get on 10 minutes before my ride time. The weather was a bit chilly and luckily I had a 1pm ride time. Hobbs was really focused during my first warmup and I felt good...it was uncanny how calm I felt...I didn't have any butterflies. Hobbs seemed to be taking everything in stride and didn't seem anxious. As we approached our ride time, Seth went over to check the timing to make sure everything was on time and I got on 15 minutes before my ride time. As I got over to the warmup, Hobbs felt really steady. They were running a bit early and instead of risking getting blown into the ring as soon as I got over there, I chose to go over early to make sure I could get a few circles around the ring because that seems to make him a bit tense.
We got in the ring and he was a bit more up, but extremely manageable. The first turn was a bit tense and in our test we went right into our mediums...because of where they are in the test, it wasn't our best but I was just happy I had a horse. As the test went on I was shocked at how well he was behaving...I had my horse! I finished the test and thought, WOW I'm really happy with that...it was steady and accurate....two words that are usually not used to describe our dressage. I knew the judge was scoring pretty high, so I wasn't sure how I was going to score, but I was stoked. Well I ended up with a 28.7 and was winning my class of 27 riders by over 4 points!!! I could've gone home at this point and been happy...but I didn't :)
Seth and I walked the XC course and it was a solid course. There were lots of questions including a sunken road and a bank island in the second water complex. Ironically the first water complex was named the "Beaver Pond Question."
There was also a pretty severe angled bench combo at the end of the course that was quite challenging for Prelim. The course had a good section through the woods and felt like a true XC course...the first water complex was a bit shadowy and of course it was in my mind about the water issues in the past. I was excited and nervous...more nervous than I 
would've liked. On Saturday in XC warmup, again Hobbs was so mature and VERY well behaved. I got him in the startbox again on my own and we were off!! It was great to be on course again with this horse...he's incredible on XC. He felt strong but not maniacal like times in the past. Everything was riding very smooth and I had a good rhythm. I wasn't too happy with my ride through the sunken road because I stared down into the drop but my boy was an angel through it. There was absolutely no hesitation at the first water and I let out a huge sigh of relief. Hobbs definitely felt tired and I didn't push. Courtney made sure to tell me that I DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT MAKE TIME despite my first place position. So I let Hobbs pick our speed and I cut out distance where I felt comfortable without making the questions too hard. The second water rode perfectly and we finished clean and over the time by ~25 seconds...exactly where I wanted to be. I was a little mad at myself on the very last jump, a big table, I lost focus and let him flatten out and we got that terrible long spot I love. I'll give myself a break and chalk that up to endurance :). All in all it was a fantastic first XC round. Even with my time faults I had only dropped to 2nd!!
I had to show jump on Saturday afternoon and I knew I wasn't going to have much horse left since he wasn't in tip top shape. During warmup he was hitting jumps pretty hard and stung himself pretty bad. All I could think of was our outing at VA and how terrible that SJ round was. I knew I had to have a strong upper body and help him get around this course....there were a few max oxers, but it wasn't too intimidating. Seth was definitely nervous and desperately wanted me to be relaxed, but I was in my shut down zone where he affectionatley says it looks like my face is melting...I guess that's my focused face :). We got in the ring and started our round...it was by far the smoothest round I've ever had. We got to jump #3, a skinny off a turn, and he uncharacteristically had the rail with his hind. We worked through the rest of the course until the very last oxer and I leaned at him just a tiny bit and he had the rail with his front. It was disappointing, but definitely attributable to his stamina. I believe the same ride in another month once he's been conditioned is a clean round every time. I thought I had completly blown my placing any maybe would end up in 6th or so...still not too shabby. Turns out there were quite a few rails across my division and still ended up in 3rd...if I would've only had one rail I would've won..so it was really tight!! Winning certainly wasn't my goal, but it would've been really sweet after the hard work. Winning the dressage phase was such an amazing feat on this horse though I certainly can't complain. I was so thrilled with his composure in all three phases that the final result really isn't what I'll remember from the trip. I finally hit my goal of breaking 30 in the dressage phase, I rode all of my combos on XC exactly as I walked them and I hit all of my spots and distances on the stadium course. Let's hope this is just a preview for the rest of the season!!
