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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

Hilltop Horse Trials results 9/14/08 aka My Fabulous Standardbred Event Horse

Dreamy is simply a rockstar.



There is truly no other way to put it. We had a blast on Sept. 14, 2009 at the Hilltop Horse Trials in Somersworth, NH. Granted it poured during dressage and cross country and we all sat in the trailer the entire time.....Dreamy in the back box stall munching hay and S, C, and I in the front box stall. But despite the rain we had a good time.

After winning our event in July at Green Acres going Pre-Elementary, I knew it was time to move up. Some events call the next step up Elementary and some call it Modified Beginner Novice. Basically it is exactly the same as Beginner Novice, except the jumps are a few inches shorter.

So we moved up a level and WON our division. :) Granted there were only 3 riders in our division of Senior Modified Beginner Novice, but still we won and that makes it so exciting! We scored a 44.2 on our dressage test and went clean both XC and stadium.

Dressage was good....again all 5s, 6s, and 7s. We did Beginner Novice Test A. But we had a bobble in our first canter to the left. First she started cross cantering and did a small buck. I don't mind this since usually in the past we have had to come back to the trot to fix a counter canter. The buck tells me she has more strength in her hind end! YAY! But a buck is a buck regardless. Then a stride after the buck she stumbled. Whoops! So we ended up with a 5 for that canter. It was not exactly smooth. But our right lead canter was a 6! YAY! PROGRESS!

Cross Country had me worried because of the rain and potentially slippery footing. When I walked the course of 14 jumps I was very concerned about a few spots. There were not timing XC because of the footing, so that made me relax. I took a few longer routes because the footing was better. I knew that there was no way I could canter her where I wanted to because of the footing. This course has a great area for cantering, but it was muddy. So instead we opted to do our big racehorse extended trot and actually at one spot we walked for a few strides. It was just not worth slipping and falling. Dreamy did not look at anything funny at all. There was one huge log that was painted white that she did look at and then popped it, but otherwise she was bold and forward.

It actually stopped raining just as I was mounting for stadium jumping. As soon as I was over the first fence, one of the farm dogs came into the ring. I should have stopped and asked to start over. But I yelled "THERE IS A DOG ON COURSE" and figured someone could get him out of the ring before I got to that spot (fence 4). Well someone did call to him and he ended up walking right into my path!!!!!!!! So there was a tight bending line from fence 5 to 6 and I was so rattled over the dog that I almost missed fence 6. It was the biggest fence of course and an oxer to boot! :( I ended up realizing it about a stride and a half out, so I said SHIT! (really loudly of course!) and did my best to get over it. I literally stuck Dreamy at an angle to the fence and I'll be damned it the mare didn't even blink twice but just did it. It was probably 2.5 feet, but she just came under herself and pushed and did not even question jumping it at an angle. That was complete rider error and I am very lucky to have a forgiving horse. She totally bailed me out of that one! I was so proud of her! The rest of the course went fine. I apologized to the judge for swearing, but I think she was younger than me and it did not even faze her.

So anyway, it certainly was a good show. It helps to have a good racehorse who is a mudder to boot! LOL! She tore around those jump courses like nothing. I am so proud of her and love how many compliments we got! Each person was amazed she was a STB. Of course it is also neat that Maryanne who owns/runs the farm is involved with racing and actually has 2 STBs in the riding program. She congratulated me and thought Dreamy looked good.

Here is one other pic of us at the end. Because of the pouring rain I did not get any other pics or video. Too bad, but oh well. Next time! :)

Comments

  1. Congrats!!!! I love the pictures! You are soooo happy and Dreamy is like "We already did the fun stuff...why are we still here?"

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  2. Thanks! :) You are right; Dreamy was SO bored. She was very good about standing on the trailer ALL day in the rain between phases, but you could tell she knew she was missing better things in life....like grazing at home.

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