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
Snappy and I were back at Green Acres in mid July for another horse trials. We were last there in May and had a great day. It was MUCH hotter in July than in May though! ;-) There is no shade and we all sweltered in the heat, but it was a successful outing nonetheless!
Snappy has pretty much figured out this entire showing thing and is perfectly easy to unload, tack up, and warm up. She doesn't have any anxiety any longer and will mostly eat/drink during the day (though I wish she would eat more!) without any issue. It makes it much less stressful and way more fun to compete with a horse that is calm and willing. I swear she is calmer in a crazy warm up ring with horses going every which way than she is when I ride alone at home! Her many years on the track must be the reason why she is comfortable and unfazed by horses bolting and riders who cannot steer.
Generally I am alone when I compete (or sometimes can drag my 13 year old along for pics), but this time around I have an entire tribe of support! It was slightly overwhelming to have so many people and questions after being used to going solo, but I did enjoy it! My horse friend Rachel met us there, along with her two young girls, and two 4-H kiddos and their parents. At the last moment before I left the house, my husband decided to come along, which meant we had both children. The only tough part of having a bunch of people is that there wasn't a lot of time for me to socialize, as I had to warm up for dressage, ride dressage, take care of horse, walk the XC and stadium, sit for about twenty minutes, and then retack and dress for jumping! LOL! And with dressage running late I did not have as much time between. I like when things are pretty close together to eliminate wait time when I am by myself, yet with the heat is was nice to be done within about five hours of arriving.
Snappy warmed up fine for dressage but was definitely showing some stiffness. Time to change the game plan with her IV injections and in speaking to my vet afterwards, I think it is time to change to or alternate with Adequan. We put in a decent test for a 33.13, just four tenths of a point above the second place rider. There were four of us in the pre-elementary senior division and all of our scores were within a few points. We had a bobble in the first halt where she halted and then stepped forward her front right hoof when I put my reins in my left hand to salute. It was not very graceful and was our lowest score at a 6. The judge remarked that the halt was achieved but not sustained LOL! Collectives were all 7s and 7.5s and overall I thought her rhythm and connection were good. I cannot WAIT until we iron out the canter enough to move up though. I am bored with Intro B and I know she needs to move up.
Green Acres HT 07.16.17 from Elizabeth Sanborn on Vimeo.
Snappy has pretty much figured out this entire showing thing and is perfectly easy to unload, tack up, and warm up. She doesn't have any anxiety any longer and will mostly eat/drink during the day (though I wish she would eat more!) without any issue. It makes it much less stressful and way more fun to compete with a horse that is calm and willing. I swear she is calmer in a crazy warm up ring with horses going every which way than she is when I ride alone at home! Her many years on the track must be the reason why she is comfortable and unfazed by horses bolting and riders who cannot steer.
Generally I am alone when I compete (or sometimes can drag my 13 year old along for pics), but this time around I have an entire tribe of support! It was slightly overwhelming to have so many people and questions after being used to going solo, but I did enjoy it! My horse friend Rachel met us there, along with her two young girls, and two 4-H kiddos and their parents. At the last moment before I left the house, my husband decided to come along, which meant we had both children. The only tough part of having a bunch of people is that there wasn't a lot of time for me to socialize, as I had to warm up for dressage, ride dressage, take care of horse, walk the XC and stadium, sit for about twenty minutes, and then retack and dress for jumping! LOL! And with dressage running late I did not have as much time between. I like when things are pretty close together to eliminate wait time when I am by myself, yet with the heat is was nice to be done within about five hours of arriving.
Snappy warmed up fine for dressage but was definitely showing some stiffness. Time to change the game plan with her IV injections and in speaking to my vet afterwards, I think it is time to change to or alternate with Adequan. We put in a decent test for a 33.13, just four tenths of a point above the second place rider. There were four of us in the pre-elementary senior division and all of our scores were within a few points. We had a bobble in the first halt where she halted and then stepped forward her front right hoof when I put my reins in my left hand to salute. It was not very graceful and was our lowest score at a 6. The judge remarked that the halt was achieved but not sustained LOL! Collectives were all 7s and 7.5s and overall I thought her rhythm and connection were good. I cannot WAIT until we iron out the canter enough to move up though. I am bored with Intro B and I know she needs to move up.
Cross country was an inviting course of 12 jumps, with much less packed into the front field than back in May. It was a similar course to the one we jumped in May, but with a big serpentine in the middle which rode sort of awkwardly. Snappy didn't look at a thing and jumped everything without sucking back or hesitating, but she wasn't willing to try a canter, which bummed me out a bit. It is a much shorter course than we did at Hilltop, it was hot, and she was definitely a bit stiff, so I cannot complain. There were two new 2' coops that I wondered what she would with, especially because they were bright new wood, but she didn't care at all.
We were able to walk around for about ten minute before we did our stadium course, which was full of good lines and flowing turns. She hit a cross rail fairly hard in the beginning with her hind hoof, and I am surprised it didn't fall, but everything else was fine. Plus, it woke her up enough to remember that even small crossrails need to be taken seriously! We went clear in both XC and stadium to finish on our dressage score for the win!
Sorry about the video, especially my child with his thumbs-up thing in the XC section LOL! I have no idea what he was doing. I tried to cut out some of boring trotting around in XC. The dressage test is only the second part since he forgot to start taping until just after the free walk. Let's face it, the entire video is pretty boring, but the point of keeping/posting the media is for me to have it to look back on, not to entertain the masses haha! ;-)
Green Acres HT 07.16.17 from Elizabeth Sanborn on Vimeo.
wooo congrats!
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