An Extremely Overdue Update!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

I have been severely lacking on the blog front lately so I apologize. I had all of these exciting things going on and the blog got put on the back burner but since Ben and I are making our Training moveup in just 12 short hours, I thought it was necessary to give you all a mass update.

Last I wrote we were going to the Sinead Halpin clinic which was AWESOME! She is a fantastic clinician and is super nice. She is one of those people who can make things click and she was very helpful in dealing with some of Ben's antics. Here is the video of all of the clips from that:

Then we were off to a dressage show where we showed Training 3 and First 1. Ben was very good and was almost too calm in out Training test! I ended up putting my spurs on for the First Level test and it was much better. Not that the Training test was bad I just had to chase him in the canter more than I would've liked. The First Level test went much better than I expected and I was thrilled. We ended up scoring a 60% in Training 3 (equivalent to a 40 in eventing) and a 61.7% in the First Level test (equivalent to a 39.3 in eventing.)

I unfortuantely have not uploaded those tests yet so I cannot post them here but maybe someday when life slows down I can get a chance to do that!

So here we are on the eve of the Training move up! I'm super excited and cannot wait to see what is in store for us on cross country!! We have a very early start tomorrow. Apple Knoll is two hours away and my dressage time is 8:24. It is also supposed to be 44* during my dressage test, by far the coldest temperature we've had so far this season so we may be a little... "up." I will be waking up at 3am and we will be leaving the barn with Ben in tow no later than 5am. Oh, the life of an eventer...

Next on the list was supposed to be The Ethel Walker School Horse Trials. If this weekend went well, we were going to go Training there. Unfortunately, however, they cancelled due to low entry numbers which I am extemely bummed about. So we are rerouting to Fall Mystic Horse Trials which only goes up to Novice so... that is what we will be doing. But never fear, I've already started planning next year's schedule... :-)

I am off to blowdry my dressage saddle. Yes, you read that right. It was such a gorgeous day today... until I got on Ben. That was when it decided to HEAVILY downpour. I just decided to stay on because by the time I got off and into the barn I would have been just as wet as I was anyway. Plus its good practice for Ben. Thank goodness for synthetic tack! Of course it is now saturated, as is my helmet, and if I don't want a cold, wet butt tomorrow morning at 8am, I'd better go do that now! And then I'm heading straight to bed to hopefully manage somwhere around five hours of sleep!

I will try to tweet regularly but my times are awfully close together (Dressage 8:24, Stadium 9:52, XC 10:22, plus I have to walk xc in between dressage and stadium) so I'll see what I can manage. (Link to Twitter: https://twitter.com/jfcx333) The helmet cam will be out in full force tomorrow so I will have that to share. I should be home early enough to get videos uploaded and a post written if I am not too exhausted.

Until then I will leave you with this picture of Ben and I the other day doing our last jump school before this weekend. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with my elbows, but I love how Ben looks!

As always, thanks for reading and for putting up with my extreme lack of updates!