Two posts in one day? What is this sorcery?
I realized that I really only had one more post to write to FINALLY have you guys all caught up on everything from this season so I thought I would just sit down and write it!
After Kent and the Boyd Martin clinic we were supposed to go to Apple Knoll on June 23rd and we were supposed to move back up to Training there. However, the event had low entries so it was moved to the end of July instead which was unfortunate because it left us with almost two months between events, which is exactly the opposite of what Ben needed at that moment in time. Not to mention that I was really looking forward to competing at Apple Knoll and the date they moved it to was the week we were going to be on vacation in Florida.
So the next event for us ended up being Riga Meadow Horse Trials on July 14th, which was to be our second Training horse trial and our first recognized Training. Ben was an angel the whole day, starting bright and early at 4:30am when he was quite the gentleman about getting his boots on and loading onto the trailer all the way up to being an absolute star in the dressage ring. He put in what was probably our best Training test to date and earned an even 40. I thought the trot circles should've been 7s instead of 6s but otherwise I thought the judging was very fair and constructive and we ended the first phase in 8th place.
I went and walked xc and it looked totally do-able and a lot of fun, quite the contrast to how I had felt walking the cross country course at my first Training where I was quite terrified of a few of the fences! Unfortunately, the eventing gods apparently still don't like me very much because before stadium I started to feel pretty lousy. I'm sure it had something to do with the perfect storm of the heat, my lack of eating anything, getting three hours of sleep the night prior, and having just walked quite a long xc course. Regardless of the reasons, I knew it was in both of our interests to scratch and wait to play another day. It wasn't fair to Ben to ride him when I wasn't feeling 100% and he's quite a tough ride xc so I need to be fully there to properly pilot him.
As disappointing as it was, I still thought it was a successful day because he put in quite a nice test for him, he had a perfectly good experience, and we even still got a ribbon out of the deal for placing after dressage!
Here is the video of our test:
Ben has only been to three events this season, and only finished cross country at one. At this point, he just needs to run for the experience so I am taking him to two unrecognized Novices because they are inexpensive and nearby and I know they will provide two good, confident rounds for us. Then hopefully we will finish off the season strong at Training!
So there you have it, everything from the 2013 eventing season is all written up! I've also updated the Eventing Schedule page at the top of the blog. I will be back to more frequent and more "live action" posting now, which I look forward to. Our next event is in just 7 days, so I will be sure to write all about it!
As always, thanks for reading, and a very special thank you for bearing with me and my writing procrastination!
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