The Woodside Event Derby is a combined test which includes dressage, and jumping on the XC course with a combination of cross country and stadium jumps. Our lead up to the event was not ideal, as Thursday morning I found Cupid with a slightly loose and twisted shoe. Since he doesn't have the greatest feet I didn't want to take any chances, so I cancelled my lesson, put a no turnout sign on his stall, and called the farrier. Unfortunately the farrier was not able to come out until late Friday night, so Cupid was in his stall all day for two days. By this point I was starting to consider just scratching the event. I just had time for a short ride under the lights Friday night, it wasn't great just felt a little sloppy but I cleaned and packed my things and figured we'll see how it goes.
I was scheduled to ride first in the entire event. The upside was I got the warmup arena to myself! We had a good, uneventful warmup. Cupid was very relaxed, but not lazy. We trotted circles, did a little shoulder fore, then rode down the rail and did a few diagonals. We cantered both directions. I was still a little worried about the left lead as our last couple rides we haven't been consistent about picking it up, and it comes first in our Beginner Novice test.
We trotted around the dressage court, and I reminded myself not to halt at the first X! I tried to get a good trot going down the centerline. We trotted our 20 meter circles, then picking up the left lead canter Cupid stumbled a little and shook his head but got the correct lead. Our right lead was smoother. We had a nice down transition to walk, and I thought a good free walk. I still had a little trouble on the short court with the walk to trot transition immediately followed by the turn onto the centerline, but I thought we had a good halt. Overall I was very happy with our test! I felt it was a definite improvement from our last one.
We had 1.5 hours until our jumping portion, so I went to walk the course with my trainer. It started off with easy little logs that we've jumped before, and a few little verticals set up. However the last few jumps were significantly bigger. One was hay bales, and there was a Beginner Novice sized log. I was feeling pretty good about it, and excited.
I was hanging out at the trailer, about to tack up and all of the sudden realized I had my start time totally wrong in my mind somehow! Instead of going to the warm up I had to go straight to the start box, I was actually already late. As I got there the person who was supposed to go after me was already there and about to go, so I had a few minutes. I walked Cupid around and I could feel his energy building. I started walking around the start box and it was getting worse, I could feel him start to get light on his front feet. I did not feel comfortable going out on the cross country course like this and said I wanted to scratch! The starter said I had a few minutes and my trainer encouraged me to try to get Cupid to settle, but I was getting unnerved too. I decided to scratch, but my trainer said lets go to the warm up and maybe we could try to see if they would let us go later in the order.
In the warmup Cupid was like his old self, how he was a year ago; tense and quick. I trotted him around trying to get him to settle. I was okay doing that, but did not really want to jump even just in the warmup jumps. So we trotted around, I was trying to get Cupid to bend and pay attention and out of nowhere he let out a giant buck and sent me flying! I was caught by surprised, and since I was tense probably leaning up his neck. Luckily I felt fine, so I got on and made Cupid keep going until he was some semblance of behaving.
We walked back across the cross country course, and Cupid got pretty excited seeing other horses galloping and cantering. He was doing his racehorse prance. I got off and walked him, and also made him stand for a bit. When he was a little more settled we walked up and down a little bank.
This event did not go at all like I had expected, or hoped. It was a learning experience, but it is hard not to get discouraged. I'm not sure what happened. I think in part maybe Cupid just felt like he was done, and I should practice at home riding him, taking a break, and getting back on. I also got some good advice to just loosen his girth but leave his saddle on so Cupid has a better idea he is not done.
Going forward I know I want to continue working on dressage, and addressing the comments from the judge (mostly about being above the bit, and also straightness and impulsion). As far as jumping, I'm on the fence. I will still do it at home for variety and since Cupid seems to enjoy it, but right now I feel like showing is just too much anxiety for me. But maybe this feeling is just temporary.
No comments:
Post a Comment