Getting my "mojo" back....

At least that's what Meredith said yesterday about my cross country schooling day runs! Scarlet Hill Farm ran a "Cross Country Show" yesterday in the miserable wet conditions! The idea is that they set a course and an optimum SPEED. You then go across the course and try to match that speed. The person closest to the optimum speed wins. You are expected to go over all of the fences as in horse trial but disobediences do not count. You can't get eliminated for too many stops at a fence, and if you want, you can go around a fence or choose an easier option.

The time for the "elementary" division was 275 meters per minute - which is a "strong trot". I am sort of past the whole trotting fences thing, so I was more going out to "get the flow" of the course and have a good positive schooling before our GMHA schooling trials this weekend.

The course was on the small side, but had some better questions (for me) near the end. The first fence was a pile of logs going away from the trailers/barn area. Then you s curve to fence 2 which had two options - a small log on the ground or a hanging log. Then curve a bit more to fence 3, an unsuspecting log which caused A LOT more problems than anticipating. Then we are in to the 2nd field. Snake down to another log (the "troll" log from previous schooling sessions). Fence 5 had an option - you could either jump the 2' olive colored table or a small pile of logs. Fence 6 was an up bank - maybe about 18" to 2'?, Fence 7 was a reddish colored coop, and finally Fence 8 was the tiniest little log up near fence 1.

So I go out on course. Buck goes in to the start box and says, "HEY, I KNOW what we're doing!!!" It was REALLY cute to see him perk up his ears and kinda know exactly what was going on! We head off to fence 1 with no problems, but then we get bogged down between fence 1 and 2 (and maybe there was a bit of wanting to run to the trailers???) so we opt here for the small log on the ground. Then to fence 3 - which was a HORSE EATING MONSTER!!!! I don't know WHAT his problem was, but he didn't want near this fence. With a little beating and spurring he went and then was fine to fence 4. At this point we finally have a rhythm. My PLAN for fence 5 (olive box) was to go for the olive box, but if I had had any "issues" earlier in the course to go for the log pile because I was there to build confidence. Plus the olive box had ridden TERRIBLY when we schooled in a few weeks ago in a different location. Anyways, we had a nice canter here, so I just went for it - and it was great. We trotted the upbank no problems, hopped over the coop and log. We had a clear round and I was happy with my resolve to not have a "stop" at fence 3.

Turns out that there were birds DIVE BOMBING everyone around fence 3.....and horses - even well schooled event horses were having problems there!

So we go out again on our 2nd run. This time I opt for the hanging log at fence 2. And the "Bird Log" was still sticky but none too bad. The olive table/box rode beautifully this time, and we cantered the up bank. Everything was spectacular this round and we came off the course very confident.

I had tried out some of my new jumping skills that we've practiced, and by darn it, I think he jumps better with them :) So my new mantra is "Squeeze your boobs" around the course, hahahahahahaha. I was so proud of my little pony guy....he REALLY gets it now!

So I wasn't expecting any kind of ribbon because I was going much faster than the other riders I watched. Well, apparently my "guage" is way off. I was going 252 mpm....and I ended up in 2nd place. haha! That is hysterical, but just icing on the cake of a very good schooling :)