Senator Bell
This is the story of the woman who was in first place and blew it because she let her horse jump the wrong side of an obstacle.
I am once again amazed at having been in first place after dressage with a score of 29.5 in the Senior Pre-Elementary (walk-trot) division. We had a short but sweet warm up—just long enough to get the aids going through and do a few centerlines before going in the ring to do USDF Intro test 2. For once, I managed to keep Clover connected and steady, and ride a reasonably consistent test. She bobbed her head a couple of times, I shortened her stride too much at the second medium walk, and I rushed the trot diagonal line (my brain said “make it a lengthening!”), AND I over shot the turn up the last centerline—it was almost a quarterline—but it was all good enough to put in into first in our division of 15 other rides.
We had another short warm up for x-c, a little trot, a little canter, some hand gallop, then popped over the vertical and oxer before heading into the start box. Start stopwatch at the 10 second count—check. Head into the box and turn around to face out at the 3 second count—check. Headed out on “go”, picked up the canter—oh, shit. Wrong lead. Crammed over the first fence, a telephone pole stack stuffed with greenery, headed to fence 2 on a gradual rollback turn—swapping leads and cross cantering. I lost steering to the right, and we popped over the Beginner Novice side of the coop (my division was supposed to jump the middle of the obstacle). I had the presence of mind to wheel Clover back around to represent her to the correct part of the fence, but the damage had been done, 20 penalty points for disobedience/run out/jumping wrong element/whatever.
I am once again amazed at having been in first place after dressage with a score of 29.5 in the Senior Pre-Elementary (walk-trot) division. We had a short but sweet warm up—just long enough to get the aids going through and do a few centerlines before going in the ring to do USDF Intro test 2. For once, I managed to keep Clover connected and steady, and ride a reasonably consistent test. She bobbed her head a couple of times, I shortened her stride too much at the second medium walk, and I rushed the trot diagonal line (my brain said “make it a lengthening!”), AND I over shot the turn up the last centerline—it was almost a quarterline—but it was all good enough to put in into first in our division of 15 other rides.
We had another short warm up for x-c, a little trot, a little canter, some hand gallop, then popped over the vertical and oxer before heading into the start box. Start stopwatch at the 10 second count—check. Head into the box and turn around to face out at the 3 second count—check. Headed out on “go”, picked up the canter—oh, shit. Wrong lead. Crammed over the first fence, a telephone pole stack stuffed with greenery, headed to fence 2 on a gradual rollback turn—swapping leads and cross cantering. I lost steering to the right, and we popped over the Beginner Novice side of the coop (my division was supposed to jump the middle of the obstacle). I had the presence of mind to wheel Clover back around to represent her to the correct part of the fence, but the damage had been done, 20 penalty points for disobedience/run out/jumping wrong element/whatever.
We got over fence 2 the second time just fine and headed off at a good clip to fence 3, the dratted lamb creep. Clover swerved, propped, and looked hard at the fence, but we got over, and went through a similar approach to the fourth fence, an orange bench. The 5th fence was a teensy creek wade-through, she almost stopped at that, but popped across when I used my voice to “encourage” her over. We jumped fence 6, the big log after the stream with no incidents, and galloped off …
... in the wrong direction! I had completely forgotten to make an immediate turn left back into the main field after the log. We galloped into the woods, looking for the next fence, and I got that “oh, shit!” feeling. We banged a left turn after the bank complex, and I remembered to go back into the field for our next fence. Technically, we were clear to continue, as we hadn't jumped any of our course out of order. Whew!
Back on course to fence 7, after jumping back over the unflagged, but wider water wade-through with a little hesitation. Fence 7 rode very fast and out of stride, and kept up the 400 mpm catch-up pace to fence 8, a hanging log which I was sure Clover would look at, but jumped out of stride. We made a hard right turn over a bridge to fence 9, a sapling rolltop, and took my planned route threading between two trees instead of the long route.
We had a bit of a gallop in the woods before fence 10, which we jumped uneventfully, and angled left to a drop, about the size of the one at Green Acres. I managed to do a mini-”Man From Snowy River” over it, turned left again over a shorter bridge to the last fence, a hay bale stack with corn stalks heaped on top, waving their leaves merrily in the breeze. I gave Clover a tap with the bat in case she was entertaining thoughts of looking at them, but we still had great momentum from our catch-up pace that we sailed over it. I laughed with glee as we crossed through the finish flags—our first x-c course completed!
I was laughing, but I was also kicking myself for fucking up the second fence and getting lost. At least I has the presence of mind to jump the obstacles on my course in order, so I saved myself from other penalties. Even with the detour, we still came in 30 seconds fast. Of course. the time had been set for a trotting 275 mpm, not a gotta-catch-up 375 mpm. Clover was blowing hard, and I felt bad for riding her so hard. But my trainer said not to worry, and pronounced Clover ready to move up to the Beginner Novice Horse division next season.
I sent Clover off with Tony to cool off while I gasped and hacked my way around the stadium course walk. It had been set up in the larger riding ring, 10 fences with a couple of tight turns and some new (to Clover) elements. I walked it twice, wary of having another brain fart on course. I was worried about just getting around, never mind getting around clean. I didn't know how much Clover had left after the unscheduled bonus mileage on x-c. I quickly got back into my stadium duds, tacked up Clover and headed over to the warmup.
We trotted over a couple of crossrails, and to the vertical I felt Clover going to a bad spot. Instead of overriding her, I let her take the bad spot—she took down the rails with her hinds. Tony went and sat down at this point—he had been watching us warmup—and he figured stadium was going to be a disaster for us. But I knew Clover would make better efforts over the fences after hitting the rails in warmup.
We went in for our round, saluted the judge, and got the whistle to start. We had a very squirrely approach to the first fence, a birch vertical. Clover was all over the place under me, throwing herself around until we got over the first fence. I rode the line to the second and third fences, a 5 stride on the long side, and knew that Clover was getting it, she really started to put on the gas and take me to the fences. We rode the rest of the course fast and clean, save for one rub at fence 6, a black and yellow panel coming off of a tight turn. But it stayed up, and Clover didn't blink at any of the other brightly painted fences, and she stayed forward.
She was a tired horse after that effort, and I untacked and threw her cooler on. We dropped down from first to sixth after x-c, but held onto it with a clean stadium round. I was thrilled, but disappointed about the mistakes I'd made. I was especially pleased at how well Clover's third time in stadium went. I'm looking forward to moving her up to BN—on this x-c course, the fences were very small. We'll need to work on dressage, my focus, and making a point to walk x-c at least twice before riding. My trainer had a sprained ankle, so we buzzed around the course in a borrowed tractor, and didn't have time for another walk, so the course hadn't been ingrained in my head as well as it could have been.
Still, last weekend's and this weekend's performances blew my mind. First place? Placing at all? Just icing on the cake. I hope this bodes well as the real deal and not a lucky fluke. I know our dressage needs to be a whole lot better, and I need to get the canter work going and confirmed. We'll have access to an indoor over the winter, and I plan on hacking in the meantime, to keep her going. I'm thrilled about Clover, she seems to enjoy jumping, I hope it's a trait she passes on to her future babies.
Later on, Tony commented to me that I was the only rider in my adult walk-trot division that really looked intense about competing and riding the courses. Also, The sidesaddle rider who used to compete against me and my friends when we were 4-H kids, was in the division, and I finished ahead of her for the first time in my life, that was a little haha-boost (insert evil grin here).
... in the wrong direction! I had completely forgotten to make an immediate turn left back into the main field after the log. We galloped into the woods, looking for the next fence, and I got that “oh, shit!” feeling. We banged a left turn after the bank complex, and I remembered to go back into the field for our next fence. Technically, we were clear to continue, as we hadn't jumped any of our course out of order. Whew!
Back on course to fence 7, after jumping back over the unflagged, but wider water wade-through with a little hesitation. Fence 7 rode very fast and out of stride, and kept up the 400 mpm catch-up pace to fence 8, a hanging log which I was sure Clover would look at, but jumped out of stride. We made a hard right turn over a bridge to fence 9, a sapling rolltop, and took my planned route threading between two trees instead of the long route.
We had a bit of a gallop in the woods before fence 10, which we jumped uneventfully, and angled left to a drop, about the size of the one at Green Acres. I managed to do a mini-”Man From Snowy River” over it, turned left again over a shorter bridge to the last fence, a hay bale stack with corn stalks heaped on top, waving their leaves merrily in the breeze. I gave Clover a tap with the bat in case she was entertaining thoughts of looking at them, but we still had great momentum from our catch-up pace that we sailed over it. I laughed with glee as we crossed through the finish flags—our first x-c course completed!
I was laughing, but I was also kicking myself for fucking up the second fence and getting lost. At least I has the presence of mind to jump the obstacles on my course in order, so I saved myself from other penalties. Even with the detour, we still came in 30 seconds fast. Of course. the time had been set for a trotting 275 mpm, not a gotta-catch-up 375 mpm. Clover was blowing hard, and I felt bad for riding her so hard. But my trainer said not to worry, and pronounced Clover ready to move up to the Beginner Novice Horse division next season.
I sent Clover off with Tony to cool off while I gasped and hacked my way around the stadium course walk. It had been set up in the larger riding ring, 10 fences with a couple of tight turns and some new (to Clover) elements. I walked it twice, wary of having another brain fart on course. I was worried about just getting around, never mind getting around clean. I didn't know how much Clover had left after the unscheduled bonus mileage on x-c. I quickly got back into my stadium duds, tacked up Clover and headed over to the warmup.
We trotted over a couple of crossrails, and to the vertical I felt Clover going to a bad spot. Instead of overriding her, I let her take the bad spot—she took down the rails with her hinds. Tony went and sat down at this point—he had been watching us warmup—and he figured stadium was going to be a disaster for us. But I knew Clover would make better efforts over the fences after hitting the rails in warmup.
We went in for our round, saluted the judge, and got the whistle to start. We had a very squirrely approach to the first fence, a birch vertical. Clover was all over the place under me, throwing herself around until we got over the first fence. I rode the line to the second and third fences, a 5 stride on the long side, and knew that Clover was getting it, she really started to put on the gas and take me to the fences. We rode the rest of the course fast and clean, save for one rub at fence 6, a black and yellow panel coming off of a tight turn. But it stayed up, and Clover didn't blink at any of the other brightly painted fences, and she stayed forward.
She was a tired horse after that effort, and I untacked and threw her cooler on. We dropped down from first to sixth after x-c, but held onto it with a clean stadium round. I was thrilled, but disappointed about the mistakes I'd made. I was especially pleased at how well Clover's third time in stadium went. I'm looking forward to moving her up to BN—on this x-c course, the fences were very small. We'll need to work on dressage, my focus, and making a point to walk x-c at least twice before riding. My trainer had a sprained ankle, so we buzzed around the course in a borrowed tractor, and didn't have time for another walk, so the course hadn't been ingrained in my head as well as it could have been.
Still, last weekend's and this weekend's performances blew my mind. First place? Placing at all? Just icing on the cake. I hope this bodes well as the real deal and not a lucky fluke. I know our dressage needs to be a whole lot better, and I need to get the canter work going and confirmed. We'll have access to an indoor over the winter, and I plan on hacking in the meantime, to keep her going. I'm thrilled about Clover, she seems to enjoy jumping, I hope it's a trait she passes on to her future babies.
Later on, Tony commented to me that I was the only rider in my adult walk-trot division that really looked intense about competing and riding the courses. Also, The sidesaddle rider who used to compete against me and my friends when we were 4-H kids, was in the division, and I finished ahead of her for the first time in my life, that was a little haha-boost (insert evil grin here).
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