Senator Bell
Man, I can't tell you how happy I was to cross the finish flags at the end of my stadium round! Clover and I were both pooped. But all in all, it was a pretty successful day.
I went into this horse trial pretty worried, as our rides between Kingsbury and today had not been the best. And I get worried when I don't get some good and smooth rides and schools before a competition to reassure me that we're ready for it. But my trainer says I worry too much anyways. En route to the warm up area, Ray Denis, a TD who was the stadium judge that day, complimented Clover on her compactness. He chatted with me a bit about breeding, and advised me to find the happy medium when looking for a stallion to breed her to, not to go for the extreme opposite of her build. Then in warm up, the steward complimented Clover several times. Not that I'd ever get a swelled head with my insecurities, but it was nice to get compliments from people I have seen around Area I. It put me more at ease for dressage warm up, I wasn't as tense as I had been at Kingsbury. It was an ok warm up, she was more forward, but did not want to bend to the right. Our canter transitions were improved, I managed to put more leg on and not throw her head away with my hands.
We went in the test and put in a fairly decent turn, not our best, but not our worst. We got an 8 on the first centerline, a bunch of 5's and 6's in between, and a 7 on the final centerline and halt. Tony joked that Clover is always prepared to halt! Anne-Marie Gregoire was the judge—she has been less-than-impressed by my riding in the past (who can blame her), but this time I got a 7 for my position and aids. A score of 39% put us in 7th out of 19 other rides in the Senior Beginner Novice division.
Senator Bell put up some colorful and well-decorated cross-country and stadium jumps. Not knowing if Clover would take exception to them or not made me nervous again. I walked the course once with my trainer, then jogged it a second time to make sure I knew what the course was and not get lost there again, like I did at their schooling 3 phase last October. I know I'm getting fitter, I'm not achy and sore the day after riding x-c, and I can actually jog a lot of the course, in riding boots even. ‘Bout time, it's only mid-season after all! While I jogged the course a second time, my trainer and Emma put Clover's studs in, and Tony made me a tuna sandwich, which I wound up taking one bite of and begging him to finish, because my nerves were getting the best of me.
Cross-country warm up was just dandy—Clover was jumping out of stride and fairly scopey, to boot. I just had to try my best not to urge her along with my seat (“butt-sucking”) and go to the leg and stick to encourage Clover over any sticky fences. Finally I got the ok to trot down to the start box, and headed out on course with no problems. I trotted to Fence 1, a dark-stained rails with brush, and knew we'd have a decent ride when I felt Clover pulling towards it. We landed at the canter, and I let her go up the slight hill to Fence 2, and rolled along to Fence 3.
Fences 4, a bright orange bench loaded with decorations, and 5, a green panel, were the fences I worried about the most—but Clover ate up the bench, and only took the briefest look at the green panel. Tony said that she only arched her neck before jumping it.
There was a longish trot to the treeline and to the right down to the water, where Fence 6 was, a log that I'd heard several horses looked hard at. The log was right next to the water, and after landing, you had to ride around the edge of the water complex around to Fence 7, a small bank up. Clover's big problem in that area was just her wanting to go back to the other horses as we trotted down the hill, so I had to keep a lot of leg on and do a lot of steering to get to the log. Once she got the log in her sights, she just poured on the energy and hopped over. I can't describe what a thrill and what a relief it is, when Clover sees a cross-country fence and puts the gas on—just the feeling of her powering it up underneath me and jumping a big fence right out of stride is basically my reason for existing.
Tony said we were the only pair he saw in our division to take the bank up at an angle. I had wanted to get a clean line into the woods, and I was confident in the footing and Clover's ability to negotiate the obstacle—we had been jumping up a bank out of the water at Ledyard at an angle, so it didn't even occur to me that it was necessary to take a straight approach. Heading across the edge of the field into the woods, a large, shiny windmill on the treeline to the right came into Clover's view. We cantered along as she propped around a bit, looking at it, then changed her focus to the fence judges in their chairs just inside the treeline before Fence 8, a stack of saplings. I said. ” Stop looking, there you go, you know what that is!” as she finally got sight of the jump 2 strides out.
We came back out into another small clearing, and headed to Fence 9, the stacked logs, before disappearing into the woods again. Clover looked briefly at the fence judges, so I went to the bat after landing, to get her thinking forward again, but dropped it as I threw my reins into my right hand and the bat into my left! “SHIT!” I bellowed, right in front of some spectators! I galloped on through the woods, and yelled at Clover to “STOP LOOKING!” at the people walking the course. I got her over Fence 10, a flowery rails, and headed across the approach to the ditches back into the woods—a loop for mileage. I did not jump the Novice stone wall heading into the woods, I wanted to get her going again. I trotted to the bend in the woods, to get my bearings, then asked for the canter. I shouted, “CANTER!!” to Clover, as she was a little slow to respond, and I didn't have my bat to back me up.
I brought Clover back down to the trot, as we had a zig-zag left turn back out of the woods to the 11th obstacle, a “pass-through” next to the ditch complex. It was a teeny swale, that had the potential to be a water obstacle had it not been so dry this summer. Then, my watch went off! We were behind time, because of the trotting we had done. Four strides later was Fence 12, a big log with bright red flowers planted on top. We took it slightly to the left, so I could get a good line to the last fence, a tan coop framed by Novice and Training barn fences. We got over the coop, though Clover, for whatever reason, took a good look at it, and galloped the last strides through the finish line. I forgot to turn my watch off, I was busy laughing and telling Christine that I dropped my bat! She offered to get it for me, as it was near the finish line, and laughed at me because I should have had an elastic on it so I could attach it to a finger and NOT drop it.
We wound up with 7.2 time faults, and dropped to 8th place after cross-country.
Stadium was OFF THE HOOK! Ha ha. After walking stadium one and a half times (I had to clear the course during my second walk, the division was starting), I was a nervous wreck (I almost typed “wretch” there, same difference!) My trainer tried to be reassuring, but the colorfulness, decorations and changes of direction were getting to me. Clover, for her part, had warmed up nicely and dozed while we awaited our turn, oblivious to my churning guts and dry mouth.
I don't even think I could describe the course in a way that makes sense … we trotted in, got the start whistle, and picked up the canter to the first fence … let's see, jump the first fence, ride into the corner to the second fence, concave rails dressed up like a vegetable stand—with real veggies! I had joked to Emma after walking the course that if I fell off, I was going to get up and eat one of the tomatos before getting back on! Clover only looked at it a little, but took it with a lot of scope, I was told later. Then we had to change direction on a circle to the third fence, a blue and white oxer, and change direction again around the end of the course to the two-stride combination, fence 4A-B. Clover looked at the bright yellow and black rails coming in, we got over, I counted two strides and WHOA! we almost ran out to the left. Acting on instinct, I pulled Clover back over the fence, she made such a supreme effort to clear the rails she nearly jumped me out of the tack!
We had some time to recover before jumping the next fence, which we took to the left of center, because there was another change of direction to fence 6, and again to fence 7, which was a wide brick wall oxer with rails over it. We landed on the wrong lead, I tried to bring Clover down to the trot for a simple change of lead, but never got it, so I held her in balance to the oxer, which she again jumped scopily (is that a word?). Another rollback to a skinnier green rolltop with birch rails (“HA!” my trainer exclaimed as we walked the course, recalling my trouble with the Training skinny at Ledyard, “A skinny!”) which we got over JUST FINE, thank you. A bending line to another birch rail/rolltop, and a final change of direction between the blue oxer and veggie stand to fence 10, the Senator Bell tan panel. I closed my legs and we sailed over it, through the finish flags, and trotted quickly out of the course to make way for the next ride.
I was elated! We went clean! Not even a rail. We did add 2 penalty points to our score for time faults, which put us back into 7th place for a ribbon and a lovely boxed chocolate horsehead lollipop. I babbled like a fool, happily relieved to be finished with no jump penalties for the day. While waiting for the award ceremony, I ran into Alyce McNeil, and thanked her for the advice she had given to my trainer for me after Huntington: “She needs to ride the last two strides to the fence! And use her stick!” She beamed and was pleased that I was able to put it into practice.
The day boosted my confidence, in my riding and Clover's willingness to jump. After having no jump faults at our last two horse trials, and placing in them to boot, I think it's safe to start working more on speed, maybe throwing a bit of caution to the wind.
I went into this horse trial pretty worried, as our rides between Kingsbury and today had not been the best. And I get worried when I don't get some good and smooth rides and schools before a competition to reassure me that we're ready for it. But my trainer says I worry too much anyways. En route to the warm up area, Ray Denis, a TD who was the stadium judge that day, complimented Clover on her compactness. He chatted with me a bit about breeding, and advised me to find the happy medium when looking for a stallion to breed her to, not to go for the extreme opposite of her build. Then in warm up, the steward complimented Clover several times. Not that I'd ever get a swelled head with my insecurities, but it was nice to get compliments from people I have seen around Area I. It put me more at ease for dressage warm up, I wasn't as tense as I had been at Kingsbury. It was an ok warm up, she was more forward, but did not want to bend to the right. Our canter transitions were improved, I managed to put more leg on and not throw her head away with my hands.
We went in the test and put in a fairly decent turn, not our best, but not our worst. We got an 8 on the first centerline, a bunch of 5's and 6's in between, and a 7 on the final centerline and halt. Tony joked that Clover is always prepared to halt! Anne-Marie Gregoire was the judge—she has been less-than-impressed by my riding in the past (who can blame her), but this time I got a 7 for my position and aids. A score of 39% put us in 7th out of 19 other rides in the Senior Beginner Novice division.
Senator Bell put up some colorful and well-decorated cross-country and stadium jumps. Not knowing if Clover would take exception to them or not made me nervous again. I walked the course once with my trainer, then jogged it a second time to make sure I knew what the course was and not get lost there again, like I did at their schooling 3 phase last October. I know I'm getting fitter, I'm not achy and sore the day after riding x-c, and I can actually jog a lot of the course, in riding boots even. ‘Bout time, it's only mid-season after all! While I jogged the course a second time, my trainer and Emma put Clover's studs in, and Tony made me a tuna sandwich, which I wound up taking one bite of and begging him to finish, because my nerves were getting the best of me.
Cross-country warm up was just dandy—Clover was jumping out of stride and fairly scopey, to boot. I just had to try my best not to urge her along with my seat (“butt-sucking”) and go to the leg and stick to encourage Clover over any sticky fences. Finally I got the ok to trot down to the start box, and headed out on course with no problems. I trotted to Fence 1, a dark-stained rails with brush, and knew we'd have a decent ride when I felt Clover pulling towards it. We landed at the canter, and I let her go up the slight hill to Fence 2, and rolled along to Fence 3.
Fences 4, a bright orange bench loaded with decorations, and 5, a green panel, were the fences I worried about the most—but Clover ate up the bench, and only took the briefest look at the green panel. Tony said that she only arched her neck before jumping it.
There was a longish trot to the treeline and to the right down to the water, where Fence 6 was, a log that I'd heard several horses looked hard at. The log was right next to the water, and after landing, you had to ride around the edge of the water complex around to Fence 7, a small bank up. Clover's big problem in that area was just her wanting to go back to the other horses as we trotted down the hill, so I had to keep a lot of leg on and do a lot of steering to get to the log. Once she got the log in her sights, she just poured on the energy and hopped over. I can't describe what a thrill and what a relief it is, when Clover sees a cross-country fence and puts the gas on—just the feeling of her powering it up underneath me and jumping a big fence right out of stride is basically my reason for existing.
Tony said we were the only pair he saw in our division to take the bank up at an angle. I had wanted to get a clean line into the woods, and I was confident in the footing and Clover's ability to negotiate the obstacle—we had been jumping up a bank out of the water at Ledyard at an angle, so it didn't even occur to me that it was necessary to take a straight approach. Heading across the edge of the field into the woods, a large, shiny windmill on the treeline to the right came into Clover's view. We cantered along as she propped around a bit, looking at it, then changed her focus to the fence judges in their chairs just inside the treeline before Fence 8, a stack of saplings. I said. ” Stop looking, there you go, you know what that is!” as she finally got sight of the jump 2 strides out.
We came back out into another small clearing, and headed to Fence 9, the stacked logs, before disappearing into the woods again. Clover looked briefly at the fence judges, so I went to the bat after landing, to get her thinking forward again, but dropped it as I threw my reins into my right hand and the bat into my left! “SHIT!” I bellowed, right in front of some spectators! I galloped on through the woods, and yelled at Clover to “STOP LOOKING!” at the people walking the course. I got her over Fence 10, a flowery rails, and headed across the approach to the ditches back into the woods—a loop for mileage. I did not jump the Novice stone wall heading into the woods, I wanted to get her going again. I trotted to the bend in the woods, to get my bearings, then asked for the canter. I shouted, “CANTER!!” to Clover, as she was a little slow to respond, and I didn't have my bat to back me up.
I brought Clover back down to the trot, as we had a zig-zag left turn back out of the woods to the 11th obstacle, a “pass-through” next to the ditch complex. It was a teeny swale, that had the potential to be a water obstacle had it not been so dry this summer. Then, my watch went off! We were behind time, because of the trotting we had done. Four strides later was Fence 12, a big log with bright red flowers planted on top. We took it slightly to the left, so I could get a good line to the last fence, a tan coop framed by Novice and Training barn fences. We got over the coop, though Clover, for whatever reason, took a good look at it, and galloped the last strides through the finish line. I forgot to turn my watch off, I was busy laughing and telling Christine that I dropped my bat! She offered to get it for me, as it was near the finish line, and laughed at me because I should have had an elastic on it so I could attach it to a finger and NOT drop it.
We wound up with 7.2 time faults, and dropped to 8th place after cross-country.
Stadium was OFF THE HOOK! Ha ha. After walking stadium one and a half times (I had to clear the course during my second walk, the division was starting), I was a nervous wreck (I almost typed “wretch” there, same difference!) My trainer tried to be reassuring, but the colorfulness, decorations and changes of direction were getting to me. Clover, for her part, had warmed up nicely and dozed while we awaited our turn, oblivious to my churning guts and dry mouth.
I don't even think I could describe the course in a way that makes sense … we trotted in, got the start whistle, and picked up the canter to the first fence … let's see, jump the first fence, ride into the corner to the second fence, concave rails dressed up like a vegetable stand—with real veggies! I had joked to Emma after walking the course that if I fell off, I was going to get up and eat one of the tomatos before getting back on! Clover only looked at it a little, but took it with a lot of scope, I was told later. Then we had to change direction on a circle to the third fence, a blue and white oxer, and change direction again around the end of the course to the two-stride combination, fence 4A-B. Clover looked at the bright yellow and black rails coming in, we got over, I counted two strides and WHOA! we almost ran out to the left. Acting on instinct, I pulled Clover back over the fence, she made such a supreme effort to clear the rails she nearly jumped me out of the tack!
We had some time to recover before jumping the next fence, which we took to the left of center, because there was another change of direction to fence 6, and again to fence 7, which was a wide brick wall oxer with rails over it. We landed on the wrong lead, I tried to bring Clover down to the trot for a simple change of lead, but never got it, so I held her in balance to the oxer, which she again jumped scopily (is that a word?). Another rollback to a skinnier green rolltop with birch rails (“HA!” my trainer exclaimed as we walked the course, recalling my trouble with the Training skinny at Ledyard, “A skinny!”) which we got over JUST FINE, thank you. A bending line to another birch rail/rolltop, and a final change of direction between the blue oxer and veggie stand to fence 10, the Senator Bell tan panel. I closed my legs and we sailed over it, through the finish flags, and trotted quickly out of the course to make way for the next ride.
I was elated! We went clean! Not even a rail. We did add 2 penalty points to our score for time faults, which put us back into 7th place for a ribbon and a lovely boxed chocolate horsehead lollipop. I babbled like a fool, happily relieved to be finished with no jump penalties for the day. While waiting for the award ceremony, I ran into Alyce McNeil, and thanked her for the advice she had given to my trainer for me after Huntington: “She needs to ride the last two strides to the fence! And use her stick!” She beamed and was pleased that I was able to put it into practice.
The day boosted my confidence, in my riding and Clover's willingness to jump. After having no jump faults at our last two horse trials, and placing in them to boot, I think it's safe to start working more on speed, maybe throwing a bit of caution to the wind.
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