UNH Fall Horse Trials
Clover did her first Novice (and very well, I may add). After being deluged by sheets of rain en route to UNH, the sky cleared up for us in time for warm up. The sun came out, and we had a great dressage test, steady and forward, very consistent. As I went up the center line, I made a spur of the moment decision to grin through the entire test. I don't know if that had an effect on my riding, but grinning merrily away helped kill a lot of the tension I usually have during a test. I heard my trainer whoop after our final halt, and I knew it was a good test. A 38 put us into first place of 14 other entries. I couldn't believe it when I saw the scoreboard, I said to Michelle, “I'm going back to the trailer to decompose now!”
Sunday came and I was tense and cranky. As soon as I started to pack up for x-c and stadium, my irritability changed to nerves. At least it was a cool and clear day, but breezy. We arrived back at UNH, and Michelle and I took off to buy myself a replacement medical armband (the last one got lost in the shuffle at Kingsbury) and walk the course again. The course looked to be challenging, but fun. Several of the fences and routes had been changed or replaced since the last time I competed at UNH, and I was nervous about the one called Aaron's jump. It was a new max saw tooth ramp, replacing the old palisades complex. My mantra for the morning was “Number 152 clear at fence 13 … number 152 clear at fence 13 … ”
Finally, time to get dressed and get down to x-c warmup. Michelle was the first to go on course. Being in the same division, our start times were pretty close to each other, so my trainer was able to warm us up together. My trainer cautioned me to stay off of Clover's back, and headed to the water complex to cheer us on. Michelle and Matti headed off to the start box, and had a great ride. I was able to catch them coming off the course as I was heading to the start box with Clover. The course rode great, and they went clean.
As usual, I asked the timing steward to give me a count down from 10, so I could start my stopwatch at that time and not have to worry about fumbling with it when we left the start box. He asked if there was anything else I wanted, and I joked that I could use some muscle relaxants. Then, the countdown was on … and the last second seemed frozen for a long time as I faced out of the start box with Clover, looking out to the first fence. “... three… two … one … Go!” and we were off. I really chased Clover to the first fence, for once I was going to establish a forward pace. Of course, some kid on a bike was riding ahead of me on the course, and slipped into a copse of trees just before the jump. Clover's attention turned to him only briefly, then we were up and over Heaven's gate, which is located just inside the tree line coming out of the field. It has a slight uphill approach, and some horses get backed off by the abrupt change from light to dark.
With a good pace established, I was able to breathe and have a little fun. Fence 2 was an orange roll top log stack, but to get to it, you had to make a left turn off of the main track. We got over it well, and like I had planned, I tried to change Clover's lead so we'd get a more balanced approach to the third fence, but Clover spooked at the prelim jump en route to our fence, and I said, “OK Clover, we're going with this lead!”
The Reservoir view is an airy, natural colored fence, up a short but steep hill, and overlooks the reservoir. A lot of green horses get backed off, and some get eliminated at that fence. I was lucky to have been able to school Clover over it back in May. Again I chased her up the hill, sat down for a stride to organize her, and closed my legs to get her over, as she gave a brief look at the jump before clearing it. We tore off down the bridge over the reservoir, at least we did after Clover tried to shoulder her way over to the horse barns.
Fences 4 and 5 were a three stride combination, a hanging log to a green shingled, natural colored barn-coop. I took Clover down to the trot coming into the combination, so we could get the striding in between the fences. Otherwise, coming in at the canter may have caused us to chip in at 2 1/2 strides.
Going around a prelim coop, Clover took a long, sideways look at it before galloping on to the Fort Briggs bank complex, fences 6 and 7. Our obstacle was a flagged ramp up, then a 2 stride to the bank down, which I believe measured at 2'6” or more. There was a flag pole, complete with a US flag snapping in the wind on the far left corner of the complex. Some horses were taking hard looks at the flag, some were just plain reluctant to drop down the bank after the ramp up. Clover went right up the ramp and down the drop, and after getting the reins back (I'd slipped them so Clover could stretch out coming down the drop), I corrected our line to the next jump, a hard left turn after the bank to a tabled stone wall, fence 8.
We flew over that and galloped down the track to the next field. En route, to the right side of the track, an old overturned tree's roots caught Clover's eye, and we did the half pass at the gallop for several strides. Coming out into the field, we made a hard left turn, around some birch trees, and took a straight line to fence 9, a large log with brush underneath—it was fairly wide, but didn't ride like the spread I thought it would. One fence to go before the water complex …
Fence 10 was a ramp situated at a right angle to the water approach. So far, Clover was willing, and the course had been riding well, so I hand't anticipated any problems at this fence—but we had a run out to the left. I'm not sure if Clover was caught off guard by the crowd at the water complex, clearly in view just beyond fence 10, but I was. I gathered my wits and circled around immediately for a re-approach, and we got over with no hesitation the second time. I was later told that the competitor on course before me fell at the water jump, had remounted and was circling around to have another go at it even as I was approaching fence 10, so that may have caught Clover's eye, too. Nevertheless, I think it was preventable had I been more on top of things at the ramp.
We had a good approach to the water, then, that long frozen moment when Clover hesitated a beat before dropping into the water. She splashed in, and splashed out, picking up the gallop with me saying “go go go!” I heard cheering behind me, so I must have redeemed myself through the water after letting her run out at the ramp.
We cleared the sawmill (now a coop) with no difficulty, and headed out to the Hort farm (UNH's Horticultural farm, where the latter part of the x-c courses end up). At the top of the hill heading to the u-turn for the next fence, I took Clover down to the trot, down the treeline to the u-turn, where we picked up the canter and headed strongly to Aaron's jump—the saw tooth ramp. The spaces in the jump were filled with mums and large pumpkins. Clover jumped it large, with barely a glance. I broke into a grin—two fences to go, and the hard ones behind us!
My trainer had warned us to not get lazy over the last fences, to ride them, too. Clover and I headed up the field to the shingled coop—actually a wide ramp. That coop used to be part of a poorly measured 2 stride combination, flying rails to the to coop. Some years the distance was 21', others it was 24'. Either way, I've always had difficulty with the distance, chipping one horse in one year, having a run out on another horse the next. But now, the rails are gone, and the coop has been put in their place. All I had to do was stay off Clover's back on the slight ascending approach, and not let her jump too flat over it. We got over it with no problem.
Last fence, 15, was a telephone pole with mums underneath. Up and over, and make a zig-zag turn left, then right, through the finish line. I hit my watch, thanked the finish stewards and headed off the course with a huge grin on my face. We made it! My watch read 26 seconds over time, but according to the timers, I had come in at 5:09. Optimum time had been 5:33. It turns out that Clover was the second fastest horse in the division, after Matti, who had come in at 5 even. Hey, that's a big deal to me, we'd been plagued by time faults on and off all season.
Something must be wrong with my watch. Namely, how I operate it. Hmm.
Michelle and I had a small crowd walking back to the trailers with us. Emily congratulated Clover on her first successful Novice x-c run. Em was really proud of her. That meant a lot to me, as Clover had been her horse first, for a brief time. We had time before stadium to take care of the horses and ourselves, and to walk the stadium course. It turns out we had quite a bit of time, because our division started over an hour late. I wish I had been able to walk the stadium course earlier, because we had to squeeze our walk in between divisions, and were hurried out before we finished our walk. It looked to be a straightforward, wide open course.
Michelle and Matti had a fantastic round—it secured 4th place for them. I finally headed in, and put in a fairly decent round. Clover was jumping well, I was staying off of her back and trying to get her to fences as balanced and as positively as I could manage. My only problem was at the one stride combination. It was on top of a small hill, and I was worried about getting Clover to it with enough energy to get us through. I didn't see the spot, but I got Clover to the oxer, and begged her to bail me out, so to speak, She managed the one stride (I had thought I'd get it in 2, as Clover isn't the typical long-legged TB most combinations are strided for), but I got left behind, sat down on her too soon, and brought a rail down over the vertical with Clover's hind feet, as well as a standard. I have a picture of me over this part of the combination, the look of horror on my face says it all. I fucked it up.
The sad thing is, the photo also shows Clover trying her best to get over it, and it's obvious that if I hadn't got left behind, we would have cleared the fence with no problems.
I was discombobulated, thinking we had brought down the entire vertical, but managed to recover enough to get over the big UNH coop and the rest of the course with no more problems, and not a half-bad ride I might say. My position over fences leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm riding to and in between fences much better. The pictures I have seen so far from UNH show me with flapping elbows, but not jumping as far ahead as I used to.
With only 5 more points for the rail, and no time faults, Clover secured 6th place in her first USEA sanctioned Novice horse trials, on our "home court", no less. It was a great way to end the season, which come to think of it was not half bad, considering we placed in every USEA event we entered, except for Huntington on our first time out.
Ok—so now I have an entire winter to cool my heels and think about what I want to do with Clover—keep eventing at Novice? Retire her and work with the baby horses? Either way, I'll be sure to work on my position on the flat and over fences during the winter.
Sunday came and I was tense and cranky. As soon as I started to pack up for x-c and stadium, my irritability changed to nerves. At least it was a cool and clear day, but breezy. We arrived back at UNH, and Michelle and I took off to buy myself a replacement medical armband (the last one got lost in the shuffle at Kingsbury) and walk the course again. The course looked to be challenging, but fun. Several of the fences and routes had been changed or replaced since the last time I competed at UNH, and I was nervous about the one called Aaron's jump. It was a new max saw tooth ramp, replacing the old palisades complex. My mantra for the morning was “Number 152 clear at fence 13 … number 152 clear at fence 13 … ”
Finally, time to get dressed and get down to x-c warmup. Michelle was the first to go on course. Being in the same division, our start times were pretty close to each other, so my trainer was able to warm us up together. My trainer cautioned me to stay off of Clover's back, and headed to the water complex to cheer us on. Michelle and Matti headed off to the start box, and had a great ride. I was able to catch them coming off the course as I was heading to the start box with Clover. The course rode great, and they went clean.
As usual, I asked the timing steward to give me a count down from 10, so I could start my stopwatch at that time and not have to worry about fumbling with it when we left the start box. He asked if there was anything else I wanted, and I joked that I could use some muscle relaxants. Then, the countdown was on … and the last second seemed frozen for a long time as I faced out of the start box with Clover, looking out to the first fence. “... three… two … one … Go!” and we were off. I really chased Clover to the first fence, for once I was going to establish a forward pace. Of course, some kid on a bike was riding ahead of me on the course, and slipped into a copse of trees just before the jump. Clover's attention turned to him only briefly, then we were up and over Heaven's gate, which is located just inside the tree line coming out of the field. It has a slight uphill approach, and some horses get backed off by the abrupt change from light to dark.
With a good pace established, I was able to breathe and have a little fun. Fence 2 was an orange roll top log stack, but to get to it, you had to make a left turn off of the main track. We got over it well, and like I had planned, I tried to change Clover's lead so we'd get a more balanced approach to the third fence, but Clover spooked at the prelim jump en route to our fence, and I said, “OK Clover, we're going with this lead!”
The Reservoir view is an airy, natural colored fence, up a short but steep hill, and overlooks the reservoir. A lot of green horses get backed off, and some get eliminated at that fence. I was lucky to have been able to school Clover over it back in May. Again I chased her up the hill, sat down for a stride to organize her, and closed my legs to get her over, as she gave a brief look at the jump before clearing it. We tore off down the bridge over the reservoir, at least we did after Clover tried to shoulder her way over to the horse barns.
Fences 4 and 5 were a three stride combination, a hanging log to a green shingled, natural colored barn-coop. I took Clover down to the trot coming into the combination, so we could get the striding in between the fences. Otherwise, coming in at the canter may have caused us to chip in at 2 1/2 strides.
Going around a prelim coop, Clover took a long, sideways look at it before galloping on to the Fort Briggs bank complex, fences 6 and 7. Our obstacle was a flagged ramp up, then a 2 stride to the bank down, which I believe measured at 2'6” or more. There was a flag pole, complete with a US flag snapping in the wind on the far left corner of the complex. Some horses were taking hard looks at the flag, some were just plain reluctant to drop down the bank after the ramp up. Clover went right up the ramp and down the drop, and after getting the reins back (I'd slipped them so Clover could stretch out coming down the drop), I corrected our line to the next jump, a hard left turn after the bank to a tabled stone wall, fence 8.
We flew over that and galloped down the track to the next field. En route, to the right side of the track, an old overturned tree's roots caught Clover's eye, and we did the half pass at the gallop for several strides. Coming out into the field, we made a hard left turn, around some birch trees, and took a straight line to fence 9, a large log with brush underneath—it was fairly wide, but didn't ride like the spread I thought it would. One fence to go before the water complex …
Fence 10 was a ramp situated at a right angle to the water approach. So far, Clover was willing, and the course had been riding well, so I hand't anticipated any problems at this fence—but we had a run out to the left. I'm not sure if Clover was caught off guard by the crowd at the water complex, clearly in view just beyond fence 10, but I was. I gathered my wits and circled around immediately for a re-approach, and we got over with no hesitation the second time. I was later told that the competitor on course before me fell at the water jump, had remounted and was circling around to have another go at it even as I was approaching fence 10, so that may have caught Clover's eye, too. Nevertheless, I think it was preventable had I been more on top of things at the ramp.
We had a good approach to the water, then, that long frozen moment when Clover hesitated a beat before dropping into the water. She splashed in, and splashed out, picking up the gallop with me saying “go go go!” I heard cheering behind me, so I must have redeemed myself through the water after letting her run out at the ramp.
We cleared the sawmill (now a coop) with no difficulty, and headed out to the Hort farm (UNH's Horticultural farm, where the latter part of the x-c courses end up). At the top of the hill heading to the u-turn for the next fence, I took Clover down to the trot, down the treeline to the u-turn, where we picked up the canter and headed strongly to Aaron's jump—the saw tooth ramp. The spaces in the jump were filled with mums and large pumpkins. Clover jumped it large, with barely a glance. I broke into a grin—two fences to go, and the hard ones behind us!
My trainer had warned us to not get lazy over the last fences, to ride them, too. Clover and I headed up the field to the shingled coop—actually a wide ramp. That coop used to be part of a poorly measured 2 stride combination, flying rails to the to coop. Some years the distance was 21', others it was 24'. Either way, I've always had difficulty with the distance, chipping one horse in one year, having a run out on another horse the next. But now, the rails are gone, and the coop has been put in their place. All I had to do was stay off Clover's back on the slight ascending approach, and not let her jump too flat over it. We got over it with no problem.
Last fence, 15, was a telephone pole with mums underneath. Up and over, and make a zig-zag turn left, then right, through the finish line. I hit my watch, thanked the finish stewards and headed off the course with a huge grin on my face. We made it! My watch read 26 seconds over time, but according to the timers, I had come in at 5:09. Optimum time had been 5:33. It turns out that Clover was the second fastest horse in the division, after Matti, who had come in at 5 even. Hey, that's a big deal to me, we'd been plagued by time faults on and off all season.
Something must be wrong with my watch. Namely, how I operate it. Hmm.
Michelle and I had a small crowd walking back to the trailers with us. Emily congratulated Clover on her first successful Novice x-c run. Em was really proud of her. That meant a lot to me, as Clover had been her horse first, for a brief time. We had time before stadium to take care of the horses and ourselves, and to walk the stadium course. It turns out we had quite a bit of time, because our division started over an hour late. I wish I had been able to walk the stadium course earlier, because we had to squeeze our walk in between divisions, and were hurried out before we finished our walk. It looked to be a straightforward, wide open course.
Michelle and Matti had a fantastic round—it secured 4th place for them. I finally headed in, and put in a fairly decent round. Clover was jumping well, I was staying off of her back and trying to get her to fences as balanced and as positively as I could manage. My only problem was at the one stride combination. It was on top of a small hill, and I was worried about getting Clover to it with enough energy to get us through. I didn't see the spot, but I got Clover to the oxer, and begged her to bail me out, so to speak, She managed the one stride (I had thought I'd get it in 2, as Clover isn't the typical long-legged TB most combinations are strided for), but I got left behind, sat down on her too soon, and brought a rail down over the vertical with Clover's hind feet, as well as a standard. I have a picture of me over this part of the combination, the look of horror on my face says it all. I fucked it up.
The sad thing is, the photo also shows Clover trying her best to get over it, and it's obvious that if I hadn't got left behind, we would have cleared the fence with no problems.
I was discombobulated, thinking we had brought down the entire vertical, but managed to recover enough to get over the big UNH coop and the rest of the course with no more problems, and not a half-bad ride I might say. My position over fences leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm riding to and in between fences much better. The pictures I have seen so far from UNH show me with flapping elbows, but not jumping as far ahead as I used to.
With only 5 more points for the rail, and no time faults, Clover secured 6th place in her first USEA sanctioned Novice horse trials, on our "home court", no less. It was a great way to end the season, which come to think of it was not half bad, considering we placed in every USEA event we entered, except for Huntington on our first time out.
Ok—so now I have an entire winter to cool my heels and think about what I want to do with Clover—keep eventing at Novice? Retire her and work with the baby horses? Either way, I'll be sure to work on my position on the flat and over fences during the winter.
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