Poplar Place ran a great show this weekend, the weather was super and everything was organized really well. It felt like a vacation because I sold two of my horses last week so I only had the three.
The Maggot put in one of his better dressage tests, a big improvement over Pine Top but unfortunately the score didn't reflect that. Sometimes the judges don't like my little arab so we were about midpack after the day. His trot work scored quite well but his walk and canter did not. It's a fine line with him in the walk and canter going forward without letting him look lateral, because that is how he likes to go. So going home I'm going to have to work on letting the judges see what I want them to see without crossing that line.
The Advanced cross country was a good track, they asked the right questions, although I would have liked the gallop fences to be a little bigger just so he would have held off them more. I had to waste a lot of time bringing him back just because he wasn't impressed, but I guess that is kind of a good thing. They had the burial mound on course as usual but after about the first seven horses, three had fallen, so they took it off just before I went out. The jump judges ran out and were waving their arms in front of it so I would know not to jump it which nearly got me dumped, don't they k now arabs have never seen humans before?! He also nearly took out my knee cap on the fence after the finish because he was spooking at a dressage letter. Clearly after jumping around an advanced that is the scariest thing he has ever seen, riggggghhhtttt, I think he's fit enough if he has enough energy to worry about that.
Show jumping was proof that you can't always count on the scoreboard to know if a round was good or not. He jumped clean but he was not very rideable, nothing disastrous but not much rhythm too it. The unfortunate thing with losing your young rider status is you don't get to be excited just for jumping clean. I'm working on a fake ID that says I'm 18, it's taking some work to find someone to make it, apparently there isn't a high demand for underage IDs. Fortunately they are having an unrecognized three phase show at the Florida Horse Park this weekend so he is going to a few of the lower show jumping classes for a little refresher course.
We are off to The Fork next, one of my favorite events. If that goes super well we will be headed to "the three day that shall not be named". My life has turned into a Harry Potter Movie for the poor people around me, talking about Rolex is like talking about Lord Voldemort, under absolutely no circumstances are you allowed to say the word Rolex out loud. Luckily Hannah has been through it all before so she is handling all the details and all I have to do is keep my head out of my butt and ride my horse well.
So until after The Fork, everyone enjoy the nicer weather and I'll talk to ya'll soon.
Lauren, You continue to amaze me in writing such funny and entertaining articles, I think you are a great rider, one of the best, but you could also have a future as a writer!!! Thank you for making my day. I am looking forward to seeing you ride at the "three day event that shall not be named"!!!!