Revi says, "Is that all?"

So this last weekend we ran Preliminary at Southern Pines I. Last year, the xc courses there were pretty soft.... Revi ran her 2nd Training there and it was a total yawn. Well, they beefed it up this year!! There was a bank/bounce/skinny rolltop, huge hanging log, skinny/big drop/bending skinny combo, average coffin, average Prelim water, a good sized corner and a big trakehner.

First though we had to survive dressage. Revi warmed up decently but was a little fussy in the bridle during her test; however, she scored a 37 and ended up about midpack. I was not thrilled, she could do better, but she continues to improve so that's fine....

Warm-up for xc was uneventful, and we started out at a good clip over the first few fences but once we got to five (the bank with the bounce to the skinny) I slowed up a bit because I wanted to be prepared in case she had any hesitation at the more technical stuff (or that huge log that was next!) Revi had it handled, though! She sailed handily over the huge log and then we galloped down toward the skinny/drop/skinny. I slowed WAY down for that, which was probably a wasted effort.... she was all over it! The next few fences were simple, although the turn to the coffin was a yucky s-line, really blew rhythm to heck. Then a skinny, a log in the small water, and then I totally missed my path to the next fence (another weird course deviation) and had to loop around a couple extra plots of trees to get there, wasting some time. Water was uneventful--boathouse, drop in on an angle, out over a boat--then into the infield for the Big White Table (yawn, says Revi) and a good-sized corner ("Wait!" sez I.... "Fifth board from the edge toward the 2nd post over from the light colored one on the steeplechase rail! Gotta be accurate!" Sez Revi in response: "Hang your line and your spot, I see a JUMP JUMP JUMP YEEEHAAAAAHHHH!!!") Corner, check. Then there was... something, possibly a table?.... and a big trakehner (WHEEEE!!) and a house and done, much to Revi's disappointment.... So, clean jumping, with some time because I didn't expect her to make such light work out of the course on her 2nd "real" Prelim and rode conservatively. Considering she made a distinct effort to drag me to each and every jump, it was unnecessary and next time I'll put the hammer down and ride for time, too.

Meanwhile Melanie and Drayco had an excellent test--a 33 on their 2nd Training, for sixth place out of 33--but had miscues at two simple fences on xc. The first, coming up a hill, Mel just couldn't see the jump over the hill and was off her line enough to confuse Dray... the second was a faux corner next to the Prelim corner, and it looked like he got distracted by the decorations and wasn't paying attention until too late. He went through a similar phase when he started out at Novice, and I think he will get over it pretty soon and get a little more focused.

Sunday the hotel didn't provide the promised wake-up call, so I literally trotted around the warmup three times, jumped the cross-rail, heard them calling me, jumped the oxer, and went in the ring! Revi jumped GREAT--listened well, tapped a couple of jumps but left all the rails up! Due to time faults on xc, we ended up waaaaay down the results, but I was pretty excited that she handled everything so well. All we need to do is go a bit faster.... I think she'll be happy to do that!

Drayco turned in his usual flawless showjumping round. Once he gets back in the groove on cross-country, he will be really, really hard to beat!

Next stop with these two is the FENCE Horse Trials in Tryon, first weekend in April, then Longleaf a few weeks later.

Not this weekend but the next is the TTC Schooling HT. Jones is going for his first horse trial, as is the training pony, Huggy, and Madison with her new horse Lee! Carrie and Pickles are hopefully going to get an entry in for Novice so they can join us. There are so many quality schooling events in our area that it is nice in terms of stress AND budget.... you can really stick with them until you're about ready to go Training, like I did with Revi. Unless you're doing USEA points/awards, of course! I will probably hit one or two recognized events with Jones, just to have him "seen", but mostly we'll be doing schooling events for a little experience while he finishes growing up.... he IS only four!