Waredaca was....

Interesting.
Packer, Fiesta, and Duncan were all awesome in the dressage.
I was so proud of all three horses!

Then things got a little hectic.

Alexis's boot broke, ending with it being taped with zebra print duct tape.

Poor Alex was second to go in show jumping and the woman before him had a bad fall. He did a great job shaking it off and rode a great solid round with a few innocent green moments.
Alex had a great go xc, respected the terrain and ended third!

Fence three was the bogie fence of the day. The horses were so busy looking at the judges hut, they were startled when all of the sudden there was a little black plank in front of them.
A horrid, evil, little black plank.

Packer conquered it on the first attempt but jumped so damn big that he pushed Alexis up out of the saddle into his neck. She almost made it, trying to regain control for a full minute until finally she had to jump off. I wish I had it on tape because after the initial pissed offniss wears off, it was funny as all get out.

Fiesta was a blaze of confidence going into the show jump ring. It didn't feel like the footing  in warm up worried her at all (it was awful). She came around to  fence three and the poor girl felt shocked. I didn't really react, figured now she knew it was there put my leg on hard but now she was worried. I had to ride quite aggressively which doesn't always make Fiesta feel good.
She did put her big girl pants on though and jumped well for me through the rest of the show jumping...........

We left the box well cross country. That has been her claustrophobic panic inducer at the last two events.
She jumped the first fence well and then I lost her.
This mare is so quirky. She gets worried about the things around the jumps, not the jumps themselves. If I can get her locked on the jump, we are golden. But man running up that hill and hitting the crest was not a good moment for that little momma.

Now to process. The most important thing to me is that the horses I ride are happy. Jumping makes Fiesta happy. Terrain, going through gates, tree lines....not so much.  I will spend time marinating and then Melissa and I can plan. Perhaps we can change her training process? Maybe do hunter paces? Try her as a hunter, either show or fox.....Maybe it's irrelevant and she just had a bad day.

I have those sometimes.

I guess the point is, there is no point.

I still had a great day. Fiestas owner Melissa is awesome. She has become a good friend. Alexis and Alex (and their horses) made me proud.
Alexis made me proud with her attitude. It's alot harder to be mature when things don't go perfect, and then to come back swinging.
And lets face it, with horses things aren't always perfect.
No matter how hard we prep, sometimes moments just happen.
Whats the saying?
Life is 10% circumstance and 90% what you make of it?
Something like that.

I want to learn, I want to be a good person surrounded by great friends, and I want to be an AMAZING horse person. Today I did, was, and got one step closer.

Now I'm going to eat a ridiculous amount of chinese food and snuggle with Maggie and Dave.

Mary Macklin