Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wrapping up the Season

Well, I never managed to get a post up directly after Fairhill International, so I'll go through a recap of stadium and awards. Stadium day began with jog outs....which to eventers means 3am wake ups to go walk and walk and walk and walk, and walk some more, along with removing all poultice, bandages, mud(of which there was still an abundance) and everything else on the horse. After excessive walking and grooming and touching up of the braids put in the night before, I scrambled to get dressed and practically ran up with my white pants tucked into my wellies to stay clean. With friends trailing behind with various grooming supplies, we heard them calling numbers close to mine, and realized my nice boots were still back at the barns! Mark ran back to get them, but upon arrival I was immediately sent down to jog, wellies and all. With pants pulled out over them, I was lucky they didn't get coated in the gray soup. We weren't winning the turnout award today, but Zara jogged well behaved and was accepted immediately.
After walking around the course alone, then with Sally Cousins, we were ready to go prepare. Zara warmed up great with the help again of the wonderful Sally and we headed in the ring, surrounded by people! As we made our way around, I held a little too much to the first fence, pulling a rail. Not the right way to start!! But a good reminder that I needed to ride Zara the way Sally had me warm up. For the remainder, I put my hands forward and kept Zara in front of my leg and she went around just perfect. We added only 4 faults to our dressage score for the weekend to land us in 25th place of 61. We also earned the young adult champion award for the competition as well as for the CII** level overall for the year. Very proud of Zara! Now on to plan our Winter in Aiken!!

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