So, May....
We went to Winona HT in May. The weather was looking great all the way up to the afternoon we left for the event, then crappy weather rolled in and it was a soggy mess all weekend. There was enough of a break in the rain to get a quick schooling in when we got to the grounds and Otter was pretty good, if extremely sensitive to aids. No taking off during canter departures this time - yay! On Saturday we did dressage and stadium.
Dressage went ok. I really wasn't impressed by it, and thought I would have a higher score than I did at Loch Moy, but my barn-mate who was watching thought that the test looked good. Guess I was being overly critical of us, because we got a 34.2.
Stadium was a nightmare - they had last minute scheduling changes which pushed back ride times and then stadium got backed up, except nobody knew about it till they got down to stadium warm-up, so there were about 50 riders in there. They technically had two warm-ups - one over in the middle of the cross country field where you were suppose to start, and one right by the stadium ring where you were suppose to do your final warm -up. Only problem was that nobody knew about the first warm-up area. So everyone was tearing up the grass footing by the final jump, and by the time that I got to it, it was a mess. So we jumped the warm up jump, then I half-halted and attempted to make the sharp turn (it was either that or run into the pond) and next thing I know, both Otter and I were on the ground. The footing was so torn up that he wasn't able to keep his feet underneath of him. I believe we were the only ones to actually fall, but there were several others that were pretty close to it.
I got back on and trotted him around to make sure he was okay (he was). I was pretty sure that the whole incident would have rattled him some - he is pretty good about taking care of his riders and keeping them on his back - to date, I have not fallen from him other than this time. I had them lower the jump down to a cross rail and jumped it - halting straight afterwards. He was definitively a little wiggy about it. I repeated this a couple more times, then it was my turn to head into the ring. It was probably my worst stadium round to date. He was deer leaping everything. Best thing I can say about it was that we make it through the round only pulling one rail.
The best of the worst stadium photos. He's tight, I'm tight and holding him back - it's a miracle we made it through.
Sunday morning, we jogged out and lunged Otter to make sure he was still feeling okay after the fall - He looked great, thankfully. XC was on Sunday, and after walking the course, I decided that I was going to be prepared for the soggy/potentially torn up footing this time and I put studs in. Apparently Otter really likes the traction they give him, because in warm-up he was jumping like he had wings. Completely different horse than I had in stadium. On course he was great. We ended up placing 7th at our first recognized HT.
At the end of May, we went to Waradaca HT, and I was pretty sure that I had gotten things figured out so that we would have a chance of placing really well. Boy was I wrong!
At Waradaca, we did all three phases in one day. I got him ready for dressage and we started warming up. If I recall correctly, he was ok in warm-up - not great, but not crazy. When we walked over to head to the competition rings, something set him off - not sure if it was the bushes, or another horse or what. Suddenly he was jumping through his skin and spooking at everything. He was horrible in our test - our trot circles were more like canter circles and we were just barely keeping it together. Halfway through our test, I just started grinning, because what else can you do in that situation other than smile and ride? We got a 53.2
He was so wound up in dressage, I was seriously considering scratching because I wasn't sure if he had enough brains left in his head to make it through stadium and XC. My trainer convinced me to at least warm up for stadium and if I still felt like it wasn't a good idea, I could scratch then. Well, all the crazy we had in dressage turned into just plain forward for jumping. He was being bold, but was listening. Unfortunately he got a bit distracted and looky in stadium and we had 2 rails.
So off we went to XC. Warming up he was fantastic - locking on to the jump and just taking me there. We even jumped the novice rolltop warm up fence (because I didn't realize how big it was till we were in the air, and it was taking a lot longer than normal). I decided not to push my luck and head out after than jump. On course, he looked at/chipped in to the first couple of jumps while we got our rhythm figured out. I was so proud of him on course, he may have taken the short distance a couple of times, but he never thought about stopping at all (coming from my last horse who would always throw stops at you, I am so grateful for how honest Otter is on XC) No pictures, but I did get the video of our trip.
Our abysmal dressage score put us out of the ribbons, but I left the show feeling extremely proud of how we handled the XC course.
I had originally planned to move up to Novice after Waradaca, but after the show, I decided to stay at Beginner Novice for the rest of the season so that we could get a show where we had 3 good phases, instead of 1 or 2.
After some reflection after the show, I also decided to change the bit I was using for stadium. I had been riding both SJ and XC in the 3 ring bubble bit because he needed the leverage help at times to balance, but I felt like it was becoming too strong of a bit for him in the ring and wasn't letting me push him towards a jump if I needed to( like the rails we got at Waradaca), so I switched Otter to a full cheek Dr. Bristol, which seems to be working very well.
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