Another Horse Trials Success!

Chehalis Valley Pony Club 1 day Horse Trials at Caber Farm

Sunday we set out with a trailer full of horses to Caber Farm for a one day Horse Trials Benefit Show for Chehalis Valley Pony Club. Deuce was happy to hop on the big four horse trailer with his pal Special right next to him. The other 3 riders of the day were all competing in the Beginner novice division.  I had signed up for Hopeful/Nervous Novice (2’ jumps). (Although at this point, I think it is more me than him with height issues…). I am still learning to trust him.

We arrived, picked up our numbers and went to walk our cross country course. The Nervous Novice course was looking just right for us. There were miniature versions of a table, roll top, coops, and bench along with nice inviting logs.  I was quite happy with our course. I took a look at a few of the BN jumps… and wholly cow. There was a 2’7” roll top that had brush sticking out on top of that to make it look even bigger… I am glad I did not sign up for BN this time around. That was an ominous looking jump for me!

The other 3 all got saddled up and headed over to dressage for warm up and poor Deuce had to stand at the trailer all by himself. He had a big bag of hay that he could munch on but he spent most of his time looking for and calling to his girlfriend. I went over to the warm up area to snap some pictures and could still hear Deuce calling every so often, but he did stay tied to the trailer, so I decided he’d just have to get over it.

About the time it was our turn to get ready for our dressage; the other 3 were off to their stadium course. So again, Deuce was left alone. But he had to go to work. We had a good hour to warm up (or in our case, cool down) before our dressage ride and we used all of it. I did lots of walk trot transitions to get his attention and worked in some leg yields and tempo changes and halt walk transitions too. Every time he caught a glimpse of a bay horse with white on the face, he’d twist his ear to get a closer look to see if it was Spesh… Silly boy!

By the time it was time for our dressage test, I was feeling a bit better about our work and his frame of mind, but I had to work every step of the way to keep his attention. Since my goal was to have a more relaxed ride for myself (to be softer in my arms, shoulders and seat), it was doubly tough for me to hold his attention and stay soft too.

The test actually went pretty well. He was prompt with response to my cues and I seemed to stay more relaxed and composed. But the last part of the test down the center line and halt at G was uhh.. interesting. He wiggled back and forth down the line and while the halt at G was prompt, I did not keep my legs even so he wiggled left with his hind end and then right as I saluted he threw his head sideways to check out the bay horse walking through the woods. Ugh. Nice Deuce!

After a short change of tack, we were off again to our stadium warm up. There was enough activity up near the stadium course (and we were out of ear shot of Special) that he did not worry too much about his girlfriend not being up there. We went over the warm up cross rail and little oxer a few times and he was feeling pretty nice, I was relaxed and he was staying straight. So we got on the list to go in for stadium and soon it was our turn. The arena is nice and big with some gentle turns and big bendy lines. We made our circle, waited for the whistle and ten approached our first fence at a canter. We cleared it with no trouble and headed to our second going away. For some reason the little vertical did not look right to him and I was taking it for granted so he started to pop his shoulder so I legged legged on the left and sat up and he slowed to almost a walk and then hopped over it. Not pretty, but cleared it… So then I got after him and we trotted around the next two then cantered on to complete the rest of the course with no trouble. Clean round and not timed… so far so good.

We went back to the trailer for another tack change and then went over to cross country warm up. Again he was feeling pretty darn good and looking forward to jumping things and not even thinking about his big bay mare heart throb so we went right to work. And then it was time to head over to the start box and then the countdown was on and then 3..2..1.. have a good ride! Off we went! Deuce cantered out of the box locked onto the nice inviting log in front of us. We hopped over it and carried on to the next little coop with ease, then on to next coop around and around the corner of the bank complex over the log long fun canter to the roll top… he was feeling soo good!; very forward and focused and looking for the next jump.  It was on to the mini step, we had a nice bold straight approach up and over we sailed then up the mound. Deuce loves running up hills I think he likes the view when he gets to the top… going back to his liking to see the surroundings thing of his. But this time he did not pause at the top, he seemed to know we were on the clock and wanted to keep going. He went right down the hill on the other side (though he was quite careful and sure footed about coming down the steep hill!) Then it was on  to another coop and around into the water; his favorite! Splash Splash Splash! Then with a great cantering pace, we went around to another coop and around to the coop/mini table option which were side by side. I aimed him for the mini table (a slightly larger jump) but I did not keep my leg on so he sorta fizzled out, lost momentum and dove left but the little coop was right next to it so he ended popping over the middle (which was still a jump) and then we had a non glorious trotting to the finish line as I recovered from the nearly stop and pop over the last fence.

Not the greatest ending to a fun ride, but we went clear and overall, he was a very good boy. I obviously still have some things to work on with my riding….

In the end we had the second best dressage score in our division along with a clean stadium round and a clean cross country ride so we ended up in 2^nd place. Way to go Deuce!

Second best dressage test and clean stadium and cross country put us in 2^nd – woo hoo!

Back at home and showing off our second place ribbon!!!