Southern Pines II

Before I start in on the events of the weekend I would like to send out my condolences to Michael and Arden who both lost a horse this weekend. I cannot even imagine what they are going through and I hope they know they have the support of the whole eventing community behind them. Warm thoughts go out to both riders and all connected with their horses.

Southern Pines took place this weekend and let me start out by saying what a fabulous show it is. I had heard it was nice but they really exceeded all my expectations. We got there Thursday and Chloe was fantastic to ride! Friday rolled around and so did the bad weather. It was cold and overcast and that did not suit Chloe and her newly clipped coat very well. I did not ride dressage until three so I took advantage of all that time and gave her a nice long pre-ride. She was really misbehaving but I had hoped she got it out of her system. Three rolled around and her warm up was fantastic. Allison was there to warm me up and she seemed equally as pleased. Unfortunately once we went around the ring she completely lost her cool. It was unfortunate but I was proud of how I rode her and we also got two clean lead changes which is exciting since we have been working so hard on those! Got to find the positive right? I think I see some dressage shows in our future.
After dressage Allison and I walked the cross country course and it was definitely an eye opener. It asked every question possible and it asked them all the way up to the second to last fence. It was technical but all of it called for an aggressive forward ride. I felt prepared for it and the more I walked the better I felt. I was the very last rider of the day which I personally do not like. It gives me all day to get nervous and it gives me all day to sit in the barns and listen to the problems people were having. The course was riding tough and maybe riding last served me better, knowing the problems people were having made me ride that much tougher. By the time I went it was raining pretty steadily which made the footing that much better. Chloe went out of the box and I quickly realized that I was going to have to throw the kitchen sink at her to get around this course. She was jumping huge and standing off the jumps a bit more then I would like. I was thankful this course called for a forward ride because thats exactly what she needed. The first real question was a narrow plank like fence and two forward strides to a rather angled corner. I worry about having technical questions early because she over jumps so much at the beginning. This makes a lot of the striding short for her and I have to adjust accordingly and I have to do it quickly. Thankfully she is (usually) pretty adjustable.
After that question we had our first real gallop stretch and I let her pick her pace. Mark had told me making time should be the last thing on my mind and so it was. The course had a lot of big gallop fences and I worked hard on not interrupting her stride to much. Our next big question was the first water. It was a house seven strides to a rather large bounce in to an up bank and two strides to a narrow corner. Again it called for a forward aggressive ride. I had heard there had been some problems here and at Pine Top Chloe had that unfortunate stop at the water so I came in and rode tough; pony club kicks, growling you name it I did it. She jumped in huge and I made a quick decision to option out. She did the option fine which was an up bank and wrap around to another corner. After our next big question was the coffin which was a coop on an angle going down hill to a ditch one stride out over a narrow coop. We had a gallop stretch before that so getting her back going down hill and turning to the angle was a little more difficult then I had anticipated. None the less she did it fine. We had some more turning questions with some angled brushes then was our sunken road which was a large log bounce down a bank one stride up a large bank to a large log. I was worried about her launching off the bank and making that one stride even shorter. It was a huge effort out so I wanted to help her out as much as possible. I jumped in and I under rode the down bank hoping she would just drop down which she did but then I don't think I rode out hard enough. She did it fine but it was definitely a huge effort. We then had our second water which rode great. After that our last and final question came at our second to last jump it was a large up bank bounce to a big narrow house. Talk about huge effort on our now tired horses. Allison had reported to me that there had been some problems there and I had to be extremely aggressive. She did it beautifully. We came through the finish flags and it was such a proud moment for me. Chloe had jumped around a a really tough course and she did it well. Sure she was a little green but that is to be expected. This is only our second run this season and our first advanced this season. She grew up a lot out there and really tried for me. Allison also had a good day having a clean go in the advanced and intermediate.
Show jumping was the next day. I usually look forward to it but after Pine Top I found myself rather nervous. I watched the intermediate go and rails were falling left and right. The course called for rails having a lot of turns to big verticals and square oxers. I did not jump a whole lot in warm up. Chloe was feeling fresh and jumping well. I went in the ring and she was fantastic. Trying really hard for me and making all the stridings easily. We had one unfortunate rub to one of the square oxers out of the corners. I think I overrode it causing her to jump a bit flat. Other then that I was extremely pleased. Driving home that night all I could think about was how lucky I am to have this horse. Southern Pines was overall a very successful trip. Allison came home with a good amount of ribbons and I came home with a sound, happy advanced horse.

On another note Chloe and I got asked to ride in the training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday of this week with show jumper Katie Prudent. I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to do this! I will definitely write about how that went. If you are in the Aiken area the lessons will be taking place at Plantation Farm.

Lastly, Donnie Steele from SmartPak has been so kind to put together a video from the training sessions so here it is!

http://vimeo.com/21299452 - Just copy and paste it into your internet search bar. It has some cross country footage and dressage footage.

I will post pictures from the weekend as soon as they are online!

Xoxo

Kelly, Chloe and Buckleigh