Kelly Pugh Eventing: 09/21/11

I feel like it has been ages since I have written, it has been ridiculously busy here and to be honest I am not sure where the months have gone!
I am not sure where to begin Chloe and I have competed at a few advanced events since I have last posted, done a mini grand prix and completed our first three star. Her dressage has consistently improved and I can confidently say I have an advanced horse.
Dating back to the mini prix, it was a spur of the moment decision for us. It was a night competition and it was the biggest course that Chloe or I have ever jumped. Warm up proved to be the hardest for us. Chloe over jumped everything because jumping in the dark obviously means scary things hide under the jumps. Also jumper warm ups is very different from eventing warm ups. You have to have a trainer in the ring and you have to "claim" a jump. On numerous times I jumped a "claimed" jump and this led to a lot of tension. Whoops. I went into the ring after nearly being kicked out of warm up and to say I was nervous was an understatement. Chloe jumped phenomenally and I was pleased just to say we completed it. I had an enormous amount of support from all my friends here in Va and the overall experience was fantastic. Will I ever do it again? I think I might stick to eventing!
Chloe and I also competed at the Millbrook horse trials in the advanced division. Her dressage was in the thirties and a whole ten points better then our last advanced test. She rocked around the cross country and only added some time penalties to her dressage score. She felt confident and really eager to do her job. I did take some long routes on cross country to insure her getting qualified for the three star.
Next we traveled to Michigan to compete at the wonderful Richland Horse Park. It was a long trek there, 12 hours and I was greeted with thunder storms. It was worth it though! I got to see my mom who was there training Shannon Lilley who was there competing in the Pan Am division . It was so awesome to be back at a show with the both of them, I forgot just how much I missed it! Chloe was super there scoring in the thirties again in the dressage! The cross country was one of my favorites so far this year. Ian Stark designed it and it was my kind of course. Big and gallopy and the technical stuff all asked you to be on a forward step. Chloe tackled the course like a pro and really did not look twice at anything. It asked a lot of questions and she answered them all. I walked away from that feeling so proud of her. This time we took all the straight roots and nothing proved to be too much for her. Show jumping was next and we had an unfortunate rail that obviously I take all the blame for. I remember after a training session with the Captain he said to me that if this horse ever has a rail we know who's fault it will be. It is true. She trys so incredibly hard and I just got her in a bit wrong. Regardless it was a tough show jumping and I was pleased to say that we walked away finishing in the top ten in a tough division with some of the US's best riders. Once again Chloe proved she could play with the big boys!
Our most recent event has proven to be the most exciting for me. Chloe and I went to Plantation Field Horse Trials where we ran our first CCI three star. Allison sadly could not make this event nor could my mom..so it was all me! Unfortunately this last weekend has been the coldest yet and her dressage test was affected by it. Her score unfortunately did not reflect how good she has been, regardless it was qualifying and although I was bummed I knew it would not be a dressage competition.
I walked the course with Phillip Dutton and he really gets me into a forward thinking mind set and thats just what I needed for this course. It asked a lot of questions all the way to the end. It also was the most terrain we have run on and one of the bigger courses. There had been a lot of falls through out the day and unfortunately I had witnessed half of them. For some reason the morning group was not having a good go of it. I had a good friend of mine Jennie Brannigan come to my warm up to give me that "go and get them" speech and thats just what we did. Chloe did not think twice about anything and really made people take a notice. She was bold, jumped well until the end, and went straight everywhere. Words cant describe how high on life I was. She jogged well the next morning and show jumped double clean to prove that she is the real deal. I walked back from show jumping near tears I was so proud of her. This horse that I started as a green six year old is tackling three stars. It was definitely worth all the hard work and it just makes me that much more eager to work harder to get her to the four star level, because I can only imagine how that would feel. We are now qualified for Fair Hill CCI three star and I am so excited for it especially because my dad will be making the trek out here for it!
Overall it has been a successful few months and Chloe has improved by leaps and bounds!
On a non competition note, I am adjusting to having seasons. Fall has arrived and rain is common. Buckleigh hates his rain coat and I am scared to clip my horse because I think she will buck me off. These past few months reminded me how much I love to compete. Of course when we compete we are competitive and want to do well but I know for me its for the horse, improving the horse, the sense of accomplishment and reaching goals that months ago seemed impossible. Its such an awesome feeling.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who supports Chloe and I. The amount of texts and facebook messages I get is really pretty awesome and it just goes to show how fantastic the horse show family is. After I thanked Jennie this weekend for her moral support she replied with "Anytime, we are west coast family." It is so true.

Also, Save the best for last....(drum roll...)
A HUGE congrats to Shannon Lilley and her/my coach Dayna Lynd Pugh for making the Pan AM team. She will be going to Mexico to represent the US in a team competition. A huge accomplishment! Congrats we are all rooting for you!!