Once Dressage wrapped up, we had about an hour to get back to our stalls, change our tack, and get into the ring for show jumping. While this made for a pretty quick turnaround time, I actually really liked it for two reasons.
- I didn’t really have to warm up May AGAIN on the flat. A quick w/t/c in each direction.
- I didn’t really have time to work myself up into a tizzy about show jumping.
The course was fairly straight forward. Diagonal, outside, diagonal, outside, end jump, bending line. I had walked it and had a plan, but nerves were still flitting around as I attempted to get on my horse. One downside to going one phase right after the other: May did not think she needed to let me get on a second time.
Warm up went really well for us. It was definitely the busiest warmup I have ever been in with May. Probably 10 horses warming up for BN on our side of the arena. Then, the other side of the arena had the Novice horses warming up. There wasn’t any kind of divider in the middle… so it was a bit chaotic. Definitely happy I wasn’t on a green horse. Our first warm up jump she wasn’t quuuuuiiiiite in front of my leg, so things just rode a touch funky. After that though, I rode her more confidently out of the corners and had better jumps. Moral of the story, ride more confidently out of corners.
I went in the ring, but the rider before me had some trouble. Soooo we had to wait around a bit before they rang the buzzer. I circled in the middle of the arena a couple of times because I wanted to give myself PLENTY of time to get her up and in front of my leg before the first jump, a wide oxer offset from the rail.
I’m still waiting on the professional video, but here is the video that the best horse show husband took for me.
Jump 1 rode GREAT. Jump 2 was fine. Then to jump 3, I had it in my head to make the inside turn, but I hadn’t made a plan if she landed on the wrong lead. Instead of just kicking on, I kind of waffled in the corner for a minute before going “oh well, I guess I will just ride what I have.” That… resulted in a bad distance and a rail.
THEN AGAIN, I had the plan to do 5 strides, so I kicked on… but got 6.5 strides. Ugh good mare for leaving that one up. I took the end of the ring to regroup and fix my lead before the combination. Now, if you remember my video from three years ago with my FIRST (and last) BN recognized horse trial, we had a disaster through the two stride. At that time, I had just kind of hunched forward and prayed and… well that is not effective riding.
This time, I moved May forward out of the corner. On the last stride before takeoff, she sucked back behind my leg, BUT THIS TIME I stayed upright and added MORE leg. She jumped the oxer AMAZING, and I kicked forward for another GREAT jump on the out.
I rode her really carefully to the end jump. I wanted to make sure her balance was up so she didn’t take that one.
I thought my turn to the last oxer was great, but May jumped it a little funky. I am not sure if she saw a shadow or what… But note to self, right leg is always the answer.
The right drift off that oxer put us a bit short on our last time, but it had a nice solid panel, so it rode fine. So we were within the time with only one rail down!
Overall, I was super happy with our show jumping. Was it the BEST round I have ever had? Nope. But I had a plan, and I mostly executed on it. When in doubt, I rode my horse forward and allowed her to do her job vs. hanging on her face and riding backwards. The polish will come with more rounds in the ring.
After Show Jumping, we moved into 10th, and I had high hopes for a ribbon (since they gave ribbons through 10th)!
LOVED the two stride — you rode that SO, SO well!!
Thank you! She was SO good through it, but I definitely had to be DETERMINED and in balance. hahaha
My favorite thing about this post is how you kept engaged during the round and fixed any mistakes you made. I’m always impressed by riders who stay mentally engaged during a course
Thanks! I was proud of picking myself up after the not-so-great diagonal line and then riding confidently into the two stride. I knew May had lost a bit of confidence, so I knew I needed to ride strong!
looks like a great ride and a great time!!! May is so proud of herself it cracks me up!!! Course the show jumping round needed more tutus 🙂 HA…..
And thinking while riding? Wow. Wish I could do that hahahaha
Erin got us special permission to wear our tutus for SJ and we TOTALLY forgot. Oh well, I kind of adore the more “professional” pictures hahaha
You knocked that two-stride out of the park! Way to go! It sucks about the rail, but I agree with you that you rode your plan, you were an active, thinking rider, and it definitely showed!! Can’t wait to hear about tutu-cross-country!
The rail was definitely a bummer. But it was 100% my fault for losing my concentration around that corner. You can’t say May didnt try to go clear! <3
I wanna know how it ended!!!!
Tomorrow I promise!
She’s the absolute cutest and wants to come live with me and wear glitter and bows BYE
Also, like, good job and stuff.
JK, you rode really well and managed to fix things on course which is damn hard when you’re just trying to remember to breathe and where to go next.
Hahahah she would love to take her aunt Holly for a gallop around some XC jumps 😉
Looking good!
Thank you!
eeee you guys look fantastic, congrats on a solid round!!! one of these days i’d love to do a show where i could where a jacket in my stadium round instead of my crash vest. sigh. maybe one day LOL
Not going to lie, I LOVE the look of a jacket in SJ hahaha. Like I am that person that would wear them when they are waived just for the pictures. 😉
You had some really awesome pictures in there. I feel like my goal, if I ever get around to showing, would be just following my plan and actually riding instead of freezing. Good job!
For sure! Like I’m not a pro, I’m not going to hit every fence at a perfect distance and rhythm. Buuuut having a plan and riding to it? That I can mostly do
Great round! I LOVED your ride through the two and she was right there for you!
<3 Thank you! She really trusted me to that two stride, so I was super proud of her.
Ribbons to 10th! I love when they do ribbons past 6 or 8! 10th and 9th are such pretty colors (especially compared to 6-8th). Great effective show jumping round and you are absolutely right, with more mileage you and May will be able to smooth things out more, bu you guys are definitely working like a great team.
yes! It’s so nice when they ribbon to 10th, especially when they are all open divisions. Gotta leave some satin for us amateurs! haha