Spectating at the Fork

I ended up sleeping in this morning so I missed Ashley's cross country run at the Fork. She was in the CIC 2* division. When I got to the Fork, I learned from Ashley that she had a fall! But even more frustrating than a fall, her fall was unrelated to a fence. Her ride was at 9:15 am and believe it or not there was a frost advisory in North Carolina last night! The ground was dewy and slick. Despite having 3/4" studs in, May landed from a table and as she cantered away around a turn, lost her traction. Her whole hind end slipped out from under her and she just barely kept on her feet. Ashley unfortunately came off.

I saw the video and there was really no way of staying on. May was pretty much sitting on the ground for a split second; her back completely vertical. It happened so fast. It was after Fence 8 so Ashley was only a third of the way around the course; and up until that point they were having a great ride. UGH. Ashley wasn't the only one that slipped and fell today; there was a rider in the 3* division that also slipped between jumps and resulted in a rider fall. Ashley plans to move up to Advanced but wants to get another good intermediate run under her belt since May was a little sticky at Southern Pines.

The CIC 3* division had a TON of problems. There were half a dozen falls and a surprising amount of jumping penalties. The Sunken Road appeared to cause the bulk of the issues. It consisted of a vertical, one stride to a down bank, one stride to an up bank, with bounce over a skinny at the top. In the advanced division, we witnessed a scary moment when Jan Byyny's horse tried to bounce a big, airy oxer and landed straddling the jump. He managed to extricate himself, though he did break the jump in the process. The oxer was off of a short turn, following by a corner to a skinny (A/B/C combination). Ashley explained that Jan came into the jump with the wrong canter; she was holding and shortening the horse's stride (preparing for the corner after the oxer) and it cause the horse to misread the question. She said that big, airy oxers have to be jumped out of a forward stride - to avoid just that situation.

Sally rode Sue and they looked awesome on cross country! They ate up the advanced course. They are sitting in 7th in their division I think. Sue is entered at Rolex - very exciting! Last year, Sally had to pull out of Rolex because Sue came up lame the week of. I hope this year is their year.

The Fork is a gorgeous facility. Hopefully some day I'll be back to compete there myself!

Next weekend Mike and I are headed to Baltimore for his job interviews. We'll also be do a little house shopping - just in case he gets an offer! Fingers crossed. I would love to be based in Maryland: I'd have the opportunity to train with Sally and be closer to my friends and family.

Though I will miss Ashley very much, she is on the verge of big changes herself. Rebecca Howard, whom she currently trains with, is moving to England and Ashley's relationship recently ended. So the 2 big reasons Ashley was in Charlotte to begin with are no longer relevant. I personally hope she moves to Virginia area (even better would be Maryland - hah!), but she'll need to go where the best opportunities are and that still has yet to be revealed. But there is still plenty of fun to be had before any of these big changes actually happen!