Horse Park of New Jersey Horse Trials
The Horse Park of New Jersey is such a nice venue - I'm so glad we were able to compete there today! It's a 2.5 hour drive from Baltimore, but it was worth it. The facility is super nice and professional but is still able to maintain a low-key atmosphere. I'm a big fan of the cross country course there too. It's a nice galloping course but has more terrain questions than say Fair Hill. It was a great course for Leo.
Dressage
What can I say? Our goal of achieving scores in the 30s is still not within reach. We are firmly planted in the mid-40s still. Leo continues to be tense and resistant even though I thought his flatwork has been much improved at home. I knew when I bought Leo he would be tough on the flat - I really bought him for his jump not his dressage trainability so I have to keep our scores in perspective.
Show Jumping
Sally warmed me up again and watched my round. This is so helpful, because she is able to see our progression from one event to the next and give me insight into what I need to work on. During warm up, Leo was quite strong to the fences so we worked on getting me to re-balance him more quickly on landing. At one point in the warm-up, I was cantering, changed directions and Leo did the most beautiful, controlled flying change. Sally always says quality of the canter will determine the success of the change. I only mention this because it was a lovely, stand-out moment in my mind!
Once in the ring, Leo went from super forward to backed off and I didn't adjust my ride quickly enough. For some reason the width of the oxers on course looked really big to me and I kept missing my distance to the fences. I wasn't riding with enough canter given that Leo was backed off. We had 2 rails down and did 2-strides in the 24 ft one stride in-and-out. Doh. That has to be the biggest stadium faux pas!!! So embarrassing!
Sally said he was much improved from Fair Hill and the two rails I had were because I missed the distance. She was happy with the new bit and how Leo responded to me in the ring (allowing me to bring his canter back). I can't be too hard on us for what I consider a sloppy round though since we've only jumped 5 times since Fair Hill 6 weeks ago and the fact that Leo has been out of so much work. Given that, the results were actually quite good!
Cross Country
The cross country course had some challenging components. You can check out the Training course at MyCourseWalk.com. I walked the course with Jen and then, as usual, discussed my questions with Sally. The 2 elements that really stood out in my mind were (1) fences 9, 10 and 11; and (2) the first water at 13 and 14.
Fence 9 was a fence into the woods with a downhill landing, followed by an angled feeder at the bottom of the hill which was positioned not just on an angle, but partially behind a bush, making the question ultimately an angled, skinny fence. From there, you gallop up a steeper hill to anther skinny jumped straight on. Sally said to find a straight line between the 3 fences, come into the first fence in an aggressive show jumping canter (because of the light to dark) and not worry about the fact that the second fence was a skinny or angled. We followed her instructions and it rode beautifully!
Fence 13 was a ramp set before fence 14, a large drop into the water which was dyed blue. I thought the drop was significant and was concerned that the water was turquoise and we have never jumped into water that color before. Also, this was at the main water complex so there was a lot of stuff visually for Leo to look at. Sally said she didn't expect Leo to care about the water color, but because there was so much stuff around the drop that he may be backed off all the same. She told me to have any discussions with Leo (getting him in front of my leg) before the ramp at 13. I gave him a tap behind the leg approaching 13, and he bravely jumped off the bank and into the water at 14. No issues at all! I was super impressed because Leo used to be quite sticky with banks into water - it was something we schooled a lot in North Carolina to get him through his phobia.
We had a great round - I was in control (reins on the second ring of the elevator) and Leo galloped and jumped ridiculously well (and was listening!). It felt like our round at MCTA. The speed was 450 mpm and I came in 12 seconds over the time. Sally said as I get more comfortable knowing that I can get Leo back when I need to, I'll find that I'll be able to ride at a faster pace.
We were last after dressage but we ended up 17th out of 24. It may not sound impressive BUT it's another qualifying ride for prelim and more experience gained!
What next?
Leo keeps answering all the challenging Training level questions with ease which is really exciting. As usual, show jumping remains my nemesis so I'd like to find some proper jumper shows to get more experience riding related distances with combinations and bigger fences. I'm super excited about today and would love to head to another event, but I'm not going to lie: I don't want to compete in the heat of July.
Instead, I'm going to get back to work on our jumping, cantering lots of poles so I can develop my eye, and practice timed gallop sets so I can work on understanding the different speeds. And hack - it's summer after all now!
Dressage
What can I say? Our goal of achieving scores in the 30s is still not within reach. We are firmly planted in the mid-40s still. Leo continues to be tense and resistant even though I thought his flatwork has been much improved at home. I knew when I bought Leo he would be tough on the flat - I really bought him for his jump not his dressage trainability so I have to keep our scores in perspective.
Show Jumping
Sally warmed me up again and watched my round. This is so helpful, because she is able to see our progression from one event to the next and give me insight into what I need to work on. During warm up, Leo was quite strong to the fences so we worked on getting me to re-balance him more quickly on landing. At one point in the warm-up, I was cantering, changed directions and Leo did the most beautiful, controlled flying change. Sally always says quality of the canter will determine the success of the change. I only mention this because it was a lovely, stand-out moment in my mind!
Once in the ring, Leo went from super forward to backed off and I didn't adjust my ride quickly enough. For some reason the width of the oxers on course looked really big to me and I kept missing my distance to the fences. I wasn't riding with enough canter given that Leo was backed off. We had 2 rails down and did 2-strides in the 24 ft one stride in-and-out. Doh. That has to be the biggest stadium faux pas!!! So embarrassing!
Sally said he was much improved from Fair Hill and the two rails I had were because I missed the distance. She was happy with the new bit and how Leo responded to me in the ring (allowing me to bring his canter back). I can't be too hard on us for what I consider a sloppy round though since we've only jumped 5 times since Fair Hill 6 weeks ago and the fact that Leo has been out of so much work. Given that, the results were actually quite good!
Cross Country
The cross country course had some challenging components. You can check out the Training course at MyCourseWalk.com. I walked the course with Jen and then, as usual, discussed my questions with Sally. The 2 elements that really stood out in my mind were (1) fences 9, 10 and 11; and (2) the first water at 13 and 14.
Fence 9 was a fence into the woods with a downhill landing, followed by an angled feeder at the bottom of the hill which was positioned not just on an angle, but partially behind a bush, making the question ultimately an angled, skinny fence. From there, you gallop up a steeper hill to anther skinny jumped straight on. Sally said to find a straight line between the 3 fences, come into the first fence in an aggressive show jumping canter (because of the light to dark) and not worry about the fact that the second fence was a skinny or angled. We followed her instructions and it rode beautifully!
Fence 13 was a ramp set before fence 14, a large drop into the water which was dyed blue. I thought the drop was significant and was concerned that the water was turquoise and we have never jumped into water that color before. Also, this was at the main water complex so there was a lot of stuff visually for Leo to look at. Sally said she didn't expect Leo to care about the water color, but because there was so much stuff around the drop that he may be backed off all the same. She told me to have any discussions with Leo (getting him in front of my leg) before the ramp at 13. I gave him a tap behind the leg approaching 13, and he bravely jumped off the bank and into the water at 14. No issues at all! I was super impressed because Leo used to be quite sticky with banks into water - it was something we schooled a lot in North Carolina to get him through his phobia.
 |
| Dropping into the first water |
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| Fence after the water |
We had a great round - I was in control (reins on the second ring of the elevator) and Leo galloped and jumped ridiculously well (and was listening!). It felt like our round at MCTA. The speed was 450 mpm and I came in 12 seconds over the time. Sally said as I get more comfortable knowing that I can get Leo back when I need to, I'll find that I'll be able to ride at a faster pace.
We were last after dressage but we ended up 17th out of 24. It may not sound impressive BUT it's another qualifying ride for prelim and more experience gained!
What next?
Leo keeps answering all the challenging Training level questions with ease which is really exciting. As usual, show jumping remains my nemesis so I'd like to find some proper jumper shows to get more experience riding related distances with combinations and bigger fences. I'm super excited about today and would love to head to another event, but I'm not going to lie: I don't want to compete in the heat of July.
Instead, I'm going to get back to work on our jumping, cantering lots of poles so I can develop my eye, and practice timed gallop sets so I can work on understanding the different speeds. And hack - it's summer after all now!
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