Buck up and stay the course

Sally spent a couple of days thinking about my next steps with Leo following our elimination in stadium at Flora Lea. Some of the ideas Becca and I were throwing around included:

1. Let Sally finish the season with him so he could get some Prelim miles under his belt
2. Trailer around to new farms to school different show jumps and buy a bunch of scary fillers for the jumps at home
3. Drop back to training and avoid Prelim like its a plague

I got a text from Sally on Tuesday saying she had put a lot of thought into it and she would call me later that night. In the mean time, I went and had my jump lesson with Becca. Her plan for me that day was Idea #4: Ride like a crazy person. 

Before I even approached the first fence, Leo got smacked behind my leg. He got upset and was fairly crazy for most of the lesson. But you know what. He took me to all the fences and never hesitated for a second. Yes, we were leaving out strides in our related lines which wasn't ideal but he wasn't hesitating off the ground and I seemed to have his attention. Becca had me jump some big fences and some really technical stuff: single barrel on its side and raised on blocks, 3 strides to an oxer, 3 strides to another single barrel on its side and raised on blocks. If Leo didn't want to jump, that was the exercise that would have invited it and he never questioned for a second that he was meant to go over not around that 3ft wide barrel. Then we went out in the field where Becca set up a combination going down hill: a log bending 8 strides downhill to a corner, 5 strides to a chevron skinny. Leo was once again really good and there were even horses out in the field with us to draw his attention away from me. Becca and I were simultaneously pleased and annoyed. Where was this horse at Flora Lea?

That night I talked to Sally. She said the problem with Idea #1 (let her compete him) was that it would mean the end of the season for me and she just didn't like that idea. Regarding Idea #2 (make the jumps scarier), she said the jumps and jumping weren't the problem. She thinks he might have a hard time seeing white like the fence at Flora Lea where we were eliminated, but she didn't think I would gain much by taking the time to school new show jumps around the area. He's seen enough over the years. Regarding Idea #3 (drop back to Training), she said that would also be the end of my season because running Maryland at training level would not tell me what i needed to know about competing at the prelim level.

Her advice was to go to Maryland HT next weekend and attempt Prelim again. I need to see if Flora Lea was a fluke or not, and I need to see if I can ride through this. By targeting Prelim, I am actually giving myself the most options - whether it's a success or not. If it's a success, great! If it's not, then she said I still have options before the end of the season: at that point I could send Leo to her or drop back to Training to finish the season on a positive note. 

So the plan is: Stay the Course. (and) Get Mad.