Morven Horse Trials 2014: Rain, Wind and Mud

Leo over Fence 3

On the Tuesday before the horse trials, Leesburg Virginia actually got 2 inches of snow. Followed by a couple days of rain. Friday morning, the weather report was not favorable for the event. Saturday was supposed to be a steady, drenching rain bringing up to 1 inch of rain. Friday morning, I rode Leo at home in the rain, expecting the weather to be even worse in Virginia. But when we arrived that afternoon, it was clear skies! That didn't last for more than the evening though.

We walked our courses Friday. Becca the prelim course, me the training course. I walked some of the prelim course and the width of those cross country fences is majorly intimidating. It really is a huge jump from training, the highest of the lower levels, to prelim, the lowest of the upper levels. There was nothing on the training course that I was concerned with. My biggest concern was the weather forecast and the footing. The course itself looked fun and straight forward! 

Friday night, Becca and I went out to dinner with Tyson Rementer - the course builder at Morven. He's an old friend from Pleasant Hollow and it was really a great remember of all the great people that Pleasant Hollow brought together. It's pretty incredible that after more than 10 years we're all still good friends and can pick up right where we left off! 

I really lucked out on Saturday. There was rain throughout the day but not the drenching rain they expected. Turns out that didn't start until around 6pm. Even though I was in full rain gear for jumping, the rain actually let up while I was in the saddle so Leo and I got to stay dry. We put in the biggest studs I had for xc because reports were coming back that everything was getting torn up and the footing was really deep. The studs worked great - Leo never slipped or put a foot wrong. 

Dressage was mediocre yet again. The rain was light while I was riding, but didn't impact our test at all. I rode Leo for almost a full hour, really working to get him loose in his back and stretching. The test started out ok. But after the walk sequence, Leo's brain was shot. This is pretty typical. He can't go back to work after the walk. He over reacts to my leg, starts swinging his haunches, won't move forward and we blow the next 3-4 movements until I can get his brain back together. That is frustrating. I swear I hate Leo after every dressage test and then love him after every xc round! 

Stadium was a serious disappointment even though we went clear. Sally has repeatedly told me that to move up to Prelim I need to show I can nail all the striding in stadium. The course at Morven consisted of several long, related lines where the distance was on a half stride. The first line was a 6 or 7. The second line was a bending, true 6, followed by a short turn to a 36 ft in-and-out. Then there was a single fence, followed by a 7 or 8 stride line. Then a 1-stride vertical to vertical to a 5 or 6 stride bending line to the final oxer. 

I nailed the in-and-outs, but did 8 strides (!^%@^#%) in the first line and 9 strides in the 7/8 stride line. I was so mad at myself. Leo was spooky in the ring and immediately backed off the first fence and chipped in. I didn't land and put my leg on. Instead I tried to control his spooking by using my hands. Ugh. Heading into the 7/8 stride line, Leo spooked badly at a liverpool laying outside the ring and I almost missed the fence. Like I said, I was super mad at myself because that is not the type of riding I should be doing right now. My instincts are still so wrong sometimes! Sally said to move up to Prelim I need to show that I can get the striding correct in stadium. I'm going to be setting up a lot of long lines to practice in the coming weeks. 

Before going out on the XC course, I wanted to try and fix the fact that Leo was behind my leg and I was being to handsy. I tried jumping one of the xc warm-up fences but the ground was chewed up and we kept chipping in. I took one flyer at the fence and Becca pointedly told me not to do the same thing on the course. When the footing is bad the last thing you want to do is take chances by making a move at the fence. It was good advice before I went on course. I can't think of the last time I went xc in such sloppy conditions. Maybe never! 

Leo was foot perfect and was very sharp through all the combinations. I thought I was booking around the course but when I checked my watch after fence 14, I realized I only had 1 minute and 30 seconds to make it home inside the time. Even though there were only 5 fences left there was a lot of distance between me and finish. I knew I would never make the time unless I really got moving. I let Leo gallop on and barely touch his mouth for any of the remaining fences. The last combination was a coop, 1 stride to a log with a large drop in the woods. Leo galloped right up to it, set himself back and smartly jumped throughout he combination without me taking a hold. It was a good lesson for me: that I can gallop at these fences and not worry so much about Leo misreading them. We made it in 10 seconds under the time. 

Lucky for me most of the division had time faults! We moved up from 11th (out of 13) after dressage, to 6th after xc! Jen and Sammy won out division. Their dressage score was 10 points ahead of second; even with time faults they smoked everyone in the division! 

Sadly, the rain got worse Saturday night and they had to cancel xc on Sunday. Becca ended up scratching Spy. During her dressage warm-up the port-a-potties were blowing over, just to give you an idea of how intense the rain and wind were. Spy was pissed about the whole ordeal so rather than wrestle him through a dressage test, she withdrew. This was going to be Spy's first prelim and the conditions were less than ideal. Becca was struggling with the idea of scratching even before they canceled cross country. The footing was so wet, the horses were sinking and getting stuck in the grass even when we grazed them. I guess, it's almost better to have the event make the call, then be forced to make the decision yourself about whether to run cross country or not. 

Competition schedule…

• April 12/13: Plantation - Training
• May 3: MCTA - P/T Division (assuming we can get our act together at Plantation in stadium)
• May 17: Fair Hill - Training (may skip this; depends on how things are going)
• June 7: Plantation - Prelim 

Hind Studs

Front Studs