WAIT A
MINUTE. What happened to Day 11 you
(ever so numerous in number) faithful readers might ask? Day 11 was filled with conference calls,
spreadsheets, powerpoints, project plans, and demo scripts. Not to mention a fun filled expedition to the
dry cleaners and grocery store. As much
as I would love to tell you about how I got lost (again) going to the dry
cleaners, or how I tried to kill myself while pulling out in front of a bus by
accident while trying to get un-lost, I assume this would lead to a very boring
blog indeed. Moving right along to Day
12.
Day 12 also
dawned with some exciting spreadsheets and powerpoints, but also included fun
ventures in horseland, so we’ll start there.
My original plan
was to head to the barn late in the afternoon, but around 10, Matt texted me
and said “if you get here before 2, you can get in the international ring, can
you make it happen?” Can I make it
happen? Um, yes I will make that happen. At this point you might be asking yourself, “why
in the world does she need to get in the international ring?” She’s an ammy hunter rider, only riders on a
first name basis with the world of riding like Beezie, Kent, and Reed need to
get into the international ring. Alas,
this is the case except during the “Hunter Spectacular” week in WEF. Also defined as “torture me with having to
ride in the international, classics, and an even wonkier show schedule than
normal” week.
So I abandoned
all of my enthralling spreadsheets and presentations (that would need to be
completed late that evening) to head to the show.
Once again, I
arrived to this cuteepatootee. I swear
it’s a different picture than last time.
If DC is not good for anything else, he’s good for one’s ego. Whenever I show up at the barn he rolls
nickers too me constantly, what I consider his very own form of purring in happiness
to see my shining face. That or he knows
the minion has arrived with treats, you pick.
I get on and we
head to the show grounds for our hack in the international (!!) and
school. Upon approaching the entrance, I
somewhat felt like a shark from jaws, except the arena might eat us instead of
vice versa.
Nu Nuh |
Nuh Nuh |
Nuh nu nu!! |
The arena was
set up with no jumps and probably 30-40 horses all hacking in different
directions. It was kind of like an ant
farm for horses, but with less organization.
He actually hacked beautifully in there, very relaxed, light, and attentive
to me instead of everything else. I did
take the opportunity to SHOW him that the astroworld would be set up in here at
a later date.
Fair warning I believe.
We then decided
to school in the Grand Hunter. The way
schooling is set up, you pick your ring based on the size of the jumps, not based
on the ring you’ll be showing in. This
is because any given day you might be in any given ring. Unfortunately for me, Grand Hunter was set up
for high performance. This means 3’9
(+?). This also means I’m officially
shaking in my boots. We chose Grand
Hunter as that was where all of the mischief from the previous week took place,
jump height be damned. That was Matt’s
view anyway. Me? I was just praying.
We warmed up in
the warm up ring, and then proceeded to the arena. Matt dropped a single for me to do, which was
actually quite nice off both leads. Then
he wanted me to do the single to the outside.
I did the single nicely, jumped into the outside a bit soft and with a
left bulge in the shoulder. At that
moment I looked down at that oxer and said to my self NFW. I try not to cuss in my blog, google it. So I pulled out. Note.
Matt HATES when you pull out of lines.
He says calmly “try again.”
I jump in again,
this time apply leg and have a crooked
horse that is all “no we go the other way.”
To which Matt says “THAT IS WHY WE DO NOT PULL OUT OF LINES.” Less calmly. Super.
He asks me
politely and with as much restraint as possible if I would like him to take the
oxer down. I answer “Yes please.” Also can be thought of as “LORD IT’S HUGE
PLEASE MAKE IT SMALLER.” We go back to
the line and jump it beautifully. He
puts the oxer back up and wants me to put a course together. Single, outside, inside. It was really good, it was also terrifying. I’ve jumped many jumps well bigger than that,
but not on this horse, and not with what I felt like is very limited experience
for us together.
What I learned
is that DC is one helluva scopey animal.
He cracked his back and flipped his hind end over both of those ginorm
oxers and really jumped the LIVING SHIT out of them (ok excuse my language). He took it all in stride and was super happy
to be in there JUMPING THE BIGGEY JUMPEEEEYYYYYS. I’m glad he has so much confidence.
After our
school, I headed back to the condo for more workey workey workey. But, I got to finish the night with a fun
girl’s evening at Mellow Mushroom pizza place playing an awesome game of
trivia. We were in first place through
all of the rounds until the final jeopardy question took us down to 4th. Apparently we know nothing about the Academy
Awards.
How exciting! The International ring, Grand Hunter at 3'9"!!! And Mellow Mushroom has the BEST veggie pizza in the world. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteIt WAS an exciting day. Too bad we couldn't carry it to the end.
ReplyDelete