After arriving Thursday, Highboy, Forrest, and I were all settled in at The Event At Archer in Cheyenne. Highboy and I did our show jumping schooling round Thursday night (minimal shenanigans). Forrest and I walked the xc course, which was beautiful. I thought we were ready to have a balanced and calm dressage test Friday afternoon, trying to harness the power of positive thinking.
After dressage I ended up taking a photo of my beautiful jerk of a horse. I tried to tell myself that a truly awful dressage test keeps me humble, and that it could have been worse. He was fine in the warm-up, then for some reason decided to pick a fight with me every time I put my leg on him in the actual test. There was lots of kicking sideways (him), whipping his head around, running sideways, and he was so tense and mad at me for giving him cues (how dare I??). I'm amazed we got it done at all. But I didn't fall off and we didn't get eliminated so I did my best to set it aside and prepare to try again Saturday with cross country. Highboy and I did have a THOROUGH discussion in the warmup after the dressage test itself was over regarding what is the appropriate response to leg pressure from the rider. I got it in the end, but wow what an awful actual test. Humbling or humiliating? Hard to say.
The following day I felt redeemed! Highboy rode a solid cross country round and it felt so good to have a partner instead of an adversary. He nearly made it feel like a hunter course, and even helped settle a nervous horse while we rode the long walk from the barns to the warmup field. He was calm in the warmup, easy out of the start box, and only had one bad distance to fence number two. The rest was easy and straightforward, I even was able to jump him over the last few fences out of the gallop since he was showing no hesitation. We did have a few time faults for going too fast, but I was happy with the ride since he was finally moving forward instead of bouncing up and down playing the whole time. Kimberly Hale Photography did a spectacular job despite having a naughty camera capturing many of the jumping efforts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0YuLihSejE
When cross country was finished Highboy and I walked back to the barn from the field. He wasn't too hot as it was a relatively short course distance-wise and he's pretty fit. As we meandered back towards the stalls I was thinking about the first time I can remember riding a horse. It was my piano teacher's old appaloosa gelding, and we were at a town picnic hosted at their house. They were giving pony rides for the kids, and I must have been about five years old. I still remember how odd the lurching movement felt under me when he started walking as my piano teacher's husband led old Tonka around the field. I remember how soft the gelding's nose felt and how prickly his hair was against my bare legs as I sat aboard him bareback in shorts. I closed my eyes for a few moments on Highboy as I remembered closing my eyes on Tonka all those years ago, and took a deep breath smelling horse sweat.
All the time I spent in my youth reading The Black Stallion by Walter Farley gave me an affinity for racehorses, and all the time I spent watching National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor embedded in me a love of galloping cross-country and jumping. It occurred to me that day that I am currently living my childhood dreams. For a moment with my eyes closed I was that small child again wishing for lovely jumping Thoroughbreds, and then I opened my eyes and I AM riding a lovely jumping Thoroughbred. I am so fortunate and grateful to have my childhood dreams become my reality.
After getting back to the barn and trailer I iced Highboy's legs, rubbed him down, and applied liniment to remove heat from the soft tissues in his legs. He had some time to rest in the stall, and in the evening I took him out to graze a bit after I'd applied his leg wraps for the night. They are to support his tendons and ligaments after hard galloping and prevent any swelling that might occur.
A kind woman was driving around on a four-wheeler asking if folks were going to the competitor's party that evening and making sure everyone knew about it. I wasn't able to go because of the head injury and leftovers from ten years ago. Crowds, noise, music, and driving in the dark are all things I'm unable to deal with, especially when I'm already tired from a hard ride earlier in the day. Additionally I can't eat spicy food or wheat gluten because of allergies, and the party was being held at a mexican restaurant. I thanked her for inviting me and letting me know about the very excellent jalepeno poppers (Yikes - all kinds of poisonous for me!) but I wasn't able to go.
Instead Forrest and I rested in the gooseneck of the trailer and read an old copy of Black Beauty I keep in the cabinet for just such occasions. Forrest doesn't much enjoy the bath or grooming that goes along with pre-horse show preparations, but he surely enjoys the lounging on the mattress and burrowing in soft blankets in the evenings at the shows.
Show jumping footage from RideOnVideo can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LtzR5H763c
Show jumping the final day went well, Highboy was pretty good in the warmup and settled to the fences without rushing after a few cursory hops over each jump. Our actual show jumping round was satisfactory. He got confused about fence number three because the course was so turn-y and he didn't realize he was to jump the small oxer until we were right upon it. He did stop hard at that one, and I heard gasps from the spectators. I make a living riding maneuvers like that, though, and after backing him up a couple steps I had him jump it from a walk, to more gasps from the crowd. The rest of the course was ok, though a bit strong and fast. Hopefully my friend Kat got a good photo of the showjumping, I'll have to see once she gets pics posted online. I also ordered video from RideOnVideo who was there recording the whole event, which I should have in the next week or so. They did an amazing job on Monty's video a few years ago and I was eager to get this one as well.
Overall a very fun weekend, though I may need to sleep for a few days to recover!
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