Event at Colorado Horse Park

This weekend Forrest, Highboy, and I headed to Parker, Colorado for the biggest event all year.  It was Area Eventing Championships, and Highboy and I competed in the Festival division.  I was really pleased with his dressage test.  He had some really nice moments, including a great free walk.  Because it was championships for the season the judging was held to a higher standard and we didn't have the scores I was hoping for, but I was still pleased with how Highboy rode.  There was one big buck when he lost his balance trying to pick up his left lead, but otherwise I was pleased with his performance.  Sara came down on Friday to take photos for me, and was a huge help and moral support. 

Friday afternoon we had truly impressive thunderstorms with incredible lightning, which ended up stopping the show for the duration of the day.  Because of the schedule needing to be changed Highboy and I didn't ride on Saturday at all so that the divisions which were suspended due to weather could get their cross country and dressage rides done.

That gave me and Highboy the day off, which worked out in my favor since I ended up with a migraine on Saturday.  Fortunately after sleeping for enough time it did wear off.  Forrest was a great snuggle buddy for that time.  Then by Sunday I woke up ready to ride.

Forrest made lots of friends this weekend, and our barn-mates started introducing him to other new people as, "Forrest, the greatest show dog ever!"  That was Miles' title for many years (he even won a basket of dog treats in Estes Park for earning the honor), but now that he's getting older and only has three legs Forrest has taken over the responsibility of the many miles of walking at horse trials.  They are big shoes to fill, but Forrest has taken up the challenge gladly.

The revised schedule made it so we were to do our showjumping round at 11:40am, and then go directly to cross country for a 12:13pm start time.  This format worked out fine, Highboy is awfully fit and had no trouble with the workload.  It was a lot of mental work for me, but at least I didn't have to do a wardrobe change midway.  I just tacked up and dressed for cross country and did both jumping rounds in that gear.

The energy in the air with all the horses and riders had Highboy amped up for both show jumping and cross country phases.  Highboy could feel it, and even though I was fairly calm he marched into that warmup arena ready to party.  Thankfully everyone recognized this and gave us plenty of space.  He hugely over-jumped warmup fences, as evidenced in this photo. 

Highboy was super ready for action, but not listening to me very well.  He's a tricky horse, a very complicated mental ride.  He trotted into the show jumping arena, and slammed to a stop at the first fence to stare at it as though he had never seen such a thing before.  He hasn't done that in a long time, so it was a bit frustrating.  I backed him up far enough that he could approach and jump it, which he did on the second try.  The rest of the course looked like the horse had no steering, which was also frustrating for me, but Highboy only took down one rail despite his weaving and nonsense.  The remainder of the fences he over-jumped like a green horse.

I was amazed that Kimberly Hale Photography was able to get as many good shots as she did, so I'll just feel thankful that I got some good photos.  This one was especially telling as to how he rode in this round.

Next we headed across the street to cross country.  I had enough time to pop him over a few logs in the warmup before we headed to the start box, and then off we went.

Cross country is definitely Highboy's favorite phase, and he rode the best after he'd cleared fence number four and finally got into his gallop rhythm. 

The course was really fun, but rode fast.  We went double clear meaning we had no refusals and no time faults.  The jumps were fairly large for the division, so appropriate for a championship show, and there were a couple A-B questions (two jumps in a row) that required some more precise footwork.  Highboy did great.  I swear this horse just needs things to be complicated before he'll even try.  He galloped well in and out of the water questions, and generally had a good round.

When we made it through the finish flags Highboy finally looked like he had settled down and was ready to go to work.  Walking on a loose rein we headed back to the barn to clean up and head home.

It was a fun weekend, with people there from all over the country for championships.   There were more than five hundred competitors and the venue was the fullest I've ever seen it in all the time I've competed there.  Highboy, Forrest, and I enjoyed ourselves, and we left feeling proud of the progress we've made this season and proud for finishing this horse triathlon.