My horse, Tristan, gives me reasons to be proud of him every
day. When I bought the 15.3 Connemara/Trakehner cross six year ago, I had
absolutely no idea how lucky I was. He came to me fairly green but at the time
I was afraid of jumping higher than small cross rails, so we were a perfect
fit. I knew immediately that I had found a horse hell-bent on taking care of me
and keeping me as safe as he could. To this day he has never once deliberately
hurt me or tried to make me fall off. He’s my best four-legged friend and I
couldn’t ask for a more perfect partner.
This weekend we showed at the Windridge Farm Horse Trials at
Training level. Windridge is a lovely
little property with beautiful rolling hills, lush grass, and friendly people.
The afternoon before the show started, I took Tristan on a nice hack around the
property so he would be comfortable in the warm up the next day.
Saturday Morning – Arrival at Show Grounds 6:00 a.m.
My mom, my boyfriend Nathan, our dog Lego, and I woke up at
5:00 a.m. in order to get Tristan spic and span before my 8:19 a.m. Dressage
time. Before I even get in the saddle for an event, my horse needs to be fed,
have his stall cleaned, go for a walk or hand graze to stretch his legs, and
cleaned of any manure stains acquired throughout the night. Luckily, with
Tristan being buckskin, his coat doesn’t stain very easily so with some minor
scrubbing we were all tidied up for Dressage. In the warm up my coach, Eric
Dierks, had us focus on our connection and throughness before heading off for
our test.
The actual Dressage test tends to be somewhat difficult for
Tristan and me if we end up succumbing to tenseness and nerves, however, this
test went rather smoothly .Tristan’s trot work felt wonderful and fluid, and
even though he became stiff through the transitions, the stiffness did not
carry on through the rest of our test. To top it off, after my salute at the
end of the test our judge actually leaned out her car window to tell us, “Very
lovely horse!” Our score came back as a 35.9 and started us in seventh place!
Next phase was Stadium Jumping. Most of the shows I have attended have run stadium
in a sand ring, but Windridge had theirs on a grass field. The difficulty
aspect of this course was definitely the rolling hills throughout the course.
To tackle this problem, Eric advised his students to angle most of the single
vertical fences so they would ride slightly downhill making the horse’s jobs
easier. The warm up area was slightly difficult to navigate with all the
practice fences going uphill. We made sure to have a shorter warm up in order
to keep Tristan from getting tired before his course.
Finally, our time came to enter the ring. We circled waiting
for the buzzer to sound and then headed on to our first fence. The first two
fences rode textbook perfect. Next we had a left-hand turn to an oxer at fence
three, but on the way there I got confused and thought I was going the wrong
direction. I quickly turned right (the wrong way) only to realize just as
promptly that I had originally been going in the correct direction. A quick
obscenity from me and off we turned to the third jump. Tristan sailed easily
over the rest of the course, making all the jumps feel very small and
insignificant. At times we were almost jumping 2 feet higher than the actual
fences! Tristan had such lovely balance and demeanor throughout the course that
I was beaming by the time the course was over. I was so proud of my man that
even though I was disappointed at my own pilot error, I was very pleased with
the ride.
One of the most important things when I show my horse is
making sure that I use equipment that keeps Tristan comfortable and as willing
to do his job as he had just shown me. That is why I love using Moxie
Equestrian’s Bamboo Saddle Pads, especially while jumping. Part of the reason
why Tristan was able to jump so impressively was that his back was comfortable
and dry, thanks to the wicking properties of Moxie’s Bamboo fabric. After I took
Tristan back to his stall and untacked him, I was very pleased to feel the
outside of the pad was sweatier than the inside! It makes me feel good to know
that I am using a saddle pad that keeps my horse comfortable and happy about
his job.
After our Stadium round, we had racked up another 4 penalty
points for my mistake, leaving us with a score of 39.9 but actually moving us
up to sixth place. The rest of the day was spent hand-grazing Tristan (after
stuffing his face with many congratulatory carrots and apples), and watching
other stadium rounds. A very good Saturday indeed!
Sunday Morning – Arrival at Show Grounds 6:00 a.m.
Cross Country day dawned breezy and cool, virtually perfect
conditions for galloping. All of Tristan’s legs were tight and cool after the
previous day of showing, meaning he was perfectly fit for the last phase of the
event. I made sure to fit studs to his
shoes to help him navigate the rolling hills and turning parts of the course.
Tristan warmed up very nicely, with a perfect slight edge of hotness and spunk
that gives him a couple extra miles per hour on course.
We had our final countdown in the start box and off we went.
The first couple fences flew by easily and we really got to take in the beauty
and fun of galloping across the open field. One of the best features of Windridge is the course wraps around a
pretty pond, really making the course feel very scenic and fun. At fence seven
we had our first multiple jump question, a two-stride between two angled coops.
We took a quick moment to balance in the gallop before Tristan easily covered
the distance. From there we had a very friendly palisade wall with brush on top
that we sailed over with room to spare. After that was number nine, the coffin
combination of log-ditch-log. In setting Tristan up for a shorter stride into
the combination, I accidentally took him too far back and caused him to
question what we were doing leading us to a stop at the first element of the
coffin. After a quick circle and a pop on the butt with my crop, Tristan
realized there were no scary monsters hiding in the ditch and easily leaped
over the rest of the jumps.
The next couple fences breezed by and lead us to number
eleven, a drop bank, one of my biggest fears on course. I brought Tristan down
to a trot to better maneuver the obstacle and he popped down it effortlessly
leading to big smiles and “Good boy!” from me. A year ago and that fence would
have been a big problem for us, but through practice and great training we have
conquered our fear and had major leaps (literally!) in improvements. I’m very
proud of my horse!
After the bank, the next big question was the water complex.
The course designers were nice enough to not ask Training riders to drop into
the water (my absolute biggest anxiety) but instead gave us a friendly roll top
jump before the water, to a nice bank upwards and easy roll top after the
water. It rode beautifully with Tristan covering the striding easily and really
gave us heaps of confidence to finish the course.
Tristan finished the course with the same rock ‘n’ roll
attitude he started out with. I could not have been happier with our round.
Unfortunately the one stop we had added twenty penalty points to our score and
dropped us down to ninth place. However, sometimes the score just doesn’t
matter as much as bringing your horse and yourself home safely after a very fun
weekend. After our cross country round, Tristan caught his breath very quickly
and felt as if he could have jumped another course! The true satisfaction I get
after these events is the knowledge that my horse really enjoys his job and
awaits the next fence with ears pricked!
Lucky Tristan is now on a short vacation until next week;
after that we strive on to prepare for the next events in June. We will work on
improving our transitions in Dressage, remembering my course in Stadium
Jumping, and keeping a forward momentum over all fences in Cross Country. Who
knows, we may be looking at moving up to Preliminary level by the end of this
season or the beginning of the next season. Stay tuned!
