Running Start Horse Trials!

Well, after spending ALL YEAR showing dressage, you are probably expecting to hear how wonderful dressage went for me and Roanie at Running Start. I mean, after all, we did win horse of the year for dressage... Alas, we put up our absolute worst score yet. It went so poorly that the judge commented on how cute Roanies color was and the photographers walked away.... Ouch. I don't quite understand what happened that Saturday morning but Roan clearly did not show up to the same dressage ring that I did. She was 100% convinced that those test directives were mere suggestions and that she really could go wherever she wanted at whatever speed she wanted. Oh well, I put it behind me and went to walk my XC course a few times to avoid tying her to someone else's trailer and pretending she wasn't mine. Like I always say though, who goes to horse trials to do dressage? It's all about the cross country. And lemme tell ya, after XC, I wouldn't trade that mare for the world. Yet again, the only problem we had was making sure we didn't come in too fast. Instead of slowing her down I just took extra long lines between fences, it was good to get the extra galloping time in for our move up in 2015. In the end, we finished in the middle of the pack but had a phenomenal time jumping! 2015 here we come!! Hopefully with better dressage scores ;)

USDF updates!

I apologize for not keeping this blog updated. My last update was the weekend before the biggest show of Roanie's career. Sorry to leave folks hangin' like that! Raleigh Summer I and II went marvelously for my little quarter horse. The nerves that her and I had prior to going down that centerline at our first rated show were substantial. The warm-up arena alone was intimidating enough for me to want to go home. My tests were right in between the third and fourth level tests so we were warming up with tons of other riders in the arena.... Roanie's favorite thing... Not. I think that the sheer number of other horses invading her space helped us with our actual tests though, Roan was so relieved to have some space to herself that she put in wonderfully relaxed tests. We came out of our first USDF show arena with a 77.2% and a blue ribbon! Our other five tests (yes, we actually did six tests) also went better than expected and we came home with five blue ribbons, one red ribbon, one proud trainer, and one even prouder horse mom.

Raleigh Summer

 These results not only surprised us, but they qualified us for NCDCTA Championships AND launched me and Roanie into first place for NCDCTA Horse of the Year. So, we came home, worked our butts off and a few weeks later headed back up to Raleigh for the Labor of Love championship show. We had some stiff competition and slightly more elevated stress levels but we managed to win Reserve Champion!

NCDCTA Championships

 After Labor of Love we spent a week at home and then headed right back out to show at Tryon's Borderline dressage show. It rained all weekend. All weekend. Every minute of the weekend. The arenas were sopping wet mud holes. Horses were slippin' and slidin' all over the place! Riders were scratching left and right. Not us though, we're eventers! The mud made that whole dressage thing much more interesting. Although my big tough ranch horse definitely didn't care for the windshield wipers that were set on high speed on the judges SUV. They must not have windshield wipers out west...

The weekend long thunderstorm rolling in.

Not a totally worthless weekend though, four firsts and one second! 

All in all, I couldn't be more proud of my USDF season this year! Not a single place below second all year, 2014 NCDCTA Reserve Champion AA Intro, and 2014 NCDCTA Horse of the Year AA Intro!
We never set out to have a season in the dressage arena but things just sort of happened that way. I have high hopes for our 2015 season, Roanie will be making her transition out of the USDF arena and back out into the wonderful world of eventing! Our final show of the year will be Running Start Horse Trials!