This weekend was basically a whirlwind of crazy. Originally, my trainer was supposed to drive Fanny and I up there and I'd spend the weekend with her because my parents had a conflict and couldn't take me. Long story short, my trainer's baby got sick right before we needed to leave, my dad had to take me on short notice and did not have any clothing or anything packed for himself, we pulled up to Poplar and got there late with two horses. We had pulled Tainy (my trainer's horse) up to Poplar with us, so that a shipper could pick her up and take her to New York since she had been sold. Wellll, I get a call late Friday night and the sale fell through. My trainer offered me to take what entry was supposed to be hers and show Tainy in the open training division. Keep in mind.. I've never ridden Tainy before.. but she was supposed to be easy.. and we wouldn't have to pay for the entry.. so why the heck not?! Saturday morning came around and we changed the rider on Tainy and began to get ready for my 8:00 dressage ride with Fanny in the P/T. Fanny was tense, but decent, minus one meltdown and flying lead change that shouldn't have happened. I was relatively happy, just beginning to get more frustrated that lately, we haven't been able to make it through a dressage test at a competition without her having a meltdown. She's so capable to score so well, and if she'd act like she does at home, WE COULD! But no, she has to get tense and go nuts..which just gets to be ughhhhhhh. Anyways, that ride scored a 43... not our best but not our worst (although pretty close to our worst). I put it behind me and got ready for my ride with Tainy. She was awesome, and scored a 38. Whichhh, for a horse I'd never ridden before was pretty decent. Then I went into SJ with Fanny... apparently she thought it'd be fun to go as fast as she possibly could and not really feel like steering too well. I rode through it and closed my lower leg and prayed we got a good distance, which we did to most and it was a great round until jump seven, a jump three strides out from a tight turn. She came around the turn too fast, then slowed down too much, chipped in and attempted to make four strides fit, then took the rail. Oh well, we live and we learn.. and taking just one rail in my first prelim SJ course ever wasn't too shabby. I thank Fanny for her carefullness in SJ every time (that's only the second rail we've ever dropped at a HT). I switched tack and got Tainy ready for SJ pretty quick, and had a near perfect double clean round on her. Yay! I went into XC in third (out of 4) on Fanny and 6th out of 8 on Tainy (in a division where I was the only junior, competing against trainers). Fanny was SO good over all the first half of the course and I was so happy with how great she was being, until jump 9. The stupid barricade. It's a tiny little wall on a hill, nothing scary.. AT ALL. It's probably really more like novice height, maybe minimum training height. Why the heck does she feel the need to stop?! Just out of pure bratiness, cause she can? She had just been schooling the week before and I know she didn't stop because she was scared. She went over it just fine on the second attempt and we continued on to finish in third with a stop and a little time. Another quick tack change over to Tainy, who was awesome again and rocked around to finish on our dressage score in fifth place. I'm very thankful to my trainer for letting me ride Tainy so I could redeem myself with second rounds better than the first! Sadly, Tainy had to return to her home at my trainer's after the weekend :( As far as what comes next for Fanny... I guess we'll just have to see.
http://www.wncphoto.com/pp3ht13/004.ppht13/ -- Link to WNC Photography page with Fanny's pictures
http://www.wncphoto.com/pp3ht13/087.ppht13/ -- Link to WNC Photography page with Tainy's pictures
