BunnyDog
Well-Known Member
So sorry for radio silence. I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But I wanted to pop back in and share our news of our first 1.30m class.
We went to a show that's normally 2.5 hours away but given the bank holiday traffic it took us 4 hours to get there yesterday. Luckily we left in plenty of time and Cudo handled the ship really well.
This is a kind of a fancy kind of show. It only has 2 classes, and it's held at night under the lights outside of Middleburg, Virginia. There's tailgating, VIP tables and a LOT of atmosphere. I walked the course, and I am telling you it was big. Not to the point of being unattainable but I could feel my pulse pounding right on the surface of my stomach. I got Cudo ready and we had to fight to have a fence to jump in the warm up. Somehow, I'm still not sure exactly how, we managed to jump enough to head to the ring.
As I cantered to the first fence I was thinking about the stops last year, the utter dominance he's shown this year and how to do this I needed to believe in both of us. So we got over the first fence, by a mile in the pics. I landed snickered and thought to myself "Well if you didn't want to do this, then you shouldn't have jumped that fence. Right, let's go do this!" And it was an amazing round. I mean only 1 fence was a tiny bit sticky but he sailed it. We came home clear but had 1 time fault. I couldn't have cared less!!! 1 time fault over our first 1.30 with everything else. Hallelujah!!!!
We went 4th in the order out of 23 riders. So I grazed Cudo a bit and was listening. And I noticed that rails were falling like bowling pins. I put Cudo away with his saddle on and went back to see how our score was holding up. Well after half the class I was still sitting in 4th! Shocked doesn't cover it. There were almost all pro riders in this class. Including a US Team Eventer who went right after me, but she was admittedly on a greener horse. So we waited and after the first round we had manged to hold position and get a ribbon for 7th place. The top 6 jumped off and then we went in for the awards ceremony.
Here's the kicker.... I was the ONLY woman. I was the only non Grand Prix rider in the top 8. The winner is a seasoned Grand Prix rider from Germany. The second place rider won a Grand Prix on our Florida circuit this winter with the horse he was on. I am still blown away today.
But it's not yet time to rest on our laurels. We are competing in the Hunt Teams Class tonight at The Devon horse show, which I believe is the oldest or second oldest show in America. This is just a fun class and the fences are only 0.90m but it'll be cool to take Cudo into that ring at night tonight.
So that's my update. I have 2 videos of our round. One from each side of the arena.
Hope you all have a great weekend!!!
Emily
We went to a show that's normally 2.5 hours away but given the bank holiday traffic it took us 4 hours to get there yesterday. Luckily we left in plenty of time and Cudo handled the ship really well.
This is a kind of a fancy kind of show. It only has 2 classes, and it's held at night under the lights outside of Middleburg, Virginia. There's tailgating, VIP tables and a LOT of atmosphere. I walked the course, and I am telling you it was big. Not to the point of being unattainable but I could feel my pulse pounding right on the surface of my stomach. I got Cudo ready and we had to fight to have a fence to jump in the warm up. Somehow, I'm still not sure exactly how, we managed to jump enough to head to the ring.
As I cantered to the first fence I was thinking about the stops last year, the utter dominance he's shown this year and how to do this I needed to believe in both of us. So we got over the first fence, by a mile in the pics. I landed snickered and thought to myself "Well if you didn't want to do this, then you shouldn't have jumped that fence. Right, let's go do this!" And it was an amazing round. I mean only 1 fence was a tiny bit sticky but he sailed it. We came home clear but had 1 time fault. I couldn't have cared less!!! 1 time fault over our first 1.30 with everything else. Hallelujah!!!!
We went 4th in the order out of 23 riders. So I grazed Cudo a bit and was listening. And I noticed that rails were falling like bowling pins. I put Cudo away with his saddle on and went back to see how our score was holding up. Well after half the class I was still sitting in 4th! Shocked doesn't cover it. There were almost all pro riders in this class. Including a US Team Eventer who went right after me, but she was admittedly on a greener horse. So we waited and after the first round we had manged to hold position and get a ribbon for 7th place. The top 6 jumped off and then we went in for the awards ceremony.
Here's the kicker.... I was the ONLY woman. I was the only non Grand Prix rider in the top 8. The winner is a seasoned Grand Prix rider from Germany. The second place rider won a Grand Prix on our Florida circuit this winter with the horse he was on. I am still blown away today.
But it's not yet time to rest on our laurels. We are competing in the Hunt Teams Class tonight at The Devon horse show, which I believe is the oldest or second oldest show in America. This is just a fun class and the fences are only 0.90m but it'll be cool to take Cudo into that ring at night tonight.
So that's my update. I have 2 videos of our round. One from each side of the arena.
Hope you all have a great weekend!!!
Emily