It always surprises me after our time in Aiken has finished how quickly it all goes by. We've been here since mid-January. We've been to 10 events with 61 starts and 11 wins and we're just starting April. Scary!
Meagan, Conor and I are heading to the Fork on Tuesday. Running Order has training sessions with Mark Phillips on Tues and Wed before competition begins in the CIC***. Along with Skinny, we have Simon (who incidentally is back in good form today following some bruising on in his RF that kept him from competing at Southern Pines, he's a little bit of a fairy :) but we still love him.) and Tom in the Intermediate. It will be Tom's first and Simon's second OI. Beau and Reggie will both be in the Preliminary. Conor will have Beaner in the OI.
So what else is new...
Let's go in chronological order. Tuesday and Wednesday we had training sessions with Katie Prudent. Running Order and Tom made the trip over both days. I always find her lessons very helpful. She's not one to beat around the bush. She's going to call it as she sees it. Both horses were very good. I'm always impressed with RO, but Tom was surprisingly good. Not that he isn't normally, but he does have a tendency to be a bit quick in the air. Making a flatter bascule than you'd ideally like. Katie had some surprisingly simple exercises that seemed to help a bunch. The first day it was just rolling ground rails out in a tight combination, and the second day was a trot in gymnastic that we started the correct direction then cantered back through the opposite way. That configuration is hard for him, being that it's obviously getting tighter as you go. He picked it up quickly and improved a lot.
Friday our trunk from Georgetown Stable Outfitters arrived! It's going to make life on the road significantly easier and about 1000% more organized. We'll be able to arrive, wheel it off and be more or less unpacked!
On Saturday we took Trouble and the Prodigy to the Sporting Days dressage show on Saturday. Trouble was quite good especially being that is was his first public outing. He won his class (we're not going to mention that we were the only ones in it). The Prodigy was excellent, better than he's been to date. You're probably sick of hearing this, but he's going to be one hell of a horse!! Won the Novice combined test. He dressage received a score of 17.4 or 82.6%! His collectives are below:
Today we made a quick trip out to the Gibbes farm for some XC schooling. Tom had yet to see some intermediate questions that might be at the Fork or beyond. He couldn't have been better. We were able to jump the mound to corner, back complexes, skinnies and bounces into water. All he handled as if he'd seen them 1k times before. I also jumped a few horses for Holly, my sister, who still has a stiff knee preventing her from jumping. All from her rotational at the last in the PRO exhibition at Southern Pines. Still might have been the funniest thing I'd seen in a while. I guess riding a stick horse over 18" jumps is more difficult than it sounds! She's got a week before XC at the Fork, she's tough...I'm sure she'll be back in good form.
I'm really looking forward to the Fork. It's about time we get all pistons firing. Not that you don't usually head into an event looking to do your best, but I'm feeling more and more confident in the crew. I can't wait to see how Tom handles the intermediate. Nothing is solidified yet, but there's an outside chance that we're going to give the PanAm's a shot with him now that Tali is on the IR.
Speaking of he's doing great. You wouldn't know anything is wrong based on his walking and general comfort level. Still lasering with our SpectraVet unit. It has done wonders with the swelling and overall comfort level of the Stifle area.
Check back for updates through the week. I'm going to try to get a blog up after each day of competition. I nearly forgot to mention that on Wednesday I'm on a shooting team with Rebecca Howard at the Fork. It's going to be a blast. As I understand it our shooting score will be combined with a team of 'real' shooters and our scores from the ***. The winning team will of course have bragging rights and also a cash prize...Game On!!
Until then...
-D
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