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Octoberfest 2011: Day 2

Hampton, Me, Steady, Amy with our loot! BAM!

(videos at the end of this post)

So Sunday morning rolls around, and I roll out of the back seat of my truck. Amy and I decided to enter Beginner Rider 2-foot jumpers. I think they did have an 18" division somewhere, but it was toward the end of the day and I wanted to be home before dark. Plus I knew Hamps was capable of jumping 2 feet - we did so out on cross country. So, it was time to suck it up.

In hindsight, I maybe should have schooled him. But he was one tired poneh and if I had schooled that morning, I really would have had no gas left in the tank. We did a short warm up - which went well. He even jumped the 2'3" purple gate they had set up.

So the course was considerably more difficult than the CT tests the day before. Lots of bendy turns and weird approaches.

Oh yeah, there was also a swedish oxer, a 2 stride in-and-out, a number of normal oxers and a stone wall. NONE of which Hampton has seen in his entire life. :)

Our first round wasn't what I would call a hot mess. It was more like a luke-warm mess. We got around - with a stop at the stone wall and a few rails down. I think the wall just came up a little fast and I didn't ride it hard enough. He trotted over fine after that.

At this point my lips were so friggin chapped from the wind, and my mouth was so dry from being so dehydrated, that I couldn't even cluck. My attempts to cluck were pathetic - so I had to growl at Hamps when I felt him be a little unsure. For not schooling, and not ever have jumped anything remotely close to a course like this, I was pretty damn proud of him! Keep in mind that I am also very rusty at jumping courses, and I could have ridden better. But he just goes along with it and although the jumps did back him off a bit, he tried for me and I don't feel he lost any confidence. He just isn't sure what this is all about yet!

So we are getting ready to go in for the second class and my instructor says "Uh, do you want to know the second course?" "Sure" I say in my typical naive fashion. "Well, it's really friggin hard." Eron says. Um, this coming from someone who knows what they are doing? Eeeep.

The second course has a numerous bending lines and a rollback. *&^*%(^ me!!  I memorize the jump off "just in case" but frankly I'm glad we didn't have to do it! Amy and Steady rocked it though and let me tell you it was NOT EASY. Well, maybe if you were on a pony and had a few more strides to organize.

Second round was a little more comfortable, even though we did have a stop at the in-and-out because I did not have my shit together. We came in crooked and Hampton is in no way experienced enough to have saved my ass there. Totally my fault. Came around again and we were fine. We had a few rails down too. Poor guy was tired and we just weren't forward enough but he tried his heart out and just went along with it. I was so proud of him! With a winter of schooling and practice, we will be just fine at the 2 foot, 2'3" division next year.

I was able to get over to the hunter ring to watch Amy and Steady kill it in the medal class. They can be quick, scrappy jumpers one minute and literally walk over to another ring and whip out a steady, fluid hunter test. I was impressed!!

After that we gave the boys a break and went to easy super greasy food. It was out first meal of the day and boy I am sure we were a sight shoving piles of onion rings, cheese fries and grilled cheese into our mouths. It tasted heavenly though! No shame. No shame.

We had entered one last flat class for the fun of it. It was just an equitation on the flat. I had a good go until the last canter when we broke into a trot right in front of the judge. Tired pony + tired rider = DOH. Somehow we managed to still get the blue ribbon! Ok I'll take it! Amy and Steady handed our asses to us in the jumper classes so it's only fair we get the flat class win! LOL. ;)

We ended the weekend with 4 blues, 2 thirds and Reserve Champion of the Beginner Jumper division. (ok it was by default but STILL!)

Our drive home was uneventful. Hamps was glad to be home.

I was glad to take a shower!

Finally, some videos. Enjoy.


Here is our CT dressage test (Intro test B)






And our GAG CT crossrails round. I especially enjoyed Amy's commentary. :)