Aiken 2023: Part 3 | Back in the showring

 

Why must you zap my brains tho

Friday

Both Hampton and Royale enjoyed some Pulse therapy Friday morning and the humans spent the rest of the morning eating good food and more shopping. It rained most of the morning so we felt like it was the universe telling us to just tack-store hop. 

The rain had stopped by the afternoon so we took the boys to Bruce's Field to school.

Bruce's Field added a couple of new arenas since last year, making it even more impressive. It's such a beautiful place to show, with perfect footing, easy parking for trailers and palm trees lol.

I did a refresher school of our lesson the day before, and schooled briefly in the show arena. I didn't want to make Hamp too tired so I kept things light and fresh, with plenty of walk breaks.

He felt fantastic and every time I ride here I just feel so lucky. Like how the actual F did I end up here.

We also imposed tagged along on some horse shopping adventures and checked out the base for a certain eventer Olympian who stables at Stable View in the winters and also has his own jump arena and cross country course there. The barn was stunning obviously.

Saturday

Hamp and I had great ride times of about 9:30 am both days. Saturday was chilly by Aiken standards, but Hampton and I are used to 30-40 degree mornings and were fresh and ready to work. I did my planned warm up, using bursts of 5-10 min of work and then a walk break. I really focused on making him hot, and touched on the pirouettes briefly and as well as pi/pa before heading into the ring.

By the way my stock tie came undone in warm up and I quickly reattached it but it was most def very crooked for that test. Classic.
Photo: Meghan Benge

It was BY FAR the best GP test I have ever done. Hampton was hot, cadenced and ridable. There was not even a thought of last year's issues of shutting down or diving or sucking back. I did lose my balance for just a second in the middle of the ones, costing us that movement score. And there was a loss of rhythm in the passage on the last centerline. But other than that he was nearly perfect.

Earthbound but he does such a cute piaffe lol

The judge was super fair and gave us a 59.8%. With comments like "Needs more jump" "Needs more suspension". Very fair, as he is very earthbound. But I was so happy with how rideable he was and I was able to actually ride like how I do at home, instead of flailing and struggling the entire test.

Still won the class too above a much nicer horse who wasn't so ridable that day.

Sunday

I went in with the same game plan Sunday and once again had an absolutely lovely test. If I had to pick at anything, it would be that Hampton felt a little more flat this day. Just a little tired and not quite as energetic. But he was still rideable and we had a very organized, flowing test. Nailed the ones as well!

Yup we both knew that was a good one.

We had untacked at the trailer and were just dicking around when my friend (who was stalking online scores like a proper friend) squeals "You did it!" and many hugs and screams and jumping around ensued. We managed a 61.5% and my first GP score toward my gold medal. Could not have asked for a better group of friends to share that moment with.

Meghan Benge photo

Hampton of course got all the carrots and treats and the rest of the day to chill out before the long ride home on Monday.

It was also a total pleasure to watch Royale show Second Level, and another friend reach goals of qualifying at First level and making her recognized debut at Second. Everyone works so hard and it is an honor to witness all the improvements.

Another awesome Aiken trip in the books! Whew!