Father’s Day Schooling HT: June 2021

Yeah, I’m behind seeing as this happened um. Two three months ago.

In my defense, I was hoping to get some photos so I waited and then photos never materialized and then I forgot and… well, here we are. Still writing it down to have to look back on.

My barn puts on two schooling HT per year and the spring/summer one is always Father’s Day weekend. We’d had our less than ideal outing to IEA, but had redeemed ourselves in the spring Tim Bourke clinic, so I felt ready (and determined) to go in and get it done.

Spoiler alert: we got it done.

I won’t bore you with the details of riding BN A because it’s just… not interesting, but it was major improvement from previous schooling shows and IEA and we were sitting on a 32.2 to lead Starter (out of 8) after dressage. I’d love to tell you all about our stadium round, but I remember next to none of it. I do know I buried the poor horse at the in to a line and he somehow jumped from essentially underneath but left it up.

I was feeling great going into XC – we were at home, we’d been schooling BN, there was nothing out there he couldn’t pop over easily. We left the startbox and fence 1 (a tiny log) was RIGHTTHERE. I think we actually trotted it because it was so close. Totally fine and then we were cruising. We did the first big loop without any issues, around the back (where Archie was CONVINCED he was jumping the ditch and I actually had to pull him off of it), down the bank, into the water jump field and back towards startbox. Around fence 4, things seemed to ‘click’ and suddenly I could feel him looking for the flags, searching for the next fence. It was an awesome feeling and one I’ve been waiting on from him.

I later actually joked I’m the one person who is THRILLED when my horse tries to run away with me on XC. We came through the finish flags having jumped clear and since I didn’t wear a watch, I could only hope, without any time. Sure enough, there it was – Archie’s first win (my first event win!) and my first FODS at a HT. Did I actually tear up? Maybe.

Arch wasn’t too excited to pose with his blue ribbon (it was dinnertime by now), but he got lots of cookies and scratches. It solidified that he’s here to stay and felt like finally, FINALLY some of our work was really paying off.