Equus 3D Summary

Dressage:  Cadence was fantastic.  A little on the muscle at times, and I'd say our figures weren't as accurate as they could have been but our mark was in the low 70 which translated to a 40 and we were tied for second so I was pleased.  Major run on sentence, but moving on.

Stadium:  Much better than expected!  I honestly don't think my coach was expecting us to make it round, but we did.  We would have been kicked out of the hunter ring, but she went over everything first try!!! Even a tunnel style filler painted bright red with red and white striped poles, a standart with scarree looking wings, and a couple of roll tops covered in astro turf-esque stuff.  She did however throw a MAJOR spook in at the red roofed judge's booth when we cantered past.  Ah well, we weren't near any jumps anyways.

Cross Country:  We started off well and she was good for her first time out of the start box.  Came to the first fence, which was sandwitched between all the other level fences with prelim right next to us of course.  That backed her off a bit, but she was really on the muscle after the first one and I had a hard time getting her back heading to the second which wasn't far away, but you had to get a good line to it which we didn't since I was being tuned out.  We had a circleish runout, came back and popped it nicely.  Then I had to work to get her over the third, and by the time we got to the fourth (a bench followed by a drop) she wasn't having any of it.  Quit way out on me, not even getting close.  My assessment was that she lost her confidence after the second and just didn't have it in her.  it was like 'That jump is scary, I'm tired, and if you think I'm going over it you're insane.'  end of story. 

Overall:  I am extremely proud of her.  She's awesome, fantastic, and a real little superstar.  I can't help but wonder if I could have done something differently XC.  I can honestly say I rode every fence and didn't take any of them for granted, but still... if someone more experienced had been on her mehaps she would have gone and she wouldn't have learned that refusing means we quit and walk back to the trailer. -_-  However, when I got home and checked my email there was a very nice and encouraging email from my coach saying that she was extremely proud of us and thought I put in a very good ride on a very green horse.  You aren't an eventer if you haven't lived both the highs and lows of the sport.  That really touched me, and has gone a long way to lifting my mood.

I'm now listening to Christmas music.  This is what I get for putting my iTunes on shuffle.