Jump it like it's on Fire

Well, we did it! We completed our first official 3-Day Event. Traveler – my stallion, has proven his worth as a Curly Sporthorse. Traveler and I rode in the Mother’s Day Classic in Rainier, WA – a recognized USEA event which basically means we were competing against people who did this for a living.

Friday was Dressage. Traveler did pretty well considering there were about 250 black (his favorite color) mares in heat. It was absolute insanity in the morning, there were over 50 horses warming up in a small field outside the dressage ring. And it was all I could do to keep his attention, get our bit inspected and head off to the ring. He did about 50% of what he is capable of doing – and the judge had it right.

She said he was a very capable horse and just needed more experience in this environment. Kinda hard to duplicate this environment until you are there, with your huge black helmet (yes, I know – I am buying a new one for the next show. The pictures make my head look ridiculous) and fighting for a space in the most intense, stressful atmosphere I have ever been in. Good grief ,why am I doing this?

On to cross-country. I was just glad I survived the warm-up – it was crazy as well. Another group of 50 horses galloping around and taking practice jumps. At this point I decided I was going to have to give it my all – everything I had in me – and so I decided to ride him like I stole him and Traveler decided he would jump like it was on fire. And we did. We had one refusal on cross-country – the first fence. My crop sorted him out and then we took every jump like our life depended on it and he absolutely loved it. In every picture of Traveler jumping his ears are forward and he is looking for his next fence. We did lots of logs, benches, ramps, one ditch and a water jump. 14 fences in all – and we finished!!!

Just just when you think you might have made it – you have stadium jumping on Sunday. The most amazing thing happened on Sunday. Traveler got it!

I mean, after all this practice and riding my heart out – everything “clicked” for him . And it was the most incredible experience. He was distracted outside the ring and we were working on timing, getting his focus off the horses, listening and being calm & consistent. Then we entered the warm-up area, he saw the jumps and became hyper-focused. He was just listening to me and responding immediately to every cue. In the show ring – there was not a second of hesitation, he cantered to all the fences, jumped and looked for the next fence. It was like he finally had figured out what all this crazy stuff we had been doing was all about. And I only needed to sit and ride him.

Is he awesome or what?!

Okay, I could go on and on and show even more pictures but I won’t. I have also been working on our May challenge and will blog about that later. In 2 weeks I should receive our taped event and will post it so all can see. (Only if I look good. HA HA HA.) Oh, and our ranking? We placed 13th - and I am just so happy we finished and weren't disqualified. And it was nice to beat out some other horses, too.

Lots of people were absolutely amazed about this "new" breed of horses and you could hear the whispers going through the crowd - "what kind of horse is he?" He's a Curly, of course!