Hopeful Horse Trials for the WIN!

Hopeful Horse Trials put on by the Palouse Hills Pony Club (unrecoginzed)
June 25, 2010
Sat: BN Test A, XC, then Stadium

We pulled into the show grounds Friday evening after having a stressful 3+ hour trip due to truck problems. I was a nervous wreck and was ready for Jasper to be stressed out. I unloaded him from the trailer, he looked around, and started grazing. He wasn't exactly "ho hum," but was very chill in comparison to past trips. Found his corral, walked the XC course 2 times because I got lost the first time, and got a quick ride in as it was getting dark. Set up camp in the back of the trailer with a flashlight and Saturday morning came early.

My parents drove down to watch, it was great to have them there and neat that they got to see all 3 phases in one day.

Our dressage test was at 9am, had plenty of time to warm up and he seemed good. Spooked at the brick jumps set outside the dressage arena (this comes around again later in the day), spooked when he kicked up sand that hit the white vinyl arena markers and made a scary noise, and didn't pick up the left lead canter until about half way around the circle. I'm still not sure what happened there, he seemed forward and in front of my leg. He just wouldn't canter. I now wonder if he wanted to pick up the right lead instead and realized it was wrong, and then couldn't get his feet situated. My dad started video taping right after all this had happened, so here's the good half:



We got a 27. A 27! That's a 73% in regular dressage. It also confirmed that our score at Aspen wasn't a fluke. She didn't mark us down for any of the spooking and we got a 5 on the canter transition.

So THAT was fun, and we were leading. XC was next, and due to the torrential amounts of rain the TD decided to take one of the jumps out that was in the middle of a muddy bog. I was glad, I know it's cross country, but still. They also took the water complex out because the water level was too high for regulation levels. I was glad about that too, it was muddy and boggy all around the water and there was not a straight shot for BN. The course was really fun, mostly a single track trail up and down hills through the woods. Most of the jumps were inviting logs, with the bigger questions strategically placed in the warm up arena and the dressage arena where the footing was good. It was a great confidence builder for both of us. It was cute, I could tell when he saw the next jump- his head would go up, ears forward, and a hint of hesitancy. Then he'd just roll into it. They didn't time any of the XC due to the muddy footing in areas, and we were clean and still in the lead.

Showjumping was a twisty course that included our last XC fence. The jumps were not crazy maxed out like they were at Aspen, it seemed to be a 'normal' 2'6 course. He was great. Took quite a few long and I grabbed mane often, but overall was really great. You'll see him spook at the brick fence when we were supposed to be turning for the line down the diagonal and trot, I was yelling, "no, that one- THAT one dummy!" he saw it at the last minute and jumped it from a trot. It was his first time jumping flowers, there was a rainbow jump combination with lots of flowers, he took a GOOD look at that one!



When the announcer announced "Clear, no time penalties" it took a moment to realize we had just won! Woot!

Dad and Mom as support crew. Dad holding our new leather halter. Jasper expressing what he thinks about standing still for photos.

And then, get this- they give out an award at this show for the overall lowest score. We won! We got a blanket!

Jasper sporting his new halter and blanket, I think he looks good in periwinkle.

Anyway, if you're near the area, (Deary, Idaho) I highly recommend this event. It's very well organized, the people are friendly and accommodating, the footing in the arenas is excellent, and the XC courses are inviting and confidence building with some good questions built in.