Recap on the h/j show that was on Saturday! It was at a local venue so my Sister and I hacked over. Since the format of the show has the Hunters go in the morning then the Jumpers after, we were able to arrive a little later in the day then normal, Which was lovely! It also meant that I didn’t have to wake up at 5am 😉 it’s always very unpredictable about when you should show up if your riding the Jumpers. Like I said, hunters go first, and they start at 8am. The height options for Hunters are x-poles, 2’, 2’3”, 2’6”, and 2’9”, And there is never a very large group of people in the Hunters. And you can NEVER guess what/how many rounds each person is planning on. So… show up in between 9:30-1? Luckily my coach had a couple students in the Hunters, and I was able to phone her and ask how things were going. She read out the order of go to me as well, so I could go;
40 rounds at 1 1/2 minutes each, means 1 hour, add in 30 minutes for raising the jumps a couple times, and the 30 minute lunch break, you have 2 hours! Which put us at 11am. We left at 10:15, and got there at 10:50ish. They were just finishing with the last couple Hunter riders, so we’d gotten there a Little earlier then need be… but it worked out. I hopped off and stood in the shade with Ollie for a bit, and Brianna got a longer warm up on fox. Once the jumps had been changed and lunch break was over, the show started back up again with 2’3” jumpers. Brianna and Foxy had two awesome rounds at that height! I think Brianna is pleased, and fox was a really good girl! I managed to get a couple warm up jumps in while the 2’3” class was on. Trot into the upright, canter the upright, canter the oxer… and done! The jumps got raised up to 2’6”, and Ollie and I headed in. 2’3” and 2’6” were being run as speed classes, with no jump off. We got in pretty tight with all the jumps, and I could have gone more forward… but we got around Clear! Although… slightly embarrassing, I forgot to cross the finish line. 🤯 IN MY DEFENCE, none of the other people in Jr did either. Lol… the last two jumps in the 2’6” course were VERY mean. 7-8 was a bending line, 7 just had some small flowers, but 8 had the big box ones under it. Then it was a SUPER SHORT turn to jump 9, which was a BRICK WALL.
It looks tamer in the video then how it was to ride. (Also, fun fact, listen with volume and you can hear my coach yell “yeehaw! Good girl!) also you can see how I turned JUST in front of the timing pole after jump 9, if I’d gone just 5 feet more! Oh well lol. The jumps got raised up to 2’9”, and Ollie and I went out again. (You will be getting pictures instead of a video, bc my phone is being annoying and is taking forever to load the videos.)
then I did a second round at 2’9”, before the jumps went up to 3’. Let’s be honest here. To me, 3’ Looks huge. But Ollie felt awesome, and he was SUCH a good boy! First ever course at 3’ success!!🎉
Then we got to go do our jump off, and coach was like “ok, so if you can, take the inside turns!” Haha… maybe I should have tried them at a lower height first?!? But we did one inside turn (that I am ridiculously proud of) but skipped out on the other as we were on the wrong lead. Here’s my 3’ round, I’ll put the jump off after. (Again, fun fact, listen with volume and you can hear these two people talking about Ollie in the background when we go through the A, B. You can also hear me clucking 😂)
The first inside turn I was going to try was after jump one, turning inside the green oxer but still going around the blue upright. Unfortunately, I forgot I was planning that when I was lining myself up for jump one, and I ended up jumping in with to much of an angle. We also landed on left lead, and I could tell it wasn’t going to happen. The second one however, worked! After jump off jump #4 (regular jump #5) the green oxer, we turned inside of the brick wall, where the route everyone else went was around the brick wall, blue and white spots, and red gate.
That put us at an angle coming towards jump off jump #5 (reg jump #6) but luckily my coach is always having me practice jumping on angles, so it wasn’t that hard for Ollie. we got actually got a REALLY nice jump over it. Which is nice, especially since that was the jump that I thought looked HUGE and much bigger then the rest.
once I’d finished that round, I was just walking Ollie around the arena waiting for Brianna to get on Foxy, (she’d dismounted to wait for me while I was riding) but then I look over, and there is Foxy in her halter… what? Apparently, Brianna had been passing the reins to my mom, so that she could put Foxys hoof booots on for the trail ride home, but my mom didn’t catch them before Brianna let them go or something… and Foxy stepped on them… then lifted her head up… and the bit feel off the bridle. Luckily, the way Fox pulled her head up meant that she’s totally fine! And when she pulled it didn’t put pressure on her mouth. But regardless, the bit and reins were now on the ground. I suggested attaching the bit to the halter… but we weren’t sure how well that would work lol. Brianna (can’t blame her) didn’t really want to ride the excited baby TB back home in a halter, so we kinda just sat there for a bit thinking about what to do. Finally I came up with the idea to use Fox’ Bridle as a bitless. She uses a Micklem, and they can double as bitless bridles, so we figured it would work. I mean… it worked for a bit? Once we got about 5-10 minutes down the trail (past the “hippie” campsite that I was explaining Here. This time there was a shirtless tattooed dude with a vicious dog + 3 school buses + 5 cars) Brianna Realized that she had no brakes, so I went in front and boxed Foxy in. The worst part was when we were almost home and we were going down our road, and Fox was sooooo excited. Then a truck zooms by, and fox let’s out this big buck… luckily B stayed on. And we were right across the road from our coach’s driveway. So B was able to kinda trot across the road and I followed then grabbed Fox from on top of Ollie, and we were able to get her to stop by putting Ollie in front of her. (he’s such a good boy lol) I held fox while B jumped off, then I left and went up my driveway 😂 Ollie got hosed off, offered the whole bag of horse cookies, then put out in the grassy paddock to graze. Turns out we won stuff to! We got reserve high point in the juniors, and I won a polo shirt for the judges pick award? The judges pick award is kinda just what is sounds like. The judge gets to pick someone, then they give them a award for what they liked about that persons rounds. Apparently I was very consistent with all my rounds… so free polo shirt with the equestrian clubs logo!
Ponies and Potter 
Congrats on a great show!!!! 2″ looks big to me so 3′ definitely is huge 🙂
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Thank you!!! Oliver was so good! He tends to have more fun the bigger the jumps get, so it really helps me not stress about them as much! 🤠
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