MDHT: cross country!!

Going into cross country I knew my standings - something I usually avoid as a rule to reduce any undue pressure. But I couldn't resist and looked up our scores on event entries. So. Going into xc we were in 4th place based on dressage score - followed by a clear stadium round. 

We jumped two warm up fences for Izzy to get her eyes on something solid, then we were off! Recall from the course walk that the first three fences were all pretty big - with fence 1 definitely maxed out. Perfect mare was perfect straight out of the start box - jumped well and with confidence. Yessssssss.

Fence 4 - the brush - was also quite large. And I suspect with the brush it topped out somewhere above 2'7". We were going slightly down hill in approach and there were patches of different colored grass which sorta distracted Isabel a little. I rode strongly tho and she was up and over with no problem.

Then we trekked back up the rising terrain to fence 5 - which was kinda in the middle of nowhere. 

I made it a real point to try and let go in between fences, and not start setting Isabel up too early. I just get so handsy and grabby all the time... it's gotta stop!

Isabel looked a little bit at fence 5 but jumped well. It was definitely the first *different* looking fence on course and I kinda anticipated the wiggles so it was fine.

The mound rode a little funny but that might have been mostly my fault. I kept expecting Isabel to anticipate and look around and she really didn't - she was nicely forward straight through it. 

Actually - so forward that we kinda got the mother of all long spots to fence 7, the ark. Oops. These pics crack me up too bc Izzy's like, c'mon Emma, wtf keep up with me! And um. Yea also scope is not a problem for her at this level. Duly noted. 

Then came the water. Sigh. We came down to walk, then halt, then side pass.... but got in without a backward step or penalty. Good mare. Lots of praise!

And here's where my greenness really showed. We were super disorganized and Isabel was still really uneasy about the water (check out that hock action lol!). Plus I lost a stirrup. But did I circle around? Did I give myself space to organize, pick up my stirrup and get our pace back? Or did I just kick on and take the direct route to the big fence out of the water from a trot?

Um. Yea. Poor planning Emma! But as Dan says, "experience is that thing you get right after you needed it." So. Poor Isabel obviously had no real chance at fence 9. 

I circled to the left and re-approached from a pretty steep angle to slice the fence (thus staying on dry ground), and from a trot too bc Isabel was too sticky to canter. Good good good mare gave it a HUGE effort tho and made it happen with quite a bit of encouragement from me. I did NOT want another refusal!

The above is the backside of the same fance - you can kinda get a sense of the angle we jumped it from. This mare. She's a pretty good girl :)

The refusal actually upset Isabel a little bit and she was a tad sticky for the rest of the course. LOTS of verbal encouragement - mostly along the lines of constant praise and counting out the last few strides to each fence (usually from four out - about as far as my eye can go at present). 

So it was a relief that two of the next three fences were let ups (10 & 12).

The ditch went well too. Tho you can kinda see by the angle of Isabel's head in the first two pics that she actually noticed that it was a REAL ditch after take off and kinda gave it the hairy eyeball. No biggie tho.

She didn't look at all at the carvings on the turtle log for fence 12 - and then we were off past some seriously big fences toward the woods. Poor thing actually spooked at a fruit stand type jump right when I softened my reins to allow her to cruise, too. It was at this point that I realized that the stop had knocked some wind from her sails and she needed a little more support from me.

I'm glad I picked up on that too bc the next fence was 13, the white lattice hidden in the shadows. Isabel looked hard and really tried to slam on the brakes - but we somehow managed to climb over. Seriously - I did NOT want another stop! Mucho praise for the princess, plus an economic turn through the woods (really threading the needle through the trees) to get to the pheasant feeder as quickly as possible and she was much better for that fence. 

Then a long canter to 15 which she jumped very well - getting back into the groove - then through the finish line! We did it!!

I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't burst immediately into tears of joy and relief was bc of that stop... I still felt incredible for completing - and recall that was my only goal for the day. But knowing that we had been so well positioned after dressage and stadium, only to have a refusal on xc bummed me out. I mean, it's kind of a no brainer that 20 penalty points at this level is enough to drop you right to the bottom of the pack. 

But lo - I was not the only one to struggle! In a way it reaffirmed my initial assessment that this course was somewhat high-level for BN considering it was a starter event... The course was influential enough that I only dropped two spots in the rankings to finish 6th with a score of 46.8. Kinda crazy but I will take it! 

So. In summary - we're going to stay at this level. Almost all of our training pieces are in place to correctly handle the complexity expected at BN. Water needs work, period. But that will hopefully continue improving with time and experience!