MDHT: Cross Country!!

Cross country time!!! Complete with tons more gorgeous pictures from Austen haha. All of my favorite things in one post - what's not to love?

sweet mare is very sweet <3

I actually felt a little better about my life after walking this cross country course than I did walking the BN course last spring at our move up. Probably just bc I have a little more experience and was a bit better prepared this time around.

so much quieter compared to before dressage lol

Whatever the reasons, the course actually struck me as fairly inviting and easy. There were a few challenging areas but I had a pretty clear plan for how to handle them just based on my walk. And the height looked ok. Granted I intentionally did not get any closer than necessary to most of the jumps... but generally it all looked about how I expected.

ready for action?

Plus Isabel felt pretty game and was jumping out of her skin (despite what all those knocked rails might suggest).

that tail tho!

So it was just a matter of hitting a couple solid warm up fences (one BN fence we jumped last spring, and another novice sized hanging log thingy) then waiting our turn to go out on course.

cabbage box claimed a couple victims

Izzy left the start box well and settled right into cruising gear. All the same tho, we kinda fumbled jump 1. It was inviting and shared with BN, but somehow wasn't really riding well all the same. I managed to get a little ahead of Isabel (or rather, more likely, probably didn't work hard enough to get her in front of me), but we got over it and I immediately kicked her forward.

caber (a term i had to google bc wtf is a caber?)

Fence 2 was a little stilted too - more of that same backwards riding. But it was ok - tho I also started laying on the verbal encouragement at this point, since Izzy responds really well to it.

gallllloooopppp woooo hoooo

She was clicking almost into gear, but we had a little too much fast and not quite enough pull. Meaning - she was really GOING, but she wasn't necessarily pulling me along too and was kinda slipping behind my leg.

ark

So we kinda crawled over the ark too - which came up pretty quickly after the first two fences - before getting some room to settle into a gallop.

log roll

We finally got into that good gallop gear tho, and Isabel carried me over fence 4 beautifully before weaving through the trees to the 5 A-B combo.

coop

This combo had worried me a little bit on the walk for a couple reasons. They're nestled in the woods - and Dan is fond of saying that horses will always try to back off and get behind your leg in the woods. Plus they were maxed out and walked in three strides (for a 12' stride).

roll top

But they are very inviting, plain fences. And Isabel really has no problem hitting a 12' stride when she's galloping. So yea my gut felt iffy about them... but my brain knew better.

And obviously Isabel was fine. Locked on and marched straight down the line and immediately hunted for whatever was next. Good mare!

pheasant feeder

And next was the feeder. She wiggled ever so slightly on approach but still jumped it fine. Then we trotted down a steep rocky hill. I was kinda happy to have this little 'pause' in the course bc Isabel still felt really strong, but was verging on getting flat and felt like she could easily slip behind my leg if I wasn't careful.

first ever trakehner ... gulp!

But I wanted to be careful, bc right after the downhill was a quick left turn to a trakehner, something I've never tried with Isabel before. And it had a pretty open face - meaning the ditch was clearly visible from a ways out. It was really a small log tho, and I just focused on that part of it and Isabel cruised over no issue.

loved all the other bigger jumps peppered across the course. that barn was HUGE!

Then we GALLOPED up the hill haha. This mare is so fast - she really GOES! It's such an incredible feeling to just let her go like that too, tho obvi I had to reel it in a bit for the jumps...

bothy (another term i googled lol)

But the next fence was pretty straight forward. We had a refusal at the BN version of this fence last time we were at Loch Moy... but that was because it was right out of the water and I was an idiot and tried to jump it from a trot.

we don't care about no bothy tho!

I didn't expect the fence itself to cause any issues and Isabel agreed. Up and over at a pretty forward clip.

could the water be any more inviting? i don't think so haha

My biggest concern about novice cross country turned out to be a nonissue on this course - the water was a standalone obstacle. No jumps before or after. Awesome!

trit trot through the water (apparently still defensive about it tho lol). also what's this green thing in the foreground?

I still trotted the mare through it just to be play it safe, but she was fine.

crappy lighting - but it's a loch ness type monster jump! how f*ing neat is that? (obvi not on our course tho haha)

Then again tho - coming down to trot was yet another opportunity to sort of reorganize and make sure we had an appropriate canter for the rest of the course.

another coop

Next up was another big coop that I didn't get very close to on the walk but again expected it to go well. Especially after Isabel nailed the coop in the woods. And she jumped it beautifully right out of stride. Yesssss.

up bank bending to the garden gate. looks .... potentially challenging

My immediate gut reaction upon walking this 11-12 line was that we ought to circle between the two since they were flagged separately. Neither obstacle individually looks terrible - but add in the bend and what could possibly be an overly strong and disorganized canter AND our left drift issues and... yea.

garden gate - numbered separately from the bank, rather than as an A-B combo

Part of me was tempted to try it - but then I thought back to my goals for the day, especially that 'ride smart' bit. We could probably have made this work no problem (Izzy NAILED the up bank), but circling would give us the best shot. So we circled. And it was alllll gravy.

timber table on rising ground (and sugarloaf mountain!)

Then we had to quickly get over to hug the treeline for a kinda bizarre turn to this large table set on an uphill approach. This one made me a bit nervous too... and we actually came in to it pretty under powered. It was fine tho. Isabel jumps the jumps. She's a pro :)

mdht log (and more mountain)

But then naturally I totally biffed this skinny log - easily the smallest fence on course. Poor mare. One day I will learn to commit to the forward stride. But at this fence I pulled for the add and poor horse thunked her legs on it. Le sigh.

lattice and mountain

Then down hill to the lattice - historically our bogey fence. Isabel barely climbed over the BN version last spring, then we had a stop at a similar fence at Waredaca. But she didn't even blink this time. Awesome.

lattice is officially off the shit list

I am retaining the right to be worried about bright white versions of this style fence, but otherwise I think our lattice issues may be laid to rest.

produce stand

Then it was on to the final fence - a very large produce stand. Very large - but very inviting. And actually pretty reminiscent of the final fence on course at Olde Hope last month. I saw a couple riders have issues here (including one horse that practically body slammed the thing...) but honestly expected it to go well should we make it this far.

flying

And oh boy, did it go well. This was maybe our nicest combined effort on course. It was perfect.

she's incredible

Isabel SOARED over it - you can really get a sense for the air time in the video too. What a feeling!

helmet cam video here

It felt SO GOOD to finish this course without penalties. Isabel couldn't have been any better through that course. She didn't look at anything, and did everything exactly the way I asked (even if I was being kinda stupid lol).

the many faces of mare stare

It's crazy to think about - but the mare has become so educated about cross country now that it's really quite easy for her. Like this course - the height was fine, and there really weren't any questions that she can't easily handle. I still rode it pretty conservatively in places, bc that's just my general instinct - but Isabel could easily go for the bold ride too, I think.

poor austen got put to work too
(also isabel is such a midget compared to wick!)

So we finished on a strong note. The dressage test was a little disappointing - but it was also super uncharacteristic and I suspect that maybe only one out of every half dozen tests will ever go that way. And stadium... well, that's all on me. I know the problems and how to fix them... it's just a process of actually doing it haha.

seriously. this mare. she is so sweet!

I was also way more tense and stressed going into this event than I have been in... a while. And that most definitely affected Isabel a bit too.

But the relief I felt upon completion was immense - so that should get a little easier with each novice event. Because yea, we're gonna stay here, I think. And in fact, we'll be back in a couple weeks for the final HT of the fall series. Exciting!