season opener at MDHT!

You might believe me, you might not - but I legitimately had every intention of kicking this event recap off by getting straight down to the business of our dressage and stadium rounds, rather than dragging it out over multiple posts per usual.

organized chaos

But. Well. My internet at home is way slower than my internet at my last job, and a 4minute video (that previously took about an equal number of minutes to upload) now takes approximately THREE hours to upload on my home wifi. Uhhhh wtf.

the long and the short of it

So. I'm still working on it haha. In the meantime, here's the short version complete with some fun behind-the-scenes outtakes haha.

brita memorizes her test

Anyway the show was a blast. It was f*ing COLD out in the morning - we had lots of rain and wintry mix the day or two prior and things seemed like they could be sloppy. Plus overnight lows of 25* and I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Both from ground conditions and mare conditions.

misshapen pad bc dammit it was too cold out and we needed that BoT... good looks be damned

It all turned out fine tho. Brita and I had absolutely perfect ride times - she was in the first BN split and I was in the fifth. We arrived early to walk the courses, then got Brita through all her rides in fairly short order, with my rides not far behind.

pony tries to convince the ring steward that she needs rescuing

Both horses did REALLY well too. Wick put in his softest and most connected test to date - really finally starting to bear the fruits of Brita's labor over the last year or so. It was honestly pretty exciting to watch! And obvi their jumping was on point. Forward and bold through stadium (one unfortunate rail bc Wick doesn't really respect the tiny sticks...) and a rip-roaring cross country!

she also bemoaned her plight to wick, who was happy to listen

Isabel was more than happy to come in strong for act 2 - tho if slightly quiet. Mare was legit tired for the whole day. I think we need more fitness... which I'll have to think more deeply about given my new scheduling etc. She was fine tho - SUPER quiet and relaxed through dressage to score yet another personal record for us (BN-B is generally a VERY good test for us), but then came alive for the jumping phases.

everyone make faces!

Jumping was fine, but would have been better had I spent more time putting the horse together. As it was, I wanted to save as much energy for our actual courses (esp given the xc course seemed almost entirely uphill...) so we were a tad out of sync in stadium.

Two badly botched distances but mostly pretty ok. Well, one botched jump should have separated me from the horse, but Isabel somehow managed to keep herself between me and the ground, tho a rail was the trade off. Oh well, I'll take that over elimination! Lines rode as expected for once haha.

iz and mini izzy!

Cross country was flipping fantastic too. I mean, the jumps were kinda small (tho there was one impressive double brush table that felt like a very respectable effort haha) but I actually LOVED the course.

Great use of terrain, lots of quirky turns through trees and hugging tree lines, a fun A-B combo on the BN course, and an even more fun A-B combo on the N course that lined up perfectly with our track (BN jumped the A element whereas N went straight down the line to catch both).

mini izzy and our swag for the day!

I honestly couldn't have been happier with Isabel's performance. Tho I learned a couple things about myself during the ride and how to keep chippin away at improvements in our jumping phases.

Again, I apologize that I don't have more specific details to share yet - but rest assured that there is a TON of media to come! Video of all three phases (including helmet camera!!!!), plus more gorgeous photos from GRC Photo!