April 29, 2024
And just like that, Sophie and I made a solid return to the green numbers 💚. Words cannot describe the amount of love I have for this little horse, but I will do my best to at least recap the amazing time we had over at Morven Park for this event hosted by Loudoun Hunt Pony Club.
Jacqui and I made this plan a few months ago when I was filling her in on my goals for the season. I wanted to do the training at Loch Moy schooling trials as our first outing, followed by training at Morven to see where we were really at to start the season. If that went smoothly, I would continue on down to North Carolina to move back up to modified. If that went well, Jacqui suggested that we should have a go at prelim at this event. I originally planned that after Carolina, I would have aimed for another modified - likely would have been Waredaca in May - but Sophie gave such a confident ride down there that I was feeling good about the plan to jump back up to prelim at this event. Jacqui also really believed we could do it and helped school us appropriately, which helped me feel more confident about the choice.
I was so excited to be showing at Morven again. It is just amazing to wake up on a show morning at 6:30am and still be able to get to the barn, bathe and braid Sophie, load the trailer, and get to the stunning venue with just a 10 minute drive.
Once again I had quite the amazing crew there to help and support me. Jacqui had a dressage show as well that day, but she organized both her times and another rider she was coaching's times so that they would be going in the afternoon which would allow her to still come help me in the morning over at Morven. So grateful to have had her guidance to walk me through the morning!
The morning started with dressage around 8:40, so I pulled up to Morven about 45 minutes ahead of my test to tack and get on to warm up. The trailer parking area was a lot less packed than the show here a few weeks prior, but I still had 18 people in my division - and there were three prelim divisions running - so the warmup was fairly crowded! Sophie and I found a space to work on being forward but soft and stretchy with Jacqui's words of wisdom, and it didn't take long for my number to be called to head over to the ring.
The show at Carolina a few weeks ago chose to use Modified test C, which requires the big dressage ring, whereas this event chose to use Prelim test A, which is in the small dressage ring. Boy, did it feel small!! By the time I started my first lengthen trot across the diagonal, I was already realizing I had to work really hard to make it not so obvious that I was trying to wrangle Sophie back in before we reached the other side of the ring. The test rode fairly well for us, and I felt huge leaps of improvement from the last time we jumped to the prelim level, which was about two years ago - and it was this exact same test. I have really been trying to improve my geometry to get us some points to push us along as we continue to work on suppleness in general. Our first shallow loop was so fluid, in my opinion - and the judge gave us a 7 for it, which again is huge for us! I had a harder time maintaining the softness in our second loop, and I made a costly mistake of transitioning down to the trot too early later on in the test, but overall I was quite happy with our final score of 37.6. The judge also left a note that she thought Sophie was a 'lovely, capable horse' - I think so too ♥️
After dressage, I left the best horse husband ever, Drew, to keep an eye on Sophie while Jacqui, my good friend Elaine, her adorable puppy Azula and I made our way over to walk show jumping and cross country. (Drew made mention of the fact that he had heroically tied Sophie back to the trailer after the original knot came loose - shout out to him for saving the day 😜 ) We walked the show jumping first before making our way to the field. The show jump course looked relatively straight forward, and had a few combinations that were set slightly long - which I will talk about in detail in a bit because that became important as we rode the course.
Drew and I had walked cross country on Friday night when the course opened and I was incredibly impressed (in the nervous way). I know that the jump from training to prelim is a big one, hence why the modified level exists, but even the modified at Carolina didn't totally blow my mind. This course, however, was a lot. Sophie and I have been fortunate to have schooled some crazy challenging things successfully in the past with Charlotte, and we've had great schooling prep with Jacqui, so none of these combinations were brand new experiences for us. However, putting it all together on a course is a different question. I found the first of two trakehners on course to be quite massive, to which I reminded myself that Sophie has not once ever questioned a trakehner and that it is a rider-scary fence. Jacqui confirmed that thought as we were walking.
Then I found the water exercise to be tricky: one house jump towards the first of two parts of the water, which was placed a few strides out to give us an extra step or two to see the water, and then over a small mound and directly into the second part of the water over a raised log. This was then followed by a few strides to then angle over this very large half roll top that had brush on it to force the ride to be more like a corner.
A similar exercise a few jumps after in the course contained another large roll top set as a horizon fence at the top of a hill, then a few strides down to a drop, which has been something that Sophie has found a bit challenging in the past, and then just a few strides to a brush corner that I found to be quite large. Taking the fact that it was all set downhill into mind, that exercise was going to come up quick, but was set in a way that forward riding was going to be imperative.
Jacqui reminded me at both combinations during our Sunday walk to focus on one line, keep riding forward and to not get in Sophie's way.
The last tricky exercise on course was a combination of skinny fences after a good uphill gallop towards the end of the course. The first was a skinny raised log on top of a mound, and the second was about six forward strides slightly downhill to a really skinny log. Jacqui again reminded me that micromanaging would not help here, and to let the hill and the mound do the work to adjust the canter instead of pulling.
Jacqui and I have spent a lot of time talking about how, even through the training level, Sophie is catty and bold enough that she can climb over fences with tighter distances. But, with the move up to prelim, forward riding is needed to make the larger fences happen correctly and safely. I needed to not be pulling so much and trust that Sophie could make it happen. I think I've mentioned this in previous posts, but Jacqui has been trying to impress upon me that even though Sophie might have still been green-ish to cross country at the start of our partnership, she's been doing it enough now that I need to start treating her like she is an upper level horse. I need to get out of her way and let her make some of the decisions and only involve myself as needed. I completely agree, but obviously it is a lot harder to put into action than it is to talk about!! We finished our cross country walk with these thoughts at the forefront of my mind.
After a teeny bit of downtime, I got Sophie tacked for the jumping phases and we made our way down to the show jumping warm up. I still think that the Morven show jump arena is the most beautiful ring I've ever jumped around, so I was excited to do it again. We had a much better warm up than the last time there, and I felt confident heading into the ring. I got a canter I was happy with, and Sophie sailed over the first fence beautifully, but a light tap cost us a rail. Jacqui had said to me that three inches can make a real difference to the horses, so I was not surprised at the first rail, but then Sophie seemed to get the idea and hopped over fence 2 easily. I rounded a corner to set up for our first combination which was a long one stride at fence 3A and B.
Now, remember when I said the distances were set relatively long and that forward rides were imperative at this level? That came to really bite me in the ass at our first combination. I held Sophie too much, as I often did at the training level show jumping, and she smartly climbed over the vertical in. But then we were stuck. I made it so she had about one and a half strides to figure out and then get over a large oxer, and I totally left it up to her. I knew I had already screwed with her enough on the in of the combination that I didn't want to make an additional bad mistake on the out. Sophie put a scramble-y extra half stride in and popped way in the air with a massive effort over the oxer out, which rocked me enough that I caught her in the mouth and she came down with a hind leg directly on the back rail of the oxer. A loud crack indicated to me that we had broken the rail, but Sophie felt fine underneath me and we continued on through a bending line to fence 4. The rest of the course jumped phenomenally, and felt like one of our better rounds to date! Jacqui and I checked Sophie over after we left the ring and she didn't have so much as a scratch. As much as it is embarrassing to have broken a rail, and turned a lot of heads as a result, I am glad my horse was fine, and I think it woke me up big time the rest of the course. Live and learn! (Also the volunteers and members of LHPC already had another matching rail ready and waiting on the sidelines to put back in place of the one I had ruined. Sorry to all for the damage!!!!)
We made our way over to the cross country warm up, shaking off what had happened early on in show jumping. My plan for the xc was to just focus on each jump as it came to us, and to not focus so much on making time. The questions on cross country were hard enough that I wanted to focus on making sure we could work through it all. We had a few minutes to catch our breath as the riders ahead of us went out for their rides. When it was almost our time to head out, I had a good gallop around the ring and popped over one of the bigger warm up fences. Sophie was feeling more than ready - fresh, even! She had two good kick outs as I was trying to pull her up to a walk on our way to the start box. I think the cheeky girl was pumped for the galloping.
As per usual, Sophie was a bit spooked by the ghosts of the start box, otherwise known as the lovely volunteers and their car, so Jacqui led us in to the box to get us off on the right foot (thanks for that, Jacqui 😂 ).
3...2...1...have a great ride!
As much as I was not too worried about trying for time, I still wanted us to have a proper prelim pace wherever possible. Sophie easily galloped over fence one and two, and fence three is where I started to get in the way and held her a little too tight to the base. It was an open oxer that she just grazed but still was able to climb over. We then rounded a corner to fence 4, a semi skinny barn, which I continued to hold too much too, but Sophie made it over. I unfortunately was distracted by that ride that I then chose the incorrect pathway around the trees to get to the next set of fences, which was our first combination. 5A was a similar house to 4, but then it was about five strides down hill to 5B which was a skinny roll top. Sophie was having enough of my bad riding, and was really strong over 5A which I had set up a terrible ride to since I chose the wrong line. I had trouble getting her up and seeing 5B, and Sophie told me off by smartly running by it. I quickly circled left and got her straight to it and she popped over it no problem. That 20 did wonders to my brain, because I very swiftly changed what I was doing to better the ride for my incredible horse. Fence 6 was the massive trakehner I had been worried about, but it is supposed to be a gallop fence, so I kept riding forward and just supported with my leg and seat and Sophie hopped right up over it. That filled me with some additional confidence. We then had a little bit of time to line up to 7A and B, which was a line of skinnies. Sophie took off from the correct distance to the first, which was a little long for me, but then I listed to her plan and rode forward in four strides to the chevron out and it felt smooth like butter. 8 was a good gallop fence and then 9ABC was the harder water complex. Sophie saw the water from far away, ears pricked, and popped over the first fence, and I then let the ride into the water steady the canter. I lined up for the B element and added a little extra leg and she dove into the second water. I put my eye and her ears onto the roll top out, and she angled over it confidently and easily like a true upper level horse out of a forward stride. A big 'good girl' shout and we moved on to a smaller beam fence at 10 that we scrambled over because I was a little distracted by our incredible ride through the water. We had a little wiggle through over the bridge into the back field, and then we had a good long gallop to a big table at 11 which rode right out of stride. I then started taking deep breaths and steadied our pace to turn to the drop brush combination at 12ABC. Sophie easily hopped over the roll top at A, and then I tried to not pull too hard and just used a lot of 'whoaaaa Sophie whooooaaaa' and heavy seat to slow her to see the drop at B. She saw it and did a little shuffle and scoot off of it, and then I rebalanced and put us on a good line to the corner at C. I rode forward, like I had the last few combinations, and Sophie jumped over the corner like a real champion. I almost cried tears of joy!!!! Another massive 'good girl' shout from me, and incredibly supportive shouts from Elaine who was stationed at that fence, and we powered on.
I learned from my lack of focus and our bobble over fence 10 and treated the let up fence at 13 with a little more respect and Sophie hopped over it easily. I then sat up and let Sophie catch herself on a downhill ride to a sunken road exercise that was similar to our last ride here. We had a mim rail fence in, down and out through the sunken road, and then I again allowed us to keep that forward momentum up over the two angled roll tops that rode right on in the forward one stride. At this point I had a smile just absolutely plastered on my face. Sophie went right up and over our second trakehner at 15, and we began our gallop into the last field towards home. We rounded a tree line to a table at 16, and then galloped uphill to that last skinny combination. I let the hill get us to a good pace to tackle the skinnies, and Sophie did some great footwork over the first one, and I just simply guided Sophie on a good line and she locked onto and hopped over the really skinny log out. We galloped downhill to our second to last fence, a big table, and I let her figure out the striding. She backed off a teeny bit and then threw a good shape over the top, and then we turned towards home and popped right through the keyhole at the last fence. The good girl shouts were quite audible to anyone in the area, and I let her have a bit of a canter and a trot to come down from that epic run.
This little mare still had some gas in the tank after all of that too, and it was closing in on 80 degrees and sunny no less!!
I learned so much from our jumping rides. Sophie really is something special. Not only is she athletic and full of scope, but she wants to be out there. She enjoys it as much as I do, and yesterday we really felt like a true team. In our first year or two of events together, it has been a lot about building her confidence and showing her that cross country is fun and doable. In the last year, it has turned more into getting stronger as a team and forming a relationship founded in trust to get through the bigger questions. I think that really came to light at this event. In the show jumping, I made a big mistake and I trusted Sophie to make a good decision to save us. She jumped it and tried so hard for us, but even if she had bailed at the oxer I would have praised her. I think she jumped it because we have, more often than not, felt quite strong in the show jump ring, and I have always been there for her supporting each step, even if I am too much at times. I think she knew I would still be there no matter how we got to the other side of that oxer, so she was confident enough to try. The rest of our ride in that ring was seamless and we just felt so in-sync.
Out on cross country, Sophie was the most focused she has ever felt. Even though we had a few sticky jumps early on, she communicated to me that I needed to trust her and let up a little. When I did, she rode on like a seasoned event horse. I only had to make minor inputs as needed through the rest of a tricky course. She trusted me enough to be there to support her, and I trusted her to make good calls, which we both did for each other. I can't properly describe how incredible the ride felt as we rode the course from fence 6 on - the partnership we are developing is one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced.
My amazing team was right there with me at the end of the course, and all of them were just as elated as I was from that round. Throwing it back to one of my other blog posts, our round might not have looked great on paper, but man were there so many huge wins for us from this event. Our second prelim, a better dressage test than the last event, a beautiful show jump after I fixed my riding mistakes, and similarly a freaking phenomenal cross country ride after I fixed my riding mistakes. Sophie was fit for it, she did not find anything taxing or hard, and I learned so much about how I need to be riding at this level for us to continue to find success. It was also sunny, I didn't forget to pack my favorite sun shirt for the jumping phases, and I had amazing people by my side all day. I also think that simply riding around at Morven Park is a reason to smile in and of itself - just a beautiful place.
So grateful for Drew, who was of course there as my ever-present support system, and my lovely friend Elaine, who made the trip over from DC to come and hang with horses for the day with her adorable little Azula in tow. And of course I am thankful for Jacqui's continued support during our time down here. I also know that I had several long distance score stalkers that made time to check my results alongside the excitement happening at Kentucky over the weekend - very appreciative for that!! I am so grateful for such wonderful family and friends in my life.
Now Sophie will get a well-deserved few days off, and then we have a show jumping clinic scheduled for this Friday to help us prep for fun things happening at the end of May 🤫 Can't wait for what's next!!
K
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