With 2020 behind us…. and the lingering pandemic…. I am very happy that the show season in Area 8 has started.
Back in December 2020, I moved my horses to a new facility. It was A LOT of moving, but so worth it. I now have a private barn on a 500+ acre horse farm. I have 2 lovely fields. The farm boasts a full sized, all-weather dressage arena and a half mile track. I also have use of a lovely field for my jumps.
New Facility
SPRING BAY
Last weekend I took SS Palantir and SS Full of Hope to Spring Bay HT. It was a very wet Saturday.
SS Full of Hope was wonderful in the dressage. He scored a 29.3 in his first Novice class (2nd recognized show of his career). He was calm and rideable. SS Palantir (training division) was a bit wild in warm up, especially after another horse exploded and ran sideways near him…. he really hates other horses, and warm-up. He did not settle down, so we had a rather low score of 36.2. Our last outing last year, we had a 22.4.
On to show jumping…. which it rained the entire time, sideways. Palantir jumped first. He was actually really good in the warm-up. I think it was the Confidence EQ – not sure yet. Anyway, I was really happy with his round. Very smooth and fun. He jumped everything a big too big, which earned us 1.2 time penalties. We are working on fixing that :).
Cross Country day was much nicer. No rain, just a bit cold (good for the ponies) Full of Hope went first. He was very green in the warm-up, but after fence 5 on course, he settled into work and was so much fun to ride. A double clear earned us 4th place out of 14.
Palantir was a nut in the warm-up again. I got there early and was able to get some jumping in without too much leaping sideways away from the other horses. He was GREAT on course. He is so bold, and careful. We did accumulate a few time penalties. I was too conservative and he was in the air too long over some of the fences. A work in progress for sure. I will be adding a few more gears. Right now we have gallop and collected canter LOL. He is such a fun ride. He tries his heart out. We ended up in 6th. Almost half of the class did not finish. I am proud that the jumps felt easy for us!
Next outing will be Miami Valley HT with SS Willow and SS Palantir in the Training divisions.
SS Full Of Hope 
SS Palantir 
SS Full Of Hope 
SS Palantir