Firstly we had Tonimbuk. Finally Justice (ESB Irish Justice) gets to join the team for his first event of the season. Even though he is competing at the highest level he certainly brings a sense of calm and contentment to my truck that can only come with the company of a dear old friend.
The week leading to Tonimbuk was stressful as on the Wednesday Justice can barely trot because of a nasty abcess. A huge thank you to Vaughn Ellis, my farrier, who truly did perform a miracle. So luckily Justice still got to come complete with a special boot to keep his foot protected and dry (poor Justy looked a little like the bionic horse).
Dressage day was a busy one as I was riding five horses with two in the introductory class (that means five dressage tests and two show jumping in the one day). My two hard working grooms were also riding a horse each in the introductory class.
Zoney (ESB Golden Zone) put together a very cute test to take 10th place after the dressage in a tough field. Every time I take him out he improves a little bit more. The canter transitions were smoother and overall the test flowed a lot better I was extremely pleased with him. He really shone though in the show jumping. After Geelong where he was quite tense, Zone was very relaxed and rideable. He executed a beautiful clear round in the indoor. very good pony!
Finally at 7:15 at night my moment on Justice comes! He has been feeling so good the last couple of weeks I can't wait. The atmosphere in the indoor really lifts both me Justice and I and he produces a stunning test and I feel a personal best! The scores reflect it as well. In a field of twenty one Justice is sitting third, just behind Meagan Jones on Kirby Park Irish Jester and her second ride Kirby Park Allofasudden is in first place.
Bring on cross country day!
Justice was out on cross country early which I think suits the both of us. The course was full of ditches to keep us on our toes, but there was definitely no problem with any of them. It was a fantastic feeling to not only finish clear, but also to feel I rode exactly to the plan that Will Enzinger helped me devise for our bogey fences. Well almost exactly... Justice kept me on my toes by having a stumble on landing in the water. Somehow, I think more through sheer determination, I managed to stay up until Justy regained his feet and still turn out and up over a bank and then two strides two a skinny brush arrow head (thank you Justice for being so honest that I can jump a skinny with my reins on the buckle). It was a lot hairier than i would have liked, but judging by the cheers from the crowd they appreciated the entertainment.
Zones xc was a lot more tame and quite a relief after the excitement of Justice's round. He popped around everything beautifully, but I still kept him quite slow so incurred quite a few time penalties. He finished 15th and with no jumping faults in either of the jump phases. Very happy.
Justice had slipped to 4th coming into show jumping due to time penalties xc. He jumped a very smooth round but unfortunately had three rails which dropped him to 5th. Still in a field of twenty one I was super happy with my grey boys!
Next is one of my favourite events Wandin Horse Trials. Again Justice gets to come out with the other boys and again puts in a solid performance.
After a lovely night at the annual Wandin cocktail party, dressage gets under way quite late, starting with the three star. Justice is feeling great, but unfortunately a little too good and I can feel I need to try and pad his warm up out with a lot of walk so I don't over do it. As hard as I try he still ends up a little 'over cooked' and flat in his dressage and although he is accurate he doesn't quite have the quality in the paces that he did the previous competition. Still, to my delight, it's good enough for first place in the much smaller field!
Zone had been working the best he ever has all week and I was excited to see what he could produce on the day. He didn't disappoint me, pulling off his best test to date! I'm so proud of the way he warmed up and the test he produced was lovely. Unfortunately he did have the curse of being first on and I don't think his score quite reflected the test he did and he was sitting 9th after dressage.
Zone wasn't quite as settled as he was at Tonimbuk in the show jumping and had difficulty with the other horses in the warm up. He had two rails which were down to distraction, but still quite frustrating after the beautiful round the week before.
On Sunday Zone went cross country early. Although a little spooky at the water, he made light work of the course and came home clear and only eight seconds over time. It was good enough to secure him 8th place and his first ever ribbon!
Justice show jumped before his cross country, which I don't really like because I think Justy jumps better when there is still a little bit of adrenaline left over from cross country. On a very deep surface he had three rails. Again he jumped a nice round, but still the rails were devestating. I really had to work hard to pick myself up and get in the zone for cross country. This was something I found difficult, but I've been having some sports performance sessions with Nicole Stewart and some of the tools she gave me helped so much to pull me out of my post show jumping slump. I'm so glad I had that help and was aware enough to realise I had to 'snap out of it' as I wasn't in the right state of mind to complete a tough cross country. A huge thankyou to Nicole and the help she has given me.
With me back in a positive, attacking state of mind and Justice being his usual amazing self we completed a fantastic clear cross country, in fairly good time, to move us from 4th after show jumping to 3rd.
Another great result and a ribbon each for my grey boys!
