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We Are Flying Solo

March 15, 2012

I'm Trying!

I am not holding out on you on purpose, I swear to you.  I am so swamped this week, am completely booked solid for the weekend, I don't even have time to eat!  I managed to get Encore out for a great hack last night (THANK YOU, TIME CHANGE) complete with deer and turkeys and streams and very large puddles and he proved once again that I bought the right brain.  Hopefully, we will be back in work next week and things will settle down a little.  Of course, my field season for work will start soon so that will mess everything up again!  Argh, work really gets in the way of my eventing!!!

As a consolation prize, I offer you this, Encore's XC run from Sunday.  He DEFINITELY needs some bigger jumps to back him off.  His only real hesitation was a pause of a bulge at 3, with the logs and brush, but I kept my left leg on, touched his shoulder with the stick, and he went boldly on.  I thought the log and drop at 5 and 6 were a fairly significant question for BN, but the more I thought about it, it made a lot of sense -- for most of them, the momentum of going over the log at 5 would carry them the stride or two to the drop at six and they wouldn't have time to think about stopping.  Encore, of course, took it like a pro, we've diligently practiced our banks and I make him walk through every puddle we see, much to his annoyance.

So....

5...4...3...2...1...Have a great ride!



And get this:  he was quite tired from Saturday, so we actually got within 18 seconds of optimum time, something I NEVER managed with Solo.  At BN and N, I was always frantically trying to slow that train down so we didn't get speed faults.  And I can't believe I finally found something that makes Encore tired....but it was a big mental AND physical day Saturday with dressage and stadium to deal with, so everyone slept well that night.

10 comments:

  1. How fun! It makes ache to get out on xc again.

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  2. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
    This I vow, Bailey and I WILL get out there!!!!!!!!!!
    Encore is such a cute little ham!

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  3. Get out! OUT OUT OUT! It felt so good to run again. Even though he wasn't really allowed to run, he tried, LOL.

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  4. Beautiful run! That was great!

    I love Encore's orange ears (I love Solo's, too) and how you tell him what a good boy he is throughout the ride. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Thanks, Val! They have very similar perky ears in their videos, but Solo's ears are smaller and his neck is shorter. Baby did a great job!!

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  6. I couldn't even wait to get home to watch it so I watched while driving. Huge apologies to everyone in Southern Pines and Vass.

    Encore is the man!!!

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  7. BAHAHAHAH, Ryan, you better hope SoPines PD doesn't read my blog. You never know, there might be an officer who dreams of being an eventer!

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  8. OMG I am exhausted!!!!! That was fantastic, those jumps were huge! I am so proud of both of you! I love his little ears that keep checking back and making sure all is ok with mum!!!! The water - great brave crossings! WELL DONE! I can't weait till you go to the Olympics and I can say, yep I followed them from the start! ;)

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  9. Damn, I can't wait till Max and I are doing that! I loooove cross country.
    Well done you and Encore!

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  10. Haha, Nina, let's just say we each have our own version of the Olympics -- for some it invovles medals, for others, it involves a T3DE completion ribbon....

    Go, Max, go!

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