It was summer 2008 & the time had come to GET OUT THERE and do it.
A local farm does a nice little greenie horse trial smack in the middle of their pecan groves, making it a beautiful shady spot to try your hand at eventing in a welcoming setting with obstacles that are simple & inviting to the horse and rider just starting out.
We left our farm somewhere around the butt-crack of dawn but I was hardly yawning...my brain was churning all the way there: Do I know my dressage test? Have I forgotten my girth? Will our horrible Race Canter surface? What if Solo limps?
You see, my genius of a red horse had given himself a stone bruise several weeks before. I had outfitted him with a set of EasyBoots Epics (love 'em!) & pads & he was floating around in comfort, but the worry was still there....
Arriving, I parked under a spreading pecan canopy & walked out the grounds. The XC course was small with one tiny bank & a puddle to splash through. The only thing "looky" was a set of lighthouses framing one jump, but I thought we could handle it. Everything else looked quite manageable & I had my game face on.
Dressage
Big horse in a little arena. This was only our second time in the 20 x 40 m arena & Solo's easy strides swallowed up the lines faster than I could comprehend.
We did stay on course though & while not exactly a picture of roundness, we managed to put in a calm, accurate performance for what remains our best score to date, a 41 (I am still convinced the judge was just eminently kind & forgiving!).
Cross Country
It was a very short course, but we LOVED it. Solo was thrilled to have at it & was quite forward, leaping in exuberant style over every obstacle. I am sure people could hear my giggling as we cantered past, occasionally sideways as I had to convince Solo that we REALLY didn't need to gallop a baby baby course!
Turning to approach the lighthouses, he went, "Agghhh!!! WTF is that?" accompanied by a leap sideways, but we corrected & cleared it with room to spare.
Our only shortcoming was the inability to trot, so we ended with 12 speed penalties. Oops (if I pretend to feel guilty does that count?).
We finished it off easily in the stadium round. One boot came off mid-course, I thought I heard it but by the time I was sure, Solo had finished the course with it flapping around his ankle, bless his willing heart. I leaped off & removed it as soon as I could get him stopped & there was no damage to horse or boot, whew!
All in all, we ended up in fourth place with a clear stadium round. It was a heady beginning that only further fed the event-hungry beast inside me!