FH Fall Starter Trials 2017: A Buck Buck Here, and a Buck Buck There, Here’s a Buck, There’s a Buck…And So On…

Fair Hill 2017 Fall Starter Trial (Part 1 Dressage/Stadium)

We came, we made it, we lived. It was not our finest hour. But it was fun as can be and a great day weather wise!! As I stated I got Remus a stall and maybe not the best idea in the world since the two horses beside him were so gonzo that they razzed Remus up. He might have been better with the Track Team. (Every year in September on the SAME day as our starter trial, hundreds, maybe thousands of kids compete on the track right next to where we park. Two years ago Remus flipped out at all the zombies (I mean kids) running down the hill to him I skipped last year due to this and this year got a stall). It was a good idea on principle. But he was jazzed up. Which is good. And bad. More on that later….

But when I got to Fair Hill (after failing to see Emma’s trailer and driving by it TWICE), I got him settled in the stall and Star was settled on the trailer. As soon as I took Remus off he started screaming for Star. Horses. (He doesn’t even LIKE Star that much).  So I dumped him in the stall set up his hay and water and left him. That was the nice part of the stall!

Charles in Charge

First thing as I am calling Emma to find where she parked, she is texting me asking if Charlie can go in my trailer (Turns out Chuck didn’t like the stall situation). I of course said I have plenty of room and it is a big ass trailer (I finally had a horse in it big enough for it HA!) So we threw Charlie in with Star and the good boy that he is he settled right in while Emma went to watch her friends ride! Meanwhile I took a shot of Charlie and thought about posting on Instagram that I got a new horse (I decided I better not) HA.

He was good as gold and if he wasn’t ginormous I might try stealing him. But dang he is big. You can have him back Emma :)!

After Emma went in dressage and Jess went in dressage, Alli and I went to walk the course (stadium and cc). It actually looked pretty good. (Course i had walked it the day before and had walked the wrong stadium course (FH why you do this to me each year :))…I am not going to bore you with photos of the jumps in cc. We jumped the same ones in July and even less were up for this year. We had 13 jumps. And no jumps out of the water. It was a bit subdued to my thinking but I was not going to fuss. Less jumps mean we might go clear! HA. It was great hanging out with Alli so much more and I hope me being so nervous didn’t stress her(Spoiler, it didn’t!).

Dressage

I got there early enough that I had way way way too much time. Which means I lost track of time. Which means I effed up my time to get ready and warm up. WHICH means through no fault of Remus, we did not have a good dressage test. As in a 44. BUT considering he got a 40 last week on a perfect non-buck test…I just don’t know with scores anymore.

But Remus bucked both ways (there is a theme here for the whole day) at his canter departures. I thought his trots were fabulous, he was much more up than normal. I actually was pleased with how responsive he was (yes the bucks were annoying). I do not think he deserved a 4 and 5 on some of his trot and walk work. He had a pretty good free walk and got a 6 I think that may have been his only 6. But again not his fault. He didn’t have enough  time to warm up and I literally trotted to the ring and went in. Live and learn. It was kind of nice having a hot horse under me (He is usually hotter at FH than any other venue, must figure out how to channel that). I threw him back in his stall (after considering warming him up more but going against that since I wanted some OOMPH left for jumping). Again winging it all day I was. UGH.

Stadium

Before stadium, we had over 2 hours to go for our jump times (Alli and I were in the same group). I got to meet Megan yay!  It took us a second for us to figure out who each other was but her hair SHOULD have given it away! LOL I can’t wait to hang out more with her, she was a hoot!

But again. I overestimated time needed to go back and forth to the trailer for stuff and back to the stall. And I had the wrong girth. Got a girth that fit finally (though it was too big) and got on (THANKS Kate for all your help (my barn mate) if she hadn’t shown up i would still be getting ready ! HA. ) Anyway the buck buck buck was a happening.

Now that I have watched the video I am less worried that he was sore, more I think he was being a sh*thead and felt good (and was not feeling the love for having to work) but he jumped every damn jump even the ones I made him jump at a trot (If i asked him to canter he bucked so I was like trot then damn you!) Brat! But he was clean! WE always get rails! SO miracles of miracles, we were clean. Too bad we had such a bad dressage score 😦 But still I had to be happy we were clear!! YAY

The Good

He can jump pretty, he can once in a while…

The Bad

Winding himself up for the next frame. Watch this mom!

The Ugly

WHEE let’s watch Remus being bad. (this was one of at least five or six bucks in our stadium round). For maximum laughs, turn volume up so you can hear me fuss and cuss my horse the WHOLE TIME. Cause we would be going great then BOOM and I was like holy cow am I going to stay on or not (he was not bucking hard but after a while it got old.) (thank you Tanya for taking the video!!)

So we got done our course and meandered our way out of the ring (seriously it takes a LONG time to get anywhere with this horse). Would he not be amazing with a green as grass person doing elementary?? (Sans the bucks of course)! We had a quick fix of his saddle (I was using Kate’s Prestige which must have annoyed Remus a bunch) and it had slid back. So we got back up (I had to use the schooling CC jumps to get on him again and of course I had time to jump one quick schooling jump and then had to go straight to the start box for Cross Country).

More to follow on the exciting saga that is Fair Hill!! Part 2 will cover Cross Country and more fun adventures of the day! I was actually pretty happy with Remus warming up for stadium and he was not bucking then. So we got some good jumps and some good distances and no rails. So there is progress. One step forward, five backwards….