GDCTA Eventing Camp: Third Day

This day dawned very early as I rode at 7:55 am with Michael Pollard. Yikes. The day had concerns of rain and storms but so far it was okay. I had backed into my parking spot JUST IN CASE so I could get out and the 5 am alarm was ahem…early!

Remus was hilarious all week, he knew where I parked (by my trailer) and spied me every morning.

So with such an early start, I lucked out and did not get rained on in my dressage lesson (HA more on show jumping later where I DID GET SOAKED). By the time my lesson was over in the am the clouds were zooming in and they did have a rain delay a few times that day (lightning and thunder oh my!).

But my newfound friends from Georgia (with Remus’s new love Spot behind him) lent me a dressage whip. I was ready. We entered the waiting area with time to spare and the young girl with the green horse went way over her time. SO I started about 10-15 minutes late. Which was fine but I was eyeing the sky.

Michael asked me what I needed to work on and I said everything. I did brandish my whip though explaining that I had not brought one the day before. We started out at the trot and working both ways again you guessed it making Remus move forward. Luckily I was not wheezing as hard this day as I was the day before.

We continued on with the bend first, move forward second, and make Remus work for it. With the whip we got a lot more canter work in and we did trot to canter and canter to trot (Remus HATES trot to canter). But besides one kind of buck he was willing to do it. Again he got so he started thinking about it and realized we were going to trot and/or canter and he had to do it. Or get smacked. Before long he was just moving forward from a squeeze. Also Michael had me pushing him out with my inside leg but putting my inside leg on my girth. Not leaning my leg back which hence pushes me forward. Was it legendary no, but it was definitely progress. Michael had some other pointers with Remus and I have to say that with both his and Waylon’s help I figured a lot out about my fat buckskin who hates flatwork. (PS Remus so do I).

I got done, and headed back up. I untacked and hosed Remus off and sat down and BOOM the rain came. And lightning and thunder. It was really bad. I was so lucky to be done dressage. There was not a long delay so once it cleared up we started up again. Meanwhile I did a Starbucks run for everyone. I mean I NEEDED Coffee and the coffee truck that was there on Tuesday was NOT there on Wednesday. My jumping time had moved down to due to the delays so I had the time.

By the time I came back they were starting up again and catching up. THEN BOOM here it came again. I had tacked up Remus and was all ready with everything and I sat down and said I am not going to put his bridle on quite yet. SURE ENOUGH another delay. It sure can rain at Chatt! This time didn’t seem as long and even though the group before me had to finish up before I knew it we were ready to go in. I was with the same two women as the day before so it went similarly. Though I did not get as much from this jumping lesson. There were raised poles on an angle and the weather was ominous and Michael kept an eye on the sky. I got a few jumps in but the sky opened up and we got soaked. He ended it early and honestly I was fine with that. Remus was getting tired as was I and we could not get the gymnastics to work out for us. Ehhh you win some, lose some. Michael was really nice to ride with and I liked him a lot but Waylon was a bit more down to earth and easy going. I knew the next day I was riding Cross Country with Waylon and I was ready for that. But was Remus? We were both fading a bit for sure.

By the time I was done I had a horrible headache from the weather. My new friends were going out to dinner and invited me but I just wanted Chipotle and my room. So they promised to check on Remus when they came back by and I headed to the hotel. They indeed texted me later saying Remus was fine and they had topped his water off but he was very mad they didn’t bring him more food (HE STILL HAD HAY HE WAS NOT STARVING HA). My headache finally left around 11 pm that night and the weather was not great forecasted for Thursday either!

Going to drag it out just a tiny bit more 🙂 Yes hate me that is fine!