Groton House Farm H.T. 6/28/09: Day 3, Stadium

THREE-PEAT!!!!!!!!!!

WE DID IT. WE DID IT! OH MY GOD. I can't even believe this happened. WE WON GROTON HOUSE.

This weekend was just one big awesome time. Not only did Shannon come out yesterday to see XC, but today Daun and her SO came out to watch and cheer me on and bring me delicious eggs. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. Thanks Daun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything went smooth and nearly flawless today. The weather wasn't particularly cooperative - cool and misty all day long - but it wasn't rain and it wasn't freezing. The wise comment on that: "well, better than hot and muggy!" Agreed. Gogo was still sparkly clean this morning when I took off her sleazies, and I regroomed and rebraided her. I didn't ever actually take pictures of the course - oops - but I walked it in the crappy weather and found that it was set up to ride smoothly. The first two fences were simple verticals that rode at a forward five strides, with a left turn to an oxer. The oxer rode to a black and white plank, then to an offset oxer off to the right. A hard right turn led to a triple bar covered in super gay rainbow stripes, then a tight left turn to a funky vertical decked in oars and docklines and other boat-y stuff, then another forward ride to a big oxer. The last two on course were a combination, a two-stride which had a trick: a very wide oxer as the first fence, then two strides to a vertical instead of the other way around. Once we were all dressed and ready to go, I went up to the warmup going hey, we've got time to mosey! So mosey we did, and did a little trot, a little canter. We trotted two crossrails just to get started. And then suddenly, Daun is flagging me down going, they're calling for you!! Wait, what? I haven't even cantered a fence yet! How are they running so fast? Oh well, here goes nothing!

And she was great. I overrode parts of the course but overall it was pretty smooth. We took a longer approach to the final combination than I expected, seeing as we landed further out from the number eight oxer than anticipated (and she had touched the rail) and I wasn't worried about time, but I did hustle her on a little and didn't get her quite back at the oxer going into the combination. She FLEW over that final fence! Wood allergy, anyone? The woman I had been tied with had a rail and dropped I think to seventh, and the rider who had been in first also dropped a rail at fence 5. That moved me up into first place.

FIRST. WE TOOK FIRST. AT GROTON HOUSE.



I am completely exhausted but I will have more pictures and video later on. I have to work tomorrow (and alllll week), but at least Gogo will get a rest. Tomorrow she'll have off with some nice handwalking and grazing as well as the longest turnout we can manage without her freaking out, and she'll have a very light walk hack of probably around a half hour on Tuesday. Wednesday, it's back to work for us, seeing as the Area I Novice Championships are just two weeks away. Maybe it'll stop raining so we can actually GALLOP sometime this century.

LIFE IS DAMN GOOD, AND I HAVE THE BEST SUPERMARE ON THE ENTIRE PLANET.