Groton House XC Video

Thought I'd share a little treat with you: our Groton House XC video!



Now, quite obviously we both had some pretty green moments in this video. She started off very strong over the first fence, was game over the second, and then had a major bobble over the third, mostly because I incorrectly assumed that the visual sight of a downhill landing would back her off a hair, but it did not and I didn't quite have everything together in time to bring her back a hair before she took off with legs flying everywhere! She was definitely game though! She then went barreling down the hill, thankfully no worse for the wear, and we were more conservative and defensive to the fourth. Fifth fence again didn't really have a good spot to it, but thankfully she's talented enough that Novice-sized fences pose no issues for her and she can skip over them without getting ruffled in any way. Sixth fence was a bit hairy due to the major hangtime on the landing side! Off to the seventh, which again wasn't even worth more than cantering over for her, and the eighth rode very nicely after a long hilly gallop. Another flat gallop followed after that to fences nine and ten, both of which rode well. A very strong half-halt down that hill followed, (which you can see) and then it was onto fences eleven and twelve, which you can't see (twelve was the ditch which she took a very hearty and awkward leap over when she saw at the last second that it had a troll in it!). She was a little wary approaching the drop, and that was our obviously most awkward fence, which I did not help her through because I of course leaned and looked down when she hesistated! A pop with the stick and somehow we ended up mostly in one piece on the other side. The water followed, but by this time she had been over two hairy obstacles in a row and was looking around a bit. I wonder if she had her confidence rattled a little bit here and that has been adding to our problems? But at the same time, the final three fences rode so nicely that it seems unlikely. I don't know, really.

All in all there are some, erm, scary moments, and some really awesome ones too. The course was awesome to ride, but it is clear where the homework is. I intend to get out and school XC, hopefully next week, provided she is feeling more like herself. She cruised through a very light gallop today with not all that much left over in the tank, so we kept it light and easy. It was also DOWNPOURING by the time we were done, so it was wise to end a little early anyway. I have videos of the tornadic storm that blew through later in the day, I will have to post those tomorrow cause they are WILD!

Watching videos like this make me feel very excited about the future. Sure, there's a lot of things to work on, but beneath all the bobbles there really is some real potential there. And of course I don't mean her, she's perfect, I mean for ME! If I ever get my act together I think we could really be something special together. She's something else, that Gogomare. She really is.