Dreamcrest Horse Trials is one of my favourite events ever. Ian Roberts is always designing and building new jumps, their courses are always fabulously designed, the footing is great, and they are always so organized! Thank you, Ian & Kelly! This weekend came up fast for me and Spar. He’s had a couple mishaps this spring and I’ve been trying to get him ready between. We really only had 10 days to brush up on our skills before heading off to Port Perry and if Spar and I didn’t know each other so well, I would have scratched. (I’ve had him ten years last May!)
He was good in the dressage, but as his first outing he was a bit hot and spooky. The traffic on the other side of the hedges, which surrounded the ring, made him nervous and he went down the centerline tense. I had him settled until after our walk work, when we had a miscommunication and he went walk-canter, instead of walk-trot. I had been schooling walk-canter-walk transitions all week – I won’t make that mistake again! After cantering a good part of the serpentine, he started to relax again, but the judge was not impressed. We are heading up to Jessica Phoenix’s this week for several days to have a mini boot camp on the flat. I’m eager to work with her (she’s so nice!) and hear what she has to say, but am anxious to work out the kinks for better dressage scores in the future. We were eager to jump on Sunday and Spar warmed up beautifully. He was loose, forward, and attentive. We were having a fabulous stadium round when I missed a jump! I am still in disbelief that I did that! That unfortunately resulted in a Technical Elimination and a whole lot of embarassment. However, I was overall happy with Spar’s performance and I felt a bit better after being reminded that Phillip Dutton has done this a couple times.
Amanda Haryett and her horse, Rio, had a positive weekend, finishing 7th in the Entry division. Their dressage was somewhat disappointing, as Rio got quite tense in warm-up with some exuberant horses around him (kudos to the ladies riding those challenging horses! They were so patient and composed!), which carried through to the ring. However, Amanda had clear goals in mind and she accomplished each of them. Rio warmed up fabulously for stadium, although his inexperience showed when he leapt the first fence in a perfect gazelle impression! He jumped so large and powerfully, that he landed a good 1.5 strides away and startled himself! Amanda miraculously hung on and he settled considerabley through the rest of the course. Congratulations to Amanda for keeping focused and helping Rio understand the course! Their XC round was absolutely beautiful and they went double clear – it could not have been more perfect. They finished their weekend with a great experience under their belt and Rio came away with an obvious understanding and love for his job.