The Rest of the Story (that's not copywrited...is it?)

So many people have been asking about how the actual horse part of the Longview Schooling went, I figured I had better post something.

We took four horses, Nutmeg, Admiral, Trixie and Spice – Nutmeg’s half sister.  It was the first cross country outing for Trixie and Spice and their respective riders.  My darling husband gave Admiral a nice hack for me and took pictures (yes, brownie points were scored on a grand scale).  I, of course, rode Nutsy. 

 Spice thought things were a bit interesting, but really took to cross-country well.  She got bolder as the day progressed, showed nice balance on the hills, and tried hard to follow in her half-sister’s footsteps, until we got to the water.  Spice is a great example of why foals should be given turnout.  She has lived a sheltered life and though she is on 24 hour turn-out now, lack of exposure as a youngster has apparently left her petrified of big puddles.  Even though the water complex is very inviting at Longview, Spice was truly terrified.  With much patient coaxing, we did eventually get her feet wet.  We called that a true triumph and will be taking every opportunity to expose her to water for the foreseeable future.  It will take time, but she’ll come around with patience.

Trixie was the comic relief for the day.  You have to understand that she is not a highly motivated horse.  She isn’t scared, she just doesn’t have a lot of naturally occurring motor, especially when she could be standing still and eating instead.  I don’t think Trixie even flicked an ear at any of the jumps, but it was quite a chore to rev up her engine enough to make going over the jump easier than stopping in front of the jump.  The hay bales offered us particular amusement as Trixie seemed to grad a snack mid-air.  She’s got lots of hang-time anyway, so why not take advantage of a mid-flight snack?

Admiral quite enjoyed the privilege of coming along.  He really likes to feel important.  I keep trying to motivate him to bravery by dangling the promise of returning to prince status in front of his ever so soft nose.  However, while his habit of finding footprints scary remains, he’ll remain second in line for the throne which means he doesn’t get to go as many places.  Unlike Nutmeg, he really likes to travel and be fussed over, he just doesn’t like actually performing much.  Long story short, a walk around the park with view demands was his idea of a perfect day.

I was quite pleased with Nutmeg.  I made some mistakes, mainly just not getting things together.  Story of my life.  We warmed-up over several novice fences one at a time.  My next plan was to jump the novice tiger trap then circle around, down the hill to what I thought was the novice table that had been relocated and then follow that up with a friendly training oxer made of big inviting logs.  I was slightly preoccupied heading toward the table since we had lost our balance coming down the hill and I was trying to renegotiate for a happy canter.  Several strides out I noticed that instead of flat boards across the front of the table, this one had rounded boards.  Apparently it wasn’t the table I thought it was.  Well, we’ll jump it anyway, just with a bit more pace.  About four strides out, I began having second thoughts.  It was looking quite large.   Three strides out, I was saying not nice things in my head.  Two strides out I took an enormous breath because I knew it was way too late to chicken out.  One stride and an extra long take off, we were air born for quite a while then landed and galloped on with a pounding heart a whoop and a holler. 

The training oxer to follow was going to be easy as pie.   After that, I was better about examining my fences closely before venturing toward them (I preach that practice all the time, to look for holes and what-not, shame on me for not heeding my own advice).  Nutmeg jumped through the half coffin in style.  Managed the corner, although her pilot could have done a better job.  We jumped up the bank and down the bank, played thoroughly in the water and learned we could fit between two very close together trees.  I decided to do the skinny in the tree line with an easy left exit.  We did not have a good approach.  We were not well balanced and were going to arrive at a very bad spot.  Even though I was seeing a disaster unfolding I didn’t let my left wall down, so Nutmeg decided to save us by diving through the trees on the right.  I lost my stirrup rubber band and picked up some bark, but darn it, I rode her better then next time.  She’ll teach me yet.  We finished the day over a mini course including a novice fence we didn’t do well at the event and two training fences.  She was a champ.

All around, it was a very successful outing.  Everyone left with sound horses and smiles.  I was reminded of some skills we need to improve and we feel prepped and ready to take on Heritage!