Fresh Perspective

Better than a trip to the spa, our outing to the Kentucky Horse Park was terrific.  We made it a girl’s weekend, just me, a girl friend to groom and keep me awake, and the Chestnut mare - Nutmeg. 

We had no traveling trouble.  In fact, Nutmeg who is a notoriously awful traveler handled her first three plus hour trip like a champ (actual time in the trailer just a bit over nine hours each direction).  Fuel prices certainly weren’t comfortable.  I gagged when we paid over four dollars a gallon.  Little did we realize that Indiana has a sneaky little tax system.  When you think you’re paying $4.03, you’re actually paying $4.35.  Shocked, I asked the attendant why the difference in prices between the billboard and the pump, his response, “It’s an Indiana thing.”  Apparently Indiana and Washington are the only states that have a “hidden” tax for their residence.  Kind of strikes a nerve in me, but we weren’t going to let it ruin our trip.  After all, on a girl’s weekend out, you get what you pay for, right?

The staff for the Kentucky Classique Event deserves a great big thumbs up and a heartfelt thank you.  They were organized, friendly, helpful and efficient.   I have never seen a more efficient show jumping day.  Everyone was concerned with the eminent arrival of Isaac and they pushed us through quickly and politely.  Such a refreshing atmosphere.

Of course the Kentucky Horse Park is one of the nicest venues.  Ample room for warm-up in all three phases, great footing, and a back drop to make any horse enthusiast drool.  With a popular venue comes shopping!  In the Midwest we don’t get a lot of vendors, so we took full advantage of the various options and did what girls do best, especially around horses – shop for horse stuff!  A sparkly brow band and crop for the pony, some reading material for me, a few necessities like studs and rubber bands and we were about done in.  Of course, I spent about fifteen minutes drooling over the Kentucky cross country boots.  Someday… sigh.

While the great traveling conditions, the staff and the setting would have made the trip pretty good, the fact that Nutmeg had on her polite shoes sent us over the moon.  We had a wonderful time together.  She seemed to really enjoy hanging out “with the girls.”  Extra treats, grazing, and being a bit spoiled seemed to really bring out her best attitude.  Our dressage ride was so-so, but it was polite.  We didn’t get into any big fights.  Mission accomplished.  The icing on the cake was our canter work.  Perhaps not the most brilliant, but for us, a huge improvement.  No more bolting forward, rocketing me out of the tack or jumping out of the arena.  I’ll take it and we’ll move forward from here.

 

Honestly, cross country was a bit disappointing.  I expected to be challenged, but we shared what seemed like about half the course with baby novice.  If it hadn’t been at The Horse Park, it really would have been a snooze fest.  As it was, we enjoyed a nice canter around the country side.  We took advantage of the stress free trip to hopefully be ambassadors for the sport, hamming it up and waving to a group of school kids on bikes.  That was probably the highlight of our cross country trip.  Nutmeg rocked it as usual and was well pleased with herself.  I’m eyeing the training fences with increased hunger.

Show Jumping showed the greatest improvement and I left the ring grinning from ear to ear.  We had our first fight free trip.  We pulled a rail, but it was completely my fault.  I started celebrating too soon and forgot to regulate our pace quickly enough.  Lesson hopefully learned.  I am so pleased with Nutmeg.  She was completely cooperative, and that is a BIG change.

I tried a new warm-up strategy for both cross country and show jumping and it will be interesting to see if it had anything to do with our improvements.  Instead of doing a minimal quick warm-up, we did a minimal long warm-up.  Between each jump we took time to walk around the arena at least once.  It really kept us both settled.  It’s a totally different plan then most people take, but this weekend it seemed to work really well.  We will definitely be trying it again.

Yay for good weekends, great friends, wonderful horses, dedicated volunteers and magnificent venues.  I’m blessed to be able to enjoy them all.  Showing doesn’t have to be stressful, it can be as relaxing and as refreshing as a trip to the spa, and that’s the fresh perspective we brought back from Kentucky.