Clapping Hard for Catalpa Crew

What a weekend.  Seriously, it was picture perfect in almost every way.  Maybe I was just over the moon to be competing Nutmeg again or maybe all the stars really did align.  Whatever the cosmos was up to, I liked it!

We set off bright and early Friday morning on our five and a half hour drive to the Catalpa Corner Horse Trials near Iowa City, IA.  Although Admiral tried to make the loading process difficult by dashing around the pasture, Nutmeg had her mind on business and hopped right on the trailer.  With dog, horse and husband in tow, off we went!

I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to research, so I generally have a good idea of what I’m getting myself into.  I’d Google snooped photos of the park, taken directions from several sources, and memorized the stabling map.  I knew I was right by the road in A14.  I knew I didn’t get an end stall, but I figured I’d be in tent stabling anyway, so what did it matter. 

Well, sometimes research is misleading.  We were right by the road, but a thick grove of trees

Our Weekend Crib

protected us from the gravel dust.  The barn was as far from a tent barn as you can get.  Concrete walls, big wide gates and windows!  Nutmeg was so happy in her stall and I was thrilled that she had room to turn around.  The weather was outstanding, but the barn was so well insulated that it was probably five to ten degrees cooler so we really got spoiled.

As was my research, so was the GPS a bit misleading.  It told us it was 290 miles door to door.  We can do that without filling the gas tanks, so we did.  Bad choice.  We pulled in on fumes.  I was switching back and forth between tanks every corner when the gauge dipped dangerously low.  I was more than slightly panicked.  Correctly reading my state of worry, the secretary put everything else that was pulling her in ten directions aside to look up where the absolute nearest place to buy diesel was located and to give me step by step directions.  I suddenly felt like Royalty. 

After settling in the big red head, we went for an explore around cross country.  I’d seen pictures, but they just didn’t do the facility justice.  Absolutely gorgeous setting!  Our first two jumps were located in a lane of trees and the detail of the decorations was fabulous.  Every time we turned around, you could tell the Catalpa Corner organizers were dedicated to hosting a top-notch event.

 

 

 Normally after my cross country walking I’m cautiously optimistic.  Friday evening, I couldn’t wait for Saturday because I was sure we were just going to have too much fun!  We put in a not to embarrassing dressage test.  It was sloppy, but it was mostly relaxed.  We didn’t fight and that is a victory.  I received notes that my reins were too long.  Well yeah, but for the first time ever "Resistant of rein aids" wasn't underlined three times.

Cross country was as much fun as I expected it to be.  This was Nutmeg’s first time jumping in trees with shadows playing on the jump faces.  It peaked her interest, but as usual, she was happy to gallop on.  We didn’t get compacted enough going into the half coffin, but squiggled through it.  The following jump was a bit messy as we recovered our decorum.   

Option Fence #10

Novice was given an option to go up the stair steps or to take a three stride chevron line.  I was originally worried about the footing on the steps because it seemed nearly concrete, but after watching a couple of training riders hop up it, I decided we’d give it a go and it rode very well.  Nutmeg thought we should be done about fence 12, but thankfully grabbed her second wind as we galloped up the hill.  I saw long and she saw short at fence 17 and we hit it hard.  I felt horrible, but it didn’t seem to faze her.  She sure picked up her feet over the last two fences. 

It was a real pleasure to ride around such a flowing course.  My watch went on the fritz right before I headed out, but the friendly timing volunteers were able to give me my start and finish times so I knew we’d done just fine on our pace (six seconds under optimum).  It was a bit of a walk back to the barns (the back of my heel is cursing my good horsemanship), but the bottled water handed out by the pinny collector was highly appreciated.

The decorations for show jumping were just as detailed as cross country.  It was a delightful course that rode nicely for many people.  Nutmeg shocked me by peeking at the in of the two stride, but in true eventer fashion we pulled through.  It was ugly but we got the job done.  We ended up with two rails.  I believe I can chalk them up to the fact neither of us is as fit as we should be.  I let her get flat.  Now we have a very firm idea of where we are and where we need to be in 24 days when we head for Kentucky.

I just can’t say enough good things about the event.  We had a great time and there were no big snafus that I heard about.  Unfortunately, someone lost their horse on the way to the event.  Everyone’s hearts certainly go out to them and their horrible loss.  With that shadow put aside, the sun shone brightly, the temperature stayed below 80, and everyone can home safely.  Five and a half hours was certainly worth it.  Oh did I mention the Catalpa staff were working with four to five times the number of competitors they were originally expecting?  The scheduling was brilliant and it had the feel of a really big, really well run event.  Thank you so much to the Catalpa Corner HT staff.  You guys rocked it!



"Water Piggies."  The dog was well pleased that there were two water jumps.

Ricky Raccoon



A "coop" that actually is a coop, complete with nesting boxes.