A Fall Update

I feel like I haven't updated our season in forever. I am just going to go back and fill in the spots. We have been to many events this summer and early fall and are about to culminate our year at the biggest one for us, the CCI 1* at Midsouth Team Challenge Horse Trials. The year started out a bit rough but has shown me again why I do what I do.

Lets go back to Cobblestone HT. What an amazing venue. Its in Michigan, about 5 hours from Midway and it could not be a more ideal place to have a run. The course was amazing. The organizers and owners had gone to great lengths to water the course (in a drought) using help from the people who neighbor their property and tons of volunteers. They aerated and groomed the course so much that the footing could not have been more ideal. I was SO glad I had skipped Champagne Run where the going was hard as a rock. Mira had an OK dressage test (more blonde moments..and NO not bc of the rider). Her xc was foot perfect over a course that ate a lot of people, including the top people in our division and despite my less than stellar riding a clear show jump. We ended up third and had another qualifying ride under our belt. Catherine also competed that weekend in the Beg Nov championships and while Ransom was once again foot perfect the dressage judge had a "dislike pony with adult rider" bias which kept them out of the ribbons, however she did win the Cobblestone Breast Cancer Awareness "Pink Out" award for xc day. Needless to say I was tired and kinda went a bit crazy in decorating her pony....

Next was the Area 8 Prelim Championships at Ky Classic HT. Mira was back to her old self in dressage and decided to put in a nice test earning us a 35 score. She was clean and had the second fastest xc time on a course that ended up riding tougher than anything I had seen in a while..including double corners..the bane of my existence. In show jump I had a stupid rider error to cause us to drop one rail, but in the end we finished 2nd at the Area 8 Prelim Champs so I was ecstatic! And to top it all off my family was there and got to see most of it which meant the world to me.

Mira at the Area 8 Champs!

After Classic it was a run down to the American Eventing Championship's for Catherine and the wonder pony to compete in the Beginner Novice Amateur Division. The pony could not have been more perfect and while they both did their best they ended up in the upper third of a huge division and had a great run. We were both kind of disappointed in the xc for BN. It wasn't the much of a championship course, but that meant Catherine didn't get too nervous and ended up winning a tie she was in for being closer to the optimum time.

And finally a couple of weeks ago was Flying Cross HT. I have never competed at the venue, just schooled, but it was a good run. We had our best dressage to date, scoring us a 31 and putting us in 2nd place. I had an ugly rider error in show jump (i.e. Mandy quit riding and hoped for the best) which caused us to obliterate one fence (wish I could stop flubbing up in SJ) and then because I didn't need the run to qualify we just hoped around the xc with some time penalties to finish 6th. It was a good last run before the 1*.

So now that I've updated the world on our goings on we have to do our final preparations for the big weekend. I have a TON going on this month. Let's see...

October 6th Horse Cleanup day at the College for the riding teams
October 13th The Missouri Tough Mudder! Woohoo finally!!!
October18-21 is the CCI1*!!!!
October 26/27 IHSA Hunt Seat Show in Louisville
November 3/4 IDA Dressage Show at Otterbein
November 10 IDA Dressage Show at Findlay
November 17/18 IHSA show at Morehead

So as you can see I don't have a weekend off for a while. It doesn't bother me because it'll keep me busy, but if anyone needs me, don't try to check in until Thanksgiving...literally.

More updates to come in the days up to the 1*!

signing off
~Mandy