Supa-Star!

OMG!! I showed BN at the Up and Over CT at Buckeye Horse Park today and Bastian was beyond amazazing. Seriously. Great way to go into my financial abyss. Here is how it went down:

Saturday

I got myself all packed up and ready to go. I had a lesson at 6 since I hadn't ridden since last Saturday. Had a amazing lesson, as in we had forward, fluffy, pace. I warmed up over only a few little fences before Kristin cranked them to 2'6". We rocked it. It was an awesome lesson and a great way to end before the show.

Sunday

Got up and headed out the barn to bath and braid Bastian. Yeah, I know it was just a schooling show, but B looks unfriggin' believable with a braided mane and I wanted him to look good :) It was hot and muggy. We got to the show and checked in then I walked stadium with Cindy. None of the fences worried me and even though a few looked a bit big (as in Novice height) they weren't intimidating. I was feeling pretty good. We headed back to the trailer where we had an hour and a a half wait before I could even start thinking about tacking up for dressage. Finally it was time! Kristin did my hair up and I got Bastian tacked up and ready to go.

Dressage He warmed up splendidly, nice transistions, steady in the bridle and moving forward. A little pushy with my half halts, so we did lots of transitions until he was listening more to my seat and body than my hands. In we go for our test (best part was they were using a duck call as the "whistle"!). We got 7's on our first three movements, then 8's on everything else, including the collective remarks. He was unbelievable, we scored a 21.5!! It was such a nice consistent test. The judge was quite friendly and talking to everyone after their test. She motioned me forward and said "There is just one thing I want to say....(I got pretty nervous at this point)and then she started to say how my feet were really shoved home in the stirrups and how it really detracted from the overall picture. At which point I told her about being a grade III para-equestrian and how the eventing and CT world does not recognize my dispensation card. Her reaction was "really!! that is excellent! (as in excellent that I was out there doing it, not that I was a para-equestrian), it was really cool to see such a positive reaction, so we briefly discussed my normal compensating aides and she suggested that I get black stirrups to help minimize my legs drawing attention. :) how nice!

Stadium

Show time! After a quick tack change assisted by the fabulous Pablo Williams I headed over to the stadium warm up. Our warm up was okay, I needed more pace but we were getting to the fences and getting over them. On to course! We went in and up to this point, my nerves had not kicked in. As soon as we went in that gate boy did they ever! I started to trot in the general direction of the first few fences intending to do a little tour of the arena when I hear the whistle to start. EEP! I ask for my canter and perhaps could have won a western pleasure class...I needed some serious leg and then I had it and then we got to the fence and I said whoa with my hands, he looked at it then popped over it. Which was better than I expected, I honestly expected a refusal. Okay I tried to shake it off, but it didn't work and fences two and three and four were just as spotty. Then around to the 4 stride line, we came into it poorly, I panicked and said whoa and he basically stopped at the oxer then said, "um aren't we supposed to jump this????" and proceeded to get us to the other side and take down the back rail in the process. I totally deserved that rail, my riding was craptastic. Fence six was pretty much the same, almost a dead stop then popped over it. Seven was slightly better and then I cowboyed right up to eight, a max height (or bigger, it looked HUGE) oxer and it was actually pretty decent because I used my leg and stayed out of his face.

The moral of the story is that after today my horse may be eligible for Saint Hood. Watch the video, I think you'll agree. I made the decision to stay in and do a schooling round. Wow what a difference! Again, refer to the video. I didn't have the same nerves because we had successfully made it over everything once so I went for it and it was so. much. better. I only did the fences up through the line and then called it quits, I wanted to make sure I ended on a good note. It could have been fluffier, but it was at least forward! Amazing how debilitating show nerves can be.

But we did it! We made it around a BN stadium course. I am so proud of both my horse and of myself. I conquered a lot of stuff today-new courses and new heights. Things are obviously not going entirely the way I want them to go, but B and I are going to keep fighting to become successful eventers.

Everyone who showed today from my barn was awesome! Cindy and Shae won their divison, Katie and Kailu brought home a second and a third, Wyatt and Angel brought home a third and Chloe and Angel brought home a fourth. Kristin also showed Rosie and they came home with a second. and Colleen and Sexy-Texy just did some schooling jumper rounds, but they were awesome too! A very successful day all around filled with good company and good food. Couldn't ask for anything better (except for riding more forward-I'm on it!)

Fun while it lasted

Well, I seem to be the Queen of the short show season. Mine is over, indefinitely. Bastian is healthy, looking awesome and fit. I'm fine, could be fitter, could be healthier, but I'm fine. Its my nemesis, money that is rearing its ugly head again.

I'm working. A lot. Full time, part time, Friday nights, Sunday mornings and whenever else I can. I am currently working every day for the current and next two weeks with the exception of my weekends on which I am attending horse shows. That means up at 5, work from 6:30-2:45, run home to let the dogs out, then on to job #2 from 4-9. Then home. Rinse, Lather, Repeat. You get the idea. Everyday.

Which means I'm not getting any riding in before my show, which is usually how my life goes. But pah, I don't have to practice, I mean I'm only moving up to BN at the CT this weekend. No biggie.... I don't have any problems over fences or anything....

But that is beside the point.

So much like last year, my season is over before it even had the chance to get going. At least this year we were successful, and won something and had some fun. Last year I put in a craptastic dressage test and my horse was slightly lame. I guess that's improvement right, I should be happy?

There is a lot involved here. Here is what pisses me off. First off, I work my ass off and I never seem to get ahead financially. Yes I own a horse and yes I didn't always make the best financial decisions. I take full credit for getting myself to where I am, to a point. After that, its just BS. Like months ago I was given a schedule of when I would get my stipends for extra-curricular activities I do at the school, I was told that I would receive my last payment on May 25. Today I get an email saying that that payment is now put off until June 10. Right. I had plans for that $$$$ as in getting caught up on some bills and being able to pay association and entry fees. Now that isn't going to happen :(

I'm stressed. Which involves its own symptoms and unhappyness, no one should have to live like this. I can't cut out anything else. I'm already down to eating lettuce and dressing (with cranberries, I have a huge ass bag of cranberries I bought at Sam's Club a while ago and it has lasted forever!) for lunch and dinner. I have a couple of other random things in my cupboard, but aside from buying more lettuce and dressing from Aldi's grocery shopping is out. I've sold off pretty much anything I have that is of value and that someone would actually buy. I've been eligible for a new phone since November, haven't updated although I am in need of a phone that actually works correctly more than 75% of the time. I've got pretty strict electric/water rules (thankfully I live alone!) and I turned my heat off pretty early in the spring.

I know, I'm whining. But I really don't have a life outside of my horse (I know, again, my fault for not being a social butterfly, but whatever) And my life with my horse revolves around competitions. I LOVE competing. LOVE IT. If I don't have a competition to get ready for, I don't see a point to pushing myself to ride. Yes I love riding for riding's sake, and I can spend hours just brushing and lovin' on my Bastian but I'm a competition junkie. Now I get to spend yet another summer sitting on the sidelines, cheering on everybody else. Which again, I love. I love being a groom and I love seeing my friends compete and kick ass, but the whole time I'm insanely jealous because its not me and Bastian.

I've spent the past two years fighting for myself and Bastian, every step of the way. I've had some great people helping me out along the way, but at the same time, I can't keep this pace up, working all the time and not getting anywhere. I've struggled to balance my horse life with my dismal financial situation. Currently that involves no shows. I'm holding out that maybe I can pull off the NODA show at Grand Haven in July. Its a double show weekend, so I could still get my qualifying scores for Regionals provided nothing goes wrong during my tests, its a one time shot. I want to qualify for Regionals, its at the Horse Park this year.

Not to mention that Bastian and I had a stellar first event. Now I've got to abandon that momentum, maybe I'll get to event next year? I've already signed up for Buckeye, so I'm going to show this weekend, I hope I can make it count before I put away all of my show things and become a fixture doing loops in the arena with no purpose. Unless I magically come up with $500 by Friday. Which is pretty doubtful.

Sorry for the vent, but I needed to get it out. It won't make it better, but its allowed me to process through it more. This was supposed to be our year, the year of the dragon and now it is nothing. Here's to 2013. Maybe we'll actually do something and get to actually show.....

This is me (on the bay) and my friend Agent 009 at a Hunter Pace long long ago when I actually had some money....one day.....

Winona Horse Trials Domination :)

Well……

Bastian and I had an AWESOME weekend at the Winona Horse Trials hosted by Stone Gate Farm in Hanoverton, Ohio. We won our division, finishing on our dressage score of 29.5. Yeah, that’s right. We won. Pardon my 5 year old bragging moment, but WE WON!!!! I never expected to do so well, yes, I wanted to win (who doesn’t?), but I was realistically aiming for a top 5 finish and figured that would be difficult enough with 17 people in my division and riding against professionals that have more experience and more guts than me. So I'm thinking this could be the start of something new....Para-Equestrian Eventing.

We had great rides everyday leading up to the show and had a fantastic dressage tune up on Friday morning with Kristin. On Thursday we jumped two new jumps out in the ring and he never looked at them, just said yes ma’am and jumped them.

My dressage time wasn’t until 2:35. Which if you know me, you know that I don’t eat on show day until after I ride, for various reasons, one of which is nerves. Unfortunately, after walking XC in the morning (not enough time to walk in on Friday!) I was exhausted, that’s a lot of walking, and not only that but its on rough terrain. I have enough trouble walking on the sidewalk and now I am walking through fields with uneven footing and tall grass. (Not to mention Stone Gates fabulous hills…lol). I hobbled my butt back to the trailer and ended up taking a nap in the back seat of Elvis (Cindy’s hauling rig).

During my nap, Cindy and Banff put in a solid dressage test to score a 30.9. While she went to walk the stadium course, I had some lunch. Which I was nervous about because goodness only knows how eating was going to turn out….but I needed some energy so I didn’t have much of a choice. Then I started getting Bastian ready for Dressage. I pulled him off the trailer and you would have thought he owned the place. He stood quietly while I tacked him and redid my hair about three times before I finally thought it was passable. Then we mounted up and headed down to the warm up!

He warmed up like a dream. The warm up was in one of the lower XC fields (not being used on the course on Saturday), he handled the uneven terrain and chaos of the warm-up pretty well, I was very much on the defensive so our warm up happened in little spurts-like 5 strides of trot then walk because someone was coming towards us, then canter a few strides, then walk. Let’s just say that we had our transitions nailed.

He put in a very nice test, I wasn’t even bothered by being in the small arena! LOL We scored a majority of 7s with two 8s and just one or two 6s. I was really looking forward to the rest of the day because Bastian felt soooooo good. Our score after dressage was 29.5. 

Then it was time for jumping! Super excited. I got to wear my vest. I got to wear my medical arm-band. I got to wear my new paper-pinney holder. Yes, I am a geek. I was the fourth to go in stadium and in an effort to avoid any warm-up shenanigans I got there early. He took all the fences wonderfully, we jumped the warm up oxer lots, I was having trouble getting him forward enough, but he was taking the oxer just fine in spite of me. Then we headed down to the stadium ring so I could learn my course.

Bastian was amazing in the ring. This was our first time jumping a course that we had not schooled before. He never questioned a thing, never looked at anything and behaved like quite the gentlemanly hunter in the ring. I needed more pace and more forward and I was thinking it, even if it didn’t actually happen. Progress for sure! Next time maybe I’ll actually have him forward. He saved me over fence 5 and fence 8. I just brought him in funky, but he got to the other side and didn’t touch the rails! So clear it was for us. Did I mention that we CANTERED almost all the fences??? Yup, sure did!

I came out of stadium beaming. On to XC! Just 10 fences stood between Bastian and I and finishing on our dressage score. I had a plan for XC that involved lots of cantering…well that didn’t happen, we actually trotted all of our fences except the last one…lol. The XC was straightforward, but challenging, all of the fences were inviting and Stone Gate did a great job!! There wasn't anything I was particularly concerned with, just wondering how he was going to behave overall, but I had nothing to worry about, he was a machine, he trotted up to each one and hopped right over and then cantered quietly on. I only had to pull him up once after the feeder (fence 4) when he blew through my half halt, so I made him stop then we continued on. His least graceful fence was fence 6, the roll-top. He clunked right on top of it and over it. What a crazy guy. Our best fences were the log in the pavilion (#3), the stumps (#7), and fence #10 (can’t remember the name). He went over everything!!!! I had a blast and although I was riding defensively, he remained the wonderful gentleman he is and really took care of me.

The photographer got some great pictures. (Brant Gamma) When the pictures are posted online, check out my pictures over the feeder. The first picture is us over the fence. Bastian looks great, I have a look of terror on my face because I wasn’t sure about the fence. The next shot is the landing and I look slightly less terrified, then the next shot is one stride out and I have a huge smile because we were still alive! It was pretty funny.

So we did it! We ended on our dressage score of 29.5 and won our division, which also included winning the Thoroughbred Incentive Program award for our division. I got two hugely awesome ribbons and a saddle pad. Cindy and Banff won the TIP award for the Novice division. Team BEC rocked this weekend!!!



We had such a great day on Saturday, it really boosted my confidence. And I have to say that I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, I managed to stay pretty calm and cool and focused all day long. I still need to push B forward more, but we will get it. We can fit in more XC schooling now that the summer is upon us. Next we have two schooling CT, one at Buckeye Horse Park and one at EHSC. I’m doing the BN division at both, as long as Buckeye goes well, I plan on entering the LHPC HT in Erie for the BN division. We also have the Grand Haven dressage show coming up the second weekend in June. Its gonna be a crazy three weeks!

Falling off SUCKS

Just when you think that things are going well and everything is going to be fine, they change. Bastian and I ended up not going to the hunter schooling show on Saturday. :(

Here's how it all went down. I got to the barn for my lesson on Friday night at 6:00. Bastian felt GREAT. He warmed up nicely, I had him in front of my leg and we were getting the energy and forwardness we needed but keeping it contained (aka PACE). So we started jumping, everything was going great, x-rails, then verticals, we were doing it and it was going well. Then we came over an oxer (for the second time) and Bastian kinda popped over it, it wasn't even that big of a jump (and believe me he can throw in some BIG ones). I lost my left stirrup and my balance shifted left. According to Kristin I then kicked him with my right leg which made him scoot and I threw my body right to compensate for the left-ness. I might have managed to stay on had my left stirrup not then whipped back and cracked him causing him to say WTF and take off bucking and galloping. I hit the dirt hard on my right side (I have to get a new helmet....) and twisted my right ankle in the process.

I was pissed. At myself, yes it would have been nice if Bastian hadn't reacted the way he did and just said oh, my mom's off balance I'm gonna stand still!, but he didn't and I can't really say I blame him for saying "Ow" when the stirrup hit him. It was just such a simple thing, all that happened was I lost my stirrup and then my balance followed. It wasn't like B was being crazy or he had been biding his time waiting to toss me off, it was just pure dumb luck (the story of my life when it comes to falling off horses).

But it rattled me. I got back on, we jumped the offending jump again, A LOT and ended really nicely, but I started to go back to the "whoa whoa whoa whoa" jump method (we jumped the oxer from a practical standstill at one point- good to know that he knows his job is to get from side A to side B of the fence). My ankle really hurt when we were done, which for me is a big thing since I have such limited feeling in my lower legs from my spinal cord injury. I put B on cross ties and limped down the barn aisle to a chair and took off my boot. It was swollen and had some serious fluid build up. Kristin and Cindy convinced me to be on the safe side and go the ER for x-rays to make sure I hadn't broken it. Because I really wouldn't be able to tell if it was a minor hairline break -I'd never feel it. Two years ago I broke my foot, never felt a thing, it was swollen and purple and looked horrible, but did not hurt. This spinal injury thing has benefits sometimes.

I got out of the ER around 9 PM and went home. We decided that the schooling show could wait, it would be better to go when I'm 100% then when I already have a weak ankle, that was just asking for trouble. Saturday was spent hanging out with my mom, who was a great mom and didn't say too much about me and my equine activities that always seem to end in me getting ouchy.

So now I am re-evaluating my show season and training program. I still want to event, but I think I need to slow down. I am not going to try and enter May-Daze and do BN. If things progress the way I want them to, LHPC HT will be our first BN. I'm still doing the Starter event at Winona and will do the dressage shows I have planned. But everything else is going to be schooling schooling schooling. I still want to take him to Erie and do their CT at the beginning of June and hopefully we'll end up at South Farm on May 5th for their schooling CT. (we always seem to do well at South Farm)

Falling off is part of the business. Its not pleasant, but it happens. All I can do is use it to improve my riding and re-adjust my training program. I still have my goal of being able to jump 3' in the ring by the beginning of June, I think that it is possible for me. I know it is possible for me. So onward and upward. I've encountered more traffic on the road of life, but will patiently wait for it to clear instead of trying to force my way down the berm of the road. :)

Progress!!!!!!

I had the chance to go XC Schooling again today so Cindy and I loaded Banff and Bastian onto the trailer and off we went! My overall plan was to try and get myself relaxed enough so that Bastian would feel relaxed. He is very keyed in to whatever his rider is feeling. We've come a long way and almost mastered our in the ring jumping jitters, now I need to apply that same principle to the big bad outside world.

We spent the first 10 minutes or so walking. He's started doing this walk -jig-walk-jig-walk thing when I first get on (even in the ring) its weird, I need to figure out why he's doing this and get it stopped. Anyway, he did this a few times, but I just kept talking to him and eventually he was walking around and not being too much of a looky-lou. Then we trotted. A lot. He spend most of his time trotting behind my leg, but I was willing to overlook it as long as he stayed quiet, soft and slow. I was also having a stirrup debaucle. (I just got new stirrup leathers and I did not have them adjusted properly, I went up two holes after I had mounted and then just left them where they were, but they needed to go up a bit more). My leg was really slipping forward and I was very hunched over in my shoulders as revealed by the video. I was not the best rider today, lol!

We had spent about 25 minutes and walking and trotting before I finally tried a tiny log. I did not plan well. Its the first jump we take in the video. I meant to steer out of the line and only do the tiny log, but Bastian knows his job and is an awesome guy. He locked onto the second log and in a panicked moment I said "okay" and we went. I got left behind and it looks horrible, but what a horse I have! After that we managed several better jumps, then Cindy helped me just canter around (we hadn't cantered in the big scary field yet). We cantered up hill, down hill and he was wonderful, he never once got crazy. He was still behind my leg, but like I said we both needed to just realize that the field wasn't going to eat us. Every now and then he would get quicker, but he wasn't being grabby andhe wasn't even really being that quick, I just thought he was because of my own timidness.

We had some rough jumps, and we has some pretty nice jumps. I almost came off at one point, but managed to hang on by the seat of my pants literally, my Kerrits Sit-Tights played a part in my sticking on his back. Thank goodness he has an impeccable one-rein stop. I managed to pull myself back on. Unfortunately that meant we had to do the offending jump again. We did and we ended beautifully for us! Here is a recap video: (and let me just say that Cindy and Banff were awesome!)

We still have a ways to go until we get to that happy-confident-ready-to-gallop-xc-fences-and-go-feeling, but for being our third time total cross country schooling and the fact that this was a brand new place where we had never been before Bastian and I were awesome! And I am fully aware that it is all my fault. I don't entirely trust him outside because its new for us and I have this irrational fear that he will take off with me. I mean he has never not stopped when I've asked him to, ever. I need to put on my big girl panties and get over it. I need to relax more, my tension makes him say "ok mom, where is the danger? I'm on the lookout for it. omg, is it under that log? wait, I think I hear something in that tree way over there, is that what's wrong....." When I relax and focus on our job, he relaxes and focuses. Its a total mind game. We ended really well and the last thing I did was to canter all the way around the field. I was very proud of him and of myself. I made a lot of mistakes and I have stuff to work on, but all in all we made HUGE progress today. I hope we can get out at least once more before Winona.

Next Saturday is the last Hunter Schooling Show at Chagrin, we're doing the 2'3" division again and we are going to rock it. I will keep my leg on, stay out of his feet.

Ride Awesome my friends, Ride Awesome.

Bastian (in the stunning yellow and blue argyle) and Banff back on the trailer after their awesome XC Schools! Photot courtesy of our lovely groundsperson: Samantha Channell!

Oh yes we did!

WOO-HOO! Guess what Bastian and I did today???

I jumped 2'9. Yup, I did it of my own free will (as in I wasn't in a lesson, although, granted, my instructor was present in the ring) and it was AWESOME. All I had to do was keep my leg on, my hands soft and my butt out of the saddle. Bastian took care of the rest. He felt so wonderful snapping up over that fence, one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

We even had a wonky jump and both Bastian and I handled it. We came around the corner and I aimed him towards the jump on the diagonal and he decided that the two horses standing along the wall were suddenly more interesting I swear he felt like his head was pointing dead right instead of looking at the fence in front of him. Somehow, I didn't panic, but I legged him on and got his attention back just as we got to our spot at the base of the fence, he pulled a little bit of an "oh crap where did that come from!" and launched over the jump, he landed forward, but not crazy. I totally dealt with a bad in and rode my horse over the fence.

We also did a tiny oxer and a skinny with a scary black pole on it. :o)

Its amazing to think that just three months ago we were struggling to get from one side of a cross rail to the other. Team Bastian has had some great support over the past few months, so thank you to those that have helped me stay focused and find the chutzpah to do what needed done.

The countdown to Winona is on! Starter division, prepared to be dominated!

Bastian is ready to go!

Mind Games

The only thing worse than seeing a 32 year old woman have a temper tantrum because her horse is being fresh is seeing a 32 year old woman have an emotional breakdown because she can't jump over a X-rail without her horse grabbing the bit and diving to the left. Yes, this was me today. When opportunity knocks, you open the door. I had the chance to go XC schooling with Cindy at Stone Gate Farm today. Probably not the best idea considering Bastian is coming off of a week and half of stall rest and he was rarin' to go, but this is what eventers do, for better or worse we go out there and make the best of it.

Part I: Lovely!!

This was our first XC school of the season and Bastian's second XC school of his life. He was initially good, we warmed up in their dressage/stadium arenas and just trotted and cantered a bit until he felt relaxed and had had a look at everything. Our first fence was horrendous. It was a little x, we trotted up to it and he was being so good until we got to our spot and he said "oh shit! where did that come from" at which point he leapt straight up into the air and came down ON the jump. But then he at least had the good sense to be abashed so we came at it again he he took it lovely, then we curved up to a little 2' vertical, again, lovely. We did that a few times then the moment of truth, there was a 2'6" vertical set up and I decided if I was going to be jumping XC, I had better be able to get myself from one side of that fence to the other. So we cantered it and he waited and jumped and landed so beautifully, so we did it again to make sure it wasn't just a fluke and all I can say is wow. He was on. I gave him an enthusiastic pat and we made our way into the XC field.

Part II: Breakdown

Somewhere, we lost it. Bastian said "Wheeeeee!!!!!!!!!!" and I said "oh shit." All we were trying to do was trot and canter in the big open field up and down the slight hills. He was behind my leg and I was too scared to push him forward. Although I know that when Bastian is like this I need to put leg on so that he has guidance or else he will expend his energy as he sees fit, which includes mini-bucks. But I rarely put this intelligent plan into action. Something I need to work on. So we went back to the stadium warm up and he was revved up and I started hanging on his mouth and this combined with my lack of leg led to a funky spot x-rail followed by diving left and bucking. Once this happens once, it's nearly impossible for me to regain that calm, cool perspective on jumping that Bastian and I need. It got worse and worse until he suddenly realized that the horse we had traveled with was gone and he decided to SCREAM (something I cannot abide in horses) followed by a buck, rear and a spin. I jumped ship. He has never shown attachment to any horse before and I cannot say how disappointed I am in my usually oh so level headed bachelor. So we lunged in their roundpen for about 10 minutes where he ran, bucked and spun to his little heart's content. During the jumping I alternately cried (sobbed) and yelled some not very nice obscenities at my horse. (temper tantrum)

Part III: Redemption

I got back on. We trotted the X-rail twice and he was good. I really thought about keeping my hands soft and keeping my leg on. What a difference actually riding makes ;P Back out to the XC field. There was a BN coop out there, Jackie had me walk him by it and then we discussed me actually jumping it. She wanted to know if I was going to trot it or canter it. Here was my response:

"I can't trot it because I know I won't have enough leg, and I'm too scared to canter it, so neither?"

Good answer right? So we put the coop on the back burner and went and trotted through the water a few times, he LOVES the water, I don't foresee that ever being a problem XC. Then we did their bank, which he was also a champ about, he is really good about the up and down. Then we proceeded to go up the bank, jump over a tiny little log going down the bank then a few strides to a BN (?)log. Here he proved what an AWESOME and HONEST horse he is, I decided we were doing the BN log, but we came off of the little log with no impulsion, I had seriously slipped my reins and he tripped at the base of the BN log, but I kept my leg on and he just hopped over it like it was no big deal. I had done it, it wasn't pretty but we got from point A to point B, together. So we did the bank again and then trotted around to that scary BN coop, I kept my leg on and he said "yes ma'am" and jumped it without a second look. We came around again at a canter and we could have had a bit more pace, but he was soft and we hit our spot, he jumped it like an old pro, landed and cantered on. I was quite happy with him. We did two more tiny fences, like 18", they were little, but he kept himself together and I kept my mind in the game.

That is all this is for us right now, a lack of experience and me keeping my mind in the game. I'm still aiming for the starter division at Winona, we can handle it. Between now and then Cindy and I are going to try to get off the property as much as possible and ride out in the big bad world. With experience and miles I'll get to the point where I feel as confident on Bastian as I did on Melvin. Melvin was a great confidence booster, he was a genuine point and shoot guy, you could be hanging off of his ears and he would just get from one side to the other. This was us at the Lost Hounds Pony Club Horse Trials doing the Novice division:

I CAN DO IT. I WILL DO IT. Today was rough, it doesn't matter. It happened, I learned from it and Bastian and I will move on.