We had a wonderful time at the Gayla CDE this year.
This was Odessa's 4th show and I placed 5th in dressage, 7th in cones and 8th in marathon with an overall 6th place finish with 12 competitors in my PSH class. I was thrilled. TJ was my navigator and he was HUGE help and I think I only cussed at him in one hazard...my fault, not his. What happens on the marathon stays on the marathon, or so I've been told by other drivers.
We arrived on Thursday afternoon so we could get settled and get the kinks out of Os system before show day. We had some ups and downs but on Saturday she was pretty calm. With help from Bill and Sherri Lower, we scored a 56 in dressage. I think we scored a bit higher than we probably should have but that's the way the game is played I guess.
I totally bombed two cones and boy did I get a scolding from Sherri AND TJ after I looked down at the ball as I went by. We went slower and I still made time, so now I just need to get her more collected and between the reins.
Marathon started out with a drenching rain on section A, which was a great asset at the vet check. Many thanks to Celeste Pitts who lent us two studs because I forgot to check how many I had before the show. We definitely needed them as the rain soaked the ground and the course started to get turned up. I took the hazards a bit slower than normal because of Os conditioning and trying be more flowing. I'm not sure my flowing part really worked out very well, but we did OK on 4 of them. My brain checked out like it never has before on the 2nd hazard and I actually stopped and put my head in my hands. I guess the pause worked to clear my head enough to see the darn C gate and I finally got through it. O was great in the water. I was so proud of her!! She hates water for those of you that don't know already.
While we had some ups and downs, there were a lot of positives to the weekend. She tried her heart out and that's all I can ask for.
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