Indiana CDE

Monday, 07 September 2009 12:26

The crew traveled to the Hoosier Horse Park on Labor Day weekend for the Indiana CDE. It was a huge show with over 70 competitors. Fred and TJ showed in the Prelim Horse Pairs division and Erin and Rachel in the Single Horse.

The weekend was full of interesting challenges.

The first big challenge was Odessa's mane. She has really bad hair and it is all different lengths where she has rubbed parts out and it's growing back in. All week I had been braiding it trying to help tame it a bit for Saturday. When I pulled the braids out Saturday morning, Rachel just stared at it and said, OK we can make this work. And she did. The braids while not perfect actually looked pretty good.

The second challenge of the day...Rachel and I had Odessa harnessed and the carriage setup with whip and number when I went to go get dressed. I didn't see my garmet bag in the trailer so I went to look in the truck. No bag...shit. I had taken the bag to the hotel to iron my lap apron and hung it back up in the closet as I finished getting ready. We were in a rush to leave and I must have left it! So, we pulled together an outfit from clothes and a hat that Rachel had brought. Rachel had on khakis and I had on jeans so we switched pants, tucked in the collar of my polo shirt and managed to pull together a decent outfit. Crazy that it worked out so well...I actually got a 9 on presentation. Thank goodness for Rachel!

Despite the challenges Saturday ended up being a great day for both Fred and I. Fred was in 1st after dressage and cones!! I was in 10th out of 14 and I was thrilled. Odessa, while not round, was fairly consistent through dressage and she was great in the cones. We did have two balls down but one was definitely my fault and the second ball was from her thinking the scarecrow on the finish was going to eat her. She cantered a lot of the course and came in under time.

Marathon day presented challenge number 3...a down pour. OMG it rained on section A. We were soaked and could barely see where we were going. Odessa was spooking at everything but I managed to keep her moving forward. The rain let up a bit as we finished A. We couldn't do anything but laugh at how wet we were.

Section D was tough. I zoned out on the first part and wasn't pushing her enough and Odessa was spooking like crazy. There was a goofy gate that stradled a ditch that was now filled with water. I didn't realize there were water obstacles on section D. I finally got her settled and walking forward consistently but we knew it was going to be really, really close on time. As we approached the finish, there was a construction area with flapping tape and big yellow things about 50 feet from the finish...of course she spooked at it. Then there was a cross tie not too far from the end of D so O. didn't know if she was supposed to keep walking toward it. Add the volunteer tent and the person standing there and she just wasn't sure of herself so we were 1 second over.

The obstacles were fun, but tight. I am not sure I liked all of the routes once I drove them, but picking good routes will come with experience as I learn what O. and I can do. She's very, very responsive and quick so I need to learn to stay in communication with her and not drop the lines too much...again, this will come with experience and I hope I don't frustrate her until I get it figured it out. Odessa put on the breaks at the water. I can't really blame her, but as much water as there was on course, I had high hopes that she would go in. Finally Rachel got down and walked in front of her and we almost ran over her...that a tricky one. Once she went in she was great. Compared to the other competitors, I believe we were in the middle of the pack overall on the marathon which is great for both of our experience levels.

Fred had to take off his glasses because it was raining so hard on section E so he was driving blind through the obstacles. He still did great despite this huge challenge and got through everything safely with TJ's help. His slower times did take him down to 2nd place though. Safety over 1st place always wins.

So with Fred's 2nd place and my 11th place, we had a great weekend!

Other Spokes and Spurs members that showed: