Katydid Farm hosted the 2011 Katydid CDE and the USEF Single Horse Championships this past weekend in Windsor, SC. 16 advanced single horse competitors and I believe 80 other division competitors gathered for a weekend of competition and fun.
At the last minute the weekend was shortened into a 3 day show with all of the dressage running on Friday. So we arrived on Wednesday after an 8.5 hour uneventful drive down 75/40/26. Kathy Blank was running the stables again and with so many trailers coming she said space was going to be tight, so we backed in close to our friend Ardeth Obenauf's trailer. It's always good to arrive to smiling human and canine faces and Ardeth and Gracie were glad to see us. After getting Odessa settled and our packets picked up we were able to chill for a bit and take in how the grounds were going to work with multiple dressage and cones rings going at the same time. That evening we had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and were in bed by 9 at the Ho Jo.
A chilly but mostly sunny Thursday was spent driving, figuring out my plan for dressage and walking obstacles. I also had to make a run to my now well known local hay supplier because she had once again decided she wasn't going to eat the hay we brought and wasn't eating her grain very well. It's always something. I walked the arena carefully picking out distances for circles, etc. At least knowing where your marks should be is something that can be controlled and I am making more of an effort to be accurate. We also walked most of the obstacles to see how things were going to flow. Odessa has had some significant issues on the marathon lately and I was very worried that she was going to hurt herself after her recent rearing up episodes. It was a relief to see that I could pick some fairly wide open and flowing routes.
On dressage day 9:00 AM came very early (thank goodness I had braided the night before) and it was really chilly, overcast and with a slight drizzle. My teeth were chattering and my fingers were numb and I chose to keep my jacket on and not worry about my presentation score...I was in an marathon vehicle after all. Despite some pretty significant dressage hiccups we held it together and scored a 58 and a first place position. Her reactions to the judges and other scary things are getting much less noticeable, but she definitely wasn't on her game like she can be. With time I'm sure she will only get better and one day this showing stuff will be old hat to her.
The other Kentuckians also had a great dressage day with Sterling having the best Advanced Single Horse test of the day at 43. Good job everyone. While I liked not having to arrive a day earlier, it made for a pretty busy day for show staff and volunteers and two arenas showing meant limited access to warm up areas. Overall though I sort of liked the commotion and it was good for both of us.
Friday night we treated Ardeth to dinner at Outback because she saved my butt on dressage day. One of these days I will get my head on straight for these shows.
Marathon day wasn't going to start for us until 2pm, so we had a lot of time to go over routes, watch other competitors and relax. Despite being in first place my intentions for this show were to not push her on the marathon. I just wanted to go smoothly and quietly and not freak her out. Section A went well minus a detour that caused us to have to make up 2 minutes. We found out later that day that A LOT of people went off course at the same spot over the entire day which explained the countless sets of tracks we saw. Wonder why the incorrect arrow wasn't fixed?!
The walk section is always a battle because she spooks at everything...the shadows, the mailboxes, the different textured and colored grasses, the soft sand, the hard sand, the people, the chairs...you get my point. They had several spotters and she went into her head up with no forward momentum mode at each one. I need to learn to not get upset at her, as the cussing doesn't help the situation and makes me feel like a jerk afterwards. We had 1 second to spare. At the vet box her temp was 102.8 which was a little high but she cooled right down with the nice breeze and we started out on section E calm and cool...well cool at least.
The first two obstacles were a bit of a cluster. She wasn't listening and there was no directional control. We missed E in both obstacles and had to go long and come back around. I was worried she was going to get herself into a jam being stupid so that got me mad at her and TJ told me I cussed a bit out loud in the second obstacle. Sorry to any volunteers that heard me. I wasn't mad at her for not performing, I just didn't want her to hurt herself. We started to communicate on 4 and 5 and things went fairly smoothly for the rest of E but we didn't push it and trotted into everything. The footing was really deep on 6 and 8 by the time we went through and she tripped between D and E on obstacle 6, going to her knees. She popped right up and we finished the obstacle and then stopped to make sure she didn't land on anything during the fall. We made all of our times and went around safely and without a single rearing incident, so I was happy. Her final temp was 104.8.
She cooled off quickly and we got her settled and comfy back in her stall. She ate her grain and some of her new expensive hay. Despite the marathon issues we held on to our first place position...so the pressure was on for Sunday.
It never dawned on me that they would be able to make a harder cones course for Intermediate since all levels were not sharing the same arena. After walking the first 6 cones, I was like oh wow, this is going to be a challenge. I didn't want to blow the lead by forgetting where I was going, so I walked the course over and over, and with the memory part under control, the rest was going to be up to Odessa and my driving. If she was listening then we could get through it. Our go time was 11:21 and since we were the last to go in our class, I was able to see that the three previous competitors either had several balls down or time penalties, so I just needed to not go bowling and keep things calm in order to stay in the lead. She was a little spastic, but we only had one ball down and were about .24 seconds under time, so yahoo, we won the Intermediate Single Horse class.
We had to do a lineup for the awards and I thought for sure she was going to lose it, but she stood there like a champ even during the clapping. The victory lap was another story though. She was right on Laura's butt and everyone clapped for Laura as we came around the bleachers side of the arena and Odessa went into high gear. I steered her off toward the middle but I'm sure Laura was wondering if she was going to get run over.
Good job Odessa. Many thanks to TJ for his support and help. We couldn't have done it without him.Thanks to all of our friends that were there to say good job as well. Kudos are always appreciated. We made it home last night and Odessa is very happy to be out with her buddies grazing.
Not sure what is next on the schedule...maybe a winter of riding and dressage work. :-)
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