Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Brown ribbons for the brown horse

After having a fabulous jumping lesson last week (that I never got around to posting about...oops!) Surf and I went to the Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trial (SVPCHT) last weekend. That's right...the hurricane weekend. Luckily I did all my showing Sunday after the storm had passed through (and just had to deal with some slippery footing spots...but hey, that's why they make studs!), but my poor trainer had 2 rides during the storm :P Our dressage was pretty mediocre (Surf got all wound up with dressage being between the stadium ring and xc) but I was happy with our jumping in both xc and stadium. 

In our jumping lesson the week before the show, we worked on me staying soft and relaxed and giving Surf the freedom to use his head and neck just before the fence. We managed to actually implement this through much of the round, and had what's probably the best-flowing stadium round yet...although we tapped a rail. XC was a breeze...I love this horse's big stride and the only jump he peaked at was the water jump that was literally overflowing from all the rain...however, we had penalties for going too fast (eventhough we were trying to kill time)...and ended up 8th bringing home a big brown ribbon. Amazingly, we would've been in 5th if we hadn't had speed faults on xc. Oh well, we're moving back up to Training...and the speed is faster there :) 

Since this is a pretty brief entry, I'll make up for it with some photos :)

 

Surf over fence 9B in Stadium


Surf heading home over the last fence in Stadium


Over the cabins at 15 on XC (I love this one!)
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Off the bank at 18
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Over the picnic tables and on to the finish line
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6 comments:

PiaffePlease said...

time penalties are stupid. I never really understood why they had them.

Do you wear a watch while on x-c? Can you just ride him in circles until you are within the time limit? Or does the rule of not crossing your path apply in x-c?

The pictures are great, I love the bank one, they are so fun to jump. No water jump pics or dressage pics?

Hannah said...

I do wear a watch on xc...and the funny thing is we were trying to kill time early on in the course (you have to kill any time before you get to the last fence, as you can't circle or come down to a trot/walk between the last fence and the finish). It got to the point that Surf was getting cranky and I was afraid of losing our rhthym, so I just went ahead and took the penalties.

No dressage photos, as most of the time they don't shoot dressage at events since the photos don't sell. I don't know why they weren't shooting the water, except perhaps that the ground was really swampy around the water jump...and it was full to overflowing so when a horse jumped in there was water everywhere :)

DinkDunk said...

Well done, Hannah and Surf! Great photos..and I think even GM would say ya'll look great and your position looks super secure.

Andrea said...

Love the pictures! You guys look like you're having a blast.

ChristieNCritters said...

Yay! I hate it about the time penalties, but you still did well in my book!

Kate said...

thanks for all the pictures!! Awww, I feel very offended that no one buys dressage pictures. ;) Haha!

8th is great! When's the official move up to Training?