With no rides entered at Rubicon in November, I somewhat sadly realized that the horse trials at Waredaca last weekend was probably my last recognized event of 2011. It’s a little sad, as I do love competing, and I hate to miss a good event like Rubicon, but it’s also a little relieving, because by the end of the season one does get a little exhausted. . . and with the weather quickly getting colder it’s nice to know I won’t have to tempt fate with the weather gods and risk being out there competing on a super chilly day! I must have, however, done something right for the weather gods, because not only did they give me perfect weather at Loch Moy for two weekends in a row, but they continued the trend and gave us the absolute most beautiful day to compete at Waredaca.
I got to ride Organillero again in the novice. Having had a few more weeks to get to know him better I was looking forward to see if we could improve upon our last outing, and improve we definitely did! Freshly body-clipped and enjoying the cooler weather he was a little bit more keen in my dressage warm-up, but now that I have a better feel of him I was able to ride him through it and felt like I had him at a pretty good point going in to the test. He was steady and obedient in the test, and although I felt like there were still things I could have ridden better, I wasn’t displeased.
There was no time to check the scoreboard as we headed back to the trailer, did a quick tack swap and went out for our jumping rounds. Oregano loves to jump and came out confident and bold today and went well around the showjump, but cross country is really his finest phase. Once again, I had a great time cruising around the course on a horse that was enjoying his job just as much as I was at that point! With clean and clear jumping rounds, Oregano finished in 2nd place on his dressage score of 27.0, a definite improvement from our first outing together! Now I’m kind of bummed that it is late in the season as it would be fun to continue taking him out some more! The thing about my job is that I ride a lot of sale horses, so you never know what might be your last competition with them before they get sold. On the flip side, the good thing about my job is there are always plenty of horses to ride!
Hacking with Fairlight
There are some I do get quite attached to, of course, and when they get sold and head to their new homes it’s a bit sad to see them go and not have that ride to look forward to every day. One horse I’ve particularly enjoyed this year is Fairlight Star, a lovely young mare by Brandenburg’s Windstar that Phyllis has allowed me to work with and help bring along. But, she has found a new home and I’m sure will make her new owner very happy and will go on to do some amazing things, as she is one of the most talented horses I’ve ever sat on! We went out on a hack together the other day and enjoyed looking at all the beautiful autumn colors around the farm. Although Fairlight will be leaving, fortunately I still have lots of other nice horses to ride to keep me busy!
