We got to Camelot early the next morning and I talked to the TD about my “refusal” at jump 1 on cross country. I showed him the helmet cam footage and he agreed it wasn’t a refusal and to remove the 20 points. It’s wasn’t like it would change our placing at all – we still had 20 other jump and 30 time penalties – but I’d rather not have the extra 20. Then we walked the course. Camelot has the best jump decorations – I just love them, but they’re not super easy for spooky horses.
They were running behind in Stadium, but eventually it was time for my husband to go. Stadium is Eugene’s hardest phase and, unfortunately, he was pretty tired from doing XC the day before. I’m going to break with the traditional show recap format and do this course as a series of questions. Feel free to offer alternative answers in the comments.
Q. Does it bode well for the course if you knock the first fence down?
A: No, no it does not
Q. How cool is this jump?
A. I love this one; I think it’s my favorite. Also, the horse is adorable.
Q. Did they somehow clear this jump?
A. Surprisingly, yes
Q. Can Eugene stair-climb his way over this jump without knocking a rail?
A. Sadly, no, he cannot
Q. Did my husband get so upset about how poorly he rode to #4 that he didn’t see jump #5 until he was past it and had to circle?
A. Yes, yes he did.
Q. How many strides did they get in the two-stride combination?
A. 2.5 strides
Q. Did they knock anything down in the two-stride?
A. No, everything stayed up
Q. Did Eugene take a hard look at this scary shark jump?
A. Yep!
Q. What gait is this?
A. Kate says “Llama Flounce.”
Q. What is he photographer taking a picture of?
A.The world will never know.
Q. What is my husband looking at?
A. The ground.
Q. Is Eugene adorable when he gets it right?
A. Hells yeah
Sadly, they racked up a 3 rails, one circle, and 12 time penalties for their worst Stadium round yet. I know Stadium is supposed to after XC and I like it going that way for myself, but it’s hard for Eugene. Stadium is his hardest phase and doing it when he’s tired from running Novice XC – a level of work he’s just started getting used to – the day before makes Stadium even harder.
Score aside, it was a good learning experience for them. My husband was still glad he made the decision to try Novice at Camelot and is looking forward to his next chance to improve with Eugene.
Hahaha, llama flounce!
I guess that’s part of the learning right? But despite the amount of faults, nothing really terrible happened, so it’s still a successful outing! Love the pic over the knight jump. The knight’s horse looks like Eugene!
LOL I like this format! And llama flounce needs to be an official gait.
Llama flounce might beat out tranter. This is an outstanding post. I was tired just watching the xc helmet cam, so I can’t imagine how beat Eugene must have felt.
Fun jumps, love your mustang.
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The Q&A format is both amazing and hilarious, ahah.