After 4 yrs of jumpers..... headed to run Plantation Starter this weekend

[Xctrygirl]

As the title implies… I have not evented since Gin’s last unsuccessful attempt at Novice at Plantation in 2016. This was an early sign of the cervical arthritis that caused me to retire him to a fabulous home with a friend who owns his brother.

So since then I’ve been enjoying the higher level jumpers. But I did have my eye lazily on the unrecognized calendars as my younger imported KWPN, “Chad” is young enough and brave enough that he should play in multiple disciplines. So I bought myself a new Tipperary vest on Facebook for a bargain price, it arrived yesterday and I am going to compete at my lowest level ever…Intro Horse! All of 2’3" jumps. Ha ha ha. The dressage may be the toughest part but then it’s always fun trying to figure out what will happen at a green horse’s first event. We went to our first show together 2 weeks ago and that was a fun local jumper show. We learned a ton about him there, but there are more phases at an event and his nickname of “powder keg” makes me pretty sure that I do NOT know what to expect every moment of the day.

BUT I don’t really care too much either. The experience is what matters and we really are just figuring each other out. He’s a hugely talented guy but he’s 17.1 hands of happy baby horse and he’s a chestnut…so who knows what he’ll do.

As with the jumper show, the best thing we did before that show was to gallop and lightly school him xc the day before. I think I will stick to that plan since Boyd’s is 5 mins away and I can just let him see the water jump one more time (Lifetime 3rd time) before he has to conquer one on course the next day. It helps to deflate his sails a bit. He’s far more manageable. But on the plus side we’re both really good at lunging now.

I have the best times for this event than I have ever had. Dressage around 12pm and SJ and Xc at 2:30 ish. I get to sleep!!! Doubting that I will be able to though. LOL.

I’m excited to come back to my longest discipline, even if I am a much better jumper rider. I miss xc a bit, and at this height I am hopeful that it will be a nice romp on the hill.

There’s a few pics of the Xc school from 2 weeks ago on my FB album here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=Xctrygirl&set=a.10157803875487759

Thanks for listening.

Em

[Blugal]

Sounds like you will have a fun time. Enjoy!

[Horsegirl_s_Mom]

So exciting! (But hopefully not TOO exciting, lol). Let us know how it goes!

[merrygoround]

Please keep your powder dry. :winkgrin:

[Jealoushe]

have fun!!!

[Polydor]

Have fun! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
P.

[iris2006]

Have a great time!

My granddaughter took her very similar sounding young chestnut gelding to Hagyard at Beginner Novice a couple weeks ago and it was very “exciting”. He hated the dressage warm up ring, but seemingly against all odds, did make it into the ring and finished the test. The stadium announcer thanked them for the “Exuberant” round (double clear, but a few kicks here and there; he was “good”:D)! He was relaxed and awesome on cross country like he’s done it forever. As the Grandma, there were a few too many heart pounding moments for me! But I’m sure you are up for that!!

PS: They spent a lot of time in the lunge ring!

[Old_Mac_Donald]

Don’t tell EN where you are going!

[BAC]

Have a wonderful time and be sure to let us know all about it!

[Xctrygirl]

@Old Mac Donald

Don’t tell EN where you are going!

I think the name should change. That said, I am taking advantage that the lease will end after this event to run around the hill one more time.

Em

[Xctrygirl]

(Full disclosure this was my FB post tonight. I am more than a bit exhausted. )

This was SUCH a fun fun day. And there is a little bit of humor in how things unfolded.

So I don’t know him well enough to exactly know what will set him off and what won’t. What I know now though is that he IS an eventer. He relaxes working in fields and I promise I have had a long enough eventing career to know what sitting on a natural feels like and he’s IT!!

He was so great in the dressage warm up and ring. The only true mistake was mine. I said “Good boy” aloud after a transition in front of the judge. I could then hear her say “Don’t talk to your horse!!!” I thought “whoops!” and shut my mouth.

So he was great. Went and rested and spent some time with my Dad, John and Jeanne. Then it was time to jump. I got ready and took him to the warm up. For this event we jumped stadium on grass as well as XC. Chad was barefoot so we just went with it! LOL Our first warm up fence, over a small X caused a few gasps as Chad cleared the standards. Ha ha ha. From there no one was near me when I jumped. We had a great round that was more fluid than the rounds we had at the jumper show. He never slipped or was out of balance from the footing in the stadium area.

After that we headed up to do our XC. I had a nice moment thinking about all the horses whose backs I have sat on through the years on XC. This was my 10th (or so) horse whose first xc round was with me on their back. It’s an honor that I really do enjoy. But I promise… he blew me away. SO cadenced, balanced and game. Careful but not overjumping and looking for fences after the second fence. I finished with the BIGGEST smile on my face and it’ll be there for a while.

So here’s the humor in the day…In our 9 horse division Chad was the only horse to have finished on his dressage score. So we moved up. A lot. We had finished 2nd. By 0.20 points behind my friend Monica Fiss. However, when I got my dressage test back I saw it. I was given a 2 point error of course for saying “Good boy” in dressage. So had I kept my mouth shut…I would have won. LOL. Oh well!!!

Video links: (This is Chad’s playlist. His 3 Plantation videos are at the end)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKBarO_NR9rgV7O9ohZC0ZcwHPwGYqNSG&fbclid=IwAR3FQKAPLVpwAR0ZFYtfpu1Y-aA1LbX8dqARhM12BBMykxWe9x-2yDVLub4

Thanks to Dad for coming, to Jeanne for being such a huge help to me and Chad and for videoing and to John for taking these awesome pics. Love you ALL so very much!!!

Facebook link to John’s still pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=Xctrygirl&set=a.10157833751282759

Emily

[pony_grandma]

What a handsome hunk of horse …:encouragement: You’re in big trouble now …:applause: Any good horse has pick of their discipline(s). He’s picked his sport. That photo over the little table. I bet his gallop is fluid…dreamy :love-struck:

[Xctrygirl]

@pony grandma

What a handsome hunk of horse …:encouragement: You’re in big trouble now …:applause: Any good horse has pick of their discipline(s). He’s picked his sport. That photo over the little table. I bet his gallop is fluid…dreamy :love-struck:

First off, thank you! He’s been second fiddle behind all of Cudo’s brilliance but we’ve known that he might actually be the more talented freak of a horse. Cudo is still my champion, but Chad is an extremely nice horse in his own right.

Now to his stride…honestly it’s a very uphill gait. My tb’s were more in the bridle during gallops, largely from their track experiences, so that continued when we evented. Such that I had to be aware on the descents and ask them to balance a bit to not be on the forehand. Especially before a jump.

Chad however has a monster stride when he wants to but is almost always underneath himself and light up front. Even cantering down the hills at Plantation yesterday. Our xc video shows just how slow I was going but even at a true gallop he’s got really nice balance.

https://youtu.be/fC9ZOLwPCBE

Em

[pony_grandma]

We have one with a canter/gallop like that. He’s half & half TB/WB. Born balanced. Photo at 3 weeks. But he can gallop (does 3 days easily), has scope and stamina.

I did watch your video. He stayed easily in hand and rateable. You’ve done this before so you’ll take your time, he will be solid gold. He’s up and round, great for stadium, later you can teach him more through the body xc. He’ll know where he is and which way he goes - you’ll do jumpers also to pay the feedbill?

[Xctrygirl]

@pony grandma thankfully his feed bill is low still. (Roughly $2.50/ day hay and grain)

Honestly as a young horse with me he’ll go do everything I feel like exposing him to. So next may be a paper chase. He might show up at one of Loch Moy’s derbies, maybe a dressage show, hunter or jumper show and even possibly a low key fox hunt.

The world is his oyster and while I readily admit he seems to love Eventing, he should see diversity so he can tell us if he loves other things too.

Cudo is pretty set in jumpers but Chad has a lot to experience still.

Em

[FlightCheck]

Welcome back, we have missed you! I loved the part about reminiscing about other horses you have introduced to Eventing- I have had the same thoughts.

[Linny]

Sorry about the nausea inducing CC video. I had the phone camera zoomed as far as I could and every wobble looks dramatic. I had so much fun! Thank you for the hospitality and a great weekend. Chad is indeed a superstar in the making.

[CindyCRNA]

I love him! How old is he?

[Xctrygirl]

@Linny I’ve tried to shoot on that hill in a similar lighting situation. No harm no foul! You got half the course!

We miss you and wish we could all get together more often.

@CindyCRNA

He’s 6. I’ve had him 2 years today. He had a lot go wrong last year as he needed time to physically adapt to our grasses. 6 different instances of really bad hives, put a hole in his hoof and spent 5 days at New Bolton for it, then more hives, then a bout with a fungus that took all the hair off above his eyes. At that point I gave up and tossed him out to just relax and wait for 2020.

Em

[Jenerationx]

LOL… He’s clearly bored with the little fences and trying to make things more exciting. I love him! You gave him a great ride, staying out of his way and letting him find his way over. You seem like a fantastic teacher for a young horse.