WE CAN’T WAIT!!!
Any saturday fans?
See you at noon at the concessions stand - nearest the ring for the 1:00 class! watch for my white cap - trident logo - blue sweat shirt.
Now you are jumping your name again!!! haha
What ht is AA? I doubt I will ever get to show jumper, lucky you!!! 
PLEASE PLEASE don’t make me ride in the crazy L shaped porta pottie ring! Even though my horse semi bolted during one of those long gallops in the edge grass field…( 
)…I far prefer it.
We usually have 4 faults as well. That is okay – I have a hard enough time remembering my 1st round course. Jumpoff??? You mean I was supposed to remember the jumpoff course too?? 
Just moving this up again…
Hello everyone!!! I am down in Encinitas at a friend’s house tonight, so I have internet access!!! Woo hoo!!! Tomorrow I head back to The Oaks to watch the derby at 3pm, and then meet SuaveReno for dinner (time and location TBD).
The VIP tent entrance is easy to find…look for the big stone looking pillars. They are right near the center of the parking area. Also, there are vendor booths all along one driveway, and also a food stand at the entrance for us “commoners” as well as a booth selling T-shirts, etc. (I got mine today!). But meeting at the VIP entrance would probably be easiest. I will be wearing my COTH cap. I am going to hack Miss Cypress in the morning and then plan to watch the 10am class and later the 2pm class.
Our show was quite successful!!! I once again am doing the A/A jumpers, and having a BLAST. Cypress was so wonderful, and today we got a 5th in our A/A class!!!
I’m signing off for now…I’ll check back later this evening.
Is anyone interested in joining me and Suave for dinner tomorrow (Saturday) night? I’m thinking 6 or 7pm at El Adobe (is that what you suggested Suave?). Any suggestions???
[This message was edited by AAJumper on Jul. 14, 2001 at 03:06 AM.]
Congrats A/A!!! Thats the best! See all that curb jingling, it does help… 
Well poohbah, did not find anything resembling a map of The Oaks showgrounds.
Anyone have better real life experience here? We talked about meeting at the entrance to the VIP tent at what did we say 1:00p? That might be as good a place as any.
Couldn’t find anything cactus-ey to wear so I will be donning a salmon colored shirt with seashell pattern and coordinating shorts, with a silver horse figure necklace. Tres chic, my dearies.
Hope we all catch up with each other.
“The older I get, the better I used to be.”
Sounds good to me Hopefully a few more can join us
Good luck tomorrow and see you then
Thanks everyone! Bumpkin, the A/A’s at this show are 3’6". Sometimes they are 3’6"-3’9", although I’ve never seen them actually build a jump to 3’9" in the AA’s.
DMJ, the AA’s went in a ring behind the bleachers the first day I was there (Wed) and the course was designed by Conrad Homfeld. I did the schoolings and the lows that day, but they were in that ring too. The fences were built to legitimate height and I liked the courses. They weren’t outrageously technical, but there were some good tests. A lot of people had problems with a combination that was right next to the bleachers with a big green box on the bottom. All the horses would look hard at the box. Some had to work hard to then get out of the combination (a one stride I think). After that was a bending 7 (walked right on) right towards the line of porta-potties, which got some horse’s attention. Then it was a bending line that walked 6 and a half. We rode straight to the porta-potties (funny focal point!) then started our bend and the seven worked out perfect. Finally, we turned to the last line, a triple combination, where I had my rail at the B element. 
My trainer noted that Conrad seems to like to throw those combinations in at the very end of his courses.
The next two days we were out in the big field near the entrance to the property, and I believe that is where the AA’s will be all next week. I LOVE that field. We had a blast. The courses were such that you really made a tour of the entire field. I believe that course designer was Robert Leger. The fences were pretty much legitimate height, in general. A few looked just a smidge small. The first day in that ring (Thurs) the AA’s and the low AA’s were a different course, but the second day (Friday) in that ring they were the same. It was power and speed on Friday, and it sort of sucked because the first round was only 1-6, so you didn’t get to jump much if you didn’t make the jump off (we didn’t in either class). 
Fence 1 was an oxer right near the ingate, so you had to pass the ingate and turn to get to the first jump. Fence 2 was a skinny vertical with castle standards, right under a tree, which made for funky shadows, and it was several strides from Fence 1. Then we took a HUGE tour around all the permanent water jump stuff to an oxer, now headed to the ingate. Straight ahead about 8 strides (I think…on a slight bend I think) to fence #4, three easy steps to fence #5. Now we are headed to the rail, but it was a really odd hairpin turn to fence #6, a vertical. Almost everyone ended up riding back at the vertical at a slight angle, which set you up good if you were clean to that point. My friend overshot her turn, making it difficult to ride back to fence #6.
Overall, I really liked the courses and the field. I really enjoy riding in the wide open arenas where you cover a lot of ground. Cypress seems to prefer that as well.
So DMJ, you think you will show there this next week? I will be there…I am working most of Thursday, and then heading down to show Fri-Sun. If you are doing the AA’s, we will definitely run into each other (not literally, I hope!!!).
