I haven’t checked in for a while about my journey with Cudo since last year we took Covid as a great time to let the horses be horses and only competed in 3 shows at the end of the year. All unrecognized.
This year however we got an early start and Cudo is stepping back into his 2019 shoes where we left off at the point of the weirdest accident ever at a show. (Got run over at Devon Fall by a horse jumping out of the ring) Now though there’s lots of little improvements that are adding up to some nice feels going into the 2021 season. First off, we finished 3rd to two local (and very competent) pros out of 19 total horses in the first 1.20m $5k Mini Prix on our local show calendar, at the first show of the year for us. That was a nice feeling. Second, Cudo has decided that a really plain Myler snaffle is in fact fine by him for shows and our new focus on a LOT more dressage work and making him use himself, carry himself and become more adjustable in all gaits (duh, I know) is working well into our course works. And third, that fat boy from 2020 has been trimmed down and is back to galloping a lot more at Boyd’s to help slim him down some more. I have no idea how much galloping my fellow jumpers do, but for me it made sense to give my already big and fast horse, some soft tissue and lung fitness so that when I ask him to “go” in speed classes or jump offs…well we have a LOT to work with. And he likes to work with it. 
So I am stopping in to once again show off (Warning brag post) yesterday’s schooling video. In an effort to become as COTH famous (
) as @supershorty628 and @PNWjumper we are working on prepping for our 1.40m debut. As yet undetermined for when… but hopefully sometime in 2021. Yesterday we schooled an abbreviated course of mostly 1.40 fences, not all. But this is a starting point.
Those who have (God help you) been around when I took Petey to some 1.20 classes will recall that I got comfy at the level by starting with half the height and half not courses. In 2019 Cudo had at least 2 1.40 fences in our courses at home when we were competing at 1.30 and 1.35. So this isn’t “new”, but the proportions are increasing. I’m not the next ‘anyone special’ at this sport, but I am pretty psyched where Cudo and I are 3 years in. I’m excited to try the next level and I am feeling very lucky to be in this position with my best Facebook purchase ever.
So enjoy some video from yesterday.
Cheers,
Em
