Penny Oaks Horse Trials, Aug. 6-7th, 2011

This post is a little late. I've been super busy since I have been back home, so I'm just now getting around to it.

The weekend of August 6th and 7th, Hennessy and I competed at the Penny Oaks Horse Trials at Hoosier Horse Park in Edinburgh, IN. This was Hennessy and my first ever recognized horse trials. Although Hennessy had been to Hoosier Horse Park many times, this was a little different with a lot more horses.


We arrived at the park on Friday afternoon to get Henny settled in. I rode him around when I got there and went in the arena to school him a little bit. After riding, I gave him a bath and let him chill for the night. My trainer and I walked the cross country course with a couple of other competitors.

The next morning I got there around 7:30 am, fed Hennessy, got him out and lunged him and then watched some prelim dressage. I then walked the cross country course again, which surprisingly was not that hard of a course to follow. I just wanted to have it down in my head. Later that afternoon, I finally got on Henny to warm up for our dressage test.  We had a great warm up and the ring steward was really helpful on letting everyone know how long until it was your turn. I went in to the dressage ring and rode a great test. 

After Hennessy and I had rested for a little while, I got ready for cross country. I went in the warm up and popped over a few jumps and then the ring steward told me to head over when I was ready. I went in to the start box and was cantering off as soon as the start box official counted down to 1.  I went around cross country at a steady pace and only had one run out and no time faults. When I got to the finish line, my mom and trainer were waiting and cheering me on. The cute, young, very kind girls at the finish line tent handed me a tiny glass of water while I gave them my cross country penny. I had a great time on the cross country course! 

The next day we got to the show grounds around the same time as Saturday - this was stadium jumping day. The show began with prelim and ran through all the divisions as fast as possible. The show officials were trying to keep the pace going due to high temperatures and humidity predicted for later in the day. We had time in the morning to watch some prelim jumping and watch their victory gallops.  I got on Henny around 12 pm and just walked around until it was closer to time for my division to begin.  The ring steward called my number after I was all warmed up and I went in to the ring. I had a clean round with no time faults -  it was perfect!

I had a really good time at my first recognized horse trials. The people that ran the Penny Oaks show were all very friendly and helpful. Eventers seem more laid back and fun - I love the atmosphere.  My experience at the show I will remember forever. I can't wait until my next recognized horse trials!

Cross Country !

Stadium Jumping !

Dressage !

The jumping man !

"Hey everyone look at me !"

Waiting to jump, ohhh do I hate waiting !

Day 52 & 53

Tuesday

Today was a pretty slow day! I stayed around the farm today while S.B was off at event camp. I cleaned stalls, let horses out, filled water and haynets! I then waited around for the farrier. While I was waiting, I cleaned some moldy tack. By then the farrier showed up and Henny, Ransom and Roman got their feet done!

Later that evening I got Henny out and rode him. We worked on a few things that I learned at event camp! We would canter a half circle then stop rein back and move straight sidways (full pass, or side pass) across the ring and then canter off again -  we kept doing that until he was bored with it and doing it was no trouble. Then we went through our dressage test for the weekend.

Today

I got down to the barn this morning and hurried up and got all the barn things done so that we could leave for event camp. When we got to camp, I unloaded Benito and got him tacked up for his cross-country lesson! We was such a good boy and just going with everything.

After that we had some lunch and then tacked him up for jumping again,. They had a course set up that they went and jumped around and then were told how they did. He was wonderful! (: I really like this horse !!

When we got home, I let all the horses in. I then lunged Henny and worked on long and low stuff with him. I then fed everyone. We are now going to a cookout at camp (: Goodnight !!!

One more day of camp !!



Day 51 - August, 1

Meet Benito (:

Stopped to take a picture while putting on his shipping boots ( as he only has one on right now(; )

The day started fast; feeding, mucking out, turn out horses, fill inside and outside waters and hay all horses. I then loaded up the trailer for S.B's first day of eventing camp at CAF. We then loaded up Benito and headed off. When we got there, we found his stall and started unloading all his stuff. After everything was unloaded, I started getting Benito ready for his jump lesson. Her jump lesson was a group lesson with trainer Don Sachey.  SB was in a group with horses that have not jumped that much! Benito was wonderful and was jumping so good! Right after her jump lesson, she had to go to her flat work lesson. I untacked Benito and tacked him up for dressage! Her flat work lesson was with Jennifer Conou, and she already knows Benito so Jennifer got him moving very nice and it was really fun to watch. 

When we got home, I unloaded the trailer and put Benito back in his stall. I then let all the other horses in and fed them. After resting for a little bit, we were off again to CAF for a demo by Lauren Kieffer! She rode many different horses and it was a very cool demo. 

When we got home once again, I got Henny out and rode him by myself! We worked a lot on shortening and lenghtening his stride in trot and then making the circle smaller in trot and then leg yielding to the rail and asking for canter! He is doing really good!!

We are very excited for our show this weekend at HHP (:

Day 48-50 , July 29th-31

You can't fit a horse into a mold !!   The weekend !!

Friday !

We had to wake up super early to take the horses swimming today. We mucked out stalls and let the horses out then loaded Henny and Romana up! We got to Wild Feather Farms at about 7:30 am and unloaded the horses and waited for the rest of the group to get there. Henny freaked out when getting out of the trailer and bumped his head - but he's okay(: When everyone else got there the lady the ran the place went through some natural horsemanship stuff that we would be able to use when we got in the water. When the trainer worked with Henny and she was waving her hands in his face to get him to back up, I just had to laugh...maybe the horse before him listened to that, but not my boy(:  She gave up on him.. ooopps! When we got in the water we walked them in and slowly got them used to the water, Henny was doing so well with this part! The next step was to move to the deep end and when they started swimming you were to jump on your horse! The first time Henny did it fine and it scared him a little and the next time he took off pulling me through the water(:  So the trainer lady thought she was going to show me how it's done and as soon as I gave her the rope, he took off (he didn't like her)!!  It was alot of fun, and I had a great time.

There he is (:

Saturday !

Woke up early once again because we had to go pick up a horse the S.B is going to use for event camp! We got up and mucked out, and let all the horses out. We then got in the truck and left - it took about an hour to get to the barn. When we got there, we found 'Benito' - he is a big chestnut Hanoverian, super sweet boy! I walked him out of the barn and he loaded on the trailer like a superstar. When we got him home, we set up his stall and he just acted like he was at home.

Later in the day we rode all the horses. I got Henny out to ride him and he was very very very sore in him back end so I put him away and gave him Bute. I think it was just from all the swimming as my arms were super sore!  S.B rode Benito and he is a wonderful boy, great mover.

Sunday !

Another early morning /:  We mucked out stalls and let all the horses out. Then we drove two hours to a horse Keuring, for Belgium Warmbloods. It was really cool to see some very nice horses.  After we got home, we brought all the horses in and fed them.  We then went to dinner and when we got home we rode the horses. I got Henny out just to get on him and walk and just take it easy! When I got on him, he was moving great - walking out and swinging!!  So I played with a little trot and I have my horse back (: I feel a lot better now!!!