Olde Hope Evening Shade III Schooling Trial (full report) -- lots of photos and silly blabber to follow.

Olde Hope is a wonderful venue not too far from us in Maryland close to Fair Hill and St. Augustine (I know, we are spoiled in Area II). They have a very friendly atmosphere and it's really designed to help inexperienced horses/riders get a real feel for eventing in a very comfortable environment. They run a lovely little series in the summer that hosts the events in the afternoons which makes for a much less rushed prep day!

He's always happy to get in the trailer!

We arrived to the barn with plenty of time to got our boys ready (Emily even has time to ride one of her other horses while I pulled Riley's mane and combed out his tail -- ooh and trimmed the top with clippers to look like more of an event pony). He got a thorough bath where I tried my best to get his sock white again and since I had plenty of time I decided to BRAID! I be fair, it's been at least 20 years since I've braided, but he's a great sport and I only had to re-do his forelock once since he had no idea what the heck I was doing fooling around between his ears. I wrapped his tail with an ace bandage to try to tame it a little and he spent the remaining time in his stall trying to rub it off -- butthead. We headed out right on time and picked up some adult beverages on the way to keep our helper (Emily's bf) happy and to hopefully celebrate after our ride!
We checked in and went off to walk our courses. I was terribly nervous about the giant teepee that was directly next to the first jump on the stadium course! Everything was really inviting (and very small), there were a few fences on stadium that I was a bit worried about including a mock brick wall and two gates. Both stadium and XC are on hilly terrain which was definitely a bit of a problem as many horses were slipping. The XC course was pretty interesting with a bank option (which I took!) and a few looky jumps, but I knew we were ready!

6 stadium and 10 XC fences

AGH!

Brody rode dressage about an hour before me and apparently the hour and a half drive was enough for Riley and Brody to become attached at the hip. One of the warm up areas was really close to the trailers and they screamed for each other non-stop. I was completely embarrassed of my silly horse who wouldn't shut the hell up. Riley warmed up in basically the same manner, but once Brody was out of sight he settled down a bit, but still called to any horse that would listen. I kept his feet moving and made my warm up quite short because every time a new horse arrived he'd start screaming again. We walked over to our ring to watch a few tests and let him relax a bit. The poor girl in front of us was having a hell of time getting her horse to behave and he tore down part of the ring and then proceeded to jump out after they let her continue. Riley saw Brody finish his stadium round and gave him a congratulatory whinny just before we went in for our test. Riley was a little spooky but quite obedient and then I sort of blanked out and forgot what I was doing (yes, in a 2 minute walk-trot test, I am THAT distracted at times) and missed a movement. I called to the judge (who didn't notice) and she allowed me to fix my mistake (of course I still got -2).

33.1 after the markdown for our error

Comparing notes to his last test, I think this judge was more accurate in her scores but he received an 8 on gaits both times. I also received a 7 on rider. I like that she called me a tactful, effective rider and her little note about Riley saying, "Nice horse with natural balance and presentation". I'll take it. She also remarked to me that he was a really nice horse as we left the ring. We had a little time to kill before jumping so we headed back to the trailer to relax for a little bit.

Studying our course map together

Grazing while looking handsome as hell.

I got changed into my jumping gear and headed over to warm up (which consisted of one vertical on the side of a hill). There were two other girls in there with me with their trainer and I'm certain it was their first event because they didn't understand basic warm-up ring etiquette. No worries though, I gave them fair warning about what I was doing and where I was going, jumped the practice fence four times and got out of their way.

Ready to jump (you know, huge 2' fences!!!)

I'll try to upload the video later tonight. Emily gave me some really good pointers about how to ride the course and lo and behold the teepee was not even remotely an issue. Riley jumped everything really well, cantering off after each fence. I let him take a good look at fence three which was a white gate looking thing and he jumped it very bravely. Then the true test was our turn away from the in gate and off to fence 4 (the brick wall). As suspected he thought about throwing it in reverse and I all but carried him over that thing. There was no way we were getting a refusal over something he can walk over! After that the last two fences were a breeze and I was beaming! We headed almost immediately off to XC where he jumped everything like a champ. He was a little wiggly headed to the first 3 fences, but got into a nice rhythm and was down right keen to the remainder. The bank option was either a ramp up to and off the bank or a jump headed straight toward the in gate. I opted for the bank since he's never had issues with them before and it was a good choice and he was eager to find out where we were going next! Off to fence #10 which took you back into the stadium field. I was shouting "GOOD BOY" all the way around the course and I am certain that people thought I was nuts at how much I was patting, hugging, and hooting and hollering at the end. Emily came running over from the middle of the XC field and she was thrilled. Riley and I walked back to the trailer with ear to ear grins! I was so happy we made it around and I felt myself wanting to do MORE!

And much to my surprise, when I went to hand off my pinney, they gave me my dressage test and this lovely second place ribbon! The label has a horse drinking a margarita in a hammock! I gave Riley about a million treats and let him graze while I enjoyed a few beers. Emily took home a 4th place ribbon with Brody on a very substantial Intro course (he has only XC schooled once)!

Look at him GO! Such a brave dude!

Super attractive photo of me taken while I was sleeping on Bandit for the ride home. All this winning wears me out!

We've got another event coming up on the 24th, so we're going to keep plugging away at our dressage and jumping skills. One big thing I need to work on is getting Riley to stop be-bopping his head at the walk. While it's very cute it gives the illusion that he's tense so we'll practice that. And of course transitions, transitions, transitions. *Side note: Emily caught us doing a beautiful walk to RIGHT lead canter transition the other day before my jump lesson:)

As a little reward for our second place, I took advantage of Dover's annual tent sale and got us a few goodies:

Adorable puppy not included

Middleburg tall boots ($55), Davis bell boots ($8), gorgeous plaid polos $13), owl Zocks, a new whip in blue and black ($7) and a barely used waterproof quarter sheet ($45), and a random spray bottle.

Woot!

Video and photos of us actually jumping to come!