St. Augustine Schooling HT -- Recap

Full disclosure: I probably had lofty goals for how things would go (ie, don't fall off, don't get eliminated and have a great time). We accomplished two of the three goals, but what I realized after the show was that we did as well as we could have given where we are with our training. That said, I am always impressed with my fellow blog friends (ahem, Sarah Rune) that are willing to share the good, bad and the ugly with their young horses, after all... we have to start somewhere, right?

All bathed and ready to make his debut

St. Augustine Pony Club is a lovely facility. Everything is set up in a way to be very horse friendly, especially for young horses and/or green riders. It was clear that this was the first event for most people in our area (not surprising after our down right horrible winter) because when we arrived, every single horse was screaming it's head off. Tension was pretty high in the air, but we arrived with lots of time to let our horses settle. We were also really fortunate to have ride times that were far enough apart so that Emily could help me warm up for each division without worrying about her own times.

First XC school -- Carousel Park

Sorry for the radio silence over the weekend. I've been busy and my computer is being the absolute worst so I had to wait to today to officially update. Those of you who are friends with me on Instagram or Facebook already got a sneak peek.

I'll admit, I was nervous, especially after Riley's shenanigans at the paper chase, but we were as ready as we were going to be. Carousel has a wonderful XC course. I think it only goes up to training, but there's everything from tiny, baby stuff on up. They had moved a lot of the jumps around, so we spent a little time trying to figure out where things were, and a HUGE group having a lesson arrived with us, but luckily the course is set in a series of different fields, so we had plenty of space to ourselves. I had Riley wear his Cavallos until we got past the bluestone (there's tons of it there), pulled them off and shoved them under a jump, along with his spurs (didn't need those). The first thing we decided to play around with was a ditch. A TINY ditch riveted on both sides and flagged. The first time Riley walked into the ditch and over. The second time he said, "Oh Hell No" and freaked out for awhile. I started to lose a bit of confidence, but Emily and Prima gave us a lead over a few times and then he was happy enough to pop over it from a walk 2 more times by himself. We decided to let that settle in and then we headed to the next field with the small water complex.

lucky bracelet

Emily had us follow her and Prima in the later and out at a walk and trot, then we followed them up and down the tiny little banks, and finally she had us drop off the bank and go up it at a walk and trot. She had lots of good advice of what NOT to do when dropping it and bouncing up backs, and I think I felt pretty confident in the end. Riley was game for all of it when it was our turn to do everything alone.

I'm not sure why, but the video came out all double-vision looking, so this is the best I could do for evidence!

Weeeeee! Into the water like a boss. I need to lean back more, but not too shabby.

Good boy Riley up the bank out of the water.

I think the hardest part of the day was Riley realizing that even though Prima was there to give us a lead, it also meant he had to leave her and go do things on his own, which we had a few disagreements about.

We moved on to the start of the baby course and basically schooled every single jump. There was a coop, a few vertical post and rail type fences, a ramp, a green set of steps (kind of like a bench that I was terrified of jumping and Riley jumped the best!), a jump that looked like a stone bridge with semi-circle cut outs underneath, and we trotted and really jumped the ditch when we came back around to it!

Riley's first XC jump, I'd say he's game.

Aw good boy, and I'm actually not staring at the ground! Woot!

All in all, it was a pretty perfect day. He was so game to everything and even jumped the ditch like a boss when we came back to it. We signed up for our first HT on Sunday, so we'll see how everything works out! It's simple test (though, Riley's never been in a dressage arena) and everything is super small, I want a good positive first outing for him and I!

ps. I love him, he's the best.

Treats for the good pony.