Gia - session 910 - Horse Trial at Portofino

 I took Gia to the Horse Trial at Portofino Equestrian Center yesterday.  It was a crazy busy show for me, for multiple reasons - lots of horses going, lots of students competing, I had three horses to ride myself, and on top of all that we are dealing with an out break of Strangles all over North Carolina right now, so we had a lot of extra biosecurity precautions to take at this show.  

Gia was lunged in the morning, but not by either of her usual people, so I'm not sure exactly how she did.  In dressage warm up, she was ok.  They had us change warm up rings a couple of times, so it was difficult for her to get settled.  There were also a couple of riders that nearly ran into her, and that bothered her a lot.  I did a lot more transitions in this warm up than at the last show, but she still let out quite a few bucks while we were trying to get the canter.  We did finally manage to get it a couple of times.  The test was ok - not our best, but not our worst.  We did get all our movements, I didn't forget anything, she did get her canter, with all her leads and no bucking.  But, she was quite tense and quick throughout.  We scored a 40.667%, and started in second place.  

Jump warm up was a LOT better!  She started out a bit tense, but as soon as I put her over a jump and clicked, she completely relaxed and stretched out her neck, and started to enjoy herself.  The rest of warm up went well.  Her stadium round also went well.  She was a bit quick, but we rode the round as I planned, and she seemed very confident.  I clicked after each jump, and she got a big treat at the end of the round!

For cross country warm up, we went over a log and a roll top a couple times, and she seemed ready to go!  She went over the first two logs just fine, maybe a little hesitant, but nothing big.  She did startle a little at a pile of rocks on the pathway to jump 2.  However, something spooked her, bigtime, about jump #3 - a large, skinny log, with a couple of flowers right in the middle (my guess is the flowers), and on top of a little hill.  She spooked very suddenly and hard, and to the side, and I came off, after trying to grab hold of her neck and not being able to stick it.  

The bad news - we were eliminated, and I am quite sore today.  The good news - I was wearing my air vest, as I have on every cross country ride for over the past 10 years or so.  This is the first time it's actually gone off, so I guess I haven't fallen off in cross country in over 10 years.  Good to know that my vest is still in good shape after all that time.  Now to get another cartridge ...

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