Didn't quite qualify

I'm off by a minimum of 2 points. I'm not exactly sure anymore, but, so long as I place well at my next show, I will qualify.

Sunday started out not so nice. I switched into Low Children's from Pleasure Horse. Miss S just wants me to do something without having to worry about points. I don't even know what Low Children's judges. I might do Low Hunter next time. Long story short, I didn't get to school, so Baby stopped at all the fences in our first two classes, and I was excused. Miss S had me do an open card and gave me a crop to carry, which I honestly hated, but I guess it was necessary. I'm not against crops. They're an aid like spurs, a whip, and so on, but I hate that I had to all of a sudden use one. I hate that things got to that point, and I hope that I don't have to use it ever again. We got through the open card and the next judged course. I got a third there, then a fourth in the flat.

Now, the main issue all morning was the medal. Only one girl was signed up for it, so it wasn't going to run unless it had two more people. That's when we questioned whether I had actually qualified or not in order to see if I could ride in it just to help fill it. But lo and behold, my points weren't on the association website. Miss Terry went to the office to see if they had my points on record. Nope. Apparently the communication within the association hasn't been the best. Yes, I had registered and yes, I had points, but no one knew what the points were. I had to guess, and it wasn't until I checked my past posts on here that I actually knew how I had placed. With my guesses, I hadn't qualified, so I was able to ride in it. My friend filled the class as the third one, BUT, there was an accident. That same friend was riding in the pony derby. I had done my medal course, and it was great except for one slightly reckless rollback. She did her derby round right after I did my medal and was going to do her medal right after that. Unfortunately, the derby called for a hand gallop through a weird turn to an oxer, one which her pony, Mert, couldn't make it through. They got super close to the jump, but Mert still tried to jump it. He ended up getting his front legs between the box under the jump and the back poll, then flipped on his side. My friend came off, fortunately before Mert fell on the jump, but she ended up hitting her back square on the poll and had some damage done to a knee which she had surgery on a year or so ago. Mert was fine, and my friend was able to walk away, but I goes without saying that she didn't do the medal. I'm kinda bummed, but I'm glad that she was able to get up after that, and I'm surprised that Mert didn't scratch up his legs. It was a lucky moment.

The day goes on, and I went in for my first Jr. Eq. course, where I messed up the same rollback even more. I placed seventh, then I forgot the end of my second course and asked to be excused. On the flat, I placed 5th out of 11, which isn't bad. Baby didn't stop at anything, and she did a couple flying changes. Overall, the weekend was rough but rewarding.

I hope to go back to watch another one of Fifi's lessons either this weekend or sometime next week and have her video tape my ride afterwards.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Kids Are Alright: Interview with Jill Treece

Unspoken Rules of the Hunter Ring