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Oct 12, 2013

Seems as though time has gotten away from me. Fall has flown by. I cannot believe we are already on the way to Fair Hill. I can't tell sometimes if the feeling in my stomach is excitement or terror. It's a toss up; either one seems appropriate at any certain time.

A couple weeks ago weeks ago we took off to Texas (my first time in the Lone Star State) to go to a clinic with Leslie Law and then head to Texas Rose Horse Park for their first American Eventing Championships.

The clinic was spectacular! Leslie had a lot of great insights into Elliot. He got me working Elliot over his back in a way I haven't felt before. I am very excited at the opportunity to work with him again while in Florida this winter.


The AEC didn't go as well as I would have hoped. It wasn't a disaster by any means, but it revealed some holes and I was a little let down after the high of the clinic the week before.

Dressage was respectable. We scored under 40 in a very stiff field. The comments were more or less what I expected to see. We need more bend in the lateral work, there's some tension in the walk, and the canter-walk transitions are often abrupt and/or on the forehand.

The cross country course was solid. Just what I wanted before Fair Hill. The first five fences were small and straightforward. Fence six was the first combination on course and the first serious question. It was a hefty table, six strides (if ridden direct) to a narrow, right pointed corner. From that point, there were a series of very good questions including big angled roll tops, two water complexes (the first a barn-bank out-one stride-skinny and the second big brush-drop in-bending line-tall, wide skinny out), and another corner combination that mirrored the first but this time with a tall but wide chevron in. The course eased you in, tested your mettle, and then let you down.

I felt pretty confident walking the course. I knew the first combination was going to be a very good test. It was the first combination on course and right corners can be tough as we struggle with right drift. On the first walk, it seemed obvious to jump the right hand side of the table and put a little bend back to the corner. On each successive walk, my line got straighter and straighter. It turned out to be a bad call. I made a tough question tougher than it needed to be and also something we weren't quite ready to do. When I got to it on course, he jumped the table well and I rode my plan. I'm not sure whether he misunderstood the question, or if the right drift caught up to up or if we just weren't settled at that point on course (as he was breathing fire on that particular day), but regardless, we had a blow by. Then I let myself get frazzled and didn't collect myself or him enough for the second attempt resulting in another blow by. At that point we picked off the option, which was a left pointed corner, and went on. The rest of the course rode well. I hit a flag with my left knee on the second corner combination but he went. All the other combinations rode great.

After the trouble on XC, I was really hoping for a clean show jumping round to end the weekend on a high note. It was not meant to be. Elliot actually jumped quite well, and my eye was on, but instead of a 12' stride I was on something like a 14' stride, which meant we jumped a little flat. He just breathed on a few of them and they fell.


We got up into the triple digits, but we finished!