Montana!

Rebecca Farm 2016 is a wrap! What an amazing trip, I'm already counting down the days to next year. We arrived late Monday evening a long day of driving (11hrs). Swag traveled well and we settled into our tent at dark.  Tuesday morning arrived quickly and we headed out again for a cross country schooling at nearby Herron Park. I'm pretty sure Swaggy gave me quite the look as I asked him to load back into the trailer! Swag felt great as we schooled a few fences and I gave him a chance to stretch his legs, working on our gallop and schooled him through the water complex. Wednesday was spent walking the cross country, riding, bathing, and doing last minute tack cleaning.

The show began for us on Thursday, with our dressage just after 9am. It was a respectable test, with some tension in the transitions (something we are constantly working on) but I was overall please with the rhythm and consistency. A 31.3 put us in a tie for 9th, out of 25, with all of the scores being very close. After dressage there was not much time to prep as our cross country took place just before noon. My goal for this course was to ride him a bit more forward and this was the perfect course to do that on. The first few fences got him jumping boldly and we settled into stride quickly. Fence 4 was down towards a pond, through a narrow and shadowy opening and Swag gave a look as I am sure he thought we were going swimming. Once he saw the fence we were on our way, up a hill, through the water and onto the half coffin, which rode brilliantly. There were several more galloping fences before the course took us to a brush with a cabin approximately 10 strides away. It was set to ride either as an "L" turn or a bit more direct with the second element jumped at an angle. As I prepare for our move up to Training, I took the more direct route, and was pleased with how easily Swaggy locked on. The final question of the course was a big downhill approach to a water complex which gave you a couple of options. I again took the "harder" more direct route, finishing a good 20 seconds under the optimum time. We moved up to 7th.

Friday was a rest day before show jumping early Saturday morning. It was a fair and inviting course and for the first time, I felt able to ride Swag a bit sharper off the ground, with him maintaining balance. Fence #2 was a pink and white upright vertical and while I gave it the best ride I know how, I got ahead in my shoulder and we sadly had that rail. 4 faults put us in 9th overall.

The rest of Saturday was spent watching cross country and packing us, as we headed out early on Sunday morning. Another memorable Rebecca Farms is over. The courses and facility there are beautiful and I leave feeling like my horse is more than ready to move up this fall.