Countdown to Prelim at Rocking Horse

The countdown continues for Farrah's second preliminary event!  Rocking Horse 1 is next weekend (25-27 January) and Farrah has been letting us know she is quite ready and in her not so subtle way, either.  It is fantastic that Farrah is so very eager to go, but being prelim fit definitely gives both Lauren and I pause.

We have two lovely teenage girls who help us on the farm with fitness sets for the horses and so far, both have been able to do trot and canter sets on Farrah and her prelim barn mate, Cindy.   Last week it became apparent that this arrangement was just too good to last and now gallop sets are restricted to just myself and Lauren.  Farrah is way too exuberant in the canter sets (at least the first two of the three sets) for the girls and so it falls on me to make sure Farrah has the proper canter set without thinking she is the one dictating pace.

Farrah "Come on Mom, let's go faster."  

Me "Honey, I don't think this is what Lauren had in mind."

Farrah "Sure it is!  Why can't I just build speed as we go......it is so much fun WHEE!"

Unfortunately for Farrah, I do finally convince her that we can control the canter/gallop sets and she has to reserve her lovely gallop for the actual cross country.  Good thing it is only a week away, that means I have only one more set to survive :)

Video Cross Country from Ocala

So lets see if this works!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grkuDFS47ls
Thanks to Horse Pesterer for taking and posting the video!

National Qualifying Score Earned!

Farrah has one Preliminary under her belt and I would say it was a successful debut!  The little New Forest Pony had the following scores:

Dress Score	Dress Place	Stad Jump	Stad Time	To Date Score	To Date Place	XC Jump	XC Elapsed	XC Time	Final Score	Final Place

30.90

6-T

0.00

0.00

30.90

6-T

0.00

5:43

11.60

42.50

10

The dressage was amazing and even with a break in the counter canter, Lauren and Farrah had a steady test but lots of room for improvement....I can see where with more time, they can easily be in the mid 20's or lower.

Stadium looked plenty big and we saw quite a few oops and rails.  Farrah decided touching wood would be a bad thing!

Cross country we knew we wouldn't aim for time.  Not for her first preliminary!  Lauren's other ride, Cindy One, was tied in her division for 1st but same thing, didn't go for time either.  Instead Lauren focused on getting Farrah to the combinations and they will go for time after a few more prelims are under their belt.

Bruce Davidson commented on her lovely gallop, so nice to hear that!  We are looking ahead to 3 more qualifying rides and then a 1* in Ocala to finish the spring season!

Thanks for the lovely time, Farrah.....ponies rock!

Farrah Got Her Groove On

So maybe we just didn't trust the redhead enough when it comes to playing within the confines of PVC and letters, as Farrah showed us she has been paying attention!  And here all this time we thought she would give us the finger (she has done that in the past, so it wouldn't be a new thing).  Farrah and Lauren rocked Preliminary Test A with a 27.7 at the Florida Horse Park Schooling Show this past weekend.

I think we can truly say:  PRELIM BOUND!

The pair also lowered only one rail at the preliminary height in stadium and schooled the preliminary XC the next day.  I think it is pretty apparent that Farrah and Lauren have got their game face on :)

Riding drops on only 14.3 can be slightly more entertaining, as on the landing Farrah's neck just disappears, but here they are hunting the corner that is just a few strides away, NO PROBLEM.

Big gallop tables also look pretty massive from Farrah, but Farrah loves them!  Look for them in January to contest a recognized Prelim here in Florida.

Lauren will be grateful when Farrah finally realizes that you can "brush" through the brush, currently she is still unconvinced!

Prelim Bound!

Cross Country prep:

Longwood schooling, Check!

Stadium Jumping prep:

Debbie Stephens's lesson, Check!

Dressage Prep:

Lauren to Farrah - See, we get to leg yield here, counter canter here, it will be so much more exciting then the training tests!

Farrah to Lauren - WTF!  Leg yield and counter canter in a 20 x 40?  You are kidding, right?  A 20 x 60, maybe.....a big open field and I can accomodate you.

Sigh, we will have to see if Lauren and Farrah (with Bill) can put their game faces on and bring the dressage up to snuff.  Who knew playing in the sandbox could be SO MUCH FUN!???  NO CHECK.

Farrah and Lauren did manage to do very well at their last recognized outing - 31.6 in the Open Training to finish 4th on their dressage score :)

The pictures say it all!

Farrah loves the Full Format!

Now that we have competed Farrah in her first recognized with Lauren (instead of me), I am not sure I will get her back from Lauren any time soon!  We all had a great time at the Fall Horse Trials at Rocking Horse (Altoona, FL), and Farrah competed in the Novice 3Day (I didn't compete in enough Training level recognized shows to qualify her for the T3D).  Farrah loved the challenge!  Thanks so much, Lauren, for doing such a great job with Farrah!

It was so much fun to go through all the paces :)  The jog in the fog..........

Followed by Roads and Tracks.......

Farrah LOVED steeplechase.



And Farrah always enjoys a victory gallop!

Farrah runs in two weeks at the Florida Horse Park November trials (Training).  Many thanks to Alice (the organizer), the sponsors who donated generous prizes and the ground jury and trainers who donated their time to make this full format truly educational.  The riders/horses were treated to pizza and a session on what to prepare for in the jog and the vet boxes, driven around roads and tracks, held a training steeplechase session with Joe Meyers, had a course walk XC with Robin Walker, a SJ course walk and lots of interaction with the awesome people at Rocking Horse to make sure no one got a TE on something silly!  Very educational for both horse and rider and I hope we as competitors in the South can encourage this venue to continue to offer the full phase opportunity for our horses!

I didn't completely miss out on riding over the weekend, as I talked my friend Jody into hauling up my 3-year old for me to hack out....she is  half pony and will be an up and coming pony eventer, even though she is horse sized ;) 

Introducing Mia, WH Top Gun (Connemara) x Black Dog's Fiorella (Trakehner).  If I have to hand the reins on Farrah to Lauren to qualify Farrah for a One Star, at least I have something that I can compete on in 2013 :)

BEGIN COUNTDOWN..........

Next week Farrah returns to recognized competition with a full format N3D!  We have in-barn inspections on Thursday November 1st at 1pm, then the fun begins with jogs, dressage, steeplechase practice, XC walks, roads and tracks!  I am pretty excited to have Farrah and Lauren competing, can you tell??

Now, we just have to keep her highness bubble wrapped until then!