Wednesday Night Schooling Show and Mara Dupey Clinic

Yesterday was a busy horse day filled with a lot of fun despite the hot temps. My Mom and I decided to start off my having a sushi lunch at NIKO's before heading to Waredaca. We were very early but took advantage of the time to walk what I *think* will be the XC course for Sunday. We assessed the fences and the potential course route. Obviously I won't know until Sunday what the real course is, but it was nice to see what it could be.

After we walked the course we headed back up to the rings to watch them set up the jumper course and keep an eye out for Mara. Auditing was free so we thought we'd watch other people in the clinic but since she ended up using a headset and wasn't using an instructor voice we couldn't hear her very well and decided it wasn't really worth auditing. Finally it was time to load up the car with tack and head out to get Smash. Of course they were all at the stream so it was a LONG walk from the field to the barn. A long HOT walk, too. My Mom got tacked up just in time for her clinic while I memorized my course and got ready. Since it was so hot outside we made sure we both had water and had a bucket and sponge for Smash. Thankfully the clinic was in the indoor ring so that kept Smash out of the direct sunlight for her 45min clinic.

At 4:45pm my Mom was finished and as I got on she briefly told me about her ride and how she had a really nice clinic! A lot of Mara's advice correlated to what Steph T. has been teaching my Mom this past month so it made a lot of sense to her and reinforced everything she is already learning/practicing. A lot of the focus was how to control speed and direction with core and leg vs much rein at all.

Then it was my turn. I sponged Smash off, offered her a drink (which she refused), and went to the warm up area. We trotted over the cross rail and then cantered over the vertical and then the oxer. The oxer had a few issues as I was reverting back into my old habits a little. After 3 attempts, I finally got myself back in my new habits and felt ready to ride the course. There were 10 jumps and the course was a bit windy, but honestly as I went through it, it wasn't as bad as it seemed when I walked it. It rode REALLY nicely and Smash got through the 2 stride combination easily! We had a flawless course and I was on cloud 9! I was SO happy that all of my practice was paying off! We did another round but by jump 3 both Smash and I were bored with the course and Smash got sloppy and knocked the last rail. I wasn't mad. She was hot and tired and bored and I was very happy with our efforts so we called it a day.

We cooled Smash off and put our tack away before heading home. All in all it was a very successful and fun evening! Both my Mom and I feel very prepared for Sunday's unrecognized show! :D And I'm very excited to find out our ride times that will be posted today. For the first time in a long time we both feel very confident in our riding abilities for a show! And what's even better is the course I jumped last night will be the same course on Sunday (or at least that's the rumor) so I'll already know how it flows, etc.

Sadly the helmet cam's battery died yesterday so I didn't get any footage but I am charging the battery now so by Sunday it will be more than ready to record the fun! :)