Morven Park Schooling

Happy belated 4th of July! And what better way to celebrate than to go XC schooling? :) Yesterday a group of riders from Waredaca went to Morven Horse Park in Leesburg, VA. A few are competing this weekend at Loch Moy's recognized show and wanted to get in 1 last schooling. Others, like me, just wanted to tag along for the experience. I also thought it was a good time to get Smash back on the trailer after our traumatic trailering experience in May.

I ended up carpooling with a friend, Nancy, and her horse, Piku. I thought having another horse in the trailer with Smash and another human to help me would be the best way to re-introduce Smash to the trailer. We first tried loading Piku and seeing if Smash would go in second to see him (they are buddies in the field). She refused that idea. So then we unloaded Piku and tried again. Still she said No. We decided to give our coach a call and while Nancy was calling her Smash sniffed around, thought a while, and decided it was ok to get on. She practically self loaded herself! It was funny - it had to be her decision, not mine. So LOTS of Stud Muffins later, we were off!

By the time we got to Morven Park it was HOT! We gave the horses a quick drink and sponge before tacking up and meeting Steph and the other 2 riders in the schooling area. I had a rocky start. I think the heat and my exhaustion from the day before were affecting me a little. We had a couple refusals until I finally got my head into the game. We worked mostly over roll tops since the jumps out there were fairly advanced and because of the heat we needed to take it easy. But we did get to work over a ditch (Smash FLEW over it the first time and I had some serious hang time!) and some banks into water.

All in all, though, I had a good time! Then it was time to cool our horses off. We sponged them down with cool water and gave them plenty to drink before hanging out under the shade until they finally all resumed normal breathing and temperature. Smash was a little fickle again getting back on the trailer, but once we stopped asking her to load and left her alone, she loaded herself. Such a silly horse. :P I was so glad we got her back on the trailer! And I was thankful I got to be included with the other riders. It was amazing to see them ride over much larger/challenging fences and to give me something to aspire to. And it was nice making friends :) I'm contemplating entering into the Full Moon Farm event with Nancy at the end of the month but haven't made up my mind yet. Any additional showing/schooling is good, ya know? Plus this show is VERY informal and they encourage Hawaiian shirts! So it might be a good show to do right before the recognized on in August. We'll see.

Hope you enjoyed a few fireworks yesterday!