XC Schooling at Loch Moy

This weekend was quite a weekend! And it most definitely had it's highs and lows. Oddly enough the highs were not the normal highs and the lows were not the normal lows. Let me explain.

Sunday I was slated to meet my instructor and another rider at Loch Moy for 1 last XC schooling before this Saturday's show. The rated show. The one that costs a lot of money so I better not get eliminated show. So I got a text to meet at 3:30pm. Nick and I did a few things around the house and then headed to Waredaca in hopes of using our new lunge whip and chain rope to load Smash onto the trailer. I had the other rider's phone number as a back up in case we just couldn't get her on. We got to the barn and no joke, it took us 2 tries and she was on the trailer!!! We left the barn at like 3:15pm and I was worried we'd be super early and waiting for the other rider since the texts I was receiving were like "I'm already on and riding and have to ride another horse" which made no sense because why would you ride another horse at the barn when we're supposed to be leaving?? ...it was because we were supposed to meet at Loch Moy at 3:30pm...not leave then. *sigh* whoops. So by the time I got there and realized what I had misunderstood they were done riding while we were pulling in. Thankfully Steph was nice and stayed to give me a quick lesson.

Then more drama. Nick for whatever reason decided to start unloading Smash but didn't wait for me to help and next thing we know Smash has broken off the trailer and is running amok around the Loch Moy xc schooling area. I ran. A lot. Dumb horse was having a blast. Finally she stopped and was sweaty and tired. But guess what - I didn't care.

Once I got on we had a really good lesson! I practiced the crap outta the down bank and even did a few fences I was leery about (they looked big) before calling it a day. Thankfully Smash loaded right back onto the trailer without any issues! Our only problem was she did kick a fence and lost another shoe (she lost a shoe Saturday when she broke free and ran around the farm for 5 min...I don't want to talk about it) so now I need to call the farrier for sure so I can ride her at least on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for Saturday. Here are a few videos from the day.

We ended up back at the farm just in time for the boarder picnic and I had a great time despite being the only person still in riding clothes and not showered. I'm fairly exhausted today, too, but at least I got in some xc before the show.

Highlights:
* Smash loaded on the trailer with minimal issues! And under 10min!
* We had a great schooling O/F
* We managed to get to Loch Moy only 30min after the meeting time that I misunderstood

All in all a good day - hoping that one day we'll have a drama free experience. I'm feeling very thankful right now that the rated show is a home show!