Courtney and Who’s a Star (Tag) lead of things on Saturday competing at Intermediate. They put in a solid dressage test, scoring only 31.6, placing 5th of 21 horses. They added a clear round in stadium jumping, moving them up to 3rd. Courtney was quite pleased as she and Tag have been working hard on keeping all the rails up. The two of them ended with a fast round on cross country, jumping clear and finishing just 1 second over time, to move up and take home the blue ribbon.
The Beginner Novice horses as competed on Saturday, with Courtney riding Comrade and Jolly Good Sport. Both horses did well in the dressage, scoring with Comrade scoring 28.1 and Sport 31.0 to place 4th and 5th respectively. Next, they had good rounds in stadium with Comrade adding a rail and Sport jumping clear. Unfortunately cross country did not turn out so well. Comrade was competing in his first horses trials, and while he had crossed water before, we don’t think he had ever been asked to go through a water jump as big as that at Waredaca. Sensing the horse’s reluctance as they approached the water, Courtney wisely pointed Comrade towards the unflagged portions of the obstacle. After making him comfortable with going in and out the water, Courtney went through the flagged area and continued on to jump a clear round, adding only time faults to their score. Sport, who had not competed since April, took a few jumps to get in the swing of things, added jumping penalties. Both horses finished out of the ribbons.
Sunday dawned with a promise of another sunny day and only a slight chance of rain. But the “slight” part of it must have been centered directly over the event. So while four-year-old Nevaeh happily returned to competition after a summer vacation, Courtney and her ended up feeling like “drowned rats.” Not letting that stop them, they did well in the dressage placing 2nd. They added a rail in stadium to move down a little and then went clear on cross country to move back up and finish in 2nd place.
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