Our Foray into Jumper-land

First, media is limited.  I was too busy watching or riding to do much myself.  We had someone come and take pictures. Unfortunately, both my rounds were during lunch.  But I have the movie in my head, so it's all good!

So Saturday we made a short detour to Jumper-land.  Friday I got off early and went down for a short lesson over poles, just working on the balance, which is my biggest challenge (as I've said before, boobs). Saturday morning we did morning chores, loaded up and headed out for the 30 minute drive to the facility.

Rather artsy pic while waiting.

When I say facility, this place is no joke.  The Grand Oaks Resort, home of the Florida Carriage Museum in Weirsdale Florida is just breathtaking.  I think the guy driving the beverage cart (yep, beverage cart.  Just sodas and water though) said it was 124 acres in the "lower" portion that we were using, like 350 acres total. There were 5 or 6 rings going.  I couldn't really tell because they are so spread out.  We parked as close to the jump ring as we could get, which was half a mile away (thank you Garmin step tracker, 9 miles on Saturday alone).  From there, we could see three rings in action, the novice ring (you know, walk trot), the big hunter classes in the indoor, and the jumper ring, which started with "pea green walk-trot crossrail jumpers".  Goodness.

Such a pretty girl.  Even with her fly mask on.

I was not nervous.  Until we signed in and I went to the jumper ring to see where they were and check the courses.  And realized they had watered the ring until it was soup.  But soup with good footing.  It wasn't deep, just wet.  They had to overwater it because they had too many trips to stop in the middle of the day to water it down.

Marcy and Violet checking out the warm-up.

Then we went back to the trailer and got V ready to go.  Marcy was riding her first in the 2'3" to get her in the ring.  It's been a while since we have been anywhere, and a very long while since she has jumped somewhere unfamiliar.

When we got back and they set the fences to 2'3", I believe I did say a couple of times, oh no, they look big.

B element of the 1-stride - photo by John Clark

These courses were no joke.  The fences were maxed.  I watched them measure.  And they adjusted width's as well.  And they were technical.  There were two combos (1-stride and 2-stride to a related 5-stride). There were broken lines and rollbacks.  And I had no idea what a "power and speed" class even was.  But I was riding one.  At the highest I have ever jumped in a show as an adult.

The lollipop jump - photo by John Clark

So, for those of you who have not done jumpers, there are power and speed and there are just speed.  Just speed is fastest and clearest.  You stop after you are done, and if you went clear, there is another buzzer to start the jump off.  There were too many riders, so no jump off in this show, it was just speed.  We don't care about speed and cutting corners and all that, so we were just using that as an opportunity to do all the rollbacks and stuff.

Waiting for our turn.

Power and speed is a different thing.  You go over the first 9 numbered elements and if you are clear (power) then you immediately jump another 4 numbered elements (speed) without stopping.  There is no separate buzzer.  The timer is only for the last 4, but only IF you are clear on the first 9.  That means 13 numbered elements.  With two a/b combos, one of which you jump twice.  Which means 16 jumps.  In a row.  Without stopping.  Good lord, I'm going to die.

So Marcy does just the speed and has a nice round.  Violet didn't really look at anything at all other than the wall of the practice area before the class.  And she got the distances for everything.  It was really nice.  And now I know she can do it, so now it's my turn.

We head back, get tacked up, walk down to the ring.  We start schooling.  The schooling area is very small, but Violet is really jumping well.  She's forward, but listening and really jumping around the fences, it feels like.  Then at the end, Marcy says "ok, I'm going to set this one hard for you so the others are easy" and sets the fence up.  I think it was the vertical, but truthfully, I don't remember.  She said jump it, we did and it wasn't hard at all.  Keep the triangle up with your hands above the pony's neck to keep the balance up, and ignore the fact that they just put a liverpool under fence #6 and don't forget to keep her in front of you and GO!

Oh...my...god.  It was...it was FUN!

Course 1.  Blue was power, red was speed.  Red X is the fence I went over instead of #11.  Whoops.  It rode well to 12, though, lol.

I got the bending line from 1 to 2, did the rollback to 3, headed on the broken line to the 1-stride at 4 and nailed it.  Back around to 5, broken line to the liverpool at 6 where I just put inside leg on and the pony said "GOT IT".  Zoom around to the 2-stride at 7 where we put in a pretty 3 strides, then 5 strides to the oxer, that was sitting in a puddle and was easily the biggest oxer on the course.  Last rollback to another vertical, and we completed power CLEAR!  Right turn rollback back to the 1-stride where I dropped my hands because I felt my saddle slip and needed to hold on, and we dribbled 2 in there and it was not pretty.  I also lost my stirrup.  I actually slowed to a walk to pick it back up and gather myself because this is not for winners, it is for training.  Then I got a beautiful forward bending line.  Except I jumped the wrong fence to start the line so I was done.

No biggie.  I wasn't even upset, and neither was Marcy or anyone else that was there with us, because I had fun!  This is such a huge thing for me.  I was confident, I actually was able to remember some things, and when I had not the best jumps, I was able to recover and make the next ones better.  I was finding the forward stride to the fences and I did not go fetal, and and and...it was just fantastic.

So I left the ring, got lots of praise from Marcy and her husband, and the other rider that was with us, and 2 rounds later, I went back in for the speed class.

Course 2. Just speed.

Ok, I was tired.  And after my saddle slipped I should have checked my girth.  But I didn't.  This class, we started with a broken line to the big wet oxer, which again was fantastic.  Then left rollback to a vertical and right rollback to the 1-stride.  Here my saddle slipped, hands went down, we got 2 and it was not pretty.  I was able to sit back up for the right turn to the kind of zig zaggy line of 5-6-7, which was fantastic.  Again, that inside leg was instrumental. At this point I was saying to Violet in my brain, only two more numbers, please just two more numbers.  We got the left rollback to 8, but again I felt insecure in my saddle and clutched mane which dropped our balance in the right hand rollback to the 2-stride, which again had 3 strides, but these were not pretty.  I was still grinning like an idiot as I left the class, because I did it!  WE did it!  We didn't drop a single fence, Violet felt fantastic and did not feel like she lost confidence in me at all, and we did it!

Marcy was so happy.  She said you could see my demeanor change after I got over the first fence.  It was like, ok, we got this, let's get it done, and she said she could tell I was trying really hard to remember all the stuff that we have been working on, and she was even more proud that I was able to keep going when things weren't perfect.  Because that is what this is all about.  We have to keep going.

We went for a walk, and went back to the trailer for a quick rinse off before heading back up to the ring to see the other student with us do the 2'9" class.  As I was walking up, they were reading the results for my classes, but I wasn't listening.  Remember, this wasn't about winning.  I had already won, so I didn't care what color the ribbons were.  I knew I would get one because I was in the smallest 2'6" division (open) and completed at least the second course, but it just didn't matter.

Except I won.

I won the class that I didn't complete.

Violet says "This some b-shit.  Where's my dinner, hooman!"

I got a third in my speed class and Marcy got third in hers.

Um, yeah, so apparently no one else was able to get through the power part, I guess?  I was the only one to go clear?  So yeah, this show gives out prizes.  Yay for prizes that are useful!

Our winning's for the day.  Yes, that is a stemless wineglass in the center bottom.  I will drink out of it daily.

After that, the other student was done, we pulled Marcy's horse off and loaded Violet in the trailer to eat hay while Marcy did the 3'3" classes with Riley.  She won both of her classes, the other student got a second and a fifth.  So here's to the eventers invading hunter/jumper land and showing that if you are working on the basics, which was our plan all along, the ribbons follow.

Fence 1 - photo by John Clark

Marcy and Riley getting some Training level jumping mileage. - photo by John Clark

Marcea and Riley conquer the 1-stride in the background.

And it was fun!

Proud pony.