Eventers in jumper land! Photo courtesy of Amelia Bayer.
Eventers are versatile creatures, more capable than most of chameleon-ing it up in different disciplines — and being better at our own sport for it.
Virginia eventer Amelia Bayer has been dabbling in both straight dressage and straight show jumping in an effort to improve her results in those phases.
“Up until this year, I had awful dressage demons,” she says. “It was a huge mental block and even though I was physically past them, I still had to convince myself mentally. Participating in my school’s Intercollegiate Dressage Association team helped me get in the ring more often on horses that I didn’t know. My confidence started to grow and I figured if I can do well on horses that I don’t know, my own horses should be much easier. Now we average in the low 30s!”
She recently headed to the Virginia Horse Center to get some practice over the painted rails.
“Most recently, I’ve discovered some stadium jumping demons,” she says. “This was my first time branching out, and my coach and hunter/jumper friends from school were great support. I was nervous about memorizing so many courses since I haven’t done jumpers since middle school. On top of it, they had to deal with thunderstorms and lightning that was way too close for comfort.”
Amelia and her horse managed handily with her two Prelim horses. Handsome Devil took home reserve champion in the Level 3s, winning one of the classes; Road to Redemption matched him by also taking home reserve in Level 4 and winning a class.
She says she was pleased with their efforts and was grateful for the opportunity to practice calming her own nerves: “I will definitely be back to visit jumperland!”
Do you moonlight in straight dressage, hunter/jumper or perhaps a different discipline altogether? Tell us about your own experiences in the comments section below!
