Lizzie Snow sent in a guest blog about her experience thus far at the North American Junior & Young Rider Championships. Lizzie and Ringfort Tinkaturk are in seventh place in the CH-Y** going into the show jumping today. Best of luck to Lizzie and all the other competitors as eventing wraps up today. Go NAJYRC!
Lizzie & Ringfort Tinkaturk at SoPo earlier this year (photo by Crow’s Toes Photography)
From Lizzie:
Cross country day proved to be a very influential day for both the 2* and 1* divisions at young riders. David O’Connor switched up the tracks quite a bit this year and sent all of us in new directions. Both divisions got to jump into the head of the lake which was very cool.
The CH-Y2* course was tough, but definitely fair, with serious technical questions spread throughout the course. An angled brush at 6b and a corner at 13b seemed to cause the majority of the issues, although there were other problems spread throughout. The course was nice and flowing as it usually is at the Kentucky Horse Park and the footing was great.
I definitely learned a lot about my horse while riding around the course today, and I’m sure a lot of other people did as well. There were a lot of questions my horse hadn’t seen before and he rose to the occasion. I made a silly mistake early on but it taught me what I need to think about and how I can ride better. I think David set up a true test for the riders and I think that both myself and my horse are better for having run around yesterday.
The Horse Park did a fantastic job with the ground and there were plenty of big fans and ice in the water troughs in the vet box. Luckily the weather was the coolest it has been all week and there was a great breeze throughout the day.
Hopefully all of the horses will be ready for the jog early this morning and show jumping after! Good luck to all the competitors!
