My name is Jennifer Mulholland and I am 17 years old from Mobile, AL. About a month ago I completed my first Novice at the June Poplar Place H.T. on a pony named Tide. Our cross country ride was less than ideal but luckily I got it all on GoPro. Everyone at my barn cannot stop laughing at my struggle to just finish the course after everything went downhill at jump #3.
When we started out on course, all I wanted to do was to cross the finish line. In the end, I completed that goal but not without fighting hard for it. At jump three, after two refusals I was about to give up as it didn’t seem like Tide was going to jump it on the third attempt, but he did. This caused me to go flying onto his neck and since he is a mischievous pony, he starts to gallop towards the driveway that leads back to the barn. Somehow I manage to stay on but I am so shaken up by what just happened that I take a moment to just sit there and contemplate my life. This gives the person behind me lots of time to get closer. And that person just so happened to be my friend Audrey.
Audrey Baker and her pony, Titan, were sent out of the start box two minutes after I was. She did not know about the “delays” that happened at Jump #3, so she was about 1 to 2 jumps away from me throughout the rest of the course. This caused some confusion on her part wondering why she was so close to me.
After the whole nerve racking incident at jump #3, the next thing I was worried about was the ditch. In the weeks leading up to the event, we had problems with ditches but he decided that it wouldn’t phase him this time. Only the woods next to the barrel jump would throw him for a spin (again). The rest of the course, I was just trying to make up for lost time. We finished only about one minute over time, with Audrey and Titan close behind.
Since then, we have redeemed ourselves and just had a clear cross country round this weekend at Chatt Hills Summer Series 2!
