I just caught up with Emily Beshear and talked to her about her ride Saturday around the Advanced track at Southern Pines; she told me that actually it was the corner fairly early on that caused her some trouble but she doesn’t think it’s an indication of any real problem , “When I walked the course I was happy that there were those open stretches because every year I go to The Fork and I have trouble early on because it’s so open and he’s not focused, so that question in particular (the corner) sent up a red flag to me for him. David (O’Connor) has been talking to me all spring about taking more chances with him and not spending so much time setting up for the combinations so I thought that would be a good place to test it out and it didn’t work! It’s obviously something in his development that I have to keep working on; in a long, straight stretch he literally does not see the technical aspect so he just ran straight past the corner and then got really flustered and ran past it again, and then I got him to jump it. He’d been brilliant at the beginning. I was obviously disappointed but not really that much so because it was definitely something I needed to test out whether I could shave a few seconds here and there and that’s not somewhere where I can do it.” Emily in fact, did NOT pick up 20 penalties for circling at the water before jumping the roll top out, “If I hadn’t had the earlier trouble I would have made the water happen, but because I could tell he was just a little flustered from what had happened earlier in the course I just wanted him to finish settled so I thought, OK, I’ll just circle there and get his composure back, because he was brilliant everywhere else. He was really good early on and I was actually close to my minute markers up until that happened at the corner which is rare for me, so now I know I can be quick and still take a few seconds to let him read the question better. I’ve had trouble in the past with that exact type of situation, and that was my day to see if we were ready to take that on or if he still needs more time, and I think he still needs more time.”
Emily didn’t intend to show-jump Quincy this afternoon as the weather is deteriorating as I write this, but told me she will definitely go home and set up a similar question so that he learns to look for things, “I don’t feel like he was misbehaving, I literally think he just didn’t know he was supposed to jump that fence.”
In a reassuring sign that even the four star riders have superstitions this is Quincy’s travelling companion, and yet, because he has a history of destroying his mascots, it’s not allowed to hang outside his stall! Emily shared the details, “Quincy always used to travel by himself but it started off with a purple monkey who was his travelling companion, but the problem is we keep having to get new monkeys because he kills them! We always know it’s going to be a little bit of a questionable day because we’ll come in the morning and one time he had ripped a leg off and drowned it in his water bucket! So this weekend it’s not outside his stall, it’s by the grey mare’s, and we thought maybe that’s why he’s not quite on his game, because he doesn’t have his monkey!”
Wishing Emily the best of luck at The Fork, and hoping that all the competitors get through the show-jumping here at Southern Pines (driving wind and rain) and have safe journeys home. Am off to try and find a dry-ish spot to watch and maybe take some photos. Thanks for visiting Eventing Nation, please come soon, Spring. Go Eventing!
