Riding through the tunnel at Fair Hill. Photo courtesy of Brigitte Aickelin.
The past two days have passed in a whirlwind, but I finally have some breathing room. I’m sitting in the press tent now, possibly the only person on grounds to be wearing both a Rider and a Press wristband, which is pretty cool in my book.
I’ll start at the beginning. Tuesday consisted of me sitting at work in Center City of Philadelphia, checking my phone every two seconds for updates and generally losing my focus the longer the day went on. Meanwhile, my ace groom for the weekend, Brigitte, did a short 30 minute trot on Dante, tossed him on the already packed trailer, and drove 40 minutes to Fair Hill.
Yes, my horse lives only 40 minutes from Fair Hill. Feel free to be jealous now.
Once there, Brigitte had to immediately take Dante to in-barns. At events where horse trials are running concurrently with the FEI levels, usually you can allow your horse to settle in a bit in his stall before you check in at the in-barn vet.
At Fair Hill, Jersey Fresh, and probably a few other big events that only run FEI levels, you must immediately take your horse to the vet before stepping foot into the barns. The barns themselves are cordoned off with the orange plastic fencing often seen on construction sites. Access is limited to those with the correct color wristbands, which the riders receive in their packets.
After checking in, Brigitte spent the rest of the day setting up the stall, parking the trailer, and taking Dante for walks. It was the calm before the storm, and as the day went on, more and more riders poured in.
Wednesday was the first of two whirlwind days for us. I made the drive from Philadelphia to meet Brigitte bright and early. The weather was supposed to be terrible; rain was supposed to begin at 9 am, turn into thunderstorms at noon, and continue all the way into the evening and through the night. I wanted to be off before the rain really started.
Dante was scheduled to do a sixty minute trot. I was determined not to burn him out on dressage this year before his test, and the trot had the added bonus of taking the edge off him before the following day.
It took about twenty minutes trotting around the vast back fields of Fair Hill, but eventually Dante lost interest in staring at the clouds, butterflies, and anything that moved, and allowed me to take a soft contact while he held himself in a supple low frame.
After our trot, we wandered through the tunnel and hacked through the warm-ups. For those with a Thursday ride time, I knew that they would be doing familiarization Wednesday afternoon. With the likelihood of thunder, I didn’t feel it was really necessary to try and drown ourselves just for familiarization.
Dante had been doing fantastic in rings he’d never been in before; I had no reason to believe this weekend would be any different.
At 10:30, I attended the mandatory riders meeting. With 165 plus riders this weekend, the competitors’ tent near stabling was packed. Packets and sample products were handed out. The officials were introduced and ran through pertinent information. Before long, we were released to go get ready for jogs.
Now, jogs are very stressful for me. Not because I’m worried about my horse; Dante is very sound now. However, I am not the best with fashion, and I do not have a huge closet of ‘normal person’ clothes to choose from.
With the prediction of rain, I had even fewer options to choose from; the cute dress I had been planning to wear for months was out. Unfortunately, it briefly rained quite hard as we were waiting to jog, and after seeing photos of my outfit, I will not be wearing that one again.
My horse looked lovely though! Thank you, Brigitte!
The day was done for us, and we sat in the barns and the truck waiting out the rain before feeding dinner.
Thursday came bright and early. I had an 11:15 ride time, and needed to get a pre-ride in as well. We quickly fed Dante and then I took him out for a spin. I spent longer than I planned riding him. Used to night turnout, he felt very stiff and a bit heavy in my hands. I tried to work on suppling and bending, but eventually had to give up as more riders entered the warm-up.
At Fair Hill, there is a large grass area to warm-up in, and a dressage ring with footing right next to it. Because of all the rain, the riders were staying off the grass. It became difficult for me to find a spot to do a ten meter circle with eight other horses in the ring. I eventually gave up; everyone deserves some ring time, and I knew I had gotten Dante as good as I could get.
I wasn’t feeling super confident about our test after my pre-ride. While Dante was well behaved, I felt he was too stiff and heavy to score well that day. Still, I felt very confident in our ability to get a score in the sixties, perhaps even low sixties. I’m here for my qualifier, and anything else is just a bonus. I was satisfied to just get a qualifying score.
Lo and behold, when I actually got on Dante for his ride, he was much lighter and more responsive. I got to the warm-up with fifteen minutes to spare, so was able to head straight to the final warm-up ring. I’ve found that he is at his best about fifteen minutes into every ride, so that’s when I aim to do my test. He was still a bit stiff, but looser than before, very focused, and calm.
As I began to walk around the ring, I felt very calm. I have discovered that allowing Dante to walk around the ring until the bell (or in this case, honk) lets him assimilate his surroundings. After twenty or thirty seconds, he seems to take a deep breath and is ready to focus again. The truck honked, and we picked up a trot.
We go down the final centerline. Photo by Jenni Autry.
His test felt good, but nothing special. I felt I had the same horse I had at Morven, and the same horse I might have gotten at Plantation Field had he not decided some flagpoles were noteworthy. At Morven, he was so calm and quiet that it took me by surprise, and I just sat passively while he dawdled through a mistake-free but incredibly pokey test. Yesterday, I was ready for his calm, and strove to create a more forward horse.
I came out of the ring feeling only partially successful. The test was similar to Morven’s, I thought, where I had scored a 60.3. I thought perhaps it was a touch more forward, but needed more still. And he had still been stiff, which I already knew would be our homework for the winter.
When they announced my scores, I was taken by complete surprise. My original goal when coming here was to have both judges score me at a 60% or higher. I revised it a bit to high fifties for percentages after my pre-ride. To hear 64% and 65% scores was shocking, and thrilling. Best of all, it was after a test that I felt would be easy to replicate, and even possibly improve.
For me, it was as if I could finally stop holding my breath. While I will never take our dressage mentality totally for granted, I think we have finally figured him out.
