As mentioned in some of her Tips for Eventers Living in Itty Bitty Apartments in the City, Yvette Seger is competing this weekend at Waredaca in the Novice 3-Day event. Good luck to Yvette and all the competitors this weekend!
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From Yvette:
Waredaca Novice and Training 3-Day Event Diary: Day 1
When Waredaca announced in May that its popular Training 3-Day Event (sponsored by the Area II Adult Rider Program) would be accompanied by a Novice 3-Day division, I immediately knew I’d found my season-end goal. I was fortunate to compete in two full-formats back in the days when I was young enough to boldly speak my age, and as someone who has a need for speed (as long as it’s not on my own two feet), I was immediately hooked. My drug had a name…Phase B. Okay, and D (*ahem* NOT dressage) was pretty awesome, too.
I never thought I’d be able to recapture the thrill of full-format until that fateful day in May when I checked Facebook at work and saw the announcement that the fall 3-day would now include a novice division. For my 23 year old TB, Roger Rabbit, it seemed to be the perfect way to confirm our solid 5.5 year partnership and send the old boy off into retirement from recognized competition. For my 14 HH Sport Porgi (seriously, he’s a pony that looks like a Corgi), Finders Keepers, it seemed like a great opportunity to test his mettle and help me figure out where to go from here.
Yes, dear EN readers, I entered two horses in the full-format 3-day. What the #&%@ was I thinking???
Wednesday was the first official day of our “immersion experience,” and I found myself quickly overwhelmed…my help wasn’t arriving until later in the day, and Roger (you know, the 23-year-old one) decided he wanted to be a fire-breathing dragon. Case in point – he was the only jackelope who decided to buck and canter in the practice jog (he had a more docile attitude in the ACTUAL jog, thank goodness). But I did what I always do in these situations…I made snarky jokes, and just kept plugging away.
We learned all the details about preparing and presenting at the jog from Natalie Hollis and Melissa Hunsberger. Lead clinician, Stephen Bradley tried to soothe all of our anxiety by doing our Roads and Tracks math for us (still working on getting that 4 minute K right on the pony, Stephen…but I’ll get it…promise!) and taking us out for a spin to learn the locations of the gates. Dressage judge Sue Smithson helped demystify some of the expectations and movements in the special 3-day tests (holy crap…I haven’t ridden a test in a standard arena since…geez…an age that started with a “1”…it may seem like roads and tracks to the pony!). Novice riders had the chance to do an official (and very encouraging!) course walk with Valerie Vizcarrondo. Dinner featured more 10 minute box discussion and a session on nutrition.
Oh yeah, and somewhere in the middle, we got into our finest to present our horses to the ground jury. I’m generally a non-conformist, but today I was happy to hear “ACCEPTED” – Twice.
So now I’m overwhelmed AND excited!
Tomorrow’s adventures include dressage, walking D a couple more times, hacking around R&T again, and the favorite of every long-format afficianado…steeplechase practice!
Until tomorrow…Go Classic Format.
