While Pau is running a Four Star over in France, Waredaca is hosting a Novice and Training Three-Day Event in Maryland. Yvette Seger is riding two horses at N3D [read Day 1], and 13-year-old Grace Fulton is riding in the T3D [read Grace’s blog]. Best of luck to all competitors!
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Waredaca Novice and Training 3-Day Event Diary: Day 2
While fellow 3-day competitor Grace Fulton takes artsy shots of ears and trees while hacking roads and tracks, I take highly unflattering (and apparently blurry) pictures of my horses…in the dark.
From Yvette:
Hello EN! Short update from “The ‘Daca”, as I am slated to be sitting on quadrupeds from essentially 11:20 am until 1:15 pm tomorrow. I know that’s probably not a big deal for, say P-Dutty or Buck, but remember…I spend the bulk of my time reading EN Facebooking sitting at a computer writing government reports. And we all know that this is not just “riding.” There are gates to go through, distance markers and time to monitor, but…
I get FIVE minutes of steeplechase tomorrow, so naner naner boo boo.
Today seemed like a vacation compared to yesterday. I did have a minor fit early in the morning, stressing over the fact that I’ll only have about 15 minutes from when I finish XC with my pony until I need to be on “the big man”, but stable manager extraordinaire, Cindy Wood, talked me off the ledge, reminding me that this was the time for me to let go of my control freak tendencies and trust that my team would “git ‘er done.”
Overall, I was really happy with my boys in dressage, although the results give you an idea of the competitiveness of this division. The current leader, Lisa Hannan and Sky’s the Limit, scored a whopping 17.8 – go Lisa! (I think the only time I ever got a 17.8 on anything was an Organic Chemistry exam) Finders Keepers won the “Battle of the Brothers” with his 28, but Roger scored a very respectable 32 (he is, after all, older than many of the riders!)
After surviving my time in the sandbox, the boys and I met up with Stephen Bradley and Tremaine Cooper to practice some steeplechase. Roger seemed delighted to recall his days at the track, and the pony was like, “really? I can keep speeding up? SWEET!!!” Both Stephen and Tremaine provided great feedback and advice that I will put to good use tomorrow.
Max Corcoran (really, do I need to tell you who she is?) was our dinner speaker, and provided her candid thoughts about what our grooms should be doing when and where on endurance day. I wanted to raise my hand and ask if she wanted to hang out and maybe groom for me tomorrow, but I showed a little discretion (although I guess writing about it in a blog wasn’t the brightest idea, but neither was riding around Wal-Mart in a shopping cart while wearing full XC attire and a helmet cam, but I digress…).
Bottom line is…I am freakin’ EXCITED for tomorrow, both for the endurance phases AND the fact that I get a breather from braiding!!!
Until tomorrow…Go Classic Format!
