Cross Country with Boyd Martin

Well, it time to start moving on with things.  As hard as it is, and as much as I still want to just cry everyday, I'm still here and I still have a life to lead.  And the first step will be recapping the amazing clinic in which I rode with Boyd Martin.

Boyd came back to Northern Ohio at the end of June for a 2 day clinic at White North Stables and South Farm.  When he was last here in October of 2010, I took Miss Kaye and we had a blast riding with him.  Well this year, I was going to pass on the clinic.  $300 is just a lot of money.  But as the date got closer and Katie was getting ready with Kaye, I really wanted to ride.  So I talked to Bonnie and we decided to take Bugsy along for the second day and ride cross country at South Farm.

Wednesday morning we were up nice and early to get on the road.  Katie was scheduled to ride at 7:30 and then I would be in the 9:00 group.  Well when we got there, we heard the sad news that Boyd's father had taken a turn for the worst after his accident and so Boyd was leaving early to catch a flight home to Australia.  So Katie and I both ended up riding at 9:00 with about 5 training/prelim riders.  On one hand it was nice to still get to ride with Boyd.  On the other hand it was kinda disappointing to have to be in a group with the prelim riders, I don't feel we got as much attention.  But what can you do.  The poor guy was just trying to work with as many people as he could.  I give him a lot of credit for still continuing with the clinic after getting that kind of news.

We were on our own for the flat warm up, which was good.  I wasn't that big of a fan of the way he warmed us up on the flat last year.  Especially with our horses.  Bugs was a little pumped when we first headed out.  He would not stand still so that I could get on even.  But once we got out to the field and started on the small circles, he settled down into the work nicely.

Then Boyd came to get us and we headed out to start jumping.  We started over a small coop, which Bugsy was not at all impressed.  But then as we moved into the next field, Boyd had us string together a couple fences.  A little coop, around to a log, back to a bigger coop and then finishing up over another bigger coop.  Bugs was awesome!  Now that he was jumping some novice fences he was much happier.  He did get moving a bit between some of the fences, just having fun.  But he came back to a nice controlled canter for me when I asked.

Then it was time for banks.  All I can say is I'm getting pissed at myself with my bank issues!  First Boyd asked us to just walk up onto the bank and then step down off the beginner novice bank.  And of course I had a stop the first time.  Turned Bugs around and we did it again.  Then Boyd had us trot down the bank, land in a canter, and with out gathering our reins jump the novice coop that was about 6 or 7 strides away.  Then we turned around and jumped the coop and up the bank.  We did those both a couple times and then headed down to the water.

Bugs was a trooper at the water.  He trotted right through without needing any encouragement, which was nice as water is not his favorite thing.  We trotted through a couple times and then jumped the beginner novice bank up out of the water.  Turned around and jumped it down into the water.  We jumped that bank and swung around to jump a stadium fence that was set up at the edge of the water.  Finally we finished with a little mini course.  Trot through the water, jump the stadium fence, go around the pond and jump a log, loop back around heading towards the water and jump a flower box and then finish up with the novice down bank into the water and across to the stadium fence.  And this is where Bugs made me love him even more.  We jumped the stadium fence and he just settled into this nice hand gallop over to the log, didn't pull didn't try and speed up, he was just content to run at the speed I told him.  He popped over the log nicely and settled back into that nice gallop to the flower box.  Now after the flower box it was kinda funny.  Part of the field next to the water was roped off because it was VERY wet and Sarah was trying to save the footing for the horse trials that next weekend.  So to get to the down bank you had to ride close to the ropes and it still set you up at an angle to the bank.  But it set you up nicely to jump the prelim down bank.  And so that's what Bugsy thought we were doing.  lol  I did manage to get him over to the novice bank, only because I'm not sure I would have made it down the prelim one still on his back!

All in all it was a great clinic.  I learned a lot from Boyd, and I had a blast riding Bugsy.

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Buggers!

Well, it's been a busy few weeks.  Between work and finishing up my studying for the PHR exam, I haven't had a lot of free time.  Of course I still manage to make it out to the barn on Saturday mornings.  Since South Farm I've had some good rides on Naughtie, going to the combined test really did her a ton of good.  And then 3 Saturdays ago (June 11th) I got the chance to ride Bugsy again.

Bonnie had let Astrid ride him a few times and so she was riding in a lesson with Naughtie and I.  And when it came time to jump, Astrid decided that she didn't want to jump.  So Bonnie asked if I wanted to take him over a few fences.  Now I haven't been on Bugsy at all since like August.  But I was game to try him.  Astrid and I switched horses and she took Naughtie in to put away while I got used to Bugs again with a few circles.  Then we headed to the jump and it was so much fun!  It wasn't that big of a fence, only a baby oxer, maybe about 2 feet.  We jumped that a few times and then Bonnie bumped the back rail up a bit.  We didn't do much jumping that day, but it did remind me how much fun Bugsy is and what a blast it is to ride him.

Then I got to thinking.  I wasn't planning to ride in the Boyd Martin clinic this year.  I just couldn't justify spending the money.  But now after riding Bugs, I was itching to go.  So I got in touch with Therese from White North Stables and asked if it would be possible to ride just on Wednesday for cross country.  She said yes and so Bugsy and I will be strutting our stuff for Boyd!

As usual with me, I did take a step back when I rode Bugsy the next week.  I was getting him rushing into his fences and it was just bad in general.  So we scaled things back and went back to jumping cross bars.  We really concentrated on just taking my two point and keeping my legs light and not rushing.  And I got him back to a nice sane jump.  Unfortunately, ending a lesson with cross bars just a week and a half before I'm entered to ride Novice with Boyd is not really all that confidence inspiring.

So fast forward to this weekend.  I was determined to do better.  It ended up being a nice day at the barn, quiet, none of the kids ended up coming out.  So for a while it was just Bonnie and I, then Katie showed up after a while.  I tacked up Bugs and we headed out to the arena for a last lesson before the clinic.  And guess what?  Going back to cross bars the week before was exactly what I needed.  Bugs was listening to me, and I wasn't rushing him into the fences.  We worked up to an oxer that was just shy of 3'.  And then Bonnie added a 2nd fence as a one stride, set at just about 3'.  My first ever combination with Bugsy!  And we nailed it!  We ended the lesson with some canter work, which wasn't the best.  Bugs really needs the half halt before the canter and I was struggling with that a little.  Once again I've just gotten very complacent riding Kaye.  She knows what I want and just does it, regardless of what I'm doing.  Bugsy not so much.  He knows what I want, but he won't do it unless I ask for it right.  But overall, the lesson was great and I was feeling very well prepared for the clinic.

Then on Sunday I was able to get another ride.  So nice, it's been months since I've gotten to ride twice in the same week.  We warmed up on the flat first, including a bit of canter and well, the half halt lesson sank in and my departs were much, much better!  Then Bonnie had us start jumping.  We started out over the same oxer from the day before, novice height the first time.  Boyd won't start us out over little stuff, so need to at home.  The first fence wasn't perfect, but it was much better than I normally do over my first fence so I was pleased with that.  After we jumped the oxer a couple of times Bonnie decided to get creative.  She dragged over the piece of indoor/outdoor carpet and made a "coffin" with it.  She set it up one stride after the oxer and put a ground line to help Bugsy see it.  First time through the combination he did jump it.  Tried going through again and he figured out he could just canter over it.  Put a raised pole over the middle, and he still cantered over it.  So then Bonnie dragged another set of standards over and set up a 3' vertical one stride after the coffin.  Bugsy still just canter the coffin and then jumped the fence.  We tried to get him to actually jump it a couple more times, but no luck.  So we took a bit of a walk break and Bonnie set up a vertical over the carpet.  The last challenge of the day was 3' oxer, one stride to 3' vertical, one stride to 3' vertical.  First time doing a triple with Bugsy.  But Bugsy is awesome.  All I had to do was set him up and ride him to the first fence and then let him do his thing through the combination.  It was great!  Doing that with Bugsy was really just proving to myself how far I've come in my riding in the last couple of years.  It wasn't all that long ago that I was afraid to jump Bugs at all.  Let alone through a novice triple combination.  It was a great way to leave off before the clinic, I feel so ready to go and show Boyd what we can do!

Bugsy trying on his new ECOGOLD xc pad

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South Farm or how Naughtie Earned Rockstar Status

Memorial Day weekend officially marked the start of the Windhurst Event Team's show season.  We had three horses and four riders entered at the South Farm Combined Test on Saturday, May 28th.  Of course we had a tiny bit of a problem.  Three horses and only a two horse trailer, you do the math.  So Friday night, Bonnie hauled Kaye and Naughtie over and then we took Mystic Saturday morning.

So first thing Saturday morning when we got there, the kids and I fed and watered the two mares while Katie got Mystic ready to ride.  After the marsies finished eating we gave Kaye a bath and the kids got her tacked up for me.  I started to warm Kaye up a bit for Victoria.  She was rather, um, excited to be back at South Farm.  So I worked her down for a while and then got Victoria up.  While I was riding Kaye, Ethan and Astrid were kind enough to bathe Naughtie for me, so I could get started tacking her up.  Since it was Naughtie's first show, and I wasn't sure what she was going to do, I figured it would be a good idea to lunge her in the indoor a bit.

Astrid and I took Naughtie over to the indoor and started her on the lunge line.  She was a little perky for all of about 2 laps and then settled right into the routine.  I lunged her about 25 laps each direction, just in case. And then I got on.  She was as god as gold.  We walked some small circles around the indoor and she just relaxed and walked.  It was almost time for Victoria to ride her dressage and since Naughtie was being so good, I figured we could head over to the dressage ring and watch.  Well, just as we were leaving the indoor, some birds flew out the door right above us.  Naughtie spooked a bit, and by spook I mean she trotted off about 4 or 5 strides.  Then she realized it was nothing and settled back into a walk.  Good girl!

So we headed over to the dressage ring and got there in time to watch both of Victoria's tests.  And she rocked them!  She had very nice, relaxed rides.  Really proud of how well she did.  After that we had a bit of time before the rest of us rode.  So the marsies got to chill in their stalls for a bit and get some water.  And I was able to change into my show clothes. Naughtie and I hung out in the barn for a bit and then we headed back over to the dressage rings.  Ethan, Katie and I all rode our test right around the same time, so I was able to watch their tests.  Naughtie was a rockstar for dressage really.  The first test we rode was USDF Intro B for the very green division.  She was a little fast in her trot work.  But that was my fault, so I can't really be mad at her for it.  Our figures we good and symmetrical, our transitions accurate.  Really I couldn't have asked for a better first test from her.  We had a few minutes then to pull off the running martingale and take a few canter departs and then it was back in the ring for USEA Beginner Novice Test A for the baby beginner novice division.  The trot work was much better and the canter work was pretty good.  Our second canter depart was a little ah, explosive.  But again, entirely my fault.  I was asking for way too much for the depart.  After the depart though she settled into a nice forward canter. And we finished up with a fairly nice test.

We headed back to the stalls, and Naughtie got a chance to drink and chill in her stall for a bit before it was time to jump.  Victoria and Ethan were up first for jumping.  And well it was eventful.  Ethan was up first in the cross rail division.  And he had a nice round, Kaye was listening and just trotting around like she usually does with the kids.  Then it was Victoria's turn, and well, she did the same thing she has a tendency to do at home.  She grabbed with her legs and did nothing to slow Kaye down.  And so Kaye went faster and faster and faster.  And Victoria got scared and bailed.  Right into the wooden fence around the ring.  She was ok luckily, scraped up and bruised a bit, but mostly ok.  So I borrowed Ethan's helmet and got on Kaye to settle her down.  Lots of walking and s-l-o-o-o-o-w sitting trot around the warm up.  Finally Bonnie and Victoria come back (with my helmet, so I could see!) and since Victoria wasn't going to ride her second Bonnie suggested I take her in and do a schooling round at the 2 foot height.  Which actually really exciting me since I had the chance to take Bonnie up on a challenge. 

The stadium course was a very twisty, turning course.  And there was this one section between fences 7 and 8.  Sarah intended for it to ridden with a large looping circle around to 8 like so:

Well you know Bonnie, why take a longer route when you can go shorter?  And so her challenge was to ride a direct line between the two fences:

While I wasn't quite sure I'd be able to do it on Naughtie, I knew on Kaye I'd have no trouble.

Kaye was her usual awesome self for me in the ring, and so Ethan felt ready to try his 2 foot round.  And Kaye was great for him.  He jumped everything well and then after he crossed the finish he leaned forward to pat her, and accidentally kicked her.  So Kaye took off a bit and Ethan bailed in pretty much the same spot.  So Kaye was in the doghouse, and Sarah was none to happy. 

Well by this time I needed to get Naughtie ready to go, ran back to the barn, threw her bridle back on and we made our way to the jumping ring.  She warmed up great, and soon we were ready to head into the ring.  She was Awesome!  She jumped everything for me.  At first she was a little confused by all the colored jumps and everything being crammed in the ring, but she listened well.  We finished the very green division with a double clear round to land us in 2nd place.   A couple minutes to rest and it was time for a return trip.  Unfortunately I let her get a little flat coming into the first fence and we pulled a rail, but with no other mistakes it was enough to keep us in 4th place.  Not too shabby for her first show. 

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Guess Who's Going Training At South Farm...

My personal goal has been to go Training at South Farm in May.  But it hadn't really been discussed with Bonnie yet, so of course it was kinda all up in the air.  Not anymore!

Kaye was feeling pretty good on Saturday, the weather was getting a bit warmer and she had been cooped up all week.  Katie got the first ride on her since I had to go pick up feed at Agway.   And Kaye was going her best to spook at everything.  She was jumping the patch of snow that had blown in the doors, she was spooking at every noise.  In other words, feeling good and expressing it the only way she knew how.  After Katie rode, I got to hop up and make sure Kaye was settled before any of the kids got on her.  Once I got on though, Kaye realized it was time to settle down and get to work.  We went through the spooking stuff last winter, and she's come to realize that I don't put up with that anymore.  Even though Katie had warmed Kaye up already, I still started her out with a good bit of walk work.  The free walk has a coefficient of 2 in all the dressage tests, so really you can't spend too much time working on the walk.  Especially with Kaye, who doesn't have a real great walk to begin with.  Plus I wanted to make sure that I had her attention on me and not everything else.  Then when Bonnie rejoined us in the arena, we picked up the trot.  I've really been working on keeping myself relaxed.  As soon as I get any bit of tension in myself, I get tense all over and Kaye picks up on that.  Then she gets tense and starts resisting.  And actually my last two rides were pretty good with that.  She was pretty good both at the trot and canter, soft and responsive to my aids.  Then it was time to jump a bit.  We just worked over a baby fence, since this was my first jump school since October.  As usual my first fence wasn't all that great, but it actually wasn't as bad as usual.  And my second fence was pretty darn good!  Biggest thing was that I just wasn't getting my timing right.  So the reins were tied in a knot and I started jumping with no hands.  Fixed that problem!

So after we finished jumping, I was walking the marsie around and Bonnie asked what level I was going to do this year.  I was honest with her, told her that I wanted to move up to training this year.  That for me, I'd probably go Novice at the first combined test, but then move up to Training at the next one.  And Bonnie agreed with me!  In fact she thinks that I should just do two divisions at the first CT, Novice first then Training after.  She pointed out that I thought the Novice jumps were small, and after school some Training level fences with Boyd in the fall I am ready.  And the CTs are a good place for me to move up.  They have pretty easy courses, nothing harder than what we jump at home, so I can do it no problem.

So Kaye and I will be tackling Training this spring!  I can't wait for show season to start!

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Boyd Martin Clinic

So the Boyd Martin clinic was amazing.  Really that's all I can say about it.  He is wonderful to clinic with.  Such enthusiasm (and in drizzling rain!) and he is able to explain and describe things in a way you can really understand.

So we left the barn about 6 am and it took us about 2 hours to get to White North Stables.  It's located in Chagrin Falls, OH which is just beautiful horse country.  The barn itself was a beautiful old barn.  Downside of that was the indoor was pretty tiny.  So that meant we were jumping in the outdoor ring.  And it was raining.  Oh well, a little rain isn't going to get in the way of me enjoying my ride with Boyd.  Tiffany and Bugsy were up first in the training/prelim group.  And unfortunately I didn't get to see much of their lesson at all.  Rachel and I were in the group right after, so we had to head up to the trailer to get ready.  Kaye was ready to go!  She would barely stand still to let me tack her up.  Anyway we finally got tacked up and headed down the driveway to the riding ring.  Kaye and I walked some circles outside the ring to warm up while Tiff's group was finishing up.  Finally it was our turn!

After we had all introduced ourselves, Boyd sent us out onto the rail to warm up at a trot.  After a few big trot circles he asked us to trot as slowly as we could, almost but not quite walking.  And then back to a forward working trot.  Then we were given the cue to canter.  At the canter we worked on both lengthening the stride and then shortening it.  Then we got to start jumping.  We started over two low (like 1'-1'6") verticals, set an easy 3 strides apart.  We trotted through them a couple of times and then we cantered through.  The first time at the canter he asked for 3 forward canter strides.  Then we had to come through again only putting in 4 balanced, shortened strides.  That was hard for Kaye.  First of all, small fences, yeah she's not a fan.  And we all know Kaye would much rather take a long distance than a short one.  She's very hard to shorten up once she starts jumping.  I think we might have gotten the 4 strides once.  Maybe.  Oh well.  Then we moved on to a low 1 stride combination, then go down and make a big roll back turn to a gate and then a right turn back through the 1 stride, stopping before the oxer that was five strides after the combination.  Kaye was not too happy to be stopped before the jump.  But we turned in the air nicely over the gate.  So that was cool.  We did another little mini course with the gate and the oxer to the one stride and then around to the two little mini verticals.  The final thing we worked on was the two corners.  First we jumped the one and then did half a figure eight back to jump the second one.  Where I proceeded to have two stops.  All my fault I know.  Finally I came around and jumped it and then we looped around and jumped the two corners together.  Which Kaye and I did perfectly.  So that was a good note to end on.

After we took care of the ponies, we headed inside the barn to get something to eat.  That was pretty cool, we all got to sit around and talk with Boyd.  And then after warming up a bit we headed back down to the ring to watch the rest of the lessons.  Tiffany was getting a migraine and so Bonnie took her and Billy over to South Farm to stable the horses.  Astrid, Rachel and I stayed back to watch the afternoon sessions.  It was really cool to get to stand in the ring and listen to everything Boyd was saying.  So worth standing in the rain for hours :)  For the last lesson of the day we headed back to the barn to watch some dressage rides in the indoor.  Sarah from South Farm had brought over her chestnut horse, Gorta Glen, to ride in a group with a couple other ladies.  Sarah was really the only dressage rider in the group.  She looked great with Glen.  After the last lesson finished we headed over to South Farm to feed ponies and tuck them in for the night.

Luckily our first ride on Tuesday wasn't until 11:15, so we didn't have to leave quite so early in the morning.  We made it out of the barn by 8:00 and so we were at South Farm about 9:30.  While everyone else was unloading the quad and helping Tiffany hook up the trailer, I headed into the barn to give the ponies their breakfast.  Kaye had managed to eat her grain at some point during the night, and Bugsy sort of picked at his.    They all were enjoying the hay though.  Once everyone was grained, we climbed on the quad and headed out to the cross country course to watch the first lesson.  Tiff was able to watch a little bit, but then she had to head back to the barn to get Bugsy ready to go.  Tiffany and Bugs were the stars of their group.  They both just went out and did everything without any problems.  I especially give Tiff a lot of credit because she was jumping some things that she had never seen before.  Like the coffin complex, and the double banks.  Everyone was very much impressed with how well he had gone.

After Tiffany's group finished, it was lunch time and time for Rachel and I to get ready.  Since Kaye had been blanketed all night, she didn't need much grooming, just a quick brushing.  I got her tacked up and then got myself dressed.  I figured we would have time to walk down to the cross country course and start warming up.  But after we walked around the building, we saw that the car had already left.  So Rachel and I booked it to the start.  There were three of us in the group this time.  And we started by just trotting on a nice big circle. Of course Kaye didn't want to trot, she wanted to gallop.  I had just gotten her back to the trot when Boyd asked for the canter.  And Kaye was off to the races again.  I decided to keep her on a small circle to try and  get her to relax and slow down.  Well Boyd wants us on a large circle and he wants us to go into a light seat (aka two point)  Yeah, not exactly helping my case to get Kaye to stop trying to race.  So I kinda just pretended I didn't hear that part.  Then he had us pop over a little beginner novice coop from the trot.  Of course Kaye has to try racing away afterwards, but as soon as I started to turn her she slowed right down and came back to the trot.  We jumped the baby coop a couple of times and then Boyd had us move up to the novice coop.  Slightly bigger jump, so Kaye was a little bit happier with it.

So we jumped the novice coop a couple of times off of each lead and then Boyd had us loop around and jump the hanging log.

Yup that would be a training fence I'm jumping.  Pretty cool huh?  And then we looped around and jump another training fence.  Luckily with all the turns and loops, Kaye was staying pretty manageable.  After that Boyd had us put a little course together.  We started over the coop, galloped across to the novice house, then a right turn to the training rolltop, another right turn to a novice rolltop, another right turn to a training coop in the tree line and then finally gallop back to the training log. 

Well Kaye was really enjoying those galloping lanes.  After the second rolltop I couldn't even get her to turn or anything, we ended up galloping past the jump and had to loop back around to jump it.  She definitely hasn't forgotten about landing in a flat out gallop!  LOL  After we all did that , we headed over to the bank complex. 

Boyd had us start banks by just stepping up and down a tiny little baby bank.  Then we moved to trotting up the beginner novice bank.

After we trotted up the bank a few times, Boyd asked us to turn around and trot to the down bank, and then walk the last two strides and walk off it.  I won't lie, I was terrified at this point.  See I had fallen off X at a down bank while schooling at Jackie's about 4 years ago.  Completely my own fault, because I want to lean forward and go into my two point.  And so I tumbled off his shoulder and unfortunately I got tangled up in his legs and he stepped on my calf.  Luckily I wasn't seriously hurt, only bruised, although I did have to use crutches and stay off the leg for a week or so.  But ever since then I have been scared of down banks.  And I hadn't jumped one since then.  So yeah I was shaking a bit for this.  But Kaye was awesome and she walked right down the bank for me!

Wohoo!  I love my mare!  After we jumped the beginner novice down bank a couple of times, Boyd had us go around and do the novice banks, which was a bank up, one stride and then a bank down.  ran through that a few times and then on to the training banks.  We only did the training banks up, which was fine with me, not sure I would have been comfortable doing the down banks.  The training banks are a double bank up and then we looped around and did the novice up and down banks.

And so we finished up at the bank complex.  Time for the water!  First we just walked through.  Then Boyd had us step up the one novice bank and then we turned around, stepped down that bank and up the opposite one.  So we did that back and forth a couple of times.  And then we were to jump down into the water and then out over the opposite bank and then jump the coop that was a dozen or so strides away.

Well we did the banks just fine, but complete fail at the coop.  I did exactly what I do at home, I got scared for some reason and pulled Kaye off to the right.  Not just once but three times.  Finally the other girl had to give me a lead over it.  Just pisses me off cause it makes Kaye look bad, which I hate especially cause I know it's me.  Anyway, after that embarrassing moment we looped back to the water and jumped the training bank down into the water.

Then we ended the cross country lesson with another little course.  We started out with a log and then the first coop, gallop over to the house, and then right turn to the rolltop, loop around to the novice banks, left turn to the second rolltop and then left down to the water, training bank into the water, novice bank out and then finish with the coop.  Kaye and I did great until we got to the freaking coop.  Again we kept having run-outs to the right. Which I know is my fault, I've created a habit because I do that all the time when I'm not sure about a fence and so Kaye was taking advantage of me.  Like I said before it just pisses me off, not the way I wanted to end my lesson.

All in all though the clinic was amazing.  It was incredible to get to ride with Boyd, I really did learn a lot from him.  And I'm so excited to go back next year.  Hopefully with a lot more confidence and so I just go out and wow him with my skills.  

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Introducing HoofPrints Photography!

So I've decided to finally get serious about trying to turn my love of equine photography into something that I can attempt to make some money from.  Now I know that I'm never going to be able to quit my job and do this full time, but I have fun with it and if I can make a little money on the side then great.

Saturday morning I took the camera with me out to the barn to shoot the Windhurst Event Team practice.  Tiffany was there and rode Bugs with Rachel and Airy.  They both had great jump schools.  Bugs in particular was so in his element.  He was so excited to be jumping big fences.  And speaking of jumping big fences, Rachel jumped her first 4' fence!  Woohoo!  Go Rachel!

After Rachel and Tiffany finished their lessons it was time for the younger kids to ride.  And both Ari and Astrid had personal bests when they jumped 3'.  So proud of both of them.

I had a quick lunge lesson on my horse, in which he just keeps getting better and better.  I love my pony!

Sunday I got up early and headed out to South Farm for the day.  They were holding their first Mini Trial that day and I decided it would be fun to go and practice my photography.  I got there in time to watch stadium for the training division before I headed out to the cross country course.

After the training division finished stadium I headed out to the cross country course to get a good spot before they began running horses.  After taking a look at the training course map I decided that the water would be the best place to hang out.  From there I could see four jumps plus the up and down banks in and out of the water.  As I headed down to claim my spot, I found out I wasn't the only one who thought that was the place to be.  I got to hang out with Melinda from Squibbs Photography, the official photographer for the Mini Trial. 

I stayed down at the water for the novice division as well.  They only had a pass through the water, so it's wasn't as exciting as the banks, but there was a jump right after the water and I could get a good shot of the jump before the water as well.  

After novice finished I decided to scope out a new spot.  Beginner novice only had the water pass through option and so unless they took the optional fence, I wouldn't get any jumping shots.  So I packed up and made my way over to the bank complex.  I was able to get a good spot up on top where I could actually see almost every fence on course for beginner novice and starter/very green.  Pretty cool.  I only ended up stay for about half of the 2 foot rides.  By that point it was getting late and I was pooped from standing in the sun all day.  But I had a great time, Sarah and her crew there always put on great events.  I love going there to ride, or just watch.  And I can't wait to go back in October for the last combined test to polish off my jumping before the Boyd Clinic.

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