I don’t want to jinx it, the Sequel…

Clip-Flop-Clip-Flop…

That was the sound of me bringing Woods in Sunday morning… Missing a shoe.

Liza had three horses running (the show farrier tacked a show back on, so Woody makes Three. YAY!) and I swear having three horses running on a one day is enough to keep ya’ busy. We didn’t REALLY stop moving until we got back to the barn.

 Woody rocked it. Dressage was nice and he got a 36.5 in a HUGE NH division. Liza got on, rode him for a bout 5 mins and said, “You’re right… he gets a little Wiiiiiiild.”

So her warm-up mirrored the work out of someone getting ready for the Tevis Cup.

Canter and Canter and Canter

 

Her advice after the test was “Canter him till he doesn’t want to canter anymore… then canter him some more. If you try to get ANY real work done when he’s like that you’ll ruin any chance you have. Canter him till he takes a deep breath.”

And that’s what she did and it worked. He still had a couple of bobbles, but I was AMAZED at the test he put in. There is video, but it sucks because I didn’t want to get too close to the ring. Did I mention he’s got a spook in him?

The whole day was INSANE but we had help from Kelly in the afternoon and another boarder in the morning. Those extra hands are ALWAYS so unmeasurably helpful. Liza and I were grateful.

Stadium wasn’t until 4:50. He was great. Warmed up all Chillaxed…

Who’s standing all flat footed purty?

Leisurely walk in

Warmed up like a hunter… or maybe a polo pony since Liza was rockin’ it all one-handed-y

We jump things all cute like

And then we stop at the first fence.

No big deal. Liza gave him an amazing ride, it was just him being a green bean.  And DEAR LORD!  I know they’re novice, and I know they can only be but so big… but damn, they looked BIG!

But who cares, she finished and it was a cute round. ALSO! Since the stop was the first fence I stopped and started again, so when you watch THIS version of the round, we’ll just pretend that rail was his only transgression.  :p

XC was clean, and it was a BIG Novice course. Including a horse eating ditch (as reference in my soon to be uploaded dressage video). Ask S.Cheese. She’ll tell you; horses were falling pray to it left and right.

There was also a trakehner (you heard me!), a couple of good sized related distance questions, and a big down bank.

And now for the jinx part.  Liza realized that Woody’s got everything he needs to do wonderfully… everything but the milage.  My little brave man just needs to take a deep breath.  And there’s good news and spendy news. The good news is it’s easy to fix, the bad news is it costs a chunk of money to get your horse out there a lot.

However, that’s just what we’re doing. One of Liza’s training horses didn’t get into Waredaca this weekend so she’s taking him to Plantation. On Sunday She deftly pointed out to me that as of Sunday night they were STILL taking electronic entries!

So Woody, Olando, Liza and I are heading to Pennsylvania this weekend. The thinking being two weekends in a row might be EXACTLY what Woody needs.

[MESSAGE REDACTED]

The last part of that message was redacted in the hopes that we can keep the horse show gods placated for just one more weekend. I’m certain they are not pleased with how I thwarted Operation Pull-a-Shoe. Who knows what’s next.