Midsouth Kentucky 3 Day Event – Part #4
So it’s come time for me to write the final update from Midsouth and I have decided that by now you have either stopped reading because my reports are ridiculously long, or you are reading them intently because of the wacky words I’ve been sneaking into them and wondering if I have lost my mind or gotten into a stockpile of Kentucky Bourbon! The truth is that the first few days here were so cold and miserable that we started each morning by picking a few funny words that we would randomly try to work into conversations with people in order to keep us light-hearted. So, when you’ve seen words like unicycle, kaleidoscope, leotard, ukulele, and teat, please don’t worry about my sanity! Just as a point of interest Sunday’s words were: Nacho, wigwam and squawk, please feel free to borrow them if you need to.
Sunday started very early for Blair and Mia as they had to prepare for the Horse Inspection. Preparations included feeding, mucking, riding, braiding, intense grooming, hand walking and finally changing into appropriately cute outfits to suitably impress/distract the Ground Jury. With the Horse Inspection beginning at 8am you can imagine that girls had to arrive at the barn VERY early to accomplish all of this. Hard work paid off and both horses looked fresh, supple and ready for another day of competition and were accepted at the inspection.
We then moved over to Cross Country with Laura and Nash. With a score of 32.5 after the Dressage and Show Jumping phases they were sitting in 3rd place. The pair made easy work of the course looking very relaxed and confident and coming in clear in the optimum time and finishing the competition in 2nd place individually and 5th as part of a team. Outstanding performance!
Blair and Ash were the next to go, over in the Show Jumping ring. The course was proving to be quite difficult with horses having anywhere from one rail down to one horse we watched who had 8 rails down. Ash looked better than ever in the warm up ring and when the whistle blew they were all business to the first and second jumps. The third jump (a large triple bar) Blair and Ash had a slight miscommunication on where to leave the ground which caused Ash to over jump it by a huge amount and when they landed Blair was hanging precariously off the side of Ash. Being a good boy Ash stood very still as Blair shimmied her way back into the saddle and with a roar from the crowd she circled and went to the next fence. She jumped a beautiful round only knocking down the last rail but because of the circle and the time it took to get her wigwam back in the saddle she incurred 8 jump penalties and 7 time penalties. However that said, not only did Blair receive heartfelt congratulations on her stick-ability from everyone watching, she also finished 30th out of 48 horses & riders to start the competition, and also received a Qualifying Result at Ash’s first CCI 1*!
Mia and Etoile had a good chance to study the layout of the Show Jumping course as the Training 3 Day Division ran in reverse order of standings. Sitting in 10th place after the Dressage and Endurance Day meant that they were 10th last to jump. With only 10 points separating 1st place to 20th place it meant that one rail would indeed make all the difference to everyone in the top 20… no pressure!
Mia and Etoile warmed up well, were focused and had their game-faces on. They put in a flawless clear round within the optimum time so they had secured their spot in the top 10 for sure. As the last 9 horses jumped Mia and Etoile moved up the ranking to finish in 5th place overall ending on their Dressage score of 38.8 penalty points.
We managed to get all of the equipment, horses, and people loaded for the journey home just before 5pm and headed out. 15 hours later the horses are safely settled back at Oakhurst and look happy to be in familiar surroundings.
Thanks to all who came for their tremendous team effort over the week, it truly does take an entire village to build a kaleidoscope. As well a huge ‘Thanks’ to everyone back here who held down the fort at the farm and with the kids and dogs, we appreciate you!
I’m off to have some nachos and sleep!
Take care,
Ruth