....and decide to run Sam in the 100 degree heat/humidity after all, and learn a lot of valuable lessons. Today was Lumber River, habitually not a good event for me (duh - maybe not run next year?) and I was waffling about running Sam when they were predicting extreme heat and humidity. Not abnormal for NC, just abnormal in that it hit us so quickly. Just a few days ago, the temps were in the high 80s. Now, they're in the 100s, and tomorrow it's supposed to be worse still. Today, at least, we had a breeze, which made things bearable in the shade. We had lots of water, ice for after xc, lots to drink, our shade canopy (thank you Mom and Dad!), and we parked way the heck out there by where they keep the trailers full of the show jumps, in order to get the best shade. Nobody else was out there, which was amusing, and we got the best of the breeze, as well as being right next to a loudspeaker (so I could hear everything) and the wash racks, and close to the Port-a-Potties, the event office, and the xc warmup/course. I will definitely part there next time, until someone stops me.
Dressage had been moved up to 9:38, which was wonderful. They had waived coats so I wore my new Kerrits long-sleeved top, which got a lot of funny looks due to the heat, but it was actually quite cool. Holly warmed me up a little in the arena - we kept it short due to the heat - and did lots of long and low, stretchy stuff. I even got a stretch in the canter! I haven't gotten a stretch like that before. Holly was after me about my leg and keeping it still, and keeping my shoulders back, and maybe the combination of that helped. I watched another competitor, one of Holly's students, canter around in a long and low frame, and NOW I understand what to look for and what it should look like. So, that was a big breakthrough for me. Once I brought him up, Holly approved of his neck - the first time she's seen him since we really started hammering away at it - and again, I was thrilled as I was wondering if she'd like the results. Our judge was Cindy DePorter, who is notorious for her judging of the YEH at The Ark and placing that Freisian first place, so I wasn't too hopeful about our score. In fact, I was hoping for something like we normally get, and not too much higher. We trotted in, and I had a big smile on my face as it actually felt very good, and we did our first S and then wow - he picked up the canter as soft as could be and we had a wonderful canter circle. Decent transition down (gotta work on keeping him soft through those) and then the next S, and I was getting a bit cocky and didn't bend him through the last portion before the canter depart and we had a wrong lead. Yuck. Quickly brought him back, picked up the new lead, and cantered a pretty good circle to the right. Free walk was a bit sticky, since I'm always concerned that he'll break to the jog, and then we did a lovely diagonal and a fantastic turn onto the center line, up to G for the halt, which I thought we were going to nail, but Sam had a bug up his nose and flung his head down to scratch it. Again, yuck. Later on, when I checked the scores, we actually had a 3-way tie for 3rd, and a 3-way tie for 7th, which I was a part of, with a score of 36.5! My sheet (checking it later on) gave me a bunch of 7s, and an 8 on the final turn onto the centerline. If it hadn't been for that wrong lead, and the last halt-salute, I would have probably been either in 3rd (involved in that tie!) or 2nd place. So, even though she's notoriously a tough judge, I was pleased.
The start of xc was promising, as Sam was full of go, but I was a bit wobbly. I am out of shape. I need to lose weight. More on that later. Holly was pretty firm with me about my lower leg and I think she lost a bit of patience with me for God only knows what reason (I'm fat? I'm wobbly? NO idea) and it was hard to breath due to the heavy, sticky air. She also nailed me for picking my way to the jump, which I wasn't aware I was doing (hey, maybe she was upset with me for cancelling the last lesson?). It wasn't a fun warmup, but we went over to the start box and started early, to conserve his strength. We galloped out of the box and he perked up and charged over 1, the Pine Top log, and landed and grabbed the bit and went straight. I said, "Hey! We need to go left!" and had to pull him to the left, where he immediately charged down the hill and up and over Fence 2, the Settler's Run (the ginormous brush fence). Landing from that, he faltered a tad up the hill, but I got off his back and just let him coast up the hill, and then we turned left between the tree and the split rail fence and set him up for the Feeder, and it was the first time I felt him bulge slightly left. I kept a good left leg on him, opened up the right rein a tad, and pushed him over it, and he was fine. He grabbed the bit again and tried to take off down the hill, when I knew I had to set up for the Hobbit's Hut - he actually listened to me and sat back and popped over it nicely, then grabbed the bit and ran down the hill and under a low hanging branch, which unbalanced me to the right and I wobbled. Grrrrr. We had a nice gallop up, hugged the treeline and set him up beautifully for the Tavern (5), and then we had the most foot-perfect run through the Sunken Road (6a and b) - it rode just like I imagined it would. I got a lighter seat, kept my leg on down into the road, and then he just popped up the bank and got the two strides easily over the brush. Beautiful. I was thrilled. We galloped down to the Ditch, making a slight correction as I habitually go left for BN, and he sailed over the trakehner without so much as a glance. He started up the hill, and faltered a bit, so I took my leg off and decided if he wanted to trot, he could trot, but he didn't, so we cantered up the hill and then set up for the Bank (8a and b) - it rode just like the Sunken Road did - perfect. He took a big jump over the log and off the drop, and we galloped on to the grey feeder on the bump (9). My leg was swinging a bit as I tried to use it to push him over, and as the jump came into view, Sam pulled to the left and we had a very uncharacteristic run-out. Wow. I was shocked. I turned him right, spanked him once, and re-presented, and he popped over it nicely. Down to the water, he started backing off again, which was also a little weird, and he trotted through the water but popped out wonderfully over the little jump out, and then made a very right-hand turn, collected himself, and popped over the grey bench. We headed for the in-field, and as we came up to the big brown table, I felt him falter again, but he jumped it and hung a leg (or something - I couldn't see) and and he pitched forward on landing and I nearly came off - oomph. I sat up, shoved my heel down and thought about retiring, but I wanted to see how the Mushroom Log rode as it had a funky approach to it (almost no approach), so we galloped on and he seemed to kick it into another gear. We hugged the treeline, and then popped the log nicely, cantered down the hill and trotted into the water (he was looky, but that is a looky water as the water levels are low) and then picked up a canter and cantered out of the water over the Turtle's Refuge, and then up the hill (at this point, there was no reason to turn back as we were two fences from home) and up the bank, nicely bending line to the right over the brown rolltop, gallop about 6 strides and over the last fence, and then through the finish flags.
We hustled over to the cooling station and stripped off his tack and started immediately hosing him down and scraping. Poor Sam was panting like a retriever - very shallowly and quickly - and his body temp was quite hot. We hosed and scraped and hosed and scraped, and he drank LOTS of water, more than he usually does, and finally we dumped the ice into the bucket and started sponging him down with that. It took us about 15 minutes to get his body temp down where the water wasn't running hot off him, and his breathing finally started to settle, and we headed back to the trailers. Since it took so long to cool him down, I decided to scratch from stadium, since it was supposed to be even hotter the next day and I wasn't in the running for ribbons anyway.
Poor Sam. I think the combination of Dex and Tri-hist was too much for him, and his body temperature soared out of control. I learned a lot from this ride, so I don't regret doing it. First and foremost - my horse is a rock star, and the times he really kicked it into gear (most of the course), he was incredible. The times he faltered were probably times he overloaded and grayed out - it was just unlike him. I also need to run him in a bigger bit - that plastic Happy Mouth with the roller isn't enough, which is why he was able to pull me to the left. I kept the flash off him so he could breathe easier, and I'm going to keep it off, but maybe switch to a slow-twist D or something to help with the steering issues.
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