Middle Tennessee Pony Club Combined Test and XC Schooling- Franklin, TN March 29th, 2008
Lori Kovatch Long took Bella Vista's River of Dreams in the Beginner Novice Division along with Megan Scott and her Scenic Sky, Emily Farrar and her Quiet
Cadence, and Katie Dorminey and her Lance. Stephanie Madision was schedule to ride Bella Vista's Gem of a Guy, but due to illness she was unable to compete,
but the trooper that she is did come down and try. Next time Stephanie.
We started the dreary morning out with Lori and Rio doing dressage, last year Rio had difficulty in his BN dressage test scoring a 45. He really brough his A game
showing all his hard work over the winter putting up a 3rd place score of 37.5 only 1 point away from 2nd. What a great improvement! Next Megan went on Sky. They
once again had the most fabulous warm up, then in the ring sky gave Megan a hard time. Keeping Sky straight seemed to be a large challenge, all and all the test
wasn't as good as they could have done but they did show improvements from last fall getting a 48. Katie Dorminey with Lance went next. Lance was giving Katie
a bit of a hard time in warmup not wanting to listen, but they pulled themselves together to complete a pretty good test putting up a score of 50. Good Job! Emily and
QC went last. Wow this team is just great together. For their first CT together the put in a great round, Emily had a breif brain lapse forgetting part of her test to add on
2pt points, still giving her a 46.5. Great first test.
Onto Stadium, where it started thundering, but again the rain held off. Lori and Rio took to the ring first, Rio was a bit off in La La land, checking everything out but
was able to listen enough to put in a double clear round. He thought the jumps were a bit too small to give them too much of his attention! Megan then went and put
in a great round. Sky hardly rushed to the fences and when Megan felt her reverting to her old habits she asked her to maintain her speed and balance. Another
double clear round!!!! Katie and Lance went after Megan, again Lance just didn't really want to be nice and calm on this wet day. Katie did a great job keeping him
under control. She made a smart decision to circle prior to one jump adding on 4pt points. The last jump Lance left a bit long and flat and knocked a rail to add on
another 4pts. Last but not least in our Stadium rides was Emily. Wow is really all I can say. They just put in an absolutely perfect round.
After Stadium we set out to the XC course for a bit of schooling. Everyone did just great!!!!! We started out warming up over a nice ascending log fence that was
around 2'6. Everyone trotted it then cantered it with easy. Rio and QC decided to show off with lovely flying lead changes after the fence. :-) Next we added a post
and rail fence canter both. We jumped the post and rail galloped nicely down the hill and around a turn to the log fence. Again everyone did really well. Lance got a
bit excitable but Katie was able to work through her position and settle him into a nice rhythem. Sky was giving Megan issues after each fence wanting to buck, but
she did a wonderful job keeping Sky in control. Of course not knowing what QC was capable of Emily was a bit concerned, but boy that big girl can jump. Now Emily
just has to work on getting her to keep moving forward, the mare is a little lazy. Rio in true form was a star, he not only jumped the BN post and rail but did the novice
one with ease.
We then moved onto the bank. Megan having jumped banks previously lead us up the BN bank, of course Sky was perfect. Emily went next never having done a
bank, and QC got there an walked up it. Too cute. With a little cluck the next time was perfect. She then cantered it great. Katie and Lance went next and apparently
Lance really likes bank because he was a star! Jumped right up and cantered away with ease. Rio of course had no issues with the up bank although he was a
little lazy. We then went down the same bank. Megan and Sky were great as were Katie and Lance. Emily took a couple of time to get the feel of where her position
needed to be but then it was easy. Rio once again didn't seem to care, although he must have been feeling good because the second time down he landed and let
out a lovely buck...he has been hiding his energy. I went ahead and took Rio off the novice down bank and he was perfect. Megan, Katie and Emily decided it looked
like fun, so all three of them jumped off it and were perfect! Megan then asked if we could do the training level up two stride to down bank. Everyone was doing so
well so I agreed. Rio and I went first and he was just perfect. Megan and Sky took to the bank next and they too were perfect, even with Sky swishing her tail around
afterward like a propeller. Katie and Lance went next. Lance decided that he did not want to go straight of the bank but off to the left, after a couple of tries he do did a
great job. Our first time bank rider Emily then went and wow! First try no issues... QC and Emily are stars.
We then moved onto the water complex. Megan, Emily and Katie all got right in the water and walked and trotted in a circle. It was really fun to watch. I then asked
Rio to get in and he loves the water, got in and started pawing like he wanted to lay down. They all then trotted in and out and then cantered in and out. Lance got a
bit excited and decided to gallop in and out. I would rather them want to go then not. We then trotted up a bank out of the water, Lance needed to transfer some of his
energy to QC who once again just walked up it. The next time through Katie got Lance to calmly canter through the water and up the bank and Emily got QC to canter
and jump up the bank. We then did the bank down into the water to the bank out of the water... everyone did great!!!!!
Onto our last obstical which is a little challenging for most riders, the ditch! Katie had mentioned earlier that she had a hard time with ditches and I know I do, so we
went on over and Megan lead Emily and I lead Katie and all four horses went over as if there was nothing there. All riders kept their eyes up and legs on and it was
perfect. We then had Katie and Emily do it alone which is the true test of the horse and Lance and QC were perfect. Katie and Emily both rode the ditch perfectly at
the trot and the canter!!!!! Megan cantered it on Sky and Sky didn't care at all, to the point she was letting her hind leg fall in the ditch a bit. Megan gave her a cluck at
the base of the ditch and she jumped up over it great. Where is that horse that likes to rush now. What a difference. Rio did not care one bit. I don't know if he even
noticed it was there.
I was so proud of everyone. What a great day we had. We of course have stuff that each person needs to work on but overall the improvements were wonderful and
the XC was tons of fun!!!!!
~Lori
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