Final Ocala Recap

So I really tried to blog throughout my weekend, but the internet at the house was not working well enough :( But anyway Ocala was a weekend with a lot of positives. Murphy put in a stellar dressage test for him at socre a 56th to land him in 11th out of about 40 horses. I was so pleased and Jen Holling said she rode the best I had seen and didn't give a point away! Yah for me! 

Cross country was overall very good. It was a tough course and Murphy seemed to jump around like a champ. I did decide to take the option at the bank complex and opted to circle before the brush offsets since time was pretty easy to make. Murphy was awesome through the brushes and went I jumped up on the bank I was sure I could make the line, but I opted to be safe. He was then really super at the water and felt like a million bucks. Towards the end of the course we had a bounce on a mound down to a skinny toothbrush wedge. Well I rode strong up the hill to the bounce, Murphy jumped A and then stopped at the B element. I think he was quite surprised by the drop and it spooked him a bit. I then galloped around and jumped back into the gully down to the wedge and he was super good. I was obviously very disappointed, but I still think it just a question he hasn't seen much of. Otherwise Murphy was a super star man and came home with just the 20 penalties. Murphy looked great on Saturday and was really good at the jog on Sunday. Man has he grown up since the his first jog at the Midsouth CCI* a couple years ago when we took off bucking and squealing... 

Anyway showjumping was quite good as well. I had two down, but I don't think I have ever ridden a course thinking about every stride as much as I did. We had fence two and three down which was a vertical 5 strides to a oxer. He just ticked the vertical behind and I sat down a little two early and then somewhat chased him down to the oxer. After that he was much better and really jumped his heart out for me. Now Murphy is on a little break and we will see what the future holds. 

All of the students are doing really well, which is very exciting! Over at Windchime stables, we had dressage practice day which was quite entertaining. Riding a  correct 20 meter circle is harder then it looks!  I have two horses that are coming for training and a couple coming for sale. Things are busy here but Murphy is enjoying his vacation and his time with his favorite donkey Nick! Here are some pictures from cross country and from the competitors party!