Lessons Learned and finally in Columbia

Okay so to begin, this is SO LATE! Im very sorry, just been crazy trying to get started back to school. So to start I will recap my last two weeks:


Wayne Dupage- Was defiantly I learning experience. I didn't score as well in the dressage as I would have hoped but I stayed on Murphy in warm up too long. It been like walking a tightrope trying to polish his warmup and it didn't help they were running behind. But I would again say we are working toward where we need to be. Cross country was fantastic. we had a lot of questions, but the course rode beautifully. I would say the little pony is finally becoming a REAL horse! We had a corner 5 stride bending line to a max drop in the water to a skinny log, which was very exciting. I was a little worried about the bounces steps two strides to a toothbrush skinny, but Murphy locked right on and jumped in like a pro. The other water was a drop in bending line bounce coops where we had the problems at Maui, but it seems as though Murphy has put that experience behind him. So overall he was wonderful. His rider on the other hand, had a little pilot error. I have also been working on trying to go a little quicker, so after fence four I kicked and came around a turn and opps jump right in front of me. Murphy is a very smart horse because he won't just jump if he doesn't feel safe which trying to jump the simple house would have probably turned into a ugly problem, so we picked up twenty but continued on our way. I guess I need to pay a little more attention to where I can go fast and where I need to continue with what I got. Guess I won't make that mistake again.
To top off the weekend, Murphy was PERFECT in showjumping. He jumped one of the nicest rounds in his life going forward with plenty on attention on me. Unfortunately had a rail at the first element of the triple, but I was proud regardless. We finished 8th and won come horse treats and a saddle pad from Fleeceworks. It is so generous of companies to donate prizes, I just really want to say thanks from all of us in the eventing world, we really do appreciate it. To finish the weekend, I loaded up my stuff and heading on a 14hr adventure back to South Carolina.


So there is a quick recap and now I am finally settled in at school and have finished my barn duties working for Craig Thompson. I had the luxury of taking care of hundreds of turkeys, 5 horses, and 4 dogs for a week. It was very exciting. 


So today was the first day of Full Gallop horse trials in Aiken, SC and it didn't go as planned... I warmed up for dressage and Murphy felt a little sluggish, but I was just thinking he was tired. I went over to the dressage rings and came down center line, halted and saluted, which was very nice, and then turned right and had a lame horse. I ended up pulling up pretty quickly in my horses best interest and asked to be excused. Turns out I think Murphy is abscessing. So we pulled the shoe and we went home to soak in Epsom salts. I am a little disappointed because the course looked like a blast and I was really looking forward to getting another intermediate under my belt but there is always tomorrow. Hopefully Murphy will be back in work next week and we can continue the trek to Fair Hill ! 


Here are some pictures from Wayne. As you can see Murphy likes Cheetos.