For those of you that don't know, an event is three phases: Dressage, Cross-Country, and Stadium. We went to walk the Cross-Country course on Saturday, and that was when I discovered that I may have bitten off more than I could chew. The jumps were HUGE and very solid (unlike the little cross rails and tiny logs that I am used to jumping). The height limit was supposed to be 2 feet, but most looked close to 2'6" high, as well as close to that wide. There was even a drop, which is something I have never done. Needless to say, I did not sleep that night... not 1 minute!

Come Saturday morning, I bit of calm had come over me... or maybe it was just that I was really tired. :) We got there really early because the person I was sharing the trailer with had her first phase about 3 hours before I did. Mary Ann (that's my instructor) as well as just about everybody from the barn kept asking me if I was ok. I got Timmy ready about 45 minutes before my Dressage test, and went to warm up. He could sense my nerves, and so was a bit speedy and not nice and round, but we survived! I didn't think I had any chance of getting a good placing, as the people that were warming up around me were unbelievably good riders!

1 phase down, 2 to go. I had survived Dressage, and managed to even get a square halt at the end (the only 7 I got on my dressage test... you are rated for each movement on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best... Most people never get above an 8)... I had been practicing getting my hault square all week, with no luck, so didn't even bother trying during my test... wouldn't you know that would be the time I get it! LOL Ok, time to get ready for cross country! I had to change everything... saddle, bridle, put boots on Timmy, change my clothes... Thank goodness for the help of my little friend at the barn! Off to cross country! I popped over some warm up jumps with no problem, except Timmy for the first time went at them sideways... egads, not now! Then somebody in front of me falls while on course at the 2nd jump... Mary Ann wouldn't let me look. Great, just what I need to boost my confidence! Well, we get a great start except Timmy doesn't seem to want to trot. I finally get him to trot, and the 1st (and easiest) jump is a piece of cake. The second jump we almost miss because Timmy wants to go over the BIGGER jump that is 2 levels higher than what we are doing. The 3rd jump I have to pop him with the crop once to get him over. Other than that, it is smooth sailing! No refusals, no falling. :) I did it!

My whole barn cheered when I finished cross country, and they all raced over to congratulate me... It was the greatest feeling in the world! :) Time to go change for Stadium... no time to breathe! On the way back to the trailer I hear Sam say "are you going to tell her now?"... um,
Tell me what? Turns out that cross country is timed, and if you don't go fast enough you can get time penalties. Well, Mary Ann wanted me to have a safe ride so told everybody not to tell me it was timed. Ha! Go figure. Ah well, turns out they didn't use the time penalties anyways... they just wanted us to get a feel for it. :) Stadium
went very smoothly except I almost missed a jump. I turned Timmy at it and he went over it anyways! What a good boy! I finally found out after stadium that I was in 9th place (out of 13) after Dressage, but moved up to 4th place after Cross Country. It turns out that these horses that were great at dressage, were the same horses that freaked out in cross country... some of them bucked, some of them threw their riders off, some of them refused jumps, and some riders even went of course. *pats self on back for walking the course twice* :) Since I didn't knock any jumps down (and the people ahead of me didn't either) in Stadium, I finished in 4th overall! Woohoo! What an accomplishemnt, for someone who has never evented before. Keep in mind, Timmy had never seen these jumps before, either. It's not all that easy to make a horse jump 13 cross country jumps that he's never even seen. Ah well, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! :)

-Dar"I did it! I did it!"leen and Tim"Which one do you want me to jump, mom? Which one which one?!"my