What a weekend! Today was an interesting day. I woke up this morning wishing it was over already because my nerves were beyond words, but seconds after my cross country course was over, I was wishing I could do it all over again. Ginger was a dream today. After walking my course one last time this morning, tacking down all the distances, and fully understanding my strategy, I headed back to the barn to prepare for my ride. I got on and warmed-up; Ginger took each jump with ease and seemed very well adjusted after our new warm up strategy to jump softer, by turning sooner after every warmup fence instead of practicing galloping. When it was finally time to go on course, I received our ten second count down. In the most honest and least dramatic way possible, I thought, “Wow, this is it, all we have been practicing for in the past four months. I will not leave this course wishing I would have ridden differently.” And before I knew it, we were off galloping out of the start box. I held Ginger off of the first minute of our course to test how honest she was going to be and how I would have to ride for the rest of our course. She felt adjustable and trustworthy. I think that setting the precident in the first jumps was important to set the tone for her mindset throughout the course. She got better and better with each fence. There was a long one stride coming into the first water drop, I rode aggresively and Ginger listened and made the one. (Yay!) Later on the road, we had a significant drop to the corner. As she came over the drop, her ears pricked onto the out and she took me there. Next was a tricky water complex and in all honesty it was my favorite part of the course. By far, this was our most intense water complex ever, but with a strong ride in, Ginger took me to the out after four jumps in a row. The rest of the course was equally amazing. She saw each out and made each distance exactly as planned. I hit the ground after our last combination with a toothy grin and cheering my own horse on with big pats and unexplainable accomplishments, but as every coach of mine has ever said, don’t stop riding, still remained true. Two jumps from home we had a down hill approach to a very upright, airy vertical. It was as if she never saw it, she moved left, then right, and then over…wow it was a close one. So lesson learned “Don’t stop riding!” But as we crossed the finish flags I couldn’t help but smile as big and as hard as I ever have. Wow, what a ride. I finally caught my breath about twenty minutes after my ride, when the adrenaline finally wore off and I let myself relax. We did it, our first two star. When I received Ginger, I knew she may be able to do this, but in complete honesty, I hoped I would be able to compete at the one star level (my lifetime goal). And now, to have my horse cross the finish flags of our first two star in third place was more than I could have ever dreamed of in February of 2007 when she became my ride. But, the road doesn’t end here. We have the CCI** in three weeks at Twin Rivers, which will probably be harder and longer. So for now I celebrate, but on Wednesday it’s back to work. This was the first of two qualifying rounds for the Pan American Games. I hope we can keep this momentum and move forward to the next event with more confidence and better teamwork. Thanks for reading this weekend.
Until next time,
Ginger and Lauren
PS Below I have attached a picture from the Chronicle of the Horse website where Ginger and I got a little shout out.
