The haul up to Greenwood on Friday took us 4 hours, and the borrowed truck (thanks Erin!) and trailer made the drive like champions. We unloaded, found our stall in the very cozy tent stabling, unhooked the trailer, and then tacked up Henry to go explore the property.
He was a little tense and neighed a couple times, but settled ok. I mainly did lateral work and down transitions to loosen him up and keep his brain quiet… I didn’t see a point in picking on him too much since the goal was to try to just keep him relaxed. I mainly stuck to the SJ warmup area since it was empty, then walked over to the dressage warmup (the upper level horses did dressage on Friday so it was bustling) and he bug-eye stared at the dressage arenas for a while. This was his third event ever, and the first time he’s ever shown at a place where he had never been before.
He got a bath and some hay, then I set off to walk XC. My friend Amy gave me the most amazing circus pony cup, which is now my new official Course Walk Pimp Cup. Since it’s obligatory to walk the course with a cider in hand, you might as well do it in amazing style.
Side note: the Pimp Cup still needs a name, if anyone out there is feeling creative. She’s awfully pretty to just be called Pimp Cup.
Once I found the XC start box (I’ve never been to this facility before, and it’s huuuuuuge) and set off on my course, I felt pretty good about it in the beginning. The first half of it was in the woods, and the jumps were all pretty simple and little. The first one of any substance was 6, a log oxer, but I knew it would ride just fine as long as we kept coming forward to it.
There was a little mini Trakehner at 8 that I thought he might look at, but he’s jumped a bigger one before with no issue so I figured – same deal – just keep coming forward and it’d be fine.
The second half of the course is what really made it a beefy BN. After the Trakehner we popped out at the top of a hill in a big field, which was pretty visually impressive. We had to make a hard right down the hill to the water, which was just asking for a runout, then a couple strides out of the water over a rolltop. Henry is good about water but still, this was going to require an aggressive ride because it was just so visually imposing as we came down to it.
There were a few more simple fences after that, then a long gallop up a big hill and over a log, after which there was a sharp left and a fairly short approach to the dreaded banks. 13 was a down bank, about 2′, then 3 bending strides to 14, an up bank. That’s a pretty technical question for BN. It’s a REALLY technical question for a BN horse with a history of hating down banks. This is where I started to pee myself a little.
Then it was down the big hill to a simple hanging log… but 4 bending strides after the log was another down bank. You gotta be kidding me right? Two down banks on BN, both of which are close enough to another jump to make it a technical question as well. Not only that, it went from light to dark and after the down bank was a fairly short approach to a fence that had trees around it in such a way to make it pretty good test of steering (I called it The Decapitator). Continue peeing on oneself and wonder why the hell I came to this mini Rolex BN course.
After that it was a little bit of a gallop to the last, a cute little fence decorated with buckets and plastic shovels and flamingos.
I pretty much chugged the rest of my cider at this point out of stress, walked the course again, peed myself over the down banks some more, then wandered around and looked at some of the 2* fences to make myself feel better.
Then I wandered back and walked the stadium course, which at first I thought was set to BN height but figured out it was actually set to Novice. So at least THAT would look simple and tiny.
The course looked nicely designed and flowed well. It was in the front field right next to the road so I thought that might be a little bit of an issue but stadium is our easiest phase so I just walked it once, made a plan, and put it in the back of my mind so I could continue stressing about the down banks instead.
After a graze and some dinner I said goodnight to Henry, told him to put on his Big Boy Pants for the weekend, then was off to stuff my face and eat my feelings.
Tomorrow – dressage and stadium…
breedrideevent.com 
They put trakheners on BN now? Yikes! That looks like a move-up course!
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It felt like a move up course. They were all pretty beefy.
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Looks like fun (says someone who doesn’t jump ;))! Go, Henry, go!!!
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that is one scary ass course. I agree. Can’t wait for the next installment!
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Damn girl. This is why when people ask me why I don’t try eventing (since my horse does dressage and loves to jump), I just make frowny faces. “Just do beginner novice!” they say. There is no way I have the guts to get around what you just showed us. Super impressed.
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You could do the litttle intro/green as grass level… those are usually just logs and tiny coops and boxes. 😉
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If it makes you feel better, I agree that the down bank/up bank combination is really darn technical for Beginner Novice. I’m kind of shocked that was on your course!
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I thought it was pretty tough too, for that level.
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Looks like fun!
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Down banks are pretty bad, but I’m just impressed you aren’t worried about anything with a ditch in it. My horse is ditchy. I am ditchy. Ditches are bitches…
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I’m not ditchy and neither is my horse. We’re banky. 😉
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Looking at bigger jumps is a good survival tactic. That being said, most of those BN jumps you showed look terrifying to me.
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They’re pretty little. It’s where they’re placed sometimes that makes them so tricky.
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Your pimp cup is amazing!
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I feel like everyone needs a pimp cup.
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First, I LOVE the pimp cup. That is amazing.
Second, I always like to walk bigger courses first, then mine looks small. 🙂
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Maybe that was my problem, I should have walked the 2* course first.
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I got nervous just reading your post… yikes, I’d be peeing myself at that course as well. Love the pimp cup!
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A lot of the jumps looked ok, but those combinations are NUTS to have at BN! Props to you for getting through that one.
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I thought they were nuts too. Luckily with how they were numbered it allowed for some options. 😉
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I think it sounds really fun until I picture trying to ride it on C-rage.
I’ll pass.
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If they’d given me the option of passing on the banks, I would have.
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Jumping up banks is okay, jumping down on the other hand makes me want to pee myself. Even thinking of jumping scary looking things (or frankly jumping at all) on my black horse scares me, since he doesn’t jump yet.
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Woo, that looks like a fun course! Testing for sure, but fun! Everybody needs a course walk pimp cup.
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It looks like a beautiful facility.
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Wow that course looks awesome!! Mini Rolex BN indeed hahah! Max # of obstacles for a BN course which is so cool. Looking forward to more of the recaps, but I wonder if you thought about doing a right-handed circle after the first down-bank instead of bending line to the other upbank?
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Perhaps. 😉 You’ll see.
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My horse doesn’t do water. Annnnd I’m pretty sure I don’t do banks — up or down.
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wow – definitely some technical questions! at least they didn’t flag them as actual A-B combos so riders who didn’t feel ready for it could plan to circle between them to buy more time or get a better line if the course hadn’t been going well up to that point. can’t wait to hear how it went!!
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I hate hate, double hate down banks. Mollie takes most of my requests as “suggestions” so as I would be frantically trying to slow her down before a down bank she would be gleefully giving me the finger. And then the ground would be gone. God bless her for being quick on her feet, but sometimes it would have been nice if she took those suggestions seriously.
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I think your cup looks like a Petunia. It also bears a resemblance to Princess Pony Head from the TV show Star versus the Forces of Evil (hey, I have a kid, and it’s kind of a fun little toon) lol. Good luck, stay safe, and have fun!
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I like banks, but hate all the other kinds of cross country jumps, like logs on top of hills… So there! You got guts girl, this is one intense (for BN) course!
bonita of A Riding Habit
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That faux-khener is terrifying.
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I bet you killed it!! 🙂
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