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We Are Flying Solo

February 23, 2010

My Eyes Are Bigger Than My Stomach

The phrase is one my mother always said to me when I piled food on my plate in eager anticipation of satisfying my rumbling belly. Inevitably, what I thought I could easily eat turned out to be more than my body could actually accomodate! It appears to also be true for my eventing aspirations.

Saturday dawned sunny and warmed up to a balmy 58 degrees so three of us crazy gals met to do some XC schooling. It was Solo and I's first attempt at really schooling Novice. I thought, pshhh, no worries, this is going to be a piece of cake!

Damn eyes.

Some parts were easy. Solo hopped smoothly and obligingly up and down banks (I LOVE BANKS!), galloped through the water, and leaped neatly over logs.

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Just a lil' warm up log.

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Down we go, nice as you please.

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No problem, mom!

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A great one of Solo's pasture buddy, Jeff, coming up out of the water -- what a splash!

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Solo, of course, has to make his own splash! Do not ask me what I am doing, as it is obviously my very best riding zombie impression.


We ran into a little (shocking!) trouble at the ditches. Solo generally takes his ditches in stride, albeit with a rather, uh, enthusiastic leaping style to make sure no hiding trolls can reach his precious little feet, like so:

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The routine goes: uphill to little ditch, downhill to little ditch. Then uphill to bigger ditch, downhill to....OMG, SLAM ON THE HORSE BRAKES, THE TROLLS ARE LYING IN WAIT! For some reason, coming down to the bigger ditch, Solo would have no part of it. He would go until the last possible second. We tried everything known to man. He calmly said, No way, no how, woman. Eventually, I decided it was not a battle worth losing the day over. He quite happily jumped every other (even bigger!) ditch on the property. But downhill to THAT ditch, THAT day, nope, beyond the realm of horsey possiblity, so I accepted my lumps and we moved on. I was annoyed, but after that, he even jumped the mini trakhener (a hanging log over a ditch) in the woods, so...whaddya do?

At this point, I am feeling pretty damn good about things, seeing as we haven't even been on a XC course since our starter trials last November at BN. We decide to finish up taking a few of the bigger fly jumps (simple box or coop type jumps, alone, taken from a gallop). No biggie right?

HA.

THEY ARE ENORMOUS AND TERRIFYING. How can there be such a difference in 2"??? The two jumps my cohorts selected and swore to me were Novice jumps were simple, boxy things. But as I galloped towards them, they got bigger...and bigger...and bigger.  Then right at the takeoff spot, I quailed with a whimper.  And Solo said, well, shit, lady, I ain't doing it without you! and declined to jump.  For which I don't blame him one bit, it was my fault for trembling in my boots and wailing in terror!

I admitted to my mates that the failure was entirely on me and I was not too proud to beg for a lead from the brave Jeff, for whom ginormous jumps come so easily.  And in the end, surprise was the ticket and we prevailed!!!

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Look, you can't even tell that I am peeing myself in fear!!

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And so we end, with a pat on the neck for a job well done!


I realized, though, an important lesson. This leveling up business is no walk in the park. No easy-breezy faking my way through it anymore as we gallop along. These bigger XC obstacles are going to take me screwing up all my courage and riding them properly so poor Solo is not left hung out to dry. My confident swagger from the morning has been well and truly squelched and replaced with a much healthier respect for the task at hand!! And a burning desire for another schooling session before we hit competition. You better bet we're going to be looking up the mighty David O. in the next couple of weeks....

18 comments:

  1. Wow! Wonderfully told play-by-play! Solo is just gorgeous, and it appears you handle her beautifully to THIS untrained eye!

    Thanks for sharing this!

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  2. Those are amazing pictures! Wow! I don't know much about eventing, but if that's "Novice" I'd hate to see harder stuff. I don't know how it works, lol.

    Way to go!!

    www.wildponybeast.blogspot.com

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  3. Ahh, the Novice level boxy-scary-insane jumps. I learned to do them on a 13 hand pony. I am 5'6". Of course she was the only horse able to do them that I had permission to ride.....

    The trick (so I've been told) is to take a few Training level jumps, then Novice looks small again. I'll leave that for you and Solo to test, what with his fancy Gem Twist injections!

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  4. Maybe Solo got scared because he thought you were going to eat his brain. You definitely have a brain-munching look about you in that down-bank pic.
    And, hey, humility is always a good thing! You don't want to get all cocky and too-big-for-your-britches. The Eventing Gods had to take ya down a few notches, lol.
    Despite the glitches, you guys look awesome -- I'm jealous!

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  5. Hahaha, thanks, y'all! Yeah, Denali, Novice is a very low level. It used to be the lowest level available until they invented Beginner Novice. The jumps are supposed to be 2'11". I dunno, they look 10'5" to me.

    OMG, molly, if Solo was 13 hands, I think I'd be even more terrified. Just take the Training jumps, eh? I'm not sure how many pee stains my saddle can take!

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  6. Haha, great story. I love your style. Izzy and I will be giving that a try pretty soon. Don't hold your breath.

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  7. Go for it, SB! But beware, once you start, you can never go back, bwahahahahah!

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  8. You guys always look amazing. Love the overjumps on Solo's part with the ditches!

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  9. Thank you, Jen! Yes, his overjumping an obstacle that is ZERO inches tall amuses me greatly!

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  10. I have to come back and say that I love Solo's tail in the picture of you guys jumping into the water. I am so ridiculously jealous, since there's about 4 feet of snow here, and I don't even remember the last time I rode my pony (trying to find a chiropractor to fix his back issues....). Sigh. It's nice to live vicariously through you though!

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  11. Aw! Great job(as always)!!
    And that is why I do not EVER plan on making up to even BN level...nope too wimpy! I will just continue on with my wannabe event horse, not jumping anything, and pretending we can do everything you and Solo can do. Yep, sounds good to me lol!

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  12. Wonderful to read and (gulp) live vicariously through! Totally awesome on the box jump. AWESOME.

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  13. 2'11"?!? They do look more like 10'!!! WOW! I could never do CC, I'd die. They'd find my body (next to Denali's) in the middle of the field. Maybe in a ditch...who knows...I'll never try to find out. :)

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  14. Thanks! Aw, c'mon, Alana, I have proven that even wimps can do it!

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  15. LOVE IT! Great pics, cuuute horse! You are a brave brave woman.

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  16. Thank you, Rachel! I hope I can be brave enough to achieve our goals this season!

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  17. Holy hell you have one athletic pony there! :) Great pics and I love how eager he looks.

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  18. Thank you Kristen! He does (mostly) love his job -- although he seriously questions my ability to spot deadly trolls on my own!

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