Juniors Makes Me Feel Old

So it's been a good long time since I've posted here.  Yeah I know I'm lame, I know I suck, I know I said I wouldn't do that again, but guess what?  I'm back!  I know, you're just beside yourself with excitement right now, everybody around you must be staring because you are bouncing up and down in your seat.  Take a moment to check around, take a deep breath and assure them that you aren't insane.  There, that's better. Now that you have calmed yourself, let's get down to business.  With a couple of horse shows in my future, I expect there will be a lot to write about, so there should be more activity here, so let's get moving.

Juniors is a big show for LLE for a lot of reasons.  One, it is a small cheaper unrated eventing show that is a great outing for the less experienced kids.  Two, it has a nice move up course for those of us looking to bump up a level.  And to top it off, it was Lauren's first horse show "back" since the arrival of adorable little Lacey.  I decided to take Brit so that she and I could have a nice place to do our first training as a team, but in doing so I realized one sad fact: I'm no longer a junior.

When we got our packets Adi went through hers and exclaimed that she had a glow stick in it.  I immediately went through mine and was quite disappointed to not have received the same, although all the other girls did.  The reason?  I'm not one of them anymore, I'm no longer a junior.  Such a sad day that I am now too old to ride with the juniors but must be called a senior instead.  I mean, what the heck?  Now that I am no longer a kid I must be old?  What's wrong with the term amateur?  Or adult?  Eventing just isn't kind to their non-junior members.  I suppose I just need to get to prelim so that I won't be labeled as a senior anymore.  Way to make me feel old.

Group photo after awards

Getting horses, kids, equipment, and parents still with their sanity intact to Eventful Acres was quite the job, but ultimately everyone survived Friday evening. Brit and I had a nice quiet little dressage workout.  She was very confused about where she was, as she has never been there before, and sometimes would whinny during our ride.  Funny thing is, she whinnies but never moves her head when she does it, so it's more amusing than it is annoying, because it really doesn't affect what I am doing at all.  Unfortunately however, Adi and I both rode at the crack of dawn, and needed to have our horses braided that night, so out came the headlamps and the yarn.  I quickly got Brit done while Adi struggled for some time with Danny.  She even asked me for step by step instructions on how to cut the yarn pieces.  Seriously.  Eventually Adi gave in and I finished Danny's mane, which looked quite horrendous but at least the braids were in.

Saturday morning dawns bright and early and I have to drag myself out of bed at 6 am when it's dark out.  That's just not right, if it's still dark, I should be sleeping.  Ah one of many joys of horse shows.  So I get up and go outside and every other girl is already up, running around in their pajama pants and sweatshirts, how come I wasn't invited to the party?  Horses get fed, Brit gets groomed and then goes out for a quick jaunt on the lunge line, comes back, gets tacked, and then I change and get on.  I get over to warm up and discover that I am in fact late and had not realized it.  My first reaction is to demand why nobody started screaming at me that I had to get my butt to warm up and couldn't spend ages carefully wiping off Brit's face like I had all the time in the world.  I mean really, yell at me guys, sometimes I just have no clue.  Lucky for me, they hadn't even started yet since the dressage judges were accidentally given the wrong tests and were quite confused when the first rider came in.  One fifteen minute delay, a nice quick warm up for Brit and I (if only that was more literal, I exclaimed to Lauren at one point that I couldn't feel my fingers), and we went in to have a lovely, quiet test.  I kept things toned down quite a bit because the grass was a bit slick and as soon as you left the edge of the dressage court to say, do a circle, you were suddenly playing the "dodge the holes so you don't fall on your face and die" game.  Overall though, it was nice, and although our score didn't quite reflect the test and the comments were borderline laughable to the point that we questioned if the judge actually watched my ride.  Below is my test, which I think scored around a 35?  I don't quite remember now and I believe that test is floating around the back of my car somewhere....

Everyone else went on to have great dressage rides Saturday morning and then show jumping started at one.  It was a classic Eventful Acres course, twisty and turny with fences set a bit small, quite nice for horses and riders new to the level.  I went in determined to get a clean round out of Brit, whose show jumping is her weakest phase.  Everything was going great until she just got a bit tired at the end and ended up with two rails.  That first part of the course though was so much better, and Lauren was very happy with our progress, just keep pushing forward, and maybe someday we won't be getting those.  Below is our show jumping round, behold its beauty!  And the sound of Brit's lazy feet nicking rails because I forgot to remove sound... whoops.

Also worth noting: Adi--my fellow training move up who is also the twelve year old super rider that makes me feel bad about myself sometimes, seriously, that girl can ride!--she managed to produce a double clear round with her horse, Danny, who is notorious for making show jumping a game of pick up sticks.  Nice one girl!  Little Haley, Amanda, Mackie, Maddie, Chelsea, Ellie, and Brooke also had great rounds.  Unfortunately Shayna ran into some trouble with Buddy, but she went and rocked it when she schooled it later and showed us all how to hold your chin up and be a good sport and a team player, even when things don't quite go the way you expect.

The group photo from Saturday night dinner

Saturday evening after horses were fed, wrapped, and put to bed and everyone had walked their courses in anticipation for tomorrow, everyone got tickets to the catered dinner onsite.  The kids all got together and carted their food out to a jump on the cross country course where we proceeded to generally mess around and maybe eat some dinner.  At some point we decided it was photo time, above you can see the result.  Why is it that none of us thought to get in the giant hole next to Adi's head rather than crowd around the edges?  Afterwards Adi and I went to meter our course, mostly for Adi's benefit since the course hadn't really changed that much since the last time I had run there.  The cross country looked nice, and I thought it would be a great place for Brit and I to do our first training together.  Mackie and I also did some Assassin's Creed style running, which she thought was Naruto or something, but it was totally Assassin's Creed, who doesn't want to be Ezio?  I was told later that the sixteen year olds of the group had a conversation about whether or not they would still be playing these games in three years.  The answer?  Apparently somebody told them to look at me.  Thanks guys, even though Juniors wants to call me a Senior I guess I'm still a kid to you haha.  Later that evening the girls went off to play "Hunger Games" which really ended up turning into "everyone hunt down Adi and Mackie".  Originally, I had agreed to play, but ended up running into an old friend and went to chat with him instead and just watched while the girls ran around the cross country course.

Adi being dramatic at breakfast

Sunday morning is another early one, although for once, the younger kids had to get up and go first.  Heck yeah!  So the girls that went a bit later in the day had a nice group breakfast.  Mackie opted for a bagel while Adi had a fight with some Joe's O's.  Many a Joe's O sadly ended up on the ground... or the table... or over the fence... Let's just say that they went everywhere because Adi sort of lost her marbles when she put sugar on them.  Then she started glancing over dramatically at Mackie.  I sat there laughing and taking pictures, what a great supervising adult I am.  A bit later I got to stud Brit, a process which I haven't had to do since I ran at Inavale two years ago.  Interestingly, it wasn't as bad as I remembered and it went rather quickly.  Before I knew it I was in the start box about to go on cross country.  There's nothing quite like waiting around that start box, listening to the timer count you down.  Only other eventers know what I'm talking about, that anticipation coupled with the nerves and the adrenaline.  And then you leave the box and it hits you, you're on course and there is nothing more embarrassing than getting a stop at the first fence so ride your butt off!  Brit was a bit wiggly on course at first, but settled in after fence two and was amazing from then on out.  She didn't question anything that I pointed her at and nailed the striding in all the combos.  I was so happy with the way our weekend ended and I felt that our move up had been very successful.  Adi also had a hugely successful move up and all the other girls had great cross country rounds as well.

The crazy version of the first group photo

Even though we didn't all end up with ribbons we all got great positive experiences from the weekend and came out better riders and better friends, what more could you ask for?  Now with Juniors done Brit and I are one step closer to the Training 3-day at Galway.  Woodside the weekend after Juniors determined our fate for that show and guess what?  We made it baby, we are going to the 3-day.  Stay tuned for a post on that soon :) Until next time, this senior that wants to still be a junior but is glad that she is an adult but feels that the USEA needs to come up with a better word for non-juniors, is out.