The day started with a more relaxed Butterball. He had really chowed down on his hay overnight and had less of a mess in the stall. He also went right to business grazing on his morning hand walk/graze, but then they started PILE DRIVING and he kinda lost it as we headed back in to the stall.
I calmed him down a bit by shoving treats into his mouth and then walked the XC course again. DH and I then headed out to a local park, McConnell springs park. It was a reasonable little 1 mile loop. After that we ate some lunch and then headed back to the horse park.
I swung by the office around noon and asked about the construction noise. The show staff told me KHP hadn't told them the construction would be going on. I had assumed this was the case because otherwise, who in their right mind would put prey animals next to LARGE, MOVING, INSANELY LOUD MACHINERY FOR TWELVE HOURS EVERY DAY. I asked if there was any way I could change stalls. I am definitely overly stimulated by sounds, dogs barking at work is a sure way to increase my anxiety/frustration, but it was truly insane for all the humans and horses directly facing the massive construction site. The staff in the office said that the secretary was out, but to check back in a few hours.
DH went to check back as I started to braid BB for the second time. He came back with great news - they had let us move to a barn much further away. He started to pack up our things as Butterball and I finished tacking up for dressage. He found the new stall and even moved almost all of the shavings from the original stall to the new one. The new stall was in a much older barn with smaller stalls without mats (Dever could supply some for a fee, which I would have done if I knew we were going to be there, but 6+ bags of shavings made me feel okay about the asphalt). But it was quiet. And the pony and I immediately breathed a sigh of relief. There also was a port-a-potty instead of the ACed bathroom at the end of the barn. And the wash racks were not covered and had a portable hot water service instead of built in hot/cold. But I really could not have cared less. It was so much better for both of us.
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| Peacefully drinking some water |
Our dressage test... was. We did the things, sometimes in the right shape, sometimes not, sometimes with the proper bend, sometimes not. He was pretty hot and alert, and I hadn't given us enough warm up time to let him come down from that and really soften over his back.
*all riding photos from Xpress Foto and their glorious $149 pre-order all images package. I <3 them almost as much as I loved doing the three day. Also extra love for them since Jeff (the co-owner) saved me from walking 2+ miles when I was taking myself back to the campground to grab the bicycle I should have tossed in the truck that morning.
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| He's so damn cute no matter what tho |
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| Not square, not focused |
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| Active for sure, soft? Nah |
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| Hrm. Attention is... elsewhere |
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| Well, the front legs were square. Butterball's expression kinda sums up the test tho LOL |
On the plus side, I had had the intrusive thought on Tuesday as we drove 12 hours and then Wednesday as we jogged that perhaps this would be the first time in my adult life that I got eliminated in dressage by jumping out of the arena. And we didn't do that.
The "prepare more" comment had me laughing. Because the judge might've just meant for transitions etc, but also that could have applied to my inability to do accurate figures in the ring because I hadn't practiced. Oops. Together the scores averaged out to a 36.5. It wasn't terrible, but definitely wasn't our best, and put us in 30th out of 34. I commented to DH that at least there was no pressure then.
I had signed up for steeplechase practice from 5-5:45 after our 4:10 dressage time. In my head this was enough time to change tack after dressage and then hack out to steeplechase on the track for A/C. I hadn't accounted for our sudden stall move or my difficulty finding the hacking trails. So I ended up with a somewhat frantic trot out to the steeplechase area. There were five us and the group had already started with a pace exercise when I arrived. Carol kindly assured me I wasn't late (I was), but that they had started early.
Butterball and I were last to go with our late arrival and were a bit quick for the marked out 30 second (235 meter) mark. Then we moved on to jumping the first fence. I LOVED that they did this and it relieve a lot of my anxiety about phase B. Carol instructed us to ride it at XC pace (400 mpm) rather than steeplechase (470 mpm) and to be a bit defensive the first time. Butterball bucked on the way in but never had any doubts about leaving the ground. Then we repeated the exercise at the goal pace with just a light rebalancing over the fence. He did a bit more bucking, but got a lovely distance and left the ground nicely. We were then allowed to hack the rest of B. It was recommended to hack A/C on the way back as well. I grouped up with two riders from Wisconsin to hack the rest of B and then C. They were just lovely people and we easily chatted about horses and eventing in general.
Butterball was plenty cooled off from our long hack back, so didn't even get hosed. He was nice and chill in the new quiet location and, as a bonus, he had acquired a lovely chestnut gelding as a neighbor. They sniffed noses through the bars and seemed quite content with the company. I later found out that the gelding was there not competing, just as an in between stop from his original home to a new home up in Illinois. Butterball got a nice hand graze and then a large pile of hay for the night.
I had gotten us a hotel for the night, because Thursday night was the middle night of the five nights up there. It was nice to have hot, private showers, and we ate some tasty brisket take out from The Pig Pen restaurant before heading back to put on his sheet (low in the upper 40s) for the night.
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