Jog up & Show Jumping!

Luckily his shoe came off perfectly clean and he didn’t rip up his foot at all. We iced his feet just in case, but he didn’t even pull up at the end of the course stinging, so I was fairly confident he was going to be okay! The other thing that has been great about Arthur’s new found maturity was that for the first time ever he was a piece of cake in the cool down vet box. Usually he is so focussed on other horses finishing the course that he is a pain in the butt to handle. This time he cooled out quickly and wanted to eat grass in the middle of all the commotion! The other new Mature Arthur blessing is that he now stands in front of the ground jury and trots up like an old pro. Maybe next year at Rolex I won’t have to jump the flowers and get run off the jog lane by him?!?! The jog went fine he was perfect. I then had a lovely stretching ride on him. He was happy and quiet despite all the spectators cheering on the show jumpers in the stadium. When it was time to walk, I was REALLY impressed. The stands were FULL and the jumps were ginormous!!! Way bigger than Rolex!!! I generally jump 4’0″ in competition, many of these were 4’6″. He warmed up great then it was our turn. I started out a bit nervously and rode the first two lines horribly, he had the second fence down, because I got him there on a half stride. Then I started riding well! He jumped beautifully through the triple. The next line was tough, a forward 5 to a steady 2 stride combination into the crowd. He had both of the combo down, but I thought I rode it perfectly. He unfolded early and kicked them out with his toes (so people told me). In hind sight, I should have tried to add six, so we could be a bit more careful, this is what people started doing later on. We had one more rail down. So 4 total, sounds bad, but it was nothing like Kentucky. He was relaxed and rideable. He needed to be ridden a bit better at points. But he jumped really well, and I know he has a bunch of clear rounds in him. We just need more mileage jumping the bigger courses together! Winter homework in Wellington?!?!