The Sport of the Insane!

This past weekend, Demure and I competed in our first "Eventing Derby." The sport of eventing consists of 3 phases, Dressage, Cross Country, and Showjumping. The eventing derby had dressage, then due to space issues, combines the latter two. The problem is, Cross country is meant to be ridden fairly aggressively, while showjumping takes more finesse. I decided to just act as if it was all showjumping. My horse, apparently had other ideas...














We went in to do dressage, and he did pretty well. This is the last move of our test, the halt and salute. As you can see, he halted perfectly!

After a quick break and a tack and apparel change, we went out to jump.















This is mid course. We had to jump up this, then turn left and go up a bank. He was hauling butt at this point, and no amount of coaxing was going to slow him down! You can see I am trying to hold on to him, saying "WOAH BUDDY, turn left!"














Then comes the task of jumping into and running through the water. While many horses hesitate at this, and some even refuse to enter the water, Demure clearly thought this was a time to take a break and have a drink! Keep in mind we are being timed, and will receive penalties if we go too slow!
We received penalties...














The other thing that I learned we need work on is his jumping. It's not that he doesn't love his job. He loves it a bit too much. Demure, as I am learning, is quite athletic. He just could learn to jump more efficiently. As you can see, there is about 2 feet of space between his belly and the jump. Jumping correctly, there should be about two inches. If he would fold his knees a bit, he would be jumping a 3 foot fence, not the 5 foot fence he has made it out to be... (notice that I am sorta hanging on for dear life!)

So, there was my first eventing competition in Phoenix Arizona! We survived, and ended up in third place. Not too bad, I just wish it had been a little more smooth!

Also, not to rub it in or anything... But the temperature for this day was 88 degrees. In Atlanta, they got 3 inches of snow!

Thanks again to Terri, Ann, Vickie, and Chad for coming out for support! (and thanks Ann for taking the photos!)