Holy CRAP this year’s Ride for the Roses was AMAZING! Bacardi was amazing, my crew was amazing. Everything. AMAZING.
The format this year was a little different. We were able to haul in Friday night with no events that evening. Just got to settle B and hack about. Saturday and Sunday were competition days with Dressage, Engish Pleasure, and Halter classes on Saturday and Jumping classes on Sunday. This made our life SO MUCH EASIER.
My first dressage test was at 8:06 am. We went in with no warm-up and still put down a pretty good test which resulted in a 50.962% which isn’t half bad for my first time at the level (Training). My second test wasn’t until 1:09 pm so B and I got a little downtime and I was able to get some breakfast. Our second test was MUCH better. We were able to get in a little warm-up and were able to develop a better connection. This test was for our combined test and we eeked out a 57.2% on an Intro test. Not a personal best like I thought, but still respectable.
In rail classes, we were able to pull in some of our first ribbons of the competition with a 4th in W/T English Pleasure (Belmont) and a 3rd in W/T/C English Pleasure (Belmont). Halter ended the night with a 6th out of 9 in our Belmont division and a pretty green ribbon!
Sunday morning we got to sleep in a little as jumping didn’t start til 10 am and they were starting higher levels first. I was able to get on shortly before 1 and put in a pretty atrocious first 2ft jump round that somehow still begot me a 6th place ribbon. Our second 2ft round was MUCH better and warranted us at 4th place ribbon. After that, we completed our combined test jump round which was mostly clean with a hiccup at the “cross country” styled element, but still earned us a 4th place ribbon.
Our place to shine this year was in our cross-rail jump rounds. Our first round was clean and fast… 2nd place. Our second round. Still clean but FASTER. The FASTEST. FIRST PLACE! Wow was I blown away. It was our first blue ribbon and I had NO expectations of that whatsoever. Additionally, our first and second places in our cross-rail rounds earned us the Cross-Rail Division High Point! MORE RIBBONS and prizes!
We stayed for final awards and unfortunately didn’t bring home our Belmont Division High Point this year, but I was very proud of our showing this year and so many pretty ribbons!!
Other than competing I had the best time connecting with new friends and catching up with old friends. I was able to introduce my newer friend Bianca and her daughter to my saddle fitter who came as a vendor and they hit it off! I got to hug so many people and cheer everyone on. One of my friends brought their 28-year-old mare for a last hurrah while another friend brought their just-ran-two-weeks-ago-off-the-track-thoroughbred and competed him as well and they did AMAZING.
I am really looking forward to spending the winter developing Bacardi’s straightness and suppleness so we can put in a better showing next year, hopefully at the EI Spring Trials.
Happy Riding!
A+B
