This is What We Came Here For

More screenshots. I apologize. 2nd jump

When I went to go walk my course for xc, I really didn't know what to expect. I mean, I did, but this was a real event. With realness and things. It started off easy enough with two straightforward fences, although fairly upright (a popular theme for jumps here) and then bending towards the cutest little corner in all the land. Heck yes, a corner!

Weeeee tiny corner!

Next up was a cabin, and then a turn into the water. I thought the water looked not so inviting, as it was dark and kind of just appeared. But no fear, Bacy loves the water. A jump out of the water led us to a half coffin, and then disappearing into the woods. Some of the bigger jumps were back there, but it was a fun twisty ride through the trees, uphill and downhill. Finally, we were supposed to pop back out, jump a two stride line, up a bank and then head for home with a handful of easy jumps on your way out. I was a little worried about riding through the trees and possibly the jump judges, because Ol' Spider Legs has never done that before. And you know, since our last adventure over xc was in the beginning of May.

Christmas cabin!

Of course, she warmed up quite well for xc, despite the crazy children and adults flying around allover. She is always quieter for xc. Once again, they changed the ride times and bumped us up earlier, but we had had ample warm up, so that was ok. Before heading in, one of my travel buddies' pony slipped and fell on top of her in front of me, so that made me nervous for slippage out on course. I was also nervous about the Bacon Foot. It was pretty hard and bumpy out there and I had no idea what it would think about that. But, I remembered to turn my GoPro on, and my watch and headed out on course.

UHHHH ALERT ALERT

Oh just kidding. Tiz only water.

I had to laugh, because Bacon was totally confused and did not know which jumps to jump when there was a big line of them. I tried to guide her straight, and she would just barely lock on and jump. I thought she might be super distracted, but she was rolling along quite well. And then, the water APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE HOLY CRAP. An unsuspecting me felt my horse jam on the breaks, and then immediately put me back in place by charging through the water at a trot. No stops, thank goodness. Up and over the half coffin and into the woods we went!

Out of the water we goooo

Over the ditch and over the penis, er, I mean fox jump.

Right as you turn the first corner in the woods, a jump appears. No biggie. And then for a gallop to the big table. Bacon listened well through the woods, and that was probably one of the funnest things I have ever done. I took my time though, and really really slowed her down going downhill. I was a little spooked after watching our friend fall. We jumped all the things, popped back out into the fields (where she slipped, damnit) and jumped the two stride, up the bank, and out towards the finish. Except my watch started beeping louder beeps at me and I realized that our time was up.

I'M WILD

WILD I TELL YOU (this was the two stride line)...

Gah. Damnit.

This hardly qualifies as a bank to a giraffe.

I galloped her on a little bit towards the last two jumps and came home with 11 time penalties. I'm still bitter about that one. But I am ok with it for the most part because I was just trying to keep the pony safe. And I really had no idea what speed I needed to be going. Now I know!

Almost home. And about the time my watch started to sound pissed off.

I was so happy. The whole time, I was just smiling and having a great time and I didn't feel like death when I got off. My pony was great, and not even tired, which was impressive. She cooled off immediately and seemed very proud of herself. She should be. She was awesome. Later that evening, we went to check scores and I saw that four people had been eliminated in our division. And one person had two stops, so I was officially bumped up into 5th place! But could we hold it together for show jumping?

Not even tired. Not even a little.

Enjoy all of my sound effects...