CAMELOT: A Journey- Victory

Long, twisty course

We all awoke bright and early wondering how M was doing that morning. Our mission was to kick ass in show jumping and then hurry to the hospital to visit her. It thought about raining a little bit, but it didn't. We braided, I tried to settle my non-tired crazy ass pony down, and then we tacked up and headed to the warm up. Bacon was being quite polite in there, which was great considering there was a crap ton of trainers (and their dogs) doing whatever they wanted and confusing the hell out of me. They were constantly standing in front of jumps, or changing them, or just standing out in the open in warm up. I understand some assistance, but please remove yourself from certain areas because I may run your ass over. Sorry for the rant.

Love this one. Photo by Darwin Sloop.

We jumped the few jumps we could and she was listening and responsive and awesome. And then waited and waited. We tried to watch E's round from the side, but could only catch two jumps. I jumped her twice more to wake her up again and she wasn't quite as game but still good, and then headed in a few minutes later.

Photo by Darwin Sloop.

One day I will learn to sit less in the back seat, 

Basically, I rode like poo. I expected her to take me to the first jump a little more like she usually does, and I flubbed the distance on it and it was gross. It was a flat round and I struggled to keep her back on her hind end, and having some Equifuse on my gloves did not help as my reins were constantly sliding through my hands and getting long. She had some nice jumps in there when I actually rode her to the jump, but mostly she saved my ass out there. If I had a helmet cam on, you would hear me constantly apologizing to her. We rubbed at least two rails, and the shark rail we hit hard, and by some magic I think cast by M, it didn't budge. We came in with a double clear round to finish on our score (for the first time ever at a recognized event!)

Sharks at Camelot!

Second to last jump! Photo by Darwin Sloop.

I knew that we had bumped up a place at least, but I wasn't sure where we sat. When I was called up for third place, I was astonished. I was so proud of my horse and what she had done out there for me all weekend. She proved to me that she was ready to be a Training level horse and was done with that Novice nonsense. Even though she was a psycho all weekend in her stall, she made up for it with her patience and tenacity in the arena and xc course. We even got a 6th place ribbon for optimum time and a 1st place on the training team (there was only one, but I don't care, that was my first team and I ended up being that best scorer on there BAM). I thought for sure we would be last, so I was happy to report back to M that I was successful. The junior novice rider won her division too.

Good job Bacy! With skull stock tie. 

We put the ponies away, stuffed them with cookies, and headed to the hospital. We got to check out M's external girdle hardware and see her not so fun swelling, but she was still smiling and telling us what for. Her husband had gotten in nice and early that morning too and was taking great care of her. Knowing that she was in good hands and that she would be scheduled for the next surgery in the days to come, we said our goodbyes and told her we would be awaiting her arrival home soon. Back to Camelot we went to get ready for some xc schooling.

We defeated the dragon. Look at the defeat in his eyes