January 15, 2009:
Since my last update I’ve competed three times.
The first was on September 6 at the familiar site of King Oak Farm in Southampton, MA, though my experience this time was novel in an educational if disappointing respect. I began the competition with a very respectable dressage score which placed me seventh, then had a double clear (no fence faults, no time faults) stadium run which advanced me two more places. I went into cross country confident and excited, and though I had a hesitant exit from the start box I had an otherwise smooth run. I checked my watch several times and at the end guessed I’d have maybe five time faults, mostly attributable to the start. I anticipated a top ribbon. I got Macky untacked and hosed down and so on, and then had to go back to the hotel to get the trailer (why it was at the hotel is another story), then returned to the grounds and packed up the trailer before I went down to check the final scores, only to find that I had been given a staggering 33.2 time faults in my cross country run. My trainer Tom Davis and I immediately contacted the officials, and though they acknowledged that an obvious mistake had been made, unfortunately the specified half hour after the posting of the scores within which a competitor can lodge a protest had expired by about fifteen minutes, so by USEA rules the scores could not be corrected. I checked the results later online, and the mistake cost me second place.
Since then I’ve learned that this is not uncommon, and in fact Lynn Coates Holmes, who coached me at the New Jersey HT in November, told me she’d had it happen half a dozen times to her. Though I was aware of the rule, I’d never really thought about the cost of its actual application. In the future, needless to say, I’ll make a point of checking the final scores as soon as they’re posted, especially if I’m in the running for a ribbon!
Next was a long drive out to Buffalo at the end of September for a couple of warm-up days with Darren before crossing the border into Canada for my first international competition on foreign soil, a CCI* at the Wits End Horse Trials in Mansfield, Ontario. Though the overall competitor field was relatively small, it was prestigious; with a CIC*** competition being run as well, there were a number of prominent names. Darren himself was planning to compete five horses. Once I’d settled Mack in and had familiarized myself with the grounds, I took my initial walk of the cross country course, and it was immediately apparent to me that my goal for the weekend was to successfully complete that course. It was daunting, so much so that Darren elected to withdraw one of his younger, less experienced horses from the CIC* division, not something Darren is in the habit of doing. The short story is that I had a terrible dressage test, a host of both jump and time penalties on the cross country – but I rode it successfully, and it was fun! – and a less than stellar stadium run. All in all, though my placing was abysmal, it was an exhilarating weekend; I suspect that, as with Groton House, the familiarity of a return there would result in a more competitive performance.
In November I went to Stone Tavern in central New Jersey to the Jersey Fresh grounds for the ESCDTA New Jersey HT, a one day competition. Lynne Coates Holmes was also competing, so we trailered down together and she coached me. It was a beautiful facility, and beautiful grounds. I did well, finishing 4th with a respectable dressage test, a good cross country run on a fun course and a stadium performance on what proved to be a surprisingly tough course that placed sixth in an overall prelim field of twenty nine. (Lynne had a great day, holding first place from dressage on, not only in her division but in the overall preliminary field.)
Financial constraints have driven a decision to cut back on my competition schedule this winter. I am not going to Florida this year, instead staying at “home” at Flatlands and balancing my training with completion of my higher education with the pursuit of a degree as a medical assistant. I, along with many, am also struggling to find work. I hope I can resume a scaled back Area I competition schedule in the spring, but that remains to be seen. Needless to say, donations are in short supply, so I expect I’ll be competing as I can afford to for a while, suddenly subject, as are we all, to the vagaries of the national economy. Here’s hoping for recovery!
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