Rocky Mountain Horse Trials!

The Peas and their ponies have had a very busy August!
Rocky Mountain HT took off the first weekend in August and it started with a literal bang!  Sara and I spent quality time with the horses on the side of the highway as we yanked and growled at a challenging bolt on a blown out trailer tire.  We were rescued by John and his fabulous Caldwell family and thanks to them, we got back on the road and made it to Longmont in only 9 hours.
Dressage started early Saturday morning, and both Sara and Hannah came into the ring with some really good warmup from both that morning and the day before.  Sara’s test on Grace Kelly was a little spooky as GK struggled to pay attention, but Sara rode diligently and ended with a respectable score.  Hannah and Nito continued on their ‘improved dressage’ streak and had a very steady, very solid test.  They’ve both been working very hard and we could all see the difference!
For show jumping, Sara and Hannah both warmed up with determination and we had some big air and some nice fences.  Unfortunately for Sara, the groove she had in warm up wasn’t quite the groove she had in the ring, and she and Grace Kelly didn’t finish the course.  It turns out that Grace Kelly may have been a little sore, affecting her desire to jump, neither she nor Sara could get on the same program.  Grace Kelly now has a couple of weeks off per Dr. Monroe and she’ll be feeling right as rain in no time at all!  Hannah, on the other hand, went around stadium with more umph than I’ve ever seen from her, and although Nito put in a couple of silly stops, Hannah answered by getting Nito all the way around and through the finish flags.  Well done!
For cross-country, we had to load up the horses and take them to the course about a mile from Somerset Farm.  Hannah and Nito were prepared to dominate their first out-of-state Novice cross-country course, and they definitely did.  Although the two of them had one stop at a downhill bench in the middle of the course, they sailed over the double up banks, over the half-coffin, and all the way over the last fence.  I know that Hannah would agree: this was some really great riding on her part and I’m very proud of them!
Overall, some good parts, some great parts, and some hard parts.   But either way, we’ll definitely be coming back to Rocky Mountain…thanks for a great show!