Touch A Rainbow HT

On September 24 we set out to Touch A Rainbow Horse Trials in Brockville at Terelisa Farm. Terelisa holds two horse trials a year, and the last few years they've had an unsanctioned event, this being it. I had hoped to bring Zippy for his first event, as their pre-entry course is pretty inviting, but it was not to be, as he has been plagued with abscesses this summer. I was committed to go with a student riding my step-daughter's pony, Cross, so I figured I might as well right as well, and entered Lily in the entry level.

September had been pretty normal weather wise, and the weekend before the event had been downright cold. I had actually had to break out my winter jacket. The forecast for the event day was 32 C, feeling like 40 with the humidity. We packed lots of water and bags of ice to be sure we would be able to keep the horses cool, and I body clipped Cross, as she was very hairy.

We picked up my friend Tori and her mare Penny on the way as well, and met another friend, Dana, 

with her horse Archie, at the event. 

Lily came off the trailer chill and ready to go, like she always does. It's so nice to have such an easy going horse, I can really concentrate on riding her properly instead of just trying to survive. 

Lily doesn't get turned out with Cross, but she tends to bond to whoever is on the trailer with her. We went over to dressage to warm up, and she was warming up beautifully, then as soon as we went down the center line, she tensed right up and started calling for Cross. We had a few bad moments of the test, but overall it was really nice and I was very happy with Lily. Because she's such a big horse, she's always had issues keeping herself balanced and using her hind end, but this year things seem to really be coming together. Our downwards transitions are getting more balanced, and I don't feel like we land in such a heap all the time. 

When it was time for show jumping, we walked over to warm up. Lily always surprises me, because she walks over to warm up like she has zero energy and I always worry she's going to be dead. Then I pick up my reins and she's all business. She warmed up nicely, jumped a few jumps well, so we had another walk break. The gate person called me on deck, so I picked up my reins for another canter to wake Lily up; put my leg on for the canter transition, and she jumped into canter and bucked probably 6 times in a row. She used to do this last year when she was excited, so I figured our round would be interesting. We went into the show jump ring, halted for our salute, and as soon as I put my leg on, she bounded right into the canter, ready to go. She was incredibly strong around the whole course, very confident in herself and what she was doing, which isn't always a good thing with her. We had 3 rails as she just was so excited she was running through my aids, but she also had some really nice moments. And like always, once finished, she walked calmly back to the trailer. I gave her an ice bath and put her in the shade, and she seemed to be quite happy with herself.

An hour or so later, we walked out to warm up for cross country. I did a super short warm up as it was so hot, and Lily doesn't usually need a ton of work after show jumping. She's been getting more and more confident XC; she's a different type of horse for me, I'm really not used to such a push ride. This is her second season eventing, and I've taken it very slow with her. She has no issues with the jumps themselves (generally speaking), but is very looky at everything else around her: jump judges, scenery, trees and bushes. She's beginning to really understand her job now, and is really fun to ride. There were two fences on course that I was a bit worried about: #3 was a weird looking log/tree trunk that was painted and had a bunch of rocks shoved under it with some gravel in front of it. Lily can sometimes look at changes of terrain, though she is getting better, I'm always ready to give her that extra encouragement. The other fence I was worried about was #4; it's a steeplechase style fence placed a few strides before you enter the forest, so the light changes quite suddenly, and it's also very large. Entry level is 2'9", but with the brush, this fence is 3'6". 

Lily jumped the first fence beautifully, the second was a little sketchy as she was looking at the decorative wings, the third was difficult for her as I had thought, though she still went first try. It was a straight line from 3 to 4, so I just rode very confidently, and she popped over that big brush jump like it wasn't even there. No issues. The rest of the course rode lovely, minus getting lost in the woods/maze twice. We even came in super under time, which is very unlike us, but I was super proud. We always have issues with time because Lily likes to look and I never rush her, so to come in so fast just really had me happy that she was indeed getting confident enough to begin to gallop around. I was so proud of her.

We finished the day in third. 

Michaela and Cross completed their first event, so I was super happy for them as well. Even though they were technically eliminated because bad pony jumped out of the dressage ring, the organizer was nice enough to let them finish. Cross is not an easy pony to ride and Michaela does a great job with her. 

Tori and Penny finished 1st in the training level division. Penny is a horse that Tori bought from me a few years ago, and she has done so much work with her, so it's really awesome to see things working out for them!

Michaela and Cross over the last fence