Wednesday, October 1: We’re zipping merrily down the road to the Region 1 Finals in Williamston, N.C., three horse trailers, seven horses, and four nice 20-somethings. Well, Kristin is 13 and I’m now 30, but I added our ages together and then divided by two. It all works out.
Kristin and I are 9 miles from the Senator Bob Martin Agricultural Center when a tire on the trailer goes KABOOM. It dents the bajeezus out of the fender, but all horses are cheerful and healthy, and thanks to a nice fellow from Dominion Power, who stops to help, we pop the spare on and are back on the road in no time.
We unload and discover we’ve forgotten my mom’s tack trunk, which contains Indy’s bridle, her helmet and her boots. By some miracle, my genius mother has brought a pair of back-up boots, which she pops into, borrows my helmet and Dorian’s bridle, and off they go. And one of our two students arriving tomorrow will bring the trunk. Thanks, Kathleen!
Everyone schools like a rockstar, we have pizza for dinner in the barn aisle (Heaven!), and we’re in bed at a reasonable hour. We’ve totally got this under control.
Thursday, October 2: We totally do not have this under control.
Kathleen, who so graciously stopped to pick up the missing trunk, gets stuck in wretched traffic. We have to dress my mom in her borrowed wares for her first class, which is no big deal, except that her back-up boots are pull-ons. And as she pulls on, her back goes out. Fabulous.
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About an hour after Kathleen grabs the misplaced trunk, we realize we’ve also forgotten Allison’s shadbelly, which Kristin had planned to borrow (for young people, just like young horses, we try not to buy them their own expensive equipment until they stay the same shape for 6 months.) Kristin’s parents have only just left for the show, so they do a quick U-Turn to go grab the coat.
I also want to get our tire situation sorted out, and I don’t have time to disappear into town for a few hours to get a new tire, so I call U.S. Rider. They are great, and while, of course, I’ll be paying for the new tire, they cover up to $200 of the cost of getting a new tire delivered to the showgrounds. Neat, right? Right… or at least, right up until Chris the Tire Guy shows up with my tire and says, “Here you go!” How, pray tell, am I supposed to get this tire put on my rim? Whoops.
Fortunately, Chris the Tire Guy is a rockstar, and graciously takes new tire, old explodey tire and rim to wherever it is that they need to go to be assembled and disposed of respectively, and returns in record time with new tire on the rim. We are good to go.
In the meantime, I have three of my four championship rides, Ferris has one of her two, and Allison’s showing in the open division, in addition to rides by our handful of students at the show. Miraculously, everyone ends up in the right ring on the right horse in the (mostly) right equipment. Fiero has a brain fart in both flying changes and forgets how to be ridden into a corner, and still ends up fifth in his third level championship on 71.545%. Ysis, a wonderful little Freisian mare I sometimes ride for her owner, has the best test of her life for almost 70% and places just out of the ribbons in a HUGE first level championship. Ferris and Dorian both have fantastic tests that the judges don’t like all that much, for reasons surpassing understanding, but we go out for dinner and eat nothing but appetizers of fried things and have a jolly good time.
Friday, October 3: We went out for fried things in place of staying around for the evening party. And it was during that evening party that several competitors had their wallets stolen from their unlocked vehicles and tack stalls.
One of these competitors is my mother, who’s back is still out, but she rides anyway, like the badass that she is. And if you’re thinking hey, didn’t YOU get your wallet stolen at a horse show at this venue earlier this year?, you are correct. Thanks, Williamston.
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Fortunately, the rest of the show goes pretty smoothly. Ysis rocks an open first level class to win on 74%; Allison and Kristen Cyron’s wonderful OTTB Semper Fi earns a whopper 71% in an open training level class. Kristin Hickey and her Capital Call also demonstrate their tempi changes in the AA third level final, but make up points elsewhere to place fifth, and earn their ticket to the National Finals in Kentucky. And Kristin Counterman rides my Bellinger down the centerline of his last FEI class ever to win the Prix St. Georges Jr/YR Finals, and we all cry quite a lot, when we’re not laughing and fretting (only a little) as Billy absolutely drags her around their awards ceremony.
Saturday, October 4: Little Kristin is just a few weeks shy of her 14th birthday, but USEF ages riders like Thoroughbreds, so she gets to play with the big kids in the Equitation Semi-Finals. Undaunted, she pilots her fabulous pony Esperanza to the reserve champion title, and has her ticket punched for the Finals in Illinois next year.
My mom, who has been an absolute TROOPER with all the madness of her week, endures right up until the end, but in the warmup for her Championship class it becomes evident that her back has had enough, and she has to withdraw. And I’m officially the Worst Daughter Ever. Mom, I love you, you’re awesome, and you’ll get ’em next year.
But that clears the way for Amanda Wille and her perfect spotty horse, Mason, who are just pipped to place third in the AA second level final, and earn their qualifying score for Kentucky. And Fiero, on whom my fitness plan has clearly worked, because he has plenty of go to drag me around in his awards ceremony, misses champion of the second level open final by just tenths of a point, but we can’t be disappointed with 75.8% and a very nice ribbon. Ferris places fourth on a gorgeous test in the extremely-competitive I1 open finals. Little Kristin ends the day by taking reserve champion fourth level Jr/YR honors, and we feast on local BBQ and get all our packing done for the day.
Sunday, October 5: Kathleen is not a morning person, which means that she draws the number two spot in her giant AA first level class, 8:08 a.m. But powered by caffeine and a burning desire to win things, she rides a fabulous test on her Wonderland II, which ends up placing her third and gets her an invite to Kentucky. Best of all, we’re pulling out of the driveway by 9 a.m., and manage not to blow up any parts of any of our vehicles on the way home.
All told, we took one champion, three reserves, qualified five riders for Kentucky, and took home a ribbon in all but one of the championship classes we entered. Not too shabby!
