Winter Series Week I, Day 3

Sometimes in the world of showing we get ribbons that aren't well deserved.  Yesterday I had that happen in my Classic Round.

I was 5th in the order of go.  We were clean in the first round.  It was a smooth ride, a little deep to fence 4 but overall I was happy.

Then there was the jump off.    The plan was to be tight, straight, and fast and do the inside turns.  The turn from 14 to 8ab was tight (turning inside fence 9) and I kept thinking about it.  Can you see where this is going?  I jumped 1 to 2 and as I turned to 14 I tried to slice it so I could make that turn.  I ended up parallel to the jump so she stopped.  And then I SHOULD have gotten nice and straight to it the second attempt but didn't so she stopped.  Even being eliminated from the jump off, only 3 of us jumped clean so I was 3rd place.  Afterward my trainer and I worked on some jumps with Poppy in the schooling ring to make sure I didn't hurt her confidence.  She was good but I am so mad at myself.  I think it is so important to give green horses a good experience to build their confidence and I am mad at myself for jeopardizing that.  I will admit I didn't want to post this but it happened and it is an experience to learn from.  So here is how NOT to ride a jump off...

What I should have done was jumped this fence straight and if that tight turn wasn't there when I landed, then I could have gone around fence 9.  I learned from this and we will hopefully move on from it in Week II.