Puzzling.

Had my first jumping lesson on Arwen last night post disasterous Saturday. M had treated her Wednesday night, she got a long turnout prior to my lesson so I was really REALLY keeping my fingers crossed that my girl was feeling good again.

And thank GOD she was.

Seriously so odd that she was so out of whack on Saturday she turned into a pulling mess. I am still not 100% sure what the heck happened in such a short period of time. Regardless, I'm glad that she is clearly feeling better (although she's still feeling a little dull in warm up). We did a couple trot fences and where she was rushing them last week, she trotted up to this one just fine and cantered away nice and quietly. We also did a couple lines to see how she was and sure enough, back to her old self. Was listening pretty well, and even took a launcher of a long spot like a good girl.

After my lesson I went over to watch the welcome grand prix of the big horse show that is going on. That was super fun! Its always a good time hanging out with horsey friends, drinking wine, and watching the pros (and some ammy's) jump the big jumps. At first glance the course didn't seem too difficult, but it actually turned out to be pretty tough. Only a few people went clear (and it was a speed round only), a lot of people had one rail, and then there were a few who were knocking them down right and left. The toughest spots seemed to be the combos. There was a one stride set of a pretty tight rollback that people kept knocking, and then a one stride to a two that a lot of people knocked too. It was interesting to see though that even the people at this level make mistakes. We saw some scary distances, horses doing rider override (which I know too well), refusals (not many, but some) and one rider even tried to gun her horse down the first line that was set as what we thought seemed a pretty normal 7, in a 6! It was scary. She did ask pretty soon after landing but her horse was small and I think just couldn't do it. So she had a horrible out, horse crashed through the fence and tripped (I think) and she of course came off. Rider and horse were fine, but that was definitely the excitement of the night! Oh, and seeing Rich Fellers ride. He actually didn't end up doing well (placed out of the top six due to having one rail) but last night was not the GP that counts. He has won the big one coming up for the last two years in a row, so we'll see if he can hold onto it!