Bonheiden Day 1 of Showing

Today was the first day of showing at the Bonheiden show...
For the Juniors, Meg O'Mara won the 1.35 jump off class with a double clear round, I was 7th with just a rail in the jump off but a fast time.  For the young riders, Reed Kessler won with a very fast clear in their jump off class, Catherine Pasmore was second, and Jessica Springsteen was fifth.  So, it was a very good day for the U.S. riders.  Our national anthem was played twice, which were proud moments for all of us.

So far, showing in Europe seemed so different.  All the rules are still the same; one rail is four faults, two refusals and your eliminated, etc,.  But there are little things that make the experience a lot different.  The schooling area was way more hectic than anything I'm used to.  Everyone is jumping the same two jumps, and there are so many horses in the ring schooling at once.  It seemed near impossible to maneuver your way around to jump.  Also, because of this, you get far less warm up in.  I think I jumped maybe six schooling jumps before going in, most of which I didn't pick up the canter until I was straight with the jump.  But my horse, Lady, handled it extremely well so that made life easier.  Another difference over here is the preloading.  How it works is that when you are two out, you are pretty much entering the ring, just as that rider two ahead of you is finishing their course.  Then, while the person in front of you is showing over their course, you are in the ring hacking around, staying out of the way.  This to me was crazy, and I was more nervous that I was going to get in the way than I was to actually show! But, again, we had to figure it out and we all did fine, some of us having shown over here before knew to expect this.

A successful day by far.  All the horses were behaved and jumped well, our team is strong, and we are all eager for the upcoming events this weekend!