NOT forgotten moments of 2008

I just realized going back through the blog tonight, I have failed to post about two great events DL and I did this year. First, was our adventures at Black Prong WAY back in March and the other was Bromont at the end of June. Here is what I wrote:
About 9am Friday morning March 14th, I headed from my little rental house to the Black Prong Annex. The few rain drops on the windshield didn’t bother me SINCE the weather forecast was a 30% chance of showers in the afternoon. DL gave out her big whinny when I got out of the car with I am sure dreams of carrots foremost in her brain. NO, carrots because I hadn’t been to the store yet… I checked with Larry via cell phone since he was over giving lessons and I asked to have a lesson when it stopped raining. LOL! This was not to be since the rain only got worse during the day except for Larry’s dressage time. Instead I took off to Ocala to get ‘food’ and carrots.
Frankly, the day flew by and I got a lot done other than driving including a few course walks in the rain. Larry had an AWESOME advanced pairs dressage test (combined scores of 40.3) and a good cones run with only a few time faults. Gretchen arrived on schedule with the driver from Tampa. After eating dinner, we went back to the little house.
My driving time was 10:21 am so I had time for a last minute cones walk with Gretchen. Hitching went faultlessly and the drive over and warm up went well. When the bell rang, DL and I entered the ring with confidence. Everything was going well in the test UNTIL Claudia had a brain melt down when I passed F on the working walk and I thought I should start the free walk across the arena. A bell rang. I halted with fear… Out pops the judge on C to show me the test. DUH! I was suppose to working walk to B (I knew that) before making the diagonal. No matter what, stupid and slightly flapped Claudia went back to A and drove past my error and finished my test.
I was SO embarrassed and slightly crushed that I made the mistake. I GUESS there is a reason WHY I am doing training level. Larry jumped on the back of the carriage as we whizzed over to the cones course doing his best to restore my confidence. The cones course was all over the place with gates that you couldn’t see from each other and great distances between gates. I saluted and went off to drive DL the best I could flying around the course and going through the finish line. The buzzer DIDN’T sound! This has never happened before.
NOW I have the look of a deer in the headlights. The judge stood up and politely gestured to the left. OH my goodness, I was suppose to drive the tie breaker cones THAT I hadn’t walked. Off I flew again driving this way and that trying to find the next six cones. IT was not pretty.
WHAT a laugh we all had when I finally exited. Claudia had achieved idiocy TWICE in one day. I did learn two huge things. Always say the marker transitions in your brain just before entering the dressage ring. ALWAYS walk all the cones including the tie breakers just in case you have a double clean.
At 12:30, Christine Poulin (my navigator and Larry’s wife), Gretchen and I drove over to walk the marathon course. WE met up with Larry and the rest of the group of Team Poulin people (Terri, Preliminary Horse Pair and George, Preliminary Pony Pair). Gretchen was doing ‘navigator learner 101’ with both Larry and Christine helping her out. I was studying hard WHERE I might have another brain meltdown on course since I was a little worried. We borrowed a golf cart and drove the whole course. Gretchen loved driving the golf cart and wants us to purchase one. This might just be the “price” of having my daughter navigating for me .
On the way back to the car, I stopped at the office because I was told the scores (dressage and cones) and the times for the marathon were posted. I really didn’t want to see the scores…. BUT I needed my marathon times. I wrote the times down and then grudgingly walked over to results listing. MUCH to my surprise, I was in first place with 53.88 and nearly 20 points ahead of second place (six in the division). IF I hadn’t had a brain meltdown, once again DL and I would have been in the forties (5 big penalty points for off course). THAT snapped me out of my mild case of self pity.
Sunday dawned warm with our marathon time of 1:55pm. Larry left for his dressage clinic about noon. This meant that Christine, Gretchen and I were IT to get ready. I don’t know how to fully thank Christine for ALL her hard work with both Gretchen and I. For me, it was the first time to have a world class navigator to help me through it all. WHAT a difference this makes. Yes, I have always loved Christine and our relationship over the last five years as a ‘Larry client’. As a navigator, she was perfect.
We started the marathon a little strong. DL is a very competitive pony and could feel the electricity in the air of starting a marathon. Our first hazard was just before the 1km marker. We had a slight bauble after gate A in the first hazard and had to take the longer route less planned route but did it well under a minute. The rest of the course just flowed perfectly. Christine, DL and I flew around the course with all the other hazards and gates exactly where we planned in the time scheme. We did walk much of the last gates after the last hazard to put us exactly in the middle of our time window. It was getting hot and I wanted DL to relax before the vet check.
WE were all very excited. Gretchen loved the way that DL and I with Christine helping me every inch of the way flowed through the hazards including the gates that we were told were ‘driving hard’ because of mud or tightness. DL is a GREAT pony and Christine and I had a great walk back to Black Prong Annex sharing our joy of a job well done.
Sadly, Christine, Gretchen and I could not wait for the ribbons to be handed out since we all had flights out of Tampa in the early evening. We were able to find out before we left that DL and I had won our division and I was able to pick up my packet. On the way back, Gretchen was able to read to me the dressage comments and I was over the moon that the highly respected Hardy Zantke had given me my first ‘9’ being in collective remarks for impulsion. Gretchen also read off my times in hazards (even though they didn’t count) and I shaved substantial tens of seconds off our last go at Nature Coast with our last hazard at 33 seconds!
So what was the number three of Claudia’s idiocies? You know the two on Saturday. The final one was leaving my cell phone is a restaurant at the Tampa Airport and not realizing it until my plane was loading. I won’t go into the details of my perhaps lost forever older global cell phone because the restaurant won’t ship it to me BUT it is cut off.

BROMONT
The Novak family got home safely last night. We nearly didn’t after a nearly too close encounter in the pouring rain WHEN all three lanes (including breakdown lane) of traffic came to a complete screeching halt on the hilly Rt. 89 in New Hampshire. We stopped a few feet from the immobile bumper of the car in front of us. I don’t know WHO was more scared! Was it ME in the driver’s seat, Gretchen riding ‘shotgun’ or Les, the ‘back seat’ driver? Bella, the Corgi, in her dog seat, and Dawna Lisa in the trailer where just fine about it all.
Les, Dawna Lisa and I arrived about 3pm Thursday afternoon. WE missed the vet check. OK, let’s say it right. I DIDN’T know that training level had to do vet check and thought just FEI had to do it. This was my ‘first’ mistake of the weekend. My second happen shortly afterwards when I was ‘busy’ getting settled in and missed the course briefing, the training level briefing and nearly the course drive. By then, I was pretty wound up and felt more than a little ‘stupid’. I KNOW my husband thought I didn’t know a single thing about doing CDE’s…..
Friday morning, we did our vet check, rushed back to harness and down for standing presentation. I must admit that I haven’t done standing presentation in over twenty years. IT was not my favorite thing back then and with a synthetic harness and marathon vehicle, it is not now. Thankfully, I had ALL my spares in my little bag on the back of carriage. DL did stand but it was like holding a rocket ready for take off!
After a nice warm up, Larry adjusted my reins from smooth check to the ring. We went into the ring with plenty of impulsion and I thought we had a very good go. Larry was delighted when we came out and said for Dawna Lisa, we had at least ‘15’ for halts and rein back. HE assured me that we were once again in the forties on our test. With FIVE dressage judges watching us from ALL angles, I was not so confident. Both Larry and his wife Christine, hopped on the back of the carriage and we drove back to the barn.
Later in the day, the scores were posted. I was over the moon happy with a score of 47 and not surprised with 2.6 penalty points for presentation putting us (49.6) in first place almost 6 points ahead of second place for training single pony. In all of the divisions, there were just 5 or six people that broke into the forties with Larry having the best score at 45.62. ALL of hours of practicing dressage under the careful eye of Larry really paid off.
The drama of Friday didn’t end until late Friday early Saturday morning. At 10:10 pm, I got a phone call from Gretchen. Her flight out of DC to Burlington, VT had been delayed. Finally at 2am, one tired daughter arrived to catch a few hours of sleep before our early course ‘walk’ in the truck.
Our start time for the marathon was 10:28 am. Dawna Lisa has developed a special talent. SHE has learned to count. Yup, as the numbers get smaller, her ‘dancing feet’ get more dancing! We had a more than pleasant Section A coming in about a minute under maximum time. Thankfully, there is no minimum for the walk section because DL loves to do her big swinging Cob walk. Her vet check was perfect. The start of Section E saw the ‘dancing feet’ again SO I knew I had plenty of pony for next 6km and five hazards. Driving the course was fabulous with first four hazard flowing perfectly.
WELL, perhaps too perfectly. Even though Gretchen had cautioned me that we were well under time, holding DL back is a very hard thing. She get ‘fussy’ at the collected trot on course. We cantered up the hill for the entrance of the last hazard and pretty much walked over the bridge and down the steep hill and did a VERY slow trot out of the hazard. We VERY slowly walked the last section that wound through the former dressage ring. I took a very deep breath when Gretchen told me we had finally gone over the minimum of 28:30 minutes. Once again, DL had a glowing vet check with the vet telling me I must have a very fit pony. I had been worried about all the hills of Bromont before the event.
After several cone course walks, I felt good about the cones course. BUT I should have known ONE big thing about little old me. I am a visual learner. The course had two serpentines that training level can’t do and they remove one cone. I walked the course with TWO cones up. When I came into cone seven, my mind came unraveled and I drove backwards through the cone next to it! I was not happy to hear the bell and knew I was eliminated but… OH, yes, this was mistake THREE.
In the ‘big’ picture of life, I had a great CDE and am extremely proud of my pony. I also ‘achieved’ my first big E and hopefully have this milestone over with. This was not exactly the way I wanted to experience my last training level event BUT I feel confident in moving up to Preliminary where I will never have that one cone issue . I am sure that Preliminary will bring on a host of new challenges for ME not my trustworthy Dawna Lisa. Yours, Claudia