Brigitte and Harper Move Up to Prelim!

One of the things I insist on in the barn is that the working students keep us up to date on their progress.  Brigitte is first up to bat and has had a very productive season thus far!!

_____________________________

Ocala 2015

When we left for Florida, we were still at Training level trying to perfect the scary "water jumps."  Well we conquered them and started finishing on our dressage score in the top 10 at most of ours shows. So proud of the little man who has put on his big boy pants.  It was our first time competing in Florida and I think we both had a blast, and we learned so much and got a tan while doing it!! 

Entering the start box Plantation Field Spring HT

As the crew and I came back from Florida, Missy thought we were ready to make the move to Prelim.  Before we could really plan to move up, I took some medical steps to help him. We injected his back and stifles and HOLY COW, did I have a whole new horse after that. Crazy jumps schools and gallops. I had to hold on all over again as the inner 4 year old came back out, bucking non-stop and jumping so high I could touch the clouds! So we did our last 2 Training shows at Fair Hill and Plantation, then our move up was at New Jersey Spring HT. 

At home, we had schooled as many appropriate questions as we could create in prep for this show.  Our dressage was spectacular for our first prelim, we received a 31.1 and were tied going into SJ  for 5th place with Buck on Park Trader.  We came out of SJ in 7th after I made him have a rail, but he jumped around like a true prelim horse. 

The dreaded Chevron!

Going out to XC, all I could think about was jump 16, a chevron on its own out of the woods and it was big. We hadn't schooled one on its own like that before, so I hoped for the best. We left the start box and boy was he game for everything. Jumping out of stride, clearing everything with ease, I was so happy with him. We were out there having fun! Unfortunately, we had 2 stops at jump 16 and I chose to retire rather than try a third time and be eliminated. On the walk home, he was still ready to go and very proud of himself. I couldn't have been happier with my little man. 

At the end of the day, he got lots of rubs and treats and we had a plan to school chevrons for the remainder of July until my next show, which will be Jersey HP again. Thinking ahead, Jeff Kibbie has built and exact replica of the chevron for BHF to own and that has been a huge help to our schooling! 

Our fall plans are big and I'm hoping to see a 1 star in our near future. We're headed to Richland our first time later this summer and then we're aiming for our first Three-Day in October.  Little does he know that he does have to continue to grow up, but I think he loves his job. Watch out world, Harper is a Prelim horse in the making!!