September is here, and so is ICP! Apparently when David said I should be a demo rider he meant that I should be his demo rider... No pressure.
Wes and I headed up to UMASS the week before for a final dressage lesson with Jerry before riding with David on Friday. We put in some of our best trot work to date and everything from the previous weeks seemed to be falling in place and finally making sense.
Feeling super confident we pulled into UMASS Friday morning
David was still briefing everyone on the weekend ahead so I headed into the ring to warm-up some before the crowd came in. 10:00AM on the dot everyone was seated and David was ready to begin. Making a point to not violate specific pet peeves of David's we performed our official warm-up. He spoke with poise with a smirk that lead me to believe things were going well.
David then moved into the center of the ring and asked me to do some simple lateral movement as an extension of my warm-up.... and all hell broke loose.
Wesman simply said NO THANK YOU! Which in Wesman's world is usually along the lines of bucking, backing, and kicking. Awesome.
So the perfect opportunity to prove to David that Wesman is actually a very pleasant horse who has come a very long way since he last saw him in June failed epically.
Saturday Wes and I were suppose to ride with David again for Show Jumping and a little Cross Country but we decided based on Friday's antics to take the day off and just watch. We went for a hack around the property at home and that was more than enough for the day.
Oh right, did I mention we had an Event sandwiched into this weekend too? King Oak? Sunday?
Thursday, I was super excited about the event. With the school with Stephie up in New Hampshire and the Dressage lesson with Jerry everything was going to be perfect Sunday! Until of course Friday...
I didn't ride until the afternoon so I much of the preparation was to take place in the morning leaving Saturday for relaxing.
So Sunday we loaded up and headed over to King Oak- as a final attempt to salvage the weekend...and yet another perfect opportunity to prove to David that Wesman does have it in him.
I was thankful that we were to ride in the far Dressage ring that is almost completely surrounded by woods and there are always fewer people schooling around it. In theory the lack of activity around the ring would enable little Wesman to focus and pull out a better test. False. This ring proved to be the most distracting ring ever and well, the test was very forward... But our test at Apple Knoll wasn't too great and we ended up finishing 6th!
Show Jumping was next and for whatever reason it was up in the sand ring. We met up with Stephie shortly after Dressage and she was waiting to help me warm-up when I got to the ring. He warmed up perfect! We went over to the ring and cantered on in...
Well we made it over the first 4 jumps before we got eliminated... Ugh.
Since we only did four jumps I didn't feel too bad for Wesman when we went back up to UMASS Monday afternoon for a jump lesson with David before he went back to his Presidential duties.
Well, it was better than Friday...and I suppose better than Sunday.
So Sunday ended with David displeased with Wesman overall. David seems to think Wes won't be able to pull it together and perhaps its time to move on to another horse...
However, David did help me out before he left. Apparently he and Jerry were discussing the fact that I would not be off to college until February and the two of them decided I should concentrate on riding and find a working student position somewhere. So they called up Will Coleman... I'm sitting here now looking at the piece of paper with Will Coleman's phone number scribbled on it trying to get up the courage to make the call he's apparently anticipating.
Wes and I are suppose to be off to Bruce Davidson's this week with Stephie but based on this weekend I don't think thats such a good idea...
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