Cross Country Blog Friend Adventure Time

Cross Country Blog Friend Adventure Time

On Saturday, I got to cross two things off my “30 Before Thirty” list – go cross country schooling and meeting more bloggers!  To be honest, I was a bit out of sorts and did more soaking in that RAWR cross country action.  The dog drama last week has been emotionally draining and I showed up at Jen’s house running on about four hours of sleep… fun times!  Even being in a bit of a meh state, I had a blast meeting Andrea from Project Runway and riding the fearless war pony on my first cross country outing in 16+ years.

O is a beauty queen mare, for real.
O is a beauty queen mare, for real.

As to be expected, cross country is pretty much the most fun ever.  I debated on bringing Simon, but he’s been pretty spooky outside of the ring at my barn so I want to spend some more time “trail riding” around the property before I take him somewhere.  Of course once we arrived and I saw the park, I immediately regretted my decision.  He would have loved it!  Oh well, next time.

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Lucky for me Jen is totally awesome and let me borrow the fearless war pony to ride for the day!  I’ve always been the kind of rider who is used to one horse, so hopping on Red who is 100% the anti-Simon was a bit of an adjustment.  I spent some time being like “oh shit I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m going to fall off the horse that no one falls off of” but we did get a little bit of a groove together after a while.

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I’m not about to switch disciplines, but I did just looooooove taking a gallop in a nice big open area and cantering through the water.  I need more of that in my life, and so does Simon.

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We did have one blooper that I will share, although you have to promise to not think poorly of dear ‘ol Red because he really is an upstanding guy.  When I had previously talked to Jen about wanting to go XC schooling, I mentioned all I wanted to do was canter through the water.  She mentioned that Red liked to roll in the water, and I was like ‘eh… maybe not the best idea’ but he was being so good on Saturday that we went for it anyway with success!

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Success until I was videoing Jen and Andrea work in the water… and Red felt all wet and itchy… and, well you know what happens next.  It was just too good to resist right?!  He went down rather quickly in some grass on the other side of the water complex, and I was a bit in shock and just stood there watching him like, “Did that really happen?!”

It did, whoops!  After that, I hopped on my best friend Paddington for a bit.  I heart Paddington, need I say more?

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For further proof this hunter princess got a little wild and out, I have some video clips from the day.

Mostly I had a great time watching these cool eventers do their thing. Also I became smitten with Andrea’s O-Ren. This mare is nice. Seriously. Andrea has done a great job with her, and it was cool to watch them do their thing together.

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I can’t wait to go back cross country schooling and am going to bug my trainer to take a group of us hunters out there to play 🙂  It was a fun experience with some super cool people!

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25 thoughts on “Cross Country Blog Friend Adventure Time

  1. I will never be an eventer (although I can def get down with some foxhunting!) but there is something quintessentially “pony girl” about a good cross country school that I just can’t resist!

  2. Looks like you guys had a blast! Nothing more fun than a little cross training…especially if there’s a Paddington involved!

  3. So jealous that you got to meet fellow bloggers, AND ride a Paddington! Red looked like a blast too, and I’m smitted with O as well. I stalk all three of your blogs regularly 🙂

  4. you say you’re not switching disciplines…. yet! 😉 That’s what got me out of the hunter/jumper world… my trainer took me xc schooling and I was like, this is so much fun. So I was like, why not do one event. Ahem. Hooked.

    Anyway, love love this whole post, and I would like to say you actually look FABULOUS in the pics and the video- you’d make a great eventer! (Seriously Simon is begging to do dressage- and in that scenario he’d have the arena ALL to himself, no pesky other horses zipping past!)

    1. I never say never, but while it was fun I’m definitely more addicted to doing a *really* nice line or tackling a challenging eq course. Although that could be more of an indicator of where I am with Simon right now than anything else!

  5. Looks like so much fun! Glad yu got to get out and 60 degrees.. almost like summer! XC schooling is on my list too but its not a 30 before 30 cuz well.. over 30 😉

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