
San Antonio Charity – Sunday
To quickly recap Saturday, I had one amazing round with a great ribbon and two rounds where I made pretty major mistakes. This is how Simon feels about his mom throwing away ribbons:
For Sunday, I had two goals. A) Go straight (Saturday I let him drift left a lot which caused issues) and B) Don’t go slow! As soon as we walked into the ring for our first 2’3″ Power & Speed class, Simon wanted to trot whether I was ready or not!

I pulled him back to start the course with both of us ready, and then once we picked up the canter I gave him some leg and said something out loud like, “Let’s go do this buddy!”
Of course, he was happy to go forward. Simon is a pretty big fan of this jumper stuff, and he likes that his Mom is no longer trying to micro manage distances and ask him to go slower. Also, it turns out that if I ride forward (and sit up) that my horse naturally finds distances a lot of the time.

Shocked. I know everyone is shocked at this.
Anyway, the 2’3″ course went really well. We were clean for the power phase so were allowed to move onto speed. In the speed phase, there was the potential for a tight turn directly after the one stride combination. Of course I pushed forward to make the one stride, but then felt like I couldn’t make the turn. Instead of going super wide, I went in-between two standards. I almost took my left knee off (do you get faults for knocking down a random jump?), but we made the not ideal turn.

The rest of the round went fine, and I was really proud of myself when I pointed him at the final oxer going home and asked for more speed. No scared ammy here! We weren’t galloping by any means, but he came to the oxer quick and bright. It felt fantastic.

We ended up 3rd out of 17, which was awesome but gave me this nagging feeling that I would have won the class if we managed the inside turn.
Since my 2’6″ jumper class was the same course, I went in super determined to rectify my mistake.

Again, we were clean in the power phase. I was determined to get the one stride cleanly (the previous time I went through he hesitated and tried to put a foot down, so it wasn’t beautiful) and we did. However, since we were booking it to get the one stride I let him get a bit flat going to the vertical after it. We had that rail down, which was the first jump of the speed phase.

In speed classes, a rail just adds seconds to your time instead of giving you faults. So once I had the rail, I knew we had to “run like the wind” aka not slow down and do good turns. We headed to the rest of the course at a good clip, and made some really tight (in my opinion) turns.

When we got to the inside turn that I missed before, I made the decision to be a bit slower in the one stride (we added) in order to make the inside turn. Though adding isn’t ideal, I was able to turn really tightly after. We kept the rest of the jumps up, and actually ended up 2nd out of 20 even beating some people that went clear. That felt good, but once again showed me more little things to work on for next time. The blue ribbon eluded us this show, but with more learning and training it shouldn’t be too long!

We ended at the 2’6″, because Simon couldn’t have been better. I didn’t let myself get slow like I did on Saturday, and I stayed on course. There was no reason to add a 2’9″ class, because we accomplished exactly what we set out for. I felt like a rock star and was overcome (still am really) with waves of gratitude for my horse.

The satin story doesn’t end quite there though. I guess I wasn’t the only person who was inconsistent in the 2’3″ jumpers, because four of us ended up with a tie for champion. The show office decided to just award everyone ribbons, so I have a champion ribbon on the way! We posed with a friend’s ribbon for some photos 🙂
So that’s our 2015 jumper debut! It feels like it can’t get better than that, but I know there’s still lots to improve on. My trainer wants me to get back to the 2’6″ – 2’9″ height as soon as I feel comfortable, which I don’t think will be long. That’s honestly a more appropriate division for us and with this huge confidence booster under my belt, it seems very attainable.
49 thoughts on “San Antonio Charity – Sunday”
Great way to start the show year! You and Simon look good in the tricolor. 🙂
So happy you had a great debut! I feel like things can only go up from here for you two! 🙂
Seriously, this is stellar! Looking at all those ribbons! What an excellent opportunity for Simon to show you what he’s made of, and for you to prove to yourself that you can be competitive in what sound like some really big classes! Congrats!
What an awesome start to the year!!! Congrats on such success 🙂
That’s so great! You look AWESOME in your photos! Yay jumpers!!!
Yay for Lauren and Simon!
Lauren, can you do a post explaining the Jumper Ring a little bit? What is Power and Speed? What is crossing your line? Educate me!
I am not an expert, but I can ask people smarter than me and pull something together. 🙂 I still ask a lot of questions at these jumper shows since that ring is very new to me.
Yes, please do! I read the rule book on WTF each individual table or whatever is and still get confused.
What a great confidence-booster!
CHAMPIONS!!!!!
I love it. Rock on.
Congratulations! What a great show, just goes to prove you do still have ‘it’, you just needed a reminder 🙂
So happy for you, way to go girl!
I loved reading both of these show posts soooo much! I can’t wait to see what else you guys get up to this year!
I am so happy for you! I bet you feel amazing right now.
Do you think you’ll be staying at jumpers full time now? Didn’t you used to be pretty exclusively a hunter?
I always rode hunters, but when I say that I mean I rode schooling or local level hunters and was only marginally successful. Even though that’s my background, I’ve never been a star hunter rider by any means.
We will most likely be staying in the jumpers, but will go back to the hunters for things like hunter derbies or if I want to show but don’t feel comfortable with the jumper divisions offered.
Yessss! Way to go! All those adjustments on the fly really show that you were 100% ready for this. Yay team SMTT! 🙂
Way to go! It’s been so cool watching you progress. I think you two have really found your stride.
Thank you! I feel very fortunate that we seem to have found a division that Simon enjoys and where we work well as a team. 🙂
Woohoo, how much fun! You guys look great!
WTG!!! That is awesome! So glad it went well and looks like your confidence is coming back quickly! Simon is such an awesome horse! and pretty jumper too!
w00t! w00t!! What a great start to 2015. 😀
Yay way to go!!! So happy for you! As you get more comfortable it will smooth out even more 🙂 And yes if you had knocked the standard down it would have been 4 faults lol! Not all speed classes or speed portion of the power and speed have faults converted to time btw 🙂
See, this is why I need a jumper ring decoded post lol.
Ok maybe I will do one 🙂
Please do!
Simon likes the satin!! Congratulations at being Champions!
Once again: super excited for you! I love reading these show posts. I’m living vicariously. 🙂
You guys look damn good as champions. And after your first show of the year!
awesomeness!
So happy for you! Congrats!
ROCK ON!!
Super awesome! I’m so glad you had such a great, confidence-boosting show. Way to plan the ride and ride the plan!
Congrats!! Simon looks like he’s having a BLAST!
Great job!! Love the post-show ribbon photos!
Well done! It has been very inspiring to watch your progress. You keep on plugging and working through your issues – success is a reward you deserve! Also – Simon is a jewel. 😀
He really is 🙂 Thank you!
Congrats on the AWESOME rides!!! I would love to hear you talk about the jumper ring- I’ve always been an eq/hunter rider, but I’m really itching to take my girl into the jumper ring. Seems like you guys had an awesome plan and stuck to it!
Stellar!!
Woohoo, fun times! And, yes, if you knock down a jump by galloping past it and kicking the standard over it is still four faults. And possibly you could get time faults tacked on if it’s a jump on your course yet to be jumped, because they would have to stop to reset it for you. I’ve been in the jumper ring plenty, and all the different tables mix me up a bit, too.
Woo hooo congrats!
Congrats and well done!!
That was so much fun to read. You kicked butt, girl! Way to go. :0)
Yahoo yahoo yahoo!!
Congrats!!! And yay jumpers!!! I’m so happy you guys are loving the jumper ring now because it’s a blast to read about. Trust me, you’ll only grow to love it more and more when you start finessing your technical skills.
Simon is the best, he does remind me of Prince with his love for jumping!
wooo hooo tri-color!!!! congrats on a super show!!
WOO HOO what a fantastic show! So happy for you!
So are hunters a thing of the past now? Or are you going to do both?
YAY YAY YAY!! CHAMPION!!! Omg this is excellent. Good job. I am so happy for you. All the congratulations are belong to you!
Woohoo!!!!!!
I am belatedly catching up on blog posts but was super stoked following your IG updates over the weekend
♡♡♡♡
You guys were so great this weekend! I would also like to mention that the confusion with the tables was not helped by the fact that the prize list and the schedule/posted courses did not line up. There was definitely at least one speed class listed in the prize list which was turned into a timed first/jump off class instead. But either way y’all rocked it. And I’m glad the pictures came out well for the site. Some were a little grainy if you blow them up. Haha.