So, Stonleigh-Burnham Horse Trials 2009. Me and Frankie’s first event. I didn’t have time to ride on Friday. Had to work, get things loaded into the trailer and drive the 2 1/2 hours to the event. We got up there around 7:30pm. Frankie seemed to know he was at a “horse show”—he always has liked them. My focus was on going out and walking the cross country course.

The facility was beautiful.

Josh helped unpack the trailer, I checked in at the office. While he went out to park the trailer, I headed out to the cross country course.

Walking out to the course, I was a little concerned with the footing. It was wet, REALLY wet. But when I got to the start it seemed a bit better. The first three jumps were very straight forward and the footing was fine. Then on my way to the fourth fence I got concerned. Not only was it muddy but I was sinking into the mud. I called Josh to come out and meet me. We walked through the course and the take off and landing of each jump had decent footing, but in between the fences was bad and in some places terrible. They took the water features out of the course because of the footing along with about 5 or 6 other fences.

It got dark so we took care of Frankie, and headed to the hotel.

Josh had taken pictures of all the cross country fences and I looked through those. There was only one “combination” that I thought might be tricky for him with the first fence being tricky for me. A table/ramp/coupe that wasn’t that tall, wasn’t that wide, but solid. So of course it looked scary for me. But I know Frankie can do it. The difficult part for Frankie was you landed and three strides you jump a ditch with running water. I didn’t think he would stop, but I knew I would have to ride the first fence confidently for Frankie to feel good about it.

I didn’t get any sleep. Nerves; well a little, but mostly a terrible hotel.

We woke up early and headed to the event to feed Frank and get out and walk the course again to check on the footing. It had rained over night and the footing was even worse.

Then we noticed the dressage was on the grass, where it was really muddy. I couldn’t believe that.

We watched a bunch of people ride their Beginner Novice dressage test and warm-up. Horses slipping, tripping on the ruts, horses struggling to get through the mud, shoes getting sucked off, and generally just waiting to see a horse walk out lame. Josh and I were contemplating scratching.

They ended up moving dressage ring 3, the one I was supposed to ride in because the footing was so bad. We went back to get Frankie and take him for a walk and check out the footing in the warm-up area where the new ring 3 would be, along with the footing in the new ring 3. It wasn’t good.

I decided to get on, and warm-up, carefully, and give it a go.

Frankie was a star. He was such a good boy. The footing was slippery, deep, rutted, hilly, and squishy. He handled it well. He didn’t like it, but he was being careful.

I decided to go in and do the test.

He was great. I remembered the test, however, I didn’t do all of the “movements” because lengthening was not safe with the footing, the corners were not safe, a good bend wasn’t safe, long and stretching wasn’t safe, the halt at X REALLY wasn’t safe. So, we got a bad score 51 and change. I didn’t care, I was really happy with Frankie and if anything I felt guilty for potentially putting him in a position to get hurt.

Staduim was next. The footing wasn’t great, but it was a sand/clay footing. Though deep in spots, I knew I could cut the corners and make turns and approaches to avoid the bad spots.

He schooled great, only got pissed a few times when horses got too close or looked at him the wrong way.

I watched a few rounds, which were terrible. The fences were tiny, the course was pretty straight forward, with a tight one stride and a pretty fair two stride. These people just cowboy their horses around the course, no balancing, nothing! No wonder they were slipping around the corners. It was hard to watch.

Frankie was great! He was calm, quiet, and listening. I think he was confused by the fence height. But, all in all he was perfect. We knocked down the last fence, my fault, I asked for a longer distance at the fence prior and didn’t bring him back enough OR get him straight to the last fence so we got a rail. But, I didn’t care. He was a good boy.

We went out and walked the cross country again to check the footing after the beginner novice went. It was terrible! Huge holes, really slippery spots, and really deep spots. I didn’t feel good about it and Josh didn’t want to take any chances.

We had talked to the vet earlier, before dressage, and although he couldn’t tell us whether to ride or not. He definitely said chances for injuries is high and it’s always good to live to jump another day.

So, after watching a handful of cross country rounds, some slips, some difficulty in deep footing, I opted to not take a chance and injure my horse just for the fun of a cross country ride.

I couldn’t believe how these people just galloped around in the deep, slippery, rutted footing. Bowed Tendon? Not worth it to me.

We scratched. I was upset because I really wanted to do it. But, I didn’t want to chance my horse getting injured. He trusts me and I want to make sure he can count on me to take his health, soundness, and welfare into consideration of any fun I want to have.

So, we packed up, shipped out, drove home, unpacked, went home, and went to bed.

I don’t know what to think about eventing. I’m telling myself that I have to give it a few events to see what will happen. I am not one to take chances with my horse’s safety and footing is a big deal. I was disappointed to see how many people didn’t care. Sure they said the footing was terrible, some said they were worried, but most everyone rode, and rode like hell. I am not giving up, but I am apprehensive. I have been to big hunter/jumper shows that if the footing is bad EVERYONE scratches. They don’t get their money back, but it isn’t worth risking a horses soundness for a stupid show. And hunter/jumper people suck! I guess maybe the horses might be worth more money, less replaceable, or something. I don’t really know.

I will say the people were 80% really, super nice. There were a lot of people there on their own, which is good and bad. It wasn’t uptight and the environment was much more laid back as compared to a hunter/jumper show. But, I’m not sure the trade off is worth it.

I guess I will see how the next event goes. I haven’t given up, but I am going to take it event by event.