Bingo’s first trip to a horse trial at Majestic Oaks, last month, ended prematurely when he twisted his shoe and stepped on the clip just 3 jumps into stadium. Naturally that meant I had to sign him up for the September show so that he could actually complete all three phases there. For those keeping track, he did a Starter at Florida Horse Park in June, then a BN at Florida Horse Park in July, then dressage plus 3 show jumps of a BN at Majestic in August. So this is horse trial number 4, even if technically horse trial number 3 was a bust.
We had absolutely stellar ride times, with dressage at 10:30, SJ at 11:45, and XC basically whenever we wanted to show up at the startbox after stadium. It was a very humid and muggy morning though, and Bingo is an excellent sweater, so he was already pretty damp before I even got on him. And then he had a little bit of an OTTB moment in warmup (ok he did a couple Hi Ho Silver impressions and waved at the crowd), then settled down and gave me 10 minutes of really exceptional work, and then decided he was EXHAUSTED by the time we went in for the test.
I did stop by the judge’s car on my way in and ask if it was ok if we kept the bell boots on. After the last show I was really on a mission to keep his shoes attached properly to his feet through all 3 phases if at all possible. She said yes, which is yet another reason to appreciate the schooling shows.
I mean maybe if we’d left out the theatrics in those first few minutes of warmup we’d have had a little more energy left for the test? But hey what do I know. I did actually have to kick him to get him canter, and the whole thing was much more on the forehand than the work he’s been doing lately. He also tripped behind a few times in that uneven grass ring, and every time he did that he really thought he should just walk. It was a very green test compared to what he’s actually capable of.
BUT, Bingy does have a really nice natural rhythm and tempo that judges seem to find pleasing, and he was generally obedient (if a bit behind the leg) so it was still good enough for a 30 to slot into 2nd place after dressage.
I hosed him off after dressage and it was so humid that an hour later when I went to tack up for stadium, he was still soaking wet. Welcome to Florida in September. I opted to put my spurs on for the jumping phases, given how dead he’d been in our dressage test, but true to his usual form he perked up as soon as he saw it was jumping time.
SJ warmup was pretty busy and chaotic, and he got a little bit spun up a couple times. There were some minor sideways leaps, but nothing too extreme. I opted to put his red ribbons on him in an attempt to let people know he needs a bit of space, but it really didn’t seem to deter anyone from zooming right at him. BN warmup is always the most hectic, I swear… you’ve either got green riders or green horses or both. It was worth a try though.
I didn’t walk stadium, but I had stood there after my dressage test and watched a couple people go to see what the striding was in the lines. It was riding a little weird, especially the twisty bits in the beginning and the 2-stride to 5 stride line. Honestly for me, with how green Bingo still is, it’s mostly a matter of trying to get him (and keep him) straight and focused.
Because when he’s straight, he jumps really really well.
But when he’s not straight, the legs don’t always do what they’re supposed to. Still, I was able to get/keep him straight for most of the course. This did NOT include jump 4, which was the left hand 90 degree turn to a jump near the rail. He landed on the right lead, locked his eyes on the photog and bleachers, and I REALLY had to work to make that turn happen at all. He got there completely unfocused, a little crooked, and whacked the rail. Whoopsy.
He also tapped the rail at the tiny vertical coming out of the two stride, for no real particular reason at all. But then he jumped the next two really stellar, so we won’t hold it against him. It’s a lot of leg to keep track of, to be fair.
In his defense the jumps also looked really really small compared to what he was jumping in our lesson the week before.
Two rails dropped us down in the placings a bit, but there was only like one clear round in our division, so it wasn’t too catastrophic. I took him back to the trailer to put on his XC boots and my vest, then we headed on over to XC warmup.
There were a few people on the order ahead of us, so we walked for a bit, then I trotted one of the little starter warmup jumps. As soon as Bingo locked on to it he went “YAAASSS WE’RE DOING THE THIIIIING” and proceeded to perk up immensely. We cantered a couple more of the warmup fences and then waited for our turn to head to the box.
Full disclosure, I didn’t walk XC either. I knew where all the jumps were (well ok, mostly… I wasn’t sure about 4, 5, and 6, but how hard could it be? famous last words…) and I’m well acquainted with every inch of the ground at Majestic by this point, so it didn’t seem super necessary for BN where there was really only one related distance (the half coffin).
I say that, and then I came out of the box and VERY NEARLY jumped the wrong first fence. I dunno why my brain though the Novice one was my first one, but I was like 5 strides out and went “SHIT, BN IS YELLOW” and had to yeet to the right and jump the first one on an angle. Don’t mind me, out here riding like it’s my first day. That would have been a super embarrassing way to get eliminated.
Luckily Bingy didn’t care at all and hopped right over, then landed and thought maybe he should run down the hill. I was like nah maybe lets just canter and he was like oh ok. He jumped 2 and 3 out of stride really nicely…
and then we had a downhill stretch past a tree, which is where he was like ok NOW we run? And I said No, and he laughed and laughed and laughed as he proceeded to drag me down the hill. We certainly were not straight to 4 because of that, which did give him a moment of pause and contemplation, enough for me to wrestle him back to a lopey canter. Then we turned and came back up the hill and he put his head down and ignored basically all of my input for the next two fences. These are barely even speed bumps to him at this point.
Once we got to the top of the hill he was like “why do you keep hollering WHOA?” and decided that maybe I could have some input after all. I had originally planned on trotting into the water so he had plenty of time to see it, but lol. Cute. He saw it from a mile away and made a beeline for it like WHEEEEEEE SPLASSHHYYY.
He jumped the roll on the backside of the water and as we turned to go back up the hill again, he finally seemed to be running a little bit lower on oxygen and became suddenly much more rideable. He was very civilized at the wagon, the half coffin, the ramp, the down bank combo, the trakehner, and the last two little jumps. Basically the second half of the course – not unlike how he was at our last show. He pretty much just loped home, and I tried to make big wide turns to take up time. BN speed is sloooow for a big TB, especially one that took me on a wee bit of a gallop up the first hill.
No worries though, while we were definitely faster than Optimum, we still had plenty of room to spare before we were in speed fault territory. Double clear XC for Bingy!
That moved us back up the leaderboard to finish 4th. Most importantly though, he felt plenty confident in all 3 phases, and he definitely seems to understand the game. We’ve still got some kinks to work out in the warmup, and ya know… continued rideability on course. Obviously. He’s quite green still. But he’s getting it! Third (completed) horse trial in the books.
Good boy Bingo.
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