Upper Marlboro eventing: old school!

Cole and I at Plantation. Courtesy Tracy McKenna.

I must preface this with a huge thank you to the organisers and voulunteers who run this event, they did a great job. Eventing at Marlborough on the weekend made me feel as tho I was back in Australia! That is except for the fact that the ground was NOT as hard as a rock.... The similarity was that it was a contest of survival of the fittest! It definatley wasn't a dressage competition, some people didn't even make it thru that phase.. On to the showjumping, again claiming multiple riders, a number of whom simply went the wrong way after fence 2. Then the cross country where it was all happening! From the xc warmup and start box all I could hear was 'rider fall at 10', 'refusal at the water', 'runout at the corner', 'stop at fence 3'. Fortunatly for me the worse the course rides, the better I do. Doubly fortunately I was sitting on Cole and riding down a grade. So for us there were no problems of course and he won even with a few time faults. Out of 28 starters, there were only 11 clears and no one made time. I was really happy with how he felt in the dressage and he scored well. Next up for him is Morven Park then onto Fair Hill. Cole's dressage has improved a lot in the last few months to the point where he's now quite ridable in the test and I feel more confident of scoring on him.
With Mario I'm heading to the HCCC Grand Prix in Columbia, MD. This is the biggest grand prix in the state and conveniently located just down the road from my barn. And after jumping him in a lesson today at Raylyn Farms I'm feeling pretty good about how he's going so hopefully we can put up a good show for the one hundred million people who have said they're coming to watch! And to those one hundred million people: please DONT wear the shirts festooned with Mario's name! I'm starting to feel a bit more at home in the showjumping ring now rather than just an eventer getting lucky galloping into some big jumps. Check back on Sunday for a update.