August 13, 2006: No Flashbulb Needed

Boy, am I behind on my blogs...

First, I guess, a brief update on Quila and me: our first day at the July 29 show was not what it should have been. Quila was an angel through the trot work, and into the walk, and so I became complacent. Then something spooked her in the canter, I took too long to react, and she decided that she’d better take matters into her own hands... What was heading for a pretty nice score rapidly fell apart. I should know better than that. I really should. The canter tour was ugly. No, make that U-G-L-Y. I hung my head in shame when we exited the ring.

On Sunday, we had another shot. This time, Quila was blowing steam out her nostrils in the warm-up—a good thing, actually, because I had to RIDE from the second my foot hit the irons. And I DID ride. We had a good test, with some really nice moments. She tried to get away from me in the canter, particularly after the lengthenings, but I didn’t let her. I got her back with me, and rode the test MY way. The result: the first of our qualifying scores. I was pleased, particularly since it demonstrated that maybe I finally HAVE learned not to be a passenger.

OK, next... NAJYRC. I barely had time to unwind from MY show, because I was packing my bags and off to Lexington, VA to cheer for Susan and Kalibre at the NAJYRC. They’re calling it the North American CONTINENT Junior/Young Rider Championships now, making a big deal of the fact that it is an INTERNATIONAL show. The weather was absolutely MISERABLE there: 100º+ heat, with high humidity—we were drenched in sweat just sitting in the shade—and the kids had to compete in it.

Susan did well, though, thanks to carefully thought out preparation there and at home. I can’t say enough wonderful things about Jürgen as a coach (or Chef d’Equipe—the brave man took on responsibility for the entire Region 7 team!). They had trained in the heat at home, knew exactly how to warm-up, and how much warm-up they needed so that Kalibre would be at his best in the show ring, and at his best he was: after a solid performance in the Team Test (nothing at stake, so they didn’t put in extra effort), Susan and Kalibre scored personal bests in the Individual Test and FEI Junior Freestyles, for 4th and 5th, respectively, out of the 30 top Juniors from Canada and the United States. Susan narrowly missed a medal on the Individual Test: if two judges had given her one more point on one movement, she’d have had a bronze, and if four of the five judges had given her one more point on one movement, she’d have had the silver. I was so proud of her that I was beaming: flash bulbs could be dispensed with for the remainder of the week!

Her freestyle was also extra special, particularly since she hadn’t had the chance to practice more than once at home. She’d qualified on a borrowed freestyle, and then had a freestyle made by Karen Robinson of Applause Dressage in Canada. While Kalibre liked the snippets we’d “auditioned” well enough, when the whole thing came together, there were parts that must have been like fingernails on a chalkboard to him: he would pin his ears, get a pinched look on his face, and try to exit the arena in a hurry—behavior that simply was NOT like him. We ride with music at home all the time, and he has never made a complaint, but he clearly had strong feelings about spanish guitar music, flamenco style. Of course, all this had to happen when Susan was making last minute preparations for the Pebble Beach Juniors, and there was little time for testing music and working out a new freestyle, and then she was on the road to the Woodside CDI***, so by the time she and Karen could get things straightened out and get the new freestyle squared away, it was only a few days before Virginia. Bless Karen for doing it from the road, using a laptop at times and drafting her husband to search for music while she was en route to the airport on one occasion! The judges (and even more importantly, Kalibre) loved the new music, which has a Native American flair. I envy Susan’s poise, that she can ride a freestyle so beautifully when she’d only done it once at home: she nailed every transition right on the money, and looked like a seasoned pro.

NAJYRC was an expense for us—Kalibre’s airfare alone ran $10,800—and we received no travel grants or support, but I think it was one of those life-changing experiences that will have been well worth it for what Susan got out of it. We’ve also (thankfully) been invited to participate in the fundraising (and the funds raised) for the Young Riders for the remainder of the year, and may get some retroactive grants... which would most definitely be welcome. I can already see the difference in Susan’s riding... from her posture, to her focus, to even her presence. I don’t know what her future will hold, or where she’ll want to go with this (I suspect she will not be a professional), but it’s clear to me that she is making the most of every opportunity in the here and now, and not letting success go to her head.

Did I say I was proud?