Fall Harvest Show

High Country Working Equitation’s last show was in McCook, NE as a joint effort with the Nebraska WE group and the Kansas WE group. This was a brain child hatched at the Andalusian World Cup a year ago, and the four women involved in putting it together worked diligently via phone and email to make sure it went off without a hitch. The facilities in McCook’s Kiplinger Arena were awesome, with nice stalls, RV hook ups on site, nearby hotels and a great arena. The show ended up with 25 riders, of which six were from Colorado, and the rest were from Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Texas. It was a two day show, with dressage in the morning on Saturday, EOH for Intro on Saturday afternoon, and the EOH/Speed rounds for the other levels on Sunday. 

McCook is about four and a half hours from Denver, plus you lose an hour from the time zone change, which is a very comfortable drive. J and I loaded the camper, hitched the trailer and loaded Ashke for the drive over. He traveled very calmly and without much movement on our way to McCook. The temps on Friday were in the upper sixties, so not too bad. He was in his BOT mesh cooler and leg wraps for the trip. We unloaded him, snuggled him into his stall with a big pile of shavings, which he promptly peed in, and proceeded to get settled in. A group of us set up the dressage arena late on Friday afternoon, and everyone was given an opportunity to school inside and outside the arena. I was able to run through my dressage test, in bits and pieces, plus get him comfortable over the bridge before the end of the evening. We did dinner at the Coppermill, which was very tasty, if not a bit expensive for such a small town. We had 18 people with us for dinner that night, which was pretty amazing. 

Coppermill dinner

We started at 9 am the next morning. I waited until the intermission to get Ashke saddled. It was a bit cooler on Saturday and I wanted to give him plenty of time to walk as part of our warm up. The footing in the warm up area was my only disappointment in the weekend. It was okay for walk and trot, but I wasn’t happy with how it felt to canter in the area, so we waited to canter until we were in the holding/warm up part of the big arena right before our ride.  He felt like he was moving okay from a physical stand point, but I would have been happier if he had been a little looser in the back. 

Dressage Test

With the exception of losing my stirrups in the medium trot, not pushing for a bigger medium canter to the right and our last transition, all of which were miscues on my part, I was really happy with the test. He was listening and there was no big issue with his response to my requests. He was a little tense at the end of the arena by the judge, but for the most part he was right there with me. This is the best dressage test we’ve ridden for Tarrin as judge. He is getting very solid and I was very pleased. 

There was a bit check person in the warm up/hold area that checked bits after our rides. When I went to get off, my saddle slid completely sideways. In straightening it out, I realized that I had not tightened the cinch prior to my ride. Shows that I don’t balance off my feet. And that I am really lucky.

Saturday afternoon we opted to set up the EOH course and run Intro EOH. That was about half the riders. After the EOH was completed, the women in McCook hosted our group with soup, salad, cinnamon rolls, and wine. 

The food was yummy and the company was awesome.

Bed looked really good when we got there at the end of the day on Saturday. I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the camper roof.