Rewind: Capital City

Ok, so sorry for the delays in getting new blogs ups.  I may have been a little eager with the "easy to update while on the road!"  While it is true: it's easy to update, the part where I sit down at the end of a hard day of horse showing and write something... a little more difficult.  So lets rewind a little bit and talk about a fun weekend at Rancho Murieta.  2 things brought us here for our weekend getaway: a $10,000 GP and our quest for Spruce Team points.

Bacantos and Cielo (possibly the cutest horse couple ever) made the trip for what proved to be a good, maybe not great weekend.  Saturday brought some highs and lows, not too low, but kinda low.  First of all, we decided that with 2 horses, we would cut costs and do our own grooming.  This, to be honest, is not as bad as people think.  In this day and age, its so rare that we spend quality time with our trusty steeds outside of the arena.  Do not forget people: we started riding purely because we loved horses, why not spend more time with them?

Chelsea and Dusty: Grooms Extraordinaire!

We started out with a bang with Lynne Lancaster and Cielo winning their first class and a high ribbon in their second, a good prep for the Spruce Qualifier the following day.  Now it was on to the GP for Bacantos.  All was going well, he was jumping approximately 2 feet over the jumps, as is his flashy style.  Unfortunately, small disaster struck when making the turn to the double out of the corner near the end of the course.  A wet spot in the footing caused Bacantos to slip hard behind while making the turn, making the distance to the oxer coming in very long.  They made a valiant effort to go forward and meet the oxer correctly, which they did, but the forward ride caused the distance inside the double to become extremely short.  Bacantos tried his absolute best to slow down and rock back for the vertical but the barest of rubs had the top rail coming down to the ground.  They finished up beautifully but sadly the 1 rail kept them out of the ribbons this time around.

Now for sunday.  The dreaded Spruce Qualifier.  This class has proved to be a pressure cooker in the past, with multiple horse and rider combinations vying for the coveted points needed in order to make the teams travelling north this summer.  Lynne and Cielo had a strong showing, going clean in the first round and advancing to the jumpoff.  In true fashion, the duo had the fastest time, but like their barnmates, 1 slight touch of a rail left them with 4 faults.  They did, however, finish in 6th place, giving them much needed points.  Bacantos had no classes on sunday, instead enjoying a beautiful trail ride to the river.  This is such a treat for our horses, they spend so much time in the arena, it's so refreshing to be able to let them enjoy the great outdoors once in a while.

Perfect Sunday morning

Alright, think that's enough (perhaps too much) for one night.  A full Starr Vaughn report will be up soon, promise!  Until then: keep calm and gallop on!!