Circuit Champ 2018

We were soundly beaten by a thirteen year old. But since my rider was in the 18 and over age group, we were technically in different classes and awarded separately, even though we did the exact same 0.95 meter jumping course.

Princess tends to jump right into things, so let me give you the whole story. The 2018 Sonoma Horse Park season is 7 horse shows spread out from May to September. I participated in four of them. Amazingly, we climbed up to second place in the accumulated points towards a circuit championship in the division of Modified Adult Jumpers (meaning low jumps). In the second to last show, we did not do very well and dropped to third. I considered not bothering to enter the last show, if the prior week was any prediction. But barn mates encouraged me, "But you're so close..."

So another Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent walking the course, counting strides, planning the inside turns to shave off time, and mulling over anything and everything that could go wrong. I vanished those thoughts as soon as they entered my head.

Friday's round was not a great outing and completely my fault. I was so surprised she jumped the scary Kastel jump that I sailed past fence 5, having to circle and accumulating 4 jumper faults and a time fault to boot. That left only two rounds to get our act together.

Saturday, big win! Sunday, a good rider with a really fast a brave horse was just ahead of me. They had a stellar round but did not make one inside turn in the jump off. That was my window if we could accomplish it. We were clear for the power phase then proceeding to the jump off. We jumped the aforementioned Kastel jump without drama and made a 90 degree turn within one stride to a vertical at a ridiculously sharp angle. Princess was a little surprised and rapped it but it stayed up. We completed the course with one more tight turn and a steady 8 to the last oxer and sneaked by the previous time by a full second. Winner, division champ and circuit champ sewed up.

I sheepishly asked the winning 17 and under champ how old she was. Translation: how soon will I have to compete against that speedster? She was two seconds faster than me. Her trainer laughed. "She's thirteen!" Quick math, by the time she is 18, I'll be 70 and just watching. Plus, with her skills, she'll be jumping mush higher.