Monday, July 13, 2015

Jumper Jackpot - a quick look at this fun day

Last Wednesday I competed in the Jumper Jackpot run by the Hamilton Hunt Club. 27 entries competing through two jumper rounds in an attempt to go double clear to proceed to the jump off.

When I got the show I went to put on my show jacket and realized I had accidentally taken my hubby’s suit jacket instead… well that wasn’t going to work. Luckily jackets were excused so I rode in my show shirt. Not a great start to the day!

The course was challenging – set on grass after a day of rain so it was a little slick. All my horses are barefoot and I have never wanted shoes before, but that grass did make me think we may do better with some corks grabbing into the ground.

I brought both Dreamer and Thetis to the show – originally I was supposed to ride Thetis & Sabio, but Sabio ended up having an abscess and was still a bit ouchy so that wouldn’t be fair to compete him. I tried Dreamer after I knew Sabio was sore – I had already paid for two entries so I wanted to see if another horse could go. In our practice session we were clearing 3ft easily – it turns out Dreamer can be quite the jumper!

When we got to the show and I saw the triple combination, a one stride combination, and a triple bar oxer, I thought Dreamer might be able to survive the course, but it wouldn’t be ideal to have that be his first jumper show. Instead I withdrew my second entry. It actually worked out really well because Thetis had a buddy on the trailer, and Dreamer had a great experience of coming to the show, riding around the warm up ring for a while and then getting to relax.

Thetis was slipping a bit on the grass, but she was showing me how she tries her heart out for me and was still managing to leave all the rails up. We rode our first round less than perfect with a few chipped strides but Thetis was good to me and left every rail up.

In the second round we had our act together a bit more and nailed our striding a lot better as we were figuring out the class. Out of the 27 entries, only 10 combinations went double clear and advanced to the jump off. My goal was to turn as tight as I could without slipping on the grass – and leave the rails up!

We rode a clear round with a nice time – only 3 seconds away from first place. We finished in third place and won $500. It was a really fun day, so I have a feeling I’ll be back there next year!

Next time I will make sure the right show clothes are in the trailer!




Check out our highlights https://youtu.be/LZ3POzevGuM

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