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Regionals Recap

gallifreyfrmllc
Jan 1, 2022

Thursday, my trusted assistant and groom, Mikki and I hit the road with William in tow to the 20

15 USDF Region 3 GAIG Championships in Conyers, GA. A little Geography lesson for those of you not in the know the Georgia International Horse Park, home of the 1996 Summer Olympics Equestrian events, is roughly 3.5 hours away from me via one of the longest and bumpiest Georgia interstates. It also took the Titan and Horsey-Go-Bye-Bye-Box down some back roads littered with train tracks and stop signs. It took us closer to 4 hours to finally arrive and get Will off the trailer and relaxing in his stall. Everything seemed normal, except being stabled across from an ex-Olympian, we started our normal unpacking routine. This involves quickly unloading everything for Will off the trailer in one fell swoop, parking the trailer in an easy-to-access-for-a-fast-depart when it's all over and then finally taking the young Sir for a warm up.

I start our trot work and he's sluggish. Well, no big deal it was 4 hours in the trailer. I'd be tired too. I start asking him to supple a little more with haunches in to encourage him to stretch out of it but then the rhythm changes. Suddenly, I have a flat tire. This never happens. For as long as I have ridden and owned this horse he has NEVER taken a visibly off step. Naturally, I panic. I hop down, and walk him all the way back to the barn to find Mikki in mid Dressage. As calmly as I can I explain what I'm feeling. She picks out his feet again to make sure we didn't pick anything up and then she comes with me to a much closer schooling ring to have a look. Sure enough there it is, but to her it just looks like locked up joints from stiffness. She stretches his legs a little while I'm on him and we start to work through it. I spent the next 30 minutes just stretching and stretching and leg yield, haunches in, move him around before the trot starts to feel better and the canter gets looser. I'm still not happy with this but I don't want to over do it. He gets a bath and another mini Mikki stretch session and dinner.

Friday morning we gave him another deeper massage it's time to go warm up. I'm breathing. I'm staying positive (well, kinda) but I'm also ready to get it done. He felt stiff and sluggish in the warm up but even. I got to work like I knew how but did had a heck of a time getting him to bring that back up for the trot. He was throwing me around something awful in the medium and extended gaits by the time we needed to head in. I took a deep breath and decided I could only do my best.

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