Superstars at Glenarden HT!!!

Saw some superstar riding from Miss Chelsea today :)

We went to Glenarden HT today.  Steph the supergroom helping Chelsea with Lissy while DJ was show-mom extraordinaire -- kept Chelsea organized and provided all of us with tons o food and drinks :)   Day started with a very civilized load time of 7am and a heads up that "when the road says 'local traffic only' you *are* local traffic" :)  hahaha

Got there with lots of time to get unloaded and organized.  Chelsea and Lissy warmed up really well for dressage.  They were riding in the ring farthest from the warm-up area, but Chels did a great job of keeping Lissy fully focused on her.  Their dressage was their best yet -- and entirely boring.  As it should be :)

Perfectly boring, uninventive dressage

We had about an hour before stadium with lots of time to walk the course.  It was tight but fair and not maxed.  In stadium warm-up I came to the conclusion that Chelsea is just too polite!  hahaha I predict by the end of the season she'll be over that.  Sorry DJ :)  Every time she'd start to go to a fence, somebody else would be there.   Convincing her to call the fence -- loud enough to be heard -- and then go for it was quite the challenge.  hahaha I always hated calling fences too, so I get that.  Still do actually -- but sometimes getting the job done makes me suck it up :)   N Chels'll get there too :)

Stadium warm-up

Fortunately in the show ring, she has all the jumps to herself!  She did a great job getting Lissy over everything and under control :)  Sweet!

In stadium

We had a couple hours between stadium and xc, so we walked the course together and then I had her go walk it again on her own.  XC was pretty maxed and fairly twisty as it serpentined back and forth across one big field.  Definitely a "towards home, away from home" challenge there.

XC warm-up

Chelsea and Lissy had a couple sticky jumps in warm-up but soon enough it began to flow and by the time they were called to the start box they were having fun and jumping like pros.  Sweet.   And then they were off!   That third fence Lissy wanted *nothing* to do with -- and she told Chelsea that about 20m out.  "Ummmm Chelsea?  I don't think we should go there." As she comes back to a slow trot...   Yes, we are.   "No....  No, I don't think you understand.  There are definitely monsters under that jump."   No monsters - we got rid of them when we walked the course.  "I'm pretty sure you missed one.   I can SEE it."   Walking now with serious hesitation.  Lissy, we're going. "But..."  Now.

The monsters hide in the brush

So it turns out when Chelsea actually needs to make her point to get the job done, she does.   It was out of a walk, and a swerving walk at that, but Chelsea never gave up and Lissy jumped it on the first try.  And on the approach to fence four, Lissy clued into the game.   "Oh, we're going to run and jump stuff.  Ok!"  And then they were off.  The rest of the course was absolutely brilliant!  AND - on time :)

I got it now!

I was seriously impressed.

And after all was said and done, they finished in second place.

Superstars!

Not half bad for Chelsea's second ever HT!