OHJA Medal Finals: Day 1

OHJA medal finals are held over two days, and have three phases. Phase one (a written knowledge test) and phase two (over fences) are held on Friday and phase three (a flat phase for the 2'3" and 2'6" medals, over fences for the higher medals) are on Saturday. The finals are held during a regular rated show, but I only did medal finals. The show was held about 20mins from the barn, and Maya has shown there a ton, so we decided to haul her in for those two days. 

We were supposed to take our written test between 7:30-9:30 Friday morning, and of course my round wasn't scheduled to go till 4:30pm. So I headed over to the show around 8, took the test, and watched a few short stirrup rounds go. There had been a study session held at the show on Wednesday night that I went to and was initially irritated by because it lasted all of 20mins, but the test was the exact questions they gave us at the session so it worked out. I got a perfect 10/10.

Everything was wet because it rained Thursday night and on and off on Friday

 I then went to the barn, hung out, cleaned, and organized my shit before we loaded Maya up around 2 to head over. Maya is a great traveler and was content to hang out in the trailer with a hay net while Trainer M and I watched the bigger medal classes and ate lunch. They opened up the course around 3 for a combined walk for the mini and foundation medals. We walked, made our plan then headed over to the trailer to start getting ready. 

All pro photos from McCool Photography. The show office charges each entry $35 for photos and you get digital downloads of all your pics. 

Trainer M hopped on Maya first, as she can sometimes be a bit spunky at the shows, and M would rather ride her through it instead of lunging her. Once I got on the nerves started to get to me a little. It didn't help that Maya was a little annoyed with me and tried to buck a couple of times. I was riding in her owner's saddle, that has a much deeper seat than mine, and I felt like I was sitting in a hole and slightly behind her motion. I was trying to be more in a half seat, but couldn't quite find my balance. We jumped a few fences, then went to watch a couple of rounds, planning on jumping one or two more right before going in. 

There was a posted order of go, but as the way of hunter ring, there was an open gate for about five minutes. I asked Trainer M if I could just go and get it over with, instead of sitting there letting my anxiety increase. She agreed, the back gate guy gave his blessing and off we went. I felt Maya perk up a bit, and once we picked up our canter she became all business. She really listened to me and was right with me every stride. I liked that the course was twisty as it gave me more to focus on instead of a lot of long straight lines. We landed every lead, and most of the distances came up well. I know I half halted a bit too strongly coming around the corner to fence 3, but otherwise everything else rode really, really well. It was honestly one of the best rounds I've ever ridden. I had given my phone to a friend to video, but it unfortunately died just after my round started so no video. 

We ended up with a 76, so combined with my 10 from the written test, we had an 86 earning us second out of thirteen. I was so beyond happy with our round and honestly don't think I could have done any better on Cinder, or if I had ridden Maya more. Maya got a lot of cookies while we untacked and cleaned her up, and then we headed home ready for round three the next day.