So the big competition didn't go quite the way I had planned. Dressage warm-up, Apollo was looking beautiful, he was going exactly the way I wanted him to. But unfortunately we could hold onto the energy in the ring, probably due to too long of a warm up, got a 72, which was a bummer but still in the IQR range. Cross country looked fair enough (hehe, fair enough course at fair hill, hehe, ok I'll stop). But there was a big bank up, one stride to a long, then 2 or 3 strides down the steep side to a wedge. Normally Apollo wouldn't have and issue with any of those components so I tried not to over think it.
In warm up Apollo seemed really fired up and ready to go. He was jumping a little bit big but I thought once I got him on course he would settle into his own. We head out on course and his head is immediately up in the air. I was a little concerned because I thought we'd gotten over that but I didn't think it was anything that would cause problems. He went over the first 8 jumps pretty well, he seemed to be listening to me except he wasn't being as sensitive as he was before. As we come up to 9, the bank combination I tried to set him up but he pulled up too much so I had to kick him on in the last few strides. Made it up the bank, over the log, but then he wouldn't listen to me coming down, was too much on the forehand and just plain rain past the wedge despite my efforts. I immediately pulled him around, got as far away from the wedge as I could and re-approached it but he was not having it at all and jumped to the side again, I lost my balance and just rolled of his side. Luckily and unluckily I was right in front of the vet box and spectators. Apollo was fine but my pride was definitely bruised. The rest of the day and the ride home all I could do was try to analyze what happened that caused my normally totally honest horse to run past a jump he's done before.
Here is what I came up with:
1)He was too on the forehand coming down the hill.
-BUT he's jumped bigger in worse positions
2)because I switched bits for SJ and had only practiced jumping in the new bit, and conditioning in the xc bit he wasn't used to it
-BUT the bit I was using was the same one he has been in for a year now. plus its stronger than the new bit so he should have respected it more
3) because he hadn't gone xc in awhile he was unsure of himself
-BUT i jump school not only in a ring but also over jumps that are set up in a field on the side of a hill
4) fake grass is Apollo's mortal enemy and he wasn't ready for a battle that day
-BUT its fake grass...we've won the battle with it before
There's a very good chance it was all of the above or something else entirely. Nothing appears to be physically wrong so at least we can count that out.
Hopefully after a xc school and some chicken soup for the soul we'll have a better run at the cic2* at jersey.
oh and the title is in reference to the fact that when Apollo's back left leg needed to be injected I sprained my left ankle at the same time. Then after Fair Hill he got a scrap on his front right knee then that week I fell playing football and hurt my right knee. Then he got a scrap on his neck under his chin and I burned myself with a curling iron. Obviously I want to be just like Apollo. We are THAT close.
