What do you mean it's 2012???

Intermediate. The big I. Red numbers and big fences.

I can officially call myself an intermediate rider now... AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!
I competed and finished my first intermediate horse trials at the Rocking Horse HT this past weekend and am still floating on air about it all. To think that 2 years ago I didn't have Apollo, I had never competed above Novice at any event and had only done 2, MAYBE 3 recognized horse trials.
Then in April I bought Apollo, by June we had finished our first HT at novice with a 3rd place ribbon. By August I moved up to training, In May of 2011 I moved up to Preliminary and in October I took home a 2nd place ribbon in Open Prelim. And now in January I've made it to intermediate level. It's all going so fast, and had it been any horse other than Apollo then I never would have moved up so quickly and I certainly would not say that others should move at this pace.
Almost every trainer I have ever ridden Apollo in front of asks to see his dressage first. And they are never impressed. Most of the time I hear a lot about how his dressage is not at the level that I claim I am competing at and they start forming doubts about my judgement. And then they see him jump.
All of a sudden I start hearing repeated comments about how our jumping is way beyond our dressage ability. And all I can do is smile.
I have never thought, claimed, suggested that Apollo cleans up in the dressage ring. Because he doesn't. He does try his hardest however and really that's all I can ask of him. Because at the end of the day I'd rather have a 4 in dressage then a fall on cross country.
Basically my horse is 14 this year, and he's not getting younger. So I'm moving up rather quickly because he is the most honest jumper I have ever ridden and I would rather move up to the more dangerous level quickly on a horse I know will save me if needed and also learn how to jump confidently around an intermediate course on him while he still has the ability to then be concerned about how well we can ride a pattern in the ring.
And I have also received the best instruction in the world in the past 2 years from Susan Harris, Holly Hudspeth, Boyd Martin and of course the O'Connor's. That didn't hurt one bit.

okay this post is way more serious than I intended it to be...here is something to lighten this back up