Devon wrap up

After the jog, life just flew by. An old friend from my winters in Florida, Mike Barisone helped me in the warm ups. Audi was the best he's ever been in the GP. He was electric, he was up, but he held it together. One small mistake in the ones, but he did all his pi and pa work with out a hitch! I was THRILLED! Once again there was that murmur that the judges were hard on Audi because of his size, but honestly, I don't care. To me it's about the ride. And we all know what Shorty thinks of the award ceremonies.....

Freestyle night was fun! Cheers from the audience when we came in really made me smile. Shorty was hotter than hot, but like Mike said, I can ride it! Unfortunately things started getting crazier, and it pushed Audi to his limit. He did stay with me though, despite some minor glitches, but the last centerline, something again caught his eye and....oh well. It was still fun! I hope the woman who fell down the stairs as we were leaving is ok! That looked like it hurt :-(

In retrospect, the 6 minutes your in the ring there is a blast. But Devon seems to be changing. There were major safety concerns this year. Too many riders fell off and get hurt. Horses were falling down a very slippery slope getting back into the stabling. After I felt one horse slip a bit, we opted for the parking lot, as both my boys are traffic safe, but then got yelled at for it. By Saturday they had a sign that we had to dismount going up and down the slope, but there was no way I was mounting a four year old in either driveway or the warmup!!!! The dog at the in gate who went ballistic after the lady fell caused Audi to almost take out the bit checker. They took away our evening training time in the Dixon, and limited our time there to 6.30 - 7.30 AM, and overlapped the 45 minutes they allowed us for lunging this year so that we couldn't do both if we needed. (My poor four year old could have used a little non-rider time seeing as there's no place to graze and only concrete to handwalk on...) And people were handwalking in the middle of the warmup! They also took down the divider fencing by the weekend, and spectators just kept marching right through the middle. One old man walked right in front of my four year old as we were cantering! YIKES! I realize that much of this show is about the spectators, but sincerely hope the Committee at the show will think about making the place a little more horse/rider friendly! Yeah, I'll be writing a letter and going a report form for sure. In the meantime, you'll see us at the other New England CDI's, NJ and Saugerties. They've got ample warm up, great footing, grass to graze on, and safe stabling!