St. John's Recap. Or, "Freezing our tails off in Sunny Arizona"

   Eventers are a tough crowd. Actually, horse folk in general are pretty tough, but since I primarily event, I'm a bit biased. My late spring event of choice was a no-go this year due to the upcoming Mary Wanless clinic, so a group of us had a choice to make- drive 10 hours to Arizona to St. Johns HT, or drive 16 hours to Ram Tap in Fresno, CA. We weighed the pros and cons, and decided that since none of the experienced horses really needed a run, we'd forgo the rail road tracks, power lines, and police shooting range at Ram Tap, and head to St. Johns, on the promise of a nice local event, and great showers. Then, Cha Cha needed a run after his Galway escapade, Page needed a run with me on board, and I heard that the course was nice for babies, so I threw Aileen Christensen's horse, Isis, into the mix (she's for sale and needs to start amassing a show record), and decided to ride Coco in the pre-comp! Suddenly, I was riding 1/10th of the horses I anticipated being at the show. With the addition of Marley (doing her first training), Grace, Hannah, Summer, and Gabby (doing her first event), our group was really rather huge! Luckily, I had Aileen and Suzi Curtis along to groom- they out-did themselves, and I'm very spoiled now! Lani also came to coach, so really, I had four to ride and two to coach, which was relatively do-able.
   The day before we left, Lani's mare came up a bit off, so we decided to leave her home until she could get a visit from the vet, so I was down to three to ride. The trailers pulled out at 4am on thursday morning, and immediately, Lani called in with brake trouble... Crisis #1. They got it sorted, and we were only half an hour or so late to pick up Summer. On the side of the road. In the dark. The drive was easy, and as soon as Coco discovered that she wasn't going to be able to get off the trailer just because she wanted to and going thru the window wasn't REALLY an option, all the horses traveled really well. We arrived in St. John's, AZ and unloaded the horses into fairly nice stalls, with slightly questionable gates for silly baby ponies with attitudes. Up went the fancy schmancy Thunder Mountain stall guards, the Kimball ranch banner, and the Schleese Saddlery banner. Damn, but we looked pretty good! I went to unhook the trailer and... nothing. No battery at all. No lights, no pump, no electric jack. Crisis #2. I think the rough roads the last 50 or so miles jiggled some connection loose. Those who know me know I'm not completely un-handy, but I try to avoid messing around with things that can either blow up or electrocute me. I wiggled and jiggled wires and batteries, to no avail, and we resigned ourselves to having to start the generator every time we wanted to turn on a light.
   Friday morning I schooled Cha Cha (who was MUCH improved from Galway), Coco (who was darling, and really very good for her first out), Isis (who did some nice dressage work), and Bob, Hannah's horse (who benefits from regular tune-ups). The event is small and the organizers want everyone to have a successful weekend, so they offer schooling jumping rounds on Friday. I rode both Isis and Coco over fences, and all the girls schooled as well. Summer schooled Jake on the flat, and he (in keeping with the Thunder Mountain theme of the day) was really good. By the afternoon, the wind was picking up, with strong winds and cold temps forecasted for Saturday. We got our first (and ultimately only) look at the courses at 3pm, and after 6 rides, 5 course walks, and helping multiple riders, I was ready to partake of the admittedly wonderful showers and eat some of Aileen's excellent tortellini for dinner.
   5am rolled around all too soon, and Lani, Suzi, and Aileen, had fed and done stalls before I managed to drag myself out of bed. I was planning on riding Cha Cha at 6:30am, before his 8am dressage test. As we sat in the trailer eating breakfast, it started to blow. Then it started to snow. A lot. Sideways. Yuck. I ditched the first ride, and we got Cha Cha braided. Technically, Lani got Cha Cha braided. And Coco. I don't think I touched a mane all weekend except to keep myself from falling off! I was on at 7:15, warming up with a blanket on Cha Cha. He was wonderful, the most relaxed he's ever been, and I was thrilled with his test. Part of the ring did blow over while we were doing our test, my helmet was completely white, and at one point, my stock tie blew up from inside my jacket (bad Pony Clubber- I didn't pin the ends down), but I had a rideable, forward, connected horse, and I couldn't have been happier. Suzi and Aileen took care of Cha Cha, and I retreated to the trailer to try and thaw out my feet, and put on several more layers, including long underwear under my breeches. Next up was Marley, who did a respectable test in difficult conditions in her first Training level start. In between rides, I walked the show jumping course in preparation for my 12:00 ride. Or, I walked the wreckage of the show jumping course- the fences simply wouldn't stay up in the wind. By 10:30 am, the wind chill was 15 F, and still snowing intermittently. Brrrrr. The organizers and officials decided to run show jumping immediately before XC on Sunday. It is great when events can be flexible and really try to make it all work in spite of challenging conditions.
   The weather got more and more windy, and the horses got sillier and sillier. Summer did an admirable job with Jake, who was tight as a tick and could easily have launched into orbit at any time. Isis was really quite good, and much better in the ring than in the warm-up. She finished the day in 2nd place! I decided not to ride Coco- she's young, hot, and reactive, and nothing good was going to come of pushing her to compete in such terrible weather. The president of the ground jury and organizers agreed to let me do all three phases on Sunday, so off we all went to the showers (heavenly!) and the competitors party, which would have been amazing if everyone hadn't been so cold. The peach cobbler was a thing of beauty, and with full stomachs, the furnace cranked in the trailer, and cozy ponies, we all hit the sack at 8pm!
   Sunday morning we (and by we, I mean EVERYONE except me!) had a packing extravaganza. We had considered driving home monday, but frankly, and through no fault of the organizers or officials, we couldn't wait to get out of frozen Arizona. Cha Cha did his show jumping at 8am- he was much better at the end than in the beginning, and I felt like I really ironed our some of the kinks from Galway two weeks prior. Cross country was fantastic- I had total control (hurrah!) and it was a great last run before the CCI* at Colorado in June. I felt like I could have easily put my foot down and made time, and he galloped in much better balance than he has previously. In keeping with the cold weather theme, I rode in two long underwear tops, my vest, a soft shell jacket, and my airvest- finally warm! Marley had a good first training, and Summer managed to get a VERY spooky Jake around- he didn't learn anything this weekend, but she did a super job of not having him go a bit downhill in tough conditions.  Isis was a bit wobbly in the show jumping, but redeemed herself on cross country, where I would have put a kid on her! She was really fantastic, and got better as she went along. Hannah, Grace, and Gabby all had good goes, and Hannah was rewarded for all her hard work with a 2nd place!
  Coco got lunged twice, and I got on her with the idea to jump the pre-comp sj course and then withdraw her. And... she was a ding-dong! Summer ended up leading me around the show jumping arena, which was far more educational for her than me kicking her around a 2 foot course while she was so tense. She did manage to spook/rear/spin enough in the parking lot that I half bailed, half fell- she was spooking at... wait for it.... a pick-up truck. Terrifying. Just being there, schooling on friday and doing a jumping round, and trailering was a huge education for her. I have no doubt that she will be a fierce competitor some day, but it wasn't to be this weekend.
   We hit the road ASAP, and Summer drove for several hours while I slept. After dropping off Summer and then Aileen (who had an 8am final monday morning- talk about dedication!), Suzi and I made it to my apartment at 1:30am. Of course, I'd drunk a cup of super caffeinated coffee, so I lay awake for an hour or so. Too much excitement in frozen Arizona, I guess...