Disclaimer: This article is part 3 of a special series. Because of the length of our experience the post has been broken into several smaller posts. The first and second posts can be found here:
- Classic: Our Journey to The Waredaca Classic Three Day Event DAY 1
- Classic: Day 2 & Officially Kicking Off the Waredaca Classic Three Day Event
We woke up bright and early Friday morning.
We had to get to the barn, take Tiger for a walk, clean his stall, feed him, and prep for their official debut at the Waredaca Classic Three-Day Event. Inspections were Thursday and now it’s time for DRESSAGE!
Ride time was 08:20 AM.
We have travelled together pretty extensively now so we have a good system. Once I got Suzanne on Tiger I put on all the final touches. Shine the boots one more time, brush away any dust from the shavings. I sent them on their way and made my own way over to the dressage warm up ring. We checked in with the steward and did our bit check.
Warm up rings are interesting. Everyone is so focused on their own path that they often forget to look up and not run into others. One woman on a large grey horse nearly did just that…they just about kissed boots and the grey cantered past Tiger. They are certainly lucky Tiger doesn’t kick out as much because he’d have been completely justified by the lack of spacial-awareness. I shook my head as the same grey cut off two other riders forcing them to stop or turn quickly to avoid collision. This was a novice rider and not a young girl.
They survived the warmup and calmy made their entrance into the dressage ring. The first team to ride for the beginner novice division. The bell rang and I began rolling the phone video camera as Tiger and Suzanne trotted down centerline.
The beginner novice test is slightly different than the modern BN tests in short format trials but it’s all well within reason. Instead of a halt and salute at X the pair walks 4-6 steps through X then picks a trot back up and turns toward M. Later on in the test the rider does a stretchy trot at A. The rest of the test is similar to the other BN tests.
Our team laid down a beautiful test and was in turn awarded with a very competitive score, setting a high bar for the rest of the division. The judge at C awarded Tiger and Suzanne a 76.11 and the judge at B gave 72.50. They led the division until 11:30 when an 11 year old 13.2hh Fell pony named Kimberlake Jophiel ridden by Molly Smith tied their score. The two pairs led the rest of the division right up until the last horse to ride…. At the end of the division another thoroughbred took the lead. Riley is a 21 year old 15.3hh bay thoroughbred mare ridden by Brielle Rainsberg and owned by the US-based Australian rider, Kate Chadderton.
It was a competitive field of 34 pairs and at the end of the day it was so cool to see two thoroughbreds and a fell pony lead! Even cooler that one of those horses was ours!
Dressage wasn’t the end of our day by a longshot.
After dressage Suzy had steeplechase practice. While she got changed and had a snack/rested for a moment I worked on getting Tiger’s studs in.
We went to the steeplechase field. There were two groups of 3 riders going at a time…the modified and training riders were working with Sharon White on the backside. Suzie gave Tiger a look at the steeplechase jump…a big galloping fence with brush coming off the top. They worked on pace to feel 400 meters per minute and then took a couple jumps at speed.
After practice Suzie and T-man walked the Phase C track.
Once Suzie came back to the barn I helped her untack Tiger while she was able to get dressed in her more comfortable clothes. We had some time to kill between meetings and demands. Tiger was happily resting and eating in his stall. We took that time to head over to the brewery and sit in some chairs and relax for a bit. At some point things devolved to rolling around on the lawn with Ruthie, one of her cavaliers.
At this point the organizers had put out a call for help to tear down the dressage courts and prep for stadium jumping. With Tiger’s day over I made my way back to the dressage ring and met a few other volunteers at 1:00pm.
A group of us pulled apart the two large dressage courts and moved them to the ring we used for warmup. The next day was the beginning of Waredaca’s normal horse trials and dressage would be held there.
With the dressage court cleared we began to lay out the stadium course. Course Designer Kathy White came out and began to walk what would become the event’s stadium round. She had a mission, a plan, and we followed along to make sure we made her vision come to life.
Kathy called out the color poles we needed and we fished them out from a trailer stacked with poles. She know which jump was which color scheme. We placed the poles first…roughly where the course would be. I was having a lot of fun helping and she shared her vision with me as we went. She taught me about her method and her theory behind the decision.
I knew setting up a course was tough but it was eye opening to experience it at a show of this level.
Once the standards, wings and poles were in the right rough locations I walked with Kathy to perfect the measurements. We walked the course and examined each line from one jump to the next. If there were related distances, we used the measuring tape and adjusted the jumps accordingly. We adjusted jumps a lot!
Once we had done all of our measurements and adjustments we went back and walked the course again to make sure we didn’t miss anything. By this time I had missed the time to walk the cross country course with a group. I was having too much fun!
By 4:00 I had to make my way from the now stadium course to the 10 minute box for a grooms briefing. We were taught what to expect and how to plan for endurance day as a groom. It was extremely helpful! We learned what to bring to each phase and how to plan. I never considered the need for diapers and duct tape after the steeplechase! We also learned about what to have ready in the 10-minute box while we awaited the XC start. I took lots of notes and made my list for the next day.
At 4:30 Dr. Chad hosted a wine and cheese party for us. During this time we met to discuss endurance day further. Dr. Chad told us about the vetting process and what to expect. He taught us about what to expect after each phase and how to help our horses recover after the vet released us. He was kind, knowledgeable, and you can tell he wanted to help ensure the recovery of each horse after a long and demanding day. We also learned that next season we will be required to have our horses microchipped with the 15digit chips. Lucky for us both Stanley and Tiger already have theirs!
Finally we were able to tuck Tiger in for the night and head back to our AirBnB. We opted to have a modest dinner we scrounged up at the local grocery store. After dinner we did some girlie stuff and used a collogen firming face mask while we waited for Suzie’s fiancé and mom to arrive from NY.
We had a big day planned for Saturday so we went to bed.
Endurance day here we come!!!!
Happy Sunday!!!
This will be it for the Waredaca Classic series until next weekend. Please join me next Saturday and Sunday at 9am EST to get the rest of the event’s recap!
The Green Horseman 
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