2013 MGAA Mid-Atlantic #1 Mounted Games Competition

May 1, 2013

The MGAA – Mounted Games Across America – Mid-Atlantic Mounted Games Series started up this weekend with the first edition held at the PG Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

I arrived Friday afternoon and set up camp. Shortly after my teammates and other fellow MGAAers also arrived and set up for the weekend. A couple of us got in a nice hack Friday evening, before grabbing a bite to eat and turning in at a reasonable hour.

My team, Old School, competes in the adult “fossil” division, which usually starts off the day as the first division. This weekend my usual team of Linda, Carol Ann and Kim was joined by longtime friend, Jon and his newish pony Jeeter. Kim was also on a new pony, Milli, who has been blogged about a few times, starting back in December. We all met up in the ring, bright and early Saturday for our first session of 12 games.

We started off pretty decently, with some hand off situations to clear up and some other new pony circumstances to accommodate for. But all in all it was a good session. Simon and I rode clean, with no mistakes, as did most of the team. And we reworked some things before we went back in the afternoon for our second session of 12 games. We must have sorted something adequately because we finished the session in second. Simon and I managed to run clean again, as did most of the team, although Simon was starting to slow down even more than his usual slow pace.

It is never surprising in this division how a single simple mistake can kill the whole race for a team. For the most part riders in the adult “fossils” division complete races cleanly, and at a pretty good clip. With vaulting not being a predominate skill among all riders in the division, teams that have even a few vaulters can annihilate in races that require dismounting and remounting. Our team does not have any vaulters, and it is pretty evident in a few particular races.

After the second session we got together and discussed the orders for Sunday. Taking into account the changes the ponies were making and how the new ponies were developing.

Saturday after the final session I had a meeting with the MGAA International Team. This is a really exciting topic that I have not mentioned yet on this blog and I am not going to elaborate on at this time. So grab that suspense and enjoy the wait until I do start blogging about it in the months to come. Be excited! I am!

After the meeting I spent the evening socializing with my teammates and friends, laughing, eating, roasting marshmallows and playing with Puppies. It was a lot of fun, and Ill talk about ‘pony shock training’ in another post.

Sunday we were back to the ring for our 15 race final session. We hit the field hard with a terrible warm up race through bending, fearing that we were showing our worst side for the day. But luckily we were just working out some bugs and got our tails in gear for the start of the real first races. We cruised through the session, with Kim and Jon both borrowing Simon for a race a piece, and a total bumble on my part in ball and cone race. I pulled up too soon for my placement and was not quite close enough to reach the cone, and Simon was being a pig about moving up to it, so I placed it lefty, which sometimes seems to trick the pony on protest. I think Simon decided to get me back though, because he flicked his tail out as far as it could go, and popped the ball back off the cone. I am always aware of his backend, and had made a point of keeping it clear, so he had to have stretched his tail to its maximum to reach the ball. Stinking pony. I officially killed that race for our team, because, as previously mentioned, a single screw up in a race can cost it all for you.

Also by the final session Simon was totally carousel-ing out on me too. Plodding along at his happy merry-go-round pace, with no urge to race what so ever. He knew what he was doing and I am giving him the virtual stink eye as I type this. Smart evil pony.

I started the final race, flag fliers, and I was rockin on through it, and actually getting a decent simon-pace out of him, and somehow, my flag pull went to pot. As in, it didn’t leave the pot! I felt it slide between my two middle fingers but I wasn’t able to grip at that angle enough to keep hold of it and it slid back into the holder. BOO. Luckily it didn’t come out and I just needed to circle back for it, but wow, does it suck to mess up in the last race of the weekend. Genevieve of EquiStar Photography (who so awesomely allows me to use so many of her fantastic photos on this blog) just happened to get a great shot of me “pulling” the flag and you can totally see it popping up but not in my hand. I wonder if she can photoshop a flag into my hand?

In the end our points from all three sessions added up to a third place finish. I suppose a yellow ribbon does match our team gear. SO pa-za! But Blue matches our gear too.

I already posted about how I locked my keys in the back of my truck in the cap in a previous blog post, which sort of capped off the packing up on Sunday. Otherwise it was a wonderfully uneventful drive home and a great start to the 2013 MGAA Mounted Games Season!