May 13, 2019

MA2 was held in Augusta, NJ at the Sussex County Fair grounds. This is a longer drive for me but the grounds are lovely, with two arenas in use, stabling and comfortable camping all close together.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography

I took that Friday off so I could hit the road pretty early. Once I arrived I got Possum settled in and camp set up, then Matt and I got in a nice little ride, joined by some friends. It was early to bed that night since we had our first ride at 730 the next morning. Teammates Val and Jon arrived at some point after the rest of us were asleep.

Photo: Genevieve Arena Photography of Val and Babyface.

We were up and ready nice and early and I was about to tell Possum how great he was being, but just before I mounted up he reared up at me. Twice. I walked him off for a moment then climbed on and he was fine but it did throw me off for our morning session. He was fantastic but I kept anticipating him to be a handful and was not very well focused on my game. I missed two hand offs and was slower than I should have been. Jon snd Val were not their usual selves either and Matt also had a rough race. Carly, unlike the rest of us, rode amazing. Not a typical session for us, and we finished second in our heat, third over all. It felt way tougher than that though.

It’s notable that we had two heats of o25 teams at this competition. The two arenas were only wide enough for five lanes and since we had 7 teams in our division we had a 3 team and a 4 team heat in each session. We were in the four team heat both times. I prefer this because it is a lot more fun with four teams and our scoring system accounts for uneven heats thanks to member Sophie who worked out the scoring process, so there is no advantage to being in one heat or the other.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Jon and Jeeter

Our session two was a whole new reality, and much more our normal. I don’t think anyone made a mistake except me. And even my mistake was to circle the Windsor cone for the turret placement. Sloppy, but not too bad. I ended up going last quite a few times and the team had a tidy lead by then and I was even able to trot a lot of my skills. We came out on top of our heat in the second session, and pulled tightly behind the second place team over all so we were still sitting third going into the final for Sunday. But we were also feeling much better about our performance.

Saturday riding ended late, and it was a rush to get ponies taken care of and dinner in. We followed this up with a camp fire and some socializing and to bed a little later than was ideal.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Matt and Hero

And then the rain started. It didn’t seem that bad but when we got up Sunday morning the officials had a meeting to check out the footing and it was a bit flooded. That arena just does not drain.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Val and Babyface

The decision to cancel Sunday was made, to great disappointment, and I was packed up, loaded, said good bye and was on the road before 9am.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Possum and I in three pit flag.

My team was disappointed as was I personally. I really wanted to ride, and an additional session would have been super good for Possum. We did finish Saturday strong, but it still sucks to drive so far, spend so much money, and then not get in the full ride.

Possum made huge improvements from MA1 to MA2. He was not completely distracted and was able to play his game. I tried the ear plugs in session one but I think he had shook them out and into the bonnet pretty quickly so I didn’t bother for session two and he seemed fine.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Me and Possum

His lack of neck reining got me in litter scoop when I couldn’t fine tune navigate him and found myself too close to the litter. This is something I am working on and that I have no doubt will come with time. He also looked at the bank cone, slowing down significantly in advance, but did go up and allowed me to select my number. Both of these were in session 1 and as mentioned above I was anticipating him to bulk and cause trouble, and I was distracted and did not have my head in the game. His bulk at the cone was actually super minor and if I had been more mentally present I think I wouldn’t have let him literally walk up to it and would have pushed him to it more.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Matt and Hero

I should also note that Simon stayed home for this competition. His rider for the year, Laura, was not there so I opted not to lend him out to anyone else. I do think having Possum there alone was a big help. He wasn’t looking for Simon or worried about him.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – me and Possum

As for my team, they all came together for session two but admittedly session one was rough. Val and Jon are usually clean players (we all are) and they both made a few mistakes, which is very out of character. Their ponies are the fastest on our team, Babyface especially. When Val starts and she is “on” she rocks up and back faster than anyone. Last year Babyface would Flintstone at the tuen sometimes, loosing that speed lead he had acquired, looking around with a deer in headlights expression . Now his turns are getting smoother and smoother gaining him a tidy lead.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Jon and Jeeter

Matt’s litter scoop was a road show attraction with his litter initially being knocked by his pony’s head, but then he continued to flick it all over the place, into the next lane, and back. He also made a lot of wildly wide turns, generally on the end vault, and needs to work on steering with his Hero to bring him around quicker. But really, that’s not bad for having the past year off due to injury.

Photo: Genevieve Arens Photography – Carly and Remy

And to repeat again, Carly rocked it. Her carton was hilarious and the only race she really messed up in. And it wasn’t even an actual mess up. Remy jumped the bucket, but she still got her dunk, thought she missed and near fell over his head checking. Hilariously it was all caught on camera by Genevieve Arens and makes a great photo series. Remy and Carly make the best faces.

So it was a rough start, but an ass kicking finish on Saturday and a giant bust for everyone on Sunday. And now the long wait till MA3.

Check out this photo series of Carly in carton

This photo series by Genevieve Arens Photography