September 18, 2014

Last Friday MGAA hosted an individual competition at the Great Frederick Fair.  We had jackpot divisions for Masters and Fossils, and we also had a non jackpot division for fossils and one for intermediate.

The masters division was a good watch, as always.  The A final had a three way tie going into the final race, with Mackenzie pulling out the win, followed by Kimi, Matt and then Jen.  It was a good run and I really enjoyed watching it.  Kimi had really come a long way with Pepper.  The two make a fantastic pair.  Matt has also grown into a strong masters rider and it really shows.  His skills keep stepping up.  Jen is also an amazing rider, and I love her on her pony Marvin.  That was a good move for her.  Mackenzie is always fantastic and a joy to watch.  Her and Inky are top international level riders, so a top performance is always expected.  And this made it even more impressive to see such close points between the top four riders in this division.

The fossils jackpot was really exciting to watch, with very well matched riders and ponies.  Val took the win, followed my Carol Ann, Zoe and then Ashley.  The three white ponies were pretty head to head for most of the competition, with a mistake taking any one of them out of the running.  As a spectator, it was obvious that Val’s pony, Sprite, was slowing down as the competition went on, and in the final session, he was really being out footed by Zeke and Petal.  Ashley was on her on old chestnut pony, Penny.  Penny was much slower than the last time I saw her go, and Ashley’s skills were out pacing the pony.

The fossil open division is where I placed myself, which made it possible to even out the heats.  I had originally planned to ride in the jackpot division, but with quite a few withdraws just a week out from the competition, as organizer, I had to do a lot of shuffling around.  I was happy in this division though, and found that myself and Jennie rode pretty head to head for the whole competition.  Probably more than half of our finishes were nose to nose with us alternating who was just over the line first.  This was really exciting for me, and I think for Jennie too.  Her pony Emmy is new to the sport, but really took to it quickly.  She threw in a few bucks, but in general the pony has just a touch more speed than Poe.  Jennie ended up besting me in the end, in a well fought race. I am already looking forward to ride with Jennie again. There’s nothing quite as fun as riding against someone that is closely matched.

Lindsey rode Simon, and decked him out in body paint and colorful tail glitter.  He looked extremely enthusiastic, but was pushed over the line of festive, and into the realm of drag queen, with the addition of the boas. Lindsey had a splendid time on him, and in the first heat was just a stride behind Jennie and I as we crossed the line in most races. Although by the final session Simon was loosing interest and lacking speed, and Lindsey was often just making the turn on the C line, as Jennie and I finished our race.

Patti, ever persistent, and ever accurate, pulled in a steady fourth place in our division, giving her usual solid performance.  It thrills me to see Patti competing with a smile on her face and having an excellent time.

I think this was also true for the Green/Intermediate division.  Mackenzie rode her new mare, who is excessively cute.  She rode against Sami and Steph on their new ponies, and Shannon pulled her grey greeny after the first session.  Stephanie took the win, with a very steady performance.

For my own performance I was quite pleased.  Not my best, but certainly not my worst either.  I successfully mounted my pony.  Which was an improvement over the previous weekend.  And I had strong performances in several races including Tack Shop, Association, 3 mug, Flag Fliers, 4 Flag and Balloon.  My weakness showed in Bottle, which was horrible both times.  My carton was also weak.  Neither was a surprise going into the competition.  I was let down with my 3 Pot Flag, and will be practicing my flag skills, particularly my 2 flag style placement.  Otherwise I was pretty pleased with myself.  I could have pushed for more speed at certain points, and played a little less conservatively.  My starts were pretty shoddy too.  Poe was rather fussy about them, and I had to keep him moving.  A few times he shuffled back from the line too much, and I was left in the dust at the start, while he unstuck himself.  I think this falls back on him having too much time off this summer.

This was a really fun competition and it was really good exposure for MGAA!  I am looking forward to doing it again next year!

There are a lot of good photos to go with this post, including a few by myself, one by Ashley’s mom and several by Matt Brown.

C O’Connor Photo: M Brown

K Wilson Muldoon and L Matossian Photo: M Brown

M Taylor Photo: K Wilson Muldoon

V Hoke Photo: M Brown

K Wilson Muldoon Photo: M Brown

M Taylor Photo: M Brown

L Matossian & K Wilson Muldoon Photo: M Brown

K Flemming Photo: K Wilson Muldoon

L Matossian Photo: M Brown

K Wilson Muldoon Photo: M Brown

A Desjardins & V Hoke Photo: M Brown

Z Edington Photo: M Brown

Simon Photo: K Wilson Muldoon

J Stone & K Wilson Muldoon Photo: M Brown

L Matossian, V Hoke, Ashley Desjardins Photo: Desjardins