it's been intense here, in Guatemala. the girls have all won trophies and ribbons and well, i've been running around with my head cut off after them, making sure they did the best possible, and my concentration on the course has suffered. i've nothing to bring home but some videos and anecdotes.
the first day of competition, the horse i drew from the raffle that had seemed totally amazing and invincible, threw his owner face first into a jump, sending him off in a stretcher with blood pooring down his show jacket.
So with maybe 15 or 20 rides in between me and my encounter with said horse, i was given another. (thanks to a Brazilian who works in Panama and was watching my first mount destroy the course and any hope of making it though intact) But not until after we rushed over, grabbed the bad horse, i jumped on, and tried to make him forget about how he hadn't wanted to jump. no such luck, the horse threw on the brakes, not once, but twice, and then Pitta (the brazilian panamanian) got me new horse, then jumped on the old one and made him go over the jump. Anyway, I hopped on the new one, shaken to the core and literally shaking, and tried to figure this new mount out in approximately 10 minutes. we took down one rail. same the next day, though i remembered to ride the whole course this time, and then today, I rode pretty well, except for one line... we took the first vertical, and the one after that i was not ready for a super duper long spot... but the rest was fast and in style, thhough not good enough to get a ribbon, let alone a trophy.
unfortunate.
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