Derby Day, Cinco de Mayo and Carolina Horse Park all in one day! May started out with a bang. Houston and I packed up at 7:30 am to travel 2.5 hrs to the Horse Park for our first horse trials of the season. Neither of us had competed at the horse park we I was very excited/nervous and he was very talkative. He talked to everyone in warm-up, everyone in the barns we passed and every horse that passed him.
The heat rose to almost 80 before we even rode our dressage test- whew! But we got through it with a decent score for us and Houston even greeted the judge upon trotting down the center line with a huge neigh.
2 hours later the cross-country was walked and we were gearing up for a quick show-jumping round and then off to cross-country we went. Show- Jumping was flawless- I love this horse!
 |
| Houston & Jason watching the division ahead of us. |
 |
| Excited to go Cross-Country |
|
|
We started cross-country with gusto and Houston was a machine soaring over everything and keeping the perfect pace. We approached number 10, the water complex and he stopped dead 10 feet away and refused to have anything to do with the water.
 |
| This is as close as we ever got..... |
After about 3 minutes we were eliminated. Houston was genuinely scared and thought something was going to happen if we went in the water, he's not one to refuse or do anything dirty. We will plan some water schooling days this summer and try again in the fall. Nothing changes how amazing he was during EVERYTHING until the water. I'm very proud of my old guy and look forward to the next event.
