The first jump in the Classic at Pin Oak.

After our thrills of last week, this second week of Pin Oak brought some adjustments and lessons to my daughter and her silver streak of a horse.

Lauren in her show whites with her number and Irish Sport Horse emblem pad with Feather’s name.

Wednesday found Lauren and Feather back in the ring trying out some new heights for them, jumping 1.05 and 1.10 meters.  It was the first time for Lauren and Feather to tackle the 1.10 meters in competition.  It was pretty amazing.  Feather went in the ring like it was nothing new and jumped around clean and fast.  In fact, she was in first place until the second to last rider who beat her by less than one second out of a large field.

Friday found the team learning some lessons about how tight is too tight to make a turn and how best the mare approaches a jump.  There were no ribbons Friday or Saturday.  But there was a time, just recently, that we would have never expected to get a ribbon at Pin Oak so maybe we got a little spoiled with our riches in Week 1.

Both Lauren and young Feather are new to competitions of this size and working against horses of this stature.  They needed to pay some dues and learn from their mistakes.  Sunday they went back in the ring for a pretty solid ride to a seventh place finish in the Low Adults.  They were invited, based upon their previous week’s performance, to the $10,000 Classic.  That is a lot of money.  But Lauren pulled the first position in the go and headed out first to conquer a new ring and huge, solid jumps.  Feather stopped at the very first jump.  Lauren brought her around and she jumped everything from there with a final downed rail on the last jump.  Her share of the $10,000 was as the 12th place finisher not as the winner (AJ de Leyer was second).

Feather galloping off

But it was a wonderful couple weeks for duo and I know it will be fond memories for us for some time.  What we know for sure is that we have a mare that can take on the best and hold her own.  She definitely is part of the league of winners now.

The scoreboard with Flagmount’s Irish Freedom (or as much of it as would fit) and a look at Pin Oak arena filled with jumps. It was not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for riding along!