The Secret Life of McKenna: That’s a wrap

This week junior blogger McKenna Oxenden reflects on the year that was and looks forward to a winter full of “practice, practice, practice.”

From McKenna:

The 2012 eventing season has finished, and I don’t know about yours, but mine ended with a pretty good bang.

Gigi and I attended Full Moon Farm for our last event of the year. I even signed up for the “big” novice!

The event went almost as well as I could have asked for. Gigi put in a fantastic dressage test. Courtney and I both agreed upon the fact that it was probably the best test she could’ve given me that day. Her trot work was fabulous, as was her walk, but as usual the canter still needs some work but it was still a vast improvement over MDHT’s test!  We scored a 36.2 and I was very, very pleased!

I had a pretty good SJ warm up and was going into the ring feeling good… and then I rode mediocre. The good news is that I have ridden much worse in show jumping but the bad news is that for the first part of my show jump course I didn’t ride all too well. Gigi was also being a bit spooky and looky to the majority of the fences. After about fence five, I pulled head out from my behind and then actually RODE and it went well! Once I develop a rhythm, all goes smoothly so I just need to work on finding that rhythm beginning from the first fence.

XC… oh XC… FLAWLESS. Literally, flawless. I couldn’t have asked for a more foot perfect round than I had. Gigi made quick work of everything and despite the fact that she was quite looky at a few things, she still put on her big kid undies and jumped wonderfully! I was really quite proud of her as all of the stuff she’s normally a bit timid about, she tackled with ease! On XC I was a lot more in a neutral position, staying out of my chair seat for all of the fences.

So now I just need to transfer XC on over to SJ and I will be set… 🙂

While I am sad the 2012 event season is over, I can’t wait to start fresh next year and look forward to the future. I get sad that we don’t have too many events during the winter but I can’t lie. I do get a bit excited that we can relax just a tiny bit! Although I am getting right to the grind on practice, practice, practice, and this weekend Dorito and I will be competing in what will probably be our last competition together. We’re attending a local jumper show and I am really excited… It’s going to be pretty bittersweet.

I’m ready for jumper shows, crazy lessons, AIKEN, and No Stirrup December (okay, maybe not that!)