Carnival in Norco Vaulting Competition
On February 15, 2015 I had my second equestrian horse vaulting competition. My teammates and I from Valley View Vaulters headed out to Norco to compete in the "Carnival in Norco". This was my second competition and I was showing in 4 different classes. I was supposed to be using Waldmeister, but he was lame as he was limping on his left front leg. In all truth, I think he was copying me. The previous week at practice my left leg developed a big bruise and started to swell. He had been doing fine, but when we took him out that day, the same day my leg started to have a problem, he started limping too! I appreciate the support, but I would have appreciated it after the competition!!
Ben and Waldmeister have much different gaits and bodies. Ben is much more bouncy and has a bigger gait. This was also his first competition ever. Fortunately, Ben was amazing at the competition. He acted like he had been doing this for years.
It was an extremely long and tiring day, but all my teammates did extremely well. We had a lot of friends and family come to support us which we all appreciated greatly. We could never do this without everyone's encouragement.
At the end I ended up with two blue ribbons for my freestyle on the barrel and my compulsories on the horse; I got second place for my compulsories on the barrel and freestyle on the horse.
I can't wait to get back out there and keep practicing and improving for the next competition. It's an awesome feeling to see myself gaining skills and building on things I couldn't do before.
Here's the video from the competition. Thanks Julia Cox Vaulting Videos for filming!
