Michael rode Maya, a three-star eventing horse, in her debut at Lexington, Kentucky. In dressage they achieved a flowing test with good canter work. Cross-country had a 20-penalty error from a miscalculated stride into a hedge, while show-jumping went cleanly except for one rail down.
This video is intended for the MYA group. Mya has just finished her first three star long down there in Lexington, Kentucky, and we had young Michael aboard her for this big challenge. This was by far the hardest event that she's ever competed in. And now what you're seeing here is her dressage test on Thursday. Mike really worked hard at her dressage. He got down there actually on Monday and schooled her a couple times a day of really working hard at getting her relaxed, soft. And I thought he did a great job, especially in the trop work here. She's uphill, she's flowing and she's, you know, he did a good job of getting the nerves and excitement out of her, but also leaving her fresh enough to show off her great paces. So obviously we threw Mike in the deep end, putting him with this horse at this big event and Mike did a good job. Sadly, on the cross country day, my was a bit green and Mike was a bit green, to be honest. It was a combination of rider and horse error. Mike, I told him to go as fast as he could and really try and make the time and finish the, you know, try and be as competitive as you can. And there was one combination. I think we've got part of the jump on our video where it was a hedge to hedge in four strides, possibly five strides, and both Mike and Maya saw a big, long, wild ride in and went across there in three strides and sadly there was a skinny, really skinny jump after it and. And they just didn't have an opportunity. She didn't even see the narrow. She glanced off at all. She wasn't even in a position to present. So sadly, she picked up 20 penalties by saying that I think this weekend was a great education for her. She, you know, she's been a very, very talented horse in all three phases and with me being injured this year a lot, it. Mike did us a big favour by competing the horse and training the horse a lot. And I'm desperate to get back on and now that I'm back in action. But like I said before, I think that the horse really gained a lot of experience through this competition. The key with her dressage is she is to try and get through this test without a hiccup and Mike did a good job of that. You know, part of the instructions were not to go too big in this extended canter, just showered off a little bit so that she doesn't sort of get too wound up. And he did a great job. And this is some of the best canter work that Maya's done in the dressage. And these canter walks are still a work in progress, but we've nearly got them perfect. Now I'm at the beginning of the season, they were sort of a canter trot walk, canter. Now they're almost a canter walk. And that's a bit of a balance and strength issue, which is getting better and better. Maya came through this event really, really sound and healthy. For a horse at this level, competing at a. At a competition, that's as hard as this is, she's really, really a sound horse. The vets hardly even take a second look at her when we do the weekly trot ups. She's. She's been a fit, healthy horse and we had a very, very fit for this one. You can see there, she's quite athletic looking. So we're planning to give her a couple weeks off here and then in that time that we're giving her a bit of a rest, we're going to feed her up a bit because she dropped a bit of weight, traveling all the way to Kentucky. So this is cross country day. It was really cool. We got to ride around the same horse park as where they have the Kentucky five star. And this is sort of midway through the course. And Mike's doing a good job at just trying to keep her balanced. She's brave as all hell and she's fast. And I think this is the next jump where hopefully, if we had our time over again, we'd come way slower to the first hedge. And like I said before, this was supposed to be four strides or possibly a steady five. And Maya and Mike saw it back there and the elbows pump and he sort of ripped across here in three. And there's actually a narrow fence that we missed it on video, but he just sort of galloped by, circled around, jumped the fence and away and finished the course well. So it was a bugger because it wasn't really a disobedience on Maya's part. It was more that she didn't quite understand of which jump she was jumping. Anyway, this is, let's see, Saturday morning, she trotted up beautifully for the judges and then this was the show jumping. The show jumping's obviously one of my favorite phases. Just because she is such a great jumper, she has the next pole down. I think in hindsight, she maybe came a little bit open and got a little bit close to the fence and just knocked it out in front. And then after that, she really starts sort of jumping heights, the sort of ride you want to have them the warm up. But Maya jumped beautifully in the warm up and she jumps the rest of this round really, really well. And Mike rode her great. One rail down. Any horse can have a rail. It was hard to make the time on this course, so Mike did a good job at not wasting too many strides setting her up and she jumped beautifully. So we plan to give Myra a couple weeks off here. We're still madly trying to market her a little bit and then we'll build her up for next year. And by that time, I'm hoping to be back in the saddle with her. So thank you for all your support this year, guys. It's been a real building year for Myra and we look forward to next season.
Building Bravery Through Competence - An NF+ Masterclass Exclusive with Boyd Martin
