Valinor Farm Oct. Jumper show and Schooling HT

OCT. 2nd- Jumper Show
This was the last jumper show of the season and I wanted to try to get some nice videos for my scholarship. Warm up was great but our courses were not...Our courses just felt sloppy and the the canter changing consistently at the last minute and taking the long spot. This of course resulting in me getting more and more frustrated. I was tied for 2nd for the 2'6 course and so a new jump off course was made. Of course being me I went for the speed and got the 2nd place. We then went to 2'9, same issues...sloppy and long spots. However, when I looked at the videos...It looked a lot better than it felt...it really came to a surprise to me since it felt like the worst jumping I have ever done. I need to let go of this perfection thing, and when one thing goes wrong to just forget about that jump. Every jump can't be picture perfect..right?
Videos can be seen on my youtube channel:http://www.youtube.com/user/MissaRissaJ?feature=mhum

OCT.11th-Schooling HT
This was Carino and I's last horse trials of the season. This was his first season ever showing and this was his third time going beginner novice. My morning started off rough with me feeling very dizzy and sick to my stomach in the car. I was sick the previous week with a bad cold and I think I just didn't get enough rest and food. When I got to the barn I had to get right to tacking up for dressage warm up. He walked right into warm up on a lose rein like he has been and I was pleased. Warm up was good, could of been better if I was on my game but I just wasn't 100% there and feeling right.
When we got to the dressage ring he became a little looky and we lost a little of that connection, but this always happens in the ring. Shows he still needs more mileage in the ring. The test overall felt 'average', I thought we would come out with our average score of a 35% since I just didn't feel a 'wow factor'...but apparently it was just me not feeling so wow because we came out with a 29% our second best score yet! And with a good number of 8's in our test to add. We placed second after dressage so I was surprised but then again we have been placing in the top after dressage pretty much all season.
I then had a good number of hours until I had to jump. So I took care of Carino and let him play in his paddock for a while when I walked my courses. Nothing in the course scared me or came as a shock which was good. Stadium warm up we all seemed to rush since we thought they were running quickly which they were but we all managed to get a perfect amount of time. Carino was great in warm up and listened to me very well. The stadium course ended up being our most fluid and flowing one yet. So, that made the day right there since that was a problem for us at the jumper show and Stoneliegh. We were clear stadium and still in second.
I then had 5 or 10 min. until we went to xc. So we walked around to cool out and have a little break. The first fence was very little and so that was no issue, we were then up the big hill to 2 and he went right over that but had a good look at the jump judges and photographer and took a big scoot type spook but I just kept riding to 3 which wasn't pretty but clear..he then wasn't sure about the hidden trail into the woods but went in warily since there was some sort of machine making scary noises in the neighboring property. Once we got to the bottom of the hill and I could focus him on the jump he knew his job and then up the hill and over the tires fine. A little spook after the tires since he saw all the people in the big field and had a horse galloping right towards him..but showed him our next fence and he was fine...until he decided we were off to the races and showed his big gallop up the hill to the bank which was no issue! He however came back very nicely for the down hill log pile and then flew up hill to the water where he again was surprised there was a person there. I had to 'S' him to the next jump due to rocks and branches but again once he saw the jump he was fine. Then right up the hill and everything was going great to the barrel jump until 3 strides away where we had another spook almost causing a run out but I somehow wiggled and kicked him over it. Then flew down over the ditch as another horse was galloping towards him and flew over the big barn at the end and we were done. The course was clear which was great since no matter what situation he would try and jump it..even if it was sticky. The course felt very fast but this was because he was scooting when he saw a person or something that caught his eye...just shows he still needs mileage to grasp the idea of people around any corner.
We moved up to first after xc since we went clear and the rider in first had a stop during xc giving her 20 penalties. It was a good end to his first eventing season, we have one more show but it is just a dressage schooling show, even though we are going to try our luck at first level for some fun!