The Secret Life of McKenna

HN junior blogger McKenna Oxenden has had a big year, graduating from her rock-star event pony to a green but talented mare. This is McKenna at the base of a mountain, looking up and saying, “We can do this–I think.”

From McKenna:

Remember how the other week I’d reached a wall? Well, I’m right back there. Unfortunately the horse trial did not go as planned for me.

To make the long story short, Gigi and I had two totally different plans as to how our dressage test was going to be… and that’s putting things pleasantly. Despite the fact that our test was pretty wretched, we somehow still pulled out a 44.

Fast forward and our show jumping warm-up was surprisingly excellent! Gigi went into the ring with her game face on, but unfortunately I missed the memo. I was great but then about halfway through I resorted back to my old habits and started to pull. After realizing that continuously trying to attempt was going to be no help, I decided to call it a day and retired.

Overall, I was mainly disappointed in myself and angry that I was not able to get the job done in the end.

So for right now, admittedly so, I’m a bit in the slumps and have lost a little bit of drive… not to mention I feel a bit like a crappy rider.

Although the weekend was filled with some negatives, there was one big positive. Little Dorito and rider extraordinaire Charlotte Oakley rocked around the beginner novice, showing everyone up and WON! I couldn’t be happier to know that all my hard work has paid off in working and training with him. It makes me so happy to see that he can go take someone around their first event safe and soundly.

So, Horse Nation, I guess I need to keep in mind that if I got a 13.2 pony around a Training Level event, I can do anything!

Until next time, I’ll be attempting to keep positive, sit straight, and ride on.