When I brought Eddie out for his morning hack on the hills outside the arena, he was ever so slightly lame on his right hind, which I suspect was from the difficulty at the bank on xc yesterday. I walked him for 20 minutes then tried trot again, but this time in the warm up arena which had very nice footing and he was fine. We let him rest a few hours and when it was time to warm up for sj, he was completely even.

The sj course looked like this, including a double, a triple, bending lines in both directions, a really lovely water-filled Liverpool and max fences as far as they eye could see.
Eddie warmed up beautifully, including mostly staying supple and having some nice lead changes in warm up. (Thank you Gerhard Politz, brought to Iowa by Dr. Stacy Thalacker. )
I warmed up with the help of John Staples and he reminded me about half halting within the rhythm of the canter and keeping my leg on at the base. I reminded myself about keeping my shoulders over my hips at the base of the fence and off we went when our time came.
Here is a shot of the course with the intermediate winners doing their victory gallop.

I entered the ring and Eddie felt calm and cool. We picked up canter and went to fence one, the cactus oxer, and he jumped that and the next 4 fences well. He pulled 5b with a back leg, nice jump over 6, then pulled the rail at 7, the Liverpool, on to 8 just fine, then pulled 9a, but jumped 9b and c and 10 just fine.
The three rails are disappointing, but he was as supple as he’s ever been over a show jumping course. He landed on all the correct leads, he was rateable and felt powerful. All the rails were back leg rubs. I think he needs a little time off or maybe a radiograph of his hocks.

But he was brilliant and we had a great time. We finished third individually in the ATC and our team finished third, so we got a nice set of yellow ribbons. Picture tonight, I hope

The scoreboard says we only had 2 rails, but video, which I will post when I get near my computer tonight, clearly shows three rails. That’s eventing though. Sometimes you get a free rail and sometimes you taste the water in the water complex.
Right now we are watching them drag and water the ring before A show jumping. We saw Becky Holder’s fall on xc yesterday and we are glad she seems to be mostly ok, but sad to hear that “Can’t Fire Me” was non weight bearing on his right front. No Bueno.