Making a Splash at the Pig Pond Classic

2014 Pig Pond Classic Dressage Warmup Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

By Jennifer Klitzke

My Spanish Mustang Indian’s Legend and I traveled to Ham Lake for the 2014 Pig Pond Classic on June 29 for a three phase event: dressage, stadium jumping and cross country. We are still newbies at this so we entered the baby beginner novice division with 23 other horse/rider teams. The night before the event, the area received heavy rainfall and a few more water obstacles for us to navigate, even around the dressage arena. 

2014 Pig Pond Classic Dressage Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

Indy did great in dressage with a score of 66.88% and rode through the stadium course clean without time faults.

2014 Pig Pond Classic Stadium Jumping Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend  

Now onto the cross country course. Due to the heavy rains, they cross country phase was turned into a schooling opportunity since several areas were under water.

2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

Indy and I could pick which obstacles we wanted to ride through and visit the pig pond as many times as we wanted!

2014 Pig Pond Classic Making a Splash Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

Record June rainfalls weren’t responsible for this monster puddle, but likely add to it’s depth.

 2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Log Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

Indy loves to jump logs.

2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Log Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

And there were plenty of logs to jump!

2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Bank Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

We did some practice riding up and down the bank. I learned that it is important to let the reins slip through my fingers so that the horse can have its head for balance and for me to lean back.

2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Tires Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

This was Indy’s least favorite obstacle. It took three tries before he jumped it and it wasn’t pretty.

2014 Pig Pond Classic Cross Country Forest Jennifer Klitzke riding Spanish Mustang Indian's Legend

Now off to the enchanted forest where there were several logs tucked between the mature trees. What a beautiful place to ride!

Video: Dressage Test

Video: Stadium Jumping

Video: Cross Country 

Thank you to Birchbury Farm for organizing the event. We had a blast! My Spanish Mustang Indian’s Legend and I received the second best score of 23 horse/rider teams in our division!