This picture is very important to me because it reminds me of the late summer and fall. During that time period I had a horse called Swiss Bank. We did loads of shows together and won just an amazing amount of ribbons. We were kind of "unstoppable" in the Hunter 2'9" category, most people just didn't have a chance. So my trainer and I decided to go to Spruce Meadows with Banks. At Spruce you can only do jumpers; a speed round of a 10 jump course that is made with many tight turns. Often there is a jump off for everyone who jumps clean. A jump off is a smaller version of the jumper round designed to establish a winner. Banks was practically the perfect horse except he didn't have the same "fancy hunter" jump style that my other horse Velvet has. The one of the main reasons this picture is so important to me is because it was my second week at Spruce and I hadn't won anything yet. There were so many talented riders that I was competing with and so many riders per class; about 35 to 40 riders. In the second week I tried moving up a height category since I was riding well. However, I had become very sick and what we didn't know at the time was I had the flu. So I had a terrible crash when I tried moving up. I fell on my leg and it twisted weird then my head smacked against the ground. At first we thought I was concussed but we couldn't tell since I was so sick. So the next day we just stayed at home and I slept about 12 hours straight plus I had many naps. The next day I felt a lot better. So much so that I decided I would try riding and if it didn't work than we would give up. I felt a little dizzy at first when I was in the warm up ring. It wore off immediately. I had already memorized my 10 jump course and played how I would ride it over and over again in my head. Finally, it was my turn. I walked into the ring, waited for the last rider to exit. Than after the buzzer signifying that I was clear to start at anytime; I saluted to the judge, and picked up my canter in a circle to gather my pace. I sailed around the ring in the same massive, slow and steady pace that Banks did so naturally well. I cut my corners in just the right sports only missing a few that were too risky. I finished in an amazing time that beat everyone and took 20 riders before four riders beat me out of first. That's how I got fifth place but I wasn't disappointed because after I finished my round there was a large round of applause the kind that big names riding at Spruce get. I had never had that after riding a course. It made me feel like a million bucks. Nothing felt better than riding in a victory gallop that you earned.
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