IDS show part 1: Royale's debut

I'm going to split up the show roundup into a couple of posts with lots of photos!

First off, Hampton recovered from his swollen face and looked normal on Friday. My awesome farrier tacked the shoe back on, and we were good to go! More on Hampton next time ... but first, little Royale made his show ring debut!

I'm not sure I have ever had the pleasure of being around a young horse who was so well behaved at their first show. I mean he never put a foot wrong. There was a whinny here and there, but hardly anything to be concerned about.

Saturday morning I got on about 30 minutes before our Intro A test. It was COLD and WINDY. I decided not to lunge because ... well ... I mean it seems smart to get right on a 3-year-old, not-super-broke SADDLEBRED on a nasty windy morning right?

I will admit there was some speed trotting going on, but that was the worst of it. After I let him trot around a while, he calmed down and then was pretty ridable. In the ring he was a super star. Never spooking, very attentive and reasonably steady. There were some wobbly, wiggly moments but it's just young horse stuff.

I was so proud when he got a 66+% and second place!

Liz got on an hour later for Intro B and he was actually starting to run out of gas by then, but they had a much more steady test I thought - this time pulling off a 69%!!

How about that for the chicken nugget?!!!

He is going to be such a nice horse. What a good sport of him to truck around two different riders, off the property at his first show. He was a champ about the warm up ring which actually got a little busy at times.

It makes me so excited about his future! Go skaddadlebreds!