Prologue: Down with the sickness
Friday before the show, I go into work for a few hours in order to finish the special 9/11 anniversary section for Sunday. During work, I start to feel more and more sick. At first I thought it was allergies, especially since the newsroom has zero ventilation and is gross and moldy. But by noon I knew I was sick as a dog. Great. Just great.
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| Yeah, he was in my nose. Havin' a party. |
After work, I ran out to the barn. Got the trailer packed and both horses bathed. We drove down that night, tucked the horses in bed and spent the night at my Steph's parents house. At this point, I can't breathe through my nose at all and am pretty sure I'm running a fever.
Saturday morning we get up at 5 am. I hadn't really slept because I felt so sick, but oh well. I was going to suck it up. I go to put my contacts in and discover that one of them has a friggin hole in it. SHIT. In a moment of panic I thought I may have to either 1) only wear one contact all day or 2) Show in my glasses. Thankfully, I had packed an extra contact in my overnight bag at some point or another. Whew.
We get to the farm around 6:30 to feed the boys breakfast and make our plan of attack for the day. The schedule is pretty decent - we would be busy, but not scrambling. Up first was Hampton's two dressage tests at 8:16 and 8:27.
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| that little Haflinger in the background was naughty! |
Dressage: uhh huhhh it was gooooood
For a schooling show, the judge was sort of hard on the riders. Not mean, but most of the scores were pretty low. When I went to look at the scores, there were very few people who even hit the 60s. I found this to be a little unusual.
So when Hampton got a 65% I was friggin thrilled! We had a solid, relaxed test. I felt that I was bending him much better through the corners and much more accurate with my figures than I have been in the past. It paid off. We even got an 8 on one of our 20m trot circles! The other test was just as nice, except he decided to yell and throw his head up in the air at the end of one circle. 4 year old moment ... she dinged us with a 4 for that little issue. 62% for that test. Both scores were still good enough to land us in first place for the combined test AND event derby as we headed into the jumping phases. In fact, we were quite a ways in the lead from the other riders.
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| JJ = so adorable. |
As far as cute little JJ, the reining horse I brought along, he was just as wonderful as you could ask. I really give him a lot of credit. Here he is, at his first horse show. With a weird lady on his back, weird tack and a strange place. I just showed him in Intro and he trotted around like a little champ. We ended up 4th in one test (out of 8 horses), and then in 7th our of 9 for the other test. As a reining horse, he is very used to halting, then backing up right away. Well ..... X halt salute, he backs up. *sigh* So that cost us. But it's not his fault. He is cute as a button and has the most willing attitude. I loved showing him. Perhaps I will horse-nap him again for another show someday. :)
The jumping: a leap of faith
So both courses were really flowing and easy to remember. This was good because I was sick, and now drugged up. I was somewhat concerned because a couple of the jumps looked intimidating to me. All we have to jump at home are rinky-dink PVC pipes and a couple of solid white poles. And now I am going to ask Hampton to jump multi-colored crossrails, PLANKS (he has never seen one), and a small gait (again, never seen one). *gulp*. The cross country jumps for the derby I felt a little better about. It was nothing we hadn't seen out on trail rides. Also, I have not jumped a course since college. That would be 2003, people. On a similar note, I haven't jumped much of ANYthing in several years. I knew I was rusty. But Hampton needed me to be confident and show him the way.
So ... I decided to our stadium round first. To my shock -- we go CLEAR. And not only that, by the 3rd or 4th jump, he's actually pulling me to the fences. Ok, so I got jumped out of the tack a couple of times (my mother took a video of this round - I will post the hilarity if she figures out how to upload it). But he was honest and so game about it. It was as if he was like "Ok, I get this game!" I was also thankful I did not braid because I was grabbing mane after his first leap.
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| Weeeeeeee! (yup, I have a fistful of mane) |
I stayed in the ring and went straight out for our derby class. And again, he was pulling me to the fences. Ironically, we had a refusal at the
smallest effing jump on the property. A lame, 2x4 on the ground. I laughed, booted him and we trotted over. We also walked over the rolltop. Fine by me! But only 4 faults for the stop. Landing us in first place for the derby and the CT!!
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| Warm up. |
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| so much fun! |
I cannot even tell you how proud I am of him. Not only did we win, but I felt he came away with more confidence about jumping. PLUS our dressage was relaxed and much improved. He did whinny a handful of times but it's not nearly as bad as it was in the spring. We have come so far this year. He has truly brought the fun back to showing for me and I love every moment of it.
So sorry if this post was rambly and long ... I'm still a bit drugged up and drowsy, but on the road to recovery. :)
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| Good horse. |
