Just So Pleased

Bridget loaded up this morning just fine, then happily relaxed and ate her breakfast at the show site. I think she thought we were just going out for breakfast! I just love having a zero drama pony.

Warm up ring was super crowded and chaotic, but again, baby pony was a star. I could feel she was uncertain, but with Bridget that just manifests itself with her being wobbly and a bit backed off - almost like she is saying "please let's slow down so I can process all of this!" 

Our cross rails warm up was a little more of the same - pony was kinda slow and unsure. Over jumping everything and generally kind of looky. Still, I was super pleased - it was her first show and maybe her third full course ever and she cooperated with my requests and got it done with zero drama. The main arena is super spooky - bleachers and concession right up against one side, and some shrubberies concealing a busy hiking/mountain biking trail on the other. The judge's booth is on the end and is a two story thing...also they had a speaker system playing music. The jumps were fine - there was a polka dotted one that a lot of the horses looked at, and there were also potted plants that would randomly fall over lol. The fact Ms Bridget looked but still went around made me pretty proud of her!

Crappy pic just to give you a bit of an idea:

Next, we had a cross pole hunter round. I was nervous about forgetting the course, but thankfully not worried at all about Midge. Midge still felt way more tentative than she has been at home, so we trotted into the first couple of jumps and trotted most of the corners. For once in my life I got my diagonals consistently without having to think on it - shameful to admit but I am totally left/right/inside/outside challenged and things relating to that never feel natural and always require a conscious effort to get right. With a little convincing, Bridget cantered all the related distances in a fairly straight path. Probably her best round ever (although I guess that's not saying much - it was also only her 4th or 5th round ever lol). I was very happy because that was the goal we set - to have a round at the show on the same level as what we are doing at home. Overall, I felt like it went well. We trotted way too often to be "legit" hunters, but no leads or diagonals were missed and the distances we cantered all rode nicely. Bridget wasn't as confident as we would have liked, but she quietly got it done. Tons of pets and scratches for baby ponies!! 

When they had run through everyone (30 people apparently - so crazy for a small show!), we got a chance to go back in for a schooling round. Bridget felt a little more confident, but not enough to make us want to continue on to the 2' division. We rode some in our lesson Wednesday, and she was fine so we had entered her, but both EC and I felt like Bridget was a little too unsure today and had still tried so hard, so we we ended on the good note.

I placed her back at her hay net to enjoy a well deserved brunch, where one of the barn girls delivered this:

Silly me, was so not expecting anything so I didn't stick around for the ribbons. Seems that a lot of people had trouble with the spookiness of things, so the poor judge mustn't have had much choice in our little adult rider group :) Still, her first ribbon and I will proudly keep it. I am super proud of the Midge!!

Fingers crossed someone got some actual riding photos...of course I did ask but everyone was quite busy with other (more) important things and may not have got much.