Showed Up, Had Fun

First off, once again I have zero media. We've been to six shows this year and every single one has had terrible weather. There is a market here for a photographer with a waterproof camera and the ability to fake some good lighting. I'm sure such a person exists, but they are apparently not motivated to come hang out in the monsoons all day for virtually no compensation. Much smarter than us crazy horse girls who actually pay to go swimming, I mean riding, in such weather.

Our only show photo to date. We're  there, I promise ;)

Our warmup was awful, Midge was just not that into it and was super stuck and icky feeling. I channelled my inner Mary King and made the pony go, even though she hated me for it. My persistence helped, but since I still felt like I had zero gas in the tank, we skipped the crossrails and started at 2'. I wasn't overly optimistic Midge was going to show up to the party and honestly just wanted to go home!

The 2' round went ok: the jumps seem tiny to us both now, but Midge was a little spooky and backed off because they are new and scary with lots of fill we dont see at home. So, starting small was a wise decision. I feel like I rode this round really well and made it happen the best I could. It felt kind of icky since the pony wasn't at all committing to jumping anything, but it looked good from the ground, so we got a nice blue ribbon which I half feel like we stole because I saw the second place round and it looked pretty much perfect. ☺

Our second round was 2'3" and a new course with some more huntery jumps. Midge showed up for this one and it was probably my favorite course on her ever. She was over jumping everything like crazy and there were more than a few moments where she was like "Yep, got this, where's the next?" I had a big crazy grin on my face the whole time. Second place in that class, but seriously so proud of how far the Midge has come in the past few months. Remember last fall when it was an accomplishment to have her coordinated enough to simply canter a circle and we trotted around the crossrails?

I was happy to end there, but I had paid for three classes and EC had missed the second, so  off we went for another.

This one went really well, all the way up to the natural oxer with lattice. My own fault, I got a funny distance in and kind of abandoned the pony in hopes she'd figure it out. She half stopped, then was a good honest pony and jumped, but talk about an awkward muddle. The rest of the course went well, and since this is a super positive show series, they were encouraging riders to come back and school any fences/lines they had trouble with. It went much better the second time and we ended there. Obviously no ribbons for that round. Actually, no ribbons for the last 2 rounds since I think the person handing them out abandoned ship in favor of somewhere warm and dry 😊

So, not a bad outing for a not very huntery pony and her definitely not a hunter rider. An excellent schooling opportunity and even a tiny bit of satin to take home. We may try the jumpers next time, since EC and I are both thinking that might encourage me to give her the super positive and forward ride she needs right now as she gains confidence. Also, they start at 2'6" so better practice for us if we want to get to an event or two this year. Even better, the jumpers go after lunch so there is no getting up super early and waiting around all morning!

Right now, I'd say I'm still having more fun with dressage, but that second hunter class gave me some serious inspiration and I think if we persist jumping will be super fun all the time too - we both just need more miles and confidence. Good thing this is an eventing barn and jumping and dressage lessons are both readily available.

To finish, thanks to everyone for the encouraging and supportive comments - attending today's show was totally the right decision and we had a lot of fun.

We've started a tiny ribbon collection