It had to happen sooner or later!
It was the annual show at my yard on bank holiday Monday- never done anything like it before, but bought a tweed jacket and a showing cane, and decided to enter a couple of classes.
First of all, Best Turned Out. Got a special, but I think that was mainly because his tail is growing out from being pulled, so I couldn't plait it- another inch and I would have, grrr. Still, I'm getting much better at plaiting his mane. And next year I'm buying some show white for his socks.
Then we were getting warmed up for the "Riding Club Horse" class, and my inexperience meant that when his feet went out from underneath him (cornering in trot, not fast, mildly downhill) I didn't throw my weight over the outside to help him to right himself and instead we both hit the grass.
Got straight back on (helped by a friend's husband, who also found my hearing aid in the grass) and went into the class with total jelly-knees, feeling like Crying. Flash was so excited though, mainly because he thought we were there to do all the hunter jumps (not today, sorry mate). Our individual show consisted of him assuming I was pointing him at all sorts of fences "this one? Yay! Oh? How about this one? Whoop! No? Hmm. Surely this one?!" However, we jumped the single upright as required, and Came 5th out of 6! Amazed!
Next class (4 gallons of sweat later, 27 degree heat and wool tweed doesn't mix well) we were required to jump an upright and a spread. So we practiced the spread in the warm up arena- it was well over 2'... It was like sitting on a flipping homing missile! Boy, is he fun to jump! Whoomph! He thought that every time I turned towards the warm up fences I was going to ask him to jump, so I had to spend 5 minutes circling him in trot and canter until he got bored of that idea.
Final class was "Competition Horse". There were 3 of us in it - and we came second!
So we've learned something and started our frillies collection!
Dressage on Monday, and Cross Country Clinic tomorrow... can't wait to see how he is over XC fences. Quietly hopeful our dressage score might improve too because I've almost got him with a head down in trot!
As your reward for reading this essay, here are some photos from Monday. View media item 25155View media item 25156View media item 25157
It was the annual show at my yard on bank holiday Monday- never done anything like it before, but bought a tweed jacket and a showing cane, and decided to enter a couple of classes.
First of all, Best Turned Out. Got a special, but I think that was mainly because his tail is growing out from being pulled, so I couldn't plait it- another inch and I would have, grrr. Still, I'm getting much better at plaiting his mane. And next year I'm buying some show white for his socks.
Then we were getting warmed up for the "Riding Club Horse" class, and my inexperience meant that when his feet went out from underneath him (cornering in trot, not fast, mildly downhill) I didn't throw my weight over the outside to help him to right himself and instead we both hit the grass.
Got straight back on (helped by a friend's husband, who also found my hearing aid in the grass) and went into the class with total jelly-knees, feeling like Crying. Flash was so excited though, mainly because he thought we were there to do all the hunter jumps (not today, sorry mate). Our individual show consisted of him assuming I was pointing him at all sorts of fences "this one? Yay! Oh? How about this one? Whoop! No? Hmm. Surely this one?!" However, we jumped the single upright as required, and Came 5th out of 6! Amazed!
Next class (4 gallons of sweat later, 27 degree heat and wool tweed doesn't mix well) we were required to jump an upright and a spread. So we practiced the spread in the warm up arena- it was well over 2'... It was like sitting on a flipping homing missile! Boy, is he fun to jump! Whoomph! He thought that every time I turned towards the warm up fences I was going to ask him to jump, so I had to spend 5 minutes circling him in trot and canter until he got bored of that idea.
Final class was "Competition Horse". There were 3 of us in it - and we came second!
So we've learned something and started our frillies collection!
Dressage on Monday, and Cross Country Clinic tomorrow... can't wait to see how he is over XC fences. Quietly hopeful our dressage score might improve too because I've almost got him with a head down in trot!
As your reward for reading this essay, here are some photos from Monday. View media item 25155View media item 25156View media item 25157