Despite hell and high water - er... lots of rain - J and I made it to the schooling show yesterday!
I threw down a quick school on Thursday, and Bailey was finally feeling semi-decent over some of the larger fences, so I told myself "It's a schooling show, chill out" and began, instead, to enthusiastically plan my outfit. It downpoured Friday night into Saturday morning, and the paddock has been reduced to a muddy and slow drying mess. The arena was full of ponds even on Saturday afternoon, so I didn't get my quick 20 minute jump school in, but my tack was clean, and I was feeling vaguely ok abut the whole thing.
J showed up to Ginny having a swollen spot above her knee, but we tossed her in the trailer anyways as she looked sound enough to at least do a W/T dressage test. Bailey must have seen me hitch the trailer or something, because she knew we were up to something, though she loaded peaceably despite scary people working on the shed right next to where we loaded up. We got to the show, got numbers and got J on to see how Ginny felt before their 18" jumping class. She seemed sound and enthusiastic, so into the ring they went. Ginny was much impressed with the fences and jumped J out of the tack over the first... 6 or so. She finally seemed to be jumping a more appropriate height (though still with enthusiasm) by the end of the course, but we clearly have more of a jumper than we expected on our hands! I'm super proud of J and her sticky britches for keeping it together, not going off course and for sticking each of those extravagant jumps.
Bailey and I had our show jumping class next, and Bailey was, at this point, morphing from "freakishly well behaved" show horse to "screaming banshee" because god forbid you separate her from her beloved Ginny! She was pretty good to warm up, though she did throw me a few bucks when I got after her with my crop for screaming at her BFF. There wasn't a jumping warm up, so as they were resetting the course, they allowed me to hop over a fence or two. Bailey was a bit of an anxious rocket, and I was eyeballing a few looky fences on the course with some concern myself. However, despite losing her hind quarters once around a much-tighter-than-I-expected turn, she jumped around clear and speedily. She didn't offer a stop, and went forward to some of the scarier stuff with impulsion when I urged her on. I was thrilled with her, to be sure.
It was a much warmer day than I was expecting, so Bailey was sweaty and gross when we were done jumping - she apparently didn't tap any poles, and the other competitor had a touch, so we won! It feels a bit strange, as the other gal's ride was much smoother and had better turns and a more thoughtful ride than I did. Something to work on, definitely! J was off doing her dressage ride (she ended up scoring the middle of a sizable 12 rider pack) and soon after, we had XC. The format was, though I shouldn't have been surprised, a lesson, so we did things like review two point and practice pulley rein stops. The jumps were simple, but I did benefit from the eyes on the ground - while I don't need anyone to remind me that both Bailey and I were out of shape (and thus, not at our best) - being urged to ride a quieter, more trusting ride to the XC fences was very nice. Bailey was happy to lope all of the fences and jumped nicely when I started to get out of her way and stop chasing. She also did her first sunken road type bank (down, one stride, up) and though the first ride was rocky, she trotted gamely through and though she was tired, kept tying until the last.
Overall, it was not a bad way to end the season; my funds are low for any other adventures, so I am calling it quits. We clearly have some takeaways, and I'm hoping to spend the winter putting a baseline of fitness on both of us, and trying to improve and cement our basics so we can come out with a bang next year.
And now, as a reward for scrolling/reading to the end of this wall of text, here are some obligatory satin shots:
I threw down a quick school on Thursday, and Bailey was finally feeling semi-decent over some of the larger fences, so I told myself "It's a schooling show, chill out" and began, instead, to enthusiastically plan my outfit. It downpoured Friday night into Saturday morning, and the paddock has been reduced to a muddy and slow drying mess. The arena was full of ponds even on Saturday afternoon, so I didn't get my quick 20 minute jump school in, but my tack was clean, and I was feeling vaguely ok abut the whole thing.
J showed up to Ginny having a swollen spot above her knee, but we tossed her in the trailer anyways as she looked sound enough to at least do a W/T dressage test. Bailey must have seen me hitch the trailer or something, because she knew we were up to something, though she loaded peaceably despite scary people working on the shed right next to where we loaded up. We got to the show, got numbers and got J on to see how Ginny felt before their 18" jumping class. She seemed sound and enthusiastic, so into the ring they went. Ginny was much impressed with the fences and jumped J out of the tack over the first... 6 or so. She finally seemed to be jumping a more appropriate height (though still with enthusiasm) by the end of the course, but we clearly have more of a jumper than we expected on our hands! I'm super proud of J and her sticky britches for keeping it together, not going off course and for sticking each of those extravagant jumps.
Bailey and I had our show jumping class next, and Bailey was, at this point, morphing from "freakishly well behaved" show horse to "screaming banshee" because god forbid you separate her from her beloved Ginny! She was pretty good to warm up, though she did throw me a few bucks when I got after her with my crop for screaming at her BFF. There wasn't a jumping warm up, so as they were resetting the course, they allowed me to hop over a fence or two. Bailey was a bit of an anxious rocket, and I was eyeballing a few looky fences on the course with some concern myself. However, despite losing her hind quarters once around a much-tighter-than-I-expected turn, she jumped around clear and speedily. She didn't offer a stop, and went forward to some of the scarier stuff with impulsion when I urged her on. I was thrilled with her, to be sure.
It was a much warmer day than I was expecting, so Bailey was sweaty and gross when we were done jumping - she apparently didn't tap any poles, and the other competitor had a touch, so we won! It feels a bit strange, as the other gal's ride was much smoother and had better turns and a more thoughtful ride than I did. Something to work on, definitely! J was off doing her dressage ride (she ended up scoring the middle of a sizable 12 rider pack) and soon after, we had XC. The format was, though I shouldn't have been surprised, a lesson, so we did things like review two point and practice pulley rein stops. The jumps were simple, but I did benefit from the eyes on the ground - while I don't need anyone to remind me that both Bailey and I were out of shape (and thus, not at our best) - being urged to ride a quieter, more trusting ride to the XC fences was very nice. Bailey was happy to lope all of the fences and jumped nicely when I started to get out of her way and stop chasing. She also did her first sunken road type bank (down, one stride, up) and though the first ride was rocky, she trotted gamely through and though she was tired, kept tying until the last.
Overall, it was not a bad way to end the season; my funds are low for any other adventures, so I am calling it quits. We clearly have some takeaways, and I'm hoping to spend the winter putting a baseline of fitness on both of us, and trying to improve and cement our basics so we can come out with a bang next year.
And now, as a reward for scrolling/reading to the end of this wall of text, here are some obligatory satin shots:
congrats on the satin!
ReplyDeleteYay! Sounds like a great day! Congrats on your ribbon! :-)
ReplyDeleteSatin shots wheeee! ð
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a successful day!!
ReplyDelete