Ooooh thank you God for your bountiful blessings! Thank you for the respite from the sads... thank you for the hope restored... thank you for the fabulous weekend full of ponies and friends!
After my lesson Tuesday I decided that maybe I was comfortable enough (with ibuprofen) to go show. Especially since I learned that Jacel wasn't going to be going to any shows in December. Ack! So I emailed Poplar to see if I could enter late and ... I got in!! I even asked Mike about it before I entered and bless him, he told me YES... Seize the day! Essentially! He said that if I felt good and Funny was good that I should go and do and enjoy it. I love him! And I already had Friday off because of the earlier plan to show and was able to move my one patient that I had rescheduled for then to the following weekend. (Actually, she rescheduled on me initially, so I didn't feel too bad). So Friday morning I got up and finished packing for the show and we were even ready a little early. I debated giving her a bath first but... then she caught wind and her and Lyric took off galloping around the field when I went to catch her. Grrrr... fools! But good job lunging yourself first. :) Although we were planning to school XC today and then show a three phase tomorrow, so... don't wear yourself out! After they had their fun I caught her and decided to just go to Poplar. I figured she'd be sweaty after schooling and would need a bath then anyways.
We got to Poplar and got settled. I was so proud of her because she settled right in and was even eating her hay!! Compared to the last show where she hardly ate anything the whole time this was big progress! There was a bit of chaos with Jacel trying to get everyone schooled and the stadium ring not being open and rain but she managed to get it all done! Laura and I schooled together, as we were both running novice. We hacked out to the warm up and trotted a little bit and then jumped over the small log twice. We trotted it first and Funny jumped it beautifully... from the trot!!! Jacel said that might be the best she's ever trotted a fence. I laughed and said it was because I didn't think she knew she was jumping until we were at it! Because we had a really quick warm up. (But rain, daylight fading, and Jacel still had to coach Monica and Jordyn and Grace, so... we were trying to be quick). So we headed over to the course.
We headed up the hill to the first fence, which was a shared novice/BN fence and Funny stopped. Ugh. Seriously? Except I probably should have seen it coming. She was a bit squirrely because there was a golf cart running by that distracted her and horses all around and she was a bit distracted and I didn't really ride... I just cantered her up the hill and then... let her suck back and stop. So we circled and I rode and she jumped it. So then we went to the second fence and had the same stop. Ugh... Come on Holly! Jacel told me to get gritty and RIDE! I couldn't take it for granted. Funny is game, but she's green. And there was a lot going on. So... I rode and she jumped it but not very bravely so we circled and did it a third time. It was just a "train" roll top thing.. nothing alarming. But then it was fine from that point on. I think the group behind us was BN and they went a different path which helped us both settle. The third fence was a big bench down the hill. (Actually I just now realized it was the fence in the woods before she stopped at (although that was the BN one). I actually rode and she jumped it great. Which was extra nice because it was rather big and scary looking to me. Then the course had us go down the hill and up a hill and then curve to a wedge. Not a real corner, but a wedge. Which I actually liked better than a big fat table. Jacel said not to worry and just jump it like a table. I said "no... I'm gonna jump it like a corner cause that's less scary to me". Ha ha. And she jumped it fine so then we carried on to the next fence which was a coop and she jumped that fine. Laura was following behind me and Smarty did all the things too. Then it was a sharp turn to a trakehner. Ooooh... that's a beefy jump for Novice. And the BN was a fake ditch and wall thing. They did give BN a plain ditch as an option and Novice a coop as an option. I let Funny walk up to the trakehner and sniff it and she was a little jumpy about it. Hmmm. So we cantered over the ditch first and then came back around and she just jumped over the trakehner like it was no big deal really. Sweet!!! She actually jumped it better and braver than Smartie! (though that doesn't really mean anything... but it still made me proud). Then we trotted the water and jumped a boat on the backside. I went ahead and cantered on to the big yellow and red table/rolltop and then we did a little roller coaster down a hill and up a hill to another coop. She jumped them all great and then I pulled up and waited for Laura and Jacel. The next fence was a half coffin... a rounded table thing to the ditch. Funny sucked back and squirted to the side but then leapt the ditch so we did it twice and the second time she was braver. Then we had an up bank to a circus tent table, of which she was squirrely. She tried to run out of the up bank and I let her. Ugh. So then we came again and she was fine. Then we had a log stack and then a hanging log over a base (like chatts fave) and then a long downhill approach to another log over a base thing, but there were so many leaves at the base of that one and on it that it was a little confusing. Funny jumped them all fine. She steeplechased the downhill hanging log though! Then you had to cross the road and do another log stack thing.. then we didn't have the second water but you could go through it or around it and up to the final short little rampy coop fence. She was good through those too. So then Laura and I hacked them around the course again to memorize it and then headed back to the barn. We got rained on a little while we were schooling but it was more of a misting rain than anything else. So we were wet but not miserable. And it was still pretty warm.
The ponies got a "bath" and then poulticed. They got dinner and Funny ate all of it!! Yay! I also gave her sucralfate, which helped I'm guessing. Then we all hung out and had a potluck in the barn aisle. It was so fun just hanging out and chatting. Oh how I needed this! Honestly.. even if the show itself was a disaster, schooling and haning out was such a nice happy respite in my recent sads. Ahhhhhh..... I walked Funny again and then headed to the trailer for bed. My back held up great for schooling, which again, Thank you God because... I wasn't sure what was going to happen. It was starting to be a little sore again once my ibuprofen wore off, but... not too bad.
Show morning arrived. I didn't sleep great but oh well. I never do. I got up early and fed Funny. I did give her sucralfate but she didn't want to eat her breakfast. Well poo, but... she had finally drank a while bucket of water overnight (her handimash bucket) so that made me feel better. I hosed the poultice off and then laughed because the night before when I poulticed her I was joking that I always forget to knot their tail but with her it didn't matter as it wasn't long enough to reach the poutice anyways. Except I had poulticed her hocks too and apparently the last two inches of her tail brushed against it enough that they were white! Only I didn't realize it til after I had hosed her off, so I just ignored it. It's fine. She's spotted and multicolored anyways. I kept myself busy with walking her, browsing the tack store, watching Jacel ride her dressage test, and chatting with friends. Finally it was time to get ready for dressage. I probably got on too early again, but... stress.
We got to warm up and she wasn't too bad really. She was a bit quick and a bit fussy when I put my right leg on. She was fussier tracking right. But we did manage to get settled and had some really nice work. And then we rested. And then when I picked her back up she got quick and feral again... but then settled again. And we even got a nice canter. So then we rested and then I picked her back up and quick and feral again.. but again, she settled. So overall our warm up was quite nice. I felt like she wasn't running off her feet... she was a little more engaged in her hind end, and she was even kind of in a soft contact and not as fussy. And definitely not behind the vertical as much. Finally we got to go in and our judge was Cindy! HI!!! But oh.. embarassing. ;) Oh well. We went in and did out test. We started out quite nice really... she was in a good tempo and seemed happy enough. She wasn't super fussy. We got through the left rein stuff and the walk work and then when I picked her back up and started to the right, she got quick and fussier. She started throwing her haunches around and threatening to rear or buck a time or two. I finessed it and managed to keep her from escalating and we managed to finish the test doing all the things, but it was definitely not as nice as the first half. And our stretchy trot was pretty awful until the very end. But we managed a semi-decent halt and it was an actual halt, so.. win! I knew it wasn't an awesome test, but I thought we had made some progress and the first half was pretty good. Except.. ha.. not so much. Cindy scored us a 37.7, which... surprisingly put us in 2nd place of 4. Huh! I watched the video and was highly disappointed in it. She was slower in her tempo for sure... so that's a win. But she was braced in her underneck, not in the bridle at all, trailing behind, on the forehand, and towards the end, she was haunches out. And her tail was stuck left. And I don't know what I was doing.. my body looked like it was going seven different directions at once. I'd like to blame it on "guarding my back" but... I don't think that was it. So... the score and comments were pretty accurate. So I was a little disappointed, but... I had to remind myself that... it was way better than even a month or so ago. And our warm up felt better. And there were parts that were better. So.. baby steps. I hosed her off as it was so hot and humid and she was sweaty! Sorry baby girl.. I should have clipped all your hair!
We walked stadium and it looked fun. I even managed to eat a little bit of food! Then we got tacked up and went to warm up. She gave me a beautiful clean change when I asked in warm up! And the we jumped a few jumps and she was jumping well. The first one was icky but it's because I lifted my hands too high and shut her down. When I kept my hands low it was fine. LOW HANDS! I can half halt but I have to let go and have to do it with low hands. Laura went first and had a great round with one rail. Bummer!! She still was in first though because she had more than points ahead of us and the others. So then I went in and Funnyw as perfect! It was one of our best rounds...so smooth and flowing. We had one rail because I did the plan and turned her shoulders and rode well, but I just didn't engage the inside hind quite enough and she sort of fell in on the turn and got to a tight distance without the impulsion so she dropped one rail. Poo. But otherwise it was LOVELY! Yay!
We walked back up to the barn and I put her boots on and my vest and then we headed back down to XC. We had a bit of a wait but.. it was that awkward.. not enough time to untack or do anything else but too much time to just go straight over. We hung out and the ponies were tired... they were just napping. We did pop over one warm up fence and then walk around a bit so they were awake when it was time to go. Jacel told me ... "I say this with love and I want you to hear it how I intend it... Don't HAVE SO MUCH FUN!" Seriously.. you're the only one I have to tell to have less fun.... Enjoy it but RIDE... don't take it for granted... ride gritty!! Be there for her". Yes ma'am. Hee hee... But I know what you're saying...
So... off we went!! I had joked to Laura that I didn't have a watch so I was relying on her to be on time because if I was going to pass her I would know I was way too fast and if I didn't catch up to her I'd figure I was on time. :) So we headed out and we had an absolute blast!!! That might have been the most fun course we've done. She was perfect! I rode to the first fence and she never faltered... same from then on out. She just clocked over everything like she was a novice packer! Well, mostly. We trotted into the water but then picked up the canter again. And there was one fence that she got a bit too long too and she had to scramble to get over it quickly, but thank you God she did. And then after the leaf filled jump we had to cross the "road" and there was a ditch/ravine we were trying to avoid... but I went too far and hit the ditch/ravine farther down so we had to swipe hard right to avoid it. Ha ha. But she did. She was SUPER ridable! And then she trotted into the second water because it was kind of a twisty turn. And then cruised back up the hill to the finish fence. Laura was waiting for us so yay... we didn't pass her. Turns out, we did have speeding tickets though. Whooops! Optimum was 5:30, and speeding faults was 4:45. We came in at 4:31 I think. Doh. Oh well. We had moved to 4th after the rail anyways, so..who cares? That was soooooo much fun!! Turns out, one girl had a stop and another girl retired, so Laura finished first and me and Funny finished second! Whooo hooo!!!!
She got the big girl treatment and got poulticed again and she got to settle in a bit and eat some hay. She even finished some of her breakfast while I was packing up. We were just about the last ones to leave so she got a little upset when she was one of the last few horses there, but she was able to see me. And she nickered to me a lot. Awwww.. We finally got packed up and loaded up and headed home.
I'm so grateful to God for this whole show weekend. I needed that so much. It filled my soul. And I just love this team.... we had so much fun hanging out and cheering each other on. And it was so nice to pray with Jacel before each division. And... I saw another coach and student praying before her dressage too. Awesome!
Look at my beautiful girl!!!!
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