Alright Funbuns!!! Way to be a professional! Mostly ;)
We decided to show at Stableview this weekend. Jacel couldn't come so it was just me and Laura. And Jo decided to come and hang out and be moral support and papparazi. And we ended up stabling with Lauren, Laila, Kerry and Emily, so that was fun.
We got there Saturday and it took me a minute to find a place to park. And my truck was sounding and feeling quite sketchy! I really don't think that the guy did the delete and tuning right. It was bouncing like a base hopper when I pulled up. I finally managed to get parked and settled. Laura had her saddles fitted so we coordinated so when she was done we went out to school the course. We walked around a little bit and then walked through the stadium ring to let Funny warm up as Smarty had already done a good bit. I popped her over two of the warm up fences in XC schooling and then decided we were ready to go. We kind of played musical ponies. I'd jump one or two or three in a row first and then Laura would... then she would just one or two and I'd follow. It worked well. And Funny was PERFECT! Well, mostly. But seriously... she jumped the entire novice course at stableview first try. And stableview ain't no joke! She went in the water without stopping or propping or even slowing down. She jumped the bendy line to the corner without hesitating. Although our line was awful and she kept taking flyers or chips, but that was a me problem. They had a full coffin on a bending line that she jumped!! Well, we jumped the first one and didn't realize that it was a coffin and didn't see the ditch, so we circled around and jumped the whole coffin first try. They even had a faux trakenher. I did let her look at that first but she jumped it fine. We had soooo much fun! After we jumped the course we walked to the dressage arena and let them walk in there. Our arena was by the stadium headquarters so it was a bit spooky. And they have all those flags. She was a bit on edge but was good, so I'm glad we did walk in there.
When we were done she got a bath (Cold water!!!) and was pretty good. Then we put them in their stalls and she even ate all her dinner and was munching hay. And she wasn't spinning or screaming or being ridiculous! YAY! She's growing up! We (me, Laura, and J0) all went to dinner at Christina's house (Laura's friend who I've met before and is wonderful) and stayed with her. It was a sleepover :) It was nice.
The next morning the temps had plummeted, which we knew was coming. It was going to keep getting colder and windier all day and be about 30 degrees colder at home by dark! We tacked up and it was chilly and windy but not too horrible just yet. We decided to not warm up in the indoor because they have those big giant sunshades next to the indoor and the wind was blowing so hard... I just figured we'd be better off in the outdoor warm up area. (Which they now have, which is nice since before Dan always made me warm up in the parking lot or grassy field because he was so bad in the indoor)! She was so good! Like... alarmingly good. Like soft and quiet and ridable and way more professional than half the hooligans we were warming up with! One of my old clients was there and commented on how lovely she was and I said "thanks.. and seriously.. who is this horse? She's way more feral usually, even at home". But I figured once I cantered that she'd let loose with the feral. And sure enough... She was bucking when I put my leg on and even chased down one horse for a few strides and scared him so hard he went bucking off. Whoops! SORRY!!! But I managed to get her settled back at the trot and then we cantered again.. then back to trot to settle.. then back to canter.. then back to trot to settle. I felt like we wanted to go into the arena about 5 minutes before it was our turn but it wasn't too terribly timed.
We headed to the arena and before we even got to the edge of our arena the judge blew the whistle. So okay... cool.. good thing we walked around for a little look-see yesterday. We went in and did our test. And... it was our best test yet! It was still a little too upright and inverted but she was less fussy, more on the contact, and more correct. We did all the things at the right time and there wasn't any major fussiness or disobedience. We had the BEST free walk too and the BEST stretchy trot. Like.. holy cow that should be a 9! I was so proud of her. She was leaning against my leg when we were on the long side up against the big clubhouse but other than that, she was super. I was so proud. Jo was videoing and I had given her my vest because I got warm riding. She had set it on the bleachers and as we were walking out of the arena a wind gust blew it sideways a few feet and Funny spooked and spun! Hee hee. Thank goodness our test was over! I didn't look at my score til the end, but we didn't score as well as I had hoped. It still put us in a 3 way tie for 4th out of 10 I think. And it was the open division. So... I'll take it! And looking at the video... we weren't as connected and round as I thought, but... it was still big progress so I was still pleased!
She got untacked and rested a bit. The temps kept dropping a tiny bit but the sun came out so it didn't feel as bad as it did that morning. We got ready for stadium and headed out there. She warmed up quite nicely and was jumping bold once I got out of her way and lowered my hands. We went in before Smarty and she was a tiny bit balky leaving him but then she focused on the job and was awesome!! We had one rail because I turned too tight to fence 4 and was aiming for fence 7 or something before I realized I had cut my line too short. I leg yielded her to the proper fence so we came to it a little off centered and underpowered and she pulled the rail. Totally my fault for giving her a crap approach. The rest of the course was great and she was lovely!
Then we headed over to cross country! Again, she didn't really want to leave Smarty but once I got her going she put on her big girl panties and was like "okay.. time to do my job... and rock and roll". We headed out of the start box and she just clocked around the course like a pro! And I know.. we did it yesterday but still! She was so ridable! Almost too ridable! She didn't even try to gallop on the long stretch. We kept a nice controlled canter the whole way. She cantered into the water and didn't trot anywhere. She might have been a little tired though as some of her jumps felt a little flat. Or... like she wasn't picking her knees up as well. Of course the photos look pretty good. We managed to sneak in just over speed faults! Like 2 seconds away from speed faults! I think she's gonna be good for making time at training.
I'm so proud of her. She's really becoming quite the little event horse. And she's so fun. And brave. And game!! Whoo hooo!!!
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