The group of us from Avalon Meadows. We were having a lot of fun at this point. Yes, that is Nick pushing Moonshine's butt into the frame.
My friend Vicki on the left, my roomie in the middle and ofcourse me on Possum. If you look close you can see the top of Nick's head in Moonie's ears.
Cantering in a flat class
All of us discussing a group photo and strategy, this is normally what we look like at a show, everyone talking at once hehehe.
I've been so busy this weekend I hardly had time to post those pics, but I havn't posted in a while and I promised some that I quickly put them up the yesterday morning. As for the show I would call it a success. We only did 3 jumping classes since my adult medal was cancelled due to too little entries. The first course was rough, not terrible but we couldn't find our rhythm, either it was too slow or super speedy. But we got around and that's all that matter in this stage of the game. Our second course was much better. We had a better pace and rhythm and we got good spots and Possum was only mildly fast. The third course was not that great. Possum was hyper about this time since he had already been in twice and basically said to me "I know what I'm doing, let me go!". He was a handful and we knocked a rail pretty hard so much so that I thought we broke it. But as I've said before, this is a year for experience and not ribbons. We still placed fairly well and the second course we got 2nd from both judges which was cool. There were only about 5 riders maybe in that division. Th ehigher the fences usually the less riders. The most riders enter the 2'-2'3" and the 2'3"-2'6" divisions and then they all drop like flies when the jumps get up to around 3ft.
I was really happy with the course and the footing in the ring. It was nice and springy and the striding was good and appropriate for our height jumps. They had beautiful oxars and a birch vertical, it was super nice and I was really glad that I went. Guess who else went.....Nick. He siad that he actually had a good time. He visited with everyone from our barn and we were laughing and having a good time. He stayed through all the jumping and the hack class and then went back home after spending most of the day with us crazy horse girls. The flat classes as usual went great, we either won them or came in second. We also won the hack class which was super cool. The last flat class I was kinda spacing it and we were on the straightaway and they asked for the canter and Possum picked up the wrong lead for a stride before I quickly broke him down and switched it, but that put us out of the ribbons. It was a super long day and we didn't get home until 10:30p and the horses were also beat. I waitied until the next morning to take his braids out because we were both too tired and it was dark and rainy out. The weather did hold though for the most part, it only sprinkled a handful of times which was great, I can't complain about that. So over all I was pretty happy with the day. Even though Possum is speedy I was able to bring him back for the most part and we had one really good course which was great. I was working hard on my equitation which can be hard with a horse hauling you around the ring, but I stayed strong and my core muscles were aching at the end of the day.
5 comments:
Sounds like an awesome day! If Nick can enjoy that kind of thing he might just be a keeper! And he's pretty cute, too!
Like you I always enjoy those bigger nicer shows even if I don't do as well as I had hoped i always enjoy the experience of being there. It does sound like you had some success there in your 2nd course - were entries down this year compared to last? Or is it the same?
The entries for the hunter ring were actually up over last year. This is only the second year that they are holding a hunter event at the Downeast Horse Congress. Classes were jam packed and there was some good riding. Also, because there was a breed show going on at the same time, there were some breed people taking their hand at the hunter stuff as well. Most of the big hunter barns in Maine were there and also a few from NH which was a little suprising since this show was in central Maine, a good 3 hrs from the border. There was great turnout and only a few falls, most from the breed folks whose horses are not used to jumping.
Sounds like you had a great time! Glad to hear it. It is always fun to kick it up a notch and challenge yourself. (keeps it fun!) Congrats on the second course! And having Nick there was a bonus for you.
Sounds like a great day made even more so by being surrounded by good people. That's cool Nick is enjoying your world.
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