Really, Baby, really?

Through a series of complicated and odd events, I ended up going to a schooling show this weekend. I can say, without a doubt, that it was worth it, but man I was not having it with the refusals.

Wall twerking on Friday night

We took a reasonable amount of students this time as Miss S has been drinking decaf coffee for a few days, accidentally of course, and she came to her senses at one point. Lots of leadliners and walk/trotters, but they all rode in the morning, and, by noon, it was just the advanced riders plus Hannah left to show. Hannah is at the same point in her riding as I was a year ago, still trying to figure out the canter and perfecting trot overs. I have to give her credit though, she did awesome today and had the best canter I've seen her do ever (and I've been riding with her for over a year now). Poor thing couldn't do her over fences classes though because Baby would not trot through the whole thing. That morning, Baby was refusing everything, and it took a while, but I finally got her to go through a line without any ducking, completely straight. I brushed off the refusals, and she was great on the flat with both me and Hannah. Transitions were spot on, she had her rhythm, she was on the bit and moving willingly, but over fences, good Lord.

She's a special kind of unicorn

I had originally planned to ride in equitation and low hunter, but I was the only one to sign up for low hunter (can't nobody take the 2'3" heat *snaps fingers in a Z formation*), so I ended up switching from that to pleasure. However, as I was making this switch, I forgot that Hannah was supposed to ride in the flat class for pleasure. I ended up giving her my number and just paying for the class, no matter how much opposition she presented. I actually got to ride in my first class this time (of course that had nothing to do with the fact that my horse was already in the ring and all I had to do was switch my number and get on, totes nothing to do with that). First class for me was Pleasure Horse o/f, and don't even get me started. First jump, refusal. Go back around, refusal. Back around again, refusal. I was so lucky that this was a schooling show because anything bigger and I would have been eliminated then and had my ass laughed at on the way out of the ring. But, no, I was lucky this one time, and I can assure you that this type of incident won't ever happen again so long as I am alive and well. It's not like I was afraid of any of the jumps; there were no oxers, and I was actually pleased with my fence selection because they were a nice, clean white with green fillers. It doesn't feel like I'm jumping a jump then, it just feels like I'm jumping stuff, and stuff is easy to jump. We placed last in the class, as well as both of my other o/f classes.

Sir Festus

But, let me tell you something about that Open Equitation w/t/c. I'm not going to lie, I think I have killer equitation on the flat, especially when I'm relaxed and enjoying my ride. Generally speaking, I ride better at shows (don't ask me why or how, it just happens), so I'm a serious competitor in flat equitation. First place, a blue ribbon plus a trophy. If only that carried over to my jumping.

Mid he haw

I will now tell you about my auto release which was more of a "Take this lack of contact as a sign that I am begging you to jump so I don't look like an idiot" release. I can't even tell you what the rest of my body was doing, but I am 99.9% sure that it would have given most reputable trainers a heart attack. Miss S is alive simply because she has learned to tolerate my short comings (and long distances). A special shoutout also goes to Miss Terry for helping me out so much today. I swear I would be lost without her!

Overall, it was a good day. Despite Baby refusing, she was very slow and relaxed during our courses, and ended up landing most of her leads when she finally got over the jumps. I'd estimate anywhere between 10 and 20 refusals happened throughout the course of the day, and I am disappointed about that, but I guess it's just another challenge on my plate. Besides, no one said this horse thing would be easy.

I have to include my outfit of the day, as well. I wore a fabulous shirt, a fabulous helmet, plus a fabulous pair of pants, and fabulous half chaps. I call it "Fabulous".

Now you know what fabulous looks like.