Alright, I think I've figured it out

There's a strange combination of things that I need to do in order to not be nervous at horse shows, including but not limited to:

- doing dishes at 11:30pm the night before
- not cleaning my boots
- re-enacting the mating dance of the bird of paradise
- large amounts of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
- tbh Erin's cooking in general
- Fall Out Boy (obviously)
- threatening to fight Kal enough times that I'm actually kind of serious about it
- cruddy Naked juice knock offs

Again, that's just a few, but if you're the nervous type, I'd give some of these a shot.

We had our home show today, and it went hella smooth. Started a half hour late, but still ended around 3:30pm, and we were out by a little bit after 4pm.

Me, the awkward yellow lime, posing with the team

I think part of the reason I wasn't super nervous about this show is because I was in a familiar place with familiar horses. Of course I'm not gonna be nervous . . . although the dancing was definitely a stress reliever.

I pulled Pixel, the wiggly green pony that I've been dying to ride again. He wasn't too pleasant as I was getting on, practically having a panic attack outside the ring. Finally, we get in there, and suddenly he wants to back off my leg. Dang ponies. For the most part, it was a good ride, although the sitting trot was more of a "sitting" trot, and yes I leaned into my canter transition, and he may have been running off at the trot at one point. Still, I placed second.

And of course that photo is the final outcome of many failures because, again, Pixel has no concept of standing still.