Qualified!

So, Saturday showing had finished, and now I'm sitting with my trainer and Shelby, drinking lemonade and making schedules. My allergies and asthma have suddenly decided to spur up, so deep breaths every once in a while.

Getting up this morning was not happening. We actually woke up later than we usually do since we didn't have any lead liners this weekend. Dubstep helped. We get to the barn, and I go to clean Baby's stall, and for some reason unknown to me, she decided to roll in her pee. We had been good for almost a year, but I guess we've reached relapse. I cleaned her off. There was still a faint stain. Fortunately it wasn't too obvious.

Miss S put me in Pleasure Horse before I did any of my equitation simply because she wanted me to do something that wasn't equitation. Out of the four in the division, Baby did pretty well. She was calm for the most part. She got a third in the flat and park mount, then a second in the combination. Things kind of went south for the pattern class. The serpentine and the back through were nice, but then I screwed up the stop in the box and forgot about the turn on the haunches. I redeemed our image with the trot fence which was flawless. We ended up getting a third.

We had a bit of a break before my medal. The courses this time weren't nearly as difficult as the last shows. There were just a bunch of broken lines. I was trying to channel what Miss Marianne had told me at the clinic, but it was difficult to remember what she said and then apply it. Either way, I was riding better with a more forward pace, but the elevation was lacking, and I wasn't sitting. My hands were kind if up, higher than usual, but not quite where I had them on Tuesday. My course was actually good, it honestly was. My distances were a lot better, and there was one really scary jump—which was honestly scary to me, as a human, so I cannot fathom how it must have looked to a horse. Baby still jumped it without a moments hesitation. When we did the hack, everything was nice, but I heard the wrong command from the announcer and halted accidentally. I guess the judge missed it because I won the class anyway. It was my first blue medal! And now I'm qualified for the finals in August. Best part is that my class fee goes down by $15 (once you qualify, you don't get to ride in the class anymore).

I kind of quit after that. My first Jr. Eq. course was messy. I was missing everything, and it was the same course I did in the medal. I think I let the judge down. I ended up getting excused in my second course because Baby refused three times, but I don't blame her. I was taking the jumps from some shitty spots. She was hitting rails everywhere, even the verticles. She was probably fed up with me and made an executive decision not to take my shit anymore. I placed 7th out of 11 in my first course.

The flat was better, except for that one missed diagonal. I placed 5th out if 11.

Pretty good day overall, and since the judges are being switched for both rings, I'm curious to see how I place tomorrow, but, for now, I'm sleeping.

Comments

  1. Hi T.A. Eyo,

    I am an equestrian novelist soon to release my new racing romance, Share and Share Alike, and was hoping you might consider reviewing it on your site. Drop me a message if you’re interested.

    Best wishes,

    Hannah Hooton

    ReplyDelete

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