Spring Inaugural - Amateur Days

In sprite of my insipid mood and fury over the inevitable frustrations of showing in a subjective sport, the show rolled on.  

Friday all of the Equitation Divisions ran, leaving Sat and Sun for the Hunters and Derby.

I skipped the show on Friday, thinking that a) I don't actually need to drive to/from the fairgrounds (45 min) every day to sit like a hormonal bump on a log and throw tantrums about judging, and b) Since it was Half-Lease-Lady's first day of showing with Prair I thought she might appreciate said hormonal-bump-on-log not hovering directly over her the entire time.  

I know if I was leasing a horse I wouldn't want a hovering owner adding to my first day show jitters.  

So I spent the day actually working and then formalizing the whole Nursery Plan for our house (we don't actually have a good room for a nursery, as our second bedroom is two flights of stairs removed from ours.  My charming father made a suggestion that we utilize the elevator as a nursery ((which we do actually have, since we anticipated that my grandmother would be living in the house..)), since he thinks it would just be neat-o to send the crib (and baby) to whatever floor of the house you were on.... )  Instead, I made the executive decision that we will be constructing a wall to enclose an alcove/corner thing that was a sort of home office area but could easily be a baby-space, and unlike the elevator, has windows. But I digress...

The report from the show grounds Friday was ambiguous at best.  I looked at results online in the evening and saw that Prair and HLL won the Eq on the flat (yay!) but showed no placings for the rounds over fences.. curious since there were like 8 in the division and everyone should (presumably) get a ribbon.  

When I finally got the full story, it sounded like Prair was a very anxious horse in the indoor, and there was an alignment of all things bad that resulted in a moderate crash during the first round of the Adult 3' Eq.  

They scratched the second round, headed outside and started just adding Low Hunter rounds to get in the ring and build up height.  they literally went in the 18", 2'3', 2'6" and 2'9" rounds and by the end both HLL and Prair were back on task and locked in.  They either won or placed second in all those classes, so I think the recovery was swift.  

Later that evening they returned to the indoor for a cool Equitation Challenge thingy.  They placed 2nd in their age bracket which moved them into the top 12 from all age divisions. Sounds like the judge just kept calling for things (lengthening of stride, counter canter, dropped stirrups, etc) and would pull you into the center of the ring when you screwed up.

Well, Prair had a fit about the indoor and wouldn't stop flipping her head, so they (sadly) got pulled first and then had the pleasure of standing in the middle of the indoor for 20 minutes while the class ran and Prair proceeded to wig out.  

Silver Lining?  A big, pretty NECK RIBBON for the effort.  

Pretty purple-ish for 12th place

Given the semi-disasters in the Indoor, everyone decided to change divisions and show the Low Adults at 2'9" outside for the weekend.   

That was a Good Decision.  

Everyone seemed happier and they totally kicked ass.  Over fences on Saturday they took a 1st and a 2nd, followed by a 1st Under Saddle.  Not a huge division (maybe 5 or 6?) but still some really nice horses, including one that we showed against down in Thermal and regularly beat us.  

Sunday they came right back with another 1st and 2nd over fences which claimed a Championship and saw our Barn-mate take reserve.  

Pretty Prair, her lovely Half Lease Lady, and their COOLER

This week it all happens again, except Pro Days start tomorrow at the crack of dawn.  Prair will have to face facts in the indoor and suck it up for the Large's and Pre-Greens again - hopefully we continue to see improvement!!