Thunderbird - The Lowdown

Still reeling from a bit of a horse-show-hangover and for sure still drying out from what ended up being nearly 6" of rain...

The show last week was a monumental success and ridiculously fun.  My only regret is that we aren't up there for the second week of showing in 80 degree weather...

But - we are from Seattle after all and a bit of rain (while not ideal) won't keep us from the show ring.

The start of the week for Pro Days wasn't so miserable, and in fact there was even enough sunshine to justify a few end of day Gin & Tonics ringside.  So I don't want to paint a horrible picture, but honestly - Friday and Saturday we're a bit apocalyptic. 

I'll make this a quick summary of the show, then break down pro days and my Equitation and Hunter Divisions in a few other posts.  I actually managed to grab videos of about half the rounds and got some great photos from a friend who came up to cheer everyone on in the rain. 

Windsor continues to be a rock star.  This being his first show against most of our "local" competition - it was fun to see other trainers inquire about him and praise his cute face and lovely jump.  When you're still a bit nervous about transitioning to a new discipline, it's nice to see some BNTs and well known judges go out of their way to ask questions.

The schedule for this show was a bit odd, and basically had big, open Low Hunter rounds scheduled for Tuesday, with Pro divisions running Wednesday and Thursday and Ammy's taking over for the weekend.

In Hindsight this worked great for us. Winds always jumps his best his first time in the ring each day, so to skip the warm up rounds before his divisions paid off.

3'3" Pre-Greens

There were some green moments on Tuesday, so he added a third class, and snagged a 2nd in a beautiful field of 30 horses.

Pre-Green days were great - taking home a 1st, 2nd and 3rd over fences, with a 5th U/S (with me piloting).  It was a *very* competitive division even though there were only 11, and we managed a Reserve Champion. (go team)

Friday was my 2'9"  Eq division, and while I was lamenting the fact that I hadn't been able to ride an over fences round yet, we did ok getting 3rd in both of our rounds, and a 2nd on the flat out of 15. There were some mistakes, but lots of good moments and thankfully - no scary ones. So I felt appreciative about claiming another Reserve Championship

Hunters was the last item on the docket and subject to the WORST WEATHER.  The classes fluctuated between 15 and 18 but we managed a 1st, 6th and 5th over fences, and a surprising 2nd Under Saddle.  We carried our last round 5th place (score of 75) into the Classic and managed to claim 2nd (and some $$$) when we cleaned up our act with an 84 in the second round.

Once again - Reserve in the division.  So if we get any extra points for consistency - we are AWESOME.

I'll break down our rounds and where we are starting to get consistently good and where we are making consistent mistakes later on.

The short summary is that Tbird was really, really fun.  The facility was lovely, the ribbons are lovelier, and Windsor is the loveliest of them all.

Happy girl over here.