Show Recap: Day 1

Slightly boring recap ahead... My brain isn't 100% functioning yet.  Something about a horse show hangover, which I swear is a real thing...

Our "B" show came and went with a bunch of successes (some larger than others) and a bunch more sunshine.  I can't exactly recall the last time that I managed to get a sunburn in Seattle... in March... but I'm pretty sure it won't happen again any time soon.

The warm weather made the frantic packing/loading/organizing that much more enjoyable and after making literally 100 trips between my tack locker and truck/trailer we were ready to load the ponies and head out.

Gus and Prair loaded happily and walked off calmly.  Though I realized that Gus likes to "sit" on the butt bar and managed to rug burn off a big patch of his tail.  Totally sad. 

We arrived earlier than I'm used to for schooling day, which left plenty of daylight for getting organized and a few rides in.  First order of operation was (clearly) getting the trunk situated and fully filled with all necessary items for the weekend.  I'm pleased to report that the lid organization was total perfection as was the extra side table the flips out for some added counter space.

Also, the large wheels were invaluable and immensely helpful.

amazing.

S hauled two ponies in another trailer - one of her client's and then her own tiny little welsh mare who is potentially the cutest thing ever.  I don't get to see her very often because she's boarded at another facility for the moment but holy wow that thing is cuteness personified.

big beak. tiny beak.

Cricket (the pony) got a nice school in and her first ride ever in an indoor arena.  She took the whole thing in stride and was a perfect little pony for her adorable little rider.

Prair was a bit of a tweedle.  She was so amped up that S opted to take her to an outdoor ring where she could school without a lot of traffic and slowly brought the mare back into orbit.  After about 20 minutes of canter figure-eights, they revisited the indoor to jump some courses with more success.   Prair was really balancing nicely through the corners, getting her changes (more) reliably and staying soft to the fences.  She didn't bat an eye at any of the fill under the jumps, so really it was just managing her tendency to get distracted with other horses in the ring.

I assumed that Gus didn't need a schooling ride so he just got walked around the property, fluffed, buffed and kissed goodnight.  S and I indulged in our pre-show mexican and margaritas before doing a quick night check and getting some sleep before a freakishly early wake up call in order to feed, groom and prep three kids and horses for the walk/trot classes in the morning.  Our plan was as follows:

Saturday:

Wake up ungodly early.  Prep ponies. Prep kids, try to keep everyone on board.  Take picture sof cute Gus in the walk/trot divisions.
Send Prair & S around the Pre-Green's - except there weren't enough Pre-Green Hunters to fill the division so instead they went in all the warm up classes at different heights.
I added a 2'6" medals class for me and Prair - and two flat classes for me and Gus.

Sunday:
No more walk/trot, so no panicky early morning.  Maybe do another flat class with Gus, maybe not and look for a couple of divisions for me to take Prairie in depending on the entry counts.  Easter had a lot of the competitors leaving after Saturday, so I didn't want to commit to a division that I'd be showing alone in. We ended up in the Long Stirrup which was perfect.

Play by plays to come, but by the time we packed up for home we came away with plenty of loot.

I gotta say that relative to Eventing or Dressage, there are way more ribbons to be had in Hunter-land.  Makes the 9 year old ribbon princess in me very happy.  :)

More to come!

Birthday Teaser!

Happy Birthday Gusford! 

We still don't know a ton about Gussie, but we do have his USEF number and that number declares that he turns 16 (gasp!) today.  For his birthday he will be getting a bath, some treats and a trip to a schooling show where hopefully he will also be awarded some Birthday Ribbons.

Gus was also lucky enough to get some Glamor Shots taken by Supermom yesterday. 

(Supermom squeezed in a trip to the barn to take some great shots of a horsey before he goes to a new owner and we just piggybacked a little/lot)

Supermom happens to be at a show herself this weekend, so we won't see his finished Birthday Portraits quite yet, but we do have a few teasers.

Having taken Supermom shots with Pia, Prairie and now Gus I can hands down declare that Gus is the biggest ham/poser of the bunch.  Could not stop him from arching his cute little neck and pricking his fuzzy pony ears.  This old man definitely knows when he's getting attention...

Hambone.

Did you want a hug?

 Supermom got some fabulously adorable shots of Gus' cute face and nose, so we will have a full "beak shot" collection.  The Boy thinks that nose pictures are weird but they are some of my favorites!

Show Prep & Plans

Well I can assure you that a few weeks interrupted by Prairie's leg whacks and soreness along with my long weekends away has decidedly not done wonders for my riding...

I got back on the mare Tuesday, which was a gorgeous sunny, warm day that belied the difficulty and frustration of the ride.  Admittedly I had a 3:30 lesson which meant that while I wanted to jump around in the sunshine, Prair had every intention of freaking out about horses being brought in, her dinner that was waiting and pretty much anything else that moved (or she thought might move...maybe). 

I was off my game. 

I braced, I pinched, I got mad and unfair in my corrections and Prair took all of that and gave me a big "screw you."

She was spooking, bolting and threatening to rear whenever I asked her to stop and stand.

Finally I recognized that my frustrations were not helping to unwind either of us and I gave up and had S hop on.  I was slightly encouraged to see that Prair was being a pistol for her too (not all me I guess), but was relieved to see S defuse the situation a bit.  I finally got back on and finished our exercise (jumping two, 2' verticals, NBD) and called it a day.  However my sore back, calves and shoulders tell a story of a defensive rider using the wrong muscles... UGH.

Yesterday I had a slightly better ride even though I ventured the same dinner-time-lesson-slot.  We were inside, which made a big difference but I still got in a fight with Prair over cantering quietly to cavaletti.  We never got the jumps up to a respectable height, but more importantly we ended on a good note.

I finally had Prair up in front of my leg and steering from her butt.  She finally waited for the fences and I finally let go of her face (which I'm pretty sure is how we succeeded on the other two).

finally relaxed.

Afterward I let the mare enjoy some spring grasses and watched Gus go in his evening lesson.  He's the cutest.  He was doing figure eights over some poles on the diagonal and was supposed to be doing simple changes, but he's such an anticipater (anticipator?) he kept getting the change himself before transitioning down to the trot.

Blurry, but still cute.

We also made the call to put Gus back on the show roster.  He's full of energy, and happy to work long past his lessons which reduces my concern about his comfort level a lot.  Also, one of S's students was really excited for her first show in the walk/trot on him and since we have to make two trailer trips anyway, he doesn't really spoil the logistics.

Plus, I get the added bonus of taking him in a few flat classes on Sat while Prair does her big kid divisions.

Also I've been assured that he's way less lame than half the horses in the low level hunter ring (sad, but probably true) 

So we're all set.  The Trunk and two black ponies will be packing up for quite the Easter Schooling Show weekend.  What fun!

Trunk Lid Progress...

I should have known that if I spent time (longer than I'd like to admit) painfully making Paint diagrams to show the "plan" for the Trunk lid that Dad would have just banged it all together 8 hours later.

Sigh.

I popped my head into the workshop to see if any progress had been made and saw this:

(squee!)

He even already dug out some old whiteboard and mirror from the basement stash for the lid-flap.  The basement usually yields most widgets and pieces for projects but I thought for sure the whiteboard/mirror would require a trip to the store.  Not so.  The whiteboard and mirror will eventually be attached to the other side of the lid, so they are vertical when the lid flap is closed.

Anyway.  All that's left is to add the little "lips" on the front of the cubbies to help keep items secured and we'll be ready for the show this weekend.  I'm going to hold off on staining and varnishing until we decide what the final arrangement is..