No marshmallows here

As always the weekend went by wayyy too fast but it wasn't too bad.  Saturday was taken up by a spontaneous decision by SO to attempt to purchase a vehicle at an auction.  The vehicle "ran" but wasn't drivable and he wanted it just for parts for one of his "toys" that he has.  Thus bright and early Saturday I was awoken from a great slumber and off we went.  It was an hour away and required a lot of phone calls on our way down to have things lined up.  Alas, despite waking up early and getting down there, the bid went higher than he was willing to go and we walked away empty handed.  He then decided to go to a flea market and Salvation Army to walk around and be "out and about", let me "see people and get my fill in".  We had a nice day about it but didn't get much of anything done here at the house.  Boooo.

Sunday morning I awoke nice and early, before the alarm even, and got ready for the show.  As I feared I didn't get a single picture but it was because SO got really sick Sat night and needed to stay home.  Oh well.  I mixed things up and threw hay in the stalls and wrapped the App in the stall.  He gets so anxious when going in the trailer that he poos 4-8 times while getting ready which is normally within 30-60 mins.  My hope was that if I kept him quiet he would be an easy ride.  Got him loaded before he started to be anxious and when we got to the show he seemed to relax.  We were in classes 15, 17 and 20, the show started at 8a and they were all flat classes.  We showed up at 830 expecting to show about 930a, right?  About 5-10 mins per class should be just fine right?  Pfft, goes to show what I know.

Turns out it was not a small po-dunk show but a show that you can even earn points with the Paint Association.  There were some pretty quality horses there and here I am with my App which still hasn't received a bath since September.  Thankfully I made the last minute decision to throw my real "show" clothes in the truck "just in case" else I would have had to run home and get them.  Jacket?  Check.  Show shirt?  Check.  HAIR NET?!?  Check, good thing I bought one for that rated show, sheesh. 

Finally at 1030a there was a 15 min break for the show ring (no warm up ring, just grassy areas) so I had the App ready and hopped on.  He had been pretty quiet and relaxed the entire morning, good ride right?  Wrong.  I found I had the App I know and don't always love.  Very forward, very fast, very unrelaxed.  I switched over to the waterford bit and while it eliminated the pulling (my shoulders love that bit) it did not slow him down at all.  He looked like one of the contesting horses instead of a pleasure horse.  As the show continued I dug through my trailer to realize I didn't have my slow twist with me, it was taken out during the first cross country ride when the instructor wanted me to try the full cheek snaffle and I must not have put it back, argh!!  The only bit left was the pelham, not a bit I wanted to show in since it has two sets of reins but a girl has to do what a girl has to do.  With it I was able to get him to slow down and back off and we hopped into our first class at 1115a. 

The first class was english equitation, something I am very good at.  And what does this "po-dunk" show do?  Have a pattern.  With a flying lead change and a hand gallop.  Whaaaa???  This is obviously not the fun, easy show I thought it was to be.  I was a bit nervous, sitting on the rail awaiting my turn, when I realized the lead change I had been practicing was backwards.  It was a left lead to right lead and I had been practicing right lead to left.  Doh!  Our turn was up so we trotted of cone A and stopped at cone B pretty well.  The pivot on the forehand didn't go super smooth but was pretty good, good halt to canter transition that bobbled a little when we started the counter canter.  Thankfully our lead change went super smooth and the hand gallop became a slightly extended canter but it was a nice stop.  Yay Appy for not being stupid!  I was quite impressed when they read that out of a class of 14 I got 3rd!  Made me quite happy as I showed against some nice horses.

The other two classes bombed, they were pleasure classes and that was not going to be the App's strong suit that day.  Forget being slow, relaxed and on soft on the reins, he was forward and heavy.  I was able to contain him the best I could only because of my nice curb rein.  We didn't place in any of the other classes and I wasn't surprised but I am very happy with our equitation, especially when it wasn't at all what was expected.  And the App?  Yeah, he isn't fooling me.  He is NOT that out of shape and he will not be quiet under saddle just because he was at the trailer.  He had no problem fighting me to go faster and longer despite being ridden for over an hour.