Mia's first show Pt 2

When we finally got to the showgrounds, we had 40 minutes before our first class.  Considering it is just dressage and I am not showing the App?  That is pretty good time!  The App always required a full hour of riding allotted before a class in case he was a firecracker on a pogo stick, which was half of the time.  I got my back number and RB4 set to unwrapping and tacking Mia up.  I got changed into dressage attire and swung aboard, let's see what kind of mare I will have today!

Aside from being convinced a gravel patch would swallow a horse hoof, Mia was very good.  I walked her around for 5 solid minutes to loosen her up and picked up a trot.  She was a little looky but not bad and her trot wasn't rushed.  Good mare!  Our first class was a walk/trot class only so I didn't work on any canter but worked on our transitions.  When I saw the judge take a break for lunch, I meandered over and let Mia inspect the judges booth.  She was very hesitant to walk up to it and when she finally put her nose on it, she left it there for about 3 seconds before she teleported to the left.  I came *THIS* close to biting it and was barely able to grab the saddle pad to help keep myself upright.  Ugh, we love our baby horses.  We love our baby horses.  We love our baby horses... keep telling myself this.

I made her walk back up to it and when she finally relaxed we walked off.  It seemed like no time at all before the judge came back and we were up.  Mia went into the arena very straight and even had a good halt!  The turn left at C had a little bobble but then she was fine.  She did a nice circle to the left that did not have her drifting her haunches out (yay!!) and her transition to medium walk was a little abrupt but not bad.  Everything else rode very nicely!  We walked out of the ring and I felt really good about our effort.

An hour later we tacked back up and warmed up.  Mia was a little sticky in the canter transition but a quick smack with the dressage whip reminded her she needed to canter with her rear legs at the same time as her front legs and one reminder was all she needed.

Whose swanky van in the background?  OURS!  Cause
only cool people haul to a horse show in a van.

The show was little hectic and no one was running in order which was confusing, but soon enough the steward said it was my turn even though I was supposed to warm up for 10 more minutes.  No problem!

I glanced at the test and reminded myself I had to turn right at C.  We trotted in and had a decent halt even though she took a step backwards when I went to proceed forward.  I trotted around and had our canter transition which went really well, I then dropped into my walk when the bell rang.  Oh crap, now what?  The judge walked out and told me I had ridden the whole thing backwards, which was why my diagonal I needed didn't work out.  He was waiting to see how I handled it lol!  I COULD NOT believe I did that, in the 10 years of showing this is only the 2nd time I have EVER been off course!    The judge was very nice and said this was a fun show, so why don't we just leave the arena and we will start from scratch?  Great idea OMG!

The second ride went much, much better however when I got to C, I ALMOST turned fricken left AGAIN.  What the heck brain???  When we went for our right canter transition Mia actually gave me the wrong lead?  She hasn't done that in a long time!!  I quickly took her out of it and fixed it, technically we were still in the first quarter of our circle, maybe it wouldn't be too bad?  After our free walk Mia was a slug, she was hot and tired and she definitely didn't have the energy for that last trot but we finished the test.

Right after our last test they read the results of our first class, I listen for my name and  nope, not 8th, that was good.  Not 7th.  Not 6th.  Not 5th.  Wow, not even 4th?  NOT 3rd???  Mia got 2nd at her first ever class!!  We brought her back to the trailer and untacked her, pulled her braids and rinsed her off while we waited for our results.  The second results came really fast, we hadn't even wrapped her up and they called out the results, 2nd again!  My Mia who was virtually unbroken 10 months ago got 2nd in both of her first dressage classes!  I am so happy and excited!  She was such a good mare and is getting much better about being hauled places.  She didn't holler for other horses the entire time, she didn't spook at everything, she was the same horse that she is at home.  That is AWESOME.

Oh and our tests?  Intro B was a 68.750%.  We got an 8, AN 8(!!!) on our freewalk!  We got 7's on everything except our medium walk which was a 6.5 because she likes to come to an almost halt out of the trot.  Go Mia!  Intro C was a 66.250% with more 6.5's but 2 7.5's on our medium and free walk!!!  We did get a 6 on our canter transition where she got the wrong lead first but a 6 still isn't bad at all.  This mare and I, we are going to go places :-D