Post show recap - the catching up

Oh man where does the time go, I wish I knew.  The show seems simultaneously so long ago and yet like it was just yesterday.  Between sick cats requiring multiple visits (with more still coming!) to the vet, coordinating home inspections and appraisals in PA, a weekend filled with working on the racear with SO and still working full time, trying to find time to write about my show is....has not been happening.  *sigh* maybe one day.  Maybe one day.

We went on Saturday to go schooling at the show before the show which was Sunday, I LOVE that we can school Derbies the day before.  With Ms Unpredictable, the extra security that adds make me much happier and seems to make Mia much more confident.  We went on Saturday and had a great ride, it was very uneventful.  I almost fell off only once so that is good.  AND it wasn't even at the damn ditch so that is a bigger improvement!

We were jumping the entire Novice course as well, training and all lol, and we came to the combination.  Mia had been pulling with ALL her might while rushing into the first jump and was not listening at all.  She easily cleared the first jump but was super surprised by the second element.  The landing for the first element had me off balance and I was too forward to the second jump.  Mia came to almost a stop and I remember very specifically going "$&#@ I am coming off and this is going to hurt".  Instead of actually stopping or darting out like I expected, Mia shocked me and jumped the log from almost a standstill.  That was enough to throw me back into the saddle and I stayed on.  Oh mare, I LOVE YOU!!!  I almost forgive you for the fall at the ditch.  Almost.  Because my arm is still messed up.

A nice big ass Novice table, Mia didn't care in the least

From then on Mia was much better.  She no longer tried to plow herself to the jump and actually listened to what I had to say.  Yay mare!   We went over the BN ditch a few times and Mia didn't care so I figured I would put her over the Novice ditch. You know, the one I fell off at in April?  I have come to really dislike ditches when they are the bottom of hills.  I put her to the ditch and again she stopped.  Instead of smacking her like last time, I took a much slower approach and let her think about it while keeping a strong hold on the wither strap of the breastplate.  After 2 attempts from one side, we went to the other and she stopped and looked at it but jumped it.  We circled around and jumped it again and then from the first side.  Ditches, we gonna make them our bitches.

Sunday we were able to haul out around 9a (love close shows!) and Mia actually seemed to want to go into the trailer.  On Saturday she was hesitant and I had to correct her once, on Sunday it seemed like she drug me to the trailer.  Well, I will take that!  We warmed up and while she wasn't giving spectacular work, she was riding pretty decently.  In no time we went into the ring.

I thought the test rode pretty decently.  No real arguments, she gave me good transitions and bits of bend.  She was still tense and didn't WANT to bend, but she did give me some bend.  She drifted her haunches out a little but she has been doing that so whatev's.  We went back to the trailer and waited, no biggie.  They posted scores and I went up and looked.  And became pretty pissed.

The judge gave us a 44%.  Not only that, she gave us a score of a 4 on the first trot circle.  WTF?  I mean WT actual F??  I looked at the video several times and do NOT see where a 4 is deserved at all, thankfully dressage was over by then because otherwise I may have had to have had a conversation with this "judge".  I was not happy.  She did seem to be a "tough" judge, however, as we were tied for 6th out of 12.  So she scored at least half of the class over 44%.  Grrr.  Schooling shows people, give some actual feedback if you are going to give low scores.

Mia warmed up to XC quite nicely despite feeling a little tired.  She wasn't knocking fences and after we went over the XC warmup fence a second time, she was the XC machine.  We went off and the first fence rode nicely.  Mia tried being drunk horse going to the 2nd fence and then settled down for the next 2.  When we were approaching fence 5, she decided to start shying.  At everything.  She shied from a person. She shied from a shadow of a tree.  She shied at a rock.  By the time we got to the fence, I honestly truly thought she would run out due to how crooked and off center she had become.  Like a rock star, however, she went ahead and jumped the rolltop anyway which made me so proud.  Maybe that spring show is just going to be a fluke after all!

This is my new favorite picture.  Love both of our positions

The rest of the course rode very nicely.  Mia was getting pretty tired as we came up to the last 3 stadium fences.  You know, the ones she likes to knock down.   I had even trotted her a lot to help eat up time (in case of a tie breaker and all) and let her catch her breath and she was still going to be almost 30 seconds too fast.  We went over fence 14 and I had to really pull her up to fence 15 as she was getting way to heavy and fast.  We came to the last fence and I asked her to jump and she just hesitated.  I am not sure if she was tired or just timed wrong but she brought the damn pole down.  Grrr!!!

We finished 20 seconds too fast but I felt good about it.  I actually felt good overall, Mia saved us over fence 5 when she could have very easily run out.  She was tired but still going and I felt fantastic.  Good enough I could have easily rode another stadium OR cross country ride.  That isn't something I can often say after an almost 6 minute course, ha!  She got a really nice cool down and a quick bath with a touch of menthol.  We hung around and then finally got our results.  Thanks to my pacing on xc, I was successfully able to break the tie and wound up ahead of the other rider.  And we also moved up to 4th.  Yes fourth out of 12!  With the horrible dressage score, I didn't think it was possible but am quite happy.  And to know that if we hadn't knocked the pole down, we would have gotten 3rd.  Wow.  That makes me happy.

Now comes the hard part, scheduling our next show.  I could have done this upcoming weekend if I wasn't buying a 2nd house but that leaves no funds for expensive USEA shows.  So I will be volunteering at it instead.  I wanted to go to a show on August 8th but now we will be closing on the PA house on the 6th/7th so that is out.  The next weekend, the 16th, is a possibility however it is the weekend before the next car race (22nd) and funds won't allow both and the car race entry is already paid.  Damn.  So it looks like my next shows will be in September, aiming for the 13th.  Until then, ride as much as I can and try to not stress out too much!