Monday, April 15, 2019

We are doing this - Oh and we are not hunters

**Edit - I had this set to go up last Thursday, but apparently I scheduled it for THIS Thursday. Oops. So...enjoy!**

Boing!
Our debut in hunter land was good! In that Mia was foot perfect, had zero spook, zero hesitation, was super quiet and happy, and had good rounds. Unfortunately the judge must have been able to tell that we were blatantly not hunters as we placed last in both over fences classes, and 2nd to last in the flat class. But hey, what can I say. I didn't even really clean her, I forgot to clean the trailer rub mark on her butt off before we went in, I didn't pay attention to how the courtesy circle is supposed to be done, I wasn't trying to win. We were literally going to knock rust off of our jumping. And it was a success!
This is not a hunter canter...
Our first round was good, though I biffed the distance on one of the jumps. It was a long spot, Mia waited instead and ended up putting in a half stride. Oh well. She also didn't swap her lead, something she has been doing more and more of since we started working on counter canter. Hmmm....this needs to be addressed. Our second round was actually pretty perfect, save for one lead swap that didn't happen. I was very happy with our second round, and thought if I was going to place, that would be the round! Spoiler alert, I still got last place HAHA!

All the trot
Our flat class I was really happy with too, though it was super obvious that we aren't hunters. In the canter, Mia had this nice, collected canter and everyone else was long and low. Oops... That's okay, it was all for experience and I was actually really happy with how the day went. It was a close show, we were back at the barn by 11a, and the day was good.

This is also not a hunter canter
Then I actually did it, I entered us into the Training level CT for this upcoming Sunday. I have ridden the Novice dressage test and it is easy. I have ridden the Training level test and it is doable. I have ridden some of the Prelim level and it is too hard, Training is the right place to be dressage wise. It's just....intimidating and I keep psyching myself out. This will be the first time to ever show at Training. App and I jumped 3'3" and 3'6" but never at a show. Mia has jumped up to 3'9" (once, a couple of years ago), but this is the first time jumping this big at a show. I have been jumping up to 3' the past few weeks, but this past week I stepped it up. Last week I jumped 3'3" and last night I bumped it up to 3'6". And Mia couldn't have cared. The rider was trying hard to not have a damn anxiety attack. Apparently my lady balls are not as big as they need to be, and while 2'9" doesn't look big, 3'3" looks respectable, it turns out that 3'6" makes me weak-kneed. **Edit-more to come on this**

What did Mia do about it? Nothing. I don't deserve this mare. She couldn't have cared that I was all nervous but riding with determination. She jumped over everything like it was fun, even the bounce combo that was set up. I had a short panel fence at 2'6" and a vertical at 2'9" as a warmup, then an airy vertical with a ground line at 3'3" (moved to 3'6" after a couple laps), a 3'6" gate fence, and another 3'3" vertical with a barrel under it. She never even thought about touching anything until the very end, when she felt that running up to the jumps was a better idea than collecting and compacting to the jumps. Spoiler Alert. It is not. I may need something other than a copper eggbutt if she continues doing this, but I am going to try reminding her more before bitting her up. Fingers crossed?
Kinda a hunter-ish trot?
We have our Training CT to get ready for, cross your fingers we survive!

3 comments:

  1. congratulations! I think you should be proud of how you did. Good luck with Training CT!

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  2. yessssss! hope you guys have a blast at the CT!

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  3. So glad you got out and had a good outing at the hunter show! Mia sure does jump cute -- look at those knees!!

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