When we left off yesterday, I had just finished up the ticketed warmup and changed my goal from “hunter derby domination” to “survive hunter derby with a smile on my face.” Since I was almost at the end of the 2’6″ order of go, I put Simon in the trailer (since he could no longer be tied) and watched some of the horse show for a while. The course had a few “surprises” since we couldn’t school all the jumps…
Overall? We did the hunter derby! I had a lot of fun doing it and checking that (hopefully first of many) item off the bucket list. That being said, it was not without any shenanigans. I headed to the show grounds at a reasonable time to meet my trainer and the horses. Since this was a one day show, we didn’t have stalls… which usually isn’t a problem. Historically Simon has been great tied to the trailer. Historically. On my…
You know, I hope my derby jumps tomorrow look better than this… But if not… we’ll be wearing a shadbelly and having a blast! Wish me luck, I’m off to my first ever hunter derby 🙂 Cheesy I know, but dream come true!
Saturday night I drank one glass of wine, had bread and cheese and about 5 bites of sorbet before I passed out at 10:30pm. A good night’s sleep helps a lot, and I drove to the show early Sunday morning determined to have a better attitude. Of course, that better attitude didn’t include being nervous for my first ever medal class. The 2’6″ Medal runs first thing with no warm-up. I could have gotten up super early to school the fences…
I know my instagram was suspiciously quiet over the weekend and I’m sure lots of folks are looking for a show update. I’ll write one post for each day, but if you are looking for the overall synopsis here goes: I came into this show with a lot of hope (read: unrealistic expectations) and I’m a very passionate person (read: extremely competitive). My horse and I stepped up a division and went from doing the adds to doing the strides, and there…
More than anything, my way to get ready for a show is methodical planning over a series of days so I don’t feel like too rushed the night before. Me feeling rushed is a sure fire way for my show nerves to take over, and I really do a lot of work to keep those bad boys away. Monday was quite the stormy day here in Austin, so I sewed new snaps on a show shirt in order to revive…
First off, thanks everyone to your kind words about my little freak out post yesterday. I am feeling better about the situation, but still not great. Trying to tell myself that just because my dogs no longer fit into the family model they used to, they can still be happy and healthy creatures for the rest of their lives. Not there yet, but getting there. Today I am genuinely curious about a topic I love – braiding. Specifically hunter braids,…
This past weekend I asked my lovely husband if he would come to the barn for my lesson to take some video. Since it had been a while since he stuffed Simon full of treats, he happily agreed. Simon happily ate the treats, and it was okay because we had a pretty nice lesson. I was happy during the flat warm-up because Simon felt forward and pretty strong. No tripping, no stiffness, no nonsense. Our rides during the week had…