If you follow my personal Facebook or blog instagram, you probably already know that I had a great show.  In case you don’t… I had a great show.  Great great great.  Feel like a million bucks great.

My goals going in were to have a confidence booster for me and to give Simon a show where he felt like a rock star for being a good pony.  I can’t speak for Simon, but I feel like a rock star too and it was the kind of show where I’m sitting at home thinking about it with a smile on my face . I don’t have a single negative thing to say about my horse.

That being said, let’s dive in!  Friday schooling was uneventful.  He was calm and lovely and just acted like he had been horse showing all of his life.  My few years of putting miles on this horse has really paid off in that way.

When Saturday arrived, I did my best to find my inner zen while we waited for our class.

And waited.

And waited.

This may have been one of my top longest horse show days ever.  I finally got on for my first 2’3″ Jumper class well after lunch, and had a fresh horse that was ready to go.

I tried to remember to do two things: a) keep a forward pace, b) sit up and not let him drop right in front of the fence.

It was a very inviting course, which we had no trouble with.  All I remember was that it was forward, I felt right with him and it was fun!

I came out of the ring with a huge smile on my face and lots of praise from my trainer and friends.  I actually said, “This is why people think the jumpers are so fun!” because it was fun.  There was nothing scary or unsafe.

I felt like I was on top of the world and we could pretty much stop showing.  This mindset might have created a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy, because it was the total highlight of the day.

After 27 (yes!) trips finished, we ended up 2nd.

Our next course was a lot later.  About 20 trips, a drag, course change and walk later.  Simon took a break in his stall and by the time we got back on to do a few warmup jumps, my head wasn’t really in the game.

For the second 2’3″ jumper class, we started out slower than before.  This meant I added in the one stride and had some messier jumps.

Also, my head was a bit slow too.  I really did know the course, but when I made the turn to go to jump 7 I couldn’t see the number from our angle and the way the number was against the standard.  This caused a moment of panic that I was jumping the wrong jump, and we got totally lost.

I had to phone a friend and listen for the crowd to tell me to turn back to it, so we basically did a courtesy circle in the middle of our course.  Poor little Simon was all, “Wow this is a weird course!” but did everything I asked.  We also picked up the pace and ended clear… but with a million time faults from my blunder.

I was a teeny bit bummed at throwing a ribbon away, but shrug it off after the high from the amazing first course.

Next was the first 2’6″ jumper, and by this point we were getting tired.  We started off too slow, and had a rail at the first jump.

Again I added in the combination, and it took us about 1/2 the course to get my proper pace back.  There weren’t any other problems, and I did remember my course this time but the rail kept us from the jump off and out of the ribbons.

By now it was well into the afternoon with the show still going on and on, and I decided to scratch my last 2’6″ jumper class of the day.  I felt like Simon had been perfectly behaved, and there was no sense to keep going when we were both a bit tired.  Usually the more tired I get, the more mistakes I make.  As for Simon, he’ll jump forever if I ask him too… but I do have a bit less horse and that makes it harder for me to get the pace.

I tucked him in and spent the evening watching my friends ride so both me and my horse would be well rested for another go on Sunday… but that’s a blog post for tomorrow!

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