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 it.  I started packing show clothes aside in my new garment bag (yay barn colors!) and took inventory of all the “show only” items that had been thrown aside since February.  Pile of items to wash and to dry clean and off to bed.  Easy peasy.

Tuesday I dropped off my show clothes at the dry cleaner.  After work it was a purposeful hack for Simon in the grass field since the ring was too wet.

Wednesday gymnastic lesson after work.  Even though overall we struggle with gymnastics, lately they’ve been a lot better.  On Wednesday though, my trainer set everything up to an oxer.  It’s not like I’m scared of oxers (I’m not) or Simon is bad at them (he’s not), but getting the stride with three big-to-us jumps in a row proved to be a little difficult.

We always start slow and build, but every time she would add something new I just froze. Simon saved my butt several times, and I was proud of him.  Eventually I got my shit together and we did okay.  Here is a video of our last two attempts.

Post lesson I petted Simon a million times and fed him many treats, but that has more to do with him being an honest fellow than it has to do with show prep.  I cleaned my tack a bit more than usual, and made a plan to give him a well deserved night off on Thursday.

Thursday at lunch I hopped on over to Dover for an unexpected shopping spree.  I had same some pictures of Jen of Wyvern Oaks last weekend, and to thank me she gave me a Dover gift card.  Soooooooo nice (thank you again Jen)!!  So this chick who has pretty much been on a “nothing but essentials” spending freeze got to pick up a new show shirt I’ve been coveting.  It’s so beautimous.  My inner hunter princess swoons.

Simon’s night off Thursday meant more horse laundry and show clothing alterations for me.

And Friday morning (today) I’ll head to the barn to give Mr. Nerd Horse a bath and pack up my trunk.  We’ll head to the show grounds in the early afternoon, and after I school and settle him in for the night I actually have a fun not-at-all horsey date night planned with the husband.  Hopefully a comedy show will chase away the nerves?

So there’s my really not very exciting prep week.  Hopefully my next post here on this blog will be much more exciting (in a good ribbon way, not a ‘there was this one time I fell off at the horse show’ way).  I try to set goals for every show, so here they are:

• Not be so nervous my trainer’s husband tells my husband, “Simon is doing great but Lauren needs to calm down.”  (This may or may not have been a true statement…)
• Get at least one course where we get the strides every time
• Complete an equitation class without majorly eating it on a distance
• Remember to count!

As Tigger would say… TTFN!  I’m off to da horse show.

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