Derby Truimph

Oh crap.

I was the most nervous I had ever been for a show. Even more nervous than my first show with Vegas. All we had to do was pull into the driveway of the facility and I squealed like a pig as my whole body went numb. And my fellow horse girls laughed. Who gets nervous for a cross rail class? This girl, apparently.

Yep. We are doomed.

I don't think Bacon's body went numb, but damn, her eyes were sure bugging out as she took in her surroundings. There were horses. And trailers. And people. And more horses. And grass. And things. OTTB mind EXPLOSION. Poor girl.

An excited pony.

An excited pony listening to her momma.

We had about 40 minutes until our dressage test, so I quickly saddled the beast and hopped on. Warm up was out in the cross country field section, so she eyeballed the crap out of everything. I tried to keep her moving and trying to get her to bend and realize that she had a human on her back. I started to get some consistent contact from her and I calmed down a little bit. Then I heard them call my name. And almost pooped my pants. Off I went to check in, and warm up in the arena area. Lindsey calmed me down, and then it became our turn.

I don't know crap about this dressage business.

I smiled at the judge, at told her I was terrified. She smiled and told me not to worry. At least she wasn't frigid and evil. Bacon and I entered at the working trot ever so crookedly, and I saluted. Game on. It was a simple walk trot test, but it was our first. And Bacon listened to me and did everything I tensely asked. We even had a slight free walk. And then we were done. It was awesome.

Annnnd done! With a 42.50.

Horse got tied to the trailer so we could watch our awesome friends go. And awesome friends did awesome.

Lindsey the leader!

Cross country time had us a little more excited and me more worried. Bacon was on tilt with all of the horses going around her and all the jumping in warm up. Lindsey gave us a few tips, and before I knew it, it was our turn. Off we went cautiously to a tiny downhill cross rail. Bacon was so busy looking at everything else that she almost didn't notice the jump coming up in front of her. I kissed and kicked and over she went.

First tiny cross rail!

Just cantering through.

Hooray!

The worst this girl did was look at everything. I was getting more and more comfortable with every jump. And she rocked it. We completed our ten jumps with no faults, and a nice big smile on my face. And a sixth place ribbon. Yay pony!

The best OTTBs there!

And now I am addicted.

Ribbons!