Wednesday, August 17, 2016

The Curse Has Lifted

That's right. Part of the reason I disappeared on here is because I didn't want to jinx our possibility of finally competing in our first recognized event. And guess what guys. It happened!
Where R we going?
HOORAY!

Baconator and I headed off to Stanton Farms bright and early Thursday morning with some fellow horse friends. Bacon knew immediately that something was up because the fluffy halter and shipping boots came out. She started to tremble once near the trailer, and I thought, Oh crap. What have I gotten myself into? Fortunately, she hardly weaved at all the whole way there and unloaded calm and cool. Which has not been her go-to lately at all.
Where R this?
After getting everyone and our camps all situated, we had a quick dressage hack in the warm up arena. Oi. I had me a sizzling mare. She was very distracted and wasn't sure what was living in all of the trees around us. A very different atmosphere from what she is used to. But she took a nice nap in her stall and seemed very content the whole rest of the day. She drank well and ate pretty well, which is also not her go-to. Yay Bacon!
Outfit win
Our ride time was supposed to be at 9:15am Friday morning, so I thought I would have plenty of time to watch our friend go at 8:00 for her first prelim on that horse. This event happened to be paired with a pony club rally. Which they decided should go before the event riders. And apparently these were freestyle dressage rides, so they needed to set up the speakers and whatnot. By the time this was all said and done, our friend's ride time became 8:40. She put in a lovely test, and I rushed off to go get ready, not too worried about time because they announced they were running 50 minutes late. After 5 minutes, they changed their minds and said they were running 20 minutes late.
Somebody got a little tense. Maybe two somebodies.

Ooo, she looks round and not so pointy here.
Thus created a little bit of panic despite my Xanax on board. I tacked up as quickly as I could and got changed and tried to hurry to warm up. Of course, a four wheeler was right up Bacon's butt our whole trek up there. As I entered, I went over to the ring stewards and asked if I needed to check in or anything. No response. I rode a lap or two, came back and asked again because I could hear my number being announced somewhere. They then told me that they skipped me. I was allowed to go down to the show rings, where another motorcycle appeared out of the woods (yay), and they let me go because they understood there was a lot of confusion about times.
Sometimes we got a tad bit of bend.

Ooo, sassy tail swish
I was sitting on one extremely tense, coiled spring of a horse, that had a cold back and was thrown in with the wolves. It was not a great test. It was not even a good test. But I rode as well as I could with the given circumstances. Bacon did not know what straightness was, nor bend, or relaxing her back and stepping through. I tried to just smile and shrug it off, but I was pretty bummed. We ended up in last place (10th, it was a tiny event) with a 43.7.
A tad bit of stretch in our free walk. Our medium walk was instead a medium jig.
And there was some thought about bucking going into our left lead canter....
After our test was finished, we did our bit check and I headed back to warm up. I wanted to end on a better note, and she put in some very nice stuff after actually getting loosened up. And I was happy with that. Plus, our outfit was pretty great. Unfortunately, I did not have a person to take pictures, but hubs did take some video. I was very happy he was there! But now that we had gotten dressage over with, it was on to the fun stuff the ne
xt day. Cross country!
Our trot got a little better after some canter.
Damnit. Sit up ho.
Almost done! Hang on!

18 comments:

  1. eeeee you guys look great! i'm so happy to hear that your silence was for nefarious but GOOD reasons instead of anything else! bummer about all the confusion over times and not being able to really loosen her up for the test, but it seems like you made the best of it. can't wait to read the rest!

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  2. oi i hate when that happens. i dont think they should be able to say theyre running 50 minutes late and then SUDDENLY 20 minutes late. was there a wormhole or something?

    ive read that youve struggled with her weight so i just wanted to say she looks fabulous. both of you do! she's gorgeous.

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  3. You guys looks pretty great despite some tenseness! I'm so glad you were able to do this finally!

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  4. You guys look great! I love your Jacket! :) The free walk looks nice from the photo, but I don't know what your free walk looks like at home...

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  5. DUDE, you guys look fantastic even if the canter was a bit sticky. GAH I missed you

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  6. You guys look amazing!!! I'm glad that the curse was broken.

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  7. I am so happy to hear this! And Bacon looks so great

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  8. Soooooooo happy you guys finally made it!!!

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  9. you guys did great with all the stuff going on. I hate it when it's all disorganized!

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  10. Yay I'm so glad you were able to get out and compete and still ride well despite all the shit thrown at you!

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  11. Yay!!!!! SO glad you were able to make it out. Can't wait to read about the rest!

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  12. Yay. Congrats on your first recognized. So sorry it was such a disorganized start, but I can't wait to hear about the rest.

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  13. I was sad when I noticed there weren't any new blog updates from you, but glad you had a wonderful time at the show - you guys rocked it.

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  14. Ughh I'm in love with your outfit! So stylish!

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  15. Ugh, sucks that things got so crazy with the times, but sometimes with horse showing you have to roll with the punches and do your best. You guys look really good all things considered <3

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