Scary Jump Night 2016

 My favorite jump night of the year came rolling around again! Halloween is my favorite holiday. I am an avid fan of horror and gore, and my costumes generally reflect that. See below:

Clown Alyssa 2014

Plague Doctor Alyssa 2015. Still my favorite.

I thought I was going to be able to head off to Kentucky with Lindsey, so I wrote Scary Jump Night off in my mind. When it turned out that I wasn't going to be able to go, I did not have enough time to construct the costume I had in mind (Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde). I started using my brain to try and figure out what else we could pull off. One day I was weaving, and Blake had mentioned that I looked like I belonged in an asylum. THAT'S IT! Straight jackets, here we come!

We escaped the asylum. Had to slaughter some fake people to do it.

Unfortunately, I had caught hubby's cold, so I was struggling a little bit that night. I pulled my insane weaving pony and added the finishing touches before hopping on. This year's format was similar to last year, in that there was a costume contest, an equitation contest, and the high jump. I was determined to beat our jump last year (we made it to the 4' round) but I wasn't sure how we would do with a cold in progress and my horse wrapped in a sheet. But we were going to give a go.

Dragon, crazy, plane, and witch.

Such a good boy!

Mario and Luigi!

Fancy show jumper and her damaged rider

Jack Skellington

The scariest thing in all the land to many of the horses.

Rocking the poodle skirt on a poodle!

I am pretty sure my traveling event buddy (E) won the costume contest on her OTTB Justin. It was awesome, and he is a saint. Bacon was not too sure about him and kept a close eye on him. The other costume causing grief around a bunch of snorty ponies was Maleficent and her dragon. The greatest lesson pony ever, Sunny, was wide eyed and wanted absolutely no part of him. During the high jump, his owner fell off and everyone got to yell "LOOSE DRAGON!" and fortunately he only ran to the gate because the rest of the horses were thinking "HOLY SHIT GIANT HORSE FLY IS LOOSE OH GOD".

Sunny needing some assistance from the whitest Jamaican ever. I hope that didn't come off as racist.

Bing was clowning around.

Wonder Woman and wonder pony!

The arm was flapping around quite a bit. But didn't phase this creature.

Doing the equitation class.

Just some of our group!

We finally got the high jump competition rolling, and started it out as a ground pole, and going up one hole from there. The daylight was dwindling fast and I had no idea how we were going to get to the bigger stuff in time. But after the kids on their lesson horses did as much as they could, it started to go up a lot faster. Like 2-3 holes faster. Bacon and I joined in probably around 2'9". She gave the rail a hard rub at 3'3", but we didn't knock it down. She made sure to clear that sucker the next time around, and flew over it.

4' I think? And jumping awfully close to the standard. Yikes!

These photos don't really show how dark it was. 

I had forgotten my spurs, so our straightness was lacking as Bacon would blow through my right leg and aim for a standard. So I hung out in the back seat a whole lot as the jump started to creep ever so tall. By the end, it was me and two other horses left, and the jump was as high as it could go. When Bacon and I came around to it, I looked straight at it and hesitated, and so did Bacers. We tried, but we were so underpowered and I did nothing to help her out, so down it came. Only one horse came out victorious at that height, and it was a handsome 2* horse dressed as a poodle. Our other competition was a fancy professionally trained show jumper mare. So I was feeling pretty good about making it that far.

4'6" cleared!  And me hanging in the back seat and looking down. DAMNIT ALYSSA

And there I am STILL LOOKING DOWN after failing hardcore at 4'9". At least I am smiling.

They had the three of us come stand next to the jump for a picture, and looked at the height. 4'9". WHAT?!? For some reason, I was thinking it was 4' again. No wonder it looked so huge when we came down the line. Well, we definitely beat our jump from last time. I did not think we were going to make it that far. I was so proud of my pony for trying so hard and doing it wearing a sheet, dangling arm, and a weirdo on her back.

Last three standing. Feeling extra cool and not paying attention.

After I put her away in the trailer, we headed back to the spooky crowd and ate the richest chocolate cake ever. It was awesome.

Proud hubby and proud insane person. Go Bacon go!