So, We Went and Did Another Event

Got to show off our new FUN bonnet too!

I have been pretty good at disappearing on here lately. Sorry about that. I am not sure what my issue is, but I just have not had the want to post on here. But, I thought I could get some creative juices flowing for a post on our latest event: the Spokane Sport Horse Trials!

I knew after completing Stanton that I had way too much fun, and that I needed to do another one. But damn, these things are expensive for my family. The closest event is 6 hours away, so on top of the cost of the event is the cost of getting there. I knew Aspen was coming up, but it was championships and I didn't think we were good enough to mingle with that crowd. My crew that I travel with was also heading to Spokane and told me I needed to go. My husband said I should go too. And so we signed up.

The judge liked my outfit at least.

One of the cool parts about this trip was getting to use our NEW TRUCK to pull our very own trailer. I packed up the trailer, and on Thursday morning, we headed out for our second recognized adventure. It was a smooth trip up there, but we pleaded for the dark clouds to go away when we were getting closer to the venue. They didn't leave. Bastards.

SEXY

I was impressed by the facility. It is still very new, and continually adding jumps, arenas, and hope to be hosting an intermediate division next year. Fortunately, they had a very large indoor arena to school in that day, so after we got settled in, I tacked the Bacon up. We were all alone in there at first, and Bacon thought it was a little scary. She soon settled down though, and we put in an awesome ride. She was fairly light in the bridle, bending, taking bigger trot steps (forever our struggle with a tense pony), and just listening nicely. We even did some canter serpentines, changing our lead with a two stride simple change throughout the whole arena. I was so excited for dressage on Friday.

Hi ponies!

But, I awoke to the sound of pouring rain on our metal trailer and it never let up. It continued until about 8am, and I had one fresh horse who was quite unhappy in her stall. Our ride wasn't until 4;19pm, so I watched our first and second rider go in our group, then tacked Bacon up while there was a break in the sprinkling. I was sitting on a loaded gun. When trying to walk into the warm up ring, she got caught on the electrical cord and started to back towards the puddle. Fortunately, she kept her cool and we escaped becoming real electrocuted bacon. One friendly lady commented on how fresh Bacon looked, and I laughed with her. It took a bit for her to calm down enough to do something with her body besides coiling up and shuffling along. Once she snorted a few relieving breaths, I called it good and put her back in her stall. We had one more rider to go, and then I would re-tack her up for our test.

Me trying real hard to breathe.

She was still a pistol for our real warm up ride, but my friend helped us through it. She was not as nervous about the sights and sounds around her now, but she was still keeping a lot of tension. Finally, it was our turn. I smiled and acknowledged the judge as we went around the sandbox, and promptly had the biggest spook I have ever sat on her at one of the dressage letters. Oh good, I thought. This is going to be fun.

"More forward to score an 8. 7.0"

"Against hand. 7.0"

"Starting to relax. 7.5"

He let us have a nice loop around the ring before whistling us in, and we headed down centerline looking a little drunk and nervous. I was able to get some ok trot out of her, but her go-to with nerves is to hang on to me and drag me to the center of the earth. I tried my best to keep her head up and my arms from falling off. We had some bending for our turns and circles, and even an ok canter transition into the left lead. She was very much on the forehand, but I was doing all that I could. (It is not a good idea to walk your hilly xc course right before doing your dressage test, btw). Our right lead canter was a mess, as we had to have a tiny sass party. I just laughed it off. We actually had a downward transition into the walk instead of a jig this time around, but it was quite abrupt. She gave me a nice stretch in her free walk, but was again hasty, and our centerline and halt was gross. But, we survived, and that is a good start.

"Trans unclear, resistance. 6.0"

7.0

"Stepped sideways and back. 5.5" 

I think our judge was exceptionally generous because we ended up with a 32.3, which is the best score I have ever gotten. That also put us in 9th place. The first place rider had a 23.8. So, a generous judge all around. But that's ok. All I knew was that I wanted to get around our xc course safely the next day, and that I crossed all of my crossables that it wasn't going to rain all night. It didn't work.

"Lovely horse- unfortunately a little energetic today" HAHA

Turd bucket after dressage 

She was proud of herself.