Show day dawned bright and sunny. I was the first "competitor" to arrive at the barn getting there at 7:30am. You have to be prepared in case your horse decides to roll in a pile of manure the night before. Amber of course was as clean and prissy as she normally is, but I spent extra time prettying her up since you always want to make a good impression in a show.
We spent 45 minutes warming up, which looking back was a mistake. The first class was "green" hunter walk, trot. Complete disaster. I had to half halt every trot step and that didn't really work. Then she would either throw her head up or reach down for the bit. It was the most frustrating class ever since Frying Pan Farm back in March. I should have anticipated that since she was doing it towards the end of warm-ups. The judge for our schooling show was super nice. The great thing about schooling shows is that the judge will come over and tell you what you did well or what you could do better. There were 8 of us in that class. The first thing the judge said when she walked over was that she penalized horses that were fighting the rider. Great. That was all that happened for us in that class. So we didn't get a ribbon because it was indeed terrible and super frustrating. I can be my own worst critic, but for once somebody agreed with me!
Instead of doing the next 5 classes in the green hunter division I opted to scratch out of all of them, untack and turn Amber back out in the pasture. And I also scratched us out of hunter "pleasure" since there was no way we could have pulled off the "pleasure" charade on Saturday. I actually really enjoyed watching everybody else compete. I seriously contemplated not doing any more classes the rest of the day but one of my good friends came to watch so I didn't want to let him down especially after battling the Oatlands traffic.
I saddled up with a little more confidence later on in the morning knowing that the next three classes were equitation classes (judging the rider). I also had used one of my favorite little gems called Quietex which is a paste that acts as a calming agent for horses. This worked wonders at the FPF show in August and I think it may have helped on Saturday. We went in to the ring with no warm-up. The other riders were waiting on us. It was a good ride, not stellar, but good. Amber behaved like the little pseudo-hunter I've been training her to be. And unlike the last show, I posted on the correct diagonal within a few strides. I was off one time for half a stride but the judge didn't catch it. We didn't get pinned after the equitation walk, trot class but the judge had a few comments. She said she was looking for soft contact and she said only one of us picked up the correct diagonal immediately every time. She pointed at me! I was pretty sure then that we had gotten first in the walk, trot. Once you are on top in a class, it's easier to do well in the classes following.
The next class was equitation walk, trot, canter. I hit my diagonals and we cantered on the correct lead both directions. One of the great things about Amber is that she rarely hesitates to go faster. We were cantering clockwise and Ann riding Hank was on our inside struggling to get going on the correct lead. We were cantering along much faster than them (and everyone else) so I called out that we were going around on the outside so they didn't bear out on us. As we circled Ann and Hank, Amber got excited and bolted, head in the air down the straight end of the ring. Fortunately I got her under control to go around the turn and soon after that the class was over. I didn't know if that little antic had cost us placement or not but I was somewhat pissed that she had a racehorse moment during what was otherwise a good ride.
To finish out the adult equitation division, we had to do 4 jumps set at 18" at either a trot or a canter. Only Cathy and Maddy and me and Amber participated. I always start out the series with the intention of trotting the 4 jumps but Amber likes to rush them so we jumped the first one at a trot and cantered through the second one after which I brought her back to a trot to do the third jump then we compromised and she cantered over the fourth. Definitely not stellar but I knew that this would be our weakest class. We ended up getting first in the walk, trot, first in walk, trot, canter and second over the jumps which made us the Champion of the division. Our first blue ribbons and champion ribbon. Very exciting for me and also for Amber since this is the first "winner's circle" she has ever been in. :-)
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