This past Sunday was wet.
Very, very wet. The ring at the
showgrounds was soupy, not muddy, but soupy.
I was a little concerned about Lex slipping and falling, so decided to
take it slow with warmup and signing up for classes. Lex already doesn’t really pay attention to
where he’s putting his feet, so putting him in a muddy ring made me extra
nervous. He did pretty well while we
were warming up, so we went ahead and signed up for our 4 classes.
We went
ahead and got a stall for this show, since it was very rainy with the
possibility of thunderstorms. I must
say, it was nice being out of the elements for once and being able to relax in
front of Lex’s stall. We were able to
set up everything in a semi-organized way, which made getting ready for classes
easier. Lex would get a little nervous
when all of the horses around him were gone or when it started raining and you
could hear it on the roof, but it was good for him to have a new exposure. I’m all about exposing my animals to everything
I possibly can, because it will end up making them a calmer, more reliable
partner.
Our
first class was Hunter under Saddle and Lex was able to pull off another win,
even though I felt like he looked more like a giraffe with his head up looking at
everything. I wasn’t able to get him in
the show pen to practice before the class, so I kept calm during the class
because it was my fault he hadn’t been in there to check things out yet. We had a good ride and I was very happy with
how that class went overall. The next
class we had was English Equitation, and the Judge made us SIT THE TROT. I think it’s honestly been about 2 years
since I’ve done a legitimate sitting trot in an English saddle, so I knew this
was not going to be a pretty class. We somehow
ended up with a second place, and when we came out of the ring, Andrew was very
quick to inform me that I looked like I was posting the trot and that maybe I
needed to practice the sitting trot a bit more at home. I fully believe him though—it was bad!
Our
last 2 classes of the day were the Hobby Horse Pleasure class (if you place
first, you win gift certificates to Hobby Horse!) and the Jackpot Walk-Trot
Pleasure. We have been entering these
classes all year, and either end up with a callback or no placing. Always good rides, but have had yet to
impress the judges! I have a video of
our Hobby Horse Pleasure class below, and it was probably one of my favorite
rides so far! I felt like Lex was
consistent and I was ecstatic to not only have placed, but won the class! I do not have a video of the Jackpot class,
but Lex also won that one! I couldn’t
believe it! I was so proud of him. He is turning out to be one of those horses
who really makes me wonder about our abilities outside of the show pen, but
it’s like he knows when he’s being judged and he gets down to work. He’s incredibly smart and I am so excited to
continue showing him and moving forward!
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