Full Gallop Farm: Our second show outing!

Danny boy...oh danny boy. ;) I took both boys to Full Gallop for their schooling show. Dan hauled the 2.5 hours great and I got them settled in their stalls. I decided to go ahead and hop on both boys for a quick hack before dark. Dan did pretty well. He was a little excited but we had a decent ride. Meanwhile though Fleck had torn down his stall - kicked apart one board and pulled two halfway off. Jeesh! So then Dan was a good boy while I rode Fleck. I got them settled for the night and tucked in and then it was off to bed. 

Sunday was a bit of a rushed day with all that was going on. I took them both for a quick walk and even threw them in the paddock for a 10 minute romp. I rode Fleck first so Dan had to stay in his stall all day. And other than calling for Fleck, he seemed to handle it well. Finally it was his turn. I ended up rushing because I watched a friend go instead of getting Dan ready. I didn't quite think I would need as much time as I did. So I got on and headed over to the dressage rings. I didn't even have time to do any in hand work. The dressage rings were across the pastures in the neighbors farm so it was a good distance away. We trotted some of the way and all was going well until we got to the paddocks just before the dressage rings. Then it was a sudden stop, shoulder drop, and turn and bolt. I managed to keep him under wraps and got into the warm up area. He was quite naughty... the ring steward even asked me "are you sure you want to do this?"! hee hee. Not really! But I went ahead and headed out to the rings. There was only three horses out there, including us. They were waiting on test forms so I had a little extra time luckily. He was still being silly... occasionally squirting off towards the barns. But it wasn't anything super bad. The one girl went in and did her test and started to leave. I asked her to stay and she said she had to leave. The other girls friends said she would stay. Bless them!! They were super nice. She had a lovely test and then it was my turn. Dan was still being feisty. We had some good laughs at him and then in we went. I told the judge not to be alarmed, but I was just going to get it done. :) 

Intro B went okay. He cantered in both of our trot circles and our centerlines were quite wiggly and squirmy. He didn't halt very well, although perhaps I didn't prepare him propely. He's quite responsive to my seat and I think I got my handsy than I should have. But you know, we survived. I asked if I was okay to go ahead and do Intro Test C and the judge and my new friend agreed. So we went back in.
 Intro Test B
Intro C was a little better. We got both of our canter leads and we were a little less fussy. He did canter down centerline the second time. Doh! But not too shabby.
 Intro Test C
Point is... we accomplished it. It was a big step for him. Lots of wind, only one horse for company, he spent the night being stalled.... So props to the kid for getting through it. :)