Come Back Kid!

WE DID IT!!! Well.. ha! We did Beginner Novice. Again. (And funny enough... on my facebook feed a memory from 7 years ago popped up of us doing beginner novice at chatt that same weekend. Sigh. But hey, at least we look better now!). But this time... we're hoping it'll stick! :) #Comebackkidyetagain #onwardandupward

So.. Chatt Hills. Just a schooling show, but our first show back since his stifle surgery over a year ago! Whooo hooo! Because I had to work on Friday I didn't get to go school with the gang but that's okay. I did sneak in the quick ride Friday night and gave him a bath and begged him to stay clean. Luckily he did! Mostly. I was able to wipe off the little bit of dirt on his hiney this morning quickly. Yay! Good pony! Maybe he heard me when I told him he would get to go show off!

 

We made good time and got to Chatt and had the right amount of time to get tacked up and cleaned up and head to the arena. They seemed like they were running a hair behind so I had plenty of time to warm up. I probably got on too early but that's okay. Jacel said other than my stirrups looking too short she thought that the saddle was fine for me. She said Dan seemed to like it and while it looked too wide on him (I agree.. it does look wide, but it doesn't seem to sit on his withers!) he seemed quite happy in it and was moving more free in his shoulders.  Anyways, we warmed up with our stretchy work and Dan and I had fun seeing our friends and getting told how happy people were that he was back. And how good he looked :) :) :) Jacel said that while he was free in his front and hind end, he was a bit braced in his barrel, so she had me do a few steps leg yield in and a few steps leg yield out to get his barrel looser. AHA! Once I did that, and also "cycled" my hips more, he stepped up and under with his inside hind and got quite nice! Whoo hooo! We had some pretty nice warm up work and he felt very sound and happy. Another person told me how free he was in his front and hind end too! Awesome! And then another friend who was warming up was told to "ride like your friend Holly, she's a lovely rider". :) hee hee. He said it very politely and somewhat jokingly to her but it made me feel good. Then he shouted out that he wanted Dan! :) Awww.. It makes my heart happy to hear things like that. Especially after so much worry about his soundness and comfort. 

So we finally headed down to the arena and were told that there was a 10 minute break but I could go in. As I got there they were calling for riders. Oops! Lucikly it was Robin Ginn, who likes us a lot. :) We went in and did our test. It definitely wasn't our best. To me he felt a bit braced in his neck at times and I rode sloppily as far as over-riding my corners and not preparing him for the transitions and the corners. In my defense... we've been riding in the big arena and hadn't practiced in the small arena, but still. But it wasn't a bad test at all. He did well and he was happy. Afterwards we were leaving the arena and he picked up the trot and did a nice "trot lengthen" on his way out. I pulled him up but Kimberly, one of the ring stewards saw and told us how nice our extended trot was. :) hee hee. I didn't check my scores, because... then I stress out. But I was proud of him and happy with our test. Considering where we are right now in our journey, it was good! 

We then had a long break so I was able to go walk XC and stadium. I walked XC first. I had debated whether to run novice or beginner novice and to be honest.. we could have gone novice. Heck, we probably could have gotten through training even. It was a softer course. And the BN and novice courses were basically the exact same minus different heights. Training had a corner and a skinny chevron, but... we jumped that at ashland this week, so... BUT... training would definitely have not been the right choice or the fair choice. My point is... it's exciting that it didn't look too undoable. And when I started walking the course I was disappointed I hadn't entered novice, but halfway through the course the jumps got bigger. I mean... they were simple jumps, just big tables. And we would have been fine at novice... but I wasn't so bored by looking at the beginner novice fences, so... And again, given that it was his first show back, our first show barefoot, we had only schooled a little bit and only at ashland, and I wasn't sure about his fitness, and it was the first few really hot days... BN was the right choice. But we could have easily done novice too. Which is a good feeling! 

Then I walked stadium and that was a tricky odd course! It was roll back to roll back the first 5 fences and they were all within very close proximity to each other. Then it was a long stretch and the last 5 fences were all spaced out and on long lines. But it looked fun. Then I went back to the barns and adjusted a horse for a friend. I was thinking I had plenty of time, but.. I really didn't. I was supposed to jump stadium at 1:57 and at 1:27, while I was still in the stall adjusting, Jacel yelled "Holly, are you ready to jump?". OH CRUD!!! I didn't have my boots on even and Dan was in his stall chilling. Ack! I grabbed him and we "ran" to the trailer. Poor guy. He was not happy about all the gravel he had to cross to get to the trailer so he was slow. Hurry bud, hurry! We tacked up in record time and headed down to the arena. We got to warm up and there were about 6 riders ahead of us. So I had about 12 minutes or so to get ready. Ha ha. Luckily since we had already ridden I didn't feel too bad about a rushed warm up. Plus the long walk from the farthest away barns gave him his 10 minutes of walk warm up. So I picked up the trot for a few seconds and went into the canter and did two laps and then we jumped. We skipped the cross rail because... no need. He jumped two verticals and then a big oxer. The first big oxer he kind of just... plopped over it. RIDE HIS HOCKS! So then we came back around and I rode his hocks... not driving with my seat, but wrapping my legs around him and thinking about lifting his core and engaging his hind end, and tucking my tail bone, and being more forward thinking myself and he jumped it beautifully! A lovely bascule and great take off spot. So we went with that! I got to watch a few rides and then it was our turn. Dan was SUPER! I was not. Ha ha. We had a few good fences to start but then I over-reacted to Jacel telling me not to gun him at things and let him get long, and instead.. took my leg off. So he pooped over the first combo jump and then I had to gun him at the out. But he got us out. And then we had one other fence that I took my leg off and quit riding, but.. he's a saint (and 17 hands and it was BN height) so we got around clean. But at least the rest of the course was decent. So yahoo!!!

Dan got to go back to his stall for another breather. I'm a mean mom... well, kind of mean. It was only $5 more to get him a stall vs pay the haul in fee, so I got him a stall. That meant he had his fan and some more space, but I didn't put shavings in. Luckily he's potty trained so he peed outside a few times and pooped in the corner. So it was easy enough to clean. I felt sort of bad but not really. He was only in there for a few hours and it was highly unlikely he was going to lay down. So... at least he had shade and a fan and more space than if he had been in the trailer. Though he only got one fan because when I put the second one (the better one) up, he chewed on the cord and unplugged it. Goober! Anyways, he chilled and ate hay while I went to get a Dr. Pepper or something. I felt like I needed some sugar to help me not fade. It was sooo good. The slushy I also got was not that good. 

Anyways... we were ready for cross country appropriately. :) I paid attention. Plus, Margaret was riding her stadium so I wasn't able to finish her horses' adjustment anyways. We hacked down to the field and did a little trotting in the grass. Jacel was coaching so we were on our own but that was okay. We jumped two jumps and he felt great so... off we went. Dan was SUPER!!!! He literally just clocked through everything like it was nothing. He didn't look at anything.. he didn't hesitate over anything. Just happy as a clam to pop over things. And he jumped everything out of stride! It was awesome. And he was quite rideable. He was cantering nicely, not galloping or bolting. And he didn't get strung out at the base of the fences. Maybe because I remembered to sit up and ride his hocks? :) We got to the last combo and he was amazing and then it was like he realized he was almost done... he saw the last fence about 5 strides out and went for it. He picked up a gallop and took a flyer over it! And then proceeded to gallop through the finish flags and then do 5 big gallop circles in the field before he let me pull him up. Ha ha.. I was like "You're done Dan, you're done". He was like "Nope.. not done... galloping!!!!!". Hee hee. Goober. Guess he's plenty fit enough. :) We probably should have done Novice. Good boy. I ended up hanging out a little bit to see Mackenzie go and Dan was happy to graze on the clover. 

 

So yahoooo!!!! We're back!!! We ended up getting a 31.2 with a couple of 8's!! Which put us in 2nd out of 11 riders. Then we had 1.6 points worth of speeding tickets. Ha ha. Oops! My watch died so I didn't have any idea. Although I imagine had he not bolted the last bit we might have been okay, but probably not Regardless, it didn't matter. We stayed in 2nd place. GOOD BOY DANNY!!!