Eventing... check!

 Lyric's an event horse. And I think she likes it!!!







This morning was a bit chilly and brisk and she started out calm but then Dan got everyone all riled up. Every show morning! But I suppose it's helped her get some energy out before I get on. Luckily she stayed clean overnight, so... after breakfast and shenanigans, we headed to Ashland. 

She hauled great and sat in the trailer well while I checked in. However once I got her unloaded she was a hot mess. She was spinning, pooping, and on edge. Her veins were popping and she was starting to sweat. I walked her around a bit so she could look at things and it only kind of sort of helped. I tied her up so she could look around the corner of the trailer. I tried to groom her but she was spinning so much it really didn't happen. I did manage to at least get her fly boots off and her feet picked. And then we just sat for a minute... me with my hands on her trying to help settle her. Then I managed to get her tacked up. Mike showed up at this point, which was nice. He came to cheer us on. :) She was starting to settle a tiny bit by this point, so... I put my big girl panties on and got on. A nice sweet lady walked up to me and told me that it was so nice for her to see me diffuse Lyrics anxiety in such a positive and kind way. Awwwww... she totally made my day!! Turns out (she posted later on my facebook post) that she had lost a daughter last year and I had made sympathetic and encouraging comments on her posts but we didn't realize that we were "friends". She had finally gotten out and about to do things and... she said that my "interaction with this lovely horse validated more than even her faith does at times. ... there are so many who wait in the wings to lift others up". Awwwww.... That might have been the best part of my day. I told her that I was so thankful that she told me what she did because it made my day and helped calm me down. Such a cool interaction... we were both helping each other without even knowing it. 

So Lyric and I headed to the warm up arena. She was a bit high but we managed to not get too rowdy. Once we got into warm up, we just walked and walked. And she settled. And then she was actually quite good. We practiced our homework and she was pretty nice. I opted to only canter the hard way once and only for a circle and then we just walked more and then did a little more trotting. Then it was our turn! We headed up to the upper ring and she wasn't too bothered by the flowers and the full arena rails or the judges booth. Then the bell rang and off we went. I was soooooo proud of her!!! It was a hundred times better than I expected! Yes she had her mouth open and was chomping on the bit. And yes she was a bit more inverted than she can be and she was a little bit quick. But for where we are right now I could not have asked for anything better. She did the whole test without any errors. She picked up both leads and did the transitions as I asked. She did spook slightly at some poop on the long side. Ha ha! Silly girl. But she recovered quickly. I was so pleased with her!!!! 


So then we went back and untacked and Mike sat with her while I walked my courses. She was chill and just sat there and ate her hay happy as a clam. She even drank some. Once I got back we got tacked back up for the jumping phases and headed up to stadium. She did not want to warm up over the fences on the far side by herself so we walked back over to the in gate and then went to trot around the other warm up area. But some guy with a pyrenees walked up the hill and surprised her! She spun and bolted a stride or two but then recovered. By then two other chestnut horses had walked up so we followed them to the warm up area and jumped 3 fences. Then it was our turn. She was a bit wild and steering was a bit wonky but we did it. She wanted to canter a good chunk of the course! Go girl! She was so brave and jumped most everything quite out of stride. We had one good rub but the rail stayed up. Good girl!!!! 

Then we hiked over to XC. She was a bit overwhelmed at first but only hesitated very briefly. We warmed up over the two logs and she was great. Then we headed down to the start box and we had to wait a little bit. She was happy to stand with her new friends and then it was our turn. She entered the start box (We haven't practiced that!) and we trotted out and did the course! She was super!!! She hesitated a little bit in front of each fence but went. And I kept getting tipped forward....argh! But she went when I closed my leg. I need to get braver about just sending her, but she got a little crooked and drunk and I was nervous. So.. my bad. I"ll get better! The first two fences were good! Then we had to turn and go down the hill and she was in the right lead canter so she just kept cantering to the right.. heading back to stadium. Ha ha. It took me quite a bit to get her unlocked and turning and then she couldn't balance going downhill so we walked to fence three and then trotted a few strides out. Once we got down the hill we got back to rolling and were fine. She even jumped the cheese stick jump without blinking. And a brush fence!! I mean she hesitated but only briefly. Not even a stop, just... backed off and wiggled. We didn't have to go through the water but I made her do it. And she side stepped a little but went in. It was so cute when she first hit the water she took super tall steps and tap danced briefly. Ha ha. But she wanted to canter a good bit and had a nice happy canter that wasn't running away with me. It was awesome. We finished the course and she was so proud of herself! I really do think she loves eventing!

So yahoo!!!! Baby girl took it all in stride and was so brave and good. We finished on our dressage score... and we were under 40!!!! 37.8!!! Which put us in 6th place, 0.3 pts behind Aubrey on Uno. :) Out of 8 too!!! Ha ha.. Good girl!!

She stood tied at the trailer all by herself while Mike and I went to get my ribbon and she was still there when we got back :) 

RRP here we come!!! She's really gonna be a fun horse!














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