Second Show, Second Place

 

 

Who's the best girl!?!? :) I'm so impressed with her. We ended up showing in ameoba again after our last XC lesson. And that was the right choice. She was a good girl and we had fun!

We got to the show with plenty of time and she was like "Yep, been here, done that" and was pretty chill and relaxed. HUGE difference from her first show! I did give her 1 gram of bute because she still didn't have shoes and I didn't want to put her scoot boots back on. Plus I don't think she can use them for dressage, even though it's a schooling show. And she was pretty good. She felt fine in the grass and the arenas although she was definitely sore on the gravel. I put the thorowgood saddle on her for dressage and we went to warm up. We were in the grass area and she started out a bit squirrely and runny and braced and stiff. Jacel magically showed up and got us working nicely. Like.. she was bending around my leg and soft and not inverted and even soft in the contact. And yes, a few times she would lean and counter bend and get stiff, but she softened up nicely. It was hard to hear Jacel but I think she was telling me to insist that she listen. Inside leg means bend.. not go faster. We've had these discussion and she needs to know this. Keep my inside leg on, even if she goes faster, until she softens and bends. Because otherwise, how else does she know what the right answer is?! We opted to NOT canter because..grass, chaos, etc. And it was the right choice. So we hung out for a bit because we were early. It was so hot that it wasn't a bad idea to just let her chill in the shade for a bit. 

Then it was our turn so in we went. We had Robin Ginn as our judge. She's always so kind. We headed in and it wasn't bad. Definitely not as good as she can be but not bad. Right now... we can get settled into a lovely trot, but... we have to settle into it. And this test is so much rapid changing that she just couldn't settle into anything. So it was definitely inverted, hollow, braced, running, and just... not great. Ha! But Robin was kind and gave us a 35, which was very generous. We did get prompt and correct canter transitions and she actually scored a few of our transitions well, but then also noted that we needed to work on a consistent connection and our transitions. But, Lyric did everything I asked and she was trying to be a good girl. So yay!

 

After we were done I realized that the thorowgood was digging into her shoulder blades a little bit and setting on his withers some. Whoops! Poor girl. After I untacked her she got rinsed off and got to sit in the shade (lucky parking spot) while I walked cross country. She was chill and happy as a clam to just sit and munch hay. And she even drank some water too which is awesome. It was water I had brought from home, so we'll have to investigate if she'll drink Ashland water (which so far, she has not). So I went and walked the courses and she was still chill when I got back. We got tacked back up and headed to stadium. 

Jacel was able to coach us again so I trotted around and then cantered and then went to the cross rail. She sort of thought about stopping but.. more just hesitated and then went. Jacel said that was okay! She was thinking about things instead of saying no. We don't want to punish them for thinking.. because we want them thinking! But she has to still go. So then we came around to the vertical and she was good. We did it twice to make it a bit more positive the second time and then we headed to the ring. I laughed and said that she felt like she basculed SOOO much more than Dan, even over the tiny fences so it was sort of hard to ride sometimes. Jacel agreed.... she said Dan jumps flat and lazy because he doesn't have to try whereas Lyric jumps big and cracks her back. 

While we waited our turn Jacel told me to canter the whole course because she needed to be brave and bold. And it was a bit easier for me to send her that way and stay with her. Right as it was almost our turn a loose horse went by and we realized it was Kid. She ran down to check and make sure Laura was alright and told Aubrey to "get me". hee hee, I was slightly embarassed. I'm a grown ass woman and I'm riding my horse at amoeba. I think I can survive! BUT... it was nice to have Aubreys help and moral support. I headed in and we were off. Lyric jumped all of them fairly boldly and with much less wiggles than in our XC lesson. Aubrey did have to remind me to not let my hands get too high... that allowed her to drop her shoulder and scoot out. Keep your hands wide and low to channel her! And it helped! I love schooling shows! So yay!

Then we headed to cross country. Jacel was back by this point and didn't really have anything else to add to my plan, but was good moral support. And reminded me of our confidence boosting lesson. The course was nice and luckily the green jump was heading towards home so I didn't have to get all wierded out about her bucking up the hill after it. Although we did have to canter up the hill but there was a jump half way so that made it less scary. And she was good. We were actually the first out on course for our division so I was a little worried she would be drunk and not go. But she did. Only a little drunk. I think we did trot the first fence because it was fairly close to the start box and going away from the barn and friends. Then we got her cantering and more straight and she jumped everything else. There was a few peeks but nothing more than that. And we even jumped one jump we hadn't jumped before. She was trying to squirt left on the approach of every fence. Not like she was going to run out really, but.. .just drifting left. Maybe me being crooked?? Maybe my broken toes. Because oh yeah...on top of her stepping on my foot and breaking my toe(s) most likely on the right foot a week ish ago... yesterday my first patient was fussy and when I lifted up her left hind foot she jumped and picked up her other hind foot and landed on my left foot. OUCHHHHH. Ugh.. it didn't hurt quite as bad as when Lyric trod on me but that left pinky toe looks broken now too. So I had two bum feet. ha ha. But anyways, she even jumped the fake ditch. Good girl!!!

We ended up finishing in 2nd place! Jamie got 1st and 3rd with her and Beth's two RRP horses so we joked that it was a S Squared Sweep. :) I think there were 6 people in our division, although maybe one of those was a scratch. Before jumping, Lyric and I were in third so.. not too bad with the dressage score. We weren't last! 

She got hosed off again, some more water and then she had to sit and wait while I helped Laura go and watched Jacels' test. Unfortunately by now she was mostly in the sun. So as soon as I could we loaded up and headed home. She was a tired girl! I'm so proud of how well she handled herself this time around. Clever girl! And how proud of how well she did with everything!