Show Day!!!

 

 

Wahhhoooooo! What an eventful day :) 

Today was Lyric's first BIG show. :) Her first show other than Ashland, which she was able to be there and in all the arenas multiple times before. She's never been to Chatt hills. Heck, she's only ever been to Ashland and now recently Full Gallop. So, I wasn't expecting much but was going for the learning experience. 

We loaded up early that morning and had an easy haul to Chatt. Luckily I had gotten a day stall as it was very hot and humid and they had spaced out our rides. That way she got to rest and had a fan and shade. She also was stabled behind Wally, Kristin's horse, and she made friends with him. We stalled with Aubrey's group so that was fun although it was such a busy chaotic day we really didn't do any hanging out. 

We got all ready for dressage and headed down to the arena's. Lyric was a little bug eyed at all the things and kept balking on our way to the arena. I managed to catch up to a cute little buckskin pony and we used him as moral support to get to the warm up arena. It was packed and busy! But, Lyric was great. She wasn't spooky or anything. We actually warmed up quite nicely and had some nice moments. Aubrey reminded me to bend my elbows and make sure that when she got braced, I would soften the inside elbow, lift my hand a hair, and give her someplace to soften into. It helped! It was close to our time and I was a little concerned she would need extra time to "look" at the new area so I asked to head down a hair early. They wouldn't let me. Boo. But then it was our turn and we headed down. Or tried. Ha ha! Lyric was like NOPE! THAT'S SCARY! But I did manage to cajole her down and we headed into the show arena area. And Lyric was overwhelmed! It's so open... with the hills in the background.. all the open space and skies. And of course we were in the farthest arena. We almost didn't make it there. She kept balking and trying to throw her shoulder and go back. But we slowly crept over and then she stopped and just stared!!!! I finally got her moving and the poor judge was sweet and tried to give me some more time to let her settle. But, the show must go on. So she rang the bell. And Lyric was still quite overwhelmed. I knew we didn't really stand a chance at a nice test. I had gotten sort of hopeful in the warm up, but.. nope. Now I was riding a tense inverted hollow speed dragon. But bless her. Despite being so nervous and scared and flustered, she did everything I asked. She did the entire test and technically did all the things in the right places. Were our circles more squares? Yes. Was her shoulder bulging and her head in the air the entire time? Yes. Was she leaning and slinging hindquarters every which way? Also yes. And she almost left the arena too at A but I managed to get her back in before the opening disappeared. So yep.. it was an awful test. But I was so proud of her. She was scared but she did it anyways. She heard me through her fear and anxiety and she tried. And turns out, it wasn't that horrible of a score. I mean.. it was horrible... 43 I think. But it wasn't above a 50. The judge was very generous. And we weren't even last! 6th out of 8. ha ha.. 

    

Cora actually captured some decent photos. But I'm guessing there were plenty more that looked like this one, or worse!

So, she got a rinse off and got to chill in her stall with alfalfa (And Wally) while I rode the bike to walk stadium and XC. Riding down to XC was fun. Riding back up... and even on XC... NOT FUN! Ha ha. But the course was good. Stadium was simple and looked bigger, but not terrible. Cross country actually looked lovely. It was mostly very inviting type fences. Only one cabin with a bright blue top. And the water was optional. So... okay! 

Then it was time for stadium. We got tacked up again and headed down to the arena. She was a bit rowdy and spooky, which was interesting since dressage warm up was much busier but she didn't mind. Maybe it was the jumping past her part? But she did one little scoot and then was fine. We jumped a few jumps and Beth just reminded me to keep her straight to them. (Aubrey was coaching me but was also riding so she wasn't down there and Beth was there for Jamie so she yelled some advice to me too!) Then it was our turn so we went in. And she was great! She didn't get freaked out about this arena. The flags didn't bother her. So yay! What a brave girl. I'm not sure if it's because she got to look at it earlier or because it was more in the middle of things instead of out on the edge. Who knows?! But she was super! We had a great round and even cantered most of it. We had one rail which was totally my fault. I didn't walk the course and just watched others ride it, so when we went to do the one tricky turn, I thought a different jump was my next jump at first so my trajectory was not how I wanted it on my approach. She got to that fence not straight (ha ha... thanks Beth) and so we had a rail. But she tried and she never thought about refusing any jump. So yahoo!!! She got another rinse and then we had another 1.5 hours before cross country. Jeesh! More fan and hay and Wally time. 

I figured that I might need more time to get her to cross country than I would with Dan and possibly more time down there to warm up, so... I got tacked up probably a bit early. Maybe not. But not as early as Aubrey or the other people so we were heading down there alone. And she was not interested in leaving the barns and then she arena areas. She kept balking and very politely threatening to turn and go back to the barns. I managed to get her moving and we eventually got all the way to warm up. Unfortunately there was only 2 people down there and one was leaving the start box. I think the other one had actually already finished her course and was maybe just waiting for the other girl to leave the startbox??? She disappeared pretty quickly too. Lyric was soooo upset. She was like a keg of dynamite! She was upset and screaming and threating to bolt back to the barn. She kept throwing her shoulders towards home. The starter was like "You ready?" as soon as I got down there. I was like "UM NO!!!" in a very panicked voice. I tried walking her in circles and was trying to figure out how I was going to accomplish this. And Aubrey was supposed to be riding right after me... where was she?? I need help!!! Luckily Beth had driven down and was waiting on Jamie to show up. She asked where Aubrey was and I told her I didn't know and then she asked if I wanted her help. I practically cried YES PLEASE! So she told me to make her move her feet and use her brain. Lots of circles and figure 8's. Keep her brain thinking. It wasn't pretty but it worked. We started trotting and I was able to get her doing what I asked. Sure, her shoulders were cocked and I practically had her nose to her chest to keep her from bolting, but... she didn't. So after we did a bit and she seemed less explosive, though certainly not settled, Beth told me to trot over the crossrail. "You mean the one heading towards the barns?? WHY??? Why would they do that?!". ha ha... Beth laughed and told me I'd be fine. Meanwhile I'm picturing a ride like my one XC lesson... I figured she would happily jump the jump, land, buck repeatedly, dump me, and then gallop back to the barn. But she didn't. She jumped and we landed and while she wanted to go back to the barn, she let me circle her. So we did it again and then the two solid fences. And she was actually starting to breathe. Beth was like "I'd go now and I'd trot the first half of the course". Yes ma'am, kind of my plan anyways! So.. off we went. And honestly... I was not sure we'd make it out of the start box or over the first fence. I was remembering poor Mackenzie and Synergy rearing and spinning and just... having to head back to the start box. So we trotted out and... I clucked and kicked and we made it over the first fence. Hooray!!! So then we trotted on and got over the second fence. And then the third! And then the fourth. And then we cantered a little bit and then trotted the 5th, because that was the blue cabin. And then we cantered but then I got wimpy and pulled her back to the trot for the next few fences. I think I thought it was going so well I didn't want to risk a canter and letting her get too ahead of herself. I was trying to ride like my cross country lesson... where she stays "small" and therefore more balanced and then I could push her forward at the last stride or two, instead of having to hold to keep her in control. And it was probably a fine decision. I think she probably would have been fine cantering more, but we played it safe. We did canter the last two fences I think and she was great!! I was so proud of her! She didn't peek at any of those fences and she had never jumped them before. This is a HUGE improvement from even our last schooling. And they were legit 2'3" fences. And yes, they were very appealing fences and horse friendly, but still. She did so good!!! And she let me steer her and didn't bolt, even when we were heading back to the barn! SUPER good girl!! We ended up standing there watching Jamie finish her course and then we walked back together. Which made Lyric happy to have company. We rode back halfway and then walked the rest. They were tired ponies!

Lyric got another rinse and liniment rub and then another rest before I packed up and we headed home. Baby girl was a very tired pony!!! It was a big day for her, physically and mentally. But a huge win in so many ways!! Oh, and... despite the rail, time in stadium and lots of time on XC, we ended up in 6th place! Yay girl!