A winning team!!!

 Okay, so maybe it was a small show... and maybe I beat some kids. But, it wasn't so much about the blue ribbon as it was about the success of the day. Lyric was amazing!!!! 

She was fairly calm when I got there although apparently she tried to break her door down yesterday when her neighbors walked their horses. Luckily Mackenzie took her out for me and calmed her down. Thanks Mack! I let her finish her breakfast  and we took a short walk and then I groomed her and tacked up. We jogged in the grass for about... 30 seconds. Ha ha. I'm so not fit. Then I got on and we walked around a good bit as we were a little early getting on but I also wanted to make sure she had time to stretch her back out. It was such a small show that we had plenty of room in warm up. And she wasn't anxious. Probably because I wasn't either. I was still nervous enough to get the poops, but more physiologically nervous than mentally nervous. Which... good??? We did a trot to try and stretch and got some stretch and then Jacel came over to coach. She told me to slow her tempo as she was just running a bit. She told me to use my thighs to slow her and sit back and deep first. Then I could use my hand if needed, but... mostly of the time I didn't need to. She reminded me that as a thoroughbred who raced... holding means go faster. And I tended to hold her and then she hung on me and ran. Yep... She also reminded me to move her haunches out and her shoulder in and ahhhh.. it's magic lately. I'm guessing it's probably more just straightening her, or putting all four feet of the table underneath her. But she gets a better tempo, rocks back on her hind end, and stops bracing. And it was lovely!! Quite lovely. And when I use my thighs, I have to be careful to not just pinch with my knee. If I open my knee then I'm not blocking her. So... use my lower leg behind the girth a bit to push her haunches over without pinching with my knee and she just... flows! It allows her ribcage to move and bend and her to step up and under. At least that's how it felt! Glorious! And then add in the thigh pressure and deeper seat and a slight half halt and... viola! I had a very lovely soft self carrying thoroughbred with even contact in the reins! YAHOOO!!! We took a breather to wait our turn and then I offered to go ahead of the girl who had a naughty pony. She was thankful and the judge didn't care, so off we went. We trotted by a blue fire hose looking thing and she spooked at it. ha ha! Blue snake! But then she settled and was good. She got a little bit tense and tight in the arena compared to how soft and lovely she was in warm up, but I also didn't sit as well and was a bit less effective with all the things and trying to do the test. But it was a lovely test regardless and she scored very well. I think the judge was probably a bit generous but maybe not! She felt pretty good. We scored a 30 which put us right behind one of Mack's students. I think there was 6 in our division. (There was only 18 riders in the whole show!).  GOOD PONY!!!

It was super steamy so she got a rinse and then I let her go back in her stall to chill, drink, and enjoy the fan. I watched Jacel and Mack's students go and chilled out for a bit as I had two hours before jumping. And then the weather looked like it was going to move in a little quicker than anticipated so Lara announced that they would try to get us all through so if we could be expedient... so I went and got Lyric out again and tacked up. I had packed my helmet camera and was planning to use it but forgot I wanted to test it, so... I remembered to put it on but wasn't sure I knew how to work it. We walked out to stadium and did a lap of walk, a lap or two of trot and a lap of canter and then jumped. Lyric was on fire! She was so bold and brave and jumped right out of stride! We did three or four fences and Jacel reminded me to ride forward through the turn rather than being wimpy in the turn and then pushing. If I rode forward through the turn, then I could just settle and stay. It did help. So then the wind really picked up and the temps dropped a hair. Yay!! Although it was still steamy. They got the fences set for BN and then the rain started. It only lasted about 45 seconds so... we carried on. Macks' student went in and did her course and then the rain started again. Lara said that they would just hold until it passed so we sort of sat there for a minute debating on whether we should just stay put or head back to stalls or ??? And then it stopped again. The jump judge was like "Go ahead and go if you want" and so I headed in and she blew the whistle. Apparently Lara then announced "okay.. I guess we're back in action folks". ha ha. Lyric was READY and took me to every fence! She jumped out of stride at almost every fence! I tried to ride the lines we talked about because it was a fun but tricky course. It sort of sucked you in to making turns too early or too late. I missed one... but Lyric jumped it slightly angled anyways. She also jumped the triple bar without batting an eye. She jumped towards "troll corner" without a care... She was awesome! Even when I slightly tipped my shoulders at her. We jumped clean!!!

We headed over to XC and the rain never returned. It was still nice and coolish though, which was fantastic, because after we were done and packing up, the sun came out and it was brutal. We had to wait a bit for the jump judges to resettle and then I had to wait my turn, so we just walked. Well, then Jacel had me jump two warm up fences. Then I had to repeat one and not take my leg off and tip my shoulders at her. Whoops. But she was going! So then we walked and waited and then it was our turn. I had forgotten to turn my helmet camera on for stadium but did manage to get it on for XC. But... I didn't have the camera tilted down enough and my helmet is apparently loose enough that it was jiggling around so much it's not even really worth watching. Especially because I can't seem to figure out how to get it uploaded to my computer. ;) But anyways... it was our turn so we headed out of the start box. I let her trot out a few steps and then we picked up the canter and we were off. She jumped so well over the whole course! And she was going!! I had to do some significant half halts a few times... but I was careful not to hold. She was going!! I was laughing and told her we were gonna get speeding tickets. And we did... Optimum was 5:12 and we finished at 4:20. The girl's mom who was watching her daughter before made a comment about how I was back so quickly. Hee hee. Yeah.... racehorse mode kicked in. But we were having too much fun. There were one or two fences that she got deep too because she sort of ran past her distance and/or got a little downhill, but most of them she jumped nicely and out of stride. I was trying so hard to not tip my shoulders at her, and I think I was successful other than maybe one. Yay me! We finished strong and it took me a bit longer than it should have to get her slowed down. hee hee. YAY!!!

 

I'm so proud of her!! It's so nice to have this horse... compared to how she was when we first started riding... heck, even how she was a year or so ago. And I'm guessing a good bit of that was pain, not ideal saddle fit, lack of confidence in herself and me not being a confident rider. Or maybe she got tired of Funny talking smack. Ha ha! It was just so nice to have a happy, forward, confident horse today. She was BRAVE!! And felt happy. She was wanting to jump and go and do the things and not nervous or anxious. It just makes my heart happy! I had a blast too. 

She got another rinse and a bit of a liniment bath and then I put her in the stall so I could set jumps. And then Mike called and said his car was struggling with the motorcycle trailer and he needed me to come rescue him. So, I kicked it into high gear and got all set to leave. I didn't wrap her legs or poultice her. I should have, but... Mike was waiting on me and I figured since she was getting turned out... She was happy to be home and snuggled with Dan. I then had to drive another hour and 45 minutes in awful traffic to go get Mike and then I towed his trailer home, which luckily only took an hour and 15 minutes. So... almost 12 hours of driving in 2 days. But it was worth it.

Oh, and... we won our division and also won the TIP award! Yay.... another blue, green and white ribbon. Plus we won a TIP travel mug. Fun!

 

It was a great weekend and again, I'm so grateful to God for gifting me such wonderful horses. And such wonderful people! Mack's cheerleading was amazing... Jacel's coaching and moral support is so important to me. She just gets us and knows how to bring out the best in us... not just my horses but me. And my understanding husband... I am just so filled with joy today!