North Wind Jumper Show, January edition.

So the little show on Saturday.

It went really well. :) Rev loaded like a champ on Saturday morning after I pointed out that there was breakfast on the trailer and cookies in my hand. The nibble net I got from the Sprinkler Bandit worked beautifully! It did exactly what I hoped it would: it kept Rev from scarfing down the hay, kept the hay in the hay net instead of on the ground, and kept Rev quite occupied when she had to stand at the trailer. SUCH an awesome invention!

I think Rev is going to be an incredibly awesome show horse with some miles. The arena where the shows are held has completely lost its newness and spookiness for her. She'll look at other horses or the mules, but that's about it. She gave the judges' chairs a good hard look, but it was a very polite hard look. :) With any luck, this will carry over to all show environments over the years.

MT schooled us over the fences in the morning before the show. I'd been concerned that Rev would spook at or just look at the fences that weren't simple poles -- planks, a gate, and panels. Yeah, no. Not even a single horsey eyelash batted. The oxer, though ... heh. That nearly caused a repeat of Friday's fall, the first time we went over it. I kept my head and eyes up, squeezed my leg as hard as I could, and generally Fought For It, and I stayed on ... which netted me quite the round of applause from the folks watching the warmup. *laugh* And a "good save!" from MT.

Incidentally, the first thing I heard from everyone who knew I'd fallen the day before was "oh my gosh, you're HERE? Aren't you SORE?!" My response was, in each case, "Oh, I'm sore. I just have 1000 mg of ibuprofen on board!!" MT laughed pretty hard at this one -- almost as if he knew how it goes. ;)

Anyway, the upshot of the warmup was basically hit her with your stick! I really needed to keep her moving at a good pace, keep her forward, especially between fences when there were lines. We didn't touch any of the rails in warmup, so I scratched on my schooling round, figuring we had enough warmup and could just jump around pretty easily. I was a little surprised at how small the jumps seemed, too -- 2'3 at a show seemed WAY smaller than 2'3 at home! I think MT's been psyching us out at home, which I appreciate.

So our round went pretty well, overall. The single fences -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, and 10 -- were easy, and I had plenty of forward going to them. Maybe less at 9, seeing as we knocked one of the poles down, but overall, the single fences weren't any issue. The lines -- inside lines of 5 to 6 and 7 to 8 -- posed a slight problem, especially 5-6, which was a gate to the oxer we'd had trouble at earlier. I just didn't have enough forward going; I forgot to smack her with my stick after fence 5. When we got to the oxer, Rev just didn't have enough oomph, and we very nearly stopped at it. As it was, we got there, she planted her feet, I kicked and growled, and over we went from almost a standstill. To another round of applause. *laugh* We knocked a rail at fence 8, I think, and again at 9, and our little bobble only cost us a little bit of time, like three seconds.

Overall, I was utterly delighted with her performance. I have some things I need to do better, but Rev was a superstar. :) I'm really looking forward to the next one. I'll have more information to go in with, and we'll have a great chance at going clear and at the optimum time. :) We'll stay with 2'3 for a little while, I think. Maybe we'll end up with a round at 2'6 toward the end of the series, closer to spring, but I'm not in a hurry.

I <3 my horse so very much. :) I also <3 my barnmates and lesson partners -- fun, smart, caring people, every single one of them. It was so nice to have friends in the stands, and I had a good time being moral support for them too. That's what it's all about, yknow? Horses and friends and fun.