Show Story

First off, I want to apologize for yesterday's post. It was inappropriate and I really shouldn't have said what I did. I meant every word of it, but I realize that it is not public blog material.

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I really did mean everything I said though.

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ANYWAYZ, so I promised I tell the story of the show this past weekend. It was the Midsummer Dressage show, but it sure didn't feel like midsummer. The show was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but I only went Saturday. Going for more than one day with just my mom and dad is hard because they don't really want to go for more than one day. I feel bad dragging them to shows when there is so much other stuff they need to do. (Another reason why I'm excited to be switching to a barn that actually GOES TO SHOWS!! WOOT!!!) My ride times were late in the day, not until 4:01 and 5:03. It was kind of nice though because I didn't have to get Grady ready until that morning and I didn't get up until 7 AM, so I felt well rested and I wasn't stressed out.

My mom and I gave Grady his bath and I got him braided. We left at 11 and picked up my bestest friend Rebekah on the way. Rebekah wanted to come to one of my shows and she was very nice to have along. She doesn't have horses but she's taken lessons before and she has "horse sense", so she was a big help. We got there a little before 1, settled Grady in, checked in, watched some tests and ate lunch.

This past week I somehow threw my back out. I actually woke up Wednesday morning with the WORST kink in it. Friday night it was so bad I was laying on the floor and couldn't even get up. So what a blessing it was when we got to the show and there was a chiropractor there!! Kyla Awes, one of the regular competitors in our region is apparently also a chiropractor and she was giving ajustments. I got one and it felt SO good. My neck is still nice and loose. My back still had the kink in it but it's been getting better ever since. She said I had a couple ribs out of place and the base of my spine was rotated. My neck was also pretty messed up. My soon to be trainer Lindsay also got an ajustment. She brought three baby horses to the show; all showing at Training level in their first show seasons. It was her show to concentrate on the young ones. Oh, and you would not BELIEVE the huge rig Lindsay's got. It's like an 8 horse and it has HUGE Pferde Farm logos on the sides. Pretty sweet. I am SO excited to be part of that soon!

I got on Grady around 3:15. Friday evening I had had a lesson and we worked on the quality of his gaits. He was working very nicely by the end of the lesson and Grady picked up right where we left off. However, the weather was getting pretty iffy. The wind was blowing, the rain was falling, and the tornado sirens were going off through practically my whole warm up and test. The show announcer kept saying that the severe weather was going to miss us so the show plowed on. I was very surprised at how happily Grady worked during our warm up; the conditions were unbelievably awful.

Lindsay was warming up a nice looking chestnut mare at the same time. She is such an elegant rider and the horse was working in a perfect Training level frame. What really impressed me was that Lindsay looked elegant even when the horse decided to buck!! She did very well with all her horses that day.

The ring that we were showing in was the ring Grady had dumped and dragged me a month ago. (Yeah, remember that story?) The show was running 20 minutes early so we only warmed up for 25 minutes, but I felt that there was nothing else I could ask for in the warm up so I went in to ride my test. Well, I tried to go in. The bit checker had a white chair set up by the in gait and Grady has issues with white objects. (That's why he spooks at the letters in dressage arenas, *sigh*) I asked the bit checker if he would be willing to sit in it and once he did Grady walked past it. Grady was quite tense going around the arena and he spooked several times. We rode the test, I can say that much. I was riding with all my might, through spook and testiness. It was NOT easy riding. Grady was not happy about being in that ring and he let me know it. I hit all the transitions, did all the work, but he was so tense that the test was really just a load of junk. I was happy that I got him through it and that I was able to maintain enough control to get our transitions where they should be. That's about all I can say we accomplished.

They called the show after my test. It started to POUR. I didn't get to ride my second test and I still don't know what I got for my first one. It's supposed to be mailed out to me. Probably not a great score though.

So we hung out in the barn, waiting for the rain to stop. Rebekah and I made a dash to the office to ask about scoring. The office had a four inch puddle stretching about 10 feet around it in all directions so our shoes were quite soggy afterwards. We reverted back to our child hood and pretended that we were on a grand adventure. We lept puddles and had as good of a time as you can in a monsoon rain storm. I don't know why I didn't think to have dad take pictures of us, they would have been classic. Dang it!! I'll keep that in mind for the future. Take pictures of the "other stuff" too!!

After the rain let up we loaded the trailer and headed home. I'm happy that I atleast got Grady out and made it through another test. Thus far this year every other show has been great and every other show has been horrid, so if we follow the pattern the next show should be a huge success!! AND the next show will be with my new barn. Woohoo!!

This picture gives a good idea of what the weather was like during my test.

Grady was pretty tense

I actually like this picture, but my hair came out and I didn't know it!! How embaressing.

This picture gives you a good idea of what the test was like and how difficult it was to ride. Yuck, what an awful picture!!