Best Birthday Weekend

Sunday was my 30th birthday and to kick off the birthday weekend on Saturday we went to our first show of the year. It was my first show in almost two years, and obviously my first with Peebs.

You got me up how early for this?!?

Two days before the show I got an email saying they were starting my ring an hour and a half earlier than planned. So at the lovely hour of 5:30am Saturday morning we headed out. We got to show in time to school in the ring before they started, which was great because while they opened the ring between fence heights there was so many people and horses in a tiny indoor I wasn't able to do a whole lot. 

Peebs was pretty up when we first got there; he didn't want to stand at the trailer or eat. But once I was on and we started warming up he settled right in and was the same slightly lazy pony he is at home. We had a bit of a wait for our classes so I got off and we hung around watching some friends do the jumpers in the outdoor ring. 

When our ring was opened for the cross rail warmup we trotted around a few times and attempted to canter without running into ponies. Side note, I was the oldest one in my division.  That's not intimidating at all! I think we trotted maybe three fences before I had to pull him up pretty short when a trainer walked in front of us and Peebs ended up tripping and almost went down on his front end. We trotted a bit just to make sure he was ok then high tailed it out of  there. 

Blurry phone screen shots

Our first round was our best. He was relaxed and trotted around nice and quiet. I hadn't payed attention to the striding in the outside lines; my plan had been to trot in and trot out but since he was so nice I let him canter down the lines. One was a slightly long 5 while the other was a slightly short 6. Our second and third rounds weren't quiet as nice, he was more awake and a bit more bold down the lines. We ended with a flat class which was just walk trot thankfully because there was no way 8 of us could canter in that tiny ring at once. 

Cutest crossrail pony evar!!!!

They announced placing after the flat and we ended up with a 1st for our first round and seconds for our other two rounds. We snagged a 4th on flat and end up tied for champion! Best birthday present ever!! Take that little pony kids!