Team NW Bedrock Show Day One

This is what I saw Friday night before our show. Icky, nasty, poopy pony legs.  He got washed, twice, with Dawn and thankfully I didn't actually need to use the pony spray paint.

Friday night I spent at the barn, sleeping in the office/music room attached to barn.  My BO was out of town and had left their dogs in the office for the weekend for boarders to let out and feed.  By spending the night Friday, I could feed and let the dogs out and hook up and load the truck Friday and not have to do it first thing Saturday. They have a nice futon that I slept on, but I didn't get that much sleep. I could hear the horses moving around and at about 10:30pm one mare had a full on melt down screaming, running, and generally scaring the crap out of me.  I went out and checked on everyone, thinking there must be something wrong, but I couldn't see anything. Needless to stay I was pretty tired when my alarm went off at 5:30 Saturday morning.

I loaded Peebs and we headed off just over an hour north to Hunter Creek Equestrian Park, home to most of the rated shows in Oregon.  We were showing at a local show during the rated show.  When I got there, I didn't see us down on the stall chart so after finding somewhere to park the truck and trailer I scurried off to the show office to get checked in.  Apparently they were waiting to see how many stalls they had before giving me one, which seems a bit sketchy to me especially since I had already mailed a check for entries and stall fees. And of course, the stall I got had a wonky door that you had to kick the bottom of for it to close properly. 

But once I had the stall set up and Peebs settled in my trainer showed up and we got Peebs groomed and tacked up.  I was showing in the 12" trot-a-course and we decided to add a trot pole round before had to get him into the ring.  Which was not needed as Peebs couldn't have cared less about being at a show.  He was almost lazier than he is at home and other than giving the tree on the mound a good look, he didn't seemed fazed at all.

Tiniest jumps ever and scary tree

For our first round over fences, the plan was to trot in and trot out of the lines.  And it was pretty easy to accomplish considering Peebs never actually jumped any of the jumps.  He trotted over all of them and even managed to trip pretty hard on the first fence in the judge's line. I was told in no uncertain terms to add leg at base and make him jump for our second round.  I did, and we cantered the lines.  I hadn't paid attention to what they were set at and I know we added strides, even trotting in, but the lines felt even and flowed well so I was happy.  We had a under saddle to finish the day and let's just say that I have no idea how to ride a u/s class and Peebs will never win the hack.  We finished with a fourth over poles, a fourth and sixth over fences, and a seventh u/s. There were about 10 in the division, all freaking little kids on ponies, so I was happy with how we did.  Considering we were just going around to get mileage and confidence, satin is just icing on the cake!

I put the pony away, parked the rig, watched some junior eq and then proceeded to take a nap in my truck.  Trainer had to head back home for her kids, so once I woke up from my nap I cleaned tack and headed over to check into the hotel.  I then took another nap and went back out to feed and walk around 6.  Peebs seemed perfectly content and not at all upset by being alone at a show, which made me feel great. It's a great feeling to know you can trust your pony not to do anything stupid away from home, and they're going to be the same steady eddie at a show.