Golden

Yesterday would have been the perfect show day, if it had been 15* cooler. Showing in 90* weather isn't fun. 

Wasn't nearly as scary hauling this as I had thought.

We took the horses up late Friday night and arrived at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club around 8ish.  It was still in the 80s and muggy but the arena was open so we decided to school.  The horses had hauled well (and I didn't crash the gooseneck!) and were all a little excited to be there.  We had the arena to ourselves and hacked around before popping over everything.  We got the horses tucked into their stalls and headed out to find our hotel and get dinner.

Saturday morning we got up at 6 to go feed then went back to the hotel to eat our breakfast and finish getting ready.  We made it back to the Hunt Club around 8am and the two girls doing the x-rail and 2ft started to get ready.  The show was supposed to start at 9 (but of course started at 9:30) and the arena was open for schooling but was incredibly crowded.  I had the girls use the sand arena to warm up and then we waited for the trot-a-pole classes to finish so they could ride.

Mae and Zoe and Miriam and Hunter

Mae and Zoe did pretty well, minus Mae not hearing that the judge called for a two point in their flat class and doing half a lap still posting.  Zoe did her normal hesitate and look at every jump in their first round but they pulled a 3rd out of about 8.  They did better in their second class and got 2nd.  Their 2' classes didn't go quite as well, Zoe was tired and hot and behind Mae's leg but they still came home with ribbons.  I'm so happy that Zoe has found a person and she and Mae seem to be a good the team.

Zoe was rocking a serious mohawk.  Must remember to braid her hair down!

After Mae and Miriam were done the other girl from the barn had her 2'6" classes.  I couldn't be there to coach her much as I had to get Buddy ready for my medal classes.  Mae went on a milkshake run and I gulped mine down during our warm up.  Buddy was pretty forward and excited and I was trying not to get in his mouth too much.  My plan for the first medal class was to add in the lines, as that was what we had done the night before but Buddy was actually getting the big boy strides. 

Our OHJA mini medal went ok, but not as polished as I would have hoped for. I couldn't make my mind up until half way down the lines if I was going to add or not so some of our distance were a little wonky.  The judge called all six of us back for "test" consisting of a few questions.  As this was my first time being called back for a work off I was somewhat disappointed. She asked for three types of martingales and then told me my standing was on backwards.  Apparently the buckle on the neck strap is supposed to go on the left and mine was on the right.  I've had that martingale for 13yrs and have never once been told that.  Oh well.  She also asked what type of bit I had (broken snaffle pelham).  We placed third, which I was very happy with considering our ride was somewhat erratic. 

The second medal I did was a memorial class for the former H/J trainer at this facility who died of breast cancer.  They have 3 medals, a 2'3", a 2'6" hunter, and 2'9" jumper, and all the proceeds from the classes go to the Portland Providence Cancer Center.  Every year in September they have a finals where the winners from the 2'6" and the 2'9" compete against each other in a work off for a custom County saddle. I felt that our ride was better than our first but we still placed 3rd out of 6.  I'm just hoping that the 3rd will give us enough points to qualify for the final in September.  I've ridden in a County and loved it but didn't have $4700 to spend on one.

We had just enough time between my medals and my jumper classes to gulp down some water, learn my courses, and switch bridles back to the figure 8.  By this point in the day (close to 5pm) the grass was super slick and I was very glad to have my studs.  Two horses had fallen down and many others had slipped.  Our first round was a speed class and went well.  Because of the footing and heat I didn't make the turns super tight and didn't push Buddy as much as I could have.  Again we ended up 3rd.  My friend was holding all my ribbons for me and was awash in yellow/gold. 

Buddy lost his engine waiting for our second jumper round.  We had some ugly distances and pulled two rails but he tried his heart out.  There was never a thought of him stopping or refusing which I am eternally grateful for.  As much as I love and trust Phoenix, I know if I had gotten him to those distances he would have stopped on me.  Our last round was better, no super ugly distances, but he did slip going around a turn.  His hind end went out and I was flung forward onto his neck but he pulled him self together and we kept going.  We did pull a rail in the jump off and ended up getting 5th for both of the rounds.

We lost a ribbon somewhere along the way.

All in all, I'm very happy with how the show went.  Buddy held himself together even though it was miserably hot and the footing was questionable.  He tries his little heart out and I couldn't ask for more!