LOEC Summer is Here Show

Never say never kids.  Last weekend I did what I said I wouldn't do and went back to LOEC for their first summer show. I had been planning on going to a different show the weekend before, but ended up not being able to.  And A wanted to show once this summer before she left for Ecuador and the LOEC show worked best for her.

I honestly wasn't super jazzed about going.  But I've had a little voice in the back of my head whispering how it'd be fun to play in the jumpers so I figured why not. I changed my plans for showing this year and am not aiming for medal finals, or any year end awards, so why shouldn't we go in the jumper ring? And best of all, this show has their jumpers go first thing in the morning so I wouldn't have to wait around all day.

pics bought from Ella Chedester Photography

We hauled the boys up the day before and schooled.  Peebs was totally fine and we warmed up in the indoor where I'd be showing before going to the outdoor where A was showing.  After A was done I wanted to walk around the field where some of the XC jumps were set up.  I popped over a couple small coops and logs and walked up the big bank complex.  Looking down the drop, all I can say is eventers are crazy for wanting to do that.

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Schooled some cross country today. Guess we’re ready for LRK3DE now. #huntergoesxc #peebsdontcare #icare #icarealot

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Jun 22, 2019 at 6:38pm PDT

On show morning, the arena was open at 8 for schooling with a start time of 8:30.  I was on Peebs at 7:58 to make the most of our schooling slot.  They had a small mounting block set on the outdoor track that I used to get on and for the first time ever Peebs took of as I was midswing over his back. He put his head down, humped his back and trotted off. I yanked his head up and got him stopped while calling him bad names and got some terrified looks from a couple of pony kids. But once we were in the ring he calmed down and got to work.

We were doing the 0.70m jumpers and the courses was the exact same hunter courses we did at their April show, only with a jump off and they added more fill to the jumper fences. It was honestly kind of a let down.  We warmed up ok; the lines were a short five for us and one time I got in super awkwardly and tried to cram six in the line and it didn't go well.

Our first round was a little jazzed.  Peebs seemed to understand what the buzzer meant and pulled hard to the first fence. We had a little discussion about that which resulted in some drunken sailor weaving but whatever.  This was only our second time doing full courses with our new bit and there's bound to be a learning curve. He got a little strung out in the second outside line and pulled the back rail so no jump off for us.  In our second round I went in with the idea of having a quiet hunter pace to start, but forgot to keep my leg on to keep the impulsion. We got a super crappy distance to the first fence and took the rail.  The rest of the course was really nice. I was determined to not have first fenceitis in our last round and nailed it.  But we got crooked to the second fence and I circled. We did have a bending line in this round and I was really happy with how it rode.  It was a left bend going past the in gate (historically our bad direction and Peebs would have thrown his body to the right) but it rode really well and we got a nice even 8 strides in it.

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Peebs is forever my #mancrushmonday for saving my butt when I rode us to a 💩distance. Maybe someday I’ll learn that I need to keep my leg on 🤷🏼‍♀️ #peebsisasaint #goodboypeebers #thanksfornotstopping #alwaysmoreleg #amateurhour #firstfenceitis

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Jun 24, 2019 at 12:03pm PDT

We ended up 6th out of 9 in all of our rounds.  I'm happy with how we did.  There were definite bobbles, but I know what they were and how to fix them. Part of it was learning how to ride him in our new bit, especially at shows.  We're going to play in the jumper ring again in a couple of weeks and will hopefully be able to implement some of the fixes.