OHC Indoor Eventing: Warm-Up Day

 Holy shit you guys, I’m so impressed with how Cinder handled her first show under saddle. She was a complete rockstar all weekend and acted like she’s been showing and jumping for years. She’s about 10 weeks under saddle, has been jumped maybe 5 times before the show (the last time being a month ago) and has never seen solid fences, let alone jumped any. I’m completely blown away with what an amazing horse she is, and Trainer A’s work with her. 

Who’s the best baby horse ever?

Four horses from Trainer A’s program were going to the show. The other three were all older with junior riders. Trainer A was hauling the three down in her trailer and I was taking Cinder down in my trailer. We left WCS about 4:30 on Friday afternoon and got to the show a little over an hour later. Cinder was not happy about being hauled solo and a few times my trailer was rocking and bouncing around but she arrived in one piece. All the ponies unloaded and settled into their stalls well. 

Wide eyes was the extent of how Cinder showed her nerves all weekend 

The course was open for schooling so everyone tacked up and got on. Trainer A wanted to see how Cinder was, and if she was too wound up, she’d get off and ride her after schooling the kids. But Cinder ended up being perfect. A warmed her up while having the kids walk and settle their nerves then pointed Cinder at a baby log. She hopped right over it, no hesitation or anything. They then schooled most of the intro logs (the arena was set up with intro and BN fences) before pointing her at a table shared between divisions. Again, no hesitation, Cinder just hopped right over like she’s done it before. 

Being a good teaching couch

At this point A took a walk break with Cinder and coached the kids through their first few fences. One of the geldings started having a bucking fit and his kid was close to melting down so A handed me Cinder and got on to school Boomer. Cinder stood calmly in the middle of the arena with horses going past us, and jumping the fence next to us, without a care in the world. When A was done with Boomer she got back on Cinder, and Cinder picked right up where they left off, like she hadn’t just stood around for 10 minutes. 

A finished the ride by putting a string of fences together, including most of the BN jumps. Cinder was so not impressed  about the jumps that she hit a hind hoof on the BN coop. I was a little worried she’d land and get mad, but all she did was shake her head a bit and carried on like nothing happened. They came back around and jumped it clean and finished with that. I hand walked Cinder and put her away while A finished coaching the kids. 

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To finish the night, one of the moms went a got pizza so once all the horses were tucked into their stalls we had a team dinner in the barn aisle and made a plan for show day. The show moms were planning breakfast and coffee for everyone, including me, even though I had just met one of them that day. It felt really good to be included in the group. The whole day made me super happy I had found my way to Trainer A. I was exhausted going to bed but couldn’t wait for show day!