Jump 4 Joy Schooling Show 2023

 The first show of the season is in the books! There's a local pony club fundraiser jumper show held every year in early January with easy courses and a low key vibe. Trainer A was showing another client horse so I asked her if she wanted to take Cinder, just to get Cin out and about. We ended up entering Cin in the 2'3" timed first round, a 2'3"-2'6" gambler's choice, and a 2'6" timed first round class. 

Deciding standing at the trailer isn't bad when you have an all you can eat buffet

We hauled the girls up midmorning, hand walked around the grounds a little upon arrival, then tied them to the trailer to stuff their faces while we waited for their classes. Jazzy, the other mare showing, was doing the 18" and 2' classes, so she went first. Once she left the trailer, Cinder had a bit of a meltdown. She called a few times, wouldn't eat, and would only stand still as long as I was next to her. She and Jazzy are turnout buddies, and I was slightly worried one or both would have meltdown leaving the other. Thankfully, but the time I started tacking Cinder up, she mostly calmed down. 

"Whhheeeee, jumpies!"-Cinder, most definitely 

A finished her rounds on Jazzy, we switched her saddle onto Cinder, and we thought we had a little bit of break before A needed to get on Cin. We had been told there would be a drag before the 2'3" classes, but that got canceled and A got on about 6 rounds before Cinder would go. Their warm up was a bit abbreviated and Cinder was feeling a spicy. Their first round was a little rough; Cinder spooked hard at the first fence, lost some steering on the turns, and just generally green. But they kept all the jumps up, and ended up winning the class. 

A then proceeded to canter laps around the warmup to let Cin burn off some energy and put her brain cells back together. Cin calmed way down and they were able to watch a few rounds of the gambler's choice go before they went in. They had a rail down early in the round, just got to the fence a little too deep. As they were cantering around after the jump, an overeager pony club kid working as jump crew ran out to reset the fence, running directly in front of Cinder. I'm not sure what she was thinking, as she saw Cinder cantering towards her. Cinder would have no problems running someone over, and A said afterwards she didn't want to rip Cinder's mouth off to try and stop her because it mostly likely wouldn't have worked. Thankfully the kid jumped backwards out of the way, but I thought for sure we'd get kicked out of the show for running over a kid. 

All I got on video was the kid running and looking at Cinder about two strides away from her 

By her 2'6" round Cinder was much more rideable and relaxed. It was their best round; Cinder was turning better, their pace was much more consistent, and overall just more polished. The class was pretty big and the pony club kids were riding balls to the wall, so Cin didn't place. But both A and I were really happy with the round and that's what matters.  It was good first outing and a great show to knock the rust off.