MDTE Gallops Saddlery Preview Show: Friday and Saturday

 While Trainer M's barn runs this show series, our home barn isn't set up to host shows, so most of the shows are at the gorgeous Heirloom Equestrian Center about an hour away in Washington. In the past, Trainer A and I hauled in for the shows, but Trainer M had a lot more clients going, and asked her riders to help out at show, so we got stalls for the weekend. M also arranges pretty much everything, so literally all I had to do to get ready was clean my tack. M loaded and hauled my tack trunk, her groom and working student set up the stalls, packed hay and grain, and did all the feeding and cleaning all weekend. I did end up hauling Cinder and one of M's lesson horses, so that way M didn't have to make two trips with her trailer.  It was nice to not have to worry about logistics, other than hauling the two, who were both perfect passengers. 

All pics bought from Lark Photography

I got to the show a few hours after the others did, and took Cin for a quick walk before putting her in her stall. She normally gets a pro ride on Fridays, and Trainer M said she'd school her at the show and I could hop on after for a mini lesson if I wanted. Cinder has grown up so much, and has been to Heirloom enough that I figured she'd be fine and I didn't want to do too much with her, so I told M that I didn't need to get on. M rode Cin for probably 20 minutes, hopped over two jumps, and declared her perfect and that she agreed that Cin didn't need to do more. 

My sleeve and glove were so wet after this class

Saturday morning was jumpers, and I played jump crew to help work off some of my show bill. I figured if I was going to be there anyways to watch, might as well make some money. This year the show is offering fun classes (rose all day, ride a buck, toilet paper relay) between the jumpers and hunters on Saturdays and M told all of us that were doing them. This show had the rose all day for the 21 and over group, and a post and pop for those underage. We were given a cup of water (because the show manager "Didn't want to waste perfectly good wine.") and sent out for a judges command type class. I was nervous about how Cin would do riding one handed, in a slightly chaotic arena, and with me holding something out to the side of her, but she was surprisingly good. We survived the two point, sitting trot, posting trot, canter and both trotting and cantering a cross rail. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad M made us do it. 

We had a couple hours between the fun class and my 2' rounds, so Cinder got to go back to her stall and I contemplated running to the Gallops trailer to buy new gloves because mine were so wet. I slowly got ready for the 2' and before I knew it it was our time to warm up. Cinder was little confused about having to go again, and a little behind my leg, but warmed up well. In both of our over fences rounds we had a case of first fenceitis, where I didn't get her forward enough and found crappy distances. In hindsight I should have put my spurs on. Most of the issues we had were from lack of pace and impulsion. We placed third in both classes. We also suffered from a lack of impulsion in the under saddle. Towards the end, in our right lead canter, Cin broke and would not pick the canter back up, so I nailed her with my whip. I knew at this point we were placing at the bottom of the pack, so why not school. M agreed with me when I came out of the ring. 

Our last class of the day was the 2' derby and I was determined to have her in front of my leg. The course was pretty fun, a canter in trot out line, a halt, and a bending line. Cinder was a little confused as to why I was suddenly asking her to trot in the line so our trot fence was meh, but I liked our halt. And I legged the crap out of her after the halt to pick the canter back up since we were going right past the gate. I was not about to have her suck back or break on me. So of course when I was so focused on her going forward, I completely forgot where I was going, and did the bending line to the wrong jump. Whoops. And had I jumped the correct jump, I probably would have won the class. Besides that stupid mistake, I was otherwise really happy with our round and glad we were able to end the day on a more positive note.