Cinder gets Catch Ridden

 There was another schooling jumper night at Heirloom last Saturday, and I had been on the fence about going. Showing in January is not for the faint of heart, and who knew what the weather would be. Then our weekend tech at work was out for medical reasons and I was working six days a week, and was scheduled to work the day after the show, with my one day off in two weeks being the day of the show. I decided to be a responsible adult and not go to the show. Being exhausted and overworked does not set one up for a successful show. 

The Sunday before the show Trainer M texted me asking if I would be ok with another amateur in the barn catch riding Cinder at the show in the .70m classes. J's gelding has a lot of show anxiety, especially at Heirloom as he used to live there, and she's decided to not show him there this year. She was hoping she could catch ride something so she could work on herself in the show ring. I said yes as J is a great rider and I knew she wouldn't be phased by any antics Cinder might throw at her. 

I ended up not having to work the weekend of the show, and decided to head up to watch and play show mom. It was sunny, but below freezing and Cinder was feeling a little spicy. She was a little wound up in warm up and Trainer M ended up getting on her for a bit, but J handled her antics well. She kept asking if she as doing anything wrong and was afraid she was going to ruin Cinder. I had to tell her that while Cinder can be a sensitive little flower sometimes, she's also a little dense and dumb and most things tend to roll right off her back and she'll forget about it immediately. There was zero chance of J ruining her.

The sun was shining pretty harshly through the windows and creating some epic blind spots and shadows and Cinder kept spooking at them, every time she went past. See above about forgetting things immediately. J did circle in their first round (which was a clear round class) at one of the spooks, but kept her forward and continued on fine. About half way through their second round (a speed class), you could see them click and things started to smooth out. Cin did have a rail in the second class at the butterfly fence above when they got in a little deep and she got lazy. They did manage to pull out a 7th in the class out of 12. 

Their third round was a jump off round, and it was their best round. They had a great pace, no spooks, and Cinder was listening and doing everything J asked of her. J is more of a hunter rider and rode a little deeper into her corners and took longer approaches, so they ended up with time faults and didn't make it into the jump off. Those of us from the barn standing at the back gate thought it was bullshit to have a tight time allowed at a schooling show .70m class, but they still earned a 6th. Trainer M told J that she rode the round exactly as it should have been ridden and that she wouldn't have changed a thing. 

I'm so so happy that they ended on a good note. J kept saying how nice Cinder is, and how fun she was to ride. Seeing Cinder make someone else happy and give them a good show experience makes all the issues we've had kind of disappear. It was validating in a way I didn't know I needed. And it also drives home how grown up she is now. To go to a show and get ridden by an amateur who has never ridden her before and have some good rounds is real, adult horse behavior. My little baby horse is all grown up.