MDTE March 2025 Show Part 2

 Saturday was my turn to show. Jumpers were in the morning with hunters in the afternoon. I got to the show midmorning and took Cinder for a walk and hand graze and watched some of my barn mates show in the jumpers before grabbing lunch from the taco truck. I ate lunch on one of the comfy couches in the show office and talked to the woman running the desk. She had figured out how to hook her phone up to the sound system and was making playlists for the show and she said if I had a song I wanted played when I showed to let her know and she'd do it. Since Cin's show name, Bright Side slightly came from Mr. Brightside I had her put that down for us. 

All photos bought from Philippos Photography

We were showing in the 2'3" hunters on Saturday and planned to do the 2'3" hunter derby as well. Cinder was super relaxed and warmed up really well. The show ring was open for schooling and we schooled a few fences but not the whole course since she was being so good. As I was picking up the canter for our first round, I was able to hear our song playing and started singing along under my breath as we cantered up to the first fence, which we hadn't jumped in warm up. For whatever reason Cinder spooked at it like 3 strides out and I had an "Oh shit, I actually need to ride my horse" moment. I sat up and closed my leg and we made it over. The rest of the round went well and we earned a 3rd for our effort. Our second round contained zero spooks and we nabbed second. We then flatted and got another second earning us reserve champion for the division. 

There were only 2 of us entered in the  2'3"derby and 3 in the 2'6" derby, so they decided to combine the classes. It was the same course, a hunt and go format, for both heights so most of the fences stayed at 2'3" with a couple being bumped up to 2'6". Our plan for this show was if the 2'3" went well and felt small on Saturday, I would move up to the 2'6" on Sunday, so having a combined derby was perfect for me. I ended up going first because and had a decent round. Cinder was a little confused at why I brought her down for the trot fence and we landed on the wrong lead off it and had to counter canter a rather tight turn to the next fence, but I was pleased with the round overall. I didn't watch anyone else go, as I had to pee so badly and pretty much jumped off right after my round. 

spoiler alert

I was just starting to untack when the show manager came out with ribbons and yelled at me that they wanted us mounted for pictures. I asked if I could just hand walk Cin in the ring as I didn't want to get back on, and she very firmly told me to get back on because I would want pictures. They had us line up in the ring and announced placing in reverse order and what do you know, we won! And yes I was very glad I got back on for the pictures. 

We got to lead the victory gallop for the first time