Day 2 - Hunters

Photo by Karen Wegehenkel http://horsephoto.smugmug.com/

I've been putting off writing this post in hopes of having some photos to accompany my tale, alas, still waiting for those.  And at this point, if I continue to wait, the rest of our journey will also get backlogged. Onward we go.

Where was I...oh yes, the SAFE show. Day 2. Hunters. I havent ridden a hunter course in a good 10+ years. Probably closer to 13 or 15 if I want to be honest. Nevertheless, that did not stop Ben and I from trying it out.

Our first 2 classes were on the flat - but in the ring with all the jumps. It was a cool intro for him - he's never been in a full flat class with other horses, nevermind one with obstacles to avoid. We took 4th in our Hunter class - and promptly got called over by the judge. He was very nice- said I have an adorable horse and that I'd place a lot higher than 4th if I lost my dressage stuff - specifically my bridle and whip. LOL. I knew going into it that I was using verboten tack, but I had also checked with the show organizer and she said it would be fine. Judges rule, however is final. Not much I could do, and in our second class, equitation, we came in at reserve, which I pretty much expected after the warning, plus...hunter eq in a dressage saddle isn't gonna happen. No matter, it wasn't about winning, it was about playing around in an arena w/ jumps.

About an hour later, it was time to do our trot poles course. By then it was 11 am, and heating up. Ben was sweaty, flies were coming out to annoy us, and he was getting very antsy and also tired standing in the heat waiting for our turn. Finally, though, we got in there. It was really fun - he was a champ. We managed a 4th place.

After that run, I decided to scratch out of the eq class - one because I'd have to memorize another course, 2 because we werent going to place well in it anyway, and 3 because we were both ridiculously hot, sweaty, and tired. Rather than push it and sour us both to the experience, we ended on our 4th place note.

So there you have it. A successful long weekend full of 4th places! LOL Not bad considering how large each of the classes were. We had our neon-green-bean moments, but we also had some really nice milestones and lots of good times.

Looking forward, we still have a few events on the calendar. This weekend we're going to yet another dressage show to ride Training 2 and 3 again. The weekend afterwards we'll be dipping our tootsies in the Pacific Ocean on a 3 day camping trip to the beach =) Should be loads of fun!