I got to the Equestrian Center a little later than I had planned so Grace didn't get an opportunity to get a warm up in the morning. So when I took her out to get her ready she seemed pretty low key. Boy was I wrong.
I have to mention that this show had a LOT of horses participating. I don't think I've been to a show yet that had so many people showing.
My trainer hopped up on Grace in the warm up pen and I knew right away that it was going to be interesting. Grace gave a cow hop when Kim mounted and I almost right there wasn't going to ride her in the western classes she was that hot. There must have been about 20-30 horses in the warm up pen and Grace was just not having any of it. She would not relax and I was concerned about her going into her class. I went up to the stands to watch.
The English pleasure class was Crazy maybe 10 horses in the class and to be honest I thought it was Graces Worst ride in a class yet. She was just not relaxed and I could tell Kim was getting ready to SCHOOL her in the class.
So at the line up when she wasn't called at least 5th I thought oh well, next time. So I started down the stairs to get the gate so I could take the naughty mare to get ready for some serious lunging and I heard our Number....Uh what I couldn't believe it. She took First...and here is the trophy to prove it.
So on to the outdoor to do some schooling and work out the ants in her pants so I would feel comfortable mounting up for our 3 afternoon Classes...
After her lunge session she seemed to be much more relaxed. I mounted up and she was awesome. She felt relaxed and I thought okay...this might actually be fun and not complete torture for both of us..
We went into the Western Novice Horse class and OMG there were at least 25 horses in the ring with us before they decided to split the class into two. We had our best ride yet...I remember at the line up I was tearing up because I was so proud of her. I had no idea how the other horses did and to be honest I didn't care. OUR RIDE was amazing...and when they called us in the top 5 I about lost it. It's the first time Grace and I have placed at a show. To be honest if they hadn't called us I wouldn't have cared. It just felt good. Being Top Ten in a class of 40+ horses feels pretty damn good. (No we didn't ribbon but I still feel like I won big)
But she broke down after that class...all she wanted to do in the next classes was to race everyone in the ring, and when there are 20+ horses in a class you never have a slot where she can feel like she's in front and can relax.
But it didn't matter to me. We made it through and we both keep improving. That's all I can ask for.
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