Horse show

So, a couple weeks ago, I was in a horse show. Didn't do fantastically well (yay for subjective judging!) but I know some people were interested, so I thought I'd throw it up here. This was a schooling show - as small as you can get - pretty much the equivalent of a piano recital. "Look Ma, I kin ride a horsie! I gots participation ribbon!" But even as small as it is, you have to look pretty. :) The day before, all the boarders lined up at the wash stalls for bathtime.

Soap, and water. Soap soap and water ....

Although this doesn't quite prevent the horse from rolling around happily in hay and dirt all night in his stall, so there's still quite a lot of boarders that get to the barn at o-dark-oclock (5:30-6AM) to school their horses and rewash the morning of the show. This may be the one time I'm glad I don't own a horse.

Show Day! You can buy some saddle pads and belts .... (Yes, I see the name La Oreo is embroidered on the baby blue pad. No, I don't know what it means. I suppose this is useful if you're French and your horse is named Oreo?)

Or a generator. These people are always here, but nobody ever seems to talk to them.

It's the fall show, so the Costume Class was unveiled in it's full glory. Mary Poppins and her carousel horse (the girl clutching a giant pole) took blue.

I entered Adult Equitation (adult long stirrupers, so nothing more fancy than the usual walk/trot/canter and two circles of crossrails) and did so-so. I was quite pleased to be competing against people my age and older. All the past shows, it's been me against 13 year olds. I just want to say, it's not a great boost to your ego when a little kid with pigtails looks allll the way up at you (because, you know, your head is up in the sky) and says: "Wow. You're so old." Sniff. Adult Eq over fences was just crossrails today (I thought they did 1'9 verticals the last time, but I'm not sure) and .... yeessh, I didn't do well at all, so we won't talk about that. The flat class I thought went really well though, and I was really happy with how I rode. (Too bad the judge didn't agree! But my trainer was happy.) Due to a camera malfunction, only the second half of the flat class is available. (Don't worry. The first half looked exactly the same, only going in the opposite direction.) If you can't tell, I'm on the spotted grey.