We had a colleague of my husband's staying over night, which was fine since he had to get up at around 4am anyway. I got home at around 9pm and had some tack cleaning to do but not a lot since I had already done most of it. When I got home, I was met by two very happy (and very drunk) Geologists. Oh boy. So I poured myself a glass of wine and cleaned some leather. By 11pm, I announced I needed to go to bed regardless of what they did.
This year, we are moving up from the Bronze circuit to the Silver/Trillium circuit. I decided to do the Silver Hack division and the 2'6" Child/Adult Hunter. All I can say say is I've never seen a ring empty for as long or often as I did that day. Sooo many delays. It was awful. I am afraid that many of those delays were because my coach asked the ring to wait but I'm not even sure of that yet. Ugh.
I was at the show grounds from 7am to 5pm, for only 2 divisions that were supposed to run in the morning, last division starting at noon at the latest.
First show at a higher level and we didn't do as well as I am used to. We did pin 2 fourths in the hack division (it was a crazy division with so many asked to hand gallop at the same time, Mani was great but bucked once when another horse crowded him. After a winter of being in an indoor with one other horse at most, I can't blame him for being sensitive to it. He even started off warm-up reactive to other horses.
I did not pin in my hunter division o/f (2'6"ch/ad) over fences but took 6th/18 in the under saddle portion.
Disappointing but I am very happy with our rounds, especially for the first of the year.
First Round.
Second Round.
I learned we have to be a whole lot more serious and prepared if we are going to be competitive at this level. Armani has the quality but that won't come out unless I school him well and train myself well. Cardio and core strength boot camp? I think so!
