Horse Show - Check!

Because this blog is primarily about my daughter, I have been very evasive about where we live - call it maternal instinct, but with the Internet and kids, the less info the better. However, I will say that we live on the East Coast - and spring has been SLOW to come.

I really needed it to be spring because our pony definitely needed to be clipped before we could take her anywhere. I really could not ethically clip her when the temperatures was only reaching the 40's during the day. Even with extra blankets, I thought that would just be mean. So I had been holding off hoping for some warm weather. I knew I needed at least 2 weeks between the clip and the show because frankly, I'm not the best body clipper in the world. I'm too impatient and anxious to just get it done. As a result, I end up with a lot of unsightly clip lines. I know the secret to a good clip is slow small strokes, but I just can't make myself do that - therefore I needed some time for it to even itself out.

Fortunately the temps slowly started to climb and we had some really nice days - enough to reassure me that the "winter" was finally over. So about 2 weeks ago I spent the day clipping our little hairy beast. It was very rewarding because she really looks great. I also got the bright idea that I should take Molly and the pony somewhere off the farm for a school. I'm really lucky that my old hunter trainer is also a very good friend. I called her and set up a lesson for Molly down at her farm. It was a good confidence builder for Molly to know that she could ride Treenie in different places. Molly rode great and Treenie was perfect. They were REALLY ready to horseshow.

Now, I'm not sure if this is just me, or if every Mom has this issue - over scheduling. It seems like we can go for weeks with nothing to do and then all of a sudden, we have like 5 things to do in the same weekend. What's up with that??? The horse show has been scheduled for weeks. Wouldn't you know - Molly's school Talent Show is the Friday night before AND Brownie Camporee is the Sat and Sun. Okay, I can somehow fit all this in - schedule a lesson for Thursday, talent show Friday. Drop Molly off at 7 AM Sat for Camporee. Bathe/Braid pony & pack for show Sat afternoon. Leave house at 7 AM Sun to pick Molly up from Campoee (1 hour away each direction) get back to barn to pack up pony and head to show by 11 AM. Thank God the mini's did not start until after 2pm!!

As it turned out, the mini's started around 3pm. We were there by 1pm so Molly had plenty of time to school and get organized. Treenie seems to like going places so she is great to load and travels well.

Schooling was typical hunter show schooling - for those of you that do not know what this means close your eyes and picture this....

1. A ring about 1500 sq feet

2. Anywhere from 10-25 horses and ponies in at the same time all doing different things - walking, trotting cantering, in all different directions, circling and changing directions.

3. Add in horses that are jumping the fences in all different directions

4. Every one's trainer yelling instructions to their individual students.

Now, imagine that you are 8 years old riding one of the smallest ponies in the ring. Pretty intimidating - no?

Somehow, Molly was not at all phased by all the confusion - she stayed on the rail and trotted, circled on the ends of the ring if she had room. Treenie was a little fresh and Molly just kept her going until she settled. I was impressed. She even schooled her course in all of the commotion. I have to give her credit - Treenie was tough. She just didn't want to be "medium". She was either too quick and a little "runny" or sucking back and getting behind Molly's leg and popping over the jumps. Despite this, Molly still wanted to do the jump class.

The mini stirrups had 10 in the division!! That's huge - last year they had like 5 or 6 at each show - oh boy....

The first class was pleasure - Molly did and excellent job of keeping by herself, not getting boxed in and keeping her pace consistent. She was very "workmanlike" and did her best. She ended up 4th which I thought was quite good.

The next class was equitation - of course, there was the one kid who really wasn't in control riding the pony who would take advantage of the situation. Actually this was the same kid who in the first class fell off 3 times!! Her pony would just slam on the brakes and yank his head down to eat the grass on the outside of the ring. The poor judge helped her get back on the last time and told her to cut of the side of the ring near the grass so he wouldn't do that again! Every time she fell off they had to stop the class to get her back on - Molly even said - "Mom, she's fallen off 3 times already - why doesn't she just leave?"

So, in the next class, this pony starts to canter after they reversed direction - not running away, just cantering - looked quite comfortable actually. However, this kid had no control - her reins were too long, she was flopping all over and totally unable to steer effectively. So poorly was she riding that while trying to circle she pointed the pony toward the outside line of jumps - IN THE WRONG DIRECTION - and proceeded to jump the line before she could stop. Of course, they had stopped the other riders while trying to get this kid under control - I could see Molly just sitting on Treenie rolling her eyes - what can I say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! After all the excitement, they ended that class by just having the other 9 kids line up - quit while they were ahead I guess. Molly ended up 5th in that one.

The figure 8 class was relatively uneventful - of course there were some that were clearly better than others, but no one was run away with or went in the wrong direction (darn - no more excitement!). Molly's figure 8 was nearly perfect except that she forgot to change her diagonal when she changed direction. Hello?? What is the the whole point of this particular class? Oh well at least the circles were really good.

Finally over fences class - mini stirrup over fence classes are different at every show - some shows have you only jump 2 jumps, some 4 jumps, you never know until you get there. So, this show was 4 jumps - once around the outside. Treenie was not as good as she had been - she had a look in her eye like "give me the chance and I am taking off!" I really wanted Molly to trot in and trot out of the lines - cantering was only going to lead to problems I thought. So, what does Molly do? Nice opening courtesy circle, trots up to the 1st fence and proceeds to canter down the line - jumps the second fence big and Molly's gets left, then bounced forward. Treenie pops her head up and smacks Molly in the face - knocking out one of her loose teeth! Molly didn't know what to do with her tooth - she didn't want to drop it so she just came out of the ring. All the practicing, schooling and discussions we had about this show - but no contingency plan for loosing a tooth! How could I have forgotten to plan for that?? Ugh!!!

So that was our day - I found a short cut home - yeah! and was home and unpacked with no further drama. It's back to lessons, lessons, lessons until our next show in 2 weeks!! I'll have to make sure she doesn't have any more loose teeth for the next one.