But I did ride! I spent as much time as possible out at the barn during the weekend, which turned out to not be that much. I've decided that my grown-up-sane-pony ran away and got replaced with the same pony I had at this time last year. She's not been quite so easy to just hop on after a few days off anymore. If I do, the ride goes something like:
Giraffe impression - 20 minutes,
Trotting Cart horse in the most important race of it's life - 15 minutes,
Bucking bronco practice - 1 minute (I don't put up with that)
and then I end up in the round pen anyways because she doesn't get to behave like that. Then I get back on and she's a lovely hunter daisy cutter for about 5 minutes and I'm exhausted and out of time.
Big news, we've scheduled our first show of the year! I'll be going up to San Miguel to ride in the first annual CloseBy Ranch Schooling series!
It's going to be their first show, so how perfect that it will be ours too! I'm admittedly a little bit nervous to get back to showing, for a few reasons. I always plan to prepare waaaaay ahead of time, and just like always, something has gotten in the way. I really planned on being able to ride this past week, and I've been sick. I also feel a certain kind of pressure since this is the youngest and least started horse I've trained. She's the one that's been the most mine from day one, so that means that her performance (good or bad) is all my fault. I know I've done a good job, but I don't know what the competition day will bring.
I plan on just doing the walk/trot classes, and they also have a ground pole hunter class which I think I'm going to try! S and I might do the pairs class, although we always feel a little foolish when we beat out all the 7 year olds... We're also going to go up the day before to practice, keep them stalled up there overnight and get everyone settled in. I think that will be the perfect way to do our first show, get a really good look at the arena the day before, then show in it.
I'm apprehensively hopeful about the whole thing. I'm not going into this to win every ribbon, or even to ribbon at all. This time around is about showing at a level which is appropriate, gaining experience, and maybe having some fun! I just want to get my feet wet to give me something to really work towards.
