PFEC Hunter/Jumper Show

I've been trying for a week to put videos up from our show last weekend, but Blogger is not cooperating.  I uploaded them to Youtube which makes Blogger happier, but not me. 

I was at an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy training in Helena, Montana for work Wed-Sat, got home late Sat. night, and at the last minute decided to get up and take my unridden, unbathed horse to the show Sunday morning.  He was, um, energetic that morning but it turned out we had hours before our first class, so we warmed up.  A lot.  Did canter (er... gallop) figure 8's in the field, rode in the indoor, rode around the grounds, repeat.  When it was getting time for our first class, sweaty, legs and belly covered in dirt and sand, manure stains all down the backs of his legs, we quietly walked past all the shiny horses in their gleaming tack and went back to the trailer for damage control.

I had a hard time deciding what I was going to do, but in the end entered the 2'6 division with no warmup.  I figured at events you don't get a warm up, you just go in for your one stadium course and that's it.  He was really, really good.  Once he has something to focus on he's golden.  Everything that goes wrong in these rounds is pilot error.  We really need to start working on flying changes.

 2'6 Hunters

The first round felt like the last stride was short in almost every line.  I decided to play around with it and see if we could do some of the lines in 4 instead of 5.  It was fun and he made it easy.  The judge was NOT impressed... but I was. :)

 

2'6 Hunters II

The only other class at 2'6 was a jumper class.  I am not ready to start pushing him for time and tight turns, so we rode it relaxed.  Maybe too relaxed at first, he almost forgot to jump the first jump.

 

 2'6 Jumpers

Thanks to Marissa Carlson for videoing!