A couple weeks ago we headed to a show at Meadowview Farms, the same location as my first away show with Ernie last year.
The biggest issues this show were the heat (and humidity), rain, and resulting muddy footing. Honestly the show rings never had a chance and the rain came repeatedly over several days. Sadly I was also in the ring that seemed to drain the worst of the two.
Looking back, scratching at some points may have been the better option. Often though, I didn’t know how bad the footing was until I was in it. At it’s best I got to ride Saturday late afternoon in a lighter slop but Sunday late morning the back of the ring was more like deep mud.
Since riding Stampede, who had issues with uneven or changing footing due to his back arthritis, I get stressed when riding in poor footing. When Maestro fell with me a couple years ago while trotting in the ring in some fairly decent but post rain footing that didn’t help either. This show season has been pushing me to deal with my footing block prior to the MV show with rain and sloppy conditions, but this show was much more extreme.
I rode cautiously, which I don’t regret. I always got the correct strides in lines, but coming into a line I would choose the chip over the more forward distance. I also just didn’t ride as well, mostly because I spent a lot of time surveying my path and trying to choose the best one.
In the end it’s fine of course, there are things more important than ribbons. Ernie was the best and carried me around and we made it home safely. Highlights include a 2nd in our low adult equitation over fences and a 3rd in our hunter hack. I’ve really been working to improve our trot post canter for the hack so I was quite pleased to get a better result.
Today we are headed off to our last away show of the season. While the weather right now is not great, it is looking like the weekend will be very nice. Fingers crossed!
Hope everyone has a fun weekend!
Good luck at the show this weekend, you deserve some nice weather after that last one!
Thanks! Pleased to say we got nice weather finally!
Ugh to muddy footing! Glad you both came home safely! And yay for the under saddle ribbon! Nice when your hard work actually pays off in the show ring!
Thanks! It is nice to work on something and see it in your showing results.