The last away show of the season is complete! While it was pretty hot on Thursday and the drive to the show was full of horrendous traffic, the actual show weekend gave us gorgeous weather with highs in the 70’s. Better yet, no rain!
The more I travel and show with Ernie the more I appreciate him. He’s just such a good boy. Gets on and off trailers nicely, isn’t bothered by new places, and generally just enjoys doing his job.
Saturday I actually got to start off with my 2’6″ equitation class instead of going straight to 2’9″ like I have all season which was nice. I opted to do a warm up blue/red class, but we really didn’t need it. We won the over fences class but then I ended up having to go over to the other ring for my hunter round before my equitation flat classes. The hunter round was very nice besides a weird corner where Ernie gawked at something outside the ring and ended up counter bent, causing the lead change to be late behind. Stuff happens!
So I headed back to the equitation ring and did my 2’6″ and 2’9″ equitation flats one right after another. We won the first flat, but Ernie still struggles with tension in flat classes, so two in a row was asking a bit much. We placed fourth in the second flat. After that I put my martingale back on for the 2’9″ equitation over fences. I felt like we stayed nicely on pace for this round but that Ernie didn’t jump the best. Turns out I was coming out of my two point a bit too quickly. Oops! I placed second in that class and we were done for the day!
It was also my birthday Saturday, so my husband came up and watched all my classes which was fun. We then went out to dinner before he headed back home. The restaurant we went to offers free chocolate chip cookies for birthdays. They were literally warm from the oven and soooo good.
Sunday I had my limit adult medal (2’9″) first thing and I was looking forward to fixing my two point issue from the day before. It was probably my best course of the weekend and we came back to test in first place. The test (above) was cantering from the in gate over four fences and then halting, followed by sitting trot out of the ring. The jumps and the halt were great, but the sitting trot was a little tense. Regardless, it was enough to maintain my lead and win the class! Winning that medal has been elusive to me all season, so it was fun to finally put things together.
We had a couple hours to relax before our two hunter over fences and hack class. Both of my over fences courses went well (one of them is above). My barn mates had great rounds too, and we ended up with third and fourth in those trips. Continuing our streak, we got a ribbon in the hack again!
I had a fun weekend and it was a great confidence booster as we head into our last show of the season and medal finals in a couple weeks.
Yay! You guys are such a great team! I’m glad you got to have a show season this year and that everything is going so wonderfully!
Thank you. This is the most showing I’ve ever done in a season as an adult so it’s been really interesting. Ernie is great though, couldn’t ask for a better partner 🙂
What a good boy! Glad you got that medal win finally!
He’s such a good guy and really fun to finally achieve that goal. Thanks!