Story Over Comfort

Despite the high being 107 on Saturday, TC and I zipped off to a horse show. Because... I have no idea. I needed scores and I had already paid for the show and it's right around the corner. Ride times were at 12:27 and 1:17, and the heat of the day really isn't until 4pm, so it was only 100 when we were riding, and there was a breeze, so that was nice.

Saturday morning I drove to the show in my car and checked in, then went to the grocery store to fill my cooler up with ice. Loaded up a bunch of gatorade and water, plus some snacks for me, then took it down to the trailer and hitched up. It was already getting warm.

TC got hosed off and then I moved him under the fan for braids. He got hosed off again before getting in the trailer for the show.

Pictures from Sunday because I didn't get any on Saturday

Things were okay up until the point where we're half way to the show and there's a big slowdown on the freeway. Not wanting to sit around at the show forever, I had left with JUST enough time to get there. That was stupid. So we were running about ten minutes behind when I pulled into the show grounds and saw that someone had parked their trailer in the driveway.

In order to get my trailer off the road, I had to put my nose basically on their nose. The lady who had parked waved to me like "hey one minute" and I... I guess I need to work on my "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" face because mine was not at all effective. She ran off to load her trailer up with hay. While my horse is standing in the 100 degree heat in my trailer and my test is going to start in 30 minutes.

I called to her as she came back with another load of stuff "I RIDE IN THIRTY MINUTES" and she just waved again and ran off to get her horse. Loaded the horse up and then stared at me. Bitch I am not backing my trailer up into traffic so you can leave. So I put my truck in drive and inched forward. She finally figured out that she was going to back up and did so extremely slowly because she was in no rush, you know.

I then had to park way too close to a car because it was the only spot open and I just thought "fuck it, if you're going to park your car in the trailer parking area then you're probably okay with my horse swinging his ass around right near your car" and unloaded to tack up at warp speed. Okay universe, I get it, I will arrive with enough time for everything to go wrong next time.

There were basically no good trot pictures

Into the warm up we went with exactly eight minutes before my ride time. I picked up the trot and learned quickly that TC was not at all affected by the heat, which would normally have been great news. Immediately I regretted not riding him the day before because my entire warm up was me trying to tire him out without tiring myself out. I was not successful.

We went in for 1-1 and it was a disaster. The whole time he was trying to take off and/or buck. I was basically just trying to keep a lid on him. We managed an 8 on our right ice cream cone, and then the rest of the movements were 7s for the trot work, 6s for the canter work (because his head was legit between his knees the whole time) and a glorious 3 for the trot lengthening where, in the corner before, he squealed and bucked. The comment on that was "v. naughty, explosive, well ridden :)"

Overall we got a 64. 4%, which was generous, though I knew this judge was going in, so that's why I didn't withdraw halfway through. Overall comments was "a nice moving BIG horse. A little tension but overall a horse with potential." I just... okay. He's only 16.2.

Seriously his trot was so tense, ugh

I didn't check my score until after my second ride because I just didn't care what it was or what the comments were. I hopped on with much more time in warm up and he spent much less time trying to play with the other horses in the arena.

Speaking of nice, freaking major shout out to one of Nicole's friends who probably saw me there about to cry after my second warm up and stepped in as my horse show mom for the second test. I was so stressed being there alone with my horse being insane and me feeling kind of blah because of the heat. She walked me over, checked my girth, handed me my gatorade, and even videoed my test because the person I was going to pay to video it left halfway through my test apparently... I dunno, this whole weekend was just ridiculous.

When he's good, he's good!

The second test was MUCH better, though still not as good as we could have been because again, many of the movements were done with TC's head between his front legs, shaking his neck around, but it was a little more on par with what we're doing at home.

We again had one 8, this time on our right canter circle, which should make Tanya happy since that was the direction I got my circle lesson on. Everything else was 6.5s and 7s and a few 7.5s (finally on our stretch circle where I wasn't fearing for my life as much as in the first test). Collectives were all 7s and the final score was a 69.2% with the comment "a steady test with correct outline, work on gaining his balance on lengthenings, nicely presented."

I think she was just impressed that I managed to keep his head out of his ass for a good majority of the test, hence the outline comment. I want to embroider "I DO NOT RIDE IN DRAW REINS, SOMETIMES HE JUST DOES THIS" on my shirt in big bold letters.

Tomorrow's post will detail this behavior... This was a trot
lengthening FYI, he is real enthused

The title of this post is Story Over Comfort. I was listening to a podcast on Friday where the hosts were talking about this idea that when things start to feel uncomfortable or go wrong, just think "story over comfort" and push through. So we did. And I guess this post is more interesting than one that just read "everything is amazing my horse is perfect we got a 75 and won everything" but like, I'd like for that to be one of my posts in the future!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recap of Sunday when things got worse. Well, at least no one parked in the driveway!