Rose in May Part 1: Returning to the Hunters

Last weekend was a BLAST! I got to show over fences at a rated show for the first time in TWELVE YEARS and compete in a hunter class for the first time in TWENTY YEARS. 

Actually, um, I'm going to stop doing the math. This is getting depressing. 

The point is, Kate's barn goes to two really cute B rated hunter/jumper shows every year and I finally got one on my calendar! 

Omg look at this fish

My goal coming into this show was to gather as much information as I could. I didn't need to win any ribbons (given that I'm a professional, I couldn't even compete for ribbons over the weekend anyway because of the bizarre way hunter jumper shows are run) or even go around clear or even all that well for me to consider it a success. I wanted to keep my long term goal of returning to eventing very much at the forefront of my mind rather than get bogged down in being disappointed about not returning with an armful of ribbons (I mean, I could just throw TC back into the dressage ring if ribbons were what I wanted). 

The greater goal is to get my show jumping to a point where I am confident and capable. Show jumping has always been my weakest part of eventing. What better way to do so than at a hunter/jumper show where I can show 6 over fences classes in a whole weekend? Rather than spending the equivalent amount on an event and only get one show jump round and one cross country round? Especially if I was concerned that the show jump round may be bad enough where I can't move on to cross country...

And that really was a risk. You'll hear more about that tomorrow. 

The show grounds were beautiful!

We arrived too late to school Wednesday, but that was okay because Flounder has been to these shows before and we chose to keep me at a comfortably low level all weekend. I also worked clear through the week (felt very guilty asking for more time off during my first five months, they let me go to Kentucky after all... although my manager knew I was at the show and asked if he could take some stuff off my plate! I said no lol), so I left after my meetings were over on Wednesday and arrived with the last two horses around 7:30pm. 

After everyone was settled, I went to get us dinner and then Kate and I got to our hotel room to relax before passing out. I had some work to do early the next morning, so I did that while also updating my safe sport (oops) and got to the barn without too much time to spare. 

The entire time at the show I only had ONE thing to do for work that had to be done at a specific time that was during the show or could conflict with classes: I had a training from 10am to noon on Thursday. When I heard that my class began at 9:15 I thought, oh well, I will scratch and just do the ticketed rounds later in the day maybe? Or just not show that day? School later? Try to find a dressage court so I could feel at home?

But everyone told me it'd be FINE, that I could be one of the first few in the ring and that I could hand Flounder off the moment I got off. I set several alarms on my phone (one labeled POINT OF NO RETURN) where I had to immediately get off the horse and RUN to my computer. 

Me, shortly before running to my computer

My two classes were running simultaneously, so I memorized both courses (and remembered that hunter courses are so easy, I legit just memorized the first fence and then followed the flowers) with the idea that I'd do both back to back without leaving the show ring and I got into warm up. Flounder was FEELING IT but we had the warm up to ourselves for the most part so we felt our feelings and jumped some fences. Right at the end, I started getting a bit nervous about making my meeting though. 

As I was cantering around to the next fence I started saying "I'm having the FULL AMATEUR EXPERIENCE! I need to get through these two rounds ASAP so I can go to a MEETING" which I and another professional in the ring thought was hilarious. I mean, honestly the entire weekend was a masterclass in amateur hour shenanigans brought to us by me, a professional. 

The jumper ring!

I did make my meeting after two very average rounds. I was a little nervous given that I'd never shown Flounder over fences like these before and didn't put in the best rounds, but they were all mistakes I typically make at home and I mostly kept my head, so I was happy! We missed one lead in each class and I found out that our left drift was kind of ridiculous in the lines. I also discovered that Flounder REALLY has to be moving to make the horse distances and decided that I didn't give two shits about trying to make the distances. Basically, a really good first day!

My meeting went well except for the fact that I took it in my truck and my truck died due to me being dump and not turning it on but having the air running with the key turned half way. Oops. But it did allow me to teach the children later about jumping a truck. 

It was fun to be at the show after that just watching and cheering everyone on while carrying my work around with me. I went shopping (found really nice breeches at 50% off!), placed a riding warehouse order that got delivered the next day, and watched a ton of classes. Honestly it was kind of a breath of fresh air to see no horses with their noses severely behind vertical... I know every horse sport has its issues but I was generally really impressed with the way most of the horses went at this show. 

Look at that lip!

I went to sleep that night super excited for the next day! I had my list of things I wanted to improve about my rounds and no meetings to stress me out in the warm up. It was bound to be a good second day!