Pukahu Show- Day 1

So the first show is over and done with and I ran the full gambit at this show. Overall though my ladies were naturally fabulous and I was the major disappointment. I have purchased two photos I will put up when they arrive. So to the beginning of the tale I guess.

The first morning I was up early to get a warm up round in the showhunters on Rascal. I made a stuff up with her saddle blankets though which I found to my detriment. My fitted pad moves around a lot on her back and must have pulled because she was a little cranky and hot when I started riding her which I attributed to nerves at the show atmosphere. Cantered into the first cross rail of about 30cm, she hesitated, I popped her with the stick and unbalanced myself, she jumped and when she landed with me still unbalanced she chucked me off which is about what I deserved for being so casual and not riding properly. Still the ground was very hard and before classes had even started I had stained one pair of my two pairs of breeches. Le sigh. Got back on did my warm up round and she was excellent. When I got back to the truck and unsaddled I saw her hair was ruffled under the saddle so I stopped my frank discussion with her about her parentage and her close relationship to a goat. Once I added another pad she was happier and I had not further problems with her.

Her first class was the Open Welcome hunter over 90cm and she jumped well enough, got her leads on landing and was basically very good. She feels a little bit looky but it gives her jump a bit of spark and I think I can feel it but it can't be seen. She did rattle one rail quite hard so that would have lowered her score considerably I thought. Hung around to jump my Open 90cm class and she had a rail in this one but otherwise jumped really nicely again. I was happy with her especially after this mornings somewhat flattening start.

Cantered back to the truck just in time to walk the 1.10m track, saddled Connie and Kate up and rushed back to the showhunters and got first on the list for my amateur class. Put in another good trip on Rascal leads and jumping wise but got a couple of deeper distances and suspect she may have not got her knees up cleanly over one fence. Still she had earned her grain for the day and even though I didn't have the time to hang around for the placings I was hopeful for a few minor placings.

Connie was first up in the showjumping I made one big mistake before I even got on her. I didn't stud her front feet. Connie doesn't like the way studs grab on landing and can start jumping too straight up and down with them in, but I underestimated how slippery the long grass was making the ground which was hard. I rarely stud her as she is very balanced. So it was a pretty poo round all up. I got a couple of really nice fences, but with her scrabbling on the corners a bit she just wasn't going forward and we had lots of bad jumps too. I had to circle her out of the double once and I felt terrible for doing that to her, not giving her a secure grip on the ground.

I was absolutely shitting myself about jumping Kate. I haven't been in the ring on her since she was cannoning me over fences at horse of the year and after a bad ride on Connie when I couldn't see my distances and rode like a monkey I wasn't feeling all that confident. Kate however feels amazing after having her knee done and warmed up really well despite me. So in we went. I should have mentioned it was a big enough track for the first show and it had lots of fill and was a very busy ring, so yea I thought I was going to throw up. Kate was good though and I had a reasonable ride. Not the most accurate and had a stop when I rode up for a ridiculous distance. Kate stopped way out though and pointed out I was an idiot ad then we finished really well.

So to sum up Rascal jumped really well, Connie did the best she could in trying circumstances, Kate jumped well despite my stuff up and I was feeling pretty average. Not that confident and very disappointed with how I rode even with it being only the first show, and I was hardly the only rusty person there lol. Still I expect better of myself and I was really hoping I would be able to better the next day.