Wairarapa Showjumping and Showhunter Championship

So I'm back into it. My first proper affiliated show in a year. Like a proper rider. Honestly I felt rusty and so ring green. Like once I was un the ring I just felt mildly panicked and like everything was happening too fast. Ok but stop, so he had the physio on Thursday and basically she said he is lacking muscle on the right shoulder and she thinks as he works, that shoulder being weaker, eventually gets tight and sore. Man did he feel good afterwards, everytime I saw him that day he was getting aerial playing. She said by all means to jump him if he felt good. The next day it was pouring but even though he wouldn't stay straight in the weather he felt great on that shoulder. And probably the loosest he has ever been. In happy news he was very loose in his hindquarters and neck, just tight in the shoulders and a bit in his back.

So I stop in at the show after work and they had already started my class (90cm /3 foot class) so I was like well I'll hurry and maybe I'll make it. But really. Hurrying a horse is never a good idea, I really struggled to catch him and then he was just a nervy twit to deal with. Arriving at the showgrounds I saddled up and got on and holy hell, I wish I had training as a helicopter pilot because man did we get aerial. Leaping, plunging. Just an absolute treat. I immediately shifted the goal posts to just jumping a warm up, but my old boss with her Bex is chickening out instinct turned up and helped me warm up and got me into the ring. To be fair he jumped quite well, though a cheap rail at the third fence and then fence 4 and 5 seemed to me like huge oxers and I jumped four and then just panicked and had a circle before 5. After that though, I settled and he jumped super, got all the strides in his lines and was really brave to the filler. Though he is a little wild in the ring and I'm still finding this. He just loves it and is so enthusiastic, land and zooooooooooom.

The next day more hurrying and into the 90cm class and I overode the first fence and overshot the turn and was all disunited and circled again ( Chicken!!) and then settled and he jumped well, though backed off the filler some and landed crooked so the related line rode a little long. Then at the last double he had a bobble at the last where he was like and I'm done and I was like no no buddy keep jumping!! He was clear too, Which made my circle a little more depressing. Still progress! The next day he was in the 1m (3'3") class and I turned up to warm up with four horses to go. This is the downside of trying to work and show in the same day. Luckily I dont like to warm up too long anyway, and the track hadn't been changed from yesterday which was a little disappointing. Though it must have gone up some. And the plus side of the same track, is I basically got to correct my mistakes from the day before. The only real bobbles happened in the second phase (jump off starts after the double) was when I got a bit keen down to fence nine and then two strides out really hooked him back to add the stride and survive so that was ugly, and my saddle pad started to shuffle back and he started pig jumping at the end of the jump- off. Still for three days I'm so stoked at the improvement. Video of second 90cm class and 1m class.