# Great Show Today



## 283515 (Feb 4, 2020)

Hey everyone, today was such an exciting day. Today I was able to take my two mares to a show and they both did phenomenal. Today was also my 3 - year olds first outing/show, and she did amazing. I competed my young horse in poles and my show horse in 2'6, 2'9, and 3'0. 

I am super proud of both of them because not only did they not have much time to prepare, they handled it like champs and pushed through and did amazing, due to both of my horses getting very sick last month, and not being able to be ridden for a few weeks, they bounced back and showed me they were ready.

We got to the show a little later than I would've liked, but still had time to warm up and learn the course. First up was Summer for poles and she did great. I wasn't aiming for the ribbons with her, just to get her used to the colorful standards and the others horses around her. She wasn't responded that well to my aids until later because she was so focused on everything outside of the arena, but she did end up listening and completing the 11 jump course. She was very hesitant at the first few jumps to where they let my friend go into the arena and lead her, but then decided it wasn't as scary as she thought and went through the whole course with trotting a few poles throughout. She did amazing and I was so happy with her. I was going to do cross rails on her, but they were a little higher than regular cross rails classes and I wanted to end on a good note so I decided to scratch and sit it out. We had a little baby moment after the round going into the warmup ring, which ended in me doing a emergency dismount, but we were all safe and sound and got back on after a good lap on foot around the arena. After the warmup arena, we went to the area where the trailers were and worked her in a field and she did amazing and began to calm down and stay more in my hands.

My show horse also did very good for not having been to a show in 3 months and completing 3 rounds. The last time we entered into an 3'0ft class, it resulted in us retiring on course and scraping from the other classes, but she did very good with all the big scary jumps and the one rail we knocked down was 100% my fault, because I did not set her up properly and was not ready for the long distance. The rounds were very sloppy, for no fault of her own but mine, due to the fact that she was not wanting to listen that well. The reason for her not staying collected and blowing through the jumps is because I lost always have her in a Pelham or elevator bit for a bit for control if I need it like I did today, but I have been trying softer bits because I am not a fan of harsh bits unless you really need them. She was also very alert of all of the other horses and it was very loud because of a generator right next to our first 3 jumps, that many horses refused because of all he commotion. We ended up getting 2 first places out of our 3 classes. All classes had 10 and more very talented and amazing riders who all did amazing and deserve to be recognized as well.


----------

