Leah was riding in the Junior Starter division, so we took the day on Friday getting the horses ready, cleaning our tack trunks, bathing the horses, & loading all of our stuff into the trailer. When Chris got off work around noon, we headed over to Longview (about a 45 minute drive). We got to the show and set up the stalls pretty quickly. Then we got ready to ride. We rode on the grass in front of our stalls, and had decided long before the show that we would wear pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Dezi was a bit of a hot head. She seemed to have forgotten a lot of the work we had recently done to get her round and listening. We ended up with some good moments, though, and finished with a small trail ride around the property to get used to the environment.
Then we went to walk the cross country course. Everything seemed pretty straightforward. Nothing was too crazy, and the big jumps that Leah and I had been worried about didn't even look like they would be on the course at all... until we got to the end. The big-ish gray roll top and the ramp mulch jump were the last two jumps on the course! And directly before that, there was a simple jump with a large white lighthouse sitting next to it that might be a bit tricky. I reminded myself that Dezi had jumped all these jumps before and that her breeding & our relationship up until this point would give me confidence that she wouldn't refuse.
Leah was staying at my house that night. We made a quick run to McAllister's for dinner, then headed back to the barn to check on the horses and walk them before heading home for some serious shuteye.
Saturday was an early morning. We got to the barn early to feed, do chores, walk the horses, & watch some of the higher level dressage. About an hour before our ride time, I got Dezi ready and we headed to dressage warm up. I wasn't too concerned about the dressage test, because it was walk/trot only and I had a huge division. I just wanted a positive ride. She was warming up okay. Nothing too groundbreaking or exciting, but she was generally listening to me. She wasn't really bending well, but we just needed to make it through this test. During the test, she felt like she wasn't really paying attention to me and tried to take the reins from me several times. I generally ended up with neutral feelings about our test, but when I got out of the arena, Chris said we had done well. That was all I needed to feel better. And I guess she was right, because we ended up with a 28.4 putting us in 6th place. See our dressage test here: https://youtu.be/Ko5P6IUHzpA. Some of my friends had come, so it was fun to share a good score with them.
On to cross country! We found a good jump where we could leave my friends, and then headed back up to the barns to tack up. On cross country warmup, we did our 2-2-2s and then started jumping. I think I was nervous, and I was starting to trust Dezi too much. She was taking the stride away from me and I was just letting her. Like I did absolutely nothing about it. And then I started getting ahead of her as she was coming up to the fences. And then it happened. I was over her shoulder and she was running toward a stadium oxer. Until she wasn't. And I was on the ground looking up at her. Whoops. Welp, I guess I learned THAT lesson. Good thing I hadn't attached my air vest yet. The next jump we tried, she thought about doing the same thing, but I sat back and drove her over the fence. We didn't have any other issues.
When it was our turn to go out and run the course, we had a total blast! She was a bit hesitant to the first jump, but after she realized what we were doing, she was awesome! We had a bit of a bobble at the fourth jump. It was a simple log, but it had a portion of it that was light, like all the bark had been ripped off it. Dezi did not like it. She hesitated about 10 strides away, and almost ducked out at the last minute, but I was able to put leg on and she jumped it at an angle. After that, the course rode smoothly with a couple trot breaks, until we came out of the woods approaching the lighthouse jump. The pair that had gone out onto cross country in front of me was circling the jump, and it looked like it hadn't been the first time. Her horse refused. I was getting closer and started to get nervous that she wouldn't be out of the way by the time I got there, so I yelled "Coming up!" At that moment, the jump judges called her off the course. Dezi looked at the lighthouse a little, but then she finished the course beautifully. You can watch our ride here: https://youtu.be/EMUzG1pVe5E. She was really sweaty, though, so we had to take a lot of time cooling her down. I walked her a long time and continued walking while Leah rode her course. She had an unfortunate refusal at the lighthouse, but then started riding well and finished the course really well over the two jumps she was most concerned about. We finished the night by going out to eat before we went back to the horse park to walk the horses before bed. Dezi and I went to sleep sitting in 4th place with our double clear XC run.
Sunday morning, we got to the park early again to feed and do chores. Then, we started the morning with a bit of a photo shoot while we walked Dezi and Scooter around the cross country course.
We found spots next to the arena to watch all the upper level jumping until it was time to get ready. We got to the warm up arena really early, as usual. We walked for a long time and then got ready to take some jumps. The warm up arena wasn't nearly as crowded as it usually is, but even still, Dezi handled it like a pro. We took some warm up jumps and she was pretty good, nothing too exciting. And I remembered my lesson from the day before. Going into the ring, Dezi didn't look at anything. She took all the jumps, even the ones with funny standards she had never seen before and ones where my horrible eye lead her to terrible distances. She left all the rails up and we ended up with another double clear round.You can see our stadium round here: https://youtu.be/WdYNEGQUrwk.
I could not have been any more proud of her! She had a rockstar weekend! We ended up 4th in a huge class with 19 competitors, some of which were trainers! At her first show! She is the coolest horse ever. I can't wait to see what the future brings with this big girl.
Since then, she's gotten worked about 3-4 times a week with emphasis on dressage. We've worked on lots of transitions, rubber bands within the gaits, & even started on leg yields. She's been great and is really starting to figure out her job and how to use her body. I am so excited for the 2019 show season!
