Shoreline Classic Horse Show Recap

Finally! We got to go to the pony show on Saturday! No tummy aches to mess with our plans this time.

The Shoreline Classic Horse Show is actually a series of three "A" rated horse shows all held at the Westbrook Hunt Club in CT. The venue happens to be the barn where I rode as a junior and is only about 15-20 minutes from my house. How convenient is that?! I skipped the first week since it ran the week we returned home from Saratoga. My classes that first show were on Friday and I couldn't take the day off from work for them. Plus I figured Jamp could use a non showing week. We planned to attend week II but then Jampy was feeling himself so we had to cancel. But finally, we were able to head over for the last show.
My trainer is away showing in VT so I was on my own for this one. I brought one of my favorite helpers with me though, so I had a second set of hands at least.

The horse show was very lightly attended, so the rings had late start times of 9 am. There were a few classes ahead of mine which was nice. It meant that I could sleep until 6, take my time braiding, and have plenty of time to lunge and prepare upon arrival.

Jampy and I were competing in the Adult Equitation Division. Meaning I had to look pretty and demonstrate my riding skills both on the flat and over 3' jumps. My flat class went first, and it went pretty well. The first direction Jampy was perfect. He did build up a little at the canter the second direction, but not out of control or anything like that!

We won!

Next up were the jumping classes. This horse show offers a warm up trip that runs all day, so you can jump a course as practice before your actual classes. It's a nice feature, though on busy days can really slow the whole show down. I was grateful for the practice...

SOMEONE got a little excited down the outside line. Thankfully he got that all out of his system before my real classes. The actual courses went well. We finished second in all of them.

The judging was a little all over the place, so despite not winning any fence classes, we were still Champion. Good pony!

I really prefer to have a trainer with me when I head to horse shows. It's nice to be able to discuss with someone what went wrong and what went right. Admittedly, after our troubles in the warm up, I momentarily considered calling it a day. I hate to make a problem and not be able to fix it. But thankfully I WAS able to fix my little run away train all by myself. It's definitely a good feeling to know you can go out and show your horse successfully on your own though. It means I'm doing something right, even if the entire day wasn't perfect. No day ever is!

**Photo credits to my right hand woman Briley Brandon!