CHJA Finals at the Fairfield County Hunt Club August Horse Show (aka: Day 3)

I was super excited to not be showing first thing on Finals Day. I was planning to sleep in all the way until about 6:30, then braid, and head to the horse show. But after conferencing with my trainer on Friday, we decided I needed to get there bright and early to hand walk Jamp in the ring. It certainly wouldn't hurt to let him smell the jumps and take some time to acclimate in there. Boo. While I would have plenty of time to braid at the show, braiding in the trailer can be... well... interesting. I decided to braid the top 1/3 of his mane at home then finish his mane and do his tail at the horse show. Thus, my alarm went off at 3:45. (Remember in college when you'd first be thinking about going home at 3:45?)
Thankfully it was the weekend (finally!) and we didn't hit any real traffic on the way there. Upon arrival, we got Jamp unloaded and I meandered him all around the ring, letting him have some grass when he wanted. He was very relaxed in there, and didn't seem terribly interesting in anything at all. Not even the spectator tent which was seemingly breeding dragons last year. As we were taking our final lap however, a herd of ponies and their tiny humans went trotting past the ring. Out came the fire breathing Jamposaurus Rex: tail flipped over his back, doing his best Lipizzaner impression. Sheesh. I coaxed him out of the ring and away from the throng of ponies and put him back on the trailer for awhile. Once he'd calmed down, I went ahead and got him all braided. Then waited around a little. Finally around 9:45 I took him up to the indoor ring to lunge. It was a hot day, in the low 90's so after lunging I had to wash him off. Then more time in the trailer. Seriously. LONGEST DAY EVER!
FINALLY around 1, it was time to walk the course. It was a pretty simple course honestly, almost a disappointment. But really, who can complain about something being easy right? Besides, we all know it's much harder to do simple things than tough ones. At least when it comes to riding.

I was 14th in the order (out of 29) so there was plenty of time for my trainer to hop on and work out the kinks. I'm glad she did, Mr. Spookypants was WILD when first starting. Thankfully he remembered he's old and has been showing for three days now, so it didn't last too long. I didn't jump many schooling fences and was feeling pretty good when it was time to go in the ring. Jamp walked in like a gentleman and jumped around really well. I was a bit slow to the first two jumps which was the only roll back on the course. If I was going to make that error anywhere, that was the place to do it without causing a problem. I thought the rest of the course went very well. I scored a 77 which I thought was perhaps a little low but not bad given my slow jumps to start with. It wasn't until I watched the video that I realized we crosscantered in one of the bending lines. That made that 77 pretty generous!

I managed to JUST make it into the flat phase. Literally. My score was the cut off. The flat was uneventful with barely any testing at all other than a sitting trot. Everyone who makes the flat phase winds up getting a ribbon as they pin through 12th place. I guess my flatwork wasn't anything impressive as I stayed where I started in 12th.

Obviously, it would have been awesome to move up a spot or two, but I was just so happy to have made it into the flat (not to mention, 12th place is the prettiest color ribbon I've ever seen). Two years ago, with Rio, I finished in second which was pretty unbelievable. But last year with Jamp, it didn't go well. We made it around the course without stopping or anything really terrible, but with some bucking and minor running away moments. So just being decent was all I really needed out of this day. Walking away with some big ribbons was just a bonus. I'm REALLY proud of Jamp. I know it's hard for him to keep it together in these instances, and he did his best. Now if we could only fix this cross cantering habit he's developed.... (Fear not, I've called the vet to make sure it's not a physical problem! He'll be out hopefully next week.)

Fairfield County Hunt Club August Horse Show: Day 2

Confession: I only unbraided the top portion of Jamp's mane on Thursday night. I'm always very against leaving the braids in... except when it means I can sleep until 4 AM. My alarm went off at 4 (instead of 3:30!) Friday morning, so I could put the braids I took out back in. We had to leave by 5:30 for the 7:30 start time I thought I had.... Yeah. Prize list said 7:30 and the website made no mention of any changes. But apparently the ring started at 8. Oh well. Gave me extra time to lunge anyway!
My first class was the CHJA medal which would count toward qualifying for next year's finals. It was a big class with 17 in it. Our trip went well, just a little deep to the last jump. (Anyone notice a pattern here?) This class also has a flat phase that counts 50%. Unfortunately, Mr Lead Swapper fell off his lead in the flat phase for two strides and the judge saw. Boo. No prize for us. On the bright side, it did help us with operation get Jamp tired for Saturday.

Next up were two more adult hunter classes. And this is where it gets entertaining! We schooled fine and were waiting at the in gate for our turn. When I see the gate keeper, Russell, bend down and pick up a shoe. Looked an awful lot like Jamp's shoe. My trainer was staring at his feet and said, "yes, that's yours." Ugh. So I had to hop off and drag Jamp over to get it put back on. ALLL the way on the other side of the horse show grounds. Thankfully there were 21 horses in our classes so we made it back in plenty of time.
The first class started out fine.... but then when I came around to the outside line by the judge, I only half asked Jamp to move up to a longer distance. He hesitated, felt like he was adding one more step, but then just left the ground. It was startling! Even the judge exclaimed something along the lines of "Oh dear!". For real. I heard him! We recovered quickly though, and the rest of the trip was fine. OBVIOUSLY kept us out of the ribbons. But at least we only embarrassed ourselves once. Here you can watch:

The second class was nearly perfect. Right up until the last line. I found the right distance into the line, but Jampy got a little lazy and rubbed the top rail. It stayed up so no big deal really. He covered the seven strides perfectly, left the ground at the oxer, and knocked it down. Trainer said he just got lazy. Hey, at least it wasn't my fault this time! So no ribbons to take home on Saturday, but we did accomplish our goal of getting Jamp acclimated to the show grounds. (And maybe, just maybe, quiet!)

We sat in traffic for a bit on the way home, but not terrible. I think we were back around 1:30. Which was nice. Once home, I unbraided Jamp (fully this time) and gave him a bath so he'd be squeaky clean for finals on Saturday.  Did all the other necessities (rode Ducky, took care of Rio, cleaned the tack, etc, etc) and finally saw my bed around 9:30 pm.
Saturday morning came early! We'll talk about that tomorrow...

Fairfield County Hunt Club August Horse Show Day 1

Sorry I've been MIA for a little bit and missed Thursday's Threads last week! But I was playing horse show with Jampy from Thurs through Saturday, and it was completely exhausting. COMPLETELY! I swear my next horse will not require so much prep. ((yawn))
The days were so long, I figured I'd split them each into their own post. Partially because I don't want to bore you all at once... and also because I haven't gotten around to uploading video yet. #procrastinationstation
In years past, I haven't shown at the Fairfield horse show itself, I normally would just show up on Saturday for my medal final. But last year's misadventures taught me that Jamp needed to spend some more time on the show grounds. Ideally I would have gotten him a stall, me a hotel room, and the equine at home a sitter. But we don't live in an ideal world, and I'm still not comfortable leaving Rio and his fleshy foot home alone.  So trekking back and forth an hour and ten minutes each way it had to be. (And that was if there wasn't traffic. Which there was. Every direction.)
So Day 1 started bright and early, though was the latest of the mornings sadly. I got up at 5:00 to braid Jampy and be on the road by 7. He looked pretty cute:

Originally I thought we would show fairly early, around 10:30 or so. But apparently the children's hunter division grew three fold and we didn't go until around 2. Long day of waiting around, that's for sure. Without any warm up classes for my trainer to jump around first, I was a little nervous that Jampy would pull some spooky antics. But he didn't! He went around quite nicely, and even managed to earn a 6th place out of 21 horses in the adult hunters! I was proud given his non-huntery way of going. He did however fall off his lead behind in both classes in the same spot. Apparently the judge didn't see it in the second class (the one he got the ribbon for). That's Jamp though. He can't just behave. Always has to throw something in there.

After the hunter classes, we had a bit of a break before my New England medal class. I REALLY needed to win that class to get qualified for finals in October. And it's getting tough to find horse shows that can fill the class! No pressure though, right?
Finally after all the waiting, I got on around 4. Jamp warmed up fine, and we went in the ring. The shadows were all different now since the sun was getting lower and he was a little spooky to the first jump. He didn't get too crazy, but did jump up a little extra high. The rest of the course went smoothly, with just a little bit of a tight take off to the last jump. I was pretty confident I wasn't going to win, but was hopeful I'd at least get some points toward qualifying. But alas, the judge must have seen something I wasn't aware of because we got nothing out of 10 riders. I was pretty disappointed. I can lose pretty gracefully, but honestly this time, I'm just confused as to why. I really didn't make any very major mistakes. Jamp even stayed on all of his leads! Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

The drive home was long due to rush hour traffic. I think we arrived home around 6:30. I cleaned out the trailer, tucked Jampy in, took care of Rio and Ducky, fed everyone... And finally went to bed at 10:30. Day two to come soon!