Heartland Wrap Up

Annie had to hitch a ride to this show, I was a bit worried that she wouldn't load onto the strange new trailer but she got right on.  She was also ok with the open sides, which she isn't used to.  She even backed out well since she usually turns around in the slant.

Saturday morning I woke up to a temp of 29 degrees and snow on my car, and topped it off by getting  a speeding ticket on my way to the show!  My first ticket ever, I'm not sure if I should feel proud or upset.  Not like I didn't deserve it, I was indeed speeding. 

Here is Annie's opinion of doing dressage when it's 29 degrees

At first I wasn't going to braid Annie for dressage, I didn't see anyone else braided and anything that makes me less spazzy is good.  However, I caved and put in a nice 4 strand french braid.  I stepped away to put my gloves and coat on and I hear this commotion coming from her stall.  I look in the stall and she's down on her knees rubbing her mane on her bucket, then shaking like a dog.  Well, F*%$#.  I guess she's going unbraided.

Dressage warm up we pinged around like, well, pin balls in a pinball machine.  She was fast, stiff jawed, and she would only turn in one direction.   When I finally cantered she took off like a rocket and I did a transition to the trot because I couldn't get her to turn!  We didn't even bother with our right lead.  Things got better when I picked up my new mantra.

"I know how to ride"  "I know how to ride"  I stopped letting her dash around and started asking her to focus on me. 

Annie's head got higher and higher on our way to our ring, she is still convinced that judge's booths eat horses, and during the wind on Saturday the papers on the clipboard kept rustling around, plus people were talking from inside it. So in typical Annie fashion she ground to a halt to determine if it was safe to proceed. I gently put leg on. She stood firm. I tapped her with the whip, she stood firm. I booted her like a kid on a pony AND whacked her and she squirted past the booth so fast I almost left the saddle over the cantle. While travelling past the booth at a rather fast rate I yelled out my number, as is customary. FOUR!!!!!!!!!! It really wasn't funny until much later but now I can't stop giggling.

Despite snorting through her entire test she was really a very good horse.  She actually settled down once we got into the ring and became more turnable.  She had prompt non bucking correct leaded canter departs YAYY!!!! And reasonable downward transitions!  Double YAYYY!!!  I didn't get as nice of a freewalk as I do at home, but she actually walked and stretched out a bit. 

It wasn't one of our best tests, but seeing some of the other rides I was a bit upset that it only earned us a 5th out of 7.  I have this secret suspicion that snorty arabs earn lower points then snorty TBs but it's not like I deserved 8s.  I did get several 7s though.  However, we were not as we traditionally have been, dead last.

Stadium warm up Annie was ON IT.  I was once again stuck without anyone to calm my butterflies so I had to chant to myself.

Straight and forward to the fences WeanieEventer.  HANDS ON THE NECK WeanieEventer.  Canter STRAIGHT away WeanieEventer.

I think that Annie still needs a lot of miles in strange arenas, she was obedient to a point but she was very looky and once again we snorted through the entire thing.  She ground to a halt staring at the judge's cart (damn judges), and almost ground to a halt in front of fence 4 looking at a bush which I made her jump from a walk so there.  None of the fences were an issue, just all that EVERYTHING else.  We made it around clean.  I still look like a moron jumping, I was working really hard at staying back and riding forward to the base to get her over the fence so I would then make up for it by jumping ahead SIGH. 

We ended up with a pretty pink ribbon for 5th place.  Not as good as I would have liked, but much better then last year!