Monday, March 23, 2009

Pony show




This weekend's pony show was an interesting one. Courtney was very relaxed to start the day (always promising), Moose Tracks was good getting on and off the trailer and was very easy to tack up. The first part of schooling (which was just hack work outside) went really well. They were both looking very good. Then we get to the schooling over fences. For what ever reason, Fox Chase decided to put flowers across the tops of the jumps. Now Moose has had issues with flowers before, but he seemed to have gotten over it, until Saturday. As soon as Tammy (One of the other Moms) let me know that Bug fell, I went running to the ring. (Now usually we have someone there with her, her trainer Fay was there, but usually one of the family is there with her...but there were doughnuts to be eaten. How guilty do I feel for eating when my kid needed me!) I get there and she is back on him, and taking jumps (but you could tell her confidence was not there). We get back to "base camp" get some Gatorade, try to finish getting dressed...(she lost a button while putting her show jacket on, and thankfully I keep a small sewing kit in her show bag, and I only poked myself twice!) make sure she doesn't have a head injury from her fall, and get her to relax a bit.




Thankfully, pleasure was the first division of the day. There were 23 riders in the class, so it was split in two sections, which made it drag on! Well, no ribbon for the first class...might have something to do with the fact that Courtney cut off another rider, and almost ran over the judge...twice! She came out and was fine, went back in for the next class, and placed second out of 23 riders! The last class, she went, they did their thing, and came out with a first out of 19 riders! I was very proud of well she did.




Then we got to the Short Stirrup. I was very happy that she wanted to try at all after her fall. She did the hack class, and came in first out of 14 riders, so we thought she'd be fine. Oh-no, we were wrong. She went in to do her warm up jump round, and Moose refused the same jump 3 times, and she was excused. Thankfully Fay decided that it wasn't worth it to make her do the next 2 jump rounds. Fay told Courtney that she was very proud of Courtney trying, but she could tell it just wasn't there for them in the jumping, so they are going to work on getting Bug's confidence back at the barn. (Can't tell you how much we love Fay!!)




So, all in all, a good day. In my mind, here's what happened. Courtney had fall, but had the courage to get back on and try again. I think that was the best part of the day, not the ribbons, but the courage and maturity that Courtney showed us all.

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