i've been busy and depressed (see the previous entry) and haven't written about the horse show from two weekends ago! it was a local cchsa (chester county horse show association) show at the radnor hunt pony club grounds. i'd never been there before, and whoo! is it beautiful. 2 enormous show arenas, 2 large schooling rings, gorgeous fields filled with lovely cross country jumps, picturesque stone barn...

but before i got to see the show grounds, i got to see the world as it looks at 5.30am on a saturday. the world? she looks like she was out late friday night bar hopping. she forgot to take off her make-up before hitting the sack and has mascara racoon eyes and matted morning after hair. it just ain't right.

but i hauled myself out of the warm comfy bed and away from my warm comfy karl at the ass crack of dawn, stumbled into the shower, dressed in my muckiest jeans and top, gathered up my show clothes and newly polished boots, and headed out to the barn. on the way i stopped for coffee and breakfast at wawa (don't laugh. that really is the name of the local 7-11ish convenience store). pulled into the barn at 7.10 and got started by bringing random in from the field. luckily, he was nice about being caught.

first order of business was a good curry, to get the piles of mud off him. that horse, i swear, makes it his business to find the muddiest part of the field to roll in and to make damned sure he covered every square inch with mud. next up was a thorough bath and mane/tail conditioning. while he was drying i loaded up my saddle and bright white new show saddle pad into my lovely monogrammed saddle bag (thanks mom!) and put that, his bridle, grooming box, and carrots in the car. next order of business was to wrap his legs for the trip. white padded, quilted wraps go on first (they run the length of his leg from knee to hoof (almost) and go around about twice). the padded wraps are held on by polo wraps--they look basically like ace bandages except they come in all kinds of colors (random's are navy) and aren't stretchy. random, who is normally really calm about getting groomed and bathed and stuff, started quivering all over as i started to do his legs. he just stood there, a horse-shaped block of jello, while i wrapped. once i was done, andy and i (the other rider going at the same time as me to the show grounds), led our horses up to where the trailer would stop to let them graze while we waited. and waited. and waited.

the trailer was supposed to get us at 8.30 (which is why i had to be up at 5-fuckin-30). it was over an hour late. rg. at least the horses got some grass (they'd skipped breakfast).

at last the trailer shows up. both random and russel (andy's horse) load calmly and settle right into their hay net.

at the radnor hunt grounds, we unloaded, unwrapped, and tacked up. then, off to find out what divisions i had been entered in. i usually do "low adult hunter" which is 1 under saddle (no jumps) and 3 over fences classes at 2'6". since i was paying for trailering to this show, i wanted to get my money's worth, so asked to be registered for one other division, at my coach's choosing. andy's mom went to find out, and came back saying novice equitation (a class for riders who have not won 3 blue ribbons in equitation classes. equitation classes are judged on the rider, whereas hunter classes are judged on the horse). ok, novice eq wasn't going for another hour or so, so i had plenty of time to warm up.

off i went to the schooling ring, where i started by trotting around, warming me and random up, and trying to get his head down (the ideal hunter position has the horse relax his head and neck forward, reaching out and down into the bit). after only a few minutes, i hear my name called over the PA system, requesting that i come to ring one at once as my class is starting. MY CLASS IS STARTING OH SHIT WHAT CLASS IS THIS, EVEN?

i get to the ring, my coach sends me in, and off we go, being judged at the walk. turns out this is the novice hunter division. my coach has entered me in novice hunter and novice eq (and not low adult hunter) because low adult doesn't go til late afternoon, and this way i can get it all done and over with earlier in the day. fine by me.

in the two under saddle classes in novice hunter, we got 4th (out of 5). random would not, no sirree bob, put his head down. he trotted around with it high up in the air, like he was king of the world. friggin horse. but all was love and roses in the 2 over fences classes.

for the first over fences class, we entered the ring and turned right (tracking left, meaning my left hand was toward the center of the ring). we picked up a canter and rode a nice leisurely courtesy circle, then headed for the first jump, a single stone wall. jumped that comfortably, rode a straight line away from the fence all the way to the other end of the arena, turned left, and came perfectly down a 6-stride line (the horse does 6 canter strides between two fences) and turned left again by the in-gate. across the short side of the ring, then up a diagonal line over a single white gate. straight to the end, then a right turn, and down a 5-stride line on the other long end of the arena. right turn at the end of the ring, across the short end and by the in-gate again, then up the other diagonal over a single white wall. all the way to the back corner, then a left turn, across the far short end, and down a single brown wall with wishing wells at the sides. finished up with another courtesy circle, and came out of the ring. and when the ribbons were announced? we got the blue! whooo! the second class was almost as good, except that random didn't get one lead change, so we got second. even with a first, a second, and 2 forths, though, we didn't get champion or reserve champion. ah well.

the next division i was in was novice equitation. this, unlike novice hunter, was a popular division, with 20-25 competitors. the first 2 classes were under saddle, and random had his head up and got the wrong lead once right in front of the judge, so no ribbons there. in the jumping class, i watched as rider after rider got the wrong striding, didn't stay straight after the fences, or refused fences entirely. but with 20-25 riders, there was still plenty of competition, including 2 other riders from my barn. it was my turn to go and my coach reminded me not to rush. off we went through the in-gate, tracking left. picked up a left lead, cantered a big courtesy circle, then up over a 3-stride diagonal. most people had been doing 4 strides in here, so i made sure to stay forward between the jumps and not slow random down any. he jumped out from a perfect spot, and we headed for the corner and turned right. came down over a 4-stride line that some had been doing in 5. again, did 2 perfect fences. at the end of the arena we turned right again and cantered up over a single gate on the diagonal. we got a little quick approaching the fence, and i got a teensy bit left behind. recovered nicely on the other side, sat up and steadied, reminded myself to keep a straight line all the way to the corner, and turned left. cantered down the short side of the ring, left again, the down over a 5-stride line. it was perfect, and we finished with a courtesy circle and a nice pat for random.

when the other 2 riders from my barn were done, one wanted to head up to put the horses away, thinking we weren't going to get anything. i convinced her to stay put til the end of the class. good decision, since i won a 3rd and she won a 4th. the other rider from my barn was just out of the ribbons in 7th, which is still really good since there were so many competitors.

so, congrats all around, and we took the horses back up to the trailer, untacked, wrapped their legs, and loaded them up so they could munch some hay.

the next several hours were spent watching other people ride, as we waited for the other horses going back in our trailer trip to finish up. 3.5 hours later, we were back at the barn, and 1.5 hours after that i was finally back at home, exhausted.