If I said that today was amazing, it would be an understatement. I'm not sure there is a word that sufficiently describes the day I had. It was the best day I have had in a longggg time.
It started in the wee hours of the morning...5am. I woke up, took a shower, then marched on down to the barn to groom and braid the boy. I did a running braid in his mane only to have him shake it out a few minutes later... silly horse. I got Jet all set to go, made sure I had everything, packed and put everything where it needed to be, then waited. My fried Sara came with her truck and trailer to pick us up since our rig is not usable in its current state.
We got to the show right when I wanted to be there. I let Jet get off the trailer and walk around. We walked around the ring, around the trailers, warm up areas, everywhere. I let him munch on some grass, then brought him back to the trailer where I braided him while my amazing friends/sister/brother-in-law made my horse look like he was ready to enter a Grand Prix ring. He was spotless! We tacked him up and I warmed him up.
He was great in warm up. He was better than he has been at home! We even had a bit of an interruption...a miniature horse (one of sixteen that were there) got loose and was causing havoc around the farm. Eventually, the mini was tackled and pig pilled on and brought to control....only to have it get loose again a few hours later.
Ok...lets get to the classes! The first was equitation. There were four horses in my division and everyone of them deserved to be in the Green Horse division. Jet was amazing! We did have one mishap when they decided to test the loud speakers in the middle of my class. It was down for most of the classes before mine and they just haaad to test it right as I was going past the judge... Jet bolted and galloped for a few strides but was easily brought back under control. Right then and there, I thought I blew the class (which I was fine with because I was happy how we did besides that). Little did I know, every other horse in the class did the same thing and some were a lotttt worse than Jet. We ended up placing FIRST! HECK YEAH! I was ecstatic to say the least. I almost cried. I got off of him and put him in the trailer so he could chill for a little bit and munch on some hay.
The next class was pleasure. I failed to realize how quickly the classes were going and this snook up on me a bit. We only got about 3 minutes of warm up. Throughout the day, Jet had many mini-meltdowns. First he spooked at a branch on the ground and he started rearing, then we took off a few times, reared a few more, etc. At least it added some entertainment to the day! For one reason or another, Jet clicked into 'racehorse' mode right before we went in the pleasure ring. He just wanted to go. But as soon as we stepped into the ring, he calmed down and listened to me. We were very forward in that class and counterbent at a few times when he was in the 'spooky corner', but he was better than he has been before. WAY better. I think we may have broke once right before they called for a walk, so I booted him and he took a canter step but the judge didn't really see it. We ended up placing second in pleasure! I was super surprised considering we never place well in pleasure! By this point in the day, I felt like some sort of God. I was ontop of my world because my horse was actually tuning into me in the show ring.
Next we headed into the trail ring. I don't think I have ever had such an amazing trail class! We had to walk into a back through, then back through it, walk half way over a pole(front feet on one side, hind on the other), walk over 5 poles, do a 360 turn to the right in a box, trot around some cones, then walk over the bridge. He was PERFECT! He didn't take a wrong step in this. I did, though. We went over the bridge and to me it felt like he scooted off to the side of it so I did it again...but when I went back and watched the video, he just took big, awkward steps over it but he did go over it the first time. Oh well, we did it an extra time. We won this class too!!
Last, but not least, was our favorite class: discipline rail. Discipline rail is basically a command class where you don't get 'out' if you don't follow the command. We rocked this class! Our transitions were spot on, he stood still, backed up perfectly, and even sorta kinda did an extended trot! I felt that this was our best class because it kept his mind busy, and my body busy. We won this too!
If you didn't already guess, we got CHAMPION in our division! I can not believe it! My horse was a super star today. I'm so proud of him! Its not about the ribbons, its about the experience. It was a great experience for both me and Jet. I had a great time with my friends, saw some people I haven't seen in a while, and learned a lot. I still can't believe MY horse did so well and is smart enough to switch from play mode to show mode so quickly. I love him<3
