Of a Halloweeny Short Course & Show Season Wrap-up.

Post Halloweenie Short Course Recap and Show Season Wrap-up.

I have to start this post off by saying, I honestly cannot for the life of me remember attending a horse show when it was snowing. Especially in October... has the weather god lost his canary?

Enough about the weather, more show recap!

Yesterday, we attending the last short course event of the season and while the weather was less that remarkable, the day turned out to be a hit and Paloma and pal Thunder performed brilliantly! Both taking first place in our divisions.

Our ride times were late morning and early afternoon which was very welcome to my anti-am mind.

We arrived an hour before our dressage time, grabbed our numbers and carted out our gear. I cannot help but appreciate how wonderful my lovely mare was, patiently waiting on the trailer for Mich and I to get our human butts and brains in gear. Thunder is teaching her the ropes! Good boy.

Not to mention both horses, stood tied to the trailer mowing down two hay bags. I never thought I would see the day when I could tie Paloma and not worry about the trailer being dragged half a mile.

Our warm up went much better than usual warm-ups. Paloma was soft and sensitive. She was a bit less forward than I would have liked but with all the rain we have had lately the footing was a bit thick and slick so I couldn't blame her for being conscious. Luckily, the venue has good quality footing which allowed the show to go ahead.

Sadly, our footing at home, is a down right soggy mess!

The same held over for our dressage test. Pal was willing but cautious with the footing. I mentally struggled with pushing her on, which I could tell she was not comfortable with or taking it at her pace, safe. So we teetered the border of cautious but still listening to my leg. It worked out in the end, we had a good test with the exception of a few tense corners where I believe Pal was overly cautious and one break in gait where Paloma did not want to grace a soft spot with her hooves, she would rather jump it. Diva!

We ended the test with a solid halt through walk. It felt lovely and we scored a respectable 68.5%.

Our lowest score of the year but generous due to Paloma's tense footed performance.

The combined Stadium/Cross ran fabulously well! The venue had decided to switch up the regular courses in favour of some new fences! Saweet!

While Paloma's performance may not have been the smoothest in the cross section, she listened and was brave. I felt a few questions pop in her mind after leaving the first section of the Stadium which went smoothly. I swear I could hear what she was thinking.

'I don't really want to leave everyone back there....'

'I am not sure about this fence today, it looks different...'

'Okay, fine, have it your way, we will jump it but I am going to swerve around like a noodle in between fences just to make sure you are on your game misses. I am not doing this alone!'

'HOME! Do you see it?! I will take us there!....'

Ironically, during Paloma's last 'comment', the new route turned away from home, into the field again before going back to Stadium. This shocked Pal for a moment and threw her out of her desperate home run flight, she did a little hop, skip and near face plant and then asked, 'oh, you are still driving up there?'

I was really thankful of this change in route because coming 'home', Pal gets very, very strong.

Great for working out our main cross training issue.

Coming back into stadium, Paloma cantered softly, now tuned back in, awaiting direction. She ran me straight into a low tree branch that was in the path of one of the fences. It could be avoided with proper planning but I think she thought it would be comical.

We announced our finale with loud snorting in our wind down canter circle. Paloma is physically fit for this but mentally, not quite yet, hence her snorts of relief.

Despite the snow and freezing 5'c weather, ya I know, the worse has yet to come, it was a great day and an extraordinary end to a show season.

This year Paloma and I have learned a lot about each other and have begun to conquer our own demons.

Mine, being overly OCD about riding perfection and overzealous horse show nerves, this is fun remember!

Paloma's, being nervy when leaving the herd to become enveloped in herd-sight blocking trees and jumping scary, 'predator housing' fences.

I am on the fence with my plans for next year. I hope to dive back into my hunter roots and find a decently affordable venue that offers a 3' Division. (Hard to find in my area without forking our the Benjamins).

And I am planning on moving up to Pre-entry for Short courses.... after a few more schooling sessions and hopefully solving Pal's tunnel vision control/listening issue.

While I still enjoy horse shows, they are fun but they are also a bit stressful and time consuming...

I am almost thinking of choosing 3 or 4 for the year and calling it a day.... two of which always being the Catori Lane shows. I don't know what it is about that place but it feels like home and we always have a great experience.