We had an early start this morning. The best thing about early days at the horse show is dark, quiet mornings. It was quite cool – we had dressed the horses last night in anticipation of the change in the weather. Bart and Derry were happy to see us, and morning chores sped us to the 7:30 start time with .95 meter jumpers. Jane and Derry had a nice, clean trip around, at old lady pace, so with a few time faults, but it was a well ridden and well jumped course.
Next came the 1.0 meter class, and it was the same track. They had a spectacular ride until the second to last jump, when Jane got a bit carried away and leaned at an oxer, and Derry stopped. A quick spin around and back over to finish with two more perfect jumps – just that one glitch!
Bart and I were in the 1.10 meter class (all classes today and yesterday were speed classes). He warmed up well, and we headed up to the ring to wait our turn. There was a liverpool on an outside line (a liverpool is a fake “water” jump – sort of like a blue tarp on the ground, for those who are not horse people. Some horses are appalled and terrified by liverpools). The horse ahead of us was a bit sulky about going into the ring, and next thing I see is this horse standing straight up on its hind legs! The woman had tried to show him the liverpool, and he was having none of it. He was literally walking on his hind legs. The rider hit him atop the head several times with her fist, which had no effect other than to speed his plunging right out of the gate like Fury over bad guys, through the couple of people standing there. Oh, and it also had the effect of getting her threatened with a yellow card for hitting the horse more than three times – and in front of the saddle. Don’t look, Bart!! I don’t want him to even imagine a horse could do such a thing!
Bart was more forward today, and he handled the slightly higher jumps easily, but I screwed up again! There was another six stride to one stride oxer / vertical in and out. After yesterday, that line was a priority, but I messed up jumping into the six stride line, got crooked and weak, and Bart had a rail. I knew I had to add a stride, so did seven to the in and out. Halleluia! Bart did only one stride and jumped out well.
AND there was the liverpool and another one stride in and out, no problems. Bart was fresh and happy and we are looking forward to tomorrow, with TWO classes to do! The Low and High Adults start, but after the hunters, alas, so it will be a long day.
The jumping pictures are taken off an iPhone video, so not very good quality, but Alison Hartwell is the show photographer, and her photographs are exceptional, so we are looking forward to those. Not in time to illustrate the blog, though…
Once we were finished riding, we had a pleasant day. With the horses settled back in their stalls, clean, and feet packed, we took an Uber to Cafe Gratitude, the nearby vegan restaurant.
Then we spent some time watching hunters and ran into more old friends from long ago. I know I said I wasn’t feeling old, but all this reminiscing is starting to make me think I am!
A couple of interesting things – we met a woman who has an “activity board” in her horse’s stall! To prevent boredom…
Jane was not the only one who had a bad day. A good friend of ours (we shall leave her nameless) took a nasty spill in a hunter class and will have a very impressive black eye tomorrow. And a young girl in our aisle, who is only 13, had to make a circle in an equitation class, which was the end of the world for her. It was so sad – she had a perfect start to her course, then had a bit of an extravagant jump and lost her way. Old ladies know this is not the end, so I told her about MY first important show, in Des Moines, where I shed many, many tears, and which now makes a funny story. Luckily, since she does the hunters, she had a couple more classes, and her world was redeemed by good rounds. It’s such a funny sport – we take it very seriously, which we need to, because it is dangerous and difficult. And we do it for fun, which we always forget in our intensity. But most of all, we do this to spend time with remarkable animals who carry us to places we could not go alone. All of us here at The American Royal are so fortunate on so many levels!
Great conclusion! A+ riding and writing