Sizzling Summer Schooling Show

Last weekend, I went to a local schooling show for the first time this year! I missed several of them with the excuse "it's early in the year, I'll hit the next one". Then all of a sudden we were halfway through the year and I still hadn't gotten out at all! I decided to take Charmer and Banner to the show. Poor Wonder got left at home, but he ended up not seeming too bothered by it. When I signed up for the show, I put Banner in a 2' class & Training 2 dressage test and stuck Charmer in a 2'6" and 2'9" jump rounds, along with a 2'6" derby round on the grass.

When the show schedule came out a few days prior to the show I noticed that Banner's dressage test was 8 minutes before we were supposed to do our 2' jump round. I decided that I didn't want to do that, so I texted Trainer and switched our 2' jump round to the morning 2'9" round. The way these shows work is they start at 2'9" in the morning, go up to 3'6" (or higher if someone wants do to a higher round), then drop back to ground poles and work their way back up to 2'9" in the afternoon.

On Saturday morning, we loaded up at 6:45 (15 minutes ahead of schedule!) and drove down to the barn, arriving around 7:10. The boys loaded and unloaded without a fuss, and neither of them made a peep at the trailer all day! I love that they help give thoroughbreds a good name. Banner and I got our number, tacked up and headed into warmup. We got a good 15 minutes of solid flatwork and then I popped him over a few fences and called it good. I got several complements on his perfect lead change. I definitely didn't put that on him, but I love to show it off!

Banner's 2'9":

Even though we were a late add into the 2'9" class, it ended up that we were the first (and only) ones ready to show by 8:00. So I got to be the first round of the day! Unfortunately this meant I didn't get to watch anyone else ride the course first. Despite being out of shape, Banner jumped like a rockstar and was flying over all the jumps. Unfortunately I forgot the course and left out a jump. 

In order to just get a bit more practice, I decided to do a second course on him just for fun and schooling. He was a little more excited and exuberant this time around and we had a rail, but I managed to remember the course and felt great about our round. He and I are still figuring each other out, but he is a ridiculously fun ride. 

I invited Banner's old owner out to see us go around. and she was able to make it, which was awesome! She gave me the best compliment I could've received when she said, "You two make a great pair. You ride him really well". It made my heart melt. She knows and loves this horse to pieces and having her tell me that she thought we were a good match was a great feeling. 

Charmer's Derby:

I had about an hour to kill after Banner's round before Charmer went, so I cheered on some friends and took photos before tacking up Charmer and warming up. He felt fairly excited, but controllable in warmup. Then we headed out to the grass field where the derby is held, and he immediately got significantly more excited. I looked at one of my friends and said "there is a 60% chance I'm going to die". He felt almost electric, like if I pressed the wrong button, he was going to explode, but he stayed with me and under control as we warmed up on the field a bit. 

Despite his excited feeling, I thought we were going to have a perfectly fine round and a good time! I've been really working on learning to trust him and that was what I hoped to do during our round. Unfortunately, in the round before ours, a little pony stopped at the ditch and dumped his rider. Luckily the rider was okay, and uninjured, but unluckily the pony took it as his opportunity to have  a little joyride. He jumped in and out of the dressage arena that was set up, took a few laps through the spectators, and ran into the front of Charmer once, and ran directly behind him a few minutes later. This made an already excited Charmer into a slightly crazy Charmer. 

I ended up kind of having to abandon my goal of "trusting him a little more", and replace it with "let's get through this course alive". We trotted into the upbank, and first fence of the course. We were able to canter the rest of it, with only one rail down. He spooked pretty hard at the ditch (he hasn't seen one in over a year), but went over it without actually stopping. 

It was by far one of our least pretty rounds, but on the pro side, I never felt out of control, and we made it around the entire course. Our rail down prevented us from continuing into a jumpoff and potentially winning the class, but I took my little victory about keeping him in control instead of bringing home satin. 

Banner's Training 2 Dressage:

This is the only part of the day that I didn't get photos for so you'll have to bear with me on having jump media for a dressage test. 

Micaylah kindly let us borrow an entire dressage outfit for our test. I sold my dressage saddle earlier in the year because it didn't fit any of my boys, and none of my dressage bridles would fit Banner's little face. He looked handsome in all of her borrowed tack. It even included a really nice OTTB pad, which made several people ask me in shock "he is off the track???". Multiple people told me they thought he was a warmblood cross of some kind due to his quiet nature and lovely, correct gaits. I proudly told them, "nope, he's a thoroughbred!", and even heard someone tell their friend "man, I might need a thoroughbred now". Again, couldn't be prouder of how my boys represent the breed in a lot of really good ways.

We warmed up on the grass for our dressage test and he gave me some really good work. But then again, he always does! He has an incredibly level, good head on his shoulders. He has 3 really nice, correct and steady gaits, and even has a great stretch in his walk and trot. His biggest downfall? The transitions. His downwards are very abrupt (kind of western stops, due to a barrel racer restarting him post-track), and his upward, especially canter, transitions are...exuberant. He is never naughty, but he has a bit of a tendency to fling his head into the upward transition, which loses us points. But I knew this going into the test and knew that our transitions were our weakest link. Sure enough, I got the test back and that was the exact comment on the end "work on those transitions". We got consistent 7s and a few 8s, with a couple 6s for our canter transitions.  We ended with a 74%, which felt pretty fair for how our test went. We probably wouldn't score quite that high at rated shows, but it also didn't feel like an overly generous schooling show judge either.

Charmer's 2'6":

I had another 30 minutes to kill after Banner's dressage test, so I wandered through the traveling tack shop, and despite the fact that they were having a sale, I avoided buying anything. Be proud guys. 

Charmer warmed up fantastically over a few more fences, but I had no need to jump his legs off, so we only jumped 5 warmup jumps before heading over to wait for our rounds. Charmer killed his 2'6" round. He gave a lot of extra room to almost all of the jumps and we made it into the jumpoff. We had one rail down in jumpoff, but still managed to snag a 2nd place since there had only been one clean round in our class. 

Charmer's 2'9":

Charmer came into our 2'9" round with his game face on. He rocked the first fence, but I buried him hard into the second, taking a rail down. He showed his displeasure by doing a bit of dolphin canter, but I just laughed and kicked him on. We had a nice and clean rest of the course, with a fair bit of exuberance from Charmer's end, but he was just feeling good and I laughed it off. Several bystanders (audibly) made comments from the side of the ring on "wow he's feeling good" or "someone's excited". I'm not sure if they were meant in a fun way or in a slightly derogatory way, but I heard it and laughed. His antics rarely surprise, or intimidate me much anymore. They definitely used to, but I've slowly grown accustomed to them, and he is never really trying to get me off. If he wanted to, he could, he just has opinions. 

In order to try and clean up our round, I threw him in another 2'9" round. Which happened to be the last round of the day (look at me, first and last ride of the day!). I buried him into the first fence a bit, but he got us out clean. I managed to ride him better through the rest of the course, and we had a lovely round. He jumped the snot out of the last fence (pictured above) just for good measure. We definitely have a fair bit to clean up, but for the first outing of the year, I'm thrilled with it. 

Wild and crazy thoroughbred over here. Watch out!
In all actuality, Charmer naps really nicely on the side of the ring with me!

Major props to anyone who read this whole post. Hopefully I will actually get better about posting more regularly very soon!