We did the "Green" division which consisted of Intro Test C for dressage, a 2' show jumping course with lots of oxers and filler, and max 2'3" XC fences. He was definitely more calm at this show but because he and Boo where in back-to-back divisions it got very hectic very quickly.
He warmed up decently for dressage, we're still not to the point where he'll accept steady, consistent contact but I was happy he would take a few strides on the bit, then his head would go up and his nose would go out, then he'd come back down and take contact, and so on. But I felt like he was as calm and forward as I was going to get him for his second show and felt good about where he was at mentally when we stepped into the ring. Our first halt was much better than last time, I saluted and we trotted off to C tracking right, and just as I'm turning the corner... "LOOSE HORSE! LOOSE HORSE! Heads up at the dressage rings, loose horse headed your way!!!". I was concentrating so hard on his test I was confused why everyone was screaming, including the judge who got out of her car and was frantically screaming at me to halt. Chill peeps, Reily and I got this, we ride in the field at home all the time with the other boys running around loose, he's not going to gallop away with me. Well the renegade did come straight down to the dressage rings and was trotting around enjoying his freedom outside the arena fence, but Reily just stared and then we walked around in little circles until the little Houdini found his barn buddy and was caught. Good news is, Reily kept his head like an old pro. Bad news, it COMPLETELY broke our concentration and though I (thankfully) remembered his test when we were allowed to start again, I just couldn't regain his attention the way I'd had it before. So our test left much to be desired, but I don't blame him for that. This is horses, sh*t is gonna happen, it just by chance happened during our test, no reason to really sweat it.
The weather was nice but threatening rain all day and, go figure, it held off until right before Reily's stadium round. That was really inopportune because the stadium warm up was on turf with rather long grass and it got slippery pretty quick. Reily only has front shoes right now and no stud holes, not that I have any studs to use anyways, but it just made for a less confidence building warm up because he was having a hard time keeping his feet under him. The actual show jumping course was in an arena with all-weather footing so I was glad for that at least. We went in and had a decent round. Unfortunately I didn't use enough leg and he wasn't entirely paying attention so we had a refusal at fence two and when we came back around we got there funny and pulled a rail. Otherwise his round was good. He was definitely a little strong but I think it was mostly the atmosphere causing that.
The rain had slowed almost to a stop by the time we walked out to XC and luckily I knew that BREA had just cut the grass on the various XC paths so I felt more confident about the footing not being too slippery for him out there. He was raring to go and even though it was really a rather long track, even for his level, the optimum time was VERY generous, almost even excessive. We trotted a bit cantered most of it and by the time I was one away from home we still had about 1min 30secs left so I actually walked him down the steepest hill to the final jump so I knew we wouldn't slip any going down and to give him a little breather too. Unfortunately, I'm obviously no Buck "Runs 11 Horses Each Weekend" Davidson out of shape because after riding 3 exhasting phases on Boo and 2 slightly less exhausting phases on Reily my legs were tired as crap and I was just sort of on autopilot, enjoying the breeze and not paying attention and Reily, surprisingly, ran out on the 3rd jump from home. He wasn't scared he was just checking to make sure I was still awake up there... I wasn't :( It was totally my fault but I was definitely caught off guard. But hey, there's no day dreaming allowed, especially on XC, no matter how trustworthy the horse. Touche Reily, touche. Other than that silly mistake XC was great. Almost all of his fences were just little logs and I think there might have been one mulch mound and a tiny little baby hanging log with a fake ditch underneath. All very straightforward and inviting fences. A perfect introduction to the joy of HTs :)
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