Red Devil #2: Horse show edition

Looks nice eh? Well, looks can be deceiving.

Oats captured in a moment of nice behaviour- otherwise, I was ready to string him up high! We entered a small ‘ride a test’ day this past Sunday, and we got to the showgrounds and he felt edgy, irritated and on my last nerves.

I longed him, and with help from my husband, tacked him up, with Oats being a twit the whole time.

We had an opportunity to warm up in the arena, and he felt kind of strange. His trot was very short, choppy and he was struggling to keep his right lead, breaking frequently. That was a far cry from our great rides ALL winter (yeah I even had a lesson on Sat the felt SO GOOD, like yeah, I’m rocking this dressage stuff!!)….Not so much.

We rode our first test and he tripped up in the canter circle to the right again, and righted himself from the break with a small buck (yeah I cursed). The judge came out and was pretty good, learned some nice things from her.

Went back out and started the test, and again when we got to the canter circle to the right, BOOM! He bucked me right off, no chance of sticking that one. FUCK.

I got up, volunteers grabbed Oats, who was on edge, and I got dusted off. Felt fine, and before I could start crying or something, got hopped back up and ready to go. Oats was a bit balky and I could tell he was looking for a ‘reason’ ie- getting light up in front near the gate, threatening a rear.

We finished the test sort of, and came out.

I didn’t cry or anything…I just felt like, ahh not again!

Was back in the ring before I knew it for our second test. I was nervous as all hell, and was clutchy, anxious and pissed off. We actually went off course because I was so focused on the upcoming canter circle. Yeah, wonderful. Off-course with a reader?? WTF

It came up, I felt him start to threaten a buck, and I shifted my weight and averted it. It was still not pretty, and the photos are kind of defensive and hunchy (well cut me some slack here, he did just buck me off like 10 mins before). So we got it done and it was not pretty.

I got off, on my own steam this time, and kind of wanted to laugh or cry. Or slap Oats around. A little bit of everything, really.

I mean, MANNNN….Things were going so nicely at home, and then BLAM! Slap in the face at the show.

That’s horses I guess….The photos do look really nice, the girls from the barn caught some really cool shots. So, there’s that I guess. That and my little shithead horse was good to trailer and settled down on the ground after my first ride. Small victories? It was our first outing of the season…