WNYDA Summer Fest

We went to a show! 

And I finally have time to write about it!

Good grief, this past week has not slowed down for one second. Let's roll it back to last Friday and get kicked off with our in-hand work.

being a role model for his 2yo soul mate (that he'd
never met before) in the trailer next to him

Friday's Breed Show

Our GMO brought back a breed show last year after several years of not hosting one, and they thought it was such a success they added in an entire day for it instead of just an afternoon. It did end up running all day, and after another east coast show canceled, they added on a second day as well. This is good news because it was a complete cluster fuck to get organized and everyone was ready to kill each other by the end of it, but I do think they'll do it again next year. Which means another year for more ribbons!

Obviously Opie is practically ancient at this point and not eligible for any of the young horse or materiale classes, but there's no age limit for the amateur handler class or the breed specific classes. 

First up was the amateur handler class where you are being judged with the horse's score only being a tiny part of it. I knew I could do the running part just fine, it was standing this animal up properly I wasn't convinced of. They want an open stance, and Opie was like a dyslexic child with these fucking halts. In hand? Square! Under saddle? Open! Like, sir, bring that RF forward while I'm not on you.

would have taken this halt in our tests

I didn't fuss with him too much because I was too busy trying to get him to hold still for longer than two seconds. The judge was old and walked with a cane, and she started creeping around Opie in a very sus way according to him. I ended up getting the comment to not stand in front of him, but I couldn't stand off to the side or he would have left lol. The walk and trot triangles went as well as expected, and he was slightly better about standing when we came back around. We ended up with 8s down the board except for a 6.8 for his conformation (fair--he's built like a cow and a wiener dog had a baby). The low confo score knocked us out of what would have been first place into second. 

We went right into our Thoroughbred class where Opie was the only participant. He was better with the judge stalking him this time, but still defaulted to squaring up. She liked absolutely nothing about him and scored accordingly, but we still got our champion neck ribbon for showing up.

the pinned ears really help

we borrowed a bridle from MB to look the part

Saturday Performance Show

I got on with about thirty minutes for warmup for 1-1. This is more than I usually allot myself, but I am notoriously horrendous about warming up at shows. I forget every exercise and just end up loafing about with zero plan. Not this time, bitches! I was focused, and we did crazy things like multiple transitions and cleaning up our mistakes until they were better instead of just letting them slide. I got the canter feeling really good and through, and we went into the ring going forward instead of like we'd been standing around doing nothing for the past ten minutes like I usually do.

I did, however, heavily lean into the fetal position. For the entire show. I could even actively feel myself rolling my shoulders forward, but I couldn't convince myself to do anything about it. I got the horse sorted out, maybe next time I can get myself sorted out as well.

The test was a boring cake walk, as it should have been. We got 5s for our trot lengthenings which we're still (re)developing so there was no expectation there, and a 5.5 for the left lead canter depart which was (intentionally) early. Otherwise 7s down the board and a 6 for gaits because he did be looking a little wonky there at points. I don't know at this point. Legit do not know what else to do for this horse. Hopefully his doxy gets here this century and cleaning up the lyme helps him again. Just under a 66% for third place.

We nailed the warmup again for 1-3. More walk work this time around since he'd already been ridden once and it had gotten incredibly hot. He felt a little tighter this time, probably not helped by more horrible hands and rounded shoulders. 

We got a 5.5 for out sketchy attempt at a stretchy trot, which I was personally pleased ended up back at the letter we started at because we took a dang tour of the ring for the "circle". Geometry as a whole felt lacking in this test as I cheated where I could to keep him happy. I probably could have asked him for more, but that was not my goal for this show. I wanted a boring, pleasant experience for the both of us and that's what I ended up with. 

Everything else scored 6s and 6.5s with a handful of 7s thrown in--like for both canter lengthenings which we had been working really hard on.

He actually got a 7 for gaits on this test so who knows. This test was under the judge from the breed show the day before and everyone was complaining about how low she was scoring and how she hated thoroughbreds and on and on. I made my goal to break the 60s with her, but he cruised through with a 63 and change for another third place and the comment, "Good potentional!" 

There was nothing brilliant to write home about in either show, but again, not my goal. I will say I'm very pleased with the scoring from both judges. I felt like they were bang on for the directives of the level, and not looking for or rewarding the unnecessarily over-collected and chased around horses. It's first level. It's not supposed to be exciting!

Our score for 1-1 ended up getting us high point OTTB for first level and high point OTTB overall for Saturday's show, so well done Opie!

missing our 2nd place ribbon, but yay neck ribbons!

So overall we're calling this a success! The fact that we made it there for both days is a win in and of itself. That will be it for showing this year. I had originally planned on doing another recognized show at the end of this month, but show entries have increased so fucking much it's insane. Combine that with still shelling out money for his vet bills, and still trying to get him to 100%, it doesn't feel worth it. We'll hopefully start building up some consistency and come out next year ready to swing towards some bigger goals.