My Sassypants mare and I finished our first year of showing dressage, and it went better than I could've ever imagined!
We showed intro level last year, doing the walk trot tests since our canter was so weak at the beginning of the year. Our first show was in April. I was so terrified that it was going to be an utter disaster, but I told myself going in that my expectation was only to not die. As long as there were no mortal injuries, I would count that as a success. Since the arena where the show would be held is so close to where she boards, I was able to take her through the tests after they set up the dressage arena for the show, which was a blessing because we were able to get the meltdowns over the night before the actual show.
The list of things that Big Mama was terrified of that night included:
The letters
The white chain
The judge's tent (DEAR CHRIST, MOM, DO YOU SEE THAT PONY EATING TENT?!?!?!)
The table under the tent
and finally, to top it all off, a circle in the sand leftover from where a barrel stood in the arena. -_-
Yes, Big Mama, leaped ever so gracefully over the scary, scary dirt circle.
Needless to say, by the next day I was kind of a wreck about how it would go once we also included people, dogs, small children, other horses...
To my complete amazement, once we entered the ring for our final warm-up, an absolutely incredible thing happened. She took a long look at all the people and horses looking at her. She was center stage! Suddenly the only thing in her head was all the attention, and a confident sassiness came out in her that I hadn't seen in her before. She was a star! Her adoring fans were finally able to see her for what she was, a beautiful, fancy, black princess!
She puffed up and trotted through her tests like they had been written just for her. When she halted at x at then end of the test, you could just feel how proud she was of herself.
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| Big Mama being so fancy! |
I was really hoping that we might've pulled off some scores in the high 50s if we were lucky. When the scores were posted, however, I nearly fell right off my horse. She had earned a 70.625 and a 73.75!!! We won high point in our very first show!!!
I was on a high like I couldn't even imagine for the next couple of weeks. I couldn't believe how well she did. The most exciting part though, was that she did even better in our next show, scoring a 78 and an 81!!
Also over the summer, I trailered her out to her first overnight clinic, and her first off property show, but I will save those for another post because they were experiences all their own.
Right now, we are gearing up for moving to training level. I am so excited with how far Miss Thang has come!!
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