Reserve Champion!

I took Kylie to a show Saturday and she was super! I had to get up at 3:45am to pick her up and haul her over to the show. It was early, but nice and cool since the sun wasn't up yet. She warmed up great, nice and relaxed, jumping good and solid. She was responsive, but not overly sensitive. She can be a tricky ride sometimes, but today she decided to play nice. My first two classes were equitation over fences. First course was good, except there were some monsters that appeared at the far end of the ring and she got a bit distracted for a few moments. It didn't effect any of my fences thankfully, but I felt her tense up until I got her attention back. I really wish they could speak, because sometimes she sees things that really freak her out and I can't understand why. My trainer and I have come to the conclusion that Kylie hears voices in her head. Some days she acts like the perfectly trained horse that she is, easy to ride, and super fun. Other days, that marble in her head comes loose and she is a lunatic. She thinks everything is out the get her...chairs, poles on the ground, standards, anything and everything is scary to her. It is like a roll of the dice when we go to a show weather or not she is in the right state of mind. Luckily today she was. So the second equitation over fences class I was headed down a line that in the prior class we only jumped the fence going into the line, and she anticipated that we were going to turn out again, so we had a stride where she thought we were doing the same thing and I had to tell her to continue down the line. We made it down the line ok, but I'm sure it looked a bit distracting. We ended up second in both equitation classes, which I was very pleased with. Even thought I decided not to do the flat class of the division, I ended up Reserve Champion. Yippee! My third class was the USEF medal class, I jumped into the one stride a bit deep, but not horrible, and then there was a rollback to a drop rail to a bending seven strides and I thought the turn was a bit blind and going to catch Kylie off guard, so I over rode it a little bit. I got the correct amount of strides everywhere, but the last bending line I should have relaxed into her more. She goes way better if you sit back and leave your arm out in front of you. She feels more insecure if you are in a half seat and tends to shift around which makes it nearly impossible to keep her straight and find a good distance. In the last class it all came together. It felt rhythmical, and every single jump was perfectly out of stride. I fixed the bending line from the previous class because it was also in my last class. I couldn't have been happier with my course. I had a huge smile on my face as I landed off the last fence and gave Kylie a big pat on the neck. It was a perfect way to end the day. Did I mention it was almost 100 degrees? A very hot day to have to wear a hunt coat! My friend videos taped my first two rounds which I will try and post when I get them.

Kylie's barn-mates, Robbie and Luca, waiting for their classes.

Cool golf cart

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