Another Show Report

My trainer, CG, talked me into registering for the April Fools Dressage Schooling Show at Summervale. And by "talked me into it" I mean strongly suggested / strong armed me into it. Haha I had planned on skipping a month and recharge from our Donida episode, but since Summervale only hosts 3 schooling shows per year, I really did think it was a good idea to go.

Since I decided to register only 3 days before the show, I had my work cut out for me to get ready in time. First on my list was to groom, groom, groom and groom some more. Gryfon loves to roll in the mud every chance he gets...

I looked at the weather and saw it was going to be storming, windy and cold, similar to the Donida Show weather. Thursday I did a short training ride with him in the wind and purposely rode by all the moving things by my arena. He did very well. I spent all of Friday evening grooming him. 

Saturday we showed up at Summervale and Gryfon was quite nervous. I got there in plenty of time to walk him around and let him "eyeball the area." My friend SI came with me and was a huge help running to get things I needed, holding things out of the mud, and taking fabulous pictures!

After a couple hours of walking him around, it was time to tack up. SI suggested we use the merlot color combination and I think we look stunning!

In the warm up arena, both Gryfon and I were very nervous and just kept feeding off of each other. After about 30 minutes, I asked CG to hop on and do her magic. She was able to calm him down and get him listening. I got back on and felt much better.

Once it was our turn in the show ring, the heavens opened and rain and hail began pouring and pelting us. CG walked us into the show ring. I'm not going to lie, it was miserable. Hail was hitting me and Geyfon in the face, I was soaked through and freezing. I think that distracted me enough to ride quite well. I was able to get out of my own head about it and just ride. Obviously this worked for me!

I got first place in my class and scored a 67%! Not gonna lie, I am thrilled with our effort! We took a few minutes to walk around and then went back to the warm up arena to prepare for our next class, Intro B. Now, full disclosure, I only entered this class because I was not going to haul to the show and only enter 1 class....I read through the pattern the night before, but hadn't practiced it one little bit. I was sorely unprepared. 

CG did her best to review the test with me, and was an excellent caller for both tests. I listened as well as I could and focused on visualizing my test.

As expected I did not do as well as my first test, but I did earn a 3rd place ribbon and a score of 63%! 

All in all it was a wildly successful show. My trainer was amazing and so supportive. The next show is May 6th. I plan on going, and competing in the same classes. CG will not be attending that show, but I feel she set us up for success and it will be a great show. This time I will practice for both tests!