Sig and I finally got to attend our first show together! And it was amazingggg!
Sig has shown a couple times over the years, but never with me thanks to me moving to Japan and a completely insane schedule here in Kentucky since my return. But last weekend we got to attend a wonderful schooling show at Any Day Now Farm, and I can't say enough about the entire experience.
Sig stepped off the trailer and despite looking around and feeling slightly unsure for the first few minutes, he settled beautifully and got right to work. No screaming, no shenanigans, just very professional and was very in tune to me. We did a cross rail class to warm up and get into the show ring to have a look around. The first round we just trotted around the course, and then came back to do a second round at the canter. Both rounds he was super, very soft and stayed in a lovely rhythm.
Then we waited around for what we really came for, the 2'6" class. During the wait Sig was happy to stand around and nap or mug the show staff for peppermints, still zero drama as we hung around and did the "hurry up and wait." Then they changed the course from crossrails to the set up for the rest of the day...and wow, did they ever break out the nice stuff!
Liverpools, unique looking gate and panels, narrow panel with holes cut out of it, very elaborate and beautiful walls...all the fill was very impressive even for me and Ashley, who jokingly dubbed it "The 2'6" Olympics." I actually began to wonder if all the fill was a bit much and debated leaving on our crossrail performance. I think Ashley was understanding of the concern because we both looked at each other like "..is this seriously a good idea?"
The two people that actually read this blog might recall this post, where I reflected on what was ultimately (and unknowingly...) my last show with Soon. We had been schooling 1.10-1.15m all summer and it was feeling comfortable, we had an excellent horse show that week, and I greedily thought we could tackle the 1.0m. It was our first real season of showing, and while Soon was super broke, he was still green in the show ring. It was an unbelievably fine line between success and disaster, and one missed distance was all it took to wreck his confidence. We had to back down to the .80m just to go in and end on a positive note.
I was super hard on myself for being greedy that day, and that haunted my decision making at the show last weekend with Sig. A 2'6" class is not big to me by any means, but I kept questioning whether that plus all the super fancy show fill (seriously, Upperville didn't have fill that impressive!) was a bit much. Sig hadn't jumped anything that fancy in a long while, he hadn't shown in probably 18 months at all, and I didn't want to rush. I've been the anti-rusher with this horse, and so far that approach with Ashley has paid off. But she was also quick to point out that if it didn't go well and he needed to school the course, this was the place to do it. The hosts/show staff were unbelievably helpful and geared everything toward developing green horses. Need a second round? Go for it. Need to ride the horse around in the ring and let them inspect each fence during the course walk? No problem.
Sig inspected the fences during the walk and seemed comfortable. After waking up in the warm up and jumping Ashley's jacket over the warm up fences (which Sig jumped super neatly and was very positive to!), we ended up just going for it. "Just go get it done!" was the last bit of advice from Ash as we walked in the first as the first to go. My mentality was just be a positive, supportive ride and get him on the other side of the fences. It was a speed class, but I rode it like a hunter round just to give him the best look at all the jumps and focus on our rhythm going around. I just wanted to make this a good experience.
HE. WAS. SPECTACULAR. You can't tell how impressive the fill was from the video, but he absolutely made it look like a hunter round. He was very positive and confident to the jumps, but not too bold. He was very soft and rideable, and that combination is such a fun feeling. He jumped the gates with lots of flower fill, the weirdly cut gates, the narrow panels, the liverpools, and was perfect in all the bending lines. He even had the best sense of humor when I forgot the inside turn to the one-stride and had to bend back to it. I was just so over the moon excited about how he went and how totally professional he was walking in there and jumping around like such a pro!
The video cuts off the last two jumps: a long approach to an oxer and then quick left turn over the narrow to finish. He was just as soft and super to those two as the rest of the course. Everyone was thrilled with him, just hanging around the ingate that morning he had earned some fans and all of us on baby horses were cheering each other on. I was smiling ear to ear so much it hurt and couldn't stop praising this kid. We hung around and watched a couple more rounds, he got stuffed full of peppermints, and then we loaded up to come home.
He also self-loads on the trailer now, by the way. That's pretty cool.
Overall I'm super excited about how relaxed and professional he was, and how happy he was to hang out and then go back to work. The whole day he just seemed super positive mentally and tuned in. I can go on, but it would be just more of the same gushing. Great day, great horse, and I can't wait for more!
