Banana's First Event

Late Thursday morning my partner-in-crime and I loaded the horses, picked up her daughter at school and headed out to Flagstaff. We had our usual, "Thank freaking goodness we don't live on the Navajo Res" conversations and sang along to ABBA.

Yeah, sorta not the most pleasant place to call home.

Her daughter was in the back of the truck wishing she didn't know us. We got to Flagstaff in the correct number of hours (6) and were unloaded and set up before the sun set. Banana happily munched on the hay in her stall and wasn't pacing.

Friday morning we did a stadium schooling round. Banana did a lot of "What the heck?!" as we went around the course. Colored jumps! Oxers! I had to really ride. One we did end up circling, but otherwise all was well. After that we schooled XC. Thank goodness they have that option for pre-comp. It just sets a greenie up for a better chance of success.

We went to the water jump and she put one foot in and drank. And drank. And drank. I'm pretty sure she lowered the water level by a couple of inches. We did eventually get in. Then left, then went back in. Good first experience. Afterwards it was bath time and some quality stall hanging time.

Saturday we didn't have Dressage until 2:59. So, I braided! It only took me half an hour to get the first braid done as I had to ponder what style we were doing. She was tolerant and my speed increased after the first.

Ah, sewn in button braids how I love you.

So, dressage. We got to warmup and she some "What the heck?!" moments. She was listening to my aids, so I wasn't worried, but it's always nicer when she'll stand still on the buckle. The ring steward gave her some scritches and she relaxed and stood still.

I was quite pleased with our ride. It wasn't perfect of course, and we still have a lot to work on. We got a 7 on one of our trot circles. But, when I finish and have tears in my eyes because I love riding my horse so much there's just nothing awesomer.

We look like a real dressage pair in this pic

We got a 44.5 which put us in 2nd place! Unheard of for me and I was giddy. The Pre-Comp scores were really close. 1st had a 42, 6th had a 49. We all had a chance of winning.

Naners enjoys her post-dressage snack

Sunday morning: chilly as a cold front was moving into Flagstaff. Jump judge meeting at 7 am. But...

Best Volunteer Raffle Prize Ever! I won a free entry for next year. And, I got to sit in a meadow and watch people jump.

After jump judging prelim and training back to the barn I went and soon Stadium and XC.

Things were going well, then fence 6... no ground line, scary filler that had just been pushed to the sides of the jump. We pulled a rail. Then she jumped the next one really big

Then off to XC! Where we got around everything and within time. However...

You wouldn't think that jump would cause her to stop dead 20 feet out, but it did. She wanted nothing to do with it. I had to use my crop! She never stepped back though, so no refusal. I think her attention was on the other jump, not our little stick.

When the scores were posted we were in 2nd! Alas, they'd forgotten to put my rail in. So, I informed them of the mis-scoring and got pushed down to 3rd. Oh well. They were nice enough to give me a 2nd place saddle pad for good sportsmanship though. I really didn't want the 3rd place rope halter because I have zero use for one.

And that is the tale of Banana's first event. Where she got a banana yellow ribbon.