So that dressage show

I never did tell the tale of the dressage show.

As show secretary I schedule the ride times. This can be exasperating, but generally there will be one thing that will make it all work. This time it was starting the show at 9:30 instead of 9. That put a judge's break during a lunch appropriate time, instead of at 10:30 or 1:00. Since our venue was a further drive for most participants this was welcomed. I didn't have to load in the dark! As it was, Quirky and Naners had the air up their tails and were bucking and running around their corrals. The difficult part of the morning was catching them. Naners ran her hip into her stall door while trying to elude me. Horses.

Loaded up we headed down the driveway, Red chasing the trailer as he does (How dare I take his girlfriend away!) We headed south into the desert to the Taskmaster's, as that's where the show was being held. My tack room was doubling as show office, so I got a choice spot next to the arena.

Quirky and I were the first ride of the day. I would sum up the ride as just fine. Intro B: mostly 6's, two 5's, and two 7's on our center lines and halts. A 7 for Impulsion and a 7 for Geometry and Accuracy. I love that geometry score. Since I started doing dressage I would frequently get "accurate test" as a comment. I didn't realize until recently how good a comment that is. 59.325% We could have done better, but that's fine.

Then I tacked up Naners. We were the last rides before the judge's break and the switch to the standard arena. BN A was a mixture of 5's, 6's and 7's, the 7's on our canters (she does have a fabulous canter) and our final center line and halt. Also a 7 on gaits, which doesn't surprise me. Mare has nice gaits.

BNB was mostly the same, though with a quite notable 8 on our trot half circle right from B to X. 40 on BN A, 39 on BN B. I was quite happy with the mare.

Quirky was very unhappy that she had left him. He was carrying on at the trailer most of the time we were gone. I could see how his mom says he's "suicidal" when tied to a trailer. He did a lot of little rears. He wasn't quite suicidal though.

The two of them stood eating their hay at the trailer the rest of the day. I could tell near the end Quirky really wanted the day to be over. I don't blame him. When the last tests were added and trailers were pulling out I loaded the show office back into the tack room and then loaded Little Mini Man. The top of his butt was shorter than my dividers. I prayed he'd stay in his spot in the front of the slant and wouldn't infringe on Quirky's space in the next spot.

Everyone loaded we set off for home. First time I've had three beasties in my trailer. I kept a good part of my awareness on what was going on in back, but there was no evidence of unhappiness and everyone was good when we unloaded.

I really love my local shows. As I stood there I realized I've become friends with everyone who competed, so it really was like a show full of friends. Spending a day with horses and friends is always a good time.