Show 2- Complete.

This weekend, Sawyer and I had our second show. This past week, I had 2 exams, 2 quizzes (I think?), the flu, and still managed to squeeze in a body clip and the grand total of 2 rides on Sawyer before this show.

This champ slept through the entire body clip.

The second ride was my lesson/schooling day before the show, and let me tell you, it was a HOT MESS. I'm a bit of a wreck in the schooling ring anyway, and Sawyer, who is usually steady-Eddy, picked up on my nerves so we were discombobulated. Adding to that were kids on ponies, ignoring me calling jump lines (I'm on a 17hh grey horse... HOW CAN YOU MISS ME?) and not following solid schooling etiquette. But that's fine, kids are excited, I get it.

 However, their TRAINER also stood in the middle of a line, ignoring me calling it multiple times, so my instructor and I just called it quits before I turned that schooling ring into Grand Theft Hunters and started running over kids and trainers alike.

Day 1: I was told to come out around 8:30-9 am and get a frantic text from trainer saying I need to get to the barn ASAP around 8:00 am. Get out, throw all the tack onto my horse in a frenzy, school, and.. proceed to sit for 2 hours. Overall, I was really happy with our courses. Sawyer was not happy about the puddle in the middle of the ring, so we did not place in any over fences classes. We got 5th out of 8 in our flat class (placing beneath a girl who's horse refused to canter and almost kicked Sawyer in the process of throwing a tantrum??). I was a little bitter about the placings; the girl rode naughty horse very well, but I'm still not sure why the judge thought kicking and bucking is better than maintaining all 3 gaits. So boo to you, judge, but excellent handling of a pissy horse, unknown girl!

I'm not gonna bore you with videos, but here are some beautiful pictures of Sawyer taken by my barnmate, E.

Obviously need to work on getting that lower leg tighter.

Day 2: They swapped judges from the "big ring" and the "small ring" (yay! Redemption!). Our over fences went alright in my opinion. A couple weird spots here and there, but overall, pretty consistent. We got a 3rd out of 7 or 8 in one over fences class (progress!). Our flat class was a disaster in my opinion; lots of head tossing in the corner because Sawyer didn't want to walk, wanted to anticipate, and canter all the things, but we somehow managed to snag a 4th out of 7.

Here's the flat class if you're into that.

The over fences class. So proud of him!

Overall, super pleased with Sawyer this weekend. I find myself getting frustrated with placings, but I have to keep telling myself this is my second show in years, and I'm riding an entirely different horse in a different discipline. It's great though to see Sawyer's progress from no ribbons, to 1 ribbon, to 2 ribbons. One of my goals is to get a division Reserve or Champion ribbon by the end of the summer, so we will see!

- K & C & S