I’m finally getting around to updating the results from our first “regular season show” of the year. Normally we travel to Monroe, WA for the WSHJA Spring Nationals show. But the cancellation of all upper level jumpers meant that we had to go a bit further and expand our Thunderbird schedule for the year. This meant a bit of scrambling when I didn’t research Coggins documents thoroughly enough, and found (at the 11th hour) that international Coggins reports are not sufficient for crossing the US/Canada border. Yikes! But my fabulous vet got everything sorted out just in time for our trek north.
We had 4 horses in tow – Billy and Cassie from the regular show crew, and Clinton and Evita representing the sales horses.
This was a big step for the young horses. Both horses were newly under saddle when they came over from Germany. Clinton is such a clear-minded and simple horse that we took him around the schooling rounds in Thermal. But this would be his first time walking into the show ring with the intent of doing a full course and all of the requisite pressures of showing. Evita was scheduled to walk into the 0.75m jumpers, which was also a big step. From her first days here it’s been clear that she is wickedly smart and a very sensitive horse. This is not always the easiest combination to work with in a young horse because of the worry of pushing the horse too hard resulting in a meltdown (or even worse – instilling fear). We had been careful with her in Thermal, and only jumped her in the schooling rings over plain white rail fences. She’d shown bravery over spooky fences at home, but thanks to an abscess that had her out for the week and a half leading up to the show, even that experience was super limited. I had a range of plans for her based on the hundred reactions she could have had with no way to predict which direction she would go.
Starting with the “big” horses – Billy was super all week with only 4 faults across the entire week of showing. Unfortunately his rail was in the Grand Prix, but he still picked up a 6th place in good company along with his High AO Jumper Championship.
Cassie was equally good, picking up the Medium AO Jumper Championship and the win in her AO Jumper Stake class.
But the babies were the big stories of the week.
We hauled in on schooling day, coinciding with thundershowers and lots of rain. Evita was out first, and aside from a few dicey moments when thunder rolled through (which terrified me, but didn’t seem to bother her in the least), things were pretty calm. We headed down to the jumper ring and so began her introduction to the show world. I missed the 0.75m schooling and walked into an arena of 0.90m fences. I had a terrific helper with me who walked into the ring and set the top rails down for our first approaches. But by the end of schooling that day she was cantering around short segments of 0.90m courses.
That’s pretty spectacular considering her limited time under saddle and her utter inexperience jumping anything other than the jumps at home! She continued to impress through the week, culminating in some lovely clean rounds in the 0.75m jumpers (one of the videos is on her sales horse page). I had a major stretch goal of getting her into the Tbird age classes (which are slightly lower than the corresponding YJC levels – so her 5yo age group will be set at 1.10m) by the end of the year. But this show gave me a little more insight into the workings of her mind. What I had initially pegged as anxiety, I now see is just her process of working out what’s expected of her. Knowing how clever she is, I’m now working towards debuting her in the Tbird 5yo class in May. Not sure if we’ll make it quite to that point, but I’m certain that she will be ready for the class by the time the June/July show rolls around! The hardest part for Evita is keeping her attention IN the arena. She’s so attentive to everything around her and spends more time focusing on things outside of the ring than in. The jumps in the ring were never even the slightest concern in her mind. Ultimately this will be a non-issue, but is likely to be the reason why I may not push her to the age classes this month.
Clinton was up next, though I was less uncertain about how he would perform. He’s been so solid from the day he arrived, and he was in no mood to change my opinion. My helper was running short on time on schooling day, and so despite having had the prior two days off, I pulled him out of the stall without any prep (no lunge, no walk around the grounds, only 2 hours after arrival on the new-to-him showgrounds) and we set off in the driving rain to walk into the baby hunter schooling ring. He was a bit perturbed by the large quantities of water throughout the arena, but quickly figured out that the water and sand splashing his stomach was something he would have to deal with. He spent that day (and the rest of the week) splashing through the puddles like a toddler in rain boots! At one point he pulled me straight into a puddle as we trotted around the ring in a flat class. Not going to lie – I laughed out loud as he splashed his way through the water. Boy what an attribute in the rainy NW! In addition to learning about puddles on schooling day, he jumped around the entire course without so much as a peek at any of the jumps, and also offered up flying changes whenever necessary. Wow, what a brain on this horse! I hacked him in the other two hunter rings as well and he was just as cool and confident in those rings as well. So it was no surprise when he walked into his first hunter rounds the next day and performed like a horse beyond his years. He still had a couple of baby moments; he broke to the trot as we cantered to fence one in one of our hunter rounds (see video below), and then did the same as we cantered around in his first flat class (note to self – you have to remember to keep your leg on the young horses, lol!).
But to have a 4yo who stays *that* relaxed under stressful circumstances is absolutely incredible! He was so good, in fact, that I allowed a friend to show him in the Long Stirrup Hunters over the weekend. She was nervous and he took care of her like a horse many years his senior. I cannot state it enough – this horse is absolutely incredible!
The end result of the show was a boatload of ribbons and 4 horses who walked out of the show better horses than they walked in (well, maybe 3 horses, since Billy is a pretty constant performer in his 16th year on this planet!). I couldn’t have been happier with the crew, and I cannot wait for the first big show of the year when we head back up to Tbird for the Canadian Premiere and BC Open shows.