6th place!

Last weekend I showed my horseless horse coach’s horse, DC, at a local 4h show. I entered one class, Intro A dressage test. It’s the same one I did at the State Hunter & Dressage Show a few weeks ago. Thankfully DC wasn’t as antsy as he was at that show and my score improved by 3% and I got 6th place, which came with a two dollar gift certificate to a local tack shop, as well as a ribbon. 🙂 I don’t know how many people did the Intro A test but I was really happy to get a ribbon.

We were going to see the Harry Potter movie that day but my dressage time was scheduled for 2pm, when the movie ended. So I stayed at the fairgrounds and they went to go see the movie. It was fine, I actually don’t mind spending all day at a horse show. I like hanging out with horsey people.

Here is DC after he was finished showing for the day.

I got 53.1% which is better than the 50.63% I got at the last show. If the walk and trot had been faster and more forward, my score would have been higher, according to the score card. Also, I liked the bit the judge wrote on the score card – “Capable pair!”

It was a fun day even though I didn’t get to see the Harry Potter movie (and still haven’t seen it). I even made a Ravenclaw friendship bracelet that I was going to wear when I saw the movie. This is the best friendship bracelet I ever made.

My first trophy!

On June 18th I was in a local 4-H horse show. I showed my horseless horse coach’s horse DC in Horseless Horse Groom (HHG) Hunt Showmanship and HHG Hunt Walk/Trot Equitation. In Showmanship (which I always think is kind of a crapshoot because you don’t know if the horse is going to behave and trot for you when you get in the ring) DC did not trot so I didn’t get a ribbon. However, in the Equitation class, I must have done pretty well because I got 1st place out of 8 people! It was my first 1st place in a riding class. I was expecting to get a blue ribbon but then I went up to the ribbon people and I got a trophy! I was really happy because this is my last year in 4-H so it was my last chance to show at the June Show and to get a trophy was amazing. 🙂

My coach and I waiting for my turn in showmanship.

I got DC to stand fairly square for the judge.

Trotting during the equitation class.

More trotting.

Me after the class with my trophy.Then the weekend after that was the State 4-H Hunter & Dressage Show. I did my first dressage test ever at this show on DC. He was being really antsy and not at all calm as he was at the June Show. While I was trotting around on him before my test, he tried to canter a few times on me and then he even did a little buck. I stayed on him, though.

I did the Intro A dressage test went pretty good, because he was being very sensitive and antsy and I felt like if I tried to get him into a proper working trot he would have starting cantering or something. Usually he is very calm but at this show he was definitely not.

I got 50.6% on my dressage test which isn’t too bad considering the state that DC was in. I didn’t mess up on the dressage pattern which was good. I had to memorize it, but it wasn’t that hard to memorize.

I’m just glad he didn’t do anything crazy while I was in the ring.

Trotting during the dressage test.

In other news, I finished my Nemesis socks on Wednesday and I started a pair of Fiddlehead Mittens! I was so mad because I had to rip back half the foot and the gusset and the heel flap because I made a tiny mistake BEFORE the heel flap that couldn’t have been fixed without frogging. But it didn’t take THAT long to reknit.

I am knitting my Fiddlehead mittens in Cascade 220 in dark grey (the same color I used for my Central Park Hoodie) and butter yellow, and the lining will be purple baby alpaca. It’s been going pretty well so far except I started on size 3’s and had to frog it because it was turning out half an inch or more too large. I restarted on size 2 needles and it’s going well. The pattern looks nice but I don’t have pictures. Honestly I’ve been so busy doing other things that I haven’t had a chance to blog about my horse shows until now.

Our garden is flourishing. We have a tiny pepper growing on our pepper plant and our lettuce THOROUGHLY enjoyed the stretch of cool weather we had in June and it was HUGE. I think next year I will plant a square of lettuce every two weeks instead of all at once because we didn’t really eat it before it got bitter but we have a more manageable amount of lettuce now.