Gracie the Show Horse!

It's official, Gracie is a show horse. The horse gods smiled down on us yesterday, and Gracie did beautifully.

The morning started at about 5:15 am, when I arrived at the barn and woke up the poor mare. She looked at me like "what on earth are YOU doing here?" After a little coaxing, she did get up, we walked out to the arena where we picked her hooves and then lunged for a bit just to get her up and limber, and to get out any energy she might have. She was attentive, but not too hot. We went back to the stall to wait for the trailer to come into the arena. When I brought her back out, she spooked at the sight of the trailer, and realized what was about to go down. Surprisingly, it took only ten minutes to load her (our trainer is awesome.) Her barn mates then loaded and off we went.

She acclimated pretty quickly to the show grounds...there was just so much to look at, she couldn't really decide what to spook at, so she didn't. Her stall was next to her barn mate, which seemed to help her out, and she ate and had water as normal. After a few hours of waiting, it was warm up time.

Out in the arena, she was lunged and had no spooking or kicking. She just seemed ready to work. We saddled up and started our warm up. She was scared...the show arena was open at that time for warm ups and had a lot of horses in it. She wasn't sure of the arena, especially with the hot heater blowers going in the corner. We stayed away from that corner and continued to focus, and she started to work.

We headed back to the warm up arena, which was like a carousel. About 25 horses warming up together in a too small of space. She didnt like to be crowded and kept stopping and backing up. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to do what I wanted her too. During this time I heard my name over the load speaker..how was I late to a class???!!! A few classes had no entries and mine started early. Thank goodness for calm trainers, I was almost in panic mode, on a panicky horse. Lovely combo.

We got to our class, and entered the ring. It was as if a transformation happened...the hyper, spooky TB turned into a well polished show horse. She just knew somehow it was time to pay attention and do her best. It was a walk only eq class, so I was feeling calm as well, and we took second place. If she had backed up straight, we would have won it.

Our second class went the same, taking second, and only because my arms were too stiff and I had a strong hold on the reins (waiting for a spook.) Sorry Gracie.

Our third class my nerves were on edge. The class was large, and it was a walk/ trot eq class, where I was expecting chaos. She collected instantly, was responsive and calm, but very alert. I could feel us working together well as a team, and I was able to ride confidently. As we lined up at the judge, I was so proud of her. She had done her best and no matter where we placed, I knew she had looked awesome. As they read the placings, I got confused. Why had they not called our number? Did they not mark us down as having entered the class? We got down to second place, with just three horses left, and I realized we must have come in last. No problem, we still did a great job. When they called our number for first place, I almost fell out of my saddle. We got FIRST?! I started tearing up...this was the horse that I had so many doubts with, had struggled with for the last month, and was sure was going to spook every chance she got. My cheer squad was on the sidelines clapping, and our trainer was beaming. I am so proud of this horse!

Looking forward to our next show :)