Sayre School CT

Last Saturday I took Marcus to the Sayre School Horse Show at Masterson Station Park. This is one of my favorite schooling shows of the year and we lucked out that the weather was perfect.

I had originally thought about sending both ponies, but with a wedding that night and one pony that doesn’t stand on the trailer alone super well, I decided to leave Frankie at home and focus on Marcus. I entered the Novice CT (gulp), but when a friend’s horse came up lame after the CD, she transferred her entry to me and we entered BN as well.

Our BN test was pretty good! He was consistent and happy-we even got a 9.0 on our halt! Stadium was easy and we rode it like a nice equitation round to end up FODS of 30.5 and land a 4th place out of 10. Not bad at all!

When husbands get bored and start snapchatting your rides

Our N test also went pretty well- I was nervous as it was the first time riding that particular test, but aside from a few bobbles, it was steady, accurate and consistent. The judge told me Marcus was “super cute” but a “turkey sometimes” which I don’t disagree with at all 🙂 We scored a 30.4 to sit in 7th out of 14.

Stadium was a bit more challenging. We schooled Wednesday and he jumped around great (even did our first triple bar) and I felt like we were ready to move up, but Julie wasn’t there and when I walked the course the oxers looked huge for some reason.

I suffer from almost debilitating show nerves and I am not really sure why though I think most of it stems from a fear of messing up. I started to warm up, and pulled up and sat on Marcus crying saying I couldn’t do it. Thank goodness for friends who talk some sense into you-Vicki told me to a) take the pressure off-its a move up, so who cares if we have a rail or a stop and b)to go ride it like it was BN. I wasn’t quite convinced so she then told me walk in, jump the first fence and if I’m not feeling it, walk out.

So I walked in, sat my butt in the saddle and put my leg on and my pony took care of me. It is amazing how much easier our stadium trips are now that I am learning to sit and get him up. They are not perfect, but they are progress.

(Ignore the untucked shirt-I lost some weight and my breeches are a bit big. And I was too busy melting down to check my tails before I walked in)

 

We ended up jumping clean to move up to 3rd. I was thrilled!!