Rain, rain, go away – in the mud we will play!

Sunday we were schedule to have a horse show. It was a rain date for a previous show that had to be cancelled due to the conditions. Lately it seems like it has rained daily here and of course Sat. night/Sunday morning we got another 2”+ and the arena was a mess. The show didn’t start until 2:00 but we had to let the judge know by 10:00 if we were going to have the show. We decided “what the heck” and held the show.



I showed up early to ride Lu around. She doesn’t much care for mud or puddles but she did well. DH and the boys stayed home so I was able to focus a bit more on her and not worry about other things. Surprisingly people started funneling in by the trailer load. They were thrilled we were having our show because “no one else in the state of Iowa is having one today because of the mud”. LOL

There were a lot of “higher end” show horses there and kids trying to get practice in before fair. It was nice to have some new blood there. I decided to take Lu in w/t, Jr. horse wp, and wp. We haven’t “shown” since last year due to her arena anxiety issues. I don’t remember how I placed as I wasn’t too worried about placing. In w/t she was perfect (for me)! She was soft, cadenced and not nervous! “Technically” she had an illegal headset (below the withers and behind the vertical) but then technically I shouldn’t have snaps on my reins either - I didn’t care. I’m pretty sure we placed 2nd out of 4 in this class.

In Jr. horse she did well again. I chuckled because on her good direction (counterclockwise) she picked up the wrong lead but I quickly corrected her but going her bad direction (clockwise) she hit the lead perfectly! Again we were behind the vertical or below legal and a bit too fast at the canter but she did well. I think we placed 3rd out of 5 in this class.

WP wasn’t quiet as good. She missed her bad lead 3 times right in front of the judge but did hit her good one. We placed last in this class but I was still thrilled with her performance. She stood in the line up (no turrets or fidgeting), no nickering, she wasn’t sweating like I’d ridden her hard in 100* weather for 8 hrs. Outside of the ring she stood quietly and calmly as well. It is like the beginning of a new horse!

One thing I did notice – I had my little bump spurs on and switched to my longer rowels spurs. She immediately became a pissy pony so I went in w/o spurs. She has some serious spur resentment so I’m going to have to watch that a bit. I wish I could have gotten some video or pictures but I was just happy riding!