Showing? Perhaps not......

OK, so we decided to go to a show. With the horses. As it was at the only venue we can usefully hack to, Tumpy green. Mentioned to Loraine that Ali was doing a showing class with Sky, yes that's right, Sky, the one that has looked like this all winter......

...and she said she could show us a few tricks. So the other day, we brought Sky in and Loraine showed us how to get the dirt out without having to wash her, and how to strap her and even brush the grease out using meths! Then she got the clippers out and trimmed her feathers and after that, she looked a bit different.....

So this morning off we went to the show. Lots of faffing, plaiting, polishing, cursing and stressing (by my daughter) later, we were ready to go. I got straight into the dressage arena as the people due to go before us weren't there. I thought the test went quite well, I didn't forget it for a start, and G seemed his usual self, but it turned out we only got 55% and there was a lot of "needs more impulsion" on the score sheet. Ah well, guess he can't cover the ground like the big shiny long-legged horses can........

 

Then on an impulse (because the jumps were tiny) we did the clear round jumping and got a rosette!

 

Ali did that too (her rosette was pink, much to her disgust), then it was off to Sky's showing class. And this is where it went a bit wrong......Sky was OK at first when they were all going round the ring together....

...but when it came to the waiting around whilst everyone does their individual show bit, I could see her fidgeting about. Clearly she didn't see why she should stand and do nothing when there was all that nice grass just waiting to be eaten. And she was getting more and more annoyed that she wasn't allowed any. The fidgeting turned into foot stamping, then a little buck and finally, she actually threw her toys out of the pram and reared, so poor Ali made an unscheduled dismount. They left the ring sharpish before they got chucked out!! Perhaps showing isn't for her, then. I do hope not, all the cleaning and poncing about is far too much like hard work.......

 

Ali seemed none the  worse for wear after her tumble and insisted on doing her 2' jumping class. Didn't want Sky thinking she could chuck her off and do no more work, for a start. There was a bit of an argument at the beginning of the round but Ali insisted and she went clear in the first round but had 2 down in the jump off.

But then Ali's ankle started hurting so I took her to the medic on duty (yes, they have those here!) and he strapped it up for her. So she had to get a lift back, I rode G and led Sky home and now we're back I'm making Ali a cake :-)

G of course, was perfectly behaved all day. Love that big old horsie......

Another soggy CSO

Another SJ comp today, another soaking...... :roll:

It had rained all night, it rained all morning, we were very careful where we parked the horseybego as we wanted to be able to get it out of there again, even got shouted at by an irate little Frenchman for being in the way of his chemin (we weren't).

The arena was waterlogged and the sand was very deep, so the horses were not impressed. In the first class, a 50cm preparatoire (clear round class) Polo decided he really didn't want to jump at all and Ali did what has to be the slowest round I've ever seen but she was clear for the first time ever so she got a rosette and was happy.

Then the second class was a club 4 vitesse, there was nothing speedy about that either, Hollie did really well to get Polo round after he put in a few more stops, and Ali just had one down. So she was second and Hollie third. The winner was an adult, so I reckon they did pretty well.......

Got a vid of Ali's second class, you can see how wet it was! And how Fina wanted to get out of there every time she headed to the gate......

Some of the other competitors didn't take things steady at all and a fair few ended up with a lot of that sand decorating their clothes having come off, as did poor Elodie on Peter who hit the deck when he put a stop in....and one poor girl came off and was out cold when her horse spooked at something, so the pompiers were called. Don't really understand why the French always have a bloke with a dodgy disco at their shows but no medical staff on stand by...... :|

More pics here and Tanya took a load with her posh camera, so hopefully more to follow.......