Rain: We Had Lots Of It At Blue Goose CT

OH my goodness the rain was bad.  But after dithering in the morning on whether we were going or not, we decided to go! It was drizzling but not too bad. Ahem. At that time, we figured it would not be that bad. We were wrong!

Boy we were wrong! I have never ever been so wet in my life after riding and I have ridden in quite a few events where it rained! But this took the cake.

But earlier on when I got to the barn, Remus was DIRTY after being in the mud all night in the field but luckily being dirt colored we soon took care of that. As long as I did not pat him hard no pigpen dust clouds would appear! (course it soon turned in mud pies but anyway…)

Since he was going to get very dirty trotting and cantering around a stone dust ring I shrugged and tacked him up. It was a cool 55 degrees when I got to the barn so after saddling him I tossed a sheet on him. A sheet in early September? During the day? WTF?

We got to the show grounds and I was surprised how many trailers were there. I mean we must be crazy right?? It was not too bad for dressage. But by jumping, it was pouring.

First thing first, I had my Zaldi on and had not worn full seat breeches due to the rain. Um. MISTAKE! Saddle is  so slippery I forgot. I was a bit nervous in warm up as I was scared I was going to fall right out of the saddle. HA. Luckily by the time we jumped the rain was so bad I had no problem staying in the saddle, I was stuck to it!

Remus was lazy in dressage. (it was 50 degrees plus and raining, horses were leaping sideways and my guy…was plodding LOL I love him but still…). The best thing of all (cause the score sure wasn’t the best) was there was a photographer there. Bless her cold, soaked heart (Annie Duncan Photography)she stood out in that horrible horrible weather all day long and took photos and got some good ones of REMUS in DRESSAGE I about fell out when I viewed them on her site yesterday. I have no photos of his flat work really. There are some good ones and some crappy ones but I will be buying some and posting later. SO excited.

Remus was very good in dressage. A bit plodding as mentioned but he def held a frame for a while and even when not, he was not horrible. He got a 40. Which I think was not fair all all but we are going to just breeze right by that part. He did not deserve mostly 5s and 6s as you will see when you see the lovely photos (anticipation, right??). He was not brilliant but from getting under 30 at Fair Hill in July, this test was better than that one. Sigh.

Then we went and got his breastplate on etc. And the rain kind of started a bit but was just drizzling. I had to put a vest on I was FREEZING. We walked up (just Tanya and me at first) and did our schooling. Remus was not jumping the best and I was actually thinking of pulling him. But then I did a few more and figured eh we were already wet.

We had to wait quite a while to jump due to the schooling schedule there. OMG it was POURING by then. Remus literally crab walked sideways to turn his butt to the ring cause that was where the wind and rain was blowing in from. Poor horse. We watched a few rounds cause the course was not posted down there but up at the secretary booth so I had trouble comprehending where we were going. Tanya went first and had a couple refusals (Bad Moo) but did not get elimnated! YAY. And Moo jumped the moon when he jumped correctly! Then it was our turn.

Guys, I was freezing (my teeth were chattering), I was soaked. Remus was soaked (He is NOT a fan of rain). And damn if my pony didn’t go out there and jump everything in the rain. Clean!! (of course we had that pesky score in dressage but at least we finished on it right?). The photos don’t even show how hard the rain was at the time (when I post them you will think I am kidding it was not raining) but at one line, it was coming down so hard I just shut my eyes and let Remus jump it, the rain was all in my eyes and I could not even see the jump.  Fun times right? I am getting chilled typing this up thinking about how cold I was. HA.

We had to wait forever for scores but imagine my surprise when I went to get my dressage score sheet (I still didn’t know at the time that I was had such a dismal score) and she couldn’t find it and kept looking and I saw the red ribbon and said is it that? IT WAS. WE got second. HOW I don’t know but damn if I didn’t grab both ribbons and run.  I have to think that some of the people who were in my group had bad jumping rounds and I moved up that way cause it sure wasn’t on my dressage score!

I literally tore the tack off Remus and threw him in the trailer in the rain before getting our ribbons. I think he may have trotted up the ramp he was so ready to get into the warm trailer. Took him home and it was STILL pouring so I literally took him off, put a dry sheet on him in his stall, made sure he had hay and parked the trailer. All my wet stuff was still in my truck so I just took it all home with me. My half pad was full of water, my boots were completely soaked through, my OneK helmet was soaked, it took 3 whole days to dry everything out. What a monsoon!!

But we went, we conquered, and when I got home I took a 30 minute hot shower to warm up!  I am pretty sure my husband thinks I am nuts. I am such a wimp I can’t figure out why I do this stuff in the rain sometimes. LOL Just hardheaded I guess….