We Went, We Sweated, We Conquered!

I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to sign up for a summer show in June in Tennessee. I know it was me but I sure would like to blame someone besides myself.

It was indeed hot as Hades. There was a breeze and some cloud cover earlier in the day in time for dressage but the humidity was so bad that I got on and promptly felt like swamp ass already. It was a LONG hot day.  And the sun came out big time by the afternoon. It was not nice. At all.

Remus had the best seat in the house since he got a stall for the day that was in a nice cool barn with fans over top of his stall. I am pretty sure he wanted to stay and not come back home.

It was so nice to put him in the stall for the day though. He was good as gold and promptly ate most of his haynet and drank all of his water (he usually does not drink when showing out of the trailer so this was worth the money). Plus there were three wash racks you could use. Unfortunately there was often a wait for a hosing spot but there it was cool in there so Remus did not mind.

Dressage was a bit uneven due to the unevenness of the ring (there was a distinctive dip in there that my friend Stephanie told me about before I went it thank goodness) and the fact that I rode him kind of crappily. I warmed up quickly (it was too hot to do much) and trotted down to the grass ring. Remus was being pretty good and listening but I just had to walk and trot in this test so knew we wouldn’t have too hard a time. But still he was a bit fussy and I was fussy back with my hands. I know we need lots of work. I was almost not going to post either videos but what the hell I am transparent. Just be gentle people! LOL

He got sidetracked on his free walk (that is never his strong suit) by the distraction of a dun quarter horse warming up to the left of the ring. He dinged a 6 on that. But most of his test was made up of 6.5 and 7s with a few 7.5. Not stellar but he felt really good at both the walk and trot. I mean we have work to do but at least we can fake it sometimes. Time to get the canter going. I was pleased with him considering I hadn’t even thought about schooling the test so we kind of just went in and winged it. And yes he is fussy and yes I look like shit but ehh it was hot as eff and we did it. Whew. We ended up with a 32.5 and in the lead (only 3 in my division) so that is an unusual situation for us. The judge was very lenient (obviously for us to score so well HA) and came up to me later saying even though Remus could be very heavy on the forehand (AKA QH so sorry can’t change that) she thought he was adorable. I actually had people walking up to me and saying how much they loved my buckskin. It cracks me up how he gathers fans wherever he goes.

Then we had a hella long wait till show jumping. They had open schooling at noon and I was like, nope not doing it. Too hot. So by the time my jump time came (they did move it up a bit so I had to hustle to tack up) I literally went into the warm up area and did a bit of trotting then cantered both ways (one way which Remus literally threw in a buck that almost unseated me, gee thanks buddy). Then off to the ring we went. At that point I was 60 percent so hot I wanted to die and 40 percent so nervous I wanted to vomit. Not a pretty combo!

The jumps look tiny in the video but onsite my first thought was WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I DO THE LOWER LEVEL?? I hadn’t done a stadium course (not once) since I left DE and even though Remus did courses up in KY still…WHAT WERE WE DOING HERE? This was my thought in the in gate. Not encouraging right? I also knew if we had a rail we would lose our lead. It was the perfect ten rails down kind of day too. HOT HOT HOT, HUMID HUMID HUMID, and Remus does not thrive in those kind of weather days. Shit. Can I scratch before trotting in? Guess not.

I took a big breath, tried not to puke and trotted in. UGH. I feel sick even writing about it.

It was NOT pretty as you will see. It was in fact awkward. I was so damn hot by the triple (which we have never done by the way EVER) I actually blanked out on where the 6 line was (I remembered) and I was like seriously so overheated, I was about to die. Pretty sure Remus felt the same.

We were clear! HOW I don’t know but whatever I will take it. If you ever want to demostrate the lack of forward to anyone ever, feel free to use this jumping video. OMG SO SLOW, so not forward. But we did not die, I did not fall off, and we were clear. I came out of the ring unable to breathe and slid off Remus before I fell off Remus.

So we won. We also won a really pretty leather halter that I need to get a photo of it, it is lined in blue (not purple, damn it!) but a great prize to win (we never won anything really before HA). I haven’t even tried it on Remus yet when I do I will get a photo of it and post it.

So as hot as it was, it was a great fun venue to ride at (with great prizes), a great, safe facility, and I loved having a stall for the day. The people were all so friendly and nice. The food was great.

While I was riding my course it was rumbling in the skies but the storms stayed away till after we loaded up and left. So all in all a good day. I think Remus and I both slept like the dead that night. SO TIRED. And what did you all do with your weekends? Was it hot as hell where you were??