Moving up

Sure, sure, we moved up. We completed our Novice schooling debut with our usual gusto. Fiona managed to stick to her dressage score and nabbed a pretty yellow ribbon. We had a lovely gallop and I got to yell to a photographer, "My steering is sketchy, look out!" But everyone is used to my princess being a super star. That's old news.

What's really interesting is our new schooling technique, which is basically don't. Avoid warmup as much as possible. I think it's just me, since I get flustered in a crowded warm up. This time we tried a fifteen minute school to get her working, then tucking her back on the trailer for about half an hour to chill out. Then we just walked over to dressage and headed in with no warm up. It worked great, she didn't even get a chance to get wound up. I don't think she noticed the dressage until we were halfway through and we were given a 40.8. We're very close to that sub-forty score I've been trying to get!

Of course storms blew in while we were wrapping things up with our elementary riders. Being a very organized show team, we had the trailer all loaded so that when the last two came trotting over from stadium, we were able to strip their horses and throw them on the trailer.

Eventers are a fun crowd. Something about the sport just calls in fun people. We had tack off almost as fast as the riders touched the ground, trying to get everyone loaded as the thunder started to boom. Stripping horses is an art form and the team is just darn good at it. The horses didn't get a rain drop on them. The equipment, on the other hand, got some rough handling. I apologize to the teenager that was still in the dressing room when we started hurling stray equipment in and bellowing for her to get a move on. I'm sure it was quite alarming to have the door yanked open and spare shipping boots chucked in her general direction.

I indulged in a nice bottle of wine to celebrate. My girl is getting so grown up. I even joked with my trainer about how we can manage moving her to training. I sure won't be the one in the saddle for it.

I don't think my trainer thinks it's a joke.