A great start to the jumper season:D

I can't even put into words how glad I am that I put Bella in the jumpers at this show. It's definitely where both of us belong these days.

So at about 10pm last night, I discovered that they switched the days. Adults and jumpers were Saturday, and juniors were Sunday. Go figure. So I had to rush to my dad and inform him that Bella was going today, instead of the Green Bean (as Patrick is now being affectionately referred to as). Thankfully I jumped Bella a little bit yesterday, so she was prepared.

So this year I opted to stick her in the 3'0" division, because two years ago the footing was terrible and I just didn't want to stress her legs out that much. Now I regret it, because not only were the jumps not set to height (2'6" at the very most, and I think that's being generous), but they also fixed their footing up decently. Oh well, there's still the July show!

Anyways, I started her off easy in the first class, which was a power and speed. I've never pushed her in any of the classes, always preferring a comfortable and confident ride over a ribbon, but at the 3'6", there were always enough *cough cough* bad riders that we usually did really well. Perks of going to local shows. Anywho, I let her get comfy with the jumps and the ring in the first class, and we wound up 5th out of a good handful of people, probably about 20.

So the next class was a speed round, and I figured what the heck? The jumps were so little that I could jump them from a standstill. So I gave Bells some slack and let her do her thing, without doing the stupid turns that some of the little kids did (I wanted to maintain some dignity!). She was sooo excited! She tore through that course and left a stride out of every line, taking some insanely huge distances without my permission. We wound up 4th in that class:D

The last one was a timed first jump-off, and I decided I wanted to let her go quick in the jump off, but since they didnt have a TA in the first round, I was going to back her off a little bit and ride her like I would have to if they fences were bigger. She had the best round yet, mostly because I finally relaxed and started thinking instead of being nervous. We made the jump-off, and she hunkered down and booked it, taking us to 3rd place. She got better and better each time!

I'm just really glad that we've fixed some of the training bumps that came around in the last few years. She's really turning into a solid little horse. My sister took photos and video. I'll load them up as soon as she emails them to me!

The Green Bean goes tomorrow at 7:30am sharp:D