Ah, what a day!

I don't think I could have asked for a better day. Well, okay, it could have been about 15 degrees cooler, but we can't have everything, right?

The morning started out pretty well. The jumper ring actually started fairly close to the designated time, and I was pretty pleased with that. We all know that horse show motto, 'hurry up and wait'. Thankfully, I had very little hurry or wait today.

The show grounds were pretty dead yesterday, so I was excited to see that there were quite a few more trailers. There's really no point in trying to school your young horse when no one shows up to make things interesting! So before I knew it, I had Patrick out of the trailer (and Bella stood perfectly after I took her friend out of the trailer!) and getting tacked up. Before anything could go right, he decided to throw out his (only) curveball of the day. While buckling his noseband, he reared up, flipped over, and smacked right into someone's mini-van, all totally out of the blue. After he righted himself, he quite literally stood there and looked at me like nothing was wrong. It was really rather strange, because when he wants to act up, he acts up. It's never just a rear and then nothing...beats me. Thankfully, horse, humans, and mini-van all came out of the encounter in tact. I mounted from the ground, afraid he was going to do something stupid, so I didn't want anyone else nearby. However, he stood perfectly and walked like a gentleman right down into the schooling ring. Talk about an odd start to the day!

He jigged around the schooling area a little bit, but overall he was quite controlled. I jumped a little cross rail a few times (the schooling area at this farm is dreaful...) and just went into the ring for our first trip. There were so many people in the warm-up and so little space, I just decided winging it in the ring alone was better than having someone land on him because they couldn't call their jump.

In our first course, he pittered out on the first fence. It was a little single oxer, and quite honestly, I don't think he knew we were in the ring to jump. He was too busy staring at everything outside the arena to even notice the jump. I gave him a little smack behind the saddle to say, 'hey dude, there's a jump here and we're doing business now', then rubbed his neck, talked to him a little, and started again. This time there was no questions asked. He popped right on over it and continued right on his merry way. There were a lot of wobbles, weaves, and funny distances where we pittered out and jumped like a deer, but we made it around the whole course!

The second course was absolutely fantastic. He got a little rushy into the triple line and pulled the first rail, but I could have cared less about that! The third trip was even better, only he got a little too honest, and started getting a little gung-ho. Twice, I did a straight-line halt, backed up a few steps, and then continued. I wasn't out for ribbons, and I wanted a confident ride with no fighting. It did the trick, and I think he was super pleased with himself. I know all the girls from the farm were happy for him! Everybody was really proud, especially my sister and I. My old boss even came out to see him go!

I do have to say, having my very good friend and old college roommate there to hand me a gatorade after each trip was a God-send. It was a blistering, stagnant 95 degrees in the sun, alllllll day:(

After I watched Amanda do two of her trips in the 3'0" jumpers, I pulled Bella out and started getting her ready for the 3'6" schooling jumpers. Of course, Patrick did not like being alone, broke his halter, dented the roof of the trailer twice with his head, and scuffed up his face. Finally, my dad just had to give up on his ideas of seeing me ride Bella, and stand in there with him. I hope he's sore tomorrow. Those dents certainly looked  like they hurt, and I have very little sympathy. I know what he's going to be practicing this week...

Anyways, Bella had three amazing rounds. Several times, I made a poor judgement call, and she helped me out enormously. Our first and third trips were nearly flawless as far as my personal expectations go, and I was thrilled to bring home a blue ribbon and a red ribbon:) And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I just can't sell her!

All in all, it was a really great day. There are pictures (and hopefully videos!) coming! Stephanie took some really great shots, and my sister got some, too:)

How was everyone's weekend?