#hunter braids

My very first attempt at doing hunter braids! They aren’t nearest but I think they will do well enough for the little unrated show I am doing next week. Especially because I am only doing the “outreach” division at 2’ and it will be fun to do them and make me feel ~fancy~

Perfect braids

WEF 2020

💕 Love tail braids 

Part of it was I was super excited for it so my expectations were just really high, and I was really looking forward to doing the 2’ and pushing myself to get the height and have it feel good. And then because no one else was doing the 2’ foot the trainer made me drop down in the 18” which was super disappointing. And like I get it it doesn’t make sense to make 9 other horses plus entourage stay an extra an hour just for me.... but like I also I had been working really hard for the two foot and I really wanted to do it. And then the switch was super stressful too because she didn’t tell me until everyone else was all tacked and ready to go. So I had like a mad dash panic trying to get him tacked and changed and everything. Which was like okay because I had everything ready to go and the class was super big so I did have a lot more time than I thought. But still mad rush panic on top of disappointment is not a great mental state.

And then there’s the fact that everyone else regularly rides with the trainer who came but I ride with a different trainer at the barn which can really make me feel like an outsider and an inconvenience. She’s nice about it, and still gives tips and corrections but it’s harder when I don’t have the rapport with her but she does with all the other riders. And then Like I go in late to join the schooling and the trainer tells me I should just go to warm up ring since he doesn’t need to school since I was planning on doing higher anyway. Which like while true also feels very much like you go over there while we do this.

Plus with dropping down a division I felt like a weird amount of pressure to do really well, and it was a huge class. Plus it has hunters which all about getting your leads and he’s not super great about them. And he’ll do them for his owner who does regularly ride with the trainer so she kept yelling to have me do flying changes with him and it’s just like..... I can’t really get him to do those consistently. Which is just left me feeling extra defeatist. But like I only did my first ever flying change like six month ago and he doesn’t just give them to you. And he gets unbalanced on the wrong lead, which makes me unbalanced and I had been really struggling then a couple months ago, but was finally getting good consistent quick simple changes in the corners. Which is great for normal riding, but those couple trot steps are a big no no in the hunters. So then like it would be better to just leave him on the wrong lead. Which was too much to deal with.

And then we had a couple bad walk- canter transitions in the flat classes (one where we had to trot thru on his bad side which I expected and was tbh fine AND THEN ONE where he picked up straight from a walk in the corner somehow onto his bad lead, which was the incorrect lead, and we canter the whole long side on the wrong lead tight in front of the judge 🤦‍♀️ I didn’t even think to check until the next corner when it felt bad because good direction, plus corner, plus good transition. Sigh.) and they announce the results of the flat class right after so I just was feeling terrible. To get forced down into a lower division and then not do well or ride well was just the worst feeling ever.

But then we went to look at the jumping results and I did better in them and placed in three out of four jumping classes and maybe it shouldn’t have but it did make me feel a little better. I was and still am a little bit upset about being forced into a lower division, but I’m feeling much better about how I ride and how my horse my did.

The jumping class we didn’t we didn’t place in was one where we did a simple change because I got annoyed about just being on the wrong lead and I tried and missed the flying, but it was a choice. And we had a super long spot, which was uhhh less of choice but we had a good recovery!

And then in the one of the equitation classes we got a third! Which out of 12 people is actually pretty great! The course like Sergio because he got one of his leads over the jump going to his good lead, and then I was able to get a flying change in the corner going the other direction! And I’m actually very pleased to have done so well in equitation because I’ve really been trying to work on it!

And then in the two hunter classes he got a fifth and sixth where he just got to keep his wrong lead. Aka after the first jump do the whole course on his favorite lead.... 🤷‍♀️ but still with class sizes of 12 and 11 not a bad showing.

AND HE GOT ALL HIS STRIDES WHICH WAS THE BIG GOAL OF THE DAY.

The goals were:

1. Go over all the jumps in the right order, first try. Very accomplishable and easy for us.

2. Get all the strides correct. Doable but takes a lot left because he really likes to add. Although he’s often more forward at horse shows so in theory easier. But we also didn’t leave out any and had a good rhythm throughout. So I’m pretty damn pleased here.

3. Get all our leads. Lol no. But this was always going to be a hard a goal and we did do it for one course! And I hadn’t fully realized just how badly scored simple changes where until like at the show. So I’m okay with this.

Plus my horse was super all day and just the best boy! He always tries his best for me and I love and appreciate him so much! He makes it all better. I’m definitely still a little disappointed to have not been able/allowed to do the two feet but I still got to have fun jumping my horse and hanging with my barn friends.

Also look how cute he is with his show halter and braids.