Horse Shows

S’s First Show

KC Scott

Carolina Horse Park puts on a show series called War Horse Event Series that runs on a monthly basis from May-November. You can choose between doing a CT or HT that runs on Sunday, and they offer a schooling day on Saturday where you can school the courses and go play in the dressage rings, so great for green horses.

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And for moving up a level!

So even though I’d only been riding S for a couple weeks, I felt like the format would be a great way to see how he handled himself at shows and around a real jump course. Originally we were only going to go for the schooling day so he could get on XC and go around the SJ ring, but with Florence dumping so much rain on the venue, they cancelled all XC for the weekend and offered it only as a CT. So I signed up to compete.

Definitely a weekend of firsts: this horse’s first time staying overnight somewhere, his first time jumping in a show, and his first time jumping a course of more than 5 jumps.

Here’s how he stepped off the trailer:

S1

That was about the most excited he got all weekend. So…really impressed with this guy’s brain.

I entered him in the Maiden division (2’3″) to keep it simple, but we had wanted to school him over the BN course in the big ring also. Unfortunately the times just weren’t in our favor: they had BN run from 9 AM-11 AM, and Maiden run from 12 PM-3 PM. It didn’t really make sense for him to do the bigger course first, so we opted to not take the chance of blowing his brain and just schooled over the little Maiden course.

Did I mention that was his first time schooling over more than 5 jumps? Winner, winner.

S2
Except for the stall situation. This was at 7am, AFTER a midnight cleaning. Just as bad as P. For shame, S…for shame.

The next day I hopped on about 30 minutes before our test. He was super chill in warmup, even when this horse came straight at us and I had to sharply veer S away. The woman’s response? “I’m on a TEN METER CIRCLE,” like I’m supposed to know. Love lower level warmups.  Whatevs. We did Intro C, which is a terrible test in itself, and S was a bit distracted (lots to see), but I was pleased with how he handled everything. He scored a 37, which was a little higher than I thought, but as always, I wasn’t exactly there for the dressage anyway.

Unfortunately no media exists of the dressage test. Trainer B and his working student were both riding at the same time I was, so the moms were busy back at the stalls. If it had received a great score, I’d be more upset!

S got about an hour to chill before I started tacking him up again. Sequence of trying to take a picture of S without the sideeye business.

S4S5S6S7

I love that WHES allows for schooling the day before, but I also weirdly put pressure on myself because of it. If schooling goes great, what if I screw up the competition round? Sounds dumb, but it really makes the nerves kick in for me.

I shouldn’t have worried, though:

S9S10

Which moved him up from 7th to 5th and earned his owner a ribbon and some treats from sponsors!

S8
Everyone on the team posted double clear rounds and got a ribbon!

Published by KC Scott

29 thoughts on “S’s First Show”

  3. how much fun was that?? LOL AND his stall. I am pretty sure P whispered in his ear before you all left for the show ” BE THE PIG” 🙂

    Glad you guys had fun and he was a star. TOO bad no crosscountry though BOO HISS:)

    I am glad you kept it easy for us to ride a gray. IF I squint my eyes i just think its P:) HA

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  15. Can you tell I am just now catching up on all your posts? I LOVE him. I have a fondness for greys that wear cribbing collars lol… Glad he was so chill and SO GOOD. What a fun horse to have until P is back in action.

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    1. Bahahaha I’ve never really been around cribbers so this is a whole different side to horses I’ve never seen before! He’s definitely fun though. A bit challenging, but in ways pretty much opposite to P so learning new skills every day on him!

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