An unbelievable day for Thuy and me.
I don't get to ride much in my sidesaddle,
so with everyone's approval,
I got together everything I'd need to
enter the turn out phase aside.
This was all for fun, and to show more
people my adorable Thuy horse.
I was lucky enough to have Chrissie groom
for me and Thuy's turnout was
impeccable. With equipment borrowed from
Laura, Gabrielle, Mary Ann and
others (mum made the sandwiches), we were
ready for Thuy to show his cuteness.
He did impress the judges, and we won the
turn out phase. That phase
did not affect the scoring for the rest
of the day, but it was delightful to win.
One of the first persons I called with
my results was my trainer of 20 or so years.
I can remember her trying to get me to
brush the mud off my horse before
entering the ring for a class. Or just
trying to get me to wipe down a saddle.
With that over, we had a quick tack and
attire change, and went in for the
hack phase. We showed the judges walk,
trot and canter both directions. They
judged in two groups, and then pulled
from both groups for a final cut. Yippee, we
made the cut and Thuy got to show off
his gallop for the crowd (I heard cheering as
we flew by).
There was a small break to prepare for
the mock hunt, and then we headed out. It
got in the 90s and I was tiring quickly.
But, the mock hunt was so much fun that there
wasn't time to think about being hot and
tired. We dashed through the woods and over
jumps and had checks and got out of the
way of the judges vehicle and continued on.
Thuy and I enjoyed ourselves immensely,
although there were times when he wished
I'd have let him charge at the fences
a little faster. It was a group of 20. We've never hunted
up front with that many, and we were in
the middle, so I made him be careful at the fences.
Back at the trailers we had a break to
cool ourselves and the horses down. Thuy was dry by time
we got to the trailer, but he got a nice
hose down and was happy to munch on a bag of hay. Jake
has worked with Thuy quite a bit, and
he was on hand to untack and water when I needed a break.
The final phase was a handy hunter course.
There was a bridge and gate and, of course, jumps.
I was ready for everything to be over,
but once we started around the course Thuy's enthusiasm
was contagious and I had fun running around
the jumps. Thuy opened the gate with his head,
which got a laugh from the crowd. He definitely
was hamming it up.
At the final awards I received my ribbon
for turnout, Othello and David, another member of Hickory
Creek came in 8th, and they announced
that Thuy and I were 4th. The top 4 places are qualified
for the finals in VA in May. After all
the preparation for this, I can't believe how it'd be in VA. But,
I'm starting to figure out the logistics.