3/5/11: The German Eskimo.

Yesterday, Lucy and went to our first horse show together! It was quite a long day. I woke up at 4:00 am and was ready to leave the house by 4:30. It was still dark and freezing cold when Simone; Lena; and I got to the barn, and we had to ride and lunge a total of eight horses before leaving for the show at 8:00. I thought I was going to collapse from cold and exhaustion riding around the arena at the crack of dawn! My sister Frances informed me that the weather is sunny and warm at home in Georgia, and I couldn't help imagining a gorgeous Southern day as I rode around feeling like a polar bear. We survived the morning riding and went back to the house to drink some coffee (I drank at least six cups of coffee throughout the day and I was still falling asleep standing up), Lena and I changed into our show clothes, and we headed back to the stable to load up the horses. We took Bandit, Lillibett, and Lucy and each horse had two classes to compete in. There are a lot of one-day national shows in Germany that are great for getting mileage in practice classes. Simone drove the horse van about an hour and a half from Warstein to Warendorf, where we parked in a large dirt field alongside about fifty other trucks.

Lena had the first class with Lillibett at 11:00. The track was meter 1.30 in a big indoor ring and Lillibett jumped great! They went clear but it was a power and speed class, and Lena rode a slow track, so they didn't get a ribbon. After this was another welcome coffee break before Lena's meter 1.35 class at 1:00, in which she rode both of her horses. The weather was so unbearably cold at the show that when Lena got on Lillibett for the second class and handed me her huge Montcler jacket, I put it on over my own four layers of clothes and puffy winter jacket. There was a mirror in the schooling area and I saw my reflection as I set jumps for Lena. I looked like an eskimo! EXACTLY like an eskimo! When I said this to Simone, she laughed and said, "Yes, yes you definitely do." Germany has taught me that there are times when sacrificing fashion for the sake of comfort and survival is necessary. Unfortunately for this little German eskimo, the day had only just begun...

Lena made small mistakes on Bandit and Lillibett in the 1.35 class and had four faults on both of them. However, the horses both jumped great. After this, we sat by the heaters in the restaurant (sadly it was not actually an indoor restaurant) at the show, sipping tea and trying to keep our teeth from chattering, until it was time for me to ride Lucy. Lena was so cold and tired that she used the table as a pillow and took a quick nap! The track for Lucy's first class was a simplistic meter 1.25 course with long bending lines and one vertical-oxer two stride in-and-out. I walked the course and made a plan of attack, then I got on Lucy a little early and worked her with draw reins attached to a breast plate to keep her relaxed and put together before I started jumping. Tacking up Lucy in the field outside the horse van was a bit of a challenge because she's still very sensitive about her ears. Eventually we had to take the whole bridle apart to get it onto her head! When I first got on, Lucy felt very fresh and nervous and I immediately thought the class was going to be a disaster. The sun was going down and the ring was not completely enclosed, so I fully expected seven-year-old Lucy to be a nervous wreck. However, she very pleasantly surprised me by jumping around beautifully! She was wild as usual, but went very smoothly, jumped clear, and never spooked at all (except at the giant hay bale sitting by the in gate, and how can I really blame her for that? It was huge! Even I thought it looked like a man-eating hay bale). The class was scored in a very weird way. It was judged almost like an equitation class! After each round, a judge gave comments on the horse and rider's performance and a score out of 10, based on the horse and rider's style, speed, track, compatibility, and the number of jumps knocked down. Lucy and I had a few lovely corner bucks and I let her get too deep to the last jump, so I don't think we were scored very high!

Despite this, I was ecstatic after Lucy's performance, but the day was far from over. We had to wait until 6:30 for Lena's second class with Bandit, a meter 1.40 junior/young rider jump-off competition, to start. Luckily the miserable, long, cold wait was worth it when Bandit jumped double clear! Lena's jump-off round was a little slow, so the pair ended up in sixth place. We didn't have much time to sit around and feel cold this time before Lucy's second class started at 8:00 pm. At this point I was actually convinced we had been transported to the North Pole... except that Santa, elves, and cookies were nowhere to be found! I quickly walked the course and ran back to the truck to put on my helmet, very bitterly remove a few jackets, and help tack up Lucy. Lucy came through for me once again and jumped even better over the slightly bigger meter 1.30 jumps! Our track was a bit smoother this time and, according to Simone, we received a score of 7.7 out of 10 and the judge thought Lucy and I suited each other well. I was very proud of her jumping so well under the lights and in the cold so late at night.

After leaving the ring, Simone, Lena, and I hurriedly packed Lucy and the rest of our gear into the horse van and, in the space of ten minutes, we drove out of the show in a desperate rush to escape the cold! It was 11:15 by the time we got back to the stable. We made sure the horses were comfortable in their stalls and then drove the horse van back to the house. Simone, Lena, and I all fell into bed completely exhausted as soon as we got home! It may have been the longest day of my life, but it was definitely worth the effort to get some great ring experience with Lucy!