Warmup Day, Woodside Schooling Show

There was a hunter/jumper schooling show near me last weekend, and though I wasn't feeling ready to show I hauled Cupid over on Friday when they had the rings open (setup with a complete set of jumps same as for the show) for warm up rounds! 

In years past you would buy a ticket for each round - it was not judged you just went once around the posted course.  I was expecting the same, but they changed the format to where multiple people could be in the arena and you had 5 minutes to school the jumps.  There was a course posted, but you don't have to follow it.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to each.  I was worried it would be chaotic, but I ended up having the entire arena to myself.

Show arena open for practice.

I started out with a quick lunge.  Cupid was well behaved, cantering quietly and coming back down when I asked.  We did have a quick training session on the way to the lunging area though when he balked passing by what I assume is material for a new arena they're building.  Curiosity got the better of him though, and he wanted to investigate.

The only picture I took of Cupid there!

After lunging I got on and we went to the warm up arena, which was immediately adjacent to the show arena.  We started with our usual flatwork, and I tried to remember to sit up straight and have my outside hand by my saddle pad.  It was going well but I was a bit nervous knowing jumping was coming up so we started with just a pole on the ground.  We trotted over it, fairly quietly at first but after several passes Cupid did start to jump over it so I tried to fight the urge to lean forward, which I know is the opposite of what I should be doing!

I forced us to trot over a little log and cross rail in the warm up, though I knew I was not riding my best starting to crawl up Cupid's neck.  At this point I wasn't sure I even wanted to go into the show arena, and thought maybe that was a good note to end it on. 

We took a little walk around outside the arena, around the show grounds which helped me to relax again.  The show arena was still empty so I decided to go in, and told myself since I'm here I might as well at least school around the jumps.  We trotted around, letting Cupid see the judge's booth, flower boxes, and pass by the spectator tent that was flapping in the wind.  (It seems like it is always windy at the horse park!!)  Cupid was being good so I decided to trot the smallest jump, which was the little log at the front of the arena.  That went well, he landed quietly and I got him back into a trot and we trotted the next smallest jump, one of the verticals with a gate and flower box.  We ended up not doing the entire course, but jumped sections of it at a time and went over most of the jumps except one of the outside lines which looked like it was set a bit higher. 

We didn't end there, another ring was set up with a poles course (and also empty).  We trotted it through, then cantered around working on a steady rhythm and our trot changes.  It might have been better to start there, but that ring was initially set with jumps and had other people in it.  Plus then I may have decided to end on a good note and not actually jump at all, so I guess it worked out well in the end!

I was very happy with Cupid; he was very good despite me occasionally riding like a little monkey up his neck (which usually meant a long spot and a rare pulled rail, my fault entirely.)  And though he's never really hesitated with flower boxes, we don't do them very often so it was good for me to see again that it is not a problem for him.  I was very happy I did it, it was the perfect opportunity for me to be able to take my time and work up my bravery.  But I was even more happy I didn't think I was ready to enter the actual show, because I realize I'm not!  But if I keep working on making correct riding my new normal hopefully I will be able to do it even when I'm nervous.