Last Day of the Summer Festival Show!

This was the last show day of the Woodside Summer Festival horse show and I have been so excited all day. I could hardly sleep last night and can you believe I was excited to wake up at 5am?

I entered the 2’6” classes today instead of the 2’0” division, and my flat class started at 8:00!!! I actually love waking up early on show days, although Sundays are always bittersweet, because it’s packing up day, too.

Anyway, I was feeling very confident for my flat class this morning because this is a hunter flat and not an equation flat. Equitation classes are judged on the rider, so yesterday’s flat class was about me, but Hunter classes are judged on the horse and Cleo is a beautiful mover in the ring.

This was my best flat class ever on Cleo. I broke the canter once for a quick step, but maybe the judge didn’t notice? But it was all so beautiful. And what did I place? I earned 1st place!! 🥇When they called my name for first place I was like what!?! 😮 Yay!! I’ve learned a lot in the past few weeks!

Then it was time for my three over fences classes: two Hunter 2’6” over fences and one derby round. My first round in the ring was pretty slow. I didn’t really get the correct stride (in the lines) and it was just messy.

Then it was time for round two! The moment you’re out of the ring you need to memorize a whole new course, but it all becomes pretty familiar. I went back into the ring and I got Cleo going a lot faster than I did in the first round. I got to all my fences at a good pace, and I got all my lead changes. I only had one deep fence and it wasn’t even a bad one. And…? I Earned 2nd!!🥈

Last round was the Hunter Derby, but Cleo was getting tired at this point and I just wanted to go in and have a good round and hopefully place. Derbies are more interesting and tricky, which is exciting and stressful. All was great, but we ended up chipping once and unfortunately that was enough to remove me from top six. Oh well.

But surprise, surprise! I went to the office with my friends later to check on the Reserve and Champion winners, and that Champion ribbon was for me! I was so happy and excited I came running back to the barn to tell my trainer. We celebrated and took some pics and overall this weekend was a great learning experience and I’m so excited for the A shows coming up!!!

I guess the number 111 really was good luck. 🍀

Here is a video with some of my favorite clips of the day!!