GRS' first schooling show :)

Our first show was so. much. fun!   And since half the competitors had Royal plans (as did myself and our judge) we managed to get finished and out in a reasonable amount of time too.  hahaha amazing what group motivation will do.

HUGE thanks to Amy who worked all day (and managed to compete at the same time!) so I could focus on the show and competitors.  And of course to Amy (hmmmm something about that name?) for judging all the classes!

The first excitement of the day was the horse draw...  Riders each pulled a name out of a hat to see who they'd be riding.  It was the fairest way I could think of to "assign" horses -- although I maintain veto power in the interest of safety.  hahaha  But it meant a fun switch around for the girls in the higher levels who all part board and are used to always riding the same horses :)

In the poles - x-rails division (that was slightly higher than poles and xrails :) we ended up with:

Eve on Nick,

and Olivia on Louis.

 Then in the 2' - 2'3" division we had:

Amy on Charlie,

Ashley on Lissy,

and Lesya on Louis.

And in the 2'6"+ division"

Chelsea on Jack,

Kennedy on Lissy,

and Rowan on Bella.

Regular followers of GRS will understand why that last group was so entertaining :)   And super credit to Kennedy who was riding Lissy for the first time *ever*!   Lis is a superstar, but she's not entirely simple to ride well!   And Rowan switching from Jack to Bella -- well that's about as extreme a change as it gets :)

We did dressage first -- both Amy and Ashley riding their first test *ever*!  Woohoo!  Everybody remembered their test, and all the girls put in a solid effort :)   There were some interpretive shapes and nerves off the charts, but everything got done in the right order and approximately the right location.   Huge thanks to Aileen for scribing all the tests!

After all the dressage was done, we had a break while we set fences -- huge thanks to everybody who helped haul jumps around!  Then the girls got to walk their course.  I was struggling to find the line between coaching and supervising.  Very hard to just watch...  But I restricted myself to helping them understand the map -- as in what jumps in which order.  Other than that they were on their own.  And they managed it, and I was thrilled to see the more experienced riders helping the more novice ones figure out where to go and what to do.

Course Walk

And then it was on to the fun stuff!   Everybody got to warm-up over one jump.  This was supervised but with very little (level dependent) coaching. They were on their own to figure out their new rides.  Our first class was Equitation Over Fences (ie rider position being judged) and the mystery class this time was a Table C jumper class (ie - one round, based on speed, faults are calculated as time penalties).  There were a few riders competing who had never jumped a full course before.  I was *very* impressed with how well these riders did!   Everybody got around and most got some idea of what they need to work on for the next show :)    Chelsea definitely had the speed idea down - placing despite having a rail.  Lesya would've been first in her class with Louis had she not unfortunately gone off-course.  Ah well - everybody does it at least once!  May as well do it at home!  Most rode both classes the same -- careful and clean.  Definitely a good start to showing!  Huge thanks to Bev for scribing for all the jump classes.

Overall it was a fun day with a good turnout of riders and spectators and I was really impressed with how well everybody rode! Woohoo!

Sasha giving course walk advice :)
PC - Linda Shantz