Here’s the link to the Novice A class, video courtesy of my wonderful husband!

I am pleased as punch with all the Morses today! Everyone came together to help Tarma and I have a wonderful and successful working equitation show. I want to highlight all the good stuff first, because it truly was such a fun outing. The show was amazingly well run, from signing up to getting our ride times to all the volunteers and the judge was so supportive, thank you everyone who put this together!

My ride times were all the in the afternoon, so I had just enough time for a speed round through the annual Canby tack sale. I go not just for the deals and the cool finds, which are always excellent, but also to wander around and catch up with folks I may not see as often. It’s such a good reminder of the solid horse community we have down here, there’s usually a ton of folks of all different disciplines, from all the 4-H and OHSET kids to dressage queens, endurance riders and packers and rodeo folks all combined. There’s also one of my favorite local vendors, Diamond in the Rough Saddlery, who I get all my Kerrits finds from; she sells brand new stuff at wholesale prices, which is awesome. I also snagged a beautiful new cooler and heavyweight blanket with a neck cover from her! Alas it was too warm and I didn’t need either today.

To keep myself on task, I had figured out the day’s timing and set a series of alarms, which worked like a charm. I had enough time after leaving the tack sale that I was able to clean Tarma’s stockings with purple shampoo…although the rest of her hasn’t had a full bath since March! Dark colored horses for the win, no dirt to be found! Thankfully the venue for the show is a short haul away, and we arrived just when I wanted, a bit over an hour before our warm up time. I’m actually happy I couldn’t get my shit together and figure out a costume; it was fun seeing everyone else dressed up, and Tarma was able to chill instead of being rushed through a contest with things flapping around her or whatever. It also gave everyone at the show time to discover and explore my trailer, always a fun thing for me to show folks the different designs that Double D offers.

I do wish we’d had a full warm up arena so we could have spent a bit more time prepping, as it was we only had about 30 minutes before the afternoon tests began. Tarma still gave me some beautiful canter circles, I was so happy with those! There was a lot of energy with the kids discussing who had won the costume contest in the barn aisle as we waited for our turn, and I could see Tarma getting a bit worried over all the noise. Thankfully the adults wrangled them out, and we had time to relax a bit before our first test. This was Working Equitation Intro, the same class we did at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club earlier this year. I didn’t want Tarma fussing and fighting my hands, so I made the call to do at least the first class in the hackamore and see how she did. We don’t have as much bend with it, but she is a bit less fussy…usually, today we did have some head tossing moments.

The intro test wasn’t quite as smooth as hoped for, partly as I spent too much time trying to memorize the Novice test and partly due to Kade’s phone giving him issues. He did fumble as bit as my test caller for two bells/errors, but it was a schooling show so the judge allowed us to reset and start again when we bobbled. We had just under an hour before my second test and I was the last rider of the day for that one. Tarma was able to relax and eat at the trailer during the break, and Kade and I went through the second test and I wrote it out for him to read a bit clearer and mark off as I rode it through. The husband fixed stuff on the trailer, as sitting still is not a husbandly trait. He was also my amazing videographer for both tests, so I can watch them through.

Alas, I did realize I should have done a rising trot versus sitting…if for no other reason than I didn’t wear a good enough sports bra, ack! I was sitting to try to tell Tarma to take it a bit slower and so I wouldn’t have to worry about diagonals, I still have to glance at her shoulder like a first year rider to figure out what lead I’m on, sigh. Kade had help calling the second test for a much smoother read through. My nerves had peaked a bit and we couldn’t quite find as relaxed a place together, but the tests do capture where you are currently at. Our comments reflect our braciness, but we still managed a 60.92%, which I consider fantastic for our first try at a test with cantering in it! Considering when we started we’d just cry and run into walls, to be able to do a test in a hackamore and get the canter transitions without undue fussiness and being able to more or less settle back into the trot like it’s just something we do now… it’s so freaking cool!

I love this mare and I can’t wait to see what comes next together. I love exploring something so totally different from endurance with her, as slow a road as we’re taking. Even a year ago I didn’t think we’d be capable of turning up at a show and getting through a test without a collision or something equally as embarrassing, so just look at us now!