The Horseshow Hangover
First comes the prep
So as you all know, we were working towards heading to our first agricultural show in a few years. I had my lessons with Fabienne and Seamus. I rode in the snaffle again for the lessons as that's what I'll be riding in at the show.
In my sign off on the last blog, I mentioned how excited I was to do our first jump lesson, well let me tell you, it did not disappoint!! Seamus asked me if I wanted to work on a few jumps or a course and I said a course as we need to work on doing a whole load together.
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| Flying high |
It's all videos I have from the lesson, so check out my instagram for a gawk at us!
He had the jumps at a nice 80s for the first round, which we flew, Cu Chulainn in his element doing what he loves. The sweat was pumping out of me and I slugged half a bottle of water down, the heat had come out of nowhere even though it wasn't overly sunny. I drank the water so fast that it just sat in my belly, right at the point where it could reappear again if I did anything to upset it. So while I was trying to settle the water down, Seamus popped up the jumps to maybe 1metre ( a Seamus metre is not like other metres!!). I had a glance at them and told myself, no, don't look at the height, focus on the horse and not choking him ( which I did over the first practice jump). So off we went on our way again over the course. Halfway around I wasn't thinking about the heights at all, I was thinking Jesus Christ you are not fit, not fit at all. I accidentally got a bit lost on the last few and ended up jumping a spread instead of the double. No worries, we went around again and popped them. I was flying Cu Chulainn Airways. I was shoving him a bit at the spreads, just me thinking about them being bigger so we must race to them. That is precisely what I don't need to do. It's almost like my safety button, sending him flying at them so we will definitely get over them. The horse could trot up to them and not touch them. It's not even that I don't trust him to clear it, it's that I don't trust myself. Cu Chulainn, legend that he is did not touch a pole. Not once. Even when I messed up our approach! The only poles he has touched this year were ground poles, that he seems to think he's a newly broken 4 year old for!! Needless to say I was up on cloud 9 again after that lesson.
The following weekend we did a flatwork lesson with Fabienne and worked on a serpentine, in trot and walk, and canter and walk, with circles. It was tough, but rewarding. She has given my small simple things to work on and they've made such a difference. I was forever tilting forward on him and by changing my riding that has changed a lot, but it's still a bad habit that I fall back on. Cu Chulainn tries his little heart out, he just doesn't always understand what I'm aiming- which being honest is probably me not asking right!
Karen rode Fred in a lesson before me and I was like a proud momma looking at how awesome he looked. I gave them a good shampoo and power hose there and popped their rugs on for the week to try and keep them clean. It did work for their bodies, not so much the legs.
My friend Caroline came over on Saturday to help me get ready for the show and was going to be my groom at the show. Manes and tails were tidied and Cu Chulainn was cleaned as much as possible, a white arse is just unfortunate luck. Tack was cleaned and the jeep was packed. We were ready. I hoped.
Then comes the show
Sunday morning we (Caroline ☺) plaited them at home and didn't head off until after 11 (thankfully, as it was a late one). It's so hard to judge what time you will be on at an agri show. We arrived nice and on time to Athenry Agricultural Show.
Cu Chulainn's first class was in hand coloured in the far far far away land of Ring 4, which was the other end away from the other Ring's I'd be in. There was the usual stress and rush of getting ready and being in time, I hot footed it over and lost a few layers of skin on my foot on the way. The judges ended up being late and it was getting worryingly close to Fred's class. Cu Chulainn was not overly happy and didn't want to stand. I was in tweed and a coat, because it rained on the way down, but the sun was baking down on top of me draining every bit of energy I had in me. We got going then and the steward helped the horse in front with his trot up. I told the steward, he'll run as fast as I can run, which was true until he passed me out 😂. The judge really liked him and I told him how he loves jumping and would be jumping later in the working hunter. We did our final laps (in walk, thankfully!!), me trying to look under Cu Chulainn's head to see if they were calling anyone in yet. Then the steward motioned to us and we got called in FIRST!! Yayyyyy!!!! I happily collected our rosette and shook hands, but then I had to do a runner with him, completely forgetting that there would be a championship. Caroline had Fred ready and up I hopped. It ended up that I actually had a decent amount of time to warm him up. He was going in the middleweight class, as there was no lightweight. There was a lovely mahoosive inflatable wall that people were kicking balls up on to at the end of the ring. Fabulous. Fred was a bit weary but didn't do anything bad. I was grining from ear to ear just enjoying riding him and feeling how well he felt. He rode lovely and gave a great gallop. He gave the judge a great spin too, but he wasn't placed. He still had lots of juicy apples.
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| The best boy |
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| All eyes on him |
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| Finishing touches |
Next up was working hunter class. Working hunter is where you jump a course of natural style fences, all wood colour, some bushes, etc and get marked on your style of jumping, and then get points against you for knocking a fence or having a refusal. I would say I finished Fred's class some time around 3 and I think I got to jump Cu Chulainn at 7. That was a big gap of time. We had entered the 80s and 90s. I didn't want to enter the 1m in case the weather was bad and we slid around. It was ponies all day and that just dragged on. The course looked tight and there were few clear rounds in the competitions I saw. I ended up only giving him 2 practice jumps before going in as they were shouting for us to go in. We got to have a look at the jumps beforehand, which was handy as it's been a while since I jumped something with bushes hanging out of it! I had a quick chat with the judges beforehand and told them how we'd no shoes, nevermind studs!! I also mentioned how he was tired. I was so tired I was afraid of forgetting the course even though it was only 9 jumps!! We set off and as soon as we got over the first I relaxed, this is Cu Chulainn, he's got this. 2 and 3 came up fast and then it was a tight enough turn (depending how you jumped 3) to a downhill double (eek), which he flew over, no issues. 5 on to 6 I got wrong and brought him in at a weird angle, nearly aiming for the wing. He basically said, no worries mam, I got this, and got his legs over it. 7 came up straight away and then it was a breather before 8 and 9. 9 had these wall fillers in it that I thought he might look at but didn't, and I think I thought so much about then that I forgot I had to show him where to go next as we were headed straight for a corner. We walked over to the judge after and he said that horse is not tired! I laughed. We did our party piece (walk, trot, canter and a wee gallop) and left the arena. There was a few in that class and when the last had jumped we all went in again. I walked around with a big smile on my face just so glad to be here with this absolute legend. The judge called out our number, holy moly we won it!! Yayyyyyy!! He stood thr best the stood all day for the presentation and gave the judge a little nudge, a hint to tell him he was a good boy! I stayed in the arena then as they had already put up the jumps for the next competition. I was ready to go. I knew the course and he didn't need another warm up, he was ready. This round was nicer. Lovely and smooth and I let him do his thing. I still managed to feck up 5 on to 6, but not as badly. I got off him as soon as I could because I knew he was tired. We walked over to Fred in the box and he had a lick and some water. Soon it was time to get back up and enter the arena. We got called in second and I was a bit disappointed, just because I thought winning every class he entered had a nice ring to it. But then the steward realised he had done his calculations wrong and that we had won!! Amazing, what a horse!! Now I knew there might be a championship for the working hunter, but I was beyond tired. I had to leave. There were another 2 classes. We left at 9pm!!
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| The Champ |
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| Bitta grub |
Videos are on instagram
I got home, fed the boys, abandoned jeep and trailer, got into my jammies and poured myself a large glass of red wine and gazed adoringly at my rosettes. It's been awhile since we got a rosette, never mind a red one, so I'm gonna cherish this and be living off of it for a good while!!
Then comes the horseshow hangover
The next day it was back to normality and back to work, thank god for remote working as I was not fit for public consumption. Having said that, I'd signed up to do my first pilates class that night. I decided to do a class as I've only done it at home from youtube videos, apart from two reformer pilates classes. I immediately regretted not changing out of my tracksuit bottoms as the sun baked down on top of me from the massive window, making sure I started sweating within the first 5 minutes and it was downhill from there on the sweat front. I was able for most of the exercises, but he absolutely killed me on the last, which was a plank for 5 seconds, then staying on your hands and running your legs up towards the front, that increased to 10 seconds, then 15, then 20 and back down. D.E.A.D. I had intended to swim after but instead went home and couldn't do a tap for half an hour.
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