Cob Jockey

After Mary's jumper rounds on Sunday, we headed out into the sunshine to take some pictures. As we came out, Jeffrey met us with Annie and said, "You guys aren't going to believe this. I pointed into the ring and asked Annie "Who's that riding Connor Pony?" and she said "Mama," and then said, "She's wearing my number!"

All photos except the last three are courtesy of Leah

Which was both adorable and impressive since Annie is not yet three years old! To be able to read a number herself the day before (we hadn't said it out loud to her) and remember that number overnight then recognize it on Mary's back from across the ring was just amazing. 

She then she insisted that we put "her" number back on her.

While that was going on, Leah caught Jeffrey having a quiet moment with Connor, thanking him for keeping his wife and child safe all weekend. Connor, though, wasn't taking it quite as seriously, and I treasure this picture, lol.

Annie then insisted that she be allowed to ride Connor back to the barns, which meant she needed a helmet, and we hadn't brought hers, so she got to wear her mama's.

I swear I will do whatever it takes to make sure this horse's step-down job is toting Annie around when he starts slowing down in a few years

He is just the best

When we got back to the stall, Annie insisted on helping take care of Connor, first by picking his feet and then brushing him. But she said she couldn't reach while standing on the ground, oh no, she could only properly brush him if she was sitting on his back, lol.

Mary held her of course, but she sat both forwards and backwards on him to brush him. This whole weekend felt like a huge step up in Annie's mastery of and enjoyment of horses, and it was pretty clear that the horse show experience had cemented her love of horses in ways that just hanging out at the barn hadn't quite done before. 

She's also getting more assertive about asking for things that she wants, like wanting to sit on his back, and has started to tell Mary "No, I'll do it myself!" just in the past month or so. It's so fun to live close enough to them to watch her grow up like this.

As they left, Mary gave me a big hug and thanked me for providing these experiences to Annie that she and Jeffrey could never provide on their own, and I joked that she should be thanking me for spending ten years preparing a leadline horse for her child. Connor never could have done any of this even five years ago!

<3

In order to understand why Sunday was such a big deal, you need to know that Mary has had some health issues over the last few years that have left her with far less confidence in her body than she used to have. And she also hadn't done a hunter show (her one true love) in over a decade.

All photos courtesy of Leah

I entered them in an unjudged warmup, then the low hunter division, which was two classes over 2' fences and then a flat class, and I told her if all she did was jump a single fence and then she told me she was done, I would be happy with that.

Connor: "Yesssss more hunter stuff"

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from him. He hadn't shown over fences in I think five years to this point, and the last time he did he was still squirrely about fill. And I hadn't jumped him over anything besides poles that whole time, when I did jump, which isn't often.

I don't miss this

So I was over the moon delighted when he just...jumped stuff. Like a normal horse. From the very first warm-up fence.

Call it what you want - him getting older, growing up, getting more confident in his body, knowing he had to take care of Mary, Mary giving him a better ride than I'm capable of - this was a totally different horse than I'd ever seen over fences before.

This was the most suspicious look he gave anything all weekend, and even this is pretty tame compared to 2012-2015 eventing Connor.

Confident Connor started getting a little too confident in the actual show ring, though.

I know what I'm here for!

As I said to Mary, the little guy has only ever shown over fences in eventing, so to Connor, this was a show jumping round. No one told him this was hunters.

"WHEEEEE" seemed to be Connor's theme for the weekend

They did their unjudged warm-up, where he had one rail, and then they did their first judged round, where he rubbed that same rail but left everything up, and Mary told me she was done.

They ended up placing 5/5 in that class, since clearly the judge didn't appreciate Connor's jumper aspirations, but I couldn't have been happier with them. Even the scratch I was on board with, both because I was so proud of Mary for Doing the Thing at all, and because the footing was SO hard, it was making me anxious.

Look at me, I'm a groom!

Methinks he has some hunter course practice in his future at home...

Oh my goodness, you guys are not even ready for the cuteness and hilarity of this blog post.

This year, our show offered a new class designed to give the Section A's and B's and their children something to do on Saturday: in-hand haybale jumping.

All photos courtesy of Leah

IT. WAS. AMAZING. 

They had warm-up rounds, a hunter round and then a jumper round, with kids ranging in age from probably 8-13ish. The rounds were a mix of ponies who were totally game, and ponies who knew exactly what they could get away with.

"Do I have to?"

Totally game

The most hilarious round of the day came from one of the smallest competitors, who had the most conniving bay pony. This pony was the physical embodiment of that "pray if it's a pony" meme. 

See, the kids were supposed to go around the hay bales while the ponies jumped them, but this pony was like "Dude if the kid's going around so am I!" and proceeded to do exactly that.

So then the kid reasoned that the pony was going to do whatever she did, so she tried jumping the hay bales herself to see if the pony would follow, even though I think that was technically against the rules. Which worked...for two fences.

...and then the bay pony was like "I'm onto your new game, kid, and I decline to participate" and started going around the haybales, so the kid was jumping the haybales and the pony wasn't. I tried to stifle my laughter so the kid didn't feel bad, but it was very very hard. Been there, kid.

This sequence is too good and must be shared in its entirety. Kid goes over...

Pony says nah...

...and goes around

For the rest of that round, the pony put as little effort into jumping the fences as possible, but the kid did get it around eventually. It was a great horsemanship lesson for the kid. And highly entertaining for the spectators!

Fine I guess

They've already said they're doing this again next year, and I already can't wait, hahaha.

I am slammed with work, but I can't wait any longer to get at least THIS post out. I can't stop thinking about Disco after last weekend.

(Also, I'm not the only one experiencing issues with photos not showing up in RSS feeds, so if you want to see a pile of cute Disco pictures, you'll need to click through to the post. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

Almost all photos in this post courtesy of Leah

He was absolutely amazing.

Ponies screaming on every side of him, and this is his reaction

It was my first time really getting to spend a lot of time with him, and my first chance to get extended 1:1 time with him, and I could not have been more impressed. His attitude toward new things is "Sure!" I mean look how chill he was in the first moments he was ever in a show ring:

"They're looking at me? Neat."

I only saw him spook once the whole weekend despite this being his first time off the property. Really, it's not even fair to call it a spook, he just startled at a trailer driving by as we gave him a bath in the dark.

Leah holding Disco for his bath. In the dark. At a new place. With a thunderstorm on the horizon.

When you're showing babies at breed shows, it's always a crapshoot what will happen. Sometimes they don't trot in-hand. Sometimes they go up on their hind legs. Sometimes they get "over it" quickly and won't stand still the rest of the day. Sometimes they get loose.

Disco? Disco was just perfect. Honestly all three babies we brought this year were almost perfect.

Waiting at the in-gate with his momma

He led all around the complex and trotted in-hand like a pro. The only bobble we had was when we he mis-read my intentions on going around the judge's table and as Leah put it, he zigged when he should've zagged.

He ended up being in the ring for probably a total of 5 or 6 classes over a couple of hours between him, his mom, and the Get of Sire and Produce of Dam classes. The first class he got judged in was a stout 2 and under Section C/D colts class, with three of Lisa's ponies plus a couple other nice ponies in it. 

Like, I know this colt is really nice, but up until this show I wasn't sure if I was being a homer about it or not. But under both judges he won his 2 and under class. And then he won the Section C/D championship (all ages/all sexes but just Section C/D Welsh) under both judges as well.

As we were walking out of that class, one of the judges said, "I breed Section D's, that is a VERY nice colt."

That made him eligible for the Supreme Championship, which takes the top two winners from the Section A, B, C/D Championships and crowns the best quality breedingstock pony (geldings aren't eligible) of the entire show.

And.

My total childlike delight after he won the C/D Championship. I just could not believe he kept winning like that, especially with a total amateur handler like me.

He won. OMG. I was just in literal shock when they called my number.

Judge: "Will he be okay with this neck ribbon?" Felt good to confidently reply "Oh yeah he'll be fine"

He tried to eat it, that's about it.

Supreme was double judged as well, and the way they ran it, one judge walked through all the ponies and made her decision, and then the other judge did. 

The second judge had noticed Disco, who was closest to the judge's table, was getting fussy. She looked me in the eye and said, "I can see we're wearing his patience thin, I'm going to start judging at the other end." Subtext, as I understood it: "I like this colt, and I'm going to give you every opportunity to show him well that I can, so see if you can get him settled before I get to you."

Me trying to distract him in a different class

I'll never know if she thought the other pony was actually better or if it just showed better than my fussy baby, but she ended up pinning him Reserve, for Disco's only "loss" of the day. Hardly a loss though, since we got a second neck ribbon out of it!

"For me?!"

I asked Leah to take a picture with him and the judges, and while we were standing there they chatted with me. One said that is an incredibly nice colt, and said "We don't often pin weanlings for supreme," and the other asked his registered name, saying "I want to keep an eye on this guy."

If I wasn't thrilled enough about how he showed and placed, all the other little things meant so much. Seeing him stand in weird places while his mom got measured, get groomed, and hop on the trailer like he's been doing it his whole life just cemented the fact that this is the kind of brain I want.

Standing in the picnic area while mom gets measured like nbd

When he loaded up to go home on Friday night, I definitely felt a little bit sad. I enjoyed spending time with him so much, and really can't wait to have him at home. Sounds like he'll be coming home the first weekend of November!

1. It's a schooling show
2. I haven't ridden the 2019 tests yet
3. It's a great knock-off-the-rust-and-oh-yeah-get-your-Coggins-done show

And knock the rust off your braiding skills while you're at it

Gross.  "I can't ride my horse because I'm clamped onto his back like a vise grip" isn't the best way to start your Dressage test, in case you were wondering.

It's a schooling show run by pony club parents, and I'm therefore not upset about it, but whew it threw me for a loop.

Gift horses and all that.

#notalengthening but look at me remembering to half halt at F!

We were fractions of a percentage point out of second place, but I could not have cared less.  Give me the scores!