I had this post all written and scheduled to go up this past weekend.  And then I received information that made part of the post.. um.. not tasteful.  I know.  Practicing tact!  So here's the bulk of what I was going to say, with all the other removed.

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This felt way more like what I would expect from a baby show jumping course than the one I experienced in Charleston two weeks ago.  If you remember, that one was something like.. a giant S with a couple of lines and a roll back.



So.  I took a photo of the course to work on memorizing it, but it didn't really help until I flipped it and saw the jumps.  If you can't read it, the red writing says that those jumps are "xc options".  You could jump that option or you could jump the regular fence adjacent to it.  I opted for all cross-country-esque fences, because why not?  Two of them were regular log piles and one was a neat little natural wood wall.

The course, flipped and mapped.  The fences aren't really to scale spatially, because #4 doesn't throw you into the fence and the turn to the first fence wasn't that dramatic.  But you get the idea.

Fence two.

Fence three, the first XC option.

Four.

On the way to five.

Lazy over six. You can kinda sorta see the neat natural wall in the back right.  TE's husband built it.

Big over eight.

Finishing with nine.

Best expressions ever.

Done, but raring for more!

Every time the announcer said our names, he would roll out the "Bollllllld Archhhhhher."  It was cute.  So when they said to give a round of applause for Rebekah Burke and Bollllllllld Archhhhhher, I did a little princess wave as I trotted out.

I tried to keep it at a trot, because there was actually an optimum time.  And trotting is easier.  And I'm a wimp.  After exiting this, D met me at the trailer.  I untacked Archie, loosened the clothing, and started cooling him out.  D left to get us lunch and I walked Archie over to OR's trailer so he could steal her horse's hay and they could mingle.  She rode her dressage test while I was jumping, so I really didn't get to see her go at all.  TE arranged for a stall for Archie and the other barn horse, since they were going to be there for a while, so I walked Archie up there and got him settled.

Adorable in his fancy accommodations.

At some point, TE sent me a text saying that I had come in second.  I didn't understand how that was possible because my dressage test had been so stinking crappy.  I met D and ate lunch in his car and then went back up to the secretary's desk to pick up my results and ribbon.  There, I found out that they had split my class of nine into two groups, and I was a part of the five.
D left and I hung out with OR and her friend while she prepped for her Tadpole jump round.  After all the excitement was over, I spent some time checking on our two horses and watching some of the bigger jump rounds.  I think we're ready to move up from competing at cross rails, but we'll see.  Eq and cojones.

Near the end of the show, I cleaned out both stalls, dumped water buckets, and gave a little assistance to the jump crew.  Like, I picked up a couple branches or something.

And then it was a matter of prepping the boys for the trip, loading the trailer and heading back to the barn.  I make that sound easy.  What really happened was that a group of women descended upon Archie en force to get his crazy ass on the trailer.  There was a crop.  There was a stud chain.  There were a few baby rears.  And at the very end, there was a chorus of "good boy!"  I've already talked to TE about playing with her trailer, because that display of rebellion was completely unacceptable.  Also, I don't ever again want to experience the guilt I felt for forcing my horse to load by those means.  L made me feel better by saying that sometimes ponies need spankings, but... not my magical unicorn, dammit.

We made it back to the barn with only minor horn-blaring incident.  Unloaded, unloaded, cleaned and turned out.  There is a tentative show planned for May, I think, but those are all the details that I'll give!

This is the face of a horse who is about to lose his shit.

At some point, Archie stomped my toe.  He was getting a little up from watching all the other horses.

And then, even though he doesn't even like the other horse we brought, when the kid took that horse away, Archie lost his mind.  I became that person with the screaming, pulling, rearing horse as I scrambled to pull the release on the quick-release knot.

I thought this was fitting.

And this is how hard he pulled.  He dropped his head afterwards to nibble some grass and I heard the bones in his neck pop.  Thanks for the free adjustment, Archie!

He looks like he's nibbling my boob.

He was better once I walked him around.  And then he would go back to eating hay and being reasonable, but I hovered around him just in case.  Also, he got a lot of carrots when he would ignore the passing horses.  I was so thankful when D showed up because I was really hesitant to leave the horses unattended.


There was a warm up ring, but they requested that you not enter it until half an hour before your ride time.  And he was screaming - a lot.  So I opted to walk him around in the grassy area outside of the warm up ring.  Eventually, OR joined me with her pony.

He doesn't look like in these photos, but Archie was tense.

Okay, maybe you can see it.

I just liked this because he's so adorable in it.

I still don't know all the dressage protocol, but you're supposed to loop the ring or something?

Beast.

If you could see my face, you'd see that I was laughing.  Dude was incredibly responsive and darted from the same leg pressure that he would ignore at home.

Free walk still needs work.

If you could see this from his side, he's totally uneven.

Meh.

I got a 40.  I felt like that was an appropriate score for the test I put in.  Next time, dammit!  The comments, in case you can't read them, are: