Runkle Takes a Field Trip

Dat smile doe.

Horse Show Quickfire:

• It was hot. As hell. In the future I'm just not going to show in July and August (we'll see, yeah right).
• Runkle had to sniff every turd on Flora Lea's property. They turn their horses out in the area where they have the show so there were A LOT of turds to sniff.
• In contrast to our little blowup the week before, he was way more manageable!
• Though I did drop us down to starter.
• Because of that I had to do the Intro C test. Intro C test has a halt at X when you trot in.
• Guess who forgot to halt at X.

Have a video!! This is after the error, she sent us out and had us start again.

• Stadium warm up had 100% less emergency dismounts from last weekend!
• Stadium warm up also had 100% MORE jumps from last weekend!
• We finished a course of six jumps and we only jumped one of them from kind of a standstill.

Hint: it was this one.

• Runkle got himself another blue :)

I'm so pleased I was able to actually get him through warm up and into the arena to jump. It wasn't my prettiest round by a long shot but I coaxed him through it. He got nervous and sucked back, he wasn't sure what I wanted and probably thought it all seemed too easy but I just rode each fence as it came until suddenly we were over the last totally clear. I made a huge fuss over him and he did a little romp after crossing the finish flags. It's okay, I'm fine with him feeling like a cocky asshole all proud of himself. A little confidence wouldn't be amiss with him.

OMG SQUEE.

I'm most proud of him standing and quietly eating while I talked to a few friends and BN/N riders were galloping around their courses. They loudly cantered past, knocked down rails, all the normal show jumping sideshow and Runkle was just more concerned there was a poop he hadn't overturned to investigate.

Despite my error we managed a win, our score was a 33.something, so without the error would've been a 31.something (that's how it works, right?) But I can fix not knowing the test. I think my favorite comment to get on a dressage test is lovely pair. I like that we both kill it together :)

This is actually from last weekend but its SO CUTE.

I really owe my trainer Lauren huge. I keep thinking about this winter, and how little confidence I had that I was doing right by him. I must've been so annoying. Seriously, every lesson I asked if I was ruining him forever. But after a couple months I realized I hadn't done any irreparable harm; in fact, he was better! We weren't crashing into walls due to lack of steering! So I stopped worrying (a little).

She's brought up way more baby horses than me, and I like how slowly she does it, so I listen to her when she tells me stuff. Even if it means begrudgingly dropping him down to starter. So far she hasn't steered me wrong.

Basically he's the best. I'm having so much fun and I love him.