Well, you win some...

And you lose some.

Today, overall, kind of sucked. Well, until I got home at 4:30 and got to chill in my sweatpants for the rest of the evening.

Went to a schooling show today, which meant leaving the house at 6:30 which is never fun. Add this to staying up late last night to finish the costume.

Pandora, actually, was great. I did two trot-a-pole hunter classes; placed sixth in the first one, first in the second one. The first trip was nervous, bit-chewing, counter-bending, pole-whacking nonsense, but the second trip was fairly relaxed and steady, so I was proud of her. She got to spend the rest of the day eating her hay and then proceeding to eat McKinna's hay.

McKinna, on the other hand, took issue with that arena and would. not. settle. down. For those of you who read Mugwump's stories -- you know how she describes Sonita at shows? A bundle of energy wanting to explode in any direction, so tight she feels like a rubber band about to snap, wide-eyed with nervous energy? Yup. That was McKinna in that arena trying to jump.

The first round at 2' was terrible, and I am usually pretty forgiving of slightly bad rounds. We had a refusal, ended up trotting into almost every fence, I had to haul her to a halt when she tried to take off with me...just badness. Before the 2'6" class we warmed up in the arena and she still wouldn't settle down, even just trying to get her to walk or trot in a relaxed manner. She was running sideways, head as high as it could go, refusing to walk, totally ignoring my aids. So, I told the judge I wanted to just do a schooling round. I went in, jumped a few lines (much more under control than the first round, but still thundering around like a bat outta hell), trotted for a minute, and called it good.

It was weird and extremely out of character for her. She hasn't been that crazy with me in forever! I don't know what was going on, but I just chalked it up to experience and we headed back to the trailer to decompress and get ready for the costume class.

We looked - in my humble opinion - AWESOME.

A face-armor plate, shiny silver, molded perfectly across her head. I had a mask, complete with Batman's sharp ears and frowning eyebrows. The bat symbol blazed on my chest, and below was my silver bat-belt. My cape swooshed with every step. McKinna was swathed in a silver-trimmed black sheet that covered everything but the seat of my saddle, with a giant shining bat-symbol on her haunch.

We were wicked cool.

And we tied for fourth (out of four) in the costume class.

I mean, SERIOUSLY?

We lost to the Great Wall of China (a horse in a sheet with paper plates sewn all to it with a girl dressed in a Chinese outfit -- okay, cool idea, but still) and a rather simple Headless Horseman (who I think got second because it was a little kid on leadline). Okay, really, I don't go into these things to win, I promise. But after putting all that effort into such a badass costume I get last place?


So today was a day to realize that you can't always get what you want, and sometimes everything goes to hell in a handbasket anyway. The funny part is that when I got into that arena on McKinna in her costume, she was totally fine. Completely relaxed as we walked and trotted. Completely smooth, steady, and calm as we cantered big circles to show off the way my cape billows out behind me. Clearly something about jumping was upsetting her, which is strange since she's recently jumped at home and away from home with no problems. Oh well, I've no idea what lit a fire under her tail, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Pictures will be up ASAP -- I will make a pictures-only post, I promise!


This is Mom and Kuma demonstrating how tired we all were after the schooling show today. Well, the dog didn't come to the show, but he likes to take part in any and all naps...