Expect The Unexpected

Yesterday was a day filled with some pretty incredible moments.

My friend showed a beautiful buckskin Morab mare in a half Arabian sport horse in hand class (judged on conformation, movement at walk and trot, manners & attitude, and so forth).  It's similar to USDF dressage suitability classes.

Well, a little Morab pony type against some very big warmblood crosses doesn't always fair well, but Rita the mare was beautiful and so well behaved that I was proud of her regardless.

My friend (and the rest of the crew) went to go get lunch while I was waiting for some friends & my mother to stop by the show.  I managed to wander over the board where the results are posted as there is a delay between finishing the classes and results since the cards have to be tallied, entered, printed, and then posted.  Well, her class results were up and little Rita took second after a three way tie was broken.

Holy smokes. 

Pretty danged awesome.  

Too bad it took so long for friend and crew to come back from lunch so I could tell them.  :) 

Later yesterday afternoon, I had regional championship classes.

My classes Friday were a typical Arabian Class A show.  Nothing to sneeze at, but not regionals either.  I bit the bullet and entered regionals in a moment of weakness, but not expecting too much.  

When I won the blue ribbon Friday, I was pretty sure that was the highlight of the show.  I am fairly certain other people thought I was nuts for being happy over a blue ribbon.

But you know, we have to start somewhere.

So let's progress to regionals.  By the time I was approximately forty-five minutes before my class, I started to freak out a bit.  It's a little ridiculous, but I was pretty anxious.  It's a big show.  It's a lot of money.  And I have the SFF, who lives in the field being handled by a goof of an owner.  I am definitely not a pro at prepping or handling show horses and I know it.

So I had the moment of WTH am I doing here.

But I had my super friend J that came and helped me out.  My mother actually stopped by to watch the show and she met the SFF for the first time. 

My other friend and the crew brushed and braided and told the filly to be good while I picked and sat down and generally thought I was going to die and this was a bad idea.

Dramatic I know.

SFF was getting a little frustrated with all of this attention.  She had been very good about being locked in the stall for days, not rolling around in mud, and not trying to be a cheap date for every gelding and stallion on the property.  But she was starting to get crabby and I don't blame her.

So, horse in tow, with about 35 seconds to spare, I showed up to the gate.  The judge and scribe were being a little bit slower getting the cards together, so we waited patiently.  Then the SFF decided to do a full body shake from the bugs bothering her and she lost her running braid.

Crap.

Do I unbraid my horse and risk going in without a braid?  I can't switch places to go in later.  Or do I go in with dopey braid half falling out.

We opted for option number one.  I held the SFF, while friend tried to braid her in lightning fast speed.  Thankfully the judge was feeling a little slow that evening.

I had two regionals classes.  One was for open purebred Arabian mares and the other was for Arabian mares 2 & over amateur to handle. 

I was to go first in both classes.

I went in the first class and the judge was very cordial.  It's always hard when you don't know a judge or their perspective since some prefer more manners or others prefer a flashier trot and it's OK if they break into a canter while trying to get that flashy trot.

But I went ahead and did our typical thing.  SFF was pretty alert and irritated, so she actually decided to look around and have her ears forward instead of her occasional sleeping position she likes to use while showing.

We finished.

Then time for class number two after a bit of waiting.  She was fine in the second class, but a bit madder about the bugs.  She didn't want to stand as well and broke into the canter on the top of the triangle.  Oh dear little filly.

I was hoping and just happy to come home with any ribbon from regionals.  It is of course, an honor to show there.

So I was sitting there when they started to announce results for my class and my group started cheering.  Holy smokes.

They had announced my number.

They announced the results of the second class immediately afterwards, but my group was still being so loud that we couldn't hear. 

Holy smokes.  Two for two.

Hopefully better pictures coming soon.  This was just on the cell after she spent more time trying to shake her braids out. 

Dork.

So talk about a completely unexpected and very surprising weekend.