We got to the barn early this morning and gave Rory his bath. He steamed dry under a fleece cooler while I braided his mane. I left his tail until shortly before the first class, and ended up redoing the pinwheel because the yarn I use in his mane was far too light coloured for his tail and looked nasty. I did manage to do a better pinwheel the second time round so it was worth the effort. We went for a little walk round the warmup arena and he looked and huffed and decided it was okay. I did a couple of trots with him and he was listening to me nicely. Back to chill in his stall for a while.
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| Ready for the judge (armed with carrots) |
We were in the first flight at ten o'clock and we got him ready and went down about ten to. Thirty feet or so before we reached the doors Rory stepped on my foot and I had to stand for a minute until I could walk well enough to go on down. He looked around and I let him take everything in. After a few minutes the announcer sent us to the rail and put us in the ringmaster's hands. By some stroke of good fortune Rory and I were called to start the lineup for conformation inspection. Rory posed beautifully, and stood well with only a little wiggle. I was super proud of him. He did get a little bored waiting for the judge to work his way down the line and was ready to move when it came time to walk and trot around to the back of the line. I had walked him in a couple of small circles when he got too fidgety during the wait. We walked out nice and forward to M and I asked him to trot. He went nice and forward in his big relaxed trot and I ran as fast as I could and had to tell him "easy" so he would stay slow enough for me to keep up and he did! The shuffle down the other side as each horse did their trot went well and Rory stood well while the judge made his decision. We didn't get a call back for the final group but I was too pleased with Rory's performance to mind. The aisle down to his stall was blocked so I took him out and walked around in the back sand ring for a few minutes until he settled down. He did jump away once and I had my left hand holding the buckle and my right pushing on his bum and he turned back to me. Back in his stall he was happy to chill and munch some hay for a while.
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| He looks huge! |
I decided I had better longe Rory before riding today and took him out around 11:30 so he'd have some time to recover his energy before the next class. There were a couple of riders in the sand ring just sitting and talking so I went and asked if they minded me longeing in the corner. They didn't, so off we went. Rory was a perfect gentleman with none of the taking off in canter that we had at the last show. He trotted both ways and then we went back inside and he happily chilled out again.
We were in the first flight of the LG cup as well and I decided to go into the show arena to warm up. Rory was good for me to mount up and I let him look as we walked around a couple times. I wanted to get a trot in but then remembered that he needed time to look and think, and just relaxed. Rory handled the traffic well when we did trot and canter, and when others came up behind or cut in front. We had several false starts on the right lead canter again before getting it. The class was called to order. Rory was excellent and I did a pretty good job of getting him into a clear spot for the trips down the far side of the ring from the judge. He did break from the left lead canter once, but picked it up again fairly quickly. One false start on the right lead, then no problem. He stood quietly in the lineup and I was thrilled to hear our number in the call back list. Back to the stall to chill again.
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| "Well? Are you going to take the darn picture or not?" |
I had been told, and told by many people that any hint of dressage in your presentation for the Cup classes was the kiss of death despite the fact that the classes are intended for horses bred for the Olympic disciplines. I had checked to see if a friend's close contact saddle would fit Rory, but it didn't and I decided that I was just going to use my dressage saddle. Rory's breeding is primarily dressage bloodlines and he moves like a dressage horse, and I wasn't about to apologize for it. The standard presentation for the Cup classes is the same as you'd find in the hunter ring. I wondered if the dressage taboo was because all the pros insisted on hunter turnout, and thus no top horses were ever shown in dressage gear, which meant no one ever qualified in dressage gear. The judge for this first set of qualifiers was a "hunter icon" (according to the CSHA) and I decided that I would not make my dressage saddle the first thing he noticed about Rory. He was braided as a hunter, I got a fitted pad for the saddle, and wore my hunter show clothes. It seemed to work as we did get called back to the final and the other two horses presented in dressage kit didn't.
While we waited for the next two flights to run Rory managed to get his hind foot up and scratch out two braids before I could stop him. One braid I could rebump but the other I had to take out and redo entirely. He mostly behaved after that, though I did have to warn him a couple of times when he started to lift his hoof.
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| Warming up for the LG Cup qualifier. |
The last class went quite well. We had a late transition to the right lead canter because Rory tried to take the left lead and I managed to stifle it before he left the trot, but then it took a few more strides to get him set up for the right lead. On the next pass around the arena a horse came up to our inside and blocked the judge's view of us. Rory handled the crowd of horses beautifully, and stood really well for a very long time. The class was split into two groups for the canter and we were in the first canter group. While we waited for the judge to make his decision the announcer started the usual "thanks to the sponsors" announcements. The crowd applauded after the first sponsor's name and all the horses at the gate end of the arena, and many of the others spooked. Rory just looked over with idle curiosity as they scooted forward. We didn't place in the top 20, but again Rory had been so good I wasn't too disappointed.
We packed up and loaded the trailer. Rory loaded up without a hitch and travelled well all the way home. Again he refused water when we stopped partway home. I unwrapped his legs and put him out with Totyo who'd started whinnying the moment he realized his buddy was back.
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| Watching the other half of the class canter. |
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