Now the lovely pony above is called Minstrel, he belongs to a friend of mine. He is a Fell and I've been working with him to get him less spooky and just help him feel more confident in himself. Training has been great, he's so clever and very responsive to everything I throw his way. He's still not a fan of plastic bags, but as with all training, it will take time. He likes hugs, scratches, carrots and disliking green tractors a passion of his.
So what happens at a horse show? I can hear you all muttering. So this is my first show with Minstrel and he did me proud. Straight out of the trailer he took a dislike to the horse next to us, but he soon settled down. I washed him down and threw his saddle and bridle on and we went to warm up before our show class started. The day before the show I was riding him and he forgot that I cannot pass through low hanging branches, so I now l have a lovely bespoke temporary pattern on my face.
So then I got called to the area where my show class was happening. I felt very important being summoned over the tannoy. Reminded me of a time I'm sitting at a train station and they called me by my name over the tannoy, turns out I'd dropped my life in a folder, without noticing and some lovely person handed it in.
Anyway, I digress. So I rock up and check out the competition. Eh, stuff that.
I took mini to do the clear round which is small jumps for beginner horses and if you manage to jump them all you get a rosette the end. Mini refused one jump but we were was having a blast so really didn't care! I could finally get that jacket off and roll up my sleeves and relax.
I had such a fun day, and Minstrel did too! He'll be going to next months show and he will be more experienced and come on nicely.