Soooo….I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a difficult, sad, weird year (and that’s putting it very mildly). I was on a plane home from an overseas work trip in early February, working on our 2020 show schedule somewhere over the Atlantic – local open shows had started to post dates! We had Morgan show dates ready to go! Some new venues, some move ups, lots of exciting stuff!
…and then the pandemic. I sometimes think about that flight home, and how happy I was doing my show schedule (oh yes, I color code it for every type of show, it would satisfy any variety of OCD), knowing that show season really was right around the corner. Except it wasn’t, so enter every show horse person’s sad spring and early summer. But we got a lot done anyway! We did a lot of work around the farm, we taught Charm to become one of the best trail horses ever, Clara REALLY came into her own as a smart, kind, thinking filly who was ready to go do some Stuff. Artie was born. Jimmy and I began to realize dressage was maybe not a thing to just add at shows. We could maybe be good at it.
And then shows started again! And that’s what was so great. Masks suck in serious heat waves, but you know, it made shows possible. It’s just not that hard to deal with them. We started with a VADA/NOVA schooling show on 8/1, which was Clara’s FIRST show under saddle! She and Katie did Intro A, had a great score of 73%, and got a pretty blue ribbon! Jimmy and Jen knocked off the cobwebs, and even in the heat got a 67% in Training 2, and a 66% in Training 1. This was a GREAT show, because it was a perfect kickoff for our first Morgan show of the year…the Buckeye Challenge!
This was a new show and venue for us this year, and we LOVED the venue!! Buckeye had added some sport horse classes for 2020, so we realllly wanted to be sure that we supported the show! This was also the maiden voyage of our 4-horse head-to-head, and what a great, spacious trailer! Jimmy and Clara seemed very comfortable! We greatly enjoyed Buckeye, the weather was very nice, the dressage ran like a picture, and we enjoyed the chance to show under saddle in the main ring twice.
Both Jimmy and Clara were amazing! Clara’s first BIG show under saddle, and she took everything in stride! She is such a star. Clara and Katie performed Intro A and B, and received nice scores and ribbons! Jen and Jimmy did Training 1 and 2, and again, great scores and ribbons – this is a year for Jen and Jimmy to get their dressage in order, and it is definitely improving by leaps and bounds! Our second day of showing was main ring sport horse classes. Jimmy and Jen were second in the sport horse under saddle, and Clara (in her first rail class!!) was fourth in the same. Jim and Jen were third in the hunter hack.
It was SO good to get to go to a big show, enjoy the routine, be proud of our horses. We met some cool new people, too! We will count this as an awesome win in a year where it’s hard to find good news.
