Saffy's first showjumping

What a brilliant day :D

I didn't sleep very well last night because I was so nervous. I was so sure we'd have a repeat of Thursday. I needn't have worried :) Got to the farm at 8:15 and she'd managed to get poo stains on her even though she was ninja-d up. It must just seep through the rug. I'm going to put her fleece on over the top next time. I need to modify the ninja thing for next weekend too. She hates it going on and off and I get all stressed because she panics. I'm just going to cut it under her neck and sew some velcro on. Should be a lot less traumatic for both of us!

Anyway I digress. Scrubbed the poo stains off her, tacked up and off we went. It was a beautiful day. I was sick with nerves though. She didn't put a foot wrong hacking either way, she was perfect. I was on edge as always but she put up with me :) When we got there I warmed her up a little bit and popped her over the little warm up jump. Once she was jumping it nicely I took her round the the arena for clear round. Went in and walked her around to have a look at the scary jumps. She hesitated slightly at the first (a filler with a ladder) but popped it and was fine from then until we got to the plank. She gawped at it for so long she got far too close and knocked it. She didn't refuse though so I wasn't bothered. I took her in again after a breather and she went round no problems. It was only 1ft6 but I was more bothered about her going around the course without any problems rather than clearing great heights.

The next class came around eventually and I went in 2nd. I kept it steady again and did half in trot and half in canter. It was 1ft9 and she managed it no prob. Went clear and got into the jump off. There was a hell of a lot of waiting around for the jump off and I was supposed to be going in 2nd but the person before me had disappeared so I ended up having to go in first. Having watched the video back I could've cut so much time off but I really wasn't pushing her too hard. I could've probably cut about 4 or 5 seconds off our time if I'd have been really going for it. She jumped clear and did brilliantly :) We came 5th and got a pink rosette and a medal. Dead chuffed :) She was loving the lap of honour too bless her.

I'm going to give the jumping a go at Urmston next weekend. Will start with the clear round (either sj or wh, not sure which yet) and then maybe do the novice if she's ok. If I get into a jump off I'm going to keep her in canter throughout and push her on in between fences. I need to get my turns a bit tighter too, will work on cantering small circles. Overall I'm so pleased with her. She out-performed every expectation and was an angel waiting around between classes. I couldn't have a more perfect horse. Very excited about my dad watching the show next weekend!