Upper Valley Equestrian Day

Yesterday we took a full truckload out to Trentham for the Upper Valley show. Had a really great day, and all of them came home with a ribbon.

Scuba was first up doing a few flat classes. He took the first class to warm up, and then went very kindly in the maiden showhack class. He wasn't stepping out 100% through, so the farrier is coming tomorrow to put some shoes on him:

The last class we did was the open park hack, and he came third! Very pleased with that effort from the baby horse. That was the day over for him and he spent the rest of the day watching from the shade of the truck.

Next up was Ruby in the showhunter. Wasn't sure how it was going to go, having only ridden her twice and not jumped her yet. But she was a dude. Travelled well with the boys and didn't seem to be bothered at all by anything going on.

The first showhunter class was equitation - we came 5th. The round wasn't overly forward as we were still working each other out, but she was a kind and easy ride (and has such a pretty form over the fences).

The ring was running nice and quickly, so it wasn't long before we were in for the circuit points class and the championship class.

We've still got some work to do on mixed signals (our flying changes were a bit messy), but I was stoked as she picked up 5th in both of those classes too! Extra points for consistency for Ruby.

Poor Neo had been babysitting the truck all day and didn't get his turn until quite late in the afternoon. After his last show where he was very brave in the big 1m class I thought I'd drop him back down to the 90cm classes to build up his confidence.

Our first event was an AM5 - he did a tidy clear first round, then into the instant jumpoff he did some nice sharp turns and jumping from very short distances. We didn't angle anything (as hadn't schooled it at all) but it was still enough to gain him 1st place:

Not too much of a big wait for our next class - a TA2 single round against the clock. I headed to the practise fence and did 2 on an angle and was happy with him, so we put that into practise in the ring and he was an absolute angel!

So he won that class quite easily. 2 for 2! Not bad. Will be great to take him back into Ring1 classes after that big confidence boost for both of us.

Stoked with all three of the horses! And Mum's new unhandled 3yo turns up early this week, so will post pictures as soon as she gets here.