Straight after the in-hand class it was time to put jumping saddles on Violet and Sam and warm up for the Working Hunters. As I was riding both, Mum kept Sam warmed up for me. Pics of me and Vi getting ready (including me tightening the girth and showing off my uber cool brown outfit and mickey mouse charm on my stock):
As the judge was already waiting I just popped Vi over a single practise fence and headed to the ring for the lightweight working hunter. She did a nice workout, unfortunately one of the jumps got blown over in front of us - but the judge kindly let us do that line again once bystanders had propped up the jump. Violet came 2nd and got herself a pretty blue ribbon:
Then I hopped off Vi and got a legup on Sam (he's tall!) for the heavyweight class. He was a real gentleman for me and even did his hand-gallop really easy and came right back to me (great! as I hadn't had a chance to practise till I did the workout). Sam won the heavyweight division and added another red to his collection:
For the judging of Champion I had to present Sam and Violet, so Mum rode Violet in the flat section for me and I did the jumping workout on both of them. Violet did a very kind workout, but I didn't quite let her open up enough for the gallop which I will have to make a bit more of an effort to nail next time. Sam did a super workout, hitting perfect strides for every fence and got himself another Reserve Champion sash for Working Hunter:
We had some downtime to go and put the jumpers away and help Mum put the finishing touches on Gem for the in-hand sporthorse classes. Gem was just in 2 classes - and behaved much better than the earlier class (obviously more settled). She's looking super and it'll be great to get her back under saddle soon. Seems that bright bay with 3 socks & a diamond/blaze was the order of the day if you look at the pic with the three 'matching' horses:
The Rimutaka hill got closed to all high-sided vehicles, so Nick and Helen headed back to Wellington in the car before the hill got closed completely. Then we got some odds and ends done (farrier etc) and had more mini donuts. Mum eventually took her armful of winnings and headed back home with Gem, leaving Sam with me (as I will be eventing him this coming weekend). Later in the evening Alicia and I headed to the local saddlery for a browse and took pics of the cute mini foal, and popped the horses into their yards for the night (with tiny Kody picking on big Sam, would you believe!):
Just as we got ready for bed the weather turned really sour again and it was all go to get the ramp of the truck up before the entire insides got ripped out by howling wind! Absolutely beat after the end of that big day and I think everyone fell asleep as soon as heads hit pillows.
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